The Martian Way

The Martian Way was an American situation comedy that lasted six seasons between 1969 and 1976 on NBC. It has continued to be very popular in syndication, so much so three re-union specials were produced as well as an animated version of the series. Periodic efforts to revive or remake the series continue.

Premise

Simply, The Martian Way presumed that the planet Mars was overpopulated and fairly barren, so some families have colonized Earth in secret. They struggle to keep their identities a secret.

The series focused upon the Warman family, who live in a fictional suburb of New Amsterdam. In fact the Warmans are all Martians, although they claim to be from Louisianne. That fact, and their obscure church (Reform New Orleans-Rite Retro-Orthodox Scientist), is the catch-all excuse they use to explain their rather odd behavior when noticed by their friends and neighbors. Regulars were:

• Darren Warman is the father of the family, who works in New Amsterdam's sewers. He is a nice man, essentially an optimist, one willing to try new things. This sometimes gets into trouble because--despite what he himself believes--his understanding of human society is not quite to the level one would hope.
• Lilly Warman is his wife, a part-time school teacher of elementary mathematics. She is a shrewd but kindly lady who has become used to cleaning up after her husband's semi-disasters.
• Serena Warman is their teenage daughter, the best-adapted of them all to life on Earth. She is studying literature and art history, hoping to become an artist after attending college. To her parents' chagrin, she is not so very concerned with the "old ways" and harbors little nostalgia for the Red Planet.
• Calvin Warman is Lilly and Darren's son, nine years old when the series premiered. He is a brat, but a brat with a heart of gold who grew up to be rather idealistic.

Other Characters

The Warmans of course interracted with others all the time. These included:

• Mrs. Figgins a nosey neighbor who tended to believe the Warmans were actually SNOR spies.
• Arnold Figgins was her husband, a co-worker of Darren's and his best friend. The two of them often managed to get into trouble together.
• Bree Stevens was Serena's best friend, to whom she eventually revealed the truth.