SYNOPSIS
Well, what would you do if an alien's
spaceship into your garage!?!? Call the police? If you lived in a TV sitcom, you
would probably do just what the Tanners did - hide him in the kitchen and enjoy
years of laughs. Actually, there was a little more to the plot of
ALF
than that.
The
furry little creature, nicknamed ALF, (for "Alien Life Form"),
landed on the Tanners' garage when his spacecraft went out of control.
Unfortunately the ship couldn't be fixed, and anyway, his home planet of Melmac
had just blown up, so ALF took up residence in the pleasant suburban Tanner
home, disrupting their formerly boring life and commenting sarcastically (in a
gravelly voice provided by the show's co-creator, Paul Fusco) on the foibles of earthlings. The dense neighbors, the Ochmoneks
like all sitcom neighbors,
never
figured out what was going on.
A
baby named Eric was born to the Tanner household in 1989, giving ALF new human customs
to wisecrack about, and Willie's eager-to-please younger brother, Neal, showed up
a few times
in the last season to add variety. In a final episode cliffhanger in March 1990, ALF was
contacted by Melmacians Skip and Rhonda, who invited him to leave with them and
colonize a new planet - just as the U.S. Government's Alien Task Force closed
the furry little wisecracker.
ALF
was a novelty
hit in the 1986-1987 season, leading to
ALF
dolls and other
kids' paraphernalia. NBC even issued an official biography of its Monday night
star. He was
said to be 229-years-old (I've got dandruff older than your country") and had
attended Melmac High School for 122 years where he majored in software and was
co-captain of the Bouillabaisse-ball team. Adult occupations included Assistant Boxleitner,
part-time male model, and operator of his own phlegm dealership. Hobbies
included gerrymandering and snacking on cats, a Melmackian delicacy (the
Tanners' cat, Lucky, was often seen scurrying from the room). Height: "Fluctuates with weight." Weight:
"Till the Sun Shines Nellie!"
The
creators of this fanciful comedy comedy were Fusco and actor/producer Tom Patchett;
a
frequent director was TV comic Peter Bonerz. A three-foot tall midget by the
name of Michu Meszaros was inside the ALF costume. (when scenes called for him
to walk around) during the first season.
An
animated version of
ALF,
recounting Gordon Shumway's exploits on the planet Melmac, ran on NBC's Saturday
morning lineup from September 1987 to August 1990.
