I love ALF

As we all know, "ALF" stands for a lot more than just "Alien Life Form". It stands for nostalgic, 80's hilarity and originality at its best! Created by Paul Fusco, who is from my hometown of Hamden, and originally performed at small rock clubs, ALF's ridiculously sarcastic charm wormed its way into the nation's heart in the 80's. First premiering in 1986, he's from the planet Melmac, he eats cats, and lint is more valuable than gold on his planet. His planet blew up after everyone on Melmac plugged in their hair dryers at once. He ended up in the home of Willie Tanner, with his wife, son and daughter. Hilarity ensues when there is a culture clash of milquetoast human and party animal alien.



Now that we've gotten the facts out of the way, I would like to say that ALF has a huge nostalgic value for me. I used to tape the show on Beta (competitor to VHS, smaller, high-quality) tapes. It is the first show I remember ever taping because I liked it so much. I may still have the tapes somewhere, I'm not sure. As a child of the 80's, there was something immensely appealing about this concept of a wise-cracking alien in a family home. He could be as snarky as he wanted to be and the parents couldn't punish him. He just had to hide from the neighbors, the Ochmoneks (I had to do some research on the spelling), the wife, Raquel, was played by the actress that played Jerry Seinfeld's mom on Seinfeld, Liz Sheridan.
ALF was truly a show of the 80's, and on top of the concept and the writing, there was something visually appealing, probably because of its uniqueness, about the way ALF looked, especially in that suburban setting. It was a contrast no other show had. It was just fun to watch. I know I've spoken to at least one other person who used to tape the show (although he was much older and his dad probably didn't have to help him, it shows the trans-generational appeal of the show).

Final notes: I remember there was a question on the show "Fun House" with J.D. Roth where the question was "what does ALF stand for?" I rolled my eyes just at the question, but it was multiple choice (!) and the only other one I remember was "astronaut's little friend". Now, that's just insulting.
Also: Al Jean and Mike Reiss, writers of The Simpsons wrote some episodes of the show (Mike Reiss is from Bristol and I met him and saw him speak, he is smart and hilarious) ALF made a splash in the 80's, and despite some inexplicably unpopular ideas, such as his short-lived talk show, he seems to be making a comeback, what with his recent appearance on The O'Reilly Factor, which generated a high amount of viewer mail. ALF Lives!