My Favorite Martian

Premise:

A human-looking extraterrestrial in a one-man ship crash-lands in Los Angeles. The ship's pilot is, in fact, from Mars and is now stranded on Earth. A young newspaper reporter, Tim O'Hara, takes the Martian in as his roommate and passes him off as his Uncle Martin. Uncle Martin refuses to reveal any of his Martian traits to people other than Tim, to avoid publicity (or panic), and Tim agrees to keep Martin's identity a secret while the Martian attempts to repair his ship. Uncle Martin has various unusual powers: he can raise two retractible antennae and become invisible; he is telepathic and can read minds; he can levitate objects with the motion of his finger; and he can communicate with animals. He also builds several advanced devices, such as a time machine which transports Tim and the Martian back to Medieval England, as well as a "molecular separator" which can take apart the molecules in a physical object.

Tim and Uncle Martin live in an apartment house run by a congenial but scatterbrained landlady, Mrs. Brown, who often shows up when not wanted. She later dates a plain-clothes police officer, Detective Brennan, who dislikes Uncle Martin and is highly suspicious of him.

Characters:

• Uncle Martin (the Martian), played by Ray Walston
• Tim O'Hara, played by Bill Bixby
• Mrs. Brown, played by Pamela Britton
• Detective Brennan, played by Alan Hewitt