3rd Rock from the Sun

I was flipping through channels the other day when I saw a show that I had not seen in years- 3rd Rock from the Sun. 3rd Rock from the Sun took the premise of a sitcom and made it completely new with an unusual twist- the four main characters were aliens who came to the planet and adapted their physical forms into humans to learn of the culture here on Earth. With a stellar cast of John Lithgow, Kristen Johnson, French Stewart and Joseph-Gordon Levitt, the show was a phenomenal comedy, as these four characters gained not only the human bodies but human emotions, physical needs and other human qualities but without the knowledge of limits and how to deal with such emotions and needs. John Lithgow was the High Commander of the expedition, so he became the patriarch "Dick Solomon" and took a job as a college professor, which was especially funny to watch because he had no control over his emotions and was the most vain character on the show. The military officer (Kristen Johnson) posed as Sally, Dick's sister- she was especially funny as she was in the form of a beautiful woman but was very masculine. The information expert and oldest alien (Joseph-Gordon Levitt) took the place as a teenager and it was comical to hear an old man's complaints coming from a high schooler. French Stewart played the communications officer who was a very odd individual. The comedy came from the family discovering new human qualities and emotions and through interactions with the humans. In regards to my television, minorities and cultural diversity class, there was an episode where they realized that humans had different ethnicities and decided to choose one (despite the fact that they were already posing as a white family)- they ended up choosing to be Jewish because of their assumed last name of Solomon. Though I can't find this particular episode, I found a few full episodes off of tvland.com (which is sad as this show ran from 1996-2001). I suggest watching the "Just Your Average Dick" episode where the Solomons try to become the average American family and become exceedingly dull and, as they discover, less human. This episode shows how the majority is not the end all, be all. So if you haven't ever seen this incredible comedy, I suggest you check out a few of the episodes which you can find here:
http://www.tvland.com/prime/fullepisodes/thirdrockfromthesun/