The Martians Are Coming

The Martians are Coming is the one hundred and eighty-fifth episode of the first season of Dennis the Menace.

Plot
Dennis, PeeBee, Joey, Tommy, and Ruff are at a radio station, accompanied by PeeBee's uncle Frank. Dennis sees the recording station like a spaceship. Frank explains the rules of the station; no making a mess, which Dennis unintentionally does and explains he brought sound effects for the alien play he and his friends and dog were going to perform.

Frank informs the second rule; don't make noise. The third rule; Don't touch a lever. Joey thinks the lever will fire a missile, but Franks says it'll put them on the air, in other words, broadcasting on the radio. Dennis explains that their show will be about little green martians that take over the town.

Unbeknownst to anyone, some aliens are on their way to Planet Earth. One alien fails to turn the ship the other way, so the commanding alien does it for him. Back on Earth, Tommy locks the door, and the boys practice their alien story. Joey is nervous, but Dennis shows faith in him. The boys try again, but as it turns out, Joey is reading a Super Cat comic book. Dennis takes the book away from him.

Ruff puts on a record, music plays on the radio, and Joey says the host is Mitch Dennis. Ruff starts making sound effects over the microphone; blowing to sound like applause, and pretending to play a muted trumpet. Once Ruff pushes the lever, Dennis, under the guise Mitch Dennis, tells listeners everywhere to sit back and relax.

At the Wilson place, Martha, who is dusting, notices that Mitch Dennis sounds like Dennis. George laughs at this remark. At the barbershop, the barber calmly cuts a customer's hair while listening to the music. At the Wade place, Margaret, wearing a tutu, is dancing to the music. Back at the radio station, Ruff plays a xylophone while Joey stops the record.

Tommy starts reading the radio story. As soon as he says spaceships are all over the town, Margaret loses her balance and falls over. Tommy mentions that the aliens are from Mars, preparing to invade the town. After hearing this, George unintentionally tears up the newspaper.

Ruff presses a button, and Dennis says the engines of the spaceships have started a fire. Ruff then takes out aluminum foil and rattles it to simulate the sound of crackling fire. Dennis and Tommy pretend to run and says everyone is running away from the Martians. Ruff plays a record and plays coconut shells to simulate screaming and heavy footsteps.

George, hearing this, runs around in circles, fearing alien attacks. Ruff plays the blowhorn to simulate fire trucks, and sprays fire extinguisher over the boys to simulate firemen putting out fires. Ruff put a pencil in an electric pencil sharpener to simulate lasers zapping Fido. Meanwhile, the aliens have made it to Earth and land sloppily. The alien in charge demotes the incompetent alien.

The story continues, and Dennis says heaps of aliens are pouring out of the spaceship. George starts boarding up his windows to stop aliens from getting in. Once his cat meows, he runs through the boarded up door and out of the house. The barber starts to fearfully cut his customer's hair, a plumber breaks a water pipe, Frank gets numerous phone calls about aliens, and soon realizes that Dennis was responsible.

Once everyone rushes into the radio station, Franks orders Dennis to stop broadcasting, only to find out Dennis had finished his story. Meanwhile, where the aliens had landed, they all prepare to surprise the Earthlings. When a mob of scared people come by, they unintentionally give the aliens a fright, prompting them to retreat. When George comes across one of the aliens, they both scream and retreat. The aliens go back into their ship and leave Earth.

Meanwhile, Dennis, PeeBee, Tommy, Ruff, and Joey make their way home when they bump into George, who says Martians had invaded Earth and they they beat them. Dennis, oblivious to an actual alien invasion, believes George is making up the story.

Trivia

 * The music played on the radio before Dennis' alien story is The Littles theme song.