The finale of cult sitcom 3rd Rock From The Sun was suitably hilarious - and surprisingly emotional too. When the character of Frasier Crane first appeared on Cheers, he was only supposed to appear in about six episodes as Diane’s new love interest. The showrunners pictured John Lithgow (Dexter) in the role, but the actor was profoundly uninterested in appearing on a TV show. The role instead went to Kelsey Grammer, and Frasier proved so popular he became a regular character and was spun off into the highly successful Frasier once Cheers came to an end.
John Lithgow would later accept the lead role on 3rd Rock From The Sun, which involved a group of aliens posing as a normal family on Earth. Their mission is to observe humanity and the show milks a lot of humor from their awkward efforts to fit in and understand human emotions. Lithgow plays family head Dick Solomon and the show featured an early role for Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Looper) as the youngest member of the clan, Tommy. 3rd Rock From The Sun ran for six seasons and has become a beloved cult sitcom.
While 3rd Rock From The Sun reveled in silly humor, it also had a genuinely warm heart too. This is what made it hard for fans to say goodbye when the two-part finale “The Thing That Wouldn’t Die” aired in 2001. The finale has Dick finally revealing to longtime girlfriend Mary (Jane Curtin) he’s an alien - which given his past behavior, explains a lot to Mary. Unfortunately, Dick has angered mission leader Big Giant Head by taking action against another alien, so he cancels the mission and orders the family back. Dick asks Mary to come with them and Sally parts with boyfriend Officer Don (Wayne Knight, Seinfeld), by guiding him back to the force after he quits. The Solomon’s then thrown a huge party for friends to say goodbye.
The final scene of 3rd Rock From The Sun has the Soloman’s and Mary sitting in their car, waiting to be beamed away. The family reminisces about the things they’ll miss about Earth, and Mary admits she can’t go through with it. Dick decides to wipe her memory of him but leaves the feelings of love they had for one another. The family then get back in the car and sing their mission song until they’re beamed away.
It was pretty much a perfect way to end, but 3rd Rock From The Sun filmed an alternate ending in case the network decided to continue. In this ending, Mary wakes up, understandably confused about how she ended up in the middle of nowhere and drives away. Dick then beams in beside her, totally naked, asking her to come with him. Since she now has no memory of Dick his plea doesn’t work, so he yells “Alien abduction!” before beaming himself and Mary away. While this may have worked as a cliffhanger, thankfully the network stuck with the emotional ending of 3rd Rock From The Sun that aired.
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