Updated: December 10, 2022

September 29, 1963 - September 4, 1966
CBS Situation Comedy - 107 Episodes

Cast: Martin O'Hara: Ray Walston Tim O'Hara: Bill Bixby Mrs. Lorelei Brown: Pamela Britton Detective Bill Brennan: Alan Hewitt Mr. Harry Burns: J. Pat O'Malley The police captain: Roy Engel Angela Brown: Ann Marshall

On the way to cover an assignment for his paper, The Los Angeles Sun, reporter Tim O'Hara stumbled upon a Martian whose one man ship had crashed on Earth. Tim took the dazed Martian back to his rooming house to help him recuperate, while thinking of the fantastic story he would be able to present to his boss, Mr. Burns, about his find. The Martian, however, looked human, spoke English, and refused to admit to anyone but Tim what he was.

Tim befriended him, passed him off as his uncle, and had many interesting adventures with the stranded alien. Uncle Martin had little retractable antennae, could make himself invisible, was telepathic, could move objects just by pointing at them, and had a vast storehouse of advanced technological knowledge. While he was trying to fix his ship he stayed with Tim in Mrs. Brown's rooming house.

The Spaceship:

It had to be small enough to fit into a one car garage and look convincing enough to be accepted as an interplanetary vehicle from an advanced civilization. The Martian's spaceship was of an original design in the realm of sci-fi entertainment. First seen as a blur in the sky when Tim spots it, the ship crash lands on its side and a scar serving as evidence of the impact remains on the hull throughout the first two seasons.

In reality, in order to be light enough to be lifted, the Martian spaceship prop was made of wood that was painted silver. It was usually featured at night, taking off in darkness, and an animation illustrated its flight across the night sky. Based on an observation of the bottom of the hull, it can be inferred that the ship had three retractable legs but they were never actually shown in operation.

The one-seated spaceship did have an interior set, though it was rarely seen. The thin rod on the right of the square light board served to guide the ship into landing. A round communication screen is above the square, and red and green square buttons are at the left of the screen.

Tim finds himself obligated to take off and land in the pre-programmed ship with Martin giving him voice commands. Here Martin takes the ship up for a low altitude surveillance mission so a spacesuit was not needed. A central view of the dashboard and left window the interior set was built for the second season episode Great Brain Robbery and appeared again in the second season's Martin's Favorite Martian and the third season's That Time Machine is Waking Up That Old Gang of Mine.

After the series was over, the spaceship prop went into the collection belonging to "The Cars of Stars and Planes of Fame" Museum in Buena Park, California. In the mid-1970's it was loaned out for display at the Union Bank of Fullerton California.

In the summer of 1985 the spaceship prop was sold for $750 at a Hollywood car auction at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. It changed hands after that and in 1993 it was reported to be residing in the archives of a Los Angeles TV memorabilia collector.

Write-up by JH Harison (My Favorite Martian Website)