In 1962, “script-fixer” Sherwood Schwartz (producer and writer for shows like and ) was asked to watch a pilot for a new TV sitcom. Its plot centered on a young newspaper reporter living in California and a Martian anthropologist who had crash-landed after a near-miss encounter with a military aircraft and was stuck on earth until he could repair his spacecraft. In a 2010 interview, Schwartz said, “To this day, that's the best, would easily have a four- to five-year run.
