Aliens all around us! Between Men in black, Independence Day, The X-Files, Attacks on Mars! and Contact, it’s fair to say that Hollywood was obsessed with aliens in the 90s, but maybe nothing reflected the phenomenon quite as well as 3rd rock of the sun.

The sitcom, which debuted in January 1996, had one of the strangest premises in television history. Four extraterrestrial visitors – played by John lithgow, Kristen johnston, French Stewart and Joseph Gordon-Levitt – impersonated a human family living near Cleveland, Ohio, as they researched human society for their home planet.

Using the Solomon surname as an alias, the group reported to an out-of-the-world boss called Big Giant Head, who was initially invisible but eventually appeared in the form of William shatner. They were also friendly with a local anthropologist named Dr. Mary Albright, played by Jane curtin (who herself played an alien on Saturday Night Live and in the derivative film Conheads).

It’s weird, but in 1997 the series won the most Emmys of any series nominated that year, winning five of eight categories respectively, including Outstanding Leading Actor in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Supporting Actress. in a comedy series for Lithgow and Johnston, respectively. .

The show also won two Screen Actors Guild trophies during its run and won two Golden Globes in 1996 for its first season.

Although his turn as Dick Solomon garnered a ton of critical acclaim and industry recognition, Lithgow needed a tough sell before agreeing to appear on the show. He had already turned down a role on Cheers – instead, Frasier Crane, who later got his own spin-off, was played by Kelsey Grammer.

When the husband and wife co-creators Bonnie and Terry Turner invited him to lunch one day, Tony’s winner had no idea he was really trying to convince him to play on 3rd rock.

“I was like, ‘How am I going to say no as graciously as I can and get out of here? ”, Recalls the actor in an interview granted in 2012 to the Academy of television. However, the couple quickly changed their minds: “Within five minutes, [they’d] persuaded me to be in 3rd rock of the sun. “

Since the show aired its last episode in May 2001, several of its cast members have continued to appear in other iconic series, including Gender and city and The crown.

Keep scrolling to find out what the Solomons and their friends have been up to since the sitcom ended: