Facts about ALF In the US, lots of new comedy series are created every year. There are lots of concepts, the best of them are allowed to tape an pilot episode. And only if the network executives agree that this is going to be a successful show, the producers get the permission to tape a whole season. So in 1986, Paul Fusco had this idea of a TV series about an alien living in a typical american family. The concept sounded promising to the network and a pilot was recorded. Producer Paul Fusco was the voice of ALF (only in the english-language version, of course), while the other producer Tom Patchett wrote the script and directed the episode. Well, the network bosses watched it and decided that ALF was going to be a major hit series. As we all know, they have been right. Four seasons have been made of the original series, all in all including 102 episodes! In addition, two animated ALF series were produced, one called "ALF tales" and one named "ALF animated" (or just simply "ALF") about ALF's adventures back then when he lived on Melmac. So in the United States, ALF was originally aired on NBC from 1986 until 1990. It was on always Mondays at 8 p.m., the last part of the fourth season was shown Fridays at 8 p.m. Although the network tv stations normally don't re-run their shows, the first season had been shown again by NBC in their saturday-morning-cartoon-line-up, before the ALF cartoon series came up. Since 1990, when the last regular ALF episode #102 "Consider Me Gone" was shown, ALF has not been shown that often in the USA. The show has been re-run in the USA in the syndication which means that local TV stations (a different one in every town) showed it again. But of course each one at a different time (only if the local station did it at all). One of the cartoon series had been re-run later on the Family Channel, a cable network. Since April 3, 1999, ALF was shown again in the USA on a cable network called "Odyssey Channel". Until August 4, 2001, the complete series was shown several times, as was the made-for-TV ALF movie "Project: ALF". I don't know if there are any Nielsen numbers published for this, but it is said that ALF is the #1 rating show on Odyssey Channel. Unfortunately, on August 6 of the year 2001 the Odyssey Channel was renamed into Hallmark Channel and ALF is not longer aired in the United States since then. For more details, or for info on ALF being aired in other countries, please go to the ALF countries or to the "What's new?" page. Background info about ALF ALF The character ALF was originally created by Paul Fusco in 1984. He already offered his concept of a sitcom about an alien to the Disney Studios and to the Muppet-creator Jim Henson, but they rejected it, when finally he had a meeting with NBC's Brandon Tartikoff. The NBC executive Warren Littlefield, who was also present at the meeting, later described it as "the funniest presentation he ever saw." The network was convinced to produce the show, and together with co-creator Tom Patchett and executive producer Bernie Brillstein they shot more then 100 episodes. It is a common misconception that ALF was played by the only 90 cm (around 3 feet) tall Michu Mezaros. But he just portrayed ALF in the first season and part of the second season only when he needed to be seen walking. In normal scenes and in the third and fourth season the producers of the shows used other methods that did not require a costume. Creator Paul Fusco was always was ALF's voice in the original english version of the show. In the non-english versions of course other people had to be ALF's voice, f.e. Thommy Piper is ALF's german voice, he even recorded several music records as "ALF" including the Top 20 hit "Frohfest". Also ALF viewers from France or spanish-speaking countries report that ALF in their language has its own charme, so it seems like ALF always got an excellent dubbing and is just a great show to enjoy in every language. The character ALF was originally created by Paul Fusco in 1984. He already offered his concept of a sitcom about an alien to the Disney Studios and to the Muppet-creator Jim Henson, but they rejected it, when finally he had a meeting with NBC's Brandon Tartikoff. The NBC executive Warren Littlefield, who was also present at the meeting, later described it as "the funniest presentation he ever saw." The network was convinced to produce the show, and together with co-creator Tom Patchett and executive producer Bernie Brillstein they shot more then 100 episodes. It is a common misconception that ALF was played by the only 90 cm (around 3 feet) tall Michu Mezaros. But he just portrayed ALF in the first season and part of the second season only when he needed to be seen walking. In normal scenes and in the third and fourth season the producers of the shows used other methods that did not require a costume. Creator Paul Fusco was always was ALF's voice in the original english version of the show. In the non-english versions of course other people had to be ALF's voice, f.e. Thommy Piper is ALF's german voice, he even recorded several music records as "ALF" including the Top 20 hit "Frohfest". Also ALF viewers from France or spanish-speaking countries report that ALF in their language has its own charme, so it seems like ALF always got an excellent dubbing and is just a great show to enjoy in every language. Facts about the regular ALF cast members Willie Tanner is played by Max Wright It is told that his marriage has been ruined by the series ALF (his wife divorced) because the shooting of the eps took so much time. To see in what productions he had played besides ALF, look at his file at the Internet Movie Database (US server, UK server, German server). I have seen him again in "Grumpy Old Man 2", but there he has only a very short appearance. He has a bigger appearence as a guest star in one season-1-episode of the series "Early Edition" where he played the major of Chicago. He looks now very different from the ALF times, I think.   Kate Tanner is played by Anne Schedeen To see in what productions he had played besides ALF, look at his file at the Internet Movie Database, too (US server, UK server, German server) It seems like she has played in some productions again, but none of them has been aired in Germany, I think.   Lynn Tanner is played by Andrea Elson Her Filmography at IMDb (German server, German server, German server) According to the IMDb-file, she does not act that much in the last years and her appearance in "Man behaving badly" must have been very small, too.   Brian Tanner is played by Benji Gregory or Ben "Gregory" Hertzberg (his real name) Of course he has also an IMDb-page (US server, UK server, German server), but he also maintains his own internet site about Skating! It seems like he is 24 years old now.   More info about the ALF actors can be found in the People Magazine article about ALF. For more about the ALF cast and crew, you can also visit the ALF cast page. The series ALF had a fan club called "The ALFmeisters". This was their adress: ALFmeisters c/o Val Bendel 4072 Tumbleweed Trail Loves Park IL 61111 - USA - Membership was for the USA 6 $ (USD) yr. (First Class) and for other countries 9 (USD) yr. (air mail) (payable in US Funds). For this, you received two ALFormative Club Newsletters each year and three free 25 word classified ads in each newsletter (1 in each CATegory). To join, please you had to make check or money order payable to "ALFmeisters" and send the letter including you full adress and phone number to the adress above. Important current info: As Tom, one of the founders of the ALFmeisters fan club, told me recently, Val Bendel has disappeared a few years ago and right now it's not possible to contact her. But there are plans to revive the ALFmeisters Fan Club, and you will be able to hear the latest news about this in the ALF newsletter as soon as I recieve it... In Germany, ALF was first broadcasted in the ZDF ("Second German Television") in 1988. It was a big success and now (July 2000) there's the tenth rerun of ALF (Pay TV not included). There's one thing all ALF fans want to know: Who actes as ALF? In the first episodes, ALF was played by a small man wearing a costume. But they only used that technique for scenes with ALF walking. In all of the other scenes and in the complete third and fourth season, he is a puppet moved by expensive electronic processive units so that you'll never see the whole body of ALF in this episodes, mostly you only see the head. While watching the ALF episodes I like to notice if it's the old ALF of the first episodes (played by a dwarf) or the new ALF (a electronic puppet, you always see only his head and never ALF's whole body). The TV series was only produced up to 1990. The producer had stopped it because the authors had no more ideas. This is the official reason, and that's partly true, I think, but also the fact that from Season to Season less people watched ALF may have influenced their decision. And if you watch the last season, you will think that it's good that they are no more episodes because it really lost some quality. They continued the story in the 1996 made-for-TV movie "Project: ALF". You can read more about on an extra Project-ALF-page. There are many more things related to ALF in Germany which I haven't translated, but you can read it in the Fakten in the german part of Stephan's ALF-Page. Anything to add? - Comments, suggestions or something to criticize? - Please send me an e-mail! Thank you for visiting my pages! This site is in no way, shape or form, affiliated with Alien Productions, Lorimar Television or Warner Brothers who own the copyrights to "ALF" and "Project: ALF". This site is not intended to infringe on the rights of the any company who holds copyrights over the pictures, logos, names and information featured. (c) by www.tvshows.de / Stephan Ramdohr (MAXX-press-Redaktion) in 27/12/1996 Last Update: 3 October 2001