Officer Donald Leslie "Don" Orville is a fictional character in the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

3rd Rock from the Sun ''3rd Rock from the Sun'' is an American television sitcom created by Bonnie and Terry Turner, which originally aired from January 9, 1996, to May 22, 2001, on NBC. The show is about four Extraterrestrial life, extraterrestrials who are on an e ...

''. He is portrayed by

Wayne Knight Wayne Elliot Knight (born August 7, 1955) is an American actor. In television, he played Newman on '' Seinfeld'' (1992–1998) and Officer Don Orville on '' 3rd Rock from the Sun'' (1996–2001). He also voiced Igor on ''Toonsylvania'' (199 ...

and works as a Police Sergeant in the fictional town of Rutherford,

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, though he is consistently referred to as "Officer" throughout the series.

Work

Although Don works as a police officer and later sergeant throughout the series, he is often shown to be somewhat incompetent. In ''The Physics of Being Dick,'' he lets Dick interrogate a criminal with him, despite it being highly illegal. When he is paged, he also never appears to know what any of the crime codes actually mean. Don is known to make a blunder of things, for example, in ''Stuck With Dick,'' when he thinks Mary's house has been broken into, he attempts to burst in through the front door and ends up shouting "Ass right there, freeze hole!" In ''Dick's Big Giant Headache, Part II'', he also claims to be always losing things, adding "I even lost a whole dead guy once”. As the final season draws to a close, Sally discovers him hiding in a frozen food's freezer during the robbery of a local store, in which he admits that he is a coward who only joined the police force because he thought he'd be safe around all the other officers. He subsequently retires from the Rutherford Police Department to open a muffin shop before being convinced by Sally to re-enlist. Eventually, Don is rehired at the rank of Police Officer.

Relationship

Throughout the series, he maintains an on-off relationship with

Sally Solomon Sally Solomon (played by Kristen Johnston) is a fictional character from the television sitcom ''3rd Rock from the Sun''. Role as female Prior to arriving on Earth, the Solomons had some sort of contest or a bet to determine who would be male or ...

, a coupling which sees her in the dominant position, able to persuade him to do anything she wants. As an ongoing gag on the show, one of the pair is always able to tell when the other has entered the room. Another running gag for the pair is that the conversations held between them are somewhat dramatic, and reminiscent of an old film noir 1930s

crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

. In the Alternate Universe, Don is still dating Sally, but he is the philandering Mayor of New York City. He also admits to being married, which causes Sally to break up with him again because she cannot take the guilt.

Musical Talent

Officer Don has a hidden musical talent in the form of being a first-class singer, of wide vocal range and style. This first became evident when he and Sally went out for a night of

Karaoke Karaoke (; ; , clipped compound of Japanese ''kara'' "empty" and ''ōkesutora'' "orchestra") is a type of interactive entertainment usually offered in clubs and bars, where people sing along to recorded music using a microphone. The music is ...

. He was mobbed by admirers at his entrance to the venue, and his stellar performance quickly explained why. On returning to the house, Sally confided that Don was a "Karaoke god!" to her delight and surprise.

Trivia

Don's name is based on "Officer Don" and "Orville the Green Dragon", who were characters on the local Atlanta NBC affiliate from the 1950s through the 1970s. The creators of the show named Don as a tribute to WSB-TV's "The Popeye Club", an afternoon kiddie show that was hosted by "Officer Don" and played by announcer

Don Kennedy Donald J. Kennedy (born March 2, 1930) is an American radio and television personality and voice talent, whose career began in the late 1940s with a radio announcer spot on Pennsylvania station WPIC. In the mid-1950s, Kennedy was a contributo ...

. "Orville" was a dragon puppet.

Notes

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Orville, Don 3rd Rock from the Sun characters Fictional characters from Ohio Fictional American police officers Fictional police sergeants Television characters introduced in 1996 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Kennedy