Exigius Twelve and a Half, an exoanthropologist from the planet Mars, becomes stranded on Earth after his one-man spaceship narrowly misses a NASA rocket plane and crashes near Los Angeles. The alien is rescued by Tim O'Hara, a newspaper reporter who explains the Martian to friends and authorities by introducing him as his Uncle Martin. "Uncle Martin" looks human, exc... Read all
Cast:Ray Walston , Bill Bixby , Pamela Britton , Alan Hewitt , J. Pat O'Malley , Roy Engel , Lee Krieger , Hal Baylor , Harry Lauter , Cliff Norton , Ann Marshall , Bernie Kopell , Howard Morton , Dick Wilson , Olan Soule , Lillian Culver , Michael Barrier , Paul Sorensen
Reporter Tim O'Hara, while covering a flight of the Air Force X-15, finds a spaceship that contains a genuine martian. The martian is a professor who specializes in the planet Earth and now has to repair his spaceship before he can go home.
There is triple girl trouble in the O'Hara home. George, the dog Tim is looking after for Mr. Burns, wants Chloe, the dog next door. Tim tries to get George and Chloe together and falls for Chloe's owner, Marsha Carson. Angela is jealous.
Martin has a cold. When he sneezes, he changes to being visible at bad times. Tim is assigned to review Trimbles Department Store's outer space exhibit, rife with stereotyped caricatures. As an advertiser, Trimble expects a glowing review.
Martin reads about a $2 billion American space program, one he knows is doomed. Tim fabricates a letter to the paper which includes Martin's nighttime musings, thinking they will fix the program. Tim is questioned under a lie detector.
A renowned scientist posits that life no more advanced than amoebas can exist on Mars. Martin helps Angela write a class report refuting his claims and she gets a "F". Martin's plan includes Tim planting a seed in the professor's brain.
To get some rarefied air, Martin goes atop a water tower. Passersby and police think he's a jumper and he's sent to the psych ward of the hospital. Martin goes for a quick release by reading the doctor's mind to say what he wants to hear.
Curious, Martin experiences an emotion foreign to Martians: love at first sight. He falls for an exotic dancer and wants to marry her after they date once. But her previous suitor, Officer Thorp, explains he lied because he was an orphan.
Martin agrees to give Tim a power of mind reading in limited form; it will expire the next day at midnight. Tim uses it indulgently. He hopes it will aid in an interview with a politician. But he is surprised and thinks Martin tricked him.
Junk men mistakenly empty the guy's garage instead of Mrs. Brown's, taking Martin's spaceship. She has no idea which junkyard but a neighborhood dog, Booboo, helps track it down. When they get to the junkyard, they find it has been sold.
After using a stranger's fingerprints to get a driver's license, Uncle Martin falls under suspicion of being a notorious jewel thief. Martin and Tim set a trap for the thief employing good old Martian know-how.
Martin needs to make an alloy of silicon and cobalt he calls silibalt. But the cyclotron he has rigged in the kitchen is inadequate so he follows Tim on his interview at the university to access their cyclotron where a prodigy is at work.
Tim is pursuing the seemingly unattainable Cynthia Parker. Martin reads her mind and finds she is passionate about classical arts: music, literature or art. She figures Tim is not, which is the truth. Tim tricks her into thinking he is.
The O'Hara's have new neighbors, a boy Stevie and his adult sister Jennifer. The foursome go to picnic on Sunset Mountain as Martin needs to get an metal ore called "glink" for his craft. It is located there not yet discovered by humans.
Tim's cousin Harvey visits so Martin must hide. They keep Mrs. Brown away as she would speak of Martin. Harvey is a mooch and wants to upgrade from his small town reporter job to where Tim works. The tiny apartment feels cramped to Martin.
Tim writes a news article about a woman who left thousands in her will to a cat. Martin is furious. The attorney threatens him to write on it no more but says she had a second will donating to a children's orphanage. Martin holds a séance.
Mars has deviated closer from its regular orbit temporarily and Martin can make it back. He has a 10 hour window. As he prepares to leave, he sprains his ankle which inhibits his antenna. But he escapes the hospital in time to try again.
Something is causing Martin's metabolism to go haywire. In succession, he loses control of his levitation finger, he magnetizes his clothing, he levitates, he becomes electrically charged, he shrinks and then he disappears. He finds out the cause is an increased activity of sunspots, and on Earth there is no way to control their effects on Martians. After five days, the sunspots are still occurring and Martin is still invisible. The authorities, based on a recent insurance policy Mrs. Brown sold Martin with Tim as beneficiary, suspect that Martin's "disappearance" is due to Tim killing him for the insurance money. Circumstantial evidence points in that direction. Martin can't let Tim go to jail for this, and Martin decides to tell the authorities the truth about his Martian identity. Just then, the sunspots cease and Martin reappears, just in time to save Tim and protect his own identity.
Martin and Tim plan to see the foremost expert on rocket fuel. Martin thinks he can help him return to Mars. But Martin is hit on the head with a monkey wrench, gets amnesia and has no idea he's a Martian. They seek a doctor's diagnosis.
The museum's long-time curator is upset because the board is questioning the authenticity of his acquisition and has called in an independent expert, a man whose evaluation he once discredited. Martin can authenticate if he has access.
Martin wants to help Tim with household expenses and without a job decides to sell art he's currently painting to relieve boredom. He can mimic any famous artist. An art gallery owner notices Martin's work and wants to do a showing.
A firm is launching a rocket to either Mars or Venus. The firm's president is indecisive but superstitious. Martin is resolute on getting him to choose Mars so he can be a stowaway. Martin takes on 2 things keeping him from choosing Mars.
Tim discovers Martin's antennae can pick up police radio and hears about a robbery. He calls police for more information but they think he knows about it because he was involved and arrest him and Martin. Martin escapes and finds a shock.
After Martin makes Tim miss a deadline, he gets Tim an exclusive interview with Jakobar, the rogue leader of Kobima. Martin was friends with Jakobar's great-grandfather, a founder of Kobima. Jakobar seeks an oil deal but has trust issues.
Mrs. Brown is taking a mail order course on how to be a private detective and her first assignment is to prepare a dossier on an unsuspecting person. She chooses Martin who is concerned about her discovering his Martian identity.
Pete Dudley, a shifty real estate salesman, convinces Mrs. Brown that she should sell her house which causes a problem for Tim and Martin, especially in hiding the spaceship. Dudley already has prospective buyers, Edgar and Emily Graham.
Martin finds himself involved in a romantic love triangle.
Martin overcharges himself prepping for a trip to Mars. In discharging himself, he blacks out half of Los Angeles. The power company is narrowing the source of the blackout to their neighborhood. His condition could lead to a plaid face.
To fool a local kid, Martin fashions toy antenna for Tim to wear when his is stuck in the up position. The idea catches on and soon a local man is making toy antennas that all the kids want to wear and offers Martin payment for the rights.
Martin needs to fly his spaceship which is deteriorating due to inertia. Tim's fear is realized: Martin's flight is spotted as a UFO. Martin needs to take another flight but Mrs. Brown calls in UFO researchers who have a plutron detector.
The Earthly environment causes a vitamin deficiency in Martin. He draws energy and vitamins from everything and everyone around him. The effect on people who look him in the eyes is they will fall asleep and objects he touches go haywire.
Mrs. Brown's niece, a former child prodigy, visits and is too interested in Martin's gadgets. She does have a boyfriend, also an intellectual, but lacks basic beauty skills. Martin fixes that and gets Tim to take her out to distract her.
In an electrical storm Martin gets an affliction called popsy. It causes him to appear and disappear uncontrollably. He needs to ground himself to cure it. Mrs. Brown accidentally completes the grounding and gets Martin's levitation power.
Martin finds that he is prematurely aging due to the increased gravity on Earth compared to Mars. Thus he goes through some anti-gravity therapy, which in turn causes havoc for those around him.
Martin has Tim use his connections for a tryout as astronaut for a rocket to Mars financed by a knockwurst tycoon. Martin's superior mental and physical performance wins him the job. Tim plans a delayed news story that Martin is a Martian.
Tim and Mr. Burns' nephew are in the running for promotion to journeyman reporter. After learning Burns is a gourmet, Martin plans to cook him a gourmet meal using Martian seasonings but the seasonings cause Burns to move in slow motion.
Tim is mad at Martin for "disappearing and spying" when he has a date at the apartment. Martin makes up for this, covering a news story for him and phoning it in using Tim's voice. Burns is impressed, hires Martin when he learns his role.
A toothache of his "eye" tooth keeps him from seeing. Tim takes him to his dentist but Martin begs off as he has 52 teeth. Tim takes his place in the dental chair. The remedy causes Martin's eye teeth to go cross-eyed as does his vision.