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ALF is a Sitcom that originally ran on NBC from 1986 to 1990 . PREMISE The title character is Gordon Shumway, an alien Nickname d 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 Parsec s past the Hydra-Centaurus Supercluster and had a green sky, blue grass and a purple sun. The commonly-used currency is "Foam". ALF'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 Bouillabaisse ball team (which is played on ice using shellfish as a ball). In the Pilot Episode , ALF follows an Amateur Radio signal and crash-lands into the garage of the Tanners. The Tanners are a white 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 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 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. 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 "Alvin" 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 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 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, 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. At the time, the show was in limbo as to whether it would get a fifth season. 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.) CAST
Michu Meszaros was the actor within the Alf costume. Paul Fusco operated the Alf puppet (assisted by puppeteers Lisa Buckley and Bob Fappiano), 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
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. 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. Fusco was the primary puppeteer, using one of his hands to control ALF's mouth while the other hand was left to control one of the puppet's arm. Also, during tapings, Paul would wear a "halo" which was used to record his voice for the ALF character. 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 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. All of this made for a painstaking process and there were countless mistakes and retakes. Of course none of them made it into the final cut. 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." Often during rehearsals Mr. Fusco would just 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.) OTHER TRANSMISSIONS After the series run in the United States, it went on to even greater success in reruns in many European countries. 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.
EPISODES Season 1: 1986-1987 Season 2: 1987-1988 Season 3: 1988-1989 Season 4: 1989-1990 DVD RELEASES Lions Gate Home Entertainment has released all four seasons of ''ALF'' on DVD in Region 1 . All releases contain edited episodes (syndicated versions). Lions Gate stated 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. (VSC) 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"''. On September 13 , 2005 , they released the 1996 reunion movie, '''Project: Alf'''. 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 probably explains why they were in both season sets. SPINOFFS Animated Series To capitalize on the success of the series, a ,'' (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 Tale s. Select episodes of the first season of the cartoon are included as a special feature on the ALF: Season 2 DVD. 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. It did not feature any of the Tanner family from the original series, but they were briefly referenced in the movie. TRIVIA
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