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ALF Week: Day 1- The Many Faces of ALf

     This Wednesday, September 22nd, will be the 35th anniversary of the sitcom ALF so this week we'll be celebrating the show and the Melmacian himself. If you've somehow have never seen ALF before it's about an alien named Gordon Shumway crash landing at the home of the Tanner family after his home planet, Melmac, was destroyed due to nuclear war. The Tanner's give him the name Alf because of the acronym A.L.F... alien life form GET IT!? So yeah Alf lives with them and is kind of an asshole sometimes but the Tanners still care for him even if it's frustrating to harbor an extraterrestrial in your home... but they all love each other and it's nice. Anyways I'm sure even if you haven't seen the show you know who Alf is and have probably seen him in some sort of cameo, commercial, or even in POG form. The Alf character was created by Paul Fusco who had this "alien-looking" puppet (I believe from Bob Fappiano) and would first use the puppet to entertain and insult people at parties. Fusco had always wanted to produce and direct a television show and believed this creature was the ticket. So through his producer pal Bernie Brillstein he met Tom Patchett (co-writer for The Great Muppet Caper and The Muppets Take Manhattan) and developed what would become ALF. After pitching to several networks and Disney (who really wanted to buy it but more on that later this week) it was finally pitched to Brandon Tartikoff of NBC and then... ALF happened. 

    So as I said we'll be getting to a lot of ALF this week but first I just want to start slow and really appreciate what ALF is... a weird looking alien guy. But also he's got to do the comedy baby and that means silly little costumes he would wear. I thought I would share a few of my favorite things Alf would dress up in throughout the series and give a big HA HA and slap on the table for each one.




    This first one is from Season 3 Episode 4 "Tonight, Tonight: Part 1". In this episode Alf hosts the Tonight Show in place of Johnny Carson and does his own version of Carnac the Magnificent but instead it's Melmac the Magnificent. Fucking classic. HA HA!


    This is from Season 1 Episode 22 "It Isn't Easy... Bein' Green" where the young son, Brian, has to dress up like an asparagus for some vegetable play at his school but he has stage fright so the brave and wise Alf offers his help. I just really like this one. HA HA!




    This one is possibly my favorite and I don't know why. Maybe because the cut is so sudden and it's just Alf checking himself out in a dress. Also I recently watched this one and I laughed at this image for about ten minutes before resuming the episode. It's from Season 1 Episode 2 "Strangers in the Night" where Kate and Lynn have to go to some wedding shower in the middle of the night and Willie has to return to work for a late night emergency and not wanting to leave their son alone at home with their irresponsible alien they have their nosy neighbor, Mrs. Ochmonek, come over and house sit. Meanwhile Alf is locked inside the master bedroom and puts on Kate's dress out of boredom. So goddamn funny. HA HA!

    Anyways I just wanted to share some of these funny get ups Alf has on during the show but yeah check back every day this week for more Alf stuff as we celebrate the show.


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