RUTHERFORD, OHIO

'Rutherford' is a fictional college town, located in the U.S. state of Ohio, that serves as the principal setting of the American sitcom ''3rd Rock from the Sun''. The series is somewhat vauge and/or inconsistent as to the specifics of the place and it is unclear whether Rutherford should be considered a town, a city or a suburb.

Contents

Location

Depiction of Rutherford

Pendelton State University

Departments

Physics Department

Anthropology Department

Women's Studies

Biology

Theology

Unknown department

Other

Deans

Miscellaneous

Location

Cleveland is often alluded to be the nearest big city to Rutherford. According to "Brains and Eggs", Cleveland is fifty-two miles from Rutherford. However, a map in "Dick's Ark" and "You Don't Know Dick" shows Rutherford to be in the center of the state and therefore roughly twice that distance away. In a montage sequence from "36! 24! 36! Dick!: Part 2" that showed a line being drawn across a map to indicate travel in the typical fashion, the starting point places Rutherford in roughly the same place as Cleveland. In real life, the show was filmed at the CBS Studio Center in Studio City, Los Angeles, California.
Rutherford is supposed to be Kent, Ohio; with Pendelton being Kent State University. The real-life University of the shows creators.

Depiction of Rutherford

It seems to be the intention of the show's producers to portray Rutherford as a perennially average suburban area of Middle America. Whether a town or a minor city, Rutherford is usually alluded to be a fairly remote place with the decidedly mediocre Pendelton State University being the only aspect of it to be of any interest to outsiders.
All of Rutherford directly shown seems to be small-town suburbia, although "Dick's Ark" and "You Don't Know Dick" showed a city backdrop behind the desk used on the news. There are no wideshots of Rutherford shown in the series and most scenes take place either indoors or in a close-in exterior.
According to "Dickmalion", North Rutherford represents the more upper class area of town in contrast to the neighborhood where the Solomons live, which seems to be trashy, uncared-for and lower middle class. In "Dickmalion", it is mentioned that there is a railroad line near the Solomons' home as well as a liquor store.

Pendelton State University

Pendelton State University is a college located in Rutherford, Ohio. An alien being in the guise of Dick Solomon (John Lithgow) takes on the role of physics professor at Pendelton, where he shares an office with his love, Dr. Mary Albright of the Anthropology department.
The school was named after Admiral Pendelton, whose statue stands outside of Huff Hall. In the episode "Feelin' Albright," Dick tried to get Mary to raise money to restore the statue, which had fallen into disrepair.
The show repeatedly emphasized the bad state of the school and it is implied that most, if not all, of the faculty and student body are only there because they couldn't make it elsewhere. In fact, in the episode "Fourth and Dick" Leon, when asked why the students didn't go to another school, replies "because we choked on our SATs."
In the premiere episode, Dick described it as a "third-rate university" and it has since been called "mediocre" on a fairly regular basis. In "The Tooth Harry" it was mentioned that the campus was built on a reclaimed uranium mine and dialogue in that episode implies the materials available at the school are hopelessly outdated, that a large number of students to attend the school have committed suicide and that the school is still "a little radioactive." Later, it is mentioned that the dorms were built by Habitat for Humanity.
The library is notoriously inadequate. In "Stuck with Dick," it is revealed that the elevator turns off when the library closes and that the library is not open on the weekend. This strands anyone present in the library at that time for the whole weekend, since the stairway is blocked. In "Dick Strikes Out," Mary stated that the emergency exit has nailed shut for two years.
The school's football team, the Badgers, regularly lose to the Mustangs of the real-life University of Western Ontario.

Departments

Physics Department

★ Dick Solomon (John Lithgow)

★ Vincent Strudwick (Ron West)

Anthropology Department

★ Mary Albright (Jane Curtin)

Women's Studies

★ Judith Draper (Ileen Getz)

Biology

★ Liam Neesam (John Cleese)

Theology

★ Father Rice (Bruce Morrow) - Morrow died in 1997, after which his character ceased to appear on the show without explanation

Unknown department

★ Leonard Hamlin (John Mahoney) - died in season one

★ Suter (Harry Morgan) - as of "Selfish Dick," he was still on the payroll despite having not taught a class in four years (at the end of the episode, it was stated that he was forced to retire, but he continued to appear on the show in the second season and he was mentioned as a member of the faculty in the fifth-season episode "Dick Strikes Out")

Other

Deans

★ Sumner (William Bogert) - Dean of Arts and Sciences, seasons one to three (his wife, only identified as Mrs. Sumner, was played by Jennifer Rhodes)

★ Mary Albright (Curtin) - Dean of Arts and Sciences, six months in season four

Miscellaneous

★ Stevens (Nicolas Coster) - Chancellor in season four

★ Duncan (Lane Davies) - Chancellor in season five

★ Dewey (Philip Baker Hall) - University President in "Proud Dick"

★ Nina Campbell (Simbi Khali) - Secretary to Dick and Mary

★ Lucy (Marianne Muellerleile) - Cafeteria cashier, later secretary to Mary when she became Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences. Dick's archenemy.