History Characters / ThirdRockFromTheSun

* AmbiguouslyJewish: An odd case, in which the Solomons had no ethnicity, but it became apparent that they ''should'' have some sort of cultural background. A passing comment leads them to realize that they behave more or less Jewish - and their last name is fitting as well.

* ShesGotLegs

* MeaningfulName: Dick is both a self-absorbed asshole and very... well-endowed. Fits both definitions of "dick" pretty well, no?

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Doesn't understand sarcasm or lying very well. An example would be when Mary compared his family to Series/TheAddamsFamily. Dick assumed she meant second president John Adams. When she states that wasn't what she meant, Dick thinks she meant John Quincy Adams and becomes enraged that she would compare his family to "that freakshow".

** He's selfish, arrogant, condescending, and a complete drama queen, but he truly does love Mary and comes to care for the other aliens as family members rather than just crewmates. Worth noting that for better or worse, it's uncertain how much of this is due to his inexperience coping with human emotions.
** This is especially exemplified in the episode where [[spoiler: he protects his family by telling Kathy Bates' character that he is the only alien in the group and comes very close to having his head cut open as a result]], which is perhaps the first moment when he doesn't consider himself to be the most important thing in life, despite his frequent declarations to that effect.
* LargeHam: He has three voices -- shouting, talking at normal volume but being overly emotional, and shouting while being overly emotional.

* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: Though as is often the case, he becomes more sympathetic as the show goes on. It's very hard not to feel bad for him in situations where his true identity thwarts his relationship with Mary (such as in the beginning of the third season when [[spoiler: his engagement to Mary is destroyed because the Big Giant Head assigns him a 'wife']]), which shows there is some real sympathy for him from the audience.

* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Superior at Physics to Dick despite being a Biology professor, better at sports, a fantastic chef, even seduces Mary at one point (and is better at sex)...the only thing Dick is better at is not being evil
* ArsonMurderAndAdmiration: Dick calls him pompous, judgemental and completely self-absorbed...and immediately asks to be his friend. It doesn't last though as he ends up on the receiving end of it later on.
* DickDastardlyStopsToCheat: Cheats at golf by distracting dick with blow-horns despite clearly being a vastly superior golfer.

* ButtMonkey: He often finds himself in embarrassing situations at school etc.

* MeaningfulName: Dick is both a self-absorbed asshole and very ... well-endowed. Fits both definitions of "dick" pretty well, no?

* {{Yandere}}: Yeah, she's a LargeHam and a LovableSexManiac... and then she not only tries to kill Harry's girlfriend but is prepared to murder Sally as well when she tries to stop her.
-->'''Vicki''': I am your queen, and you will BOW to me!

* KnightOfCerebus: Yeah, she's a LargeHam and a LovableSexManiac... and then she not only tries to kill Harry's girlfriend but is prepared to murder Sally as well when she tries to stop her.
-->'''Vicki''': I am your queen, and you will BOW to me!

* EvilForeigner: Presumably English, since Cleese keeps his normal accent, though of course he's also an alien in disguise.

* LaserGuidedKarma: Following her break up with Tommy, when he became editor of the school paper he kept telling people that their break-up had left her a wreck and that HE broke up with her. She kept having to remind people to her frustration that the reverse happened, but no one listened.

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: In his second appearance, he came back to Earth with plans to turn everyone into monkeys in order to turn it into an amusement park, "Planet Monkey World". Dick winds up turning Liam into a chimpanzee in order to stop him. Unfortunately, Mary saw the whole thing, and this leads to Dick admitted he's an alien.

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Hits on Nina within seconds of meeting her despite being a professor, asks Albright to get him coffee despite her ''also'' being a professor, sexually assaults her more than once, then later tells Sally that if a woman as beautiful as her doesn't have a boyfriend [[StealthInsult she must have a personality disorder]].

* CloudCuckoolander

->Portrayed by Ceator/WayneKnight

->Portrayed by Wayne Knight

* PoorCommunicationsKills: Tommy tries to apologize to her for Sally breaking them up, but since he tried passing a message down a line of people, the message became muddled and it made it sounded like he was threatening to sic Sally on her if she came near him.

* PoorCommunicationsKill: Tommy tries to apologize to her for Sally breaking them up, but since he tried passing a message down a line of people, the message became muddled and it made it sounded like he was threatening to sic Sally on her if she came near him.

Tommy's first girlfriend. Originally introduced as a snarky, feminist-oriented nonconformist, she became increasingly elitist and hypocritical as the show went along.

* TheSnarkKnight: August went through character decay becoming rather hypocritical and just liking to look down at everyone.

Tommy's first girlfriend. She became increasingly elitist and hypocritical as the show went on.

[[folder: Core Regulars]]

!!'''Dr. Dick Solomon'''

!!'''Sally Solomon'''

!!'''Harry Solomon'''

!!'''Tommy Solomon'''

!!'''Dr. Mary Albright'''

[[folder: Promotion To Opening Titles In Season 3]]

!!'''Nina Campbell'''

!!'''Officer Don Orville'''

!!'''Mrs. Mamie Dubcek'''

* LovableSexManiac: A female version, and her daughter seems like this as wel.

[[folder: Supporting Cast]]

!!'''Dr. Judith Draper'''

!!'''Dr. Vincent Strudwick'''

!!'''August Leffler'''

!!'''Alissa Strudwick'''

[[folder: Recurring Characters]]

!!'''Vicki Dubcek'''

!!'''The Big Giant Head'''

!!'''Dr. Liam Neesam'''

* {{Adorkable}}

* TheCasanova: He's easily the oddest of the aliens, yet he has had the most relationships with gorgeous women who could easily do better than him. His romantic interests have included Vicki Dubcek, Nina, Masha the Venusian (played by Cindy Crawford), a body builder policewoman named Janice, and in the last episode we find out that for the entire show he'd secretly been with [[spoiler: Mrs. Dubcek]].

* ChickMagnet
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: By leaps and bounds, the worst of the four.

* TheDitz
* EyesAlwaysShut

* KavorkaMan: If he opens his eyes fully, he suddenly becomes a chick magnet.

* WackyGuy

* ButtMonkey
* CompulsorySchoolAge

* OlderThanHeLooks

* TheSnarkKnight

* SassyBlackWoman
* SassySecretary

* {{Acrofatic}}

* KavorkaMan
* LargeHam

* OnlySaneMan

* AnythingThatMoves

* LovableSexManiac
* MrsRobinson
* NoodleIncident: Her love life.
** In one episode she mentions being tricked into attending an intervention on two separate occasions.

* DeadpanSnarker: When she's not the ComicallySerious. Half of Judith's characterization is that she almost never smiles.

* TheStoic

Tommy's first girlfriend. She became increasingly elitist and hypocritical as the show went on, eventually becoming TheScrappy in some viewers' eyes.

* DumbBlonde: Averted.
* {{Hypocrite}}
* {{Jerkass}}

* TheSnarkKnight

* TookALevelInJerkass: As the show went on she gradually became more stuck-up and hypocritical, until she finally broke up with Tommy after she admitted that she was cheating on him.
* YourCheatingHeart

* GirlNextDoor

* PsychoExGirlfriend: Becomes one as a CompressedVice in "The Big Giant Head Returns Again". She seems to [[CharacterDevelopment get over Harry at the end of the episode]], but it was her last appearance on the show anyway.
** It's generally implied that Vicki's psychotic behavior stemmed entirely from gigantic frustrations she was having with her husband that had been going on ever since her last appearance.

** [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Sounds kind of familiar...]]

* FemmeFatale: She's able to use her looks to manipulative men.

* BrutalHonesty: Most of the time except when he's denying his existence as an alien. The concept of lying was just as foreign to the aliens as emotions and gender were.

* InnocentlyInsentive: While he ''is'' a jerk (well, a dick), many times he tends to be accidentally obnoxious and/or tactless towards other people.