His name was Gordon Shumway, born on October 28, 1756, and
stands around 3 feet tall. He doesn’t
look like your typical person because he is not human. His body is covered with burnt orange hair or
fur, and his face has a long snout with moles.
His heart is located in his head and he has eight stomachs with an appetite
for cats. His home planet is Melmac
which is many light years away from Earth.
He grew up on the Lower East Side of the planet and hung with his
girlfriend, Rhonda, and best friend, Skip.
He managed to graduate high school after 122 years and participated in
sports such as Bouillabaisseball where he was the captain of his team. Then one day, Gordon’s life completely
changed forever.
While flying around the galaxies looking for lint, gravel,
and foam, which are precious commodities for Melmacian survival, Gordon followed
an amateur radio signal which leads him to Earth. He ends up crash landing in a suburban
neighborhood and right into the Tanner family’s garage. The Tanners consist of parents, Willie and
Kate, and their two kids, Lynn and Brian.
They live in the San Fernando Valley and Willie is a social worker. The entire family was in the garage when ALF
(Alien Life Form) as they called him, crash landed in their lives.
They take ALF’s lifeless body into the house and try to
figure out what to do with him. He wakes up and ask
the family if they can fix his spaceship so he can go home. He also told the family he was hungry and
wanted a cat to snack on. They quickly realize
their cat, Lucky, was in danger of being eaten by the smart ass alien and that staying
with them is a huge mistake. Willie
expressed concern about ALF being seen by his nosy neighbor, Raquel
Ochmonek. She does get a glimpse of the
half-pint alien but he husband, Trevor, thinks she is losing it.
ALF quickly gets comfortable living with the Tanners. The kids love their new live in stranger, but
Willie and Kate are not sure if they want him to stay. Finally, ALF informs the family that his home
planet, Melmac, exploded from a nuclear war disaster and he has nowhere to
go. When the Alien Task Force shows up
at their door, and they get a glimpse into what they will do to ALF, Willie and
Kate have a change of heart. ALF because
part of the family but he is not an easy thing to live with. The Tanners have to put up with the alien’s
antics while he deals with being the only one of his kind left, ruining things
around the house while suffering from boredom.
Throughout it all, the family does whatever it takes to protect the
little booger from being dissected and probed by the ATF. Even though he frustrates the family and they
are fearful of people finding out about him, they grow to love him.
In 1986, NBC aired a sitcom on Monday nights called “ALF”. My daughter and I would not miss an episode. The short little furry alien was funny with
his snappy comebacks and constant antics.
The character, ALF, was a live-hand puppet operated by Paul Fusco. The show only lasted 4 seasons, but we
enjoyed each one. One of our favorites
was when ALF had a stole-away on his space ship, a Melmacian cockroach. It was no ordinary roach; it got larger
whenever pesticides were sprayed on it.
While ALF was trapped in the bathroom by the cockroach, which had reached
an enormous size, he sprayed it with perfume which finally killed the
beast. I swear, I have seen sewer
roaches around here that get that big!
Here kitty, kitty..... ALF.
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