"He's just like E.T.," says a character of the fuzzy extraterrestrial stranded on Earth in the pilot episode of ALF. But the fun of this late 1980s family sitcom is that the sardonic ALF (an acronym for Alien Life Form) is nothing like the interplanetary innocent of Steven Spielberg's classic. With his whiplash wit and huckster sensibility, ALF (real name: Gordon Shumway from the late planet Melmac, Lower East Side) enters the lives of the Tanner family as a fully formed rascal whose spacecraft crashes into their garage one night. Worried that the feds will chop ALF up for research purposes, the Tanners--father Willie (Max Wright), a cautious civil servant who doesn't like a lot of fuss at home; wife Kate (Anne Shedeen), and kids Lynn (Andrea Elson) and Brian (Benji Gregory)--reluctantly take ALF in like a shambling, profligate uncle who cracks wise despite having fallen on hard times.
Cast and Characters
Max Wright as Willie Tanner
Anne Schedeen as Kate Tanner
Andrea Elson as Lynn Tanner
Benji Gregory as Brian Tanner
John LaMotta as Trevor Ochmonek
Liz Sheriden as Raquel Ochmonek
Josh Blake as Jake Ochmonek
JM J. Bullock as Neal Tanner (1987)
Anne Meara as Dorothy Halligan
ALF's Voice (Gordon Schumway) by Paul Fusco
Broadcast History, Episode Guide & TV Schedule First Telecast: September 22, 1986
Last Telecast: June 18, 1990
View the ALF Episode Guide Number of Episodes: 102
Number of Seasons: 4
Original Network: NBC
Original Primetime TV Schedule:
September 1986- February 1990, NBC, Monday 8:00-8:30pm
"He's just like E.T.," says a character of the fuzzy extraterrestrial stranded on Earth in the pilot episode of ALF. But the fun of this late 1980s family sitcom is that the sardonic ALF (an acronym for Alien Life Form) is nothing like the interplanetary innocent of Steven Spielberg's classic. With his whiplash wit and huckster sensibility, ALF (real name: Gordon Shumway from the late planet Melmac, Lower East Side) enters the lives of the Tanner family as a fully formed rascal whose spacecraft crashes into their garage one night. Worried that the feds will chop ALF up for research purposes, the Tanners--father Willie (Max Wright), a cautious civil servant who doesn't like a lot of fuss at home; wife Kate (Anne Shedeen), and kids Lynn (Andrea Elson) and Brian (Benji Gregory)--reluctantly take ALF in like a shambling, profligate uncle who cracks wise despite having fallen on hard times.
