A Landing on Planet Limbo

“3rd Rock’ is that creature in a horror movie that doesn’t die even as you keep shooting it with bullets.”

-Quote from July 18 Variety appearing on the custom T-shirts worn on the set of NBC’s “3rd Rock From the Sun” during its final week.

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On paper, it was merely the taping of Episode 138 of NBC’s sci-fi farce “3rd Rock From the Sun.” But for those fans, NBC executives, cast members and veterans of the show gathered on the January evening, it was so much more.

Emotional electricity gripped Stage 15 at CBS’ Radford Studios in Studio City as the cast members took their opening bows before a cheering crowd crammed into bleachers. Actress Kristen Johnston wiped away tears and at one point ran off stage, covering her face with her hands.

“This is a moment in history,” declared John Lithgow, who stars as Dick Solomon, high commander of four space aliens on a mission to study Earth, as he wandered into the adoring crowd. “I hope you realize that.”

The filming of the episode-detailing how the aliens are summoned home after completing their mission-commenced with heightened emotion. Top NBC executives and producers who had formerly worked on the show looked on. Singer-songwriter Elvis Costello, a huge fan of the comedy, was there, having flown in from Ireland to do a cameo.

The final scene, which found the four aliens seated in their “spaceship,” a Rambler convertible, brought more sniffles-a similar moment had ended Episode 1 in January 1996. Co-star French Stewart became teary. After “Cut!” was yelled, the cast, along with Bonnie and Terry Turner, the show’s creators, and other executive producers, gathered together and launched into an impromptu rendition of the song from the final scene, reaching a crescendo with, “Back to the heavens in our mighty spaceship!”

With that note, “3rd Rock From the Sun” came to the end of its season-and quite possibly the end of its run. After being bounced around the NBC schedule like the wildly caroming planets seen in between segments each week on the show-landing in 18 time slots during the course of six seasons-the season finale is designed to give the show a final send-off if there is no next year. Many of the producers and cast members have already moved on or agreed to other projects, and the tearful farewells at the January taping are just another indication of the dominant sentiment, that the series will not be back.

However, NBC, the cast and producers are currently caught between a “3rd Rock” and a hard place.

Although the network obviously feels the marginally popular series has run its course to the point that they allowed the producers to create a “final episode,” it still has not officially ended the show’s prime-time run. “3rd Rock From the Sun” could be revived for another season.

NBC Entertainment President Jeff Zucker said recently, “We are still committed to ‘3rd Rock’ and have not made a decision about its future. And we will not make a final decision until May when we see what our development is like.” Which means, if the new situation comedies NBC has in the works fall short, ‘3rd Rock’ could be back.

“Yes, we’re in a state of limbo,” said Bonnie Turner. “The network indicated to us a while ago that our chances of coming back are slim, so as a courtesy, they gave us the opportunity to write a series finale. But the odds are we will come back if their development doesn’t pan out. We’ll be just like the old warhorse we’ve always been. We’ll just write our way out of the finale.”

In the meantime, many of those associated with the show are left with a bittersweet weightlessness. Some contend that NBC’s uncertainty about the show’s future is symbolic of the network’s treatment of “3rd Rock” throughout its run. Now they are caught in the “Did we say farewell or just goodbye?” game.

“It’s rather melancholy,” said Lithgow a few days before the taping. “We’re really not allowed to feel anything, except for little spasms of grief.”

Lithgow and others associated with the comedy said “3rd Rock’s” mix of slapstick, farce and over-the-top acting, coupled with its literally out-of-this world premise, has never been an easy fit with NBC’s core urban-based comedies and dramas revolving around photogenic yuppies. And the network’s continual shifting of the show’s time period wore down the fan base and weakened the comedy’s long-term potential.

“Putting us in this position now at the end is very frustrating, and typical of NBC to be this disrespectful to us,” said Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who played teenager Tommy Solomon, the youngest of the aliens. “Ever since the second season, it just seemed that they didn’t care about us. I’m ready to move on.”

“They have mishandled it badly,” said Lithgow, winner of three Emmys for outstanding actor in a comedy series for his role as Solomon, who has assumed the body and identity of a college physics professor to hide his true mission. “From the beginning, I don’t think NBC knew what to do with us. We are an eccentric, one-of-a-kind show.”

Johnston, who won two Emmys as outstanding actress in a comedy series for her portrayal of sexy alien Sally Solomon, said, “This has been an extraordinary but bumpy ride. We’ve all become like war buddies. The first year was the only time we felt like we were treated like we were a success. All of us worked on the show as hard as we worked on not being bitter.”

Still, none of the major cast members feels that “3rd Rock” has suffered in quality. And they all have established at least a creative distance from the series, saying they believe it is time for the era to end.

Jane Curtin, who co-stars as Mary Albright, the object of Dick Solomon’s affection, said: “This is a logical time for it to end. This is absolutely the best case scenario.”

Don’t tell that to Bonnie Turner: “We’re just so completely proud of this show, and I just can’t imagine not seeing Dick Solomon again, never seeing him at his desk, looking insanely around the room. I get so sad. I would be so happy if we came back. I would much rather be faced with the insane possibility of having to write ourselves out of the corner we’ve created.”

Whether “3rd Rock” returns next fall, it has not been a season to remember, at least where ratings are concerned.

The comedy is ranked 89th out of 148 series on network television and is the lowest-rated current NBC series, with the exception of the floundering XFL football league. “3rd Rock” has been off the air since Feb. 28 while NBC gives a tryout to a new Brian Dennehy sitcom, “The Fighting Fitzgeralds,” which has performed moderately better. “3rd Rock” is scheduled to return April 17 at 8:30 p.m.

The show’s journey has been rocky from the beginning. The series was originally targeted for ABC for the 1995 fall season.

But the network lost the comedy to NBC because of a prior time-slot commitment ABC had made to a comedy called “Champs.”

“Champs” didn’t last long, while “3rd Rock” was an instant smash when it debuted in 1996 as a midseason replacement. Both Don Ohlmeyer and Warren Littlefield-who were heads of NBC West Coast and entertainment, respectively-embraced the far-out humor, calling it a perfect fit.

That heyday was remembered in January as preparations for the “final” episode were made. Old scripts were brought out and placed on the set for the cast to sign. Johnston laughed loudly when she spied an old cast poster that featured her in a seductively tight outfit and an equally seductive smile.

“Hey, nothing like the cheese shot from season one!” she bellowed.

Seeing the show more as a weapon than a franchise, the network soon began shifting “3rd Rock” around to battle with other comedies, such as Fox’s animation hit “The Simpsons.”

“We were hot and strong, and NBC just used us to try and kill off other shows,” said Terry Turner.

Instead, the strategy eventually did in the comedy, severely damaging its long-term prospects, said Tom Werner, one of the founders of Carsey-Werner-Mandabach, which developed and produces the comedy: “In the history of network television, this show will be pointed to as a classic case of moving around a series more than it could bear.”

The low point for Terry Turner came in 1997, when “3rd Rock” was shifted to 9 p.m. Wednesdays surrounded by three new comedies: “The Tony Danza Show,” ’Built to Last” and “Working.” All three had short life spans.

“I remembered we all gathered together and said, ‘You know what? From now on, we’re doing the show for ourselves-and for the fans who can find us.’ From that point, that’s all we’ve done the show for-for us.”

Added Bonnie Turner: “As far as I’m concerned, this show became the most expensive home movie ever made. From then on, it didn’t matter where the network put us. We became the nomads of TV. Wherever we pitched our tent, there we were. And other new shows that came on, they would get time slots like getting flanked by ‘Frasier.’ We were never flanked by ‘Frasier.”’

“They just seemed to stop caring about us,” said Johnston.

The week before the “final” taping, cast members were alternately nostalgic and somber as they talked about the roller coaster of the last six seasons.

Stewart, who has already agreed to star in a comedy pilot for CBS, said, “I’m actually rather shocked that we got this far. The longer you do TV, the longer you realize how hard it is to stay on TV. To have a run of six years is just incredible. But there are other things I want to do.”

Lithgow reflected on the artistic challenge of taking on the larger-than-life innocence and silliness of Solomon after a career distinguished by Shakespearean roles, Tony-winning performances and Oscar nominations.

He views “3rd Rock” as one of the acts in his personal play-he spent most of the 1970s on Broadway, most of the 1980s as a character actor in films, and much of the 1990s doing “3rd Rock.” ’I like to surprise people, just when they think they have me figured out,” says Lithgow, who hopes to star next year in a musical version of “Sweet Smell of Success.”

Johnston is moving back to New York and hopes to concentrate on the theater: “I’m hoping not to get typecast.”

Despite the aspirations of the cast, Bonnie and Terry Turner are already contemplating how the series might deal with a return.

Quipped Terry Turner: “We’ll just have John step out of the shower and say, “I just had the most terrible dream .... “