When Sally, Harry, and Tommy narrowly miss being crushed by a chandelier at a restaurant, their near-passing experience fills them with a new reverence for life - and fills Dick with jealousy that he wasn't able to share this deep experience. The newly enlightened trio volunteers at a soup kitchen for the homeless, and Dick signs up for a wilderness hiking trip with Mary, hoping like the dickens that he'll lose his footing and find serenity via a near-passing experience of his own. While Dick is trying desperately to have his own near-miss with passing, the others learn that their new appreciation for every leaf, every bird, and every fellow man is fading rapidly with the passage of every hour. Sally, Tommy, and Harry have just about returned to being their blasé, uncaring selves just as Dick joins them on the roof, bursting with news about how he's just managed to escape passing's clutches in a car accident. Now Dick's found a new love for life, but he's still the odd man out.
3RD ROCK FROM THE SUN is an inspired half-hour comedy series farcically dealing with the human condition set in the fictional city of Rutherford, Ohio. This gentle-hearted series stars John Lithgow as the High Commander of an investigative team sent to Earth on a mission to learn everything about humans and their so-called advanced civilization. Described by its producers as 'Carl Sagan meets the Marx Brothers', 3rd Rock has a clever, distinct point of view seen through the extraterrestrial team who has no other worldly powers except absolute truthfulness.