ALF (TV series)

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ALF
A.L.F.
Genre	Sitcom
Creator(s)	Tom Patchett Paul Fusco
Starring	Michu Meszaros Paul Fusco Max Wright Anne Schedeen Andrea Elson Benji Gregory "Lucky" cat {himself}
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	102
Production
Executive producer(s)	Tom Patchett Paul Fusco
Running time	23 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Original run	September 22, 1986 – March 24, 1990
Links

ALF is a sitcom that originally ran on US network NBC from 1986 to 1990.

[edit] 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, blue grass and a purple sun. The commonly-used currency is "Foam".

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 as a result of a nuclear war, 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 anteater 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), her husband Whizzar, 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.

[edit] Cast

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

• 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 2-3)
• JM J. Bullock - Neal Tanner (season 4)
• Lucky the Cat - himself

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

• Andrea Covell - Jody
• Bill Daily - Larry
• Anne Meara - Dorothy Halligan Deverg
• Paul Dooley - Whizzar Deverg

[edit] Production

Paul Fusco is notoriously secretive about his character. During the show's production, Fusco refused to acknowledge that Alf was anything other than an alien. 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.

Also, 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."

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.

[edit] DVD Releases

Lions Gate Entertainment has released all 4 Seasons of ALF on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time. Unfortunately, all releases contain edited episodes (syndicated versions). Lion's Gate Entertainment 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]

Video Service Corp. (VSC) released two DVD's of ALF. The first entitled The ALF Files, was released exclusively in Canada, on November 1, 2002. It contained three episodes, those being "Tonight, Tonight", "Try to Remember", and "ALF's Special Christmas".

On September 13, 2005, Video Service Corp. released the 1996 reunion movie-, Project: Alf. Some prints of the DVD came with an Alf keychain as a purchasing incentive.

[edit] Other Transmissions

After the series run in the United States, it went on to even greater success in reruns in many European countries, including the 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 imprisoned in a desert base similar to Area 51.

• Argentina, ALF is being currently transmitted in Nick @ Nite.
• Australia, ALF was shown on the Seven Network.
• Austria, ALF was shown on ORF1.
• Brazil, ALF is being currently transmitted in Nick @ Nite. ALF was also shown on SBT and in early 90's on TV Globo.
• Belgium, ALF was shown on Kanaal 2
• Bulgaria, ALF was shown on Kanal 1 and bTV.
• Canada, ALF was shown on Family Channel.
• Chile, Alf is being transmitted on Nick @ Nite and RedTV
• 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.
• Czech Republic, ALF was shown on ČT1.
• 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).
• Guatemala, ALF is being currently transmitted in Nick @ Nite and also on Channel 13 of national television everydays at 9:00 pm (local time).
• India, ALF was shown on POGO, a children's entertainment channel belonging to the ZEE - Turner Network.
• Indonesia, ALF was shown on TVRI, the national TV network.
• Ireland, ALF was shown on Radio Telifís Éireann, the national TV network.
• Israel, ALF was shown on the IBA1 channel, as a part of the Arab programing.
• Italy, ALF was run on RAI and Telemontecarlo (TMC, now LA7)
• Japan, ALF was run on NHK of Japan.
• Malaysia, ALF was run on TV3 in Saturday Mornings from 2004.
• Mexico, ALF was shown in the Mexican channel Azteca Siete, and is being currently transmitted on Nick @ Nite.
• The Netherlands, ALF Originally aired on Dutch public television with TROS. It was rerun recently by a commercial cable station in a children's television time slot.
• Norway, ALF was shown on NRK. Reruns were later aired on TV3.
• 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), and is currently transmitted on Nick @ Nite.
• Philippines, ALF was shown previously on RPN 9 both animated and TV series and presently seen on GMA Network 7.
• Poland, ALF was shown on 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 and Domashniy-channel.
• Slovakia, ALF was shown on TV Markiza.
• Spain, ALF was shown on TVE and TVE2.
• 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.
• 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. The series returned on March 12, 2007 on ICTV with a great success.
• United Kingdom, ALF was aired on ITV and Sky One (1990).
• Uruguay, ALF was shown in Channel 4 "Montecarlo Television". It was launched in June 17th 1987, and was aired each Wednesday night.
• 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. Currently aired daily on Fox TV at 19:30 CET
• Turkey, ALF was shown first on TRT 1 during early 1980s and late 1990s. It was aired on a now defunt channel for a while on late 1990s and now it is showing on RetroMax, which is a channel of Digiturk (Turkish Satellite television)
• Others, On February 13, 2006 Nickelodeon started transmitting ALF through Nick @ Nite to all Latin American countries.

[edit] Episodes

[edit] Season 1: 1986-1987

[edit] Season 2: 1987-1988

[edit] Season 3: 1988-1989

#	Title	Screenshot	Overview	Original Airdate [edit] Spinoffs [edit] 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 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. [edit] Marvel Comics 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. [edit] 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 from the original series, but they were briefly referenced in the movie. [edit] See also Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: ALF (TV series) Alf's Hit Talk Show Alf: The Animated Series ==External links== ALF Episode Guide -- by Dean Adams ALF at the Internet Movie Database Alf at TV.com ALF at the Open Directory Project (suggest site)