Podcast: TV or GTFO Episode 12, “Out Of This World”

By Sachin Hingoo

A show about teenager with near-infinite power, who can bend the very fabric of space and time. A show about the shocking revelation that our main character is half-alien, and her father is millions of miles away from Earth, communicating only through a mysterious glowing cube. A surefire hit? No, it’s Out Of This World, a late 1980s sitcom that more than one outlet has called the worst sitcom ever!

In this episode of the TV or GTFO podcast, Sachin and Gary take a look a the series premiere and the series finale of Out Of This World, and are surprised to find that this thing has noted shark-jumper and Donald Trump toadie, Scott Baio’s grubby paws all over it. Does that perhaps explain why Out of This World starts out being kind of racist, but goes full-on offensive by the finale? Does it explain why Burt Reynolds, who plays the cube, wasn’t credited for his work here, and who never showed his face on the series?

Join us as we watch teenaged alien Evie use her godlike powers to… make her bed? Ponder whether this is an elaborate scheme for so-called alien Troy to skip out on child support for 18 years, and if this “other planet” is a town in Colorado where he keeps his real family! Ask yourself why this show feels the need to dunk so hard on the Japanese and Hispanics! Do Evie and her mom live in a house more suited to a drug dealer in Grand Theft Auto than a two-person family in the “small town” they claim to inhabit? Why are the credits for the premiere just b-roll of grass and mountains? Is it possible to have a cliffhanger of a finale that’s worse than Cop Rock?

In all the series we’ve watched so far, never has one done so little with so much. Out Of This World features aliens; the immeasurable talents of Burt Reynolds; numerous supernatural phenomena like stopping time, levitation, and the ability to conjure nearly anything; and uses them to service terrible (and often racist) jokes and half-formed plots. So after all this, we have only one question: would you like to swing on a star?

Don’t forget to like and subscribe to TV or GTFO in iTunes, on your favorite podcast app, or check out the episode right here!