48 Fun Facts About ALF

What is ALF's real name back on his home planet?

ALF's real name is Gordon Shumway; Willie Tanner coins the nickname in the pilot, and the alien's family in the animated prequel are the Shumways.

What does the acronym ALF stand for?

ALF stands for Alien Life Form, the name Willie Tanner coins in the pilot because he has no idea what else to call the creature that crashed into his home.

ALF crash-lands into which part of the Tanner family's property?

ALF crash-lands into the garage of the Tanner house, and the family hides him there from the Alien Task Force for the rest of the series.

What is the name of the Tanner family cat that ALF keeps trying to eat?

The Tanners' cat is named Lucky; ALF, whose species regards cats as food, spends the series trying and failing to make a meal of him.

What is Willie Tanner's job?

Willie Tanner is a social worker, a kind but perpetually overwhelmed head of the household whose attempts at order ALF wrecks for four seasons.

Puppeteer Paul Fusco co-created ALF with which writer-producer?

Patchett also wrote and directed episodes, and his other credits include The Great Muppet Caper and The Muppets Take Manhattan.

Which actor played Willie Tanner and later admitted he was 'hugely eager to have ALF over with'?

Wright disliked playing second fiddle to a puppet that got the best lines, though he later conceded that the show brought people a lot of joy.

Who played Kate Tanner, the mother of the household?

Schedeen later described the set as a technical nightmare where a 30-minute show could take 20 to 25 hours to shoot.

Which actress played teenage daughter Lynn Tanner?

Elson had previously starred in the CBS series Whiz Kids and later married the show's stage manager, Scott Hopper.

Who played Brian Tanner, the young son who becomes ALF's sidekick?

Gregory left acting after voicing a mole in Once Upon a Forest and later served in the U.S. Navy as an aerographer's mate.

What is the surname of the Tanners' nosy neighbours, Trevor and Raquel?

The neighbours are Trevor and Raquel Ochmonek; their nephew Jake moves in with them in season two and becomes one of the few outsiders who knows about ALF.

What is the name of ALF's home planet?

ALF's home planet is Melmac; the 1987 cartoon ALF: The Animated Series is a prequel set there, before the planet was destroyed.

How was ALF's home planet destroyed?

ALF's home planet was destroyed by nuclear war; fear that Earth could go the same way drives him to phone the President in the season one episode 'Pennsylvania 6-5000'.

ALF survived the destruction of his planet because he was away serving in what?

ALF survived because he was away serving in the Orbit Guard when his planet was destroyed; the posting kept him off-world, and he later crash-lands his ship on Earth.

Which cable channel aired ALF's Hit Talk Show in 2004?

ALF's Hit Talk Show aired on TV Land in 2004, a short-lived late-night spoof in which the puppet interviewed celebrity guests from behind a desk.

In the season two episode 'Something's Wrong With Me', how many stomachs does ALF claim to have?

He adds that they make up roughly 80 percent of his species' primary organs.

In what year was ALF born, according to the show's lore?

ALF's birthday is October 28, 1756, which makes him older than the United States and roughly 230 years old when he crash-lands at the Tanners' home.

What is Kate Tanner's maiden name, shared by her mother Dorothy?

Kate was born a Halligan; her mother Dorothy Halligan, ALF's sharpest critic in the family, visits the Tanners throughout the series.

What is the name of the baby born to Kate and Willie in season three?

The baby is Eric Tanner, born in season three; the pregnancy was written into the show because the actress playing Kate was expecting in real life.

Where does ALF move after first sleeping in the Tanners' laundry room?

ALF moves into the attic, which he and Willie convert into a makeshift apartment so the alien has a room of his own away from the family.

Which actress played Kate's mother Dorothy, ALF's closest thing to an enemy on the show?

Anne Meara, half of the comedy duo Stiller and Meara, played Kate's mother Dorothy, who later marries Whizzer Deaver, played by Paul Dooley.

Who played Willie's younger brother Neal, who moves in after his wife leaves him?

Jim J. Bullock, known from Too Close for Comfort, played Neal Tanner, Willie's younger brother, who joins the cast in season four after his marriage falls apart.

What is the name of the blind woman ALF befriends, who never learns he is an alien?

The blind woman is Jody, whom ALF meets in the season one episode 'For Your Eyes Only'; through touch she knows only that her new friend is short and hairy.

Which producer, Jim Henson's longtime manager, was at first uninterested in Fusco's puppet?

Bernie Brillstein, Jim Henson's manager, was won over by a brief performance with the puppet and formed Alien Productions with the show's two creators to make it.

Which 2-foot-9 actor wore the full-body ALF costume for walking and running shots?

Michu Meszaros, a Hungarian-born circus performer billed by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey as 'the smallest man in the world', wore the full-body suit for walking shots.

Why was the full-body ALF costume dropped after the first season?

The full-body costume was dropped because it was too costly and time-consuming to shoot; the puppet, worked from below the stage, handled almost all shots afterward.

In which city's suburbs does the Tanner family live?

The Tanners' house is in the San Fernando Valley, a suburban part of Los Angeles, which is why an ordinary tract home can keep ALF hidden.

What was the nickname of the crude stand-in puppet that spared the real ALF?

The stand-in was nicknamed RALF, short for Rehearsal ALF, a crude puppet used to block scenes so the expensive real puppet stayed in good condition.

What was ALF's best season-long Nielsen ranking, reached in season two?

ALF ranked 10th for the 1987-88 television season, its second year and the peak of its four-year run; it never reached the top ten again.

What is the title of the cliffhanger episode that unexpectedly became the series finale?

'Consider Me Gone' ends with ALF captured by the Alien Task Force; NBC had given a verbal commitment to a fifth season, then withdrew it, so the cliffhanger stood for six years.

Which network finally resolved the cliffhanger with the 1996 TV movie Project: ALF?

Project: ALF aired on ABC on February 17, 1996, and was intended as a backdoor pilot for a new series that never materialised.

In Project: ALF, where have the Tanners moved, explaining their absence from the film?

The Tanners are said to have been moved to Iceland under the Witness Protection Program, and their absence is often blamed for the movie's poor reception.

Which actor co-starred in Project: ALF as an Air Force officer?

Martin Sheen played the Air Force colonel who wants ALF destroyed; Paul Fusco voiced the alien and co-wrote the television movie.

In the animated prequel series, what is the name of ALF's girlfriend?

ALF's girlfriend is Rhonda; the live-action show's season one episode 'Help Me, Rhonda' is named after her, when ALF learns she survived the planet's destruction.

In ALF: The Animated Series, in which suburb does ALF's family live?

ALF's family lives in East Velcro, a suburb on his home planet, where the cartoon follows the teenage alien before the planet's destruction.

The second animated spin-off recast the cartoon characters as figures from what kind of stories?

ALF Tales, the second cartoon, retold fairy tales with the animated cast playing the roles, with episodes named after stories such as Cinderella.

Who served as ALF's sidekick and announcer on the 2004 cable series ALF's Hit Talk Show?

Ed McMahon, Johnny Carson's longtime announcer, played the same role for ALF; the show lasted seven episodes and is regularly listed among the worst talk shows ever.

Which fast-food chain ran the 1988 'Many Faces of ALF' promotion, with puppets and cardboard records?

Burger King's 1988 promotion gave away ALF hand puppets and cardboard records of original songs performed by ALF, including 'Take Me, ALF, to the Ballgame'.

Which toy company made the ALF plush doll sold in the late 1980s?

Coleco, the company behind Cabbage Patch Kids, made the ALF plush doll that became the most visible item in the late-1980s wave of ALF merchandise.

Who voiced ALF for the German broadcast and even hit the German pop charts?

Tommi Piper, ALF's German dubbing voice, recorded albums and singles in character in the late 1980s, and a 1989 single in the ALF voice made the German singles chart.

ALF appeared in a sitcom-parody dream sequence in season two of which hacker drama?

Mr. Robot's season two episode 'eps2.4_m4ster-s1ave.aes' spends much of its running time inside a fake 1980s-style sitcom in Elliot's mind, with ALF turning up as a guest.

What replaced the bathtub electric mixer in the re-edited ALF episode 'Try to Remember'?

In the reshot version ALF uses a manual egg beater and gets amnesia from slipping and hitting his head; the original electric-mixer electrocution was dropped after complaints, and the re-edited cut replaced it in reruns.

Which NBC executive later told Fusco that cancelling ALF had been 'a big mistake'?

Brandon Tartikoff, NBC's entertainment president, had put ALF on the air after the creators pitched him the puppet, and later called the cancellation 'a big mistake'.

In the early 2000s ALF became the 'spokesalien' for what?

ALF fronted commercials for the 10-10-220 phone service, a long-distance dial-around number, sharing the spots with Terry Bradshaw and Hulk Hogan.

What hobby of Willie's produced the signal that drew ALF to Earth?

The pilot opens with Willie at his amateur radio set, and the signal it sends out is what ALF's ship follows to Earth before crash-landing at the house.

In what year did ALF premiere on NBC?

ALF premiered on NBC on September 22, 1986, and ran four seasons, ending in March 1990 with a cliffhanger.

In which season four episode does the Tanners' cat die?

In 'Live and Let Die' the Tanners' elderly cat dies and ALF, who once wanted to eat him, accepts the loss with unexpected grace, then takes in a kitten he meant to eat and keeps it.

Which comic-book publisher ran an ALF series for 50 issues starting in 1988?

Marvel Comics published ALF under its Star Comics imprint, running 50 issues from 1988 to 1992, with stories that once had ALF lift the Tanner house off its foundations.