Dick Solomon
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Kristen Johnston (body switched with Sally in "Two-Faced Dick")
| Dick Solomon | |
|---|---|
 Promotional shoot of John Lithgow as Dr. Dick Solomon | |
| First appearance | "Brains and Eggs" |
| Last appearance | "The Thing That Wouldn't Die: Part 2" |
| Created by | Bonnie and Terry Turner |
| Portrayed by | John Lithgow Kristen Johnston (body switched with Sally in "Two-Faced Dick") |
| In-universe information | |
| Species | Extraterrestrial |
| Gender | Male (in human form) |
| Title | "The High Commander" |
| Occupation | High Commander (alien rank) Physics professor (human occupation) Lawyer (alternative universe in "Dick'll Take Manhattan") |
| Family | The Big Giant Head (father) |
| Significant other | Mary Albright Janet Solomon (ex-wife) Renata Albright (ex-wife) |
Dr. Dick Solomon is a character played by John Lithgow in the late-1990s NBC sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun. Solomon is the High Commander of a highly trained alien unit, sent to Earth by their leader, The Big Giant Head. His crew is made up of Sally Solomon (played by Kristen Johnston), Harry Solomon (played by French Stewart), and Tommy Solomon (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt). In the first episode, "Brains and Eggs", Dick states that he has made a home of a "third rate planet, has a job at a third rate university, and now we are looking at a third floor apartment."[1]
When Mary was growing up, Dick worked as a color spectrum particle separator at the Assemblage Dome.[2]
Dick works at Pendelton State University as a professor of physics, and shares an office with Anthropology professor Mary Albright (played by Jane Curtin). In the first episode the office is green with various pictures and certificates adorning the wall; after this, however, the office is antique white with tribal masks featured, presumably from Albright's anthropological studies (later it is found that she simply "bought them at airports").[3] Dick often uses his class, oddly enough the same throughout all six seasons, to gain a better understanding of humanity by assigning arbitrary essays on which their grade depends. (John's real life son, Ian Lithgow plays the shy, and often ridiculed, Leon, one of Dick's students.) Dick never has the idea that they're actually learning something, but when he finally gets through to them "his father" came in, dismissing the class because he needed to talk to Dick.[4]