Out Of This World was a Sci-fi sitcom about a teenage girl who is half alien, which gives her unique superhuman powers. It first aired on September 17th 1987 and ran for 94 episodes over four seasons. The girl, Evie Ethel Garland (played by Maureen Flannigan), discovers on her thirteenth birthday that her father is an alien named Troy (Burt Reynolds in voice only). Troy married her mother Donna Garland (voiced by Donna Pescow), “an ambitious working mother with a career,” and “merged lifeforms” to create Evie. Evie’s half-alien heritage gives her superhuman abilities.
Most of the episodes revolve around Evie misusing her powers and causing some trouble, which she spends the rest of the episode trying to fix. Only Evie and her family know about her alien father and her powers, and many episodes depict Evie trying to hide her secret from other characters. The series ended on a cliff-hanger in the Season 4 finale, where Troy came to visit and Donna (but is only seen as a silhouette with stars from the galaxy) took his place by accident and ended up in Antareus, leaving Troy stranded on Earth.
Other characters in the show include Uncle Beano Froelich (played by Joe Alaskey) who is Donna’s brother and Evie’s uncle, who lives next door to them. Beano has a large appetite and runs the diet clinic known originally as “Waist-a-Weigh”, and later as “Beano’s Diet Clinic”. Beano is one of the three regular characters who know Evie’s secret, along with Donna and Evie herself. He last appears in season 4, episode 12. Also a regularly appearing is Kyle Applegate (played by Doug McClure) a former television actor who is now the mayor of Marlowe. Kyle is a good friend of the family, but “the mayor” punishes even the smallest offenses. As well as being egocentric and vain, Kyle is dimwitted and gullible, often completely failing to notice Evie’s “alien” antics. He clings to his former TV glory as the star of “Mosquito Man” and many long forgotten mainly Western movies. Towards the end of season three, Kyle is appointed police chief by Donna, who takes over from him as mayor.
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