ALF (TV series)

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This article discusses the sitcom. There is also Alf: The Animated Series and Alf's Hit Talk Show.

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ALF
A.L.F.
Created byTom Patchett
Paul Fusco
StarringMichu Meszaros/Paul Fusco
Max Wright
Anne Schedeen
Andrea Elson
Benji Gregory
"Lucky" cat {himself}
Country of origin United States
No. of episodes102
Production
Executive producersTom Patchett
Paul Fusco
Running time23 minutes
Original release
NetworkNBC
ReleaseSeptember 22, 1986 –
March 24, 1990

ALF is the name of an American television sitcom series produced by NBC between 1986 and 1990, inspired by and spoofing the film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). It first aired September 22, 1986.

Premise

The title character is Gordon Shumway, an alien nicknamed A.L.F. (Alien Life Form). He was born on October 28, 1756 on the Lower East side of the planet Melmac. The planet Melmac was located six parsecs past the Hydra Centaurus Supercluster and had a green sky and blue grass.

Shumway's body is covered with orange fur. He has a rippled snout, facial moles, eight stomachs, and he likes to eat cats (tabbies have been rumored as a favorite, but his preferred snack has not been definitively stated). He attended high school for 122 years and was captain of a Bouillabaisseball team (which is played on ice using shellfish as a ball).

In the pilot episode, Shumway follows an amateur radio signal and crash-lands into the garage of the Tanners. The Tanners are a suburban middle class family consisting of the social worker Willie (Max Wright), his wife Kate (Anne Schedeen), their children Lynn (Andrea Elson) and Brian (Benji Gregory Hertzberg), and the cat Lucky.

Unsure what to do, the Tanners take Shumway into their home and hide him from the Alien Task Force, the military, and their nosy neighbors (the Ochmoneks), until he can repair his spacecraft. He generally hid in the kitchen. It was eventually revealed that Melmac exploded when all its inhabitants simultaneously turned on their hair dryers, and that Shumway was not only homeless, but also, to the best of his knowledge, the last survivor of both his civilization and 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. In one episode Alf blows up the Tanner's house; in another Alf goes on a camping trip with the Tanners and nearly becomes a hunting trophy after being mistaken for an aardvark by two hunters; in a third episode Alf goes on a lost gold mine expedition with the Tanners and nearly drives Willie Tanner to the breaking point.

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 the Tanner family and without, 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, a reference to the Wizard of Oz), the Ochmoneks' nephew Jake, 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, 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.

Cast

File:Alftitle.jpg
Max Wright, Anne Schedeen, Benji Gregory, & Andrea Elson with Alf from the Alf Season 1 & Season 2 title sequence.

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

DVD Releases

The first ALF DVD (The ALF Files) was released, exclusively in Canada, on November 1, 2002. This release contained three episodes, those being "Tonight, Tonight", "Try to Remember", and "ALF's Special Christmas".

On August 10, 2004, the first season of the show was released on DVD in the United States using syndicated versions of the episodes, not the NBC originals. Online fan disappointment was expressed because the DVD release featured versions of the episodes which have several minutes cut from them.

On September 13, 2005, the 1996 reunion movie, "Project: Alf" was released on DVD. Some prints of the DVD came with an Alf keychain as a purchasing incentive.

As of September 5, 2006, all four seasons have been released on DVD in the United States (again, all with edited syndicated versions). The producers of the DVDs (Lion's Gate), insist 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 the DVD releases; claiming it would be too cost prohibitive to clean up the original broadcast versions for release. [1] There are no known plans to re-release the DVDs with the original network editions.

Other Transmissions

After the series run in the United States, it went on to even greater success in reruns in many European countries, including United Kingdom, Poland, Bulgaria, Germany and Slovakia. The series was so popular in Germany in fact that the made-for-TV Film "Project ALF" was released there theatrically under the name "Alf - Der Film" ("Alf - The Movie") and was panned by critics and fans particularly for the Tanners' absence. It continued where the show left off as ALF was captured by the U.S. army and is imprisioned in a desert base similar to Area 51.

Australia

ALF was shown on the Seven Network.

Austria

ALF was shown on ORF1.

Costa Rica

In Costa Rica the show is being displayed through Channel 7. The show starts Saturdays at 12:30 pm (local time). This shows that the show has gained an immense popularity, due to its time slot.

Finland

ALF was shown on MTV3.

France

ALF was shown on France 2.

Germany

ALF was first shown from January 5 1988 to June 28 1991 on ZDF. 100 of 102 episodes were translated into German - Tonight, Tonight was skipped, since Johnny Carson is not known in Germany. Reruns were shown on Sat.1, Kabel 1, Junior, Pro 7, RTL II and Premiere (Premiere is a Pay-TV-Network, but the ALF-Episodes were shown for free).

Ireland

ALF was shown on cable TV.

Italy

ALF was run on RAI

Japan

ALF was run on NHK of Japan.

The Netherlands

ALF Originally aired on Dutch public television with TROS. It was rerun recently by a commercial cable station in a childrens television time slot.

Peru

ALF is being transmitted in Peru by Frecuencia Latina (channel 2). This channel first displayed ALF in 1987. In the year 2006 the series has been emitted Monday through Friday at 02:00 pm (local time).

Russia

ALF was shown on STS, 1ch and Domashniy-channel.

Ukraine

ALF was run on ICTV in Ukrainian traslation. There have been 5 reruns since 1997. On the March 8, 2000 ICTV launched the ALF Marathon, the series were shown all the day long with breaks only for the news blocks.

United Kingdom

ALF was aired on ITV 1.

Venezuela

ALF was shown on RCTV. This channel displayed ALF in 1987.

Yugoslavia

ALF was shown on RTB. In the first episode, Belgrade and Yugoslavia are mentioned.

Turkey

ALF was shown on TRT 1.

Others

On February 13, 2006 Nickelodeon started transmitting ALF through Nick @ Nite to all Latin American countries.

Spinoffs

Animated Series

To capitalize on the success of the series, a spinoff animated series arose and aired on Saturday mornings on NBC. Alf: The Animated Series, (AKA Alf on Melmac) set on ALF's home planet of Melmac, ran from 1987 to 1988. 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 with 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 (Earthly) 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

File:AlfAnnual1.jpg
Cover to Marvel Comics' ALF Annual #1.

An ALF comic book was published by Star Comics (and eventually Marvel Comics) beginning in 1987 and ran for four years, 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 Comic characters and other pop culture parodies in the form of "Melmac Flashbacks". Towards the end of the series, when the cancellation of the series was imminent, the series 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.

This movie did not feature any of the Tanner family from the original series, but did star other actors such as Martin Sheen, Ed Begley Jr, and Ray Walston.

Trivia

  • 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.
  • 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 everyone of the authors.' [citation needed]
  • 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. It is not very fondly remembered by Master System enthusiasts. There was also a (different) computer game with versions for the Commodore 64 as well as other computers.
  • Recently, ALF has been appearing in one of the numerous long-distance dialing plan commercials on American television. ALF has made many appearances on Hollywood Squares.
  • In the 1996 Made-for-TV movie, ALF states an intense dislike for the Fox Television Network. In the movie tease, Alf has become so adept at playing poker with his guards since his capture that he wins enough possessions to fill an aircraft hanger.
  • Like many shows of its day, ALF also had a trading card series. Most featured stills from various episodes, but a few cards depicted baseball players complete with bogus stats like "Splats."
  • ALF appeared (in parody) in an episode of Family Guy as a recovering drug addict in a flashback special on VH-1.
  • ALF appeared briefly on Chappelle's Show as a ghost figure, but the puppet design was rushed.
  • Jerry Stahl wrote the book Permanent Midnight, detailing his heroin abuse while writing for various television programs, including ALF. The book went on to become a film of the same name with Ben Stiller. Coincidentally Ben Stiller's mother made her first appearance as Kate's mother in an episode penned by Jerry Stahl.
  • Each episode is named after a piece of music.
  • A breakfast cereal called Crispy Critters appeared breifly in the 80's featuring comercials in which Crispy, a teddybear-like orange creature played the piano and sang the jingle. It was revealed that Crispy was the original model for Alf (He was orange, furry, and had alien-style antenna).
  • Alf has been referenced numerous times on [Adult Swim]'s series "Stroker and hoop".
  • In the episode "Weird Science" (aired April 13, 1987) Brian gets into trouble when he repeats some of ALF's knowledge, that there were two planets beyond Pluto; Alan and Dave. This turned out to be mostly accurate. Now we know more about trans-neptunian planetary objects, which were discovered much after the series ended. Willy even references a possible candidate for Alan; Charon.

See also

Wikiquote has quotations related to ALF (TV series).

External links

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