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ALF (TV series)
Encyclopedia
ALF is an American science fiction
sitcom that originally aired on NBC
from 1986
to 1990
, created by Paul Fusco
. The title character was Gordon Shumway, a friendly extraterrestrial nicknamed ALF (an acronym for Alien Life Form), who crash lands in the garage of the suburban middle-class Tanner family.
The series starred Max Wright
as father Willie Tanner, Anne Schedeen
as mother Kate Tanner, and Andrea Elson
and Benji Gregory
as their children, Lynn and Brian Tanner. The character of ALF was portrayed by a live-hand puppet operated primarily by Paul Fusco.
) follows an amateur radio
signal to Earth and crash-lands into the garage of the Tanners. The Tanners are a suburban middle class family in the San Fernando Valley (Los Angeles, CA) area. The family consists of social worker Willie (Max Wright
), his wife Kate (Anne Schedeen
), their teenage daughter Lynn (Andrea Elson
), younger son Brian (Benji Gregory
), and their cat Lucky.
Unsure what to do, the Tanners take ALF into their home and hide him from the Alien Task Force (a part of the U.S. military) and their nosy neighbors Trevor and Raquel Ochmonek (John LaMotta
and Liz Sheridan
), until he can repair his spacecraft. He generally hides in the kitchen. It is eventually revealed that ALF's home planet Melmac
exploded because of a catastrophe involving nuclear war. In Episode Four of Season One, ALF tries to convince the President of the United States
to stop the nuclear program
, as ALF fears that Earth might suffer a fate similar to Melmac's, though miscalculating his words causes the President and National Security
to call the FBI to arrest the Tanners. ALF was off the planet when it was destroyed because he was part of the Melmac Orbit Guard. ALF (a.k.a. Gordon Shumway) is homeless, but he is not the last survivor of his species. He becomes a permanent member of the family, although his culture shock
, survivor guilt
, general boredom, despair, and loneliness frequently cause difficulty for the Tanners. Despite the problems and inconveniences his presence brings into their lives, they grow to love him, though some episodes make it clear they're also afraid of how their lives would be turned upside down if word that he's been living with them gets out.
While most of the science fiction
of ALF was played for comedic value, there were a few references to actual topics in space exploration; for example, ALF uses a radio signal as a beacon in the pilot episode. In the episode "Weird Science", ALF told Brian, who was building a model of the solar system for his science project, that there were two planets beyond Pluto called "Dave" and "Alvin", which gets Brian in trouble at school. However, after ALF makes a call to an astronomical organization and states that "Dave" is known by the organization, Willie comes to believe that "Dave" could have been the planetoid Chiron
, or "Object Kowal", after its discoverer. ALF then shows Willie exactly where "Dave" is on an intergalactic Rand-McNally map of the universe. This occurred in the first season episode "Weird Science" and was one of the first instances of other worlds beyond Earth, and Melmac being given any focus verbally or physically.
The original series spans four seasons and 102 episodes (each episode's name is also the name of a song relevant to the episode's plot), in which ALF learns about Earth culture and makes new friends both within and outside of the Tanner family, including Willie's brother Neal (Jim J. Bullock), Kate's mother Dorothy (Anne Meara
) (with whom ALF has a love-hate relationship — he refers to her as the Wicked Witch of the West
or the Witch of Endor
, and she in turn threatens to either make ALF a rug or chauffeur him to an Army base), her boyfriend (later husband) Whizzer (Paul Dooley
), the Ochmoneks' nephew Jake (Josh Blake
), a psychologist
named Larry (Bill Daily
), and a blind woman named Jody (Andrea Covell) (who never quite figures out that ALF is not human, though she is aware through touch that he is short and very hairy). Changes occur within the Tanner household over the course of the series, including the birth of a new child, Eric (the reason for adding a baby in the series being that Anne Schedeen
was pregnant at the time); ALF's move from his initial quarters in the laundry room to the attic, which he and Willie converted into an "apartment", and the death of Lucky the cat; in this instance, ALF finds that despite his occasional attempts to catch Lucky with the intention of making the cat a meal, as cats are the equivalent of cattle on Melmac, he has come to love and respect the family pet too much to do anything untoward with Lucky's remains. When ALF acquires a new cat with the intent of eating it, he actually grows fond of it and allows it to be adopted by the family, although he admits to the Tanners he has become the worst kind of Melmackian, a "cat lover".
In the series finale, ALF is about to be rescued by other survivors of his home planet but is instead captured by the U.S. military, and the viewer is left to ponder ALF's ultimate fate. This was apparently not supposed to be the finale, as the original airing ended with the words "To Be Continued" on the screen. The producers supposedly had a verbal agreement with NBC to produce at least one more episode to resolve the cliffhanger. NBC never made good on the deal, and the series was canceled. However, the story was concluded in the TV movie Project ALF
.
. Melmac was located six parsec
s past the Hydra-Centaurus Supercluster
, and had a green sky, blue grass and a purple sun. The commonly-used currency is a "Wernick" (named after producer Sandy Wernick) which is equal to ten Earth dollars, and the substances Earthlings call lint, gravel
, and foam
are as precious on Melmac as gold
is on Earth (whereas gold and platinum are so common that they are used in place of porcelain to make toilets and sinks, as seen in the episode where ALF sells the gold and platinum plumbing in his ship to buy a Ferrari
for Lynn).
ALF's body is covered with a ginger/rust-colored fur (he once described his color as burnt sienna). He has a rippled snout, facial moles, eight stomachs, his heart is apparently located in his head, and he likes to burp, eat cats, can whistle without opening his mouth and had a best friend on his home planet named Malhar Naik. He has a friend named Skip and a girlfriend named Rhonda, both of whom also escaped the explosion. He attended high school
for 122 years and was captain of a Bouillabaisse
ball team (which is played on ice using shellfish
as a ball).
ALF has an enormous appetite (eating everything he can get his hands on); he is also troublesome, sarcastic, slovenly and cynical, and sometimes he puts himself at the risk of being discovered while perpetrating some of his often-unintentional pranks. However, if things have gone too far, he does as much as possible to make up for his mistakes, generally with positive results. In one episode, he tried to help Brian, too afraid to perform, to gain confidence during a school show by giving him a "lucky tooth" which ALF claimed helped him be a star of the stage on Melmac. In another occasion, he helped Dorothy deal with Sparky's death and move on and accept Whizzer's friendship. After neighbor Raquel Ochmonek claims to see ALF and is ridiculed on a television show, ALF calls in to the TV show to defend her.
He has at least 30 relatives: cousins "Pretty Boy" Shumway and Blinky; two uncles, Tinkle and Goome; a Grandma Shumway; a brother Curtis; parents Bob and Flo Shumway; and aunts Bubba, Wagner, and Eugene. In a commercial for the NFL that ran during Super Bowl XLV
on February 6, 2011, it was confirmed that ALF is a Carolina Panthers
fan (though the team didn't exist during the show's run).
Paul Fusco
operated the ALF puppet and supplied ALF's voice. Michu Meszaros
stood in for the ALF puppet when full-body shots were needed by wearing an ALF costume, although this idea was ditched in later seasons.
(Willie Tanner), Anne Schedeen
(Kate Tanner), Andrea Elson
(Lynn Tanner) and Ben Hertzberg, also known as Benji Gregory
(Brian Tanner) – have described a high level of tension on the set. Max Wright has stated that he despised supporting a technically demanding inanimate object that received most of the good lines of dialog. He admits to being "hugely eager to have ALF over with." Anne Schedeen has said that on the last night of taping, "there was one take and Max walked off the set, went to his dressing room, got his bags, went to his car and disappeared. [...] There were no goodbyes." Schedeen herself said "there was no joy on the set [...] it was a technical nightmare – extremely slow, hot and tedious. [...] A 30-minute show took 20, 25 hours to shoot." While fond of her on-screen children, Schedeen said some adults had "difficult personalities. The whole thing was a big dysfunctional family." Schedeen added, "It's astonishing that ALF really was wonderful and that word never got out what a mess our set really was." Elson, who suffered from bulimia during the second season of shooting, stated, "If ALF had gone one more year, everybody would have lost it." Wright would eventually reflect more kindly on ALF, saying in June 2006, "It doesn't matter what I felt or what the days were like, ALF brought people a lot of joy."
Fusco was secretive about his character up until the series premiere. During the show's production, Fusco refused to acknowledge that the puppet ALF was anything other than an alien. All involved with the production were cautioned not to give away any of ALF's secrets.
Cast interviews since the show ended have revealed a few details about making the series: To make room for the puppeteers, the entire set was built on a raised platform with dozens of trapdoor
s in the floor. The trapdoors had to be reset multiple times, sometimes during a single scene.
Fusco was the principal puppeteer. He used one hand to control ALF's mouth, leaving the other free to control one of the puppet's arms. A second puppeteer, Lisa Buckley, assisted Fusco beneath the stage, operating the other arm. Together with a third person, (Bob Fappiano), who controlled ALF's facial and ear movements via an RC
controller offstage, they worked in concert to make ALF's movements fluid and believable. During tapings, Paul would wear a head-mounted microphone which was used to record his voice for the ALF character. All of this made for a painstaking process and there were countless mistakes and retakes.
To avoid wear and tear on the principal ALF puppet, the performers rehearsed with a battered, early version of ALF that was nicknamed "Ralph". Often during rehearsals, Fusco would substitute his hand for the puppet.
In an interview on Late Night with Conan O'Brien
, Tina Fey
said that her biggest frustration as producer of NBC's 75th anniversary special was dealing with ALF's "people". Fey said Fusco would only allow ALF to appear on the show if the puppeteers were completely hidden from everyone else, even the studio audience. After his cameo (as an audience member), ALF disappeared through a hole in the riser, was stuffed into a case, and immediately hustled out of the building.
While a puppet was usually used for ALF, there were some shots of the tiny alien running or walking around. This was accomplished by actor Michu Meszaros
wearing an ALF costume. This can be seen in one of the series' intros, which concludes with the Tanner family getting their picture taken; ALF, played by Meszaros, walks over to be part of the photo.
Fusco also co-produced the series with Tom Patchett. Patchett also co-created, wrote, and directed the series. The series was produced by Alien Productions and was first syndicated by Warner Bros. Television
and Lorimar-Telepictures
. The North American syndication rights are currently owned by Debmar-Mercury
because its parent company, Lionsgate, now owns home video rights.
animated series was produced, airing Saturday mornings on NBC. ALF: The Animated Series
, set on ALF's home planet of Melmac, ran from 1987 to 1988, and was produced by DIC Entertainment
. This was a prequel series, set on Melmac before the planet exploded. The show focused on ALF, his family, his friends, and girlfriend Rhonda and their various exploits. Each episode was book-ended by a live-action sequence involving ALF talking to the television viewers, setting up the episode and commenting on it afterward.
When the cartoon entered its second season, it was paired in a one-hour block with its own spin-off ALF Tales, which took Gordon and the cast of characters from Season One, and recast them as characters from assorted classic fairy tale
s.
Select episodes of both shows are included as special features on the ALF: Season 2 DVD as well as the cartoon-specific releases ALF Animated Adventures – 20,000 Years in Driving School and Other Stories and ALF and The Beanstalk and Other Classic Fairy Tales.
was published by Marvel Comics
' Star Comics
imprint
beginning in 1987 and ran for four years, totaling 50 issues and nearly a dozen specials.
The comic loosely followed the continuity of the television show (though it featured alternate takes on certain episodes, like the birth of Eric Tanner) and featured numerous parodies of Marvel Comics characters and other pop-culture parodies in the form of "Melmac Flashbacks." It was the first instance to feature ALF's natural family in a reverse scenario where Willie Tanner is an astronaut
who crashes his spaceship into ALF's garage on Melmac, and the Shumway family works to protect Willie from hostile Melmackians.
named Project ALF
aired on ABC
. This movie picked up six years after the events of the TV series, with ALF in government custody, and focuses on a scientist and military police officer who breaks ALF out of government custody. It did not feature any of the Tanner family, but they were briefly referenced.
debuted on U.S. cable channel TV Land
, featuring ALF as a Johnny Carson
-type TV talk-show host and co-starring Ed McMahon
as his sidekick
. Guests included Drew Carey
, Tom Green
, and Merv Griffin
. It ran for seven episodes.
in 1987, NBC's Blossom
, UPN's The Love Boat: The Next Wave
, and the 1980s version of Hollywood Squares
, where he also memorably hosted part of one episode in March 1987. The animated version of ALF also made an appearance in the "all-star" animated drug-prevention television special Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue
in 1990. In the early 2000s, ALF appeared in a series of commercials for the 10-10-220
telephone service with former Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw
and wrestling legend Hulk Hogan
. ALF's last appearance to date was in November 2007, when he appeared as "TV Icon of the Week" on The O'Reilly Factor
.
The character has also been referenced in various media numerous times over the years, being a pop-culture icon. Notable appearances include The Simpsons
, the 2009 Eminem
music video "We Made You
", the 2010 film Hot Tub Time Machine
, and television series The Big Bang Theory.
series by Topps
. Most featured stills from various episodes, but a few cards parodied baseball cards by depicting players of the Melmacian sport "Bouillabaisseball," complete with stats such as "Splats." The yellow-bordered first series was released in 1987, with a red-bordered second series released in 1988.
During the time that the original TV series was popular, some ALF-related merchandise was sold, including a 1987 22-inch plush doll produced by Coleco
, and a 1988 calendar
with Melmac's planetary holidays, such as Shout at a Shrub Day, prominently marked.
created a song called Stuck on Earth with samples from one of the ALF shows. During 1988, Burger King
ran a promotion called "The Many Faces of ALF," giving away themed ALF puppets and a cardboard record with each kids meal. These records featured original recordings sung by ALF – titled Melmac Girls, Cookin' with ALF, Melmac Rock, and Take Me, ALF, to the Ballgame.
Tommi Piper, the actor who dubbed ALF's voice for German audiences, spent twelve weeks in the German pop charts in 1989. The single featured Amélie Sandmann (as the voice of Rhonda) and was called Hallo ALF Hier Ist Rhonda (translated Hello ALF, This Is Rhonda). He also featured as ALF on various themed mix albums introducing songs by pop artists of the time and other original compositions.
An ALF alarm clock is mentioned about 52 seconds into "Weird Al" Yankovic
's song "eBay
". There is no official video, but fans have assembled video montages which show a photograph of the actual alarm clock.
, IBM
, and Apple II
, 1989's ALF for the Sega Master System
, four educational games for IBM
and Apple II
computers were released in 1993 called ALF's U.S. Geography, ALF's Thinking Skills, ALF's World of Words, and Add & Subtract With ALF, and the printing program ALF's Party Kit.
has released all four seasons of ALF on DVD in Region 1. All releases contain edited episodes (syndicated versions), although "Try to Remember" from Season One, "ALF's Special Christmas" from Season Two and, "Make 'em Laugh" from Season Four were full length, although "Try to Remember" was the censored version used in reruns, and "Make 'em Laugh" had 7 seconds of dialogue at the beginning removed. Lions Gate insisted that they were forced to utilize the edited version, as it would be cost prohibitive to remaster the original broadcast versions for release when the edited versions were already available, leading to much criticism and poor sales. In addition, most music was removed from the episodes, shortening some episodes by up to six minutes.
Video Service Corp. previously released two other DVDs of ALF. The ALF Files was released exclusively in Canada on November 1, 2002. It contained three episodes, "Tonight, Tonight", "Try to Remember", and "ALF's Special Christmas", but unlike the season sets, these episodes were presented in their full-length, unedited versions. "Try to Remember", much like the Season One set, was the censored version where ALF's amnesia is caused by a cranial concussion rather than being electrocuted (the electrocution version received much parental criticism when it first aired on February 9, 1987).
On September 13, 2005 Project: Alf was released. Both DVDs featured optional commentary by creator Paul Fusco
, with co-creator Tom Patchett joining him on the first release.
format, with English-language menus. The language selections available are English, French, German and Spanish, with subtitles available in French, Dutch, Spanish, English and German.
The episodes span 4 discs and are unedited, unlike their American edited counterparts, with a few exceptions:
released the first and second seasons of ALF on DVD in Australia & New Zealand on April 7, 2010. Season 3 will be released on October 5, 2011.
(now Hallmark) from April 5, 1999 to August 2002 and on WGN America from October 5, 2008 to December 27, 2009 with two back-to-back episodes each Sunday at 6:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
In Latin America, the show can be seen on Nick@Nite Latin America
. In Spain this show airs in Boing every weekday at 11:30 pm. It's also shown daily in Australia, at 4:30 p.m on 7TWO
. In Germany, ALF is shown on Kabel 1
, in Serbia on THIRDROMETV, in Denmark on TV 2 Zulu
, in Ukraine on ICTV
, in Russia on TV3 Russia
, and in Bulgaria
, on bTV Comedy
, Diema
and Diema 2. ALF is even dubbed into Japanese with George Tokoro
dubbing ALF and airs as "アルフ" (Arufu) every Tuesday night at 7:25 p.m. on NHK
.Also in Slovakia dubbed into Slovak language aired on TVM and Czech rep. on TV NOVA.
and Andrea Elson
were also nominated in various Young Actor categories for their work on ALF at the Young Artist Awards during 1987–1989, with the show also receiving a nomination for Best Family Television Series.
dealing with Tourette syndrome
. Asked to comment, producer Steve Lamar stated that the footage was from a time when things were not so "ridiculously PC
".
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
sitcom that originally aired on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
from 1986
1986 in television
The year 1986 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1986.For the American network television schedule, please see 1986-87 American network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:*September 6 –...
to 1990
1990 in television
For the American TV schedule, see: 1990-91 United States network television schedule.The year 1990 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1990.-Events:-Debuts:-1950s:...
, created by Paul Fusco
Paul Fusco
Paul Fusco is an American puppeteer, voice-over artist and character actor who is best known as the voice, creator, and puppeteer of ALF...
. The title character was Gordon Shumway, a friendly extraterrestrial nicknamed ALF (an acronym for Alien Life Form), who crash lands in the garage of the suburban middle-class Tanner family.
The series starred Max Wright
Max Wright
George Edward Maxwell "Max" Wright is an American actor, best known for his role as Willie Tanner in the sitcom ALF.-Biography:Wright was born George Edward Maxwell Wright in Detroit, Michigan....
as father Willie Tanner, Anne Schedeen
Anne Schedeen
Luanne Ruth Schedeen , known professionally as Anne Schedeen, is an American actress, best known as Kate Tanner on ALF, which ran from 1986-1990....
as mother Kate Tanner, and Andrea Elson
Andrea Elson
Andrea Elson is an American actress. She is best known playing the role of Lynn Tanner on ALF. She had also previously played in the 1983 show Whiz Kids with Matthew Laborteaux where she played the character Alice Tyler.-Career:Her first television role was as Alice Tyler on the series Whiz Kids...
and Benji Gregory
Benji Gregory
Benji Gregory Benji Gregory Benji Gregory (born Benjamin Gregory Hertzberg on May 26, 1978 in Panorama City, California (IMDB reports that Mr Gregory-Hertzberg was born in Encino, California) is an American actor. He is best known for playing the role of Brian Tanner on ALF (1986)...
as their children, Lynn and Brian Tanner. The character of ALF was portrayed by a live-hand puppet operated primarily by Paul Fusco.
Premise
ALF (Paul FuscoPaul Fusco
Paul Fusco is an American puppeteer, voice-over artist and character actor who is best known as the voice, creator, and puppeteer of ALF...
) follows an amateur radio
Amateur radio
Amateur radio is the use of designated radio frequency spectrum for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication...
signal to Earth and crash-lands into the garage of the Tanners. The Tanners are a suburban middle class family in the San Fernando Valley (Los Angeles, CA) area. The family consists of social worker Willie (Max Wright
Max Wright
George Edward Maxwell "Max" Wright is an American actor, best known for his role as Willie Tanner in the sitcom ALF.-Biography:Wright was born George Edward Maxwell Wright in Detroit, Michigan....
), his wife Kate (Anne Schedeen
Anne Schedeen
Luanne Ruth Schedeen , known professionally as Anne Schedeen, is an American actress, best known as Kate Tanner on ALF, which ran from 1986-1990....
), their teenage daughter Lynn (Andrea Elson
Andrea Elson
Andrea Elson is an American actress. She is best known playing the role of Lynn Tanner on ALF. She had also previously played in the 1983 show Whiz Kids with Matthew Laborteaux where she played the character Alice Tyler.-Career:Her first television role was as Alice Tyler on the series Whiz Kids...
), younger son Brian (Benji Gregory
Benji Gregory
Benji Gregory Benji Gregory Benji Gregory (born Benjamin Gregory Hertzberg on May 26, 1978 in Panorama City, California (IMDB reports that Mr Gregory-Hertzberg was born in Encino, California) is an American actor. He is best known for playing the role of Brian Tanner on ALF (1986)...
), and their cat Lucky.
Unsure what to do, the Tanners take ALF into their home and hide him from the Alien Task Force (a part of the U.S. military) and their nosy neighbors Trevor and Raquel Ochmonek (John LaMotta
John LaMotta
John LaMotta is an American actor best known for his role Trevor Ochmonek in the sitcom ALF, a show which he later confessed to despise.-Biography:...
and Liz Sheridan
Liz Sheridan
Elizabeth "Liz" Sheridan is an American actress.-Background:Sheridan was born in New York City, the daughter of Elizabeth Poole-Jones, a concert singer, and Frank Sheridan, a classical pianist. Sheridan began her career as a dancer working in New York City in nightclubs and musicals. There, she...
), until he can repair his spacecraft. He generally hides in the kitchen. It is eventually revealed that ALF's home planet Melmac
Melmac (planet)
Melmac is a fictional planet in the television series ALF. The name is a joke reference to the Melmac brand of dinnerware made popular in the 1950s.Melmac was discovered 23,000 years ago when Harold Twink accidentally took the wrong exit for Neptune...
exploded because of a catastrophe involving nuclear war. In Episode Four of Season One, ALF tries to convince the President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
to stop the nuclear program
Nuclear disarmament
Nuclear disarmament refers to both the act of reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons and to the end state of a nuclear-free world, in which nuclear weapons are completely eliminated....
, as ALF fears that Earth might suffer a fate similar to Melmac's, though miscalculating his words causes the President and National Security
United States Secret Service
The United States Secret Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency that is part of the United States Department of Homeland Security. The sworn members are divided among the Special Agents and the Uniformed Division. Until March 1, 2003, the Service was part of the United States...
to call the FBI to arrest the Tanners. ALF was off the planet when it was destroyed because he was part of the Melmac Orbit Guard. ALF (a.k.a. Gordon Shumway) is homeless, but he is not the last survivor of his species. He becomes a permanent member of the family, although his culture shock
Culture shock
Culture shock is the anxiety, feelings of frustration, alienation and anger that may occur when a person is emplaced in a new culture.One of the most common causes of culture shock involves individuals in a foreign country. Culture shock can be described as consisting of one or more distinct phases...
, survivor guilt
Survivor guilt
Survivor, survivor's, or survivors guilt or syndrome is a mental condition that occurs when a person perceives themselves to have done wrong by surviving a traumatic event when others did not...
, general boredom, despair, and loneliness frequently cause difficulty for the Tanners. Despite the problems and inconveniences his presence brings into their lives, they grow to love him, though some episodes make it clear they're also afraid of how their lives would be turned upside down if word that he's been living with them gets out.
While most of the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
of ALF was played for comedic value, there were a few references to actual topics in space exploration; for example, ALF uses a radio signal as a beacon in the pilot episode. In the episode "Weird Science", ALF told Brian, who was building a model of the solar system for his science project, that there were two planets beyond Pluto called "Dave" and "Alvin", which gets Brian in trouble at school. However, after ALF makes a call to an astronomical organization and states that "Dave" is known by the organization, Willie comes to believe that "Dave" could have been the planetoid Chiron
2060 Chiron
2060 Chiron is a minor planet in the outer Solar System. Discovered in 1977 by Charles T. Kowal , it was the first-known member of a new class of objects now known as centaurs, with an orbit between Saturn and Uranus.Although it was initially classified as an asteroid, it was later found to...
, or "Object Kowal", after its discoverer. ALF then shows Willie exactly where "Dave" is on an intergalactic Rand-McNally map of the universe. This occurred in the first season episode "Weird Science" and was one of the first instances of other worlds beyond Earth, and Melmac being given any focus verbally or physically.
The original series spans four seasons and 102 episodes (each episode's name is also the name of a song relevant to the episode's plot), in which ALF learns about Earth culture and makes new friends both within and outside of the Tanner family, including Willie's brother Neal (Jim J. Bullock), Kate's mother Dorothy (Anne Meara
Anne Meara
Anne Meara is an American actress and comedian. She and Jerry Stiller were a prominent 1960s comedy team, appearing as Stiller and Meara, and are the parents of actor/comedian Ben and actress Amy Stiller.- Personal life :...
) (with whom ALF has a love-hate relationship — he refers to her as the Wicked Witch of the West
Wicked Witch of the West
The Wicked Witch of the West is a fictional character and the most significant antagonist in L. Frank Baum's children's book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...
or the Witch of Endor
Witch of Endor
The Witch of Endor, sometimes called the Medium of Endor, was a woman who called up the ghost of the recently deceased prophet Samuel, at the demand of King Saul of the Kingdom of Israel in the First Book of Samuel, chapter...
, and she in turn threatens to either make ALF a rug or chauffeur him to an Army base), her boyfriend (later husband) Whizzer (Paul Dooley
Paul Dooley
-Personal life:Dooley was born Paul Dooley Brown in Parkersburg, West Virginia, the son of Ruth Irene , a homemaker, and Peter James Brown, a factory worker. Dooley was a cartoonist as a youth and drew a strip for a local paper in Parkersburg. He joined the Navy before discovering acting while at...
), the Ochmoneks' nephew Jake (Josh Blake
Josh Blake
Josh Blake is an American actor best known for his role Jake Ochmonek, in the sitcom ALF.-Credits:*Tony Hawk's American Wasteland...
), a psychologist
Psychologist
Psychologist is a professional or academic title used by individuals who are either:* Clinical professionals who work with patients in a variety of therapeutic contexts .* Scientists conducting psychological research or teaching psychology in a college...
named Larry (Bill Daily
Bill Daily
Bill Daily is an American comedian and dramatic actor, and a veteran of many television sitcoms. He is best known for playing astronaut Roger Healey on I Dream of Jeannie and commercial airline navigator Howard Borden in The Bob Newhart Show.-Biography:Daily's father died when Bill was very...
), and a blind woman named Jody (Andrea Covell) (who never quite figures out that ALF is not human, though she is aware through touch that he is short and very hairy). Changes occur within the Tanner household over the course of the series, including the birth of a new child, Eric (the reason for adding a baby in the series being that Anne Schedeen
Anne Schedeen
Luanne Ruth Schedeen , known professionally as Anne Schedeen, is an American actress, best known as Kate Tanner on ALF, which ran from 1986-1990....
was pregnant at the time); ALF's move from his initial quarters in the laundry room to the attic, which he and Willie converted into an "apartment", and the death of Lucky the cat; in this instance, ALF finds that despite his occasional attempts to catch Lucky with the intention of making the cat a meal, as cats are the equivalent of cattle on Melmac, he has come to love and respect the family pet too much to do anything untoward with Lucky's remains. When ALF acquires a new cat with the intent of eating it, he actually grows fond of it and allows it to be adopted by the family, although he admits to the Tanners he has become the worst kind of Melmackian, a "cat lover".
In the series finale, ALF is about to be rescued by other survivors of his home planet but is instead captured by the U.S. military, and the viewer is left to ponder ALF's ultimate fate. This was apparently not supposed to be the finale, as the original airing ended with the words "To Be Continued" on the screen. The producers supposedly had a verbal agreement with NBC to produce at least one more episode to resolve the cliffhanger. NBC never made good on the deal, and the series was canceled. However, the story was concluded in the TV movie Project ALF
Project ALF
Project: ALF is a 1996 ABC TV movie directed by Dick Lowry. It is the sequel to the final episode, "Consider Me Gone" , of the ALF TV series...
.
ALF character
Gordon Shumway is an alien nicknamed ALF (an acronym for Alien Life Form) by William Tanner in the pilot episode. ALF was born on October 28, 1756, on the Lower East Side of the planet MelmacMelmac (planet)
Melmac is a fictional planet in the television series ALF. The name is a joke reference to the Melmac brand of dinnerware made popular in the 1950s.Melmac was discovered 23,000 years ago when Harold Twink accidentally took the wrong exit for Neptune...
. Melmac was located six parsec
Parsec
The parsec is a unit of length used in astronomy. It is about 3.26 light-years, or just under 31 trillion kilometres ....
s past the Hydra-Centaurus Supercluster
Hydra-Centaurus Supercluster
The Hydra-Centaurus Supercluster , or the Hydra and Centaurus superclusters, is a supercluster in two parts and the closest neighbour of Milky Way's Virgo Supercluster....
, and had a green sky, blue grass and a purple sun. The commonly-used currency is a "Wernick" (named after producer Sandy Wernick) which is equal to ten Earth dollars, and the substances Earthlings call lint, gravel
Gravel
Gravel is composed of unconsolidated rock fragments that have a general particle size range and include size classes from granule- to boulder-sized fragments. Gravel can be sub-categorized into granule and cobble...
, and foam
Foam
-Definition:A foam is a substance that is formed by trapping gas in a liquid or solid in a divided form, i.e. by forming gas regions inside liquid regions, leading to different kinds of dispersed media...
are as precious on Melmac as gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
is on Earth (whereas gold and platinum are so common that they are used in place of porcelain to make toilets and sinks, as seen in the episode where ALF sells the gold and platinum plumbing in his ship to buy a Ferrari
Ferrari
Ferrari S.p.A. is an Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1929, as Scuderia Ferrari, the company sponsored drivers and manufactured race cars before moving into production of street-legal vehicles as Ferrari S.p.A. in 1947...
for Lynn).
ALF's body is covered with a ginger/rust-colored fur (he once described his color as burnt sienna). He has a rippled snout, facial moles, eight stomachs, his heart is apparently located in his head, and he likes to burp, eat cats, can whistle without opening his mouth and had a best friend on his home planet named Malhar Naik. He has a friend named Skip and a girlfriend named Rhonda, both of whom also escaped the explosion. He attended high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
for 122 years and was captain of a Bouillabaisse
Bouillabaisse
Bouillabaisse is a seafood soup made with various kinds of cooked fish and shellfish and vegetables, flavored with a variety of herbs and spices such as garlic, orange peel, basil, bay leaf, fennel and saffron. Bouillabaisse is a traditional Provençal fish stew originating from the port city of...
ball team (which is played on ice using shellfish
Shellfish
Shellfish is a culinary and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater environments, some kinds are found only in freshwater...
as a ball).
ALF has an enormous appetite (eating everything he can get his hands on); he is also troublesome, sarcastic, slovenly and cynical, and sometimes he puts himself at the risk of being discovered while perpetrating some of his often-unintentional pranks. However, if things have gone too far, he does as much as possible to make up for his mistakes, generally with positive results. In one episode, he tried to help Brian, too afraid to perform, to gain confidence during a school show by giving him a "lucky tooth" which ALF claimed helped him be a star of the stage on Melmac. In another occasion, he helped Dorothy deal with Sparky's death and move on and accept Whizzer's friendship. After neighbor Raquel Ochmonek claims to see ALF and is ridiculed on a television show, ALF calls in to the TV show to defend her.
He has at least 30 relatives: cousins "Pretty Boy" Shumway and Blinky; two uncles, Tinkle and Goome; a Grandma Shumway; a brother Curtis; parents Bob and Flo Shumway; and aunts Bubba, Wagner, and Eugene. In a commercial for the NFL that ran during Super Bowl XLV
Super Bowl XLV
Super Bowl XLV was an American football game between the American Football Conference champion Pittsburgh Steelers and the National Football Conference champion Green Bay Packers to decide the National Football League champion for the 2010 season. The game was held at Cowboys Stadium in...
on February 6, 2011, it was confirmed that ALF is a Carolina Panthers
Carolina Panthers
The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. They are currently members of the South Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Panthers, along with the Jacksonville Jaguars, joined the NFL as expansion...
fan (though the team didn't exist during the show's run).
Cast
- Max WrightMax WrightGeorge Edward Maxwell "Max" Wright is an American actor, best known for his role as Willie Tanner in the sitcom ALF.-Biography:Wright was born George Edward Maxwell Wright in Detroit, Michigan....
– Willie Tanner - Anne SchedeenAnne SchedeenLuanne Ruth Schedeen , known professionally as Anne Schedeen, is an American actress, best known as Kate Tanner on ALF, which ran from 1986-1990....
– Kate Tanner - Andrea ElsonAndrea ElsonAndrea Elson is an American actress. She is best known playing the role of Lynn Tanner on ALF. She had also previously played in the 1983 show Whiz Kids with Matthew Laborteaux where she played the character Alice Tyler.-Career:Her first television role was as Alice Tyler on the series Whiz Kids...
– Lynn Tanner - Benji GregoryBenji GregoryBenji Gregory Benji Gregory Benji Gregory (born Benjamin Gregory Hertzberg on May 26, 1978 in Panorama City, California (IMDB reports that Mr Gregory-Hertzberg was born in Encino, California) is an American actor. He is best known for playing the role of Brian Tanner on ALF (1986)...
– Brian Tanner - John LaMottaJohn LaMottaJohn LaMotta is an American actor best known for his role Trevor Ochmonek in the sitcom ALF, a show which he later confessed to despise.-Biography:...
– Trevor Ochmonek - Liz SheridanLiz SheridanElizabeth "Liz" Sheridan is an American actress.-Background:Sheridan was born in New York City, the daughter of Elizabeth Poole-Jones, a concert singer, and Frank Sheridan, a classical pianist. Sheridan began her career as a dancer working in New York City in nightclubs and musicals. There, she...
– Raquel Ochmonek - Josh BlakeJosh BlakeJosh Blake is an American actor best known for his role Jake Ochmonek, in the sitcom ALF.-Credits:*Tony Hawk's American Wasteland...
– Jake Ochmonek (Seasons 2–4) - Jim J. Bullock – Neal Tanner (Season 4)
- Paul FuscoPaul FuscoPaul Fusco is an American puppeteer, voice-over artist and character actor who is best known as the voice, creator, and puppeteer of ALF...
– ALF principal puppeteer/voice - Lisa Buckley – ALF assistant/puppeteer
- Bob Fappiano – ALF assistant/puppeteer
Paul Fusco
Paul Fusco
Paul Fusco is an American puppeteer, voice-over artist and character actor who is best known as the voice, creator, and puppeteer of ALF...
operated the ALF puppet and supplied ALF's voice. Michu Meszaros
Michu Meszaros
Mihaly "Michu" Meszaros is a Hungarian performer best remembered as the man behind the costume in the NBC sitcom ALF. He is 2 ft 9 inches tall.Meszaros appeared in numerous television and film projects...
stood in for the ALF puppet when full-body shots were needed by wearing an ALF costume, although this idea was ditched in later seasons.
Notable guest stars
Listed alphabetically- Dan CastellanetaDan CastellanetaDaniel Louis "Dan" Castellaneta is an American actor, voice actor, comedian, singer and screenwriter. Noted for his long-running role as Homer Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons, he voices many other characters on The Simpsons, including Abraham "Grampa" Simpson, Barney Gumble,...
— Steve Michaels - Bill DailyBill DailyBill Daily is an American comedian and dramatic actor, and a veteran of many television sitcoms. He is best known for playing astronaut Roger Healey on I Dream of Jeannie and commercial airline navigator Howard Borden in The Bob Newhart Show.-Biography:Daily's father died when Bill was very...
— Dr. Larry Dykstra - Paul DooleyPaul Dooley-Personal life:Dooley was born Paul Dooley Brown in Parkersburg, West Virginia, the son of Ruth Irene , a homemaker, and Peter James Brown, a factory worker. Dooley was a cartoonist as a youth and drew a strip for a local paper in Parkersburg. He joined the Navy before discovering acting while at...
— Whizzer Deaver - Fran DrescherFran DrescherFrancine Joy "Fran" Drescher is an American film and television actress, comedian, screenwriter, director, producer, author, singer, talk show host, political lobbyist and health activist...
— Roxanne - David Alan GrierDavid Alan GrierDavid Alan Grier , also known as "D.A.G." , is an American actor and comedian known for his work on the sketch comedy television show In Living Color.-Early life:...
— FBI Agent - David LeisureDavid LeisureDavid Russell Leisure is an American actor best known for his role as Charley Dietz in the sitcom Empty Nest from 1988 to 1995 and fictional automotive "pitch man" Joe Isuzu in a series of North American television commercials for Isuzu from 1986 to 1990, and again from 1999 to 2001.Additional...
— Brandon Tartikoff/Nick "The Fish" Mintz - Cleavon LittleCleavon LittleCleavon Jake Little was an American film and theatre actor.Little was widely known for his lead role as Sheriff Bart in the 1974 Mel Brooks comedy Blazing Saddles. He also was the irreverent Dr...
— George Foley - Anne MearaAnne MearaAnne Meara is an American actress and comedian. She and Jerry Stiller were a prominent 1960s comedy team, appearing as Stiller and Meara, and are the parents of actor/comedian Ben and actress Amy Stiller.- Personal life :...
— Dorothy Halligan Deaver - Joe NamathJoe NamathJoseph William "Joe" Namath , nicknamed "Broadway Joe" or "Joe Willie", is a former American football quarterback. He played college football for the University of Alabama under coach Paul "Bear" Bryant and his assistant, Howard Schnellenberger, from 1962–1964, and professional football in the...
as Himself - David SpadeDavid SpadeDavid Wayne Spade is an American actor, comedian and television personality who first became famous in the 1990s as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, and from 1997 until 2003 when he starred as Dennis Finch on Just Shoot Me!. He also starred as C.J...
— Larry Slotkin - David Ogden StiersDavid Ogden StiersDavid Ogden Stiers is an American actor, director, vocal actor, and musician, noted for his roles in Disney movies, as well as his performances in the television series M*A*S*H as Major Charles Emerson Winchester III and the science fiction drama The Dead Zone as Reverend Gene Purdy...
— "Flakey" Pete Finnegan - Brandon TartikoffBrandon TartikoffBrandon Tartikoff was a television executive who was credited with turning around NBC's low prime time reputation with such hit series as Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, ALF, Family Ties, The Cosby Show, Cheers, Seinfeld, Miami Vice, The Golden Girls, Knight Rider, The A-Team, St...
as Himself - Marcia WallaceMarcia WallaceMarcia Karen Wallace is an American character actress, comedienne and game show panelist, primarily known for her roles in television situation comedies...
— Mrs. Lyman
Ratings
- 1986–1987: #28 (16.5 rating)
- 1987–1988: #10 (18.8 rating)
- 1988–1989: #15 (17.5 rating)
- 1989–1990: #39 (13.7 rating)
Production
The production of ALF was technically difficult and demanding. All four lead actors – Max WrightMax Wright
George Edward Maxwell "Max" Wright is an American actor, best known for his role as Willie Tanner in the sitcom ALF.-Biography:Wright was born George Edward Maxwell Wright in Detroit, Michigan....
(Willie Tanner), Anne Schedeen
Anne Schedeen
Luanne Ruth Schedeen , known professionally as Anne Schedeen, is an American actress, best known as Kate Tanner on ALF, which ran from 1986-1990....
(Kate Tanner), Andrea Elson
Andrea Elson
Andrea Elson is an American actress. She is best known playing the role of Lynn Tanner on ALF. She had also previously played in the 1983 show Whiz Kids with Matthew Laborteaux where she played the character Alice Tyler.-Career:Her first television role was as Alice Tyler on the series Whiz Kids...
(Lynn Tanner) and Ben Hertzberg, also known as Benji Gregory
Benji Gregory
Benji Gregory Benji Gregory Benji Gregory (born Benjamin Gregory Hertzberg on May 26, 1978 in Panorama City, California (IMDB reports that Mr Gregory-Hertzberg was born in Encino, California) is an American actor. He is best known for playing the role of Brian Tanner on ALF (1986)...
(Brian Tanner) – have described a high level of tension on the set. Max Wright has stated that he despised supporting a technically demanding inanimate object that received most of the good lines of dialog. He admits to being "hugely eager to have ALF over with." Anne Schedeen has said that on the last night of taping, "there was one take and Max walked off the set, went to his dressing room, got his bags, went to his car and disappeared. [...] There were no goodbyes." Schedeen herself said "there was no joy on the set [...] it was a technical nightmare – extremely slow, hot and tedious. [...] A 30-minute show took 20, 25 hours to shoot." While fond of her on-screen children, Schedeen said some adults had "difficult personalities. The whole thing was a big dysfunctional family." Schedeen added, "It's astonishing that ALF really was wonderful and that word never got out what a mess our set really was." Elson, who suffered from bulimia during the second season of shooting, stated, "If ALF had gone one more year, everybody would have lost it." Wright would eventually reflect more kindly on ALF, saying in June 2006, "It doesn't matter what I felt or what the days were like, ALF brought people a lot of joy."
Fusco was secretive about his character up until the series premiere. During the show's production, Fusco refused to acknowledge that the puppet ALF was anything other than an alien. All involved with the production were cautioned not to give away any of ALF's secrets.
Cast interviews since the show ended have revealed a few details about making the series: To make room for the puppeteers, the entire set was built on a raised platform with dozens of trapdoor
Trapdoor
A trapdoor is a door set into a floor or ceiling .Originally, trapdoors were sack traps in mills, and allowed the sacks to pass up through the mill while naturally falling back to a closed position....
s in the floor. The trapdoors had to be reset multiple times, sometimes during a single scene.
Fusco was the principal puppeteer. He used one hand to control ALF's mouth, leaving the other free to control one of the puppet's arms. A second puppeteer, Lisa Buckley, assisted Fusco beneath the stage, operating the other arm. Together with a third person, (Bob Fappiano), who controlled ALF's facial and ear movements via an RC
Radio control
Radio control is the use of radio signals to remotely control a device. The term is used frequently to refer to the control of model vehicles from a hand-held radio transmitter...
controller offstage, they worked in concert to make ALF's movements fluid and believable. During tapings, Paul would wear a head-mounted microphone which was used to record his voice for the ALF character. All of this made for a painstaking process and there were countless mistakes and retakes.
To avoid wear and tear on the principal ALF puppet, the performers rehearsed with a battered, early version of ALF that was nicknamed "Ralph". Often during rehearsals, Fusco would substitute his hand for the puppet.
In an interview on Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien that aired 2,725 episodes on NBC between 1993 and 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and musical and comedy performances. Late Night aired weeknights at 12:37 am...
, Tina Fey
Tina Fey
Elizabeth Stamatina "Tina" Fey is an American actress, comedian, writer and producer, known for her work on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live , the NBC comedy series 30 Rock, and films such as Mean Girls and Baby Mama .Fey first broke into comedy as a featured player in the...
said that her biggest frustration as producer of NBC's 75th anniversary special was dealing with ALF's "people". Fey said Fusco would only allow ALF to appear on the show if the puppeteers were completely hidden from everyone else, even the studio audience. After his cameo (as an audience member), ALF disappeared through a hole in the riser, was stuffed into a case, and immediately hustled out of the building.
While a puppet was usually used for ALF, there were some shots of the tiny alien running or walking around. This was accomplished by actor Michu Meszaros
Michu Meszaros
Mihaly "Michu" Meszaros is a Hungarian performer best remembered as the man behind the costume in the NBC sitcom ALF. He is 2 ft 9 inches tall.Meszaros appeared in numerous television and film projects...
wearing an ALF costume. This can be seen in one of the series' intros, which concludes with the Tanner family getting their picture taken; ALF, played by Meszaros, walks over to be part of the photo.
Fusco also co-produced the series with Tom Patchett. Patchett also co-created, wrote, and directed the series. The series was produced by Alien Productions and was first syndicated by Warner Bros. Television
Warner Bros. Television
Warner Bros. Television is the television production arm of Warner Bros. Entertainment, itself part of Time Warner. Alongside CBS Television Studios, it serves as a television production arm of The CW Television Network , though it also produces shows for other networks, such as Shameless on...
and Lorimar-Telepictures
Lorimar-Telepictures
Lorimar-Telepictures was a production and television syndication firm established in 1986 with the merger of Lorimar and Telepictures until both TV divisions became separate in 1988...
. The North American syndication rights are currently owned by Debmar-Mercury
Debmar-Mercury
Debmar-Mercury is a television syndication company that is currently a wholly owned subsidiary of Lions Gate Entertainment, which acquired the company in July 2006...
because its parent company, Lionsgate, now owns home video rights.
Animated series
To capitalize on the success of the series, a spin-offSpin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
animated series was produced, airing Saturday mornings on NBC. ALF: The Animated Series
Alf: The Animated Series
ALF: The Animated Series was an animated cartoon spin-off based on the live-action Sitcom series ALF. It premiered on September 26, 1987 and ran for 26 episodes.-Synopsis:...
, set on ALF's home planet of Melmac, ran from 1987 to 1988, and was produced by DIC Entertainment
DiC Entertainment
DIC Entertainment was an international film and television production company. In addition to animated television shows such as Ulysses 31 , Inspector Gadget , The Littles , The Real Ghostbusters , Captain Planet and the Planeteers , and the first two seasons of the English adaptation of...
. This was a prequel series, set on Melmac before the planet exploded. The show focused on ALF, his family, his friends, and girlfriend Rhonda and their various exploits. Each episode was book-ended by a live-action sequence involving ALF talking to the television viewers, setting up the episode and commenting on it afterward.
When the cartoon entered its second season, it was paired in a one-hour block with its own spin-off ALF Tales, which took Gordon and the cast of characters from Season One, and recast them as characters from assorted classic fairy tale
Fairy tale
A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...
s.
Select episodes of both shows are included as special features on the ALF: Season 2 DVD as well as the cartoon-specific releases ALF Animated Adventures – 20,000 Years in Driving School and Other Stories and ALF and The Beanstalk and Other Classic Fairy Tales.
Marvel Comics
An ALF comic bookComic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
was published by Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
' Star Comics
Star Comics
Star Comics was an imprint of Marvel Comics that began in 1984 and continued to publish comic books until early 1988. Titles published by the imprint were aimed at child readers and were often adaptations of children's television series, animated series or toys...
imprint
Imprint
In the publishing industry, an imprint can mean several different things:* As a piece of bibliographic information about a book, it refers to the name and address of the book's publisher and its date of publication as given at the foot or on the verso of its title page.* It can mean a trade name...
beginning in 1987 and ran for four years, totaling 50 issues and nearly a dozen specials.
The comic loosely followed the continuity of the television show (though it featured alternate takes on certain episodes, like the birth of Eric Tanner) and featured numerous parodies of Marvel Comics characters and other pop-culture parodies in the form of "Melmac Flashbacks." It was the first instance to feature ALF's natural family in a reverse scenario where Willie Tanner is an astronaut
Astronaut
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
who crashes his spaceship into ALF's garage on Melmac, and the Shumway family works to protect Willie from hostile Melmackians.
TV movie
In 1996, a 90-minute television movieTelevision movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
named Project ALF
Project ALF
Project: ALF is a 1996 ABC TV movie directed by Dick Lowry. It is the sequel to the final episode, "Consider Me Gone" , of the ALF TV series...
aired on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
. This movie picked up six years after the events of the TV series, with ALF in government custody, and focuses on a scientist and military police officer who breaks ALF out of government custody. It did not feature any of the Tanner family, but they were briefly referenced.
ALF's Hit Talk Show
In 2004, ALF's Hit Talk ShowAlf's Hit Talk Show
Alf's Hit Talk Show is an American cable television talk show that aired on TV Land. It ran for seven episodes in 2004. The host is the puppet character Gordon Shumway, of '80s television fame. At the beginning of each show, Alf is introduced by his "sidekick", Ed McMahon. The show ran in a...
debuted on U.S. cable channel TV Land
TV Land
TV Land is an American cable television network launched on April 29, 1996. It is owned by MTV Networks, a division of Viacom, which also owns Paramount Pictures, and networks such as MTV and Nickelodeon...
, featuring ALF as a Johnny Carson
Johnny Carson
John William "Johnny" Carson was an American television host and comedian, known as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for 30 years . Carson received six Emmy Awards including the Governor Award and a 1985 Peabody Award; he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987...
-type TV talk-show host and co-starring Ed McMahon
Ed McMahon
Edward Peter "Ed" McMahon, Jr. was an American comedian, game show host and announcer. He is most famous for his work on television as Johnny Carson's sidekick and announcer on The Tonight Show from 1962 to 1992. He also hosted the original version of the talent show Star Search from 1983 to 1995...
as his sidekick
Sidekick
A sidekick is a close companion who is generally regarded as subordinate to the one he accompanies. Some well-known fictional sidekicks are Don Quixote's Sancho Panza, Sherlock Holmes' Doctor Watson, The Lone Ranger's Tonto, The Green Hornet's Kato and Batman's Robin.-Origins:The origin of the...
. Guests included Drew Carey
Drew Carey
Drew Allison Carey is an American actor, singer, comedian, photographer, sports executive, and game show host. After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps and making a name for himself in stand-up comedy, Carey eventually gained popularity starring on his own sitcom, The Drew Carey Show, and serving as...
, Tom Green
Tom Green
Michael Thomas "Tom" Green is a Canadian actor, rapper, writer, comedian, talk show host and media personality. Best known for his shock humour brand of comedy, Green found mainstream prominence via his MTV television show The Tom Green Show...
, and Merv Griffin
Merv Griffin
Mervyn Edward "Merv" Griffin, Jr. was an American television host, musician, actor, and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer who went on to appear in movies and on Broadway. From 1965 to 1986 Griffin hosted his own talk show, The Merv Griffin Show on Group W Broadcasting...
. It ran for seven episodes.
Guest appearances and references
As a result of the show's success, ALF has made guest appearances on a number of television programs, such as a Season 2 episode of NBC's MatlockMatlock (TV series)
Matlock is an American television legal drama, starring Andy Griffith in the title role of attorney Ben Matlock. The show originally aired from September 23, 1986 to May 8, 1992 on NBC, where it replaced The A-Team, then from November 5, 1992 until May 7, 1995 on ABC.The show's format was similar...
in 1987, NBC's Blossom
Blossom (TV series)
Blossom is an American sitcom broadcast on NBC from January 3, 1991 to May 22, 1995. The series stars Mayim Bialik as Blossom Russo, a teenage girl living with her father and two brothers. It was created by Don Reo.- Synopsis :...
, UPN's The Love Boat: The Next Wave
The Love Boat: The Next Wave
The Love Boat: The Next Wave is an American television series which was based on the ABC sitcom The Love Boat. The series aired on UPN from 1998 to 1999.-Plot:...
, and the 1980s version of Hollywood Squares
Hollywood Squares
Hollywood Squares is an American panel game show in which two contestants play tic-tac-toe to win cash and prizes. The "board" for the game is a 3 × 3 vertical stack of open-faced cubes, each occupied by a celebrity seated at a desk and facing the contestants...
, where he also memorably hosted part of one episode in March 1987. The animated version of ALF also made an appearance in the "all-star" animated drug-prevention television special Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue
Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue
Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue is an animated drug prevention television special starring many of the popular cartoon characters from American weekday, Sunday morning and Saturday morning television at the time of this film's release...
in 1990. In the early 2000s, ALF appeared in a series of commercials for the 10-10-220
10-10-321
10-10-321 is a United States long-distance phone service best known for its prolific television and direct mail advertising in the late 1990s. 10-10-321 was the first mass-marketed service of its type, and it and the similar 10-10-220 and 10-10-900 services were all owned by Telecom USA, which was...
telephone service with former Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw
Terry Bradshaw
Terry Paxton Bradshaw is a former American football quarterback with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the National Football League . He played 14 seasons. He is a football analyst and co-host of Fox NFL Sunday...
and wrestling legend Hulk Hogan
Hulk Hogan
Terrance Gene "Terry" Bollea , better known by his ring name Hulk Hogan, is an American Semi-retired professional wrestler, actor, television personality, and musician currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling ....
. ALF's last appearance to date was in November 2007, when he appeared as "TV Icon of the Week" on The O'Reilly Factor
The O'Reilly Factor
The O'Reilly Factor, originally titled The O'Reilly Report from 1996 to 1998 and often called The Factor, is an American talk show on the Fox News Channel hosted by commentator Bill O'Reilly, who often discusses current controversial political issues with guests.The program was the most watched...
.
The character has also been referenced in various media numerous times over the years, being a pop-culture icon. Notable appearances include The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, the 2009 Eminem
Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III , better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition...
music video "We Made You
We Made You
"We Made You" is a song by American hip hop musician Eminem. It was released as the first single from his sixth studio album Relapse on April 7, 2009. Produced by Dr. Dre and co-produced by Doc Ish and Eminem himself, the song samples "Hot Summer Nights" by Walter Egan. Eminem performed this song...
", the 2010 film Hot Tub Time Machine
Hot Tub Time Machine
Hot Tub Time Machine is a 2010 American science fiction adult comedy film directed by Steve Pink. Four men, all of them bored with their adult lives, travel back to their 1980s teen-hood, courtesy of a time-shifting hot tub. It stars John Cusack, Craig Robinson, Clark Duke, Kellee Stewart, Rob...
, and television series The Big Bang Theory.
Merchandise
Like many shows of its day, ALF was also the subject of a trading cardTrading card
A trading card is a small card, usually made out of paperboard or thick paper, which usually contains an image of a certain person, place or thing and a short description of the picture, along with other text...
series by Topps
Topps
The Topps Company, Inc., manufactures chewing gum, candy and collectibles. Based in New York, New York, Topps is best known as a leading producer of baseball cards, football cards, basketball cards, hockey cards and other sports and non-sports themed trading cards.-Company history:Topps itself was...
. Most featured stills from various episodes, but a few cards parodied baseball cards by depicting players of the Melmacian sport "Bouillabaisseball," complete with stats such as "Splats." The yellow-bordered first series was released in 1987, with a red-bordered second series released in 1988.
During the time that the original TV series was popular, some ALF-related merchandise was sold, including a 1987 22-inch plush doll produced by Coleco
Coleco
Coleco is an American company founded in 1932 by Maurice Greenberg as "Connecticut Leather Company". It became a highly successful toy company in the 1980s, known for its mass-produced version of Cabbage Patch Kids dolls and its video game consoles, the Coleco Telstar and...
, and a 1988 calendar
Calendar
A calendar is a system of organizing days for social, religious, commercial, or administrative purposes. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months, and years. The name given to each day is known as a date. Periods in a calendar are usually, though not...
with Melmac's planetary holidays, such as Shout at a Shrub Day, prominently marked.
Music
In 1987, Dutch remixer and producer Ben LiebrandBen Liebrand
Ben Liebrand is a dance music DJ. He has produced artists such as Forrest and MC Miker G & DJ Sven and remixed tracks by artists such as Salt N Pepa, Sting, TLC, Fun Fun, Tavares, Bill Withers, Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, Rick Astley, SWV and Phil Collins...
created a song called Stuck on Earth with samples from one of the ALF shows. During 1988, Burger King
Burger King
Burger King, often abbreviated as BK, is a global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants headquartered in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The company began in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida-based restaurant chain...
ran a promotion called "The Many Faces of ALF," giving away themed ALF puppets and a cardboard record with each kids meal. These records featured original recordings sung by ALF – titled Melmac Girls, Cookin' with ALF, Melmac Rock, and Take Me, ALF, to the Ballgame.
Tommi Piper, the actor who dubbed ALF's voice for German audiences, spent twelve weeks in the German pop charts in 1989. The single featured Amélie Sandmann (as the voice of Rhonda) and was called Hallo ALF Hier Ist Rhonda (translated Hello ALF, This Is Rhonda). He also featured as ALF on various themed mix albums introducing songs by pop artists of the time and other original compositions.
An ALF alarm clock is mentioned about 52 seconds into "Weird Al" Yankovic
"Weird Al" Yankovic
Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, accordionist, actor, comedian, writer, satirist, and parodist. Yankovic is known for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts...
's song "eBay
EBay (song)
"eBay" is a song by "Weird Al" Yankovic. It is a parody of "I Want It That Way" by Backstreet Boys. In it, the narrator describes how he incessantly purchases bizarre items on eBay.-Release:...
". There is no official video, but fans have assembled video montages which show a photograph of the actual alarm clock.
Video games
There are six video games and one printing program based on ALF: 1987's ALF, also known as ALF: The First Adventure for various computer systems, such as the Commodore 64Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
, IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
, and Apple II
Apple II
The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977...
, 1989's ALF for the Sega Master System
Sega Master System
The is a third-generation video game console that was manufactured and released by Sega in 1985 in Japan , 1986 in North America and 1987 in Europe....
, four educational games for IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
and Apple II
Apple II
The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977...
computers were released in 1993 called ALF's U.S. Geography, ALF's Thinking Skills, ALF's World of Words, and Add & Subtract With ALF, and the printing program ALF's Party Kit.
North America – edited
Lionsgate Home EntertainmentLionsgate Home Entertainment
Lionsgate Home Entertainment is the home video and DVD distribution arm of Lions Gate Entertainment and most former Artisan Entertainment releases. Its library of more than 8000 films owes some of its size to output deals with other studios...
has released all four seasons of ALF on DVD in Region 1. All releases contain edited episodes (syndicated versions), although "Try to Remember" from Season One, "ALF's Special Christmas" from Season Two and, "Make 'em Laugh" from Season Four were full length, although "Try to Remember" was the censored version used in reruns, and "Make 'em Laugh" had 7 seconds of dialogue at the beginning removed. Lions Gate insisted that they were forced to utilize the edited version, as it would be cost prohibitive to remaster the original broadcast versions for release when the edited versions were already available, leading to much criticism and poor sales. In addition, most music was removed from the episodes, shortening some episodes by up to six minutes.
| DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date | Additional Information |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season One | 26 | August 10, 2004 | Contains all 26 episodes from Season One
|
| Season Two | 26 | August 23, 2005 | Contains all 26 episodes from Season Two
Alf: The Animated Series ALF: The Animated Series was an animated cartoon spin-off based on the live-action Sitcom series ALF. It premiered on September 26, 1987 and ran for 26 episodes.-Synopsis:... and the first episode of ALF Tales |
| Season Three | 26 | May 30, 2006 | Contains all 26 episodes from Season Three |
| Season Four | 24 | September 5, 2006 | Contains all 24 episodes from Season Four
|
Video Service Corp. previously released two other DVDs of ALF. The ALF Files was released exclusively in Canada on November 1, 2002. It contained three episodes, "Tonight, Tonight", "Try to Remember", and "ALF's Special Christmas", but unlike the season sets, these episodes were presented in their full-length, unedited versions. "Try to Remember", much like the Season One set, was the censored version where ALF's amnesia is caused by a cranial concussion rather than being electrocuted (the electrocution version received much parental criticism when it first aired on February 9, 1987).
On September 13, 2005 Project: Alf was released. Both DVDs featured optional commentary by creator Paul Fusco
Paul Fusco
Paul Fusco is an American puppeteer, voice-over artist and character actor who is best known as the voice, creator, and puppeteer of ALF...
, with co-creator Tom Patchett joining him on the first release.
Europe – unedited
Warner Bros. Home Video released the first season of ALF in Germany on September 4, 2009, and in the Netherlands and France on September 9. The DVDs are in PALPAL
PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries. Other common analogue television systems are NTSC and SECAM. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system...
format, with English-language menus. The language selections available are English, French, German and Spanish, with subtitles available in French, Dutch, Spanish, English and German.
The episodes span 4 discs and are unedited, unlike their American edited counterparts, with a few exceptions:
- A scene where ALF is singing a song by Alvin and the ChipmunksAlvin and the ChipmunksAlvin and the Chipmunks is an American animated music group created by Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. in 1958. The group consists of three singing animated anthropomorphic chipmunks: Alvin, the mischievous troublemaker, who quickly became the star of the group; Simon, the tall, bespectacled intellectual;...
was excised because of music copyright issues. - In the first season episode "Try to Remember", the cause of ALF's amnesia is changed from an electric shock to slipping and hitting his head, and ALF's "water and electricity don't mix" safety lecture is removed (this edit was first made when the episode was rerun during the summer of 1987).
- One edited U.S. version from the second season ("Somewhere Over the Rerun") was used, although unlike the region 1 DVD, the music (mainly the Gilligan's Island theme) is not edited out.
- The final episode "Consider Me Gone" has the "To Be Continued" caption before the end credits roll, which was edited out in the region 1 sets.
| DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date | Additional Information |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season One | 26 | September 4, 2009 | Contains all 26 episodes from Season One
|
| Season Two | 26 | December 11, 2009 | Contains all 26 episodes from Season Two
|
| Season Three | 26 | June 25, 2010 | Contains all 26 episodes from Season Three
|
| Season Four | 24 | October 15, 2010 | Contains all 24 episodes from Season Four
|
Oceania – unedited
In Region 4, Warner Home VideoWarner Home Video
Warner Home Video is the home video unit of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., itself part of Time Warner. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video . The company launched in the United States with twenty films on VHS and Betamax videocassettes in late 1979...
released the first and second seasons of ALF on DVD in Australia & New Zealand on April 7, 2010. Season 3 will be released on October 5, 2011.
Syndication
In the United States, ALF started its run in local syndication in the fall of 1990 and continued until 1994. The show also aired on OdysseyHallmark Channel
The Hallmark Channel is a cable television network that broadcasts across the United States. Their programming includes a mix of television movies/miniseries, syndicated series, and lifestyle shows that are appropriate for the whole family...
(now Hallmark) from April 5, 1999 to August 2002 and on WGN America from October 5, 2008 to December 27, 2009 with two back-to-back episodes each Sunday at 6:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
In Latin America, the show can be seen on Nick@Nite Latin America
Nickelodeon (Latin America)
Nickelodeon Latin America is a cable and satellite television channel, counterpart of the American network Nickelodeon. It is oriented to Latin American region and the caribbean; mainly for children and teens. It is owned by MTV Networks Latin America. The channel was launched on December 20, 1996...
. In Spain this show airs in Boing every weekday at 11:30 pm. It's also shown daily in Australia, at 4:30 p.m on 7TWO
7Two
7TWO is an Australian free-to-air standard definition digital television channel which was launched by the Seven Network on Sunday 1 November 2009 at 12pm....
. In Germany, ALF is shown on Kabel 1
Kabel 1
kabel eins is a commercial television channel in Germany. It started business on 29 February 1992, as the Kabelkanal and belongs to the ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG. The channel is largely known for showing classic American films as well as series and documentaries...
, in Serbia on THIRDROMETV, in Denmark on TV 2 Zulu
TV 2 Zulu
TV 2 Zulu is a Danish television station which started broadcasting on 15 October 2000. It is primarily aimed at viewers between 15 and 30 years of age....
, in Ukraine on ICTV
ICTV (Ukraine)
ICTV is a privately-held TV channel in Ukraine. Its coverage area allows it to be received by 56.6 % of the Ukrainian population, making the channel the fourth in the nation in terms of coverage , and third by the viewers' ratings.The channel is owned by...
, in Russia on TV3 Russia
TV3 Russia
TV-3 is a Russian television channel focused on entertainment. It is part of Vladimir Potanin's Prof-Media company.- Programs :* MythBusters* Brainiac: Science Abuse* MonsterQuest* Urban Legends* Mysterious Signs...
, and in Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, on bTV Comedy
BTV Comedy
bTV Comedy is a Bulgarian family-based television channel,airing mostly comedy series. It is part of bTV Media Group, owned by Central European Media Enterprises...
, Diema
Diema
Diema is part of the Nova Television Group Bulgaria, a subsidiary of MTG.The channel airs mainly films, action series. Along with Nova Sport airs sports, including matches from the English FA Premier League, the FA Cup and the UEFA European Football Championship qualifications, as well as the...
and Diema 2. ALF is even dubbed into Japanese with George Tokoro
George Tokoro
is the stage name of Japanese tarento, singer-songwriter, comedian, Master of Ceremonies, and essayist . Born in Tokorozawa, Saitama, he attended Takushoku University's Commercial Science class.-Works:*ALF - ALF...
dubbing ALF and airs as "アルフ" (Arufu) every Tuesday night at 7:25 p.m. on NHK
NHK
NHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....
.Also in Slovakia dubbed into Slovak language aired on TVM and Czech rep. on TV NOVA.
Awards
In the USA alone, ALF has won numerous awards. In 1987 the show won a People's Choice Award for Favorite New TV Comedy Program; in 1988 it won Favorite Show at the Kids' Choice Awards; and at the 1989 Kids' Choice Awards, ALF himself won Favorite TV Actor. Benji GregoryBenji Gregory
Benji Gregory Benji Gregory Benji Gregory (born Benjamin Gregory Hertzberg on May 26, 1978 in Panorama City, California (IMDB reports that Mr Gregory-Hertzberg was born in Encino, California) is an American actor. He is best known for playing the role of Brian Tanner on ALF (1986)...
and Andrea Elson
Andrea Elson
Andrea Elson is an American actress. She is best known playing the role of Lynn Tanner on ALF. She had also previously played in the 1983 show Whiz Kids with Matthew Laborteaux where she played the character Alice Tyler.-Career:Her first television role was as Alice Tyler on the series Whiz Kids...
were also nominated in various Young Actor categories for their work on ALF at the Young Artist Awards during 1987–1989, with the show also receiving a nomination for Best Family Television Series.
Controversy
In 2010, blooper footage surfaced in which ALF was made to deliver racial jokes and inappropriate sexual comments. He was actually mocking a then-recent episode of L.A. LawL.A. Law
L.A. Law is a US television legal drama that ran on NBC from September 15, 1986 to May 19, 1994. L.A. Law reflected the social and cultural ideologies of the 1980s and early 1990s and many of the cases featured on the show dealt with hot topic issues such as abortion, racism, gay rights,...
dealing with Tourette syndrome
Tourette syndrome
Tourette syndrome is an inherited neuropsychiatric disorder with onset in childhood, characterized by multiple physical tics and at least one vocal tic; these tics characteristically wax and wane...
. Asked to comment, producer Steve Lamar stated that the footage was from a time when things were not so "ridiculously PC
Politically Correct
Politically Correct may refer to:*Political correctness, language, ideas, policies, or behaviour seeking to minimize offence to groups of people-See also:*Politically Correct Bedtime Stories, book by James Finn Garner, published in 1994...
".