ALF acronym of the English expression "Alien Life Form" was a popular series of American television. First displayed on September 22, 1986, directed by Peter Bonerz, and originally broadcast on NBC from 1986 to 1990, he was inspired and parodied the film ET the Extra-Terrestrial, Steven Spielberg (1982).
ALF, whose real name is Gordon Shumway, the planet Melmac (Paul Fusco) follows an amateur radio signal to Earth and ends up falling in the garage of the Tanner family home. Tanner is a typical middle-class family in Riverside, California. The family consists of social worker Willie (Max Wright), his wife Kate (Anne Schedeen), her teenage daughter Lynn (Andrea Elson), the younger son Brian (Benji Gregory), and the Lucky Cat.
Not knowing exactly what to do, the Tanner lead ALF home and hide the Alien Task Force (an army grouping seeking aliens) and their neighbors tucked Trevor and Rachel Ochmonek (John LaMotta and Liz Sheridan), until he can repair your spaceship. ALF is usually hidden in the kitchen. He becomes a permanent member of the family, although the culture shock, loneliness and homesickness often cause problems for Tanner.
Eventually it is revealed that Melmac was destroyed by a disaster involving nuclear bombs (though in the first ALF episodes has said that his planet exploded by an electrical overload when all the inhabitants have linked hair dryer simultaneously). He was not in his planet because it was part of the Guard Orbital Melmac. In the fourth episode of the series, ALF tries to convince the American president to stop the nuclear program for fear that the Earth has the same destination Melmac.
Although much of science fiction in ALF has been seen in a humorous way, there are references to actual topics in space exploration, as he used a radio signal at the beginning of the story. In the episode "Weird Science", ALF builds for Brian a model of the solar system for your science project, but there are two planets after Pluto, called "Dave" and "Alvin", which causes problems to Brian at school. However, after Willie give a call to an astronomy organization, he explains Brian that "Dave" may have been the planetoid Chiron 2060 (discovered in 1977 by astronomer Charles T. Kowal).
The original series had 102 episodes, each with the name of a song related to the topic discussed, where ALF learns about Earth culture and make new friends in and out of the Tanner family, including Neal (Jim J. Bullock), Brother Willie; Dorothy (Anne Meara), Kate's mother, with whom he has a relationship of love and hate and whom he calls "witch", as it threatens to turn it over to the military; Whizzer (Paul Dooley), Dorothy's husband; Jake, the nephew of Ochmonek neighbors; Larry (Bill Daily), a psychologist; and a blind woman named Jody (Andrea Covell) ever realizes that ALF is an alien, although perceived by touch he has short stature and is hairy.
Several changes occur in the Tanner family throughout the series, as the birth of a new child, the construction of a small apartment for ALF and the death of Lucky cat, it shows respect ALF although always have tried to get the cat to play their species even though it would not work at all, even if he became the best type of Melmac, the "cat lover".
ABC offered Fusco a lock for the arc of history and produced a television movie in 1996 called Project ALF, co-starring Martin Sheen. The film (produced by Paul Fusco Productions) shows ALF escaping from a military base where he had been kept for testing, but scientists think it will help you really are conspiring to expose its existence to the world on a talk show.
Fusco ALF remained in the public eye as much as possible after Project ALF. Between 1996 and 2001, ALF made several appearances in TV shows, including The Cindy Margolis Show, Talk Soup and The Love Boat: The Next Wave. Fusco ALF also presented at the show 75 years of NBC and the TV Land Awards 2003. In 2004, he revived his best moments in Hollywood Squares, and also became the "spokesalien" (a pun for "spokeman"). The ALF mershandising also returned with posters, pictures and T-shirts.
The launch of the original sitcom DVD in the United States and Canada was the target of much criticism and memories of fans due to the insistence of Lions Gate Entertainment distributor in using edited versions instead of remastering the original versions without the NBC broadcast of cuts, resulting in sales low. Moreover, the release of the German DVD includes full episodes.
The rebirth of ALF led to the emergence of the ALF's Hit Talk Show in 2004, created and produced by Fusco for TV Land. The show was a mixture of chat with celebrities and skits filmed in front of a live audience from Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. September 2006 marked the 20th anniversary of ALF debut on US TV; In November 2007, he appeared as "Icon of the Week TV" on The O'Reilly Factor program.
In August 2012, Fusco confirmed that Sony Pictures Animation had acquired the rights to ALF and develop a hybrid production between generated images live action computadore. The producer of The Smurfs, Jordan Kerner, would also produce the film along with Tom Patchett and Fusco.
Original name
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ALF
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Seasons
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4
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Episodes
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102
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Period
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1986 a 1990
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Format
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Sitcom
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Average duration
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23 minutes
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Creators
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Tom Patchett and Paul Fusco
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Country of origin
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USA
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Original language
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English
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Producers
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Tom Patchett and Paul Fusco
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Issuer of original television
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US NBC
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Original broadcast
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22 September 1986 - 24 March 1990
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The character ALF
The ALF body is covered with the brown (the color described by him is "sienna brown"). He has a wrinkled nose, signs on the face, eight stomachs and the heart located, apparently in the head. Like to burp, eat cats and had a best friend called Malhar Naik. He also had a friend named Skip and a friend (who would go out with him on the anniversary, but on the same day hear the explosion of Melmac) call Rhonda, who also escaped the explosion. He attended school for 122 years and was captain of bouillabaisseball team, which plays with seafood instead of a ball.
ALF has a huge appetite, eating everything it finds. He is a troublemaker, sarcastic, cynical and clumsy, and sometimes puts himself at risk of being discovered while making one of his unintentional jokes. However, when things go too far, he strives to correct their mistakes, usually with good results. When Lynn was struggling to get money to buy a car, ALF sold part of its spacecraft using the money to buy a Ferrari for her. In one episode, he tries to help Brian to gain confidence in school, giving him a "tooth of luck" that he says have helped him to be a star on Melmac. On another occasion, it helps Dorothy cope with the death of Sparky and accepts the friendship of Whizzer.
After the nearby Raquelle Ochmonek be ridiculed on TV by claiming to have seen ALF, he calls the program to defend it. ALF also helps Rachel to put your image on her TV, which appears claiming to be from space and thanks for believing in him (but asks to leave two pies for him outside, trying to take advantage even when the help). He has at least 30 relatives, cousins "Pretty Boy Shumway" and "Blinky" uncles "Tinkle" and "Goomer", the Shumway Grandma, Brother Curtis, parents Bob and Flo, and Bubba uncles, Wagner and Eugene . During a crisis amnesia, he believes to be an insurance broker named Wayne Schlegel.
ALF – Interesting Facts
ALF - Cast, Character & Players
Most Controversial Final Series
