Dave Davies

I mean, when you returned to the States, your sister was annoyed that you had come back with a British accent.

You wrote, I emanated Englishness like a cheap cologne.

It is a good one.

I have to talk about Third Rock from the Sun.

This was the sitcom you were in for what?

Six years, right?

96 to 2001.

And I thought we'd just start with a clip.

You and three others play a group of aliens who've landed on Earth on some kind of observational mission.

You look like normal people.

But here's the opening scene of episode one when the four of you are in a car and you've just landed on Earth.

And you're in this parked car and you're examining yourselves in your new human form, kind of getting used to your new bodies.

And next to you is another car with a couple making out.

And we'll hear that you and your fellow aliens notice the couple and make some inaccurate guesses about what they're up to.

Let's listen.

And that is our guest, John Lithgow, along with Kirsten Johnston, French Stewart, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt from the opening episode of Third Rock from the Sun.

Fun to hear?

Yeah, and the show was actually taped Tuesday nights, right, in front of a live audience, right?

Yeah.

And I've heard you say that one of the great things about theater is that you're telling the story at the same instant the audience is experiencing it, which is so different from shooting a movie or a TV show that's, you know, edited.