ALF

ALF is an American television sitcom that aired on NBC from September 22, 1986, to March 24, 1990. The title character, called ALF (an acronym for "Alien Life Form") but whose real name is Gordon Shumway, crash-lands in the garage of the suburban middle-class Tanner family. The series stars Max Wright as father Willie Tanner, Anne Schedeen as mother Kate Tanner and Andrea Elson and Benji Gregory as their children, Lynn and Brian Tanner. ALF was performed by puppeteer Paul Fusco, who co-created the show with Tom Patchett. However, in the scenes in which the character appeared in full body, a small costumed actor was briefly used (then uncredited in that role), the Hungarian-born Michu Meszaros. Produced by Alien Productions, ALF ran for four seasons and produced 99 episodes, including four one-hour episodes ("Try to Remember", "ALF's Special Christmas", "Someone to Watch Over Me" and "Tonight, Tonight") that were divided into two parts for syndication, totaling 102 episodes. The series proper concluded with an unresolved cliffhanger, but a later TV movie, Project: ALF, served as a series finale for the franchise. In August 2018, Warner Bros. Television announced the development of an ALF reboot, which was later canceled in November of that year. In February 2022, it was announced that Shout! Factory had acquired distribution rights to the ALF titles, and would "develop new ALF-related content", with the company Maximum Effort subsequently joining in July 2023 to develop new material as well.