The Big Picture
- ALF was a beloved sitcom in the ’80s that featured a smart-mouthed alien puppet who overshadowed the human characters.
- The human actors on ALF despised working with the puppet, with one actor walking out and another calling it the worst acting job they ever had.
- Despite the controversy and tension on set, ALF‘s legacy lives on and continues to bring joy to fans who grew up with the show.
ALF was one of the strangest but most loved sitcoms of all time. A creation of the 1980s, ALF premiered on September 22, 1986, running on NBC for four seasons. It was the perfect show for its era, as it combined traditional family sitcom tropes and laugh tracks with the zaniness of a cartoon come to life. The series, co-created by Paul Fusco (who also voiced the titular star), centered on a sarcastic, wannabe cat eater, super hairy alien life form named Gordon Shumway who crashes his spaceship on Earth and is then taken in by the Tanner family. Week after week, ALF’s shenanigans got him in trouble, causing chaos in the house, but hilarity with those watching at home.
Viewers at home may have gotten a kick out of ALF, but the human actors hated every minute of it. The show was so stressful, and the puppet so infuriating, that one actor walked out and another called it the worst acting job they ever had. ALF was one alien who should’ve stayed far away from where he ended up.
alf
A smart-mouthed creature, ALF (aka Alien Life Form), crash-lands in a suburban garage. His spaceship is beyond repair, he’s ugly, he’s short, he’s got a bad attitude. What’s a family to do? Why, take in the furry creature, of course, and watch as he comments on humankind and tries to eat the cat — a delicacy on his home planet of Melmac.
- Release Date
- September 22, 1986
- Cast
- Andrea Elson , Anne Schedeen , Paul Fusco , Benji Gregory , Max Wright
- Main Genre
- Comedy
- Seasons
- 4
The Puppet Overshadowed the Human Characters on ‘ALF’
If you grew up in the ’80s or ’90s, you know very well who ALF is. He had his own toys and a cartoon. The puppet even showed up on Hollywood Squares! Now, quick, name one of the human characters from the series. Chances are that you can’t. That’s nothing to be ashamed of. When the star of a sitcom is a walking, talking, hilarious alien puppet, something no other series offered in such a way, then the cookie-cutter sitcom characters we were so accustomed to float into the background. It’s not the only late ’80s series where the cast was overwhelmed by one character. Family Matters went through the same thing. What was meant to be a spin-off from Perfect Strangers that focused on the Winslow family became all about Steve Urkel (Jaleel White). The cast grew to despite both the character and the actor playing him.
With ALF, the actors knew what they were getting into. It was impossible for them to not know they’d be overshadowed. Still, they did their best. The Tanners are a nice sitcom family, but not interesting enough to be their own show without an alien in the house. The patriarch of the Tanners, Willie (Max Wright), is a social worker who likes amateur radio. He’s a bit of a grump, but loves his family. Willie’s wife, Kate (Anne Schedeen), is a good wife and mother, but it’s not the basis for an overly exciting character. Oldest daughter Lynn (Andrea Elson) is your typical teenager. Youngest son Brian (Benji Gregory) sticks out sometimes for being the cute kid who becomes good friends with ALF, but these characters are purposely a bit on the dull side so that ALF could hog the spotlight.
In a 2000 interview with People, where the cast was asked about their ALF memories, Andrea Elson said there was “tension on the set” because the other actors “had to play second fiddle to a puppet. It was ALF and then there was the little family.”
The Actors of ‘ALF’ Despised the Puppet Star
The best interactions happen between ALF and Willie Tanner. Their contrast made for some of the funniest moments, with ALF being all fun and carefree, and Willie constantly at his wits’ end, trying to keep ALF out of trouble or clean up his latest mess. Creator Paul Fusco raved about the interactions between ALF and Willie, saying, “Max had a difficult thing to do, playing straight man against ALF. But there was great chemistry between Max’s character and ALF.”
That doesn’t mean that Willie’s actor, Max Wright, enjoyed it. He, in fact, hated the puppet. The 4’3″ contraption was built on top of a stage with four puppeteers underneath operating him. He was so limited in what he could do that almost all of his scenes have him in the Tanner house and never leaving. That can be quite boring and limiting for an actor. “It got tough to do stories where he could only interact with the five or six people he knew,” Fusco said.
Anne Schereden talked about ALF‘s last episode and how Max Wright walked out the moment the final scene was over. He didn’t stop and talk to anyone or even say goodbye. He simply went to his dressing room, packed his bags, got in his car, and left. “I was hugely eager to have it over with,” Wright admitted. Schereden said the set was joyless due to the technical nightmares of the puppet, with a 30-minute episode taking up to 25 hours to shoot, and referred to the cast as “a dysfunctional family.”
‘ALF’s Legacy Lives on, Despite Controversy
It wasn’t just the Tanner family who hated the experience. In 2010, actor John LaMotta, who played the nosy next-door neighbor of the Tanners, told TMZ, “I thought the show ALF was a piece of sh*t … worst work I ever did.” It wasn’t just because ALF took up all the spotlight, or because his intricate puppetry took so long to film, but because of Paul Fusco’s behavior. In 2010, a behind-the-scenes video was revealed that showed ALF outtakes. In the video, Fusco is playing ALF and making sexual comments, even shockingly saying a racial slur three times! Now there’s a horrible way to have your childhood ruined.
Through the mistakes of Fusco, the slow puppetry, and a grumpy cast, ALF‘s legacy lived on long past when the series was canceled in 1990. In 1996, there was the made-for-TV movie Project ALF, in which ALF has finally been captured by the U.S. government and has to escape. Just this year, he was brought back by Ryan Reynolds for his Maximum Effort Channel. Paul Fusco, despite the past controversy, returned to voice the alien he created. 1980s nostalgia is alive and well, and ALF still makes people who grew up with him happy. In 2010, even Max Wright (who passed away in 2019), had let go of the anger he felt from the series, telling People, “It doesn’t matter what I felt or what the days were like. ALF brought people a lot of joy. They adored it.”
ALF is available to stream on Peacock.
WATCH ON PEACOCK
