35TH ANNIVERSARIES

 Our fourth week of our anniversary celebration goes on with the shows reaching

SMF ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION (PART 5)

This weekend, we continue our 3 year anniversary celebration.

As we celebrate, we figured we'd also take the opportunity to celebrate the various other programs enjoying anniversaries this year (at least at an interval of 5). Some we've covered, some we'll get to covering sooner or later, but all of them represent Saturday morning. For this installment, we recognize those shows turning 30. Yeah, let that sink in--you first saw these programs 30 years ago.

Take a walk down memory lane with us, and feel free to share your memories in the comments, or over on our Facebook group or Facebook page, or on Twitter @SatMForever. We'd love to hear from you!

Now, without further ado, join us in celebrating...

NOTE: Not all intros available.

ALF: THE ANIMATED SERIES

ALF: THE ANIMATED SERIES

(NBC, September 26, 1987-January 7, 1989)

DiC Entertainment, Alien Productions, Lorimar-Telepictures, Saban Entertainment

MAIN CAST:

Paul Fusco – Gordon Shumway/ALF, Rick Fusterman

Thick Wilson – Bob Shumway, Larson Petty

Peggy Mahon – Flo Shumway

Tabitha St. Germain (as Paulina Gillis) – Augie Shumway, Rhonda

Michael Fantini – Curtis Shumway

Len Carlson – Cantfayl, Sargent Staff

Rob Cowan – Skip

Dan Hennessey – Sloop, Eggbert Petty

            Move over, Muppets—the 80s belonged to a new puppet.

             Airing on NBC, ALF was a sitcom following the adventures of Gordon Shumway (Paul Fusco) from the planet Melmac after he crash-landed on Earth following a nuclear explosion on his planet. He was taken in by the Tanner family (not the ones from San Francisco), who protected him from the Alien Task Force while he repaired his ship. Nicknamed Alien Life Form by the family patriarch, Willie (Max Wright), ALF would spend the next four seasons enthralling America and becoming a media darling.

Paul Fusco with ALF.

            A communications major, Fusco worked his way through college by doing magic, puppetry and ventriloquism. He managed to strike a deal with cable network Showtime for a series of specials out of which the ALF character was born. Fusco would use him at parties to entertain family and friends, and even tried him out at a comedy club in New Haven, Connecticut. He formed Alien Productions with Tom Patchett and they secured representation with Jim Henson’s manager, Bernie Brillstein. Brillstein was hesitant to take Fusco on, considering Henson to be the best puppeteer in the business, but was won over by ALF and his merchandising possibilities. Similarly, ALF won over the NBC executives when they pitched the series; with Fusco pulling him out during their meeting when they started to lose interest. The series would make its debut on September 22, 1986, filmed on a stage with trap doors and trenches to allow the puppeteers to operate ALF in each scene (which his live-action co-stars hated with a passion as there was always a danger of falling into one).

Promotional ad for NBC's Saturday line-up.

         ALF was popular with children—it was then-NBC President Brandon Tartikoff’s young daughter who convinced him to keep ALF going beyond the pilot—and they started to become a big portion of the show’s audience. As a result, the content of the show was gradually altered to reflect their new viewers. For instance, ALF was only seen drinking alcohol during the first season, and certain imitable antics—like using electric appliances in the bathtub—were either altered for future broadcasts or toned down in future episodes. Recognizing an opportunity, NBC ordered an animated spin-off of the show for inclusion in their Saturday morning line-up.

The planet Melmac.

             Developed by Fusco and Patchett, ALF: The Animated Series served as a prequel to the regular ALF series. The show followed the adventures of Gordon (“ALF” was never used in the show beyond the title) on the planet Melmac, having freshly graduated high school at the ripe young age of 193. The animated series helped Fusco with his desire to perpetuate the illusion that ALF was an actual being rather than a puppet as the cartoon’s full body could be seen on screen all the time. However, unlike the sitcom, ALF was always adorned in a Hawaiian shirt. The series made full use of its alien setting to generate humor from surrealistic activities being treated as ordinary, such as getting mayonnaise from mines; the names of locations, such as Gordon’s hometown being East Velcro; or from pop culture satire, like an entire episode dedicated to parodying the James Bond franchise. Even the episode names themselves were parodies of movie and song titles, as well as popular sayings. The cartoon also poked fun at itself by featuring a show within a show where an Earthling crashes on planet Melmac and stays with a family of Melmacians.

The Shumways: Bob, Gordon, Flo, Neep, Augie, Curtis and Harry.

Among Melmac’s other residents were Gordon’s family: father Bob (Thick Wilson), mother Flo (Peggy Mahon), sister Augie (Tabitha St. Germain), and brother Curtis (Michael Fantini). The Shumways also had two pets: a bird-like alien (called a “Westfellman Smulk”) named Harry and a dog-like alen (called a “vespa”) named Neep. Gordon’s closest friends included neighbor Rick Fusterman (Fusco) and Skip (Rob Cowan). Gordon also had a girlfriend, Rhonda (Germain). Rhonda, Rick and Skip all made appearances on the live show, establishing that ALF wasn’t the last of his kind. Gordon, Skip and Rick were members of the Melmacian Orbit Guard under the command of Sargent Staff and Colonel Cantfayl (both Len Carlson). The series’ primary villain was Larson Petty (a play on “petty larceny”, voiced by Wilson), who constantly sought to conquer the planet Melmac with his minion Sloop (secretly his long-lost son Eggbert, voiced by Dan Hennessey), but was thwarted by Gordon and his allies. Recurring Melmacians included Madame Pokipsi (a play on the New York city of Poughkeepsie, voiced by Deborah Theaker), a fortune smeller (not a typo), and Stella (Ellen-Ray Hennessy), a waitress at their favorite hangout, Eddie’s Cats-Up Diner (later the Galaxy Café, but still owned by the titular Eddie). The characters were designed by Fil Barlow, Lou Police, Dave Smith, Charles Crawford, Michael Goguen, Brian Hogan, Ed Lee and Kenny Thompkins.

Rhonda and a dinosaur bone.

ALF: The Animated Series debuted on NBC on September 26, 1987 and ran for a total of two seasons. The series was written by Duane Capizzi, Martin Donoff, Richard Raynis (who also produced and directed the series), Alicia Marie Schudt, Dan DiStefano, Steve Roberts, Howard Bendetson (who also wrote for the sitcom), Terrie Collins, Steve Hayes, Mark Jones, Michael Maurer, Bradley Kesden, Mark C. Miller and Skip Shepard, with DiStefano and Schudt serving as story editors, and Capizzi as associate story editor. It was produced by DiC Entertainment, Alien Productions, Lorimar-Telepictures and Saban Entertainment. Haim Saban and Shuki Levy provided the music. Animation duties were handled by KK C&D Asia, Mook DLE and SHAFT. The live ALF made appearances at the beginning and end of the episodes to introduce the story, read fan mail, or provide commentary.  For the second season, ALF was paired with an additional animated series called ALF Tales to form The ALF/ALF Tales Hour. The Hour used the same intro as ALF but featured the new title at the end. When ALF ended its Saturday run, the two shows were split to allow ALF Tales to run its brief second season unaccompanied. With new leadership at the network holding no investment in the franchise, all versions of ALF left the NBC schedule by the fall of 1990. The animated ALF made one additional appearance in the drug-prevention special Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue, which was broadcast across all the major networks on April 21, 1990 and starred a collection of Saturday morning characters.

ALF on DVD.

CColeco, who made merchandise for the sitcom, produced a set of six figures based on the show; Diamond published a sticker album in 1987; and Checkerboard Press made a series of coloring books between 1987-88. In 1988, three VHS tapes were released in Australia by Roadshow-Lorimar Home Video and in the United Kingdom by The Video Collection featuring two episodes each. In 2006, Lionsgate Home Entertainment released the first nine episodes of the series to DVD in ALF Animated Adventures: 20,000 Years in Driving School and Other Stories. In 2023, Shout! Factory released Alf: The Complete Series Deluxe Edition, which contained the complete original series, spin-off film Project: ALF, and both animated series. The following year, both animated series became part of the debut line-up of retro animation network MeTV Toons. It was also made available to stream on Prime Video, Fubo, Peacock, The Roku Channel, Tubi, and Crackle, and the official ALF YouTube Channel.

EPISODE GUIDE:

Season 1:

“Phantom Pilot” (9/26/87) – Gordon gets some unlikely help in defending Melmac from Larson Petty

 

“Hair Today, Bald Tomorrow” (10/3/87) – After Harry uses Gordon’s hair for his nest, Gordon goes for a baldness cure only to accidentally insult Madame Pokipsi and receive a baldness curse.

 

“Two for the Brig” (10/10/87) – Gordon and Sargent Staff accidentally mistake their ship for a cruise liner and end up in jail.

 

“Gordon Ships Out” (10/24/87) – Gordon, Rick and Skip chip in for a sailing yacht and end up stranded on an island thanks to a termite.

 

“Birdman of Melmac” (10/31/87) – When Harry is declared an extinct species, it becomes a royal pain for the Shumway family.

 

“Pismo and the Orbit Gyro” (11/7/87) – The Orbit Gyro’s regular maintenance leads the robot in charge of it to having a few screws loose.

 

“20,000 Years in Driving School” (11/14/87) – Gordon must re-attend driving school in order to get his license back after losing it in an accident.

 

“Pride of the Shumways” (11/21/87) – Gordon is offered a chance for the major leagues in Bouilliabaseball, but Curtis suspects something is amiss.

 

“Captain Bobaroo” (12/5/87) – When Bob gets hit on the head, he believes he’s a children’s TV show host.

 

“Neep at the Races” (12/12/87) – Gordon enters Neep in a race, but bikers want a cut of his winnings.

 

“Salad Wars” (12/19/87) – Gordon’s family vacation is interrupted by someone’s desire to have a salad seed monopoly.

 

“Tough Shrimp Don’t Dance” (1/2/88) – Gordon helps rescue an alien race of shrimp from Larson Petty.

 

“Home Away from Home” (1/16/88) – When his parents are away, Gordon loses their house to a sleazy real estate agent.

 

Season 2:

“Flodust Memories” (9/10/88) – Flo is entered into and wins a Mom of the Millennium contest, but her celebrity status goes to her head.

 

“Family Feud” (9/17/88) – The Fustermans declare war on the Shumways after losing to them on a game show.

 

“Clams Never Sang for my Father” (9/24/88) – Bob and Frank Fusterman face each other in the traditional Mayonnaise Lodge rite of passage clam-wrestling contest.

 

“A Mid-Goomer Night’s Dream” (10/1/88) – Larson Petty accidentally abducts Bob wearing a Goomer suit, leaving Gordon and Augie to find the real one and save their dad.

 

“The Bone Losers” (10/8/88) – Gordon finds dinosaur bones in his yard which makes a celebrity paleontologist jealous enough to want to steal them away.

 

“Thank Gordon for Little Girls” (10/15/88) – Gordon invents a new device that Augie and her scout troop end up taking credit for.

 

“Hooray for Mellywood” (10/29/88) – Gordon’s life is about to be turned into a movie--maybe.

 

“The Spy from East Velcro” (11/12/88) – When an evil spy mistakes Gordon for agent James Bonzo, Gordon ends up captured by the villain.

 

“He Ain’t Seafood, He’s My Brother” (11/19/88) – Renegade Muklukians kidnap Cutis in a plot to claim their planet’s throne, and Fescue comes to Gordon for help in stopping them.

 

“Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places” (12/3/88) – Gordon tries to help a friend get a girl, but she ends up falling for him instead.

 

“The Slugs of Wrath” (12/10/88) – During a mayonnaise shortage, the Shumways move to a farm to try their hands at raising slugs.

 

“Housesitting for Pokipsi” (12/17/88) – Gordon and his friends housesit for Madame Pokipsi and Gordon gets into trouble using her crystal ball.

 

“Skipper’s Got a Brand New Dad” (1/7/89) – Larson Petty needs to find a son in order to claim an inheritance while Gordon and Rick try to find Skip’s birth parents.

Originally posted in 2016. Updated in 2025.