The Cast Showoff: Numerous times the entire main cast gets to show off musical talents. The best is in "A Nightmare on Dick Street," wherein Harry's dream is an elaborate Broadway-style song and dance number that was shot almost entirely in one take.
August sings a song in the episode with Tommy forming a band. Shay Astar, who played August, is now a professional singer-songwriter (though she sang only as a hobby at the time). Astar became a star!
Mary's lackluster but enthusiastic vocal talents are shown off at least as much as the Solomons', despite being poor enough both in-universe and on-screen for a season 3 episode to revolve around her self-recognized lack of singing talent.
While acknowledging that the scene works, Joseph Gordon-Levitt doesn't like how the producers used a take where he visibly corpses after Harry spits on a baby, even decades later. What makes it worse for him is that the scene is included in so many highlight reels.
Gordon-Levitt, though he got along well with the cast and crew and (mostly) remembers his time on the show fondly, found himself so burnt out by the rigors of a weekly TV schedule that he vowed never again to take a regular role in any other series - a promise he has kept to this day (not counting voice-over roles).
Creator Couple: The opening titles end with the credit "Created by Bonnie Turner & Terry Turner." They are a married couple. Incidentally, the show is set in Ohio because Bonnie is an Ohio native (their other show from Carsey-Werner, That '70s Show, had the town, Point Place WI, named for a section of Toledo).
Died During Production: Phil Hartman appeared in the third season finale as Vicki Dubcek's ex-boyfriend Randy who kidnaps Harry at the end of the episode. Sadly Hartman was murdered eight days after the episode aired and, as a result, the fourth season premiere picks up several days later with Randy having sold Harry to a travelling circus as part of their freak show.
Distanced from Current Events: In "Tricky Dick", Tommy forms a garage band which in the original script was called "Shattered Princess". Production on the episode was delayed due to scheduling issues, and mere days before it was due to film Princess Diana died in a car accident. The band's name was quickly changed to "Whiskey Kitten" before filming began.
Dyeing for Your Art: John Lithgow had to start working out extensively because the show turned out to be much more physically demanding than he expected.
Edited for Syndication: The syndicated versions removed the pre-opening credits sequence of James Earl Jones narrating about the four main characters; they were cut for time. These were unfortunately the versions included on the initial Anchor Bay releases, but luckily these intros were restored for the Mill Creek Entertainment re-releases.
The airings on Laff mute out any mention of the word "midget."
Kristen Johnston, when discussing the finale, says that network decisions compromised the show's long term potential, indicating that she felt the show might have ended too soon.
The 3D episode was apparently forced upon them by the network. Bonnie Turner said that they would do it, just in a way that would make sure that nobody else would ever do one again.
I Am Not Spock: French Stewart had difficulty finding roles after this series as casting directors couldn't see him as anything other than the wacky Harry.
Missing Episode: Reruns on the over the air comedy channel Laff skip the two part season 3 opener "Fun With Dick & Janet" most likely due to Roseanne guest starring in them, and her recent toxic reputation. note Laff originally aired reruns of her eponymous series before pulling them in light of the cancellation of its revival.
Nearly all the episodes in season five were aired in a seemingly random order compared to the order they were written in. This normally wouldn't be noticeable, except in "Dick Puts the ID In Cupid", he references being naked under a table at a function Mary organised. Had they aired in the order they were written in, this would make sense. However, in the order they are aired, he's referencing something that hasn't happened yet, or for first time viewers makes it appear to be a Noodle Incident.
Much of season one was also broadcast out of order. The biggest problem caused by this is that "Dick Is from Mars, Sally Is from Venus", in which Tommy starts attending high school for the first time, was broadcast after two episodes in which Tommy was already in school. Though arguably worse was "Truth or Dick", the second episode filmed but the tenth aired. Tommy suddenly looks much younger.
Playing Against Type: Before landing the part of Dick, John Lithgow tended to be most visible in movies as Ax-CrazyPsychos For Hire. And after that, he decided to become a children's-songs artist.
Wayne Knight was known from Seinfeld as Newman: melodramatic, sour and insulting, if sometimes right. So it was a surprise to see him as Sally's shy and goodhearted cop boyfriend Don.
An attempt by ABC: Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner originally pitched it to them, who admitted that they had several shows that they liked better. They asked if they could be released to try and sell it elsewhere if they weren't going to buy it (with them knowing that NBC had shown interest in it). ABC apparently also knew about this, as they only let them out once NBC had set their schedule for that year in the hopes that they'd kill the show entirely. Unfortunately for ABC, NBC was quite happy to buy the show at this point.
Of course, NBC had to meddle as well once they had the show. They changed the series' timeslot at least sixteen times with eight happening in the first three seasons. Coupled with often being scheduled against stiff competition, making it to six seasons was quite an accomplishment. The constant time slot changes resulted in "irritation" from John Lithgow, who called the show "the wandering Jew of television". NBC particularly hurt the show with its scheduling choices in Season 6 - with ratings taking such a hit that production knew they wouldn't be back for a seventh.
An alternate ending for "A Nightmare on Dick Street, Part 2" exists where Dick's final speech to Mary is interrupted by a flash of light from the living room. When Dick goes to look he finds that Harry, Sally and Tommy have returned from the home planet but have been assigned new bodies.
An extended version of the final scene from the series finale was shot in case the show was picked up at the last minute. In this version Mary wakes up after the Solomons leave and gets into the rambler. Once she closes the door Dick suddenly reappears and tells her he couldn't leave without her. Mary is shocked as her memory of him was successfully wiped so Dick grabs her and yells for the waiting spaceship to abduct her.
Dick was originally supposed to have a female assistant who was supposed to be a bit of a pushover. However, the comedy landed flat and the writers realized Dick needed a counterpart who could knock him back. This led to the casting of Jane Curtin and required about a third of the pilot to be reshot.
Wayne Knight's involvement with this series was originally going to be temporary. Bonnie and Terry Turner had an idea for a starring vehicle for him and they wanted to give him something to do as they moved the project through the development process. That hypothetical series didn't get very far and Knight became a permanent member of the Third Rock cast.
Written by Cast Member: Joseph Gordon-Levitt came up with the lyrics to the blues song Tommy sings while trying to figure out the Solomon's ethnicity and had to join the American Society of Composer, Authors and Publishers as a result.
Phil Hartman played a gay department store attendant as well as Vicki Dubcek's ex-boyfriend.
Pat Finn played a brief boyfriend of Sally's in "The Great Dickdater" before having a recurring role as anchorman Chaz Montana in season 6.
Miscellaneous trivia:
This show and 30 Rock share more than similar titles:
Tracy Morgan appeared in a 3rd Rock episode ("Dick'll Take Manhattan") and John Lithgow appeared in a 30 Rock episode ("Goodbye, My Friend"). Both were playing themselves.
Their connections to Saturday Night Live are inverted. 3rd Rock was created by two SNL alums and has one SNL alum in the main cast. 30 Rock was created by one SNL alum and has two SNL alums in the main cast.
Elaine Stritch played the overbearing mother of a main character on both shows. Jan Hooks had a Recurring Character on both shows as well.
In the film The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, Wilma is played by a 3rd Rock regular (Kristen Johnston) and Betty is played by a (future) 30 Rock regular (Jane Krakowski).
When 30 Rock first premiered, it aired alongside John Lithgow's short-lived sitcom Twenty Good Years.
