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48 free ALF trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
50 free ALF trivia questions with answers. ALF was the furry alien who ate the 1980s alive: four seasons on NBC, a Saturday-morning cartoon, a Marvel comic, a Burger King record deal and $250 million in merchandise in a single year. This quiz covers all of it. Fifty questions run from the basics (his real name, his home planet, the cat he keeps trying to eat) through the Tanner family and their neighbours, the miserable trapdoor set that Max Wright fled without a goodbye, the censored bathtub scene, the cliffhanger that NBC never resolved, and the 1996 movie Project: ALF that finally did. Easy questions ask where ALF crash-landed and what the acronym stands for; the hard ones want his birth year, how many stomachs he claims, which Muppet inspired his voice and which German pop singer dubbed him. It's built for anyone who grew up with a Coleco ALF doll on the bed. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the series, the character, the spin-offs and the cast, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is ALF's real name back on his home planet?
Gordon Shumway
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.
Q 02What does the acronym ALF stand for?
Alien Life Form
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.
Q 03ALF crash-lands into which part of the Tanner family's property?
The garage
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.
Q 04What is the name of the Tanner family cat that ALF keeps trying to eat?
Lucky
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.
Q 05What is Willie Tanner's job?
Social worker
Willie Tanner is a social worker, a kind but perpetually overwhelmed head of the household whose attempts at order ALF wrecks for four seasons.
Q 06Puppeteer Paul Fusco co-created ALF with which writer-producer?
Tom Patchett
Patchett also wrote and directed episodes, and his other credits include The Great Muppet Caper and The Muppets Take Manhattan.
Q 07Which actor played Willie Tanner and later admitted he was 'hugely eager to have ALF over with'?
Max Wright
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.
Q 08Who played Kate Tanner, the mother of the household?
Anne Schedeen
Schedeen later described the set as a technical nightmare where a 30-minute show could take 20 to 25 hours to shoot.
Q 09Which actress played teenage daughter Lynn Tanner?
Andrea Elson
Elson had previously starred in the CBS series Whiz Kids and later married the show's stage manager, Scott Hopper.
Q 10Who played Brian Tanner, the young son who becomes ALF's sidekick?
Benji Gregory
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.
Q 11What is the surname of the Tanners' nosy neighbours, Trevor and Raquel?
Ochmonek
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.
Q 12What is the name of ALF's home planet?
Melmac
ALF's home planet is Melmac; the 1987 cartoon ALF: The Animated Series is a prequel set there, before the planet was destroyed.
Q 13How was ALF's home planet destroyed?
Nuclear war
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'.
Q 21Which actress played Kate's mother Dorothy, ALF's closest thing to an enemy on the show?
Anne Meara
Anne Meara, half of the comedy duo Stiller and Meara, played Kate's mother Dorothy, who later marries Whizzer Deaver, played by Paul Dooley.
Q 22Who played Willie's younger brother Neal, who moves in after his wife leaves him?
Jim J. Bullock
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.
Q 23What is the name of the blind woman ALF befriends, who never learns he is an alien?
Jody
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.
Q 14ALF survived the destruction of his planet because he was away serving in what?
The Orbit Guard
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.
Q 15Which cable channel aired ALF's Hit Talk Show in 2004?
TV Land
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.
Q 16In the season two episode 'Something's Wrong With Me', how many stomachs does ALF claim to have?
Eight
He adds that they make up roughly 80 percent of his species' primary organs.
Q 17In what year was ALF born, according to the show's lore?
1756
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.
Q 18What is Kate Tanner's maiden name, shared by her mother Dorothy?
Halligan
Kate was born a Halligan; her mother Dorothy Halligan, ALF's sharpest critic in the family, visits the Tanners throughout the series.
Q 19What is the name of the baby born to Kate and Willie in season three?
Eric
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.
Q 20Where does ALF move after first sleeping in the Tanners' laundry room?
The attic
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.
Q 24Which producer, Jim Henson's longtime manager, was at first uninterested in Fusco's puppet?
Bernie Brillstein
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.
Q 25Which 2-foot-9 actor wore the full-body ALF costume for walking and running shots?
Michu Meszaros
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.
Q 26Why was the full-body ALF costume dropped after the first season?
It was too costly and time-consuming
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.
Q 27In which city's suburbs does the Tanner family live?
Los Angeles
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.
Q 28What was the nickname of the crude stand-in puppet that spared the real ALF?
RALF
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.
Q 29What was ALF's best season-long Nielsen ranking, reached in season two?
10th
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.
Q 30What is the title of the cliffhanger episode that unexpectedly became the series finale?
Consider Me Gone
'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.