ALF (TV series)

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"Hello, is this the Lucky Lantern? I would like to order some sweet and sour cat."

"Haaa! I kill me." —ALF's Catch Phrase

The brainchild of puppeteer/producer Paul Fusco, Alf is the story of Gordon Shumway, a hapless Alien Life Form who crash lands in the backyard of the Tanner family after his home planet, Melmac, explodes. The original series lasted from September, 1986 to March, 1990 for a total of 102 episodes in four seasons.

As is typical of the Alien Among Us plot, Alf has to deal with the particular protocols of living on earth. In a subversion, however, he is not depicted as particularly advanced or powerful. He's a little freaky teddy-bear monster, who is lazy, gluttonous, and tries to eat the family cat (cats were his home world's equivalent to chickens). He hides out in the attic, and makes no attempts to ever leave the house, perfectly content to freeload off the family patriarch, Willie, and tease the Nosy Neighbor Raquel Ochmonek.

The show unexpectedly ended on a season cliff hanger, with Alf being taken off to an undisclosed location by government agents. A later Made for TV Movie would reveal the result and provide closure for the series. Despite being relatively formulaic, the show was original in many regards, and had a loyal following.

While viewers saw a delightful, lighthearted sitcom, the show is noted for having been very grueling for the cast, and a hotbed of tension and discomfort when the cameras were off. The technical demands of the ALF puppet required a myriad of trapdoors on set, which had to be reset many times during even a single scene. This led to the show being shot in a very halting, piecemeal fashion, with a single 30-minute episode sometimes taking 20-25 hours of studio time to complete. The effects on the cast were devastating; for example, Andrea Elson (Lynn) suffered from depression and bulimia during the series, while Max Wright (Willie), both physically exhausted and resentful of playing straight man to a puppet, reportedly left the studio immediately after the final shot of the series finale, without even saying goodbye to fellow cast members.

An Animated Adaptation, ALF: The Animated Series, was broadcast from September, 1987 to January, 1989. It depicted Gordon's life on Melmac before he came to earth. It introduced Gordon's family members and friends , such as little sister Augie and girlfriend Rhonda (both voiced by Paulina Gillis). A villain threatening Melmac was also introduced to add some tension. He was called Larson Petty (a pun on petty larceny). The show had its own Spin-Off, ALF Tales, which had the characters as Animated Actors performing modernized versions of classic stories.

There was also a comic book adaptation which tended to play down the sitcom aspects in favor of giving him strange technological toys; it seemed more inspired by the Animated Adaptation than the original sitcom and would in fact often include stories set on Melmac, usually with the framing story of Alf telling the Tanners of life on his home planet. (Willie and Kate, for some unexplained reason, found these flashbacks incredibly tedious. Lynn was fairly indifferent to them, and Brian loved them.)

A licensed ALF video game was released by Sega in 1989.

Alf was voiced and performed by Fusco. Recently, the character has been resurrected in various capacities; in 2004, a late-night talk show format (called ALF's Hit Talk Show; it only lasted seven episodes) and in commercials during the late-1990s, most notably one for the long-distance service "10-10-220".

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Tropes used in ALF (TV series) include:

• Aliens Speaking English: They even have English names.
• Amusing Alien
• Christmas Episode
• The Couch
• Crossover: ALF (and Fusco, of course) appeared on The Hollywood Squares several times, even hosting a game, as well as Gilligan's Island.
  • And let's not overlook the biggest, cartooniest, most Drugs-Are-Bad-iest elephant in the room either.
• Deadpan Snarker: Guess who?
  • Also Willie, Kate, and Jake.
• The Dog Is an Alien: ALF does this from time to time, with varying degrees of success. For instance, on one occasion, he's seen by a hobo who thinks he's a kangaroo... and promptly leaps off the train they were riding.
• The Eighties
• Eighties Hair: Lynn.
• Exposed Extraterrestrials: Alf is smart enough to crack wise with the Tanners, but can't be bothered to put on a pair of pants.
• Follow the Leader: This is basically a comic version of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, including Alf's Earth name being derived from what he is.
• Fun with Acronyms: Alf (Alien Life (or Laugh) Form).
  • This leads to a bit of Fridge Logic in Real Life: Fusco's puppet is named Alf. He insisted on it being addressed like any other actor. That means the puppet Alf portrayed the biological alien character Gordon Shumway, who was nicknamed A.L.F. by another character. This makes A.L.F. The Danza.
    • Incidentally: Tommi Piper, the German voice actor of Alf, also dubbed Tony Danza most of the time.
• Holding Both Sides of the Conversation: In one episode, Alf manages to get himself into a situation wherein he has to (vocally) play the role of a hostage-taker as well as a whole bunch of hostages.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Song titles.
• Last of His Kind: Due to the explosion of Melmac.
  • However, there are other survivors.
• Left Hanging: Cancellation made the last episode aired an unresolved cliffhanger, with Alf surrounded by government agents and facing certain vivisection.
  • Luckily, the TV Movie solved this by having him rescued.
• Nosy Neighbor: Raquel Ochmonek. Also serves as a Drop-In Character.
• Prima Donna Director: Reportedly Paul Fusco was like this on the set. He was convinced that Alf was in fact real and didn't even care for the safety of the cast members in case a trapdoor came loose as he was more concerned about how Alf would look at certain angles. Fusco's behavior was possibly the main reason for the nightmarish production of the series.
• Rear Window Witness: In one episode, Alf (house-bound because he's an alien) thinks he witnesses a neighbor commit murder.
• Risky Business Dance: In "Looking for Lucky".
• The Television Talks Back: A regular occurrence on the Animated Adaptation. People even reach through the screen to grab the Shumways from time to time.
• They'd Cut You Up
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Willie and Kate Tanner. Apparently, the kids more closely resemble the mother.
• The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: Lynn Tanner.
• Whole-Episode Flashback:The comic would often include these to tell stories set on Melmac. These stories were either stories of Alf's own life, with the setting from the cartoon, or parodies of famous stories or historical events, starring an Expy of Alf (sometimes one of his ancestors).