ALF


The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation Presents

02:26

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About

From Wikipedia:

ALF is an American science fiction sitcom that originally ran on NBC from 1986 to 1990 and was created by Paul Fusco. The title character was Gordon Shumway, a friendly extraterrestrial nicknamed ALF (for Alien Life Form), who crash lands in the garage of the suburban middle class Tanner family.

The series stars Max Wright as father Willie Tanner, Anne Schedeen as mother Kate Tanner, and Andrea Elson and Benji Gregory as their children, Lynn and Brian Tanner. The character of ALF was portrayed by a live-hand puppet operated primarily by Fusco.

Premise

ALF (Paul Fusco) follows an amateur radio signal to Earth and crash-lands into the garage of the Tanners. The Tanners are a suburban middle class family in Los Angeles, California. The family consists of social worker Willie (Max Wright), his wife Kate (Anne Schedeen), their teenage daughter Lynn (Andrea Elson), younger son Brian (Benji Gregory), and their 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 Trevor and Raquel Ochmonek (John LaMotta and Liz Sheridan), until he can repair his spacecraft. He generally hides in the kitchen. It is eventually revealed that ALF's home planet, Melmac, exploded because of a catastrophe involving nuclear war. In episode four of season one ALF tries to convince the president of the USA to stop the nuclear program as ALF is afraid that Earth might suffer a doom similar to Melmac's. ALF was off the planet because he was part of the Melmac Orbit Guard. ALF (a.k.a. Gordon Shumway) is homeless, but he isn't the last survivor of his species. He becomes a permanent member of the family, although his culture shock, survivor guilt, general boredom, despair, and loneliness frequently cause difficulty for the Tanners.

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Who talked about this show

Bernie Brillstein

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Executive producer Bernie Brillstein on being approached by Paul Fusco for ALF and the pitch to NBC
01:42

Alf Clausen

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Alf Clausen on composing for ALF
03:25
Alf Clausen on writing the theme song for ALF
03:42
Alf Clausen on his approach to composing for ALF
03:44

Bill Daily

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Bill Daily on appearing on ALF
01:46

Al Jean

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Al Jean on writing for ALF and It's Garry Shandling's Show
03:35

Russell Johnson

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Russell Johnson on appearing as "The Professor" on shows other than Gilligan's Island
00:23

Thad Mumford

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Thad Mumford on acting as supervising producer on ALF
03:17

Dawn Wells

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Dawn Wells on working on ALF
00:31

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