By being on Earth with its "peculiar oxygen" and away from their environment, Martians could suffer from a vitamin deficiency known as VDM974 (or Vitamin Deficiency in Martians), according to the episode 'Miss Jekyll and Hyde' of the TV series 'My Favorite Martian' first shown in 1964. However the pharmaceuticals (B9714 and A32) a Martian required to return to normal (the condition of which was known as 333+7) could be purchased "in your Earth drugs store."
The Martian Exigious 12½ explained, "You can't look at a Martian when he has VDM974, his deficiency draws on your sufficiency and you go right to sleep." However when a Martian recovered and became over-sufficient, the Martian could project out his strength into his surrounding and a mere mortal could benefit from his power, albeit temporarily.
Bill Bixby played the human reporter Tim O'Hara told 'TV Star Parade' magazine in 1965, "One week when Ray (Walston) had the flu, we shot my scenes in 5 different shows (or 5 different episodes) while waiting for him to come back. We had 3 different directors for the shows in completely unrelated scenes and stories!" Bill also mentioned to Jack Major, "We were on the illness kick this season (1964-65). Uncle Martin had 32 illnesses in 38 weeks. That would make him the sickest man in the universe."
Speaking to the 'Seattle Times' at the start of 'My Favorite Martian' first season, Bill made the comment, "The comedy in the show will be a little too adult for many children to understand, but it will probably be a family show - the adults will know what we are talking about, and the kids will watch it because it has a Martian in it. When I first saw the name of the series I was auditioning for - 'My Favorite Martian'- I began reading the script, it began to make sense - the lines were adult, the comedy wasn’t slapstick, and there was a certain warmth about the Martian and reporter relationship. That may sound corny but it really is a warm relationship."
Bill also stated, "We took a survey of our audience last year (the 1963-64 season) and discovered 52% of our viewers are adults. If we tried to teach the lesson to children, the kids in the audience would resent it. If anything, they'd resist the lesson. The purpose of our show is to entertain. The public gets tired of 'messages.' They turn on their television sets to be entertained. They don't want to think." In one scene, Tim O'Hara told the Martian, "Uncle Martin, this is Earth I live here. But unless someone tell me something, I have no way of knowing what it's all about. You see, I don't read mind."
Bill Bixby continued, "Call it corny but I've discovered that when a person laughs – that is, at the moment he laughs – he cannot think about anything else. He forgets his troubles. That's why I enjoy doing comedy. Getting another person to laugh is the most rewarding feeling I've had. I've been in 76 episodes of 'My Favorite Martian' already (37 episodes season one; 38 episodes season 2; and 1 episode season 3), and that's approximately equivalent to doing 26 movies. That's great experience. Our program is seen all around the world. Each week I'm seen by 200 million people. A movie would have to play every day for a year in cities throughout the world for me to reach all those people. I'd have to be nuts to knock television."
By the time Bill Bixby starred in 'The Incredible Hulk' in 1978, he told the 'Birmingham News (Alabama)', "I guess my first big break was in the very early '60s when I got into the last half of the first year of 'The Joey Bishop Show'. I went right from that into 'My Favorite Martian' working with Ray Walston. Can you believe it? That show lasted for 3 years but we made 108 episodes. That was the way we did it back then (1963-66). No one does that many shows today (in 1978).
"The average season is about 24 shows. If we started out with 'Martian' today (in 1978) and made 108 episodes, it would last for 6 years. When I first did 'My Favorite Martian' there was no question that it was different, and we started a siege of shows, 'I Dream of Jeannie' and 'Bewitched' and on and on (including 'The Addams Family' and 'The Munsters'). Everyone got into the fantasy thing. But to do it at the time when we did was really very courageous."
In the second last episode of the black and white series, 'Time Out for Martian', which was shown at the end of season 3 which was filmed in color, a time machine referred to as the Cathode Ray Centrifugal Time-Break-A-Scope or "CCTBS" was introduced to enable the Martian Exigious 12½ and Tim O'Hara to go backward and forward in time to get involved with all sorts of people, places and events. One event saw Uncle Martin and Tim took a trip back in time to the year 1215 in England to try to get the Magna Carta signed by King John.
"One of the most important instruments - the constitutional English history," the Martian reminded. "It guarantees the English people their rights, freedom of religion and trial of jury by their peers. If you recall your history, the English barons led by the Archbishop of Canterbury at Runnymede (in Surrey) are demanding the signature of King John who prefers that the Magna Carta didn't exist."
If the Martian and Tim O'Hara could not deliver the Magna Carta to the King, "not only the history of England will be changed but the whole world." It was understood production costs for filming the 3rd season in color came to $70,000 an episode, which one observer concluded explained why only 32 episodes were made instead of the standard 37 episodes for the black and white seasons.
"One of the most important instruments - the constitutional English history," the Martian reminded. "It guarantees the English people their rights, freedom of religion and trial of jury by their peers. If you recall your history, the English barons led by the Archbishop of Canterbury at Runnymede (in Surrey) are demanding the signature of King John who prefers that the Magna Carta didn't exist."
If the Martian and Tim O'Hara could not deliver the Magna Carta to the King, "not only the history of England will be changed but the whole world." It was understood production costs for filming the 3rd season in color came to $70,000 an episode, which one observer concluded explained why only 32 episodes were made instead of the standard 37 episodes for the black and white seasons.
