Airing from 1996 to 2001, 3rd Rock was an NBC sitcom about a group of aliens on a secret mission to Earth who disguise themselves as a human family, the Solomons. The stars were John Lithgow as High Commander/father Dick, Kristen Johnston as Lieutenant/Dick's sister Sally, French Stewart as Transmitter/Dick's brother Harry, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Intelligence Officer/Dick's son Tommy. Most of the show's humor came from the aliens' confused experience of human life.
I call this show semi-notable. It's a funny sitcom. I watched every episode on DVD and thoroughly enjoyed it. The thing is, it's not very memorable. I can't remember too many funny jokes from the show, and it's not generally well-known, as contemporary sitcoms like Seinfeld and Friends were. Plenty of people watched the show while it was on, and it won a bunch of Emmys (mostly for Lithgow's great performance), but no one remembers it for being great. There are plenty of TV shows that have suffered the same fate, but this is the one I remember.
Interestingly, Lithgow was already very famous, and Gordon-Levitt has become very famous since, but their co-stars not only aren't, but are most well known for a mental breakdown and starring in the awful film Inspector Gadget 2. Not very inspirational legacies.
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