It’s the Christmas season, which means it’s gift-giving time! This year, Adam and I decided to give each other the gift of “opportunity”, as we allowed each other to choose a show that we’ve been waiting to discuss, but hadn’t come up “organically” yet. Adam went first (since my choice wasn’t as readily available for us to view), so we took a trip back to 1987, with a look at syndicated sitcom Out of This World.
If you’re not familiar, Out of This World starred Maureen Flannigan as 13 year old Evie Flannigan, who discovers she’s actually half alien. You see, her mother had fallen in love with an Antarean, Troy Garland, who was on Earth for…business? Anyway, the parents had a whirlwind courtship, culminating in their marriage and the birth of Evie. At some point early in Evie’s life, Troy returned to Antareus, so she grew up not knowing him, or anything about him. She’d try to get info out of her mother, who had been coy with the answers. Everything changed in the pilot, however, as Evie not only discovered the truth about her father, but also discovered she had developed a power: The ability to freeze time. Eat your heart out, Zack Morris!
As the show progressed, each season premiere saw Evie celebrate another birthday, while gaining another, accompanying power. She also gained the ability to communicate with Troy, via a crystal pyramid device. This is the part where I should probably tell you that Burt Reynolds was the voice of Troy. Yeah, THE Burt Reynolds. Ya see, his film career hadn’t entirely hit the skids yet, and he didn’t want to ruin his Hollywood cred, so he took a page from how William Daniels handled being the voice of K.I.T.T., and he went uncredited. So, in the credits, Troy is credited as being played by “Himself”.
The show was your typical wacky teen show, where every week saw Evie royally mess up – and subsequently fix – a situation with her powers. I’d love to call it a precursor to later shows, like Saved By The Bell, but I can’t really do that. You see, those shows tended to convey heavy-handed morals, while Out of This World didn’t really do that. In fact, it probably beat out Seinfeld as the very first Show About Nothing. There’s a ton of 80s style, but very little substance. Still, thanks to how successful the first-run syndication model was in the 80s, the show still managed to last 4 seasons, totaling 96 episodes.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that this show was Pure Adam, and I can totally understand why it holds a special place in his heart. It was a really fun show to discuss, and I think you’ll enjoy listening as much as we enjoyed recording it. If you’d like to accept that challenge, you know where to go!
