September 29, 1963: "My Favorite Martian" Premieres

September 29, 1963: My Favorite Martian premieres on CBS. It runs for 3 seasons, combining science fiction with situation comedy.

Ray Walston plays a 450-year-old anthropologist from the planet Mars. His one-man spaceship nearly collides at high altitude with the U.S. Air Force's rocket plane, the North American X-15. Bill Bixby plays Tim O'Hara, a young reporter for the fictional newspaper The Los Angeles Sun. He is on his way home from Edwards Air Force Base, where he had gone to report on the flight of the X-15. Returning home to Los Angeles, O'Hara spots the same silver spaceship crash-land nearby.

Tim takes in the Martian, saying to other people that he is Tim's Uncle Martin. Martin appears human, but has retractable antennae, and has special traits -- invisibility, telepathy, levitation, communication with animals, and so on -- that he refuses to reveal to any other humans, to avoid both publicity and human panic. Tim agrees to keep the Martian's Earth identity a secret while he attempts to repair his spaceship.

Both actors would become better known for other things: Bixby for playing Dr. David Banner on The Incredible Hulk, and Walston, already known for playing the Devil in the film version of Damn Yankees, for playing history teacher Mr. Hand in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Despite being young enough to be Walston's son, Bixby developed cancer and died first, in 1993. Walston lived on until 2001.

Comedian Vic Dibitetto says that the reason his generation – he was 2 years old at the time this show debuted – is so messed up is the TV it watched. My Favorite Martin presaged the witch of Bewitched, the lady genie of I Dream of Jeannie, the monsters of The Munsters and The Addams Family, the talking My Mother the Car; the serious spies of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., I Spy and Mission: Impossible; the silly spies of Get Smart, the silly superheroes and the sillier supervillains of Batman, The Flying Nun; and, of course, the most ridiculous TV show of that era, perhaps of any era: Gilligan's Island. TV taught kids of Vic's generation at an early age to believe that anything was possible. But by the time they were old enough to ask, "Was this really necessary?" it was too late.

Which makes it all the stranger that Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?, a cartoon with a talking dog, was more grounded in reality, showing that a lot of monsters are just grownups attempting fraud. But they never made the villain a TV executive.

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September 29, 1963 was a Sunday. Hockey Hall-of-Famer Dave Andreychuk was born on this day.

These other games were played:

* The Houston Colt .45s beat the New York Mets, 13-4 at Colt Stadium in Houston. John Paciorek, in his 1st major league game, went 3-for-3, with 2 walks, 4 runs scored, and 3 RBIs. It was, arguably, the greatest debut in the history of Major League baseball. He never played another game. Of all the players with a 1.000 lifetime batting average, he's the only one who got as far as 3-for-3. I have a separate entry for this event.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2 at Busch Stadium (formerly Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. Dal Maxvill doubled home the winning run in the bottom of the 14th inning.

It was the last game for retiring Cardinal legend Stan Musial, and his Number 6 was retired. In the bottom of the 6th, the 42-year-old Stan the Man singled Curt Flood home. It was the 3,630th hit of his career, a National League record. In one of the neatest coincidences in sports history, he got exactly 1,815 hits in home games, and 1,815 hits in away games.

The single went between 1st and 2nd base, past the Reds' diving 2nd baseman, soon to be named the NL Rookie of the Year, and just 5 months old when Stan made his major league debut on September 17, 1941, 22 years and 12 days earlier. His name was Pete Rose. In 1981, Pete surpassed Stan as the NL's all-time hit leader. In 1985, he surpassed Ty Cobb as the major leagues' all-time hit leader. In 1989... um, let's move on.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Baltimore Orioles, 7-3 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Despite the game being played in his hometown, Al Kaline did not play. Brooks Robinson did, and went 1-for-3 with 2 walks and an RBI.

* The Washington Senators beat the Chicago White Sox, 9-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Milwaukee Braves beat the Chicago Cubs, 2-0 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Warren Spahn, 42 years old, pitched a 4-hit shutout, for his 23rd win of the season, to outpitch former Brave Bob Buhl. Hank Aaron went 2-for-4 with a home run. Joe Torre went 2-for-3 with an RBI. Ernie Banks did not play for the Cubs.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Kansas City Athletics, 2-1 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 3-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-2 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Willie Mays went 2-for-3 with a walk. Roberto Clemente went 3-for-4 with a solo home run. Willie Stargell appeared as a pinch-hitter, and struck out.

* The New York Yankees and the Minnesota Twins were rained out at Yankee Stadium. And the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Angels were rained out at Fenway Park in Boston. Neither of these games was made up.

The entire NFL was in action:

* The New York Giants beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 37-14 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.

* The Washington Redskins beat the Dallas Cowboys, 21-17 at District of Columbia Stadium in Washington. It was renamed Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in 1969.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the football version of the St. Louis Cardinals, 23-10 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.

* The Cleveland Browns beat the Los Angeles Rams, 20-6 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Chicago Bears beat the Detroit Lions, 37-21 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the Baltimore Colts, 31-20 at the new Green Bay City Stadium. It was renamed Lambeau Field in 1965.

* The Minnesota Vikings beat the San Francisco 49ers, 45-14 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

There were 2 games played in the American Football League. The Denver Broncos beat the Boston Patriots, 14-10 at Bears Stadium (later Mile High Stadium) in Denver. And the San Diego Chargers beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 24-10 at Balboa Stadium in San Diego.