Out of This World is an American fantasy sitcom about a teenage girl who is half alien, which gives her unique supernatural powers. It first aired in syndication from September 17, 1987 and ended on May 25, 1991. During its first season, the series was originally part of NBC's Prime Time Begins at 7:30 campaign, in which the network's owned-and-operated stations would run first-run sitcoms in the 7:30-8 p.m. time slot to counter-program competing stations' game shows, sitcom reruns and other offerings. Out of This World was rotated with four other shows: the original series Marblehead Manor and She's the Sheriff, a syndicated revival of the 1983 sitcom We Got It Made, and a television adaptation of the play You Can't Take It with You. NBC ended the experiment after the 1987–88 season due to the low ratings put up by three of the series, which were cancelled. Out of This World was renewed, as was She's the Sheriff. After its first season, Out of This World began airing primarily on weekends. Despite receiving mostly negative reviews from critics, it lasted three more seasons.

Cast

Episodes

Season 1 (1987–88)

Season 2 (1988–89)

Season 3 (1989–90)

Season 4 (1990–91)

Opening credits

The opening credits for the series incorporated special effects footage from the 1979–1981 series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. The theme song is a modified version of "Swinging on a Star". Video snippets of parents Donna and Troy show the start of their relationship including the wedding and birth of daughter Evie. Troy's face is continuously obscured, never fully shown. The fictional town of Marlowe is shown to be adjacent to Carmel-by-the-Sea, California and Monterey, California with a directional traffic sign.

International airings

In France, Out of this World was aired under the name Loin de ce monde (Far From this World) as part of a block called La Une est à vous (Channel One is Yours) from September 10, 1988 until October 12, 1991 then from July to August 1992 on TF1. It was then rebroadcast from November 1994 until November 10, 1996 on M6. In Germany, Out of this World was aired under the name Mein Vater ist ein Außerirdischer (My Father is an Alien) which aired on RTL Plus in 1989. In Italy, Out of this World was aired under the name Cose dell'altro mondo (Things from the Other World) on Rai 1 from 1990. This was also the name of a comedy film from 2011. Out of This World was first broadcast in the UK on the ITV network on April 9, 1990, until 1995, and was later reran on Trouble (TV channel).

Critical reception

Discussing Out of This World, Roger Fulton stated "like many juvenile US sitcoms, the series was short on laughs and long on moralizing". The book Television Without Pity contained a review of Out of This World that described the show as "quite possibly the worst sitcom ever made-it's a complete failure on every level". The review went on to criticize the show's scripts, acting and production, and unfavorably compared Out of This World to Sabrina the Teenage Witch. The Splitsider website called Out of This World "perhaps the worst sitcom ever, or at least the most '80s sitcom ever".

Home media

A DVD set with 35 episodes from seasons 1 and 2 was released in Germany on November 8, 2011. The 6-disc set has a runtime of 875 minutes, but does not include all episodes due to music rights.

Stations

As previously mentioned, during the first season, Out of This World aired on NBC's owned-and-operated stations as part of their Prime Time Begins at 7:30 experiment.