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ALF (a.k.a. alien life form) is a furry creature from another planet who crash-lands in the Tanner family’s garage and soon finds his way into their home and their hearts.
The Tanners – Willie (Max Wright), Kate (Anne Schedeen), Lynn (Andrea Elson) and Brian (Benji Gregory) – live in the San Fernando Valley, California with their pet cat Lucky. Not sure at first what to make of the alien who’s appeared in their garage, they eventually decide ALF looks harmless and take him in. And that’s where the problems start…
The Alien Task Force, part of the military that specializes in capturing aliens, is hot on ALF’s trail. Then there are the Ochmoneks, the Tanners’s meddlesome neighbors. Annoying Trevor Ochmonek (John LaMotta) is less a problem than his nosy wife Raquel (Liz Sheridan), whose tendency to see things she shouldn’t taxes the Tanners’s powers of creative thinking, forcing them to come up with plausible stories to cover up ALF’s exploits.
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Eventually we learn that ALF’s planet, Melmac, exploded in a nuclear war, leaving poor ALF – or Gordon Shumway, as he was known on Melmac – homeless and alone. Soon ALF becomes part of the Tanner family, but there’s one member of the household who isn’t so keen on the new house guest… Lucky the cat. On Melmac cats were treated as cattle, and ALF his often tempted to tuck into Lucky as a midnight snack.
As the series progresses, other characters find out about ALF. Some of them become ALF’s friends but his relationship with others, particularly Kate’s mother, Dorothy (Anne Meara), isn’t so easy. Perhaps that’s not surprising for a sarcastic alien who loves burping, can whistle without opening his mouth, and whose eight stomachs mean he eats everything in sight!
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Main Cast
| Character | Actor |
|---|---|
| ALF | Paul Fusco (puppeteer and voice; Mihaly ‘Michu’ Meszaros in full costume) |
| Willie Tanner | Max Wright |
| Kate Tanner | Anne Schedeen |
| Lynn Tanner | Andrea Elson |
| Brian Tanner | Benji Gregory |
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Additional Cast
| Character | Actor |
|---|---|
| Trevor Ochmonek | John LaMotta |
| Raquel Ochmonek | Liz Sheridan |
| Eric Tanner | Charles Nickerson |
| Jake Ochmonek | Josh Blake |
| Dorothy Halligan | Anne Meara |
| Neal Tanner | Jim J. Bullock |
| Larry | Bill Daily |
| Mrs. Byrd | Beverly Archer |
| Jody | Andrea Covell |
| Officer Griswald | Raye Birk |
| Whizzer | Paul Dooley |
| Robert Sherwood | Dean Cameron |
| Fox Langenkamp | as himself |
| Police Officer | Nick Angotti |
| George Foley | Cleavon Little |
| Danny Duckworth | Ricky Paull Goldin |
| Rich Little | as himself |
| Brandon Tartikoff | David Leisure |
| Tiffany | Keri Houlihan |
| Randy | Mark Clayman |
| Sgt. Fox | Michael Champion |
| The Matinee Lady | Teresa Ganzel |
| Carl Buck | Lee Ryan |
| Mrs. Lyman | Marcia Wallace |
| Richard | Glenn Withrow |
| The Stage Manager | Tim Wade |
| Artie | Mickey Jones |
| Denise | Molly Hagan |
| Pope John Paul II | Eugene Greytak |
| Dudley | David Knell |
| Sam | Sam Whipple |
| Dr. Willoughby | Carl Franklin |
| Frederick De Cordova | as himself |
| Jeff | Norman Lee Harris |
| Bernice Billings | Linda Hoy |
| Nurse #1 | Connie Richmond |
| Nurse #2 | Patricia Ayame Thomson |
| Rick | Michael Berryman |
| Uncle Rocky | Robert P. Lieb |
| Delivery Man | Alan David Gelman |
| Cat Woman | Nedra Volz |
| Diana | Adrienne Hampton |
| Jason | Shaggy Murphy |
| Little Boy | James Brown III |
| Brenda | Judy Landers |
| Stephanie | Wendy Oates |
| Herb | Randy Simper |
| Sylvia | Stephanie Hagen |
| Doug Gould | Carlos Lacamara |
| Officer Gaffney | Hal Havins |
| Ed McMahon | as himself |
| Tommy Newsom | as himself |
| Flakey Pete | David Ogden Stiers |
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Trivia
Max Wright (Willie Tanner) hated the show and admitted he was “hugely eager to have ALF over with”. According to Anne Schedeen (Kate Tanner), it showed. She said that on the last day of filming, “There was one take and Max walked off the set, went to his dressing room, got his bags, went to his car and disappeared…There were no goodbyes.”
ALF was the first television series to be presented in Dolby Surround sound system.
Acting runs in the family for Benji Gregory (Brian Tanner). Several of his relatives are actors and his grandmother is his agent.
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Andrea Elson (Lynn Tanner) was dealing with bulimia during the making of ALF but later overcame the disease.
Anne Schedeen starred in the series Paper Dolls and guest-starred in a number of others including Cheers, E.R., Simon & Simon and Murder She Wrote.
ALF’s use of hand-operated puppets presented considerable technical challenges, as well as being very demanding for its creator, Paul Fusco, and the four lead actors. A 30-minute show would take anywhere from 20 to 25 hours to shoot, making it an extremely frustrating process.
In 2004, Benji Gregory joined the United States Navy as an Aerographer’s Mate.
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In Liz Sheridan’s (Raquel Ochmonek’s) book Dizzy & Jimmy: My Life with James Dean – A Love Story, she claims that she and Dean were each other’s first loves. According to the book, their relationship ended when he was cast in a play and drifted away from her.
Andrea Elson is married to Scott Hopper, who was a production assistant on ALF.
In 1995, Max Wright was diagnosed with lymphoma. He is now in remission.
The set was built on a platform four feet above the ground. It had trapdoors all over it so that ALF could appear almost anywhere at any time, but made for a dangerous working environment for the cast.
Anne Schedeen kept her age a strict secret for a number of years.
Anne Meara has appeared on many shows, including a recurring role as Mary Brady in Sex and the City.
Max Wright has been married to his wife Linda for almost 50 years and they have two children.
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The season four finale was not originally intended as either the finale or a cliffhanger. In February 1996, six years after ALF ended, a TV movie was released called Project: ALF. This had been intended to conclude the series, but most people didn’t feel it had anything to do with the original show. The entire Tanner family and almost everyone else ever associated with ALF were absent from the movie, the only exceptions being Paul Fusco and Beverly Archer.
Andrea Elson guest-starred on many different series after ALF was cancelled. These included Who’s the Boss?, Mad About You and Married…with Children.
In 2004, the character of ALF was ranked #8 in TV Guide’s list of “25 Greatest Sci-Fi Legends”.
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Anne Schedeen has been married to her husband, Christopher Barrett, since 1984. They have one child, a daughter named Taylor. Anne was expecting Taylor during filming of ALF, and the character of baby Eric was introduced to the show to tie in with her pregnancy.
Though some of the show’s funniest jokes were based on ALF’s desire to eat Lucky, the family cat, they were used much less frequently after NBC heard the horrific report that a child had put a cat in a microwave after watching the show.
Max Wright has been arrested twice for DUI since January 2000.
Benji Gregory attended the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, California.
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Andrea Elson was twice nominated for a “Youth in Film Award” during the making of ALF.
Anne Schedeen’s real name is Luanne Ruth Schedeen.
Anne Meara (Dorothy Halligan) is the mother of actor Ben Stiller.
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Jerry Stahl, a staff writer on the series, wrote a memoir called Permanent Midnight chronicling his struggle to hold down a successful writing career on ALF, Moonlighting and Thirtysomething while battling a heroin addiction. The book was later made into the movie Permanent Midnight with Ben Stiller.
Max Wright has had roles on several television shows including WKRP in Cincinnati, AfterMASH and Friends.
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