ALF (TV series)

Infobox Television
show_name = ALF


caption = ALF
format = Sitcom
camera =
runtime = 24 Minutes
creator = Tom Patchett
Paul Fusco
executive_producer = Tom Patchett
Paul Fusco
starring = Paul Fusco
Max Wright
Anne Schedeen
Andrea Elson
Benji Gregory
Lucky the cat {himself}
Michu Meszaros
narrated =
country = USA
network = NBC
first_aired = September 22, 1986
last_aired = March 24, 1990
num_seasons = 4
num_episodes = 102
list_episodes = List of ALF episodes
website =
imdb_id = 0090390
tv_com_id = 761

"ALF" is a half-hour American television sitcom that originally ran on NBC from 1986 to 1990 and was created by Paul Fusco. The title character was Gordon Shumway, a friendly extraterrestrial nicknamed ALF (for Alien Life Form) who crash lands in the garage of the suburban middle class Tanner family. The series stars 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 puppet operated primarily by Fusco, or, in some instances, by dwarf actor Michu Meszaros wearing an ALF costume.

Premise

ALF follows an amateur radio signal to Earth and crash-lands into the garage of the Tanners. The Tanners are a suburban middle class family consisting of the social worker Willie, his wife Kate, their teenage daughter Lynn, younger son Brian, and the 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 (the Ochmoneks), until he can repair his spacecraft. He generally hid in the kitchen. It was eventually revealed that ALF's home planet Melmac exploded because of a catastrophe involving nuclear bombs. ALF in Episode four of season one is trying to convince the president of USA to stop the nuclear program as he is scared that Earth might share Melmac's fate. ALF was off the planet because he was part of the Melmac Orbit Guard. Gordon Shumway (AKA ALF) is homeless, but he isn't the last survivor of his species. He became a permanent member of the family, although his culture shock, survivor guilt, general boredom, despair, and loneliness frequently caused difficulty for the Tanners.

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's using 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 school, that there were two planets beyond Pluto called "Alvin" and "Dave". However, after a call was made to an astronomical organization, Willie explained that "Dave" could have been the planetoid Chiron, or "Object Kowal", after its discoverer.

The original series spans over 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 without the Tanner family, including Willie's brother Neal, Kate's mother Dorothy (with whom ALF has a love-hate relationship — he refers to her as the Wicked Witch of the West), her husband Whizzer, the Ochmoneks' nephew Jake, a psychiatrist named Larry, and a blind woman named Jody (who never quite figures out that ALF isn't human, though she is aware through touch that he is short and very hairy). Changes pass within the Tanner household over the course of the series, including the birth of a new child, Eric (The explanation for adding a baby in the series was that Anne Schedeen was pregnant and expecting a child at the time), ALF's move from his initial quarters in the laundry room to a converted attic "apartment", and the death of Lucky the cat; in the final instance, ALF finds that, despite his occasional attempts to catch Lucky with the intention of making the cat a meal, he has come to love and respect the family pet too much to do anything untoward with Lucky's remains.

In the series finale, ALF is about to be rescued by other survivors of his home planet, but is instead captured by the American military, and the viewer is left to ponder ALF's ultimate fate. This was not supposed to be the finale, as the original airing ended on a "To Be Continued" note. The producers supposedly had a verbal agreement with NBC to get at least one more episode to resolve the cliffhanger. NBC never made good on the deal, and no more episodes were created. The story does continue in the movie "Project ALF".

Back on TV

Cable channel WGN America has put Alf back on the air. The episodes are running Sunday nights 6-7pm (eastern) and Monday nights at 9-10pm (eastern).

Cast

*Max Wright - Willie Tanner
*Anne Schedeen - Kate Tanner
*Andrea Elson - Lynn Tanner
*Benji Gregory - Brian Tanner
*John LaMotta - Trevor Ochmonek
*Liz Sheridan - Raquel Ochmonek
*Josh Blake - Jake Ochmonek (seasons 2-4)
*Jim J. Bullock - Neal Tanner (season 4)
*Lucky the Cat - himself
*Lisa Buckley - Alf assistant/puppeteer
*Bob Fappiano - Alf assistant/puppeteer

Michu Meszaros was the actor within the ALF costume. Paul Fusco operated the ALF puppet, supplied ALF's voice, and co-produced the series with Tom Patchett. Patchett also co-created, wrote, and directed the series.

Notable Guest Starring Cast
*Bill Daily - Dr. Larry Dykstra
*Anne Meara - Dorothy Halligan Deaver
*Paul Dooley - Whizzer Deaver

ALF character

Gordon Shumway is an alien nicknamed ALF (for Alien Life Form) by William Tanner in the pilot episode. ALF was born on October 28, 1756, though he mentions that his birthday is in August in Episode 7 ("Help Me Rhonda") on the Lower East Side of the planet Melmac. Melmac was located six parsecs past the Hydra-Centaurus Supercluster and had a green sky, pink grass and a purple sun. The commonly-used currency is Wernicks, and the substance we call lint is as precious on Melmac as gold is on Earth.

ALF's body is covered with 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 eat cats and had a best friend on his home planet named Malhar Naik. He attended high school for 122 years and was captain of a Bouillabaisseball team (which is played on ice using shellfish as a ball).

ALF is troublesome, sarcastic and cynical, and sometimes he puts himself at the risk of being discovered while doing 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 good results. In one episode, he tried to help Brian to gain confidence during a school show, because he was too afraid to perform. In another occasion, he helped Dorothy to deal with Sparky's death and move on, and accept Whizzer's friendship. And he also helped Rachel Ochmonek with a depression she suffered, because she became the laughing stock in a TV program. He has at least two cousins "Pretty Boy Shumway" and "Blinky", and has had liposuction. During a bout of amnesia, he believed he was an insurance salesman named Wayne Schlagel.

Production

The production of ALF was technically difficult and demanding. All four lead actors - Max Wright (Willie Tanner), Anne Schedeen (Kate Tanner), Andrea Elson (Lynn Tanner) and Ben Hertzberg, also known as Benji Gregory (Brian Tanner) - have conceded a high level of tension on the set.cite news | last = | first = | title = Where Are They Now? ALF 1986-1990 | pages = | publisher = People Weekly | date = 2000-06-26 | url = http://www.tvshows.de/alf/e-people.htm | accessdate = 2008-08-12 ]

Max Wright 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 said that on the last night of taping ALF "there was one take and Max walked off the set, went to his dressing room, got his bags, went to his car and disappeared. [...] [T] here 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 is notoriously secretive about his character. 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 trapdoors in the floor. The trapdoors had to be reset multiple times, sometimes during a single scene, forcing them to shoot each episode over the course of several hours and without a studio audience.

Paul Fusco was the primary 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, accompanied Paul under the stage and wore ALF's other hand (the hands were basically furry gloves) to control it. 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 "halo" 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 unnecessary wear-and-tear on the principal ALF puppet, the performers rehearsed with a battered, early version of ALF. They nicknamed him "Ralph." Often during rehearsals, Fusco would simplu 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 dwarf 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 Michu, walks over to be part of the photo.)

The series was independently produced by Alien Productions, a dummy company owned by the same production consortium that produced "The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd", "The Slap Maxwell Story", and "Buffalo Bill". The series was first syndicated by Warner Bros. Television and Lorimar-Telepictures. The syndication rights are currently owned by Debmar-Mercury due to its parent company Lionsgate now owning home video rights.

Spin-offs

Animated Series

To capitalize on the success of the series, a spin-off animated series arose and aired on Saturday mornings on NBC. "," set on ALF's home planet of Melmac, ran from 1987 to 1988 and was produced by DIC Entertainment. The series 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 bookended by a live-action sequence involving ALF talking to the television viewers, setting up the episode.

When the cartoon entered its second season, it was paired in a one-hour block with its own spin-off "AlfTales", which took Gordon and the cast of characters from season one and recast them as characters from assorted classic fairy tales.

Select episodes of the first season of the cartoon are included as a special feature on the ALF: Season 2 DVD.

Marvel Comics

An "ALF" comic book was published by Marvel Comics' Star Comics imprint beginning in 1987 and ran for four years, totally 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". Toward the end of the series, when the cancellation of the series was imminent, the comic took a highly critical position towards Marvel Comics and then Marvel editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco.

TV Movie

In 1996 a 90-minute television movie, named "Project ALF", was 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 break ALF out of government custody. It did not feature any of the Tanner family, but they were briefly referenced in the movie. However, Beverly Archer, who played Mrs. Byrd in ALF, made an appearance as Dr. Carnage in the movie.

The series was so popular in Germany that the TV Movie was released there theatrically under the name "Alf - Der Film" ("Alf - The Movie") and was panned by critics and by fans, particularly for the Tanners' absence. At the time the show ALF was on in Germany, the roadside signs for the Moselle River town of "Alf" were frequently stolen by souvenir hunters.

Other media

In 2004, "Alf's Hit Talk Show" appeared briefly with Alf playing a Johnny Carson-type TV talk host and co-starring Ed McMahon as his side-kick.

Merchandise

Like many shows of its day, ALF also had a trading card 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.

At the time that the original TV series was popular, some "ALF"-related merchandise was sold, including a 1988 calendar with Melmac's planetary holidays, such as "Shout at a Shrub Day", prominently marked.

There is an obscure Sega Master System video game based on "ALF". It is an adventure game in which Alf must get pieces to repair his spaceship. There was also a computer game designed for the Commodore 64 as well as other computers.

Music

In 1987, Dutch remixer and producer Ben Liebrand made a mix with samples from one of the ALF shows. The song was called "Stuck on Earth". The mix had a lot of impact at the TV Studio: "Next step was getting permission to release the mix. For this, all vocal lines, and the spoken texts were traced back to the episodes they came from, and the authors who had written them. New record contracts needed to be created for each and every one of the authors." The first 2 seasons also featured a synthesised version of the theme song, whereas the last 3 featured the opening theme being playing by an actual saxophone. [ [http://mixhistory.mixfreaks.nl/Liebrand/mini1987.html DMH:Ben Liebrand MINIMIX ] ]

Appearances / References in other Media

*Jerry Stahl, writer for episodes of ALF, was portrayed by Ben Stiller in the autobiographical movie "Permanent Midnight", details Stahl's rise to fame and his addiction to heroin. In the movie ALF is portrayed as "Mr. Chompers"

*The animated version of Alf made an appearance in the drug prevention video "Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue".

*ALF also appeared in the long-distance plan 10-10-220 commercials on American television.

*ALF has made many appearances on "Hollywood Squares".

*ALF appeared as a guest on "".

*ALF has appeared in 2 episodes of "Family Guy", once as a recovering drug addict in a flashback special. Peter also thought Brian's costume was Alf. Also he appeared in the episode "I Never Met the Dead Man"; Peter has a dream where he is in a house that is spinning in a tornado (referencing The Wizard of Oz), where ALF passes and waves at Peter in a rocking chair.

*ALF appeared briefly on "Chappelle's Show" as a ghost figure.

*An unreleased pilot was shot, although not titled ALF. Project 3445 was poorly received. Test audiences claimed that they felt ALF's relationship with Willie was "too intimate" and that the original puppet made them feel "uncomfortable" in an unspecified manner.

*ALF has appeared on several "The Simpsons" episodes. In one cartoon, Alf has a cameo in a police lineup of Illegal Aliens. He also appears "in pog form" as Milhouse van Houten trades Bart Simpson's soul for $5 in the episode "Bart Sells His Soul". He was also a special guest at Springfield's "Bi-Mon Sci-Fi-Con". Alf also appears on many episodes on the cover of Homer's TV Guide (prominently on flashbacks that happened in the '80s, and on old issues of the TV Guide stored in the Simpson's basement).

*ALF has been referenced many times on the Adult Swim series "Stroker and Hoop".

*ALF is referenced in an episode of "Stargate SG-1" entitled "SIGHT UNSEEN". As the final scene comes to a close, the joke applied is a reference to the fact that Anderson's previous show, "MacGyver", aired opposite of ALF during most of its run.

*ALF is referenced in the 10/16/1989 episode of "Mama's Family" entitled "Tri-State's Most Wanted". Upon seeing a sketch of a criminal suspect drawn by daughter-in-law Naomi Harper, Mama criticzes it by saying "Oh, I didn't know ALF was on the run."

*ALF was referenced in the second season of "30 Rock". He was one of Dr. Spaceman's famous clients, appearing in a photograph on the wall.

*In November 2007, ALF appeared as a guest on "The O'Reilly Factor".

*Alf was mentioned in the Fox show Arrested Development When the star said "That's the horrible blood-sucking Alien? It looks Like ALF."

*ALF is mentioned in "Weird Al" Yankovic's song "eBay" from his "Poodle Hat" CD. In the song about the "worldwide garage sale" that is the auction website, he asks "Why did I buy that ALF alarm clock?"

*Alf is mentioned in "Scrubs", (episode 115, My Bed Banter and Beyond) when JD goes over what in his opinion is funny. "Alf... very funny."

*Alf makes an appearance, like many other characters from sci-fi and horror movies and tv-series, on the animated series Tripping the Rift episode "Creaturepalooza" from the second season.

*In Married... With Children, Peg says that a poll determined more women wanted to hook up with Alf than with Al.

*In Saved By The Bell, Zack asked Screech that he found out ALF is a puppet when Screech said that something bad happened. Screech also said once he's not allowed outside of home after ALF.

* The Radio Show Big O and Dukes constantly referenced the jokes from ALF.

* In the danish animation film "Rejsen til Saturn" / "Journey to Saturn" Alf appears in the audience of an Space Convention for nerds.

*In , the pirates come up with an excuse to not take Jonah to Tarshish, and Larry says "And ALF is coming on in half an hour".

DVD releases

Lionsgate Home Entertainment 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 unedited. Lions Gate insisted that they had no choice but to use the syndicated episodes as the original episodes' footage was too poor in quality to be used for DVD releases; it would be cost prohibitive to clean up the original broadcast versions for release.

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. On September 13, 2005 Project: Alf was released. Some prints of the DVD came with an Alf keychain as a purchasing incentive.

The two-part episodes "Try To Remember," "ALF's Special Christmas," and "Tonight, Tonight" are fused into one episode in their consecutive season sets.

The episodes "Mind Games" and "Fever" were made while in production for Season 3, yet shown on NBC as episodes for Season 4, which explains why they were in both season sets.

Other transmissions

After the series run in the United States, it went on to even greater success in reruns in many European countries.

* Latin America, On February 13, 2006 Nickelodeon started transmitting ALF through [Nick at Nite] to all Latin American countries.
* Malaysia, ALF was run on TV3 on Saturday Mornings from 2004.
* Malta, ALF was shown on MTV (Maltese Television) but has since been discontinued.
* Mexico, ALF was shown on the Mexican channel Imevisión (now called Azteca Siete), and is currently aired on Nick at Nite
* The Netherlands, ALF Originally aired on Dutch public television TROS
* New Zealand, ALF was shown on TVNZ's TV2.
* Norway, ALF was shown on NRK. Reruns were later aired on TV3.
* Pakistan, ALF was shown on PTV during the 80's.
* Paraguay, ALF is being currently transmitted on channel 4 Telefuturo
* Peru, ALF was shown by Frecuencia Latina (channel 2). This channel aired ALF in 1987.
* Philippines, ALF was shown on RPN 9 and on GMA Network.
* Poland, ALF was shown on TVP1, Polsat, RTL7 and TVN Siedem.
* Portugal, ALF was shown on Canal1 (former RTP1) and later on Sic Comédia.
* Russia, ALF was shown on STS, 1ch, Domashniy and Vostochniy Express.
* Slovakia, ALF was shown on TV Markiza.
* Serbia, ALF was shown on RTB. Currently its reruns air daily on Fox televizija at 19:30 CET.
* South Africa, ALF was shown on TV1
* Spain, ALF was shown on TVE, Canal + and Antena 3.
* Sweden, ALF aired on SVT. And in 2006 on TV4 Komedi
* Trinidad and Tobago, ALF was aired on Trinidad and Tobago Television channels 2 and 13 during the 1980s and early 1990s.
* Turkey, ALF was shown on TRT 1 and TRT 2.
* Ukraine, ALF was run on ICTV, There have been 5 separate reruns since 1997. The series returned in 2007 on ICTV
* United Kingdom, ALF was aired on ITV and Sky One, This channel aired ALF in 1990.
* Uruguay, ALF was shown on Channel 4 "Montecarlo Television". This channel aired ALF in 1987, and was shown on Wednesday nights.
* Venezuela, ALF was shown on RCTV and Televen.
* Yugoslavia, ALF was shown by RTZ (Radio-Television Zagreb)
* Turkey, ALF was shown first on TRT 1 and TRT 2 during 1980s and early 1990s. and now it is showing on RetroMax.

*As of July 2008 ALF can be seen on WGN America during Totally Awesome Retro Nights, usually in a two hour block (four episodes).

References

ee also

* ALF characters

External links

* [http://www.alftv.net/episodeguides/sitcom.html "ALF" Episode Guide]
*imdb title|id=0090390|title=ALF
*dmoz|Arts/Television/Programs/Comedy/Sitcoms/ALF/|ALF

* [http://www.hulu.com/alf "ALF" Episodes]
*imdb title|id=0090390|title=ALF
*dmoz|Arts/Television/Programs/Comedy/Sitcoms/ALF/|ALF