ALF: Keeping Up Appearances
By Eric Grigs | November 15, 2020
Recently one of those irresistibly scientific quizzes popped up in my Facebook feed, asking: “How much like ALF are you?” I hesitated to click on it, partly because I wondered what clicking on it would do to the ads I’m served based on my habits and partly because I was afraid I would be told I’m 100% ALF.
Fortunately, I somehow dodged a bullet and found out I’m only 20% ALF. (Find out your results here.)
The lovable puppet alien from Melmac stole America’s hearts in the late 1980s during his four-season run and became a merchandising juggernaut in the process, despite Tom Shales of the Washington Post saying “he looks like a Teddy Ruxpin bear that was horribly disfigured by a revolving door.” The heart wants what it wants, I guess. (And who didn't want that sweet ALF phone? Sorry, Garfield.)
Fads come and go—obviously ALF is nowhere near the height of his popularity that he was over three decades ago—yet, this wisecracking, cat-eating alien still has some serious name recognition and audience goodwill. For a property not owned by a mega-corporate-conglomeration, it’s impressive that ALF’s brand has stood the test of time.
The new iPhone has nothing on this 80s tech.
Interestingly, co-creator Paul Fusco (with writer Tom Patchett) told Mental Floss: “Disney wanted to buy it. If you worked for Disney, they owned everything. They owned you, lock, stock, and barrel. I couldn’t deal with something called Walt Disney’s ALF, so I turned them down.”
We can all be thankful Fusco left that offer on the table because Disney certainly would have beaten every last penny out of his fuzzy brown body in the years following his television sitcom’s cancellation. ALF has now become almost an “anti-franchise franchise.” He doesn’t need to be in our faces all the time to survive like he was in the 80s, but he’s somehow always lurking in the background, waiting for his next bizarre surprise moment in the spotlight. Perhaps ALF works better than ever as a hit-and-run comedy agent. His weekly show got stale quick (how many new at-home hijinks can happen to an alien basically under house arrest?), but when he pops up in small doses outside the Tanner residence when you least expect it, just try to resist his abundance of charm.
Here are just a few Bouillabaseballs ALF has pitched us in his long television career:
During his own show’s 1986 - 1990 run, he provided one of the last reunions with most of the original cast of Gilligan’s Island. Alan Hale Jr., Bob Denver, Dawn Wells, and Russell Johnson all return to reprise their iconic roles when ALF’s love of the classic show has him imagining being stranded with the castaways.
The Matlock episode “The Network” from 1987 depicts Andy Griffith’s intrepid southern lawyer visiting Hollywood, encountering several celebrity guests as themselves, and wouldn’t you know it: ALF makes an appearance, making some meta Inside the Actors Studio type comments.
In the 1991 episode of Blossom “The Geek,” when Mayim Bialik’s character dreams of arriving at the Pearly Gates, it isn’t St. Peter who greets her at the entrance, it’s ALF. He immediately delivers the cheeky line: “Where did you think I went, syndication?”
The 1999 reboot Love Boat: The New Wave featured an episode “Trances of a Lifetime” where the passengers are mass hypnotized. Among them: a little girl believes her plush ALF doll comes to life to help her face her fears about her parent’s divorce.
Most recently, in 2016 ALF showed up recklessly driving on Mr. Robot during a hallucination sequence and in 2019 ALF made an appearance in the ending credits of Young Sheldon where Sheldon’s sister writes a letter to ALF.
Few can claim membership in a club with likes of comedy legends such as Paul Lynde, Joan Rivers, and Whoopi Goldberg, but ALF took his place in the coveted center square during several episodes of the 1980s Hollywood Squares revival hosted by John Davidson.
In 2004, ALF had his own short-lived talk show on the TV Land network (not quite living up to its name, ALF’s Hit Talk Show lasted only seven episodes), but he had the sidekick support of Tonight Show second-banana Ed McMahon just like Johnny Carson did. Guests included Bryan Cranston, Doris Roberts, and Dennis Franz, among others.
And long before everyone began seriously paying attention to the health of our own planet, ALF did a save-the-environment PSA for the Department of the Interior. (A total turnabout from government threat in Project: ALF to government spokesperson!) If the pace of climate change keeps up and Earth becomes uninhabitable, we humans might be searching for a new home planet sooner than we think. Then I guess we all will become 100% ALF after all.
Eric Grigs is a pop culture writer, artist, and co-host of the Pop Trash Podcast.