TV: Out of This World

If you were going to hold a contest for the best use of a Bing Crosby song in an 80's kids sitcom intro, "Out of This World" would probably be the winner:



Unlike in the much-maligned fellow 80's supernatural-tinged sitcom "Small Wonder," the protagonist in OoTW is actually likable. Maureen Flannigan is cute as a button in one of her first starring roles as a half-human, half-alien girl named Evie who discovers she has special powers on her 13th birthday and that her father is actually an alien.

Evie can freeze and unfreeze time a la "A Kind of a Stopwatch", which is the primary power that drives most of the show's comedy. It was never really a high-concept show, but the actors played the goofy slapstick with more relish than you'd expect, and I was glad to see other people still remembered the show.