ALF

1986 - 1990

The Tanners (no, not the Full House Tanners) were a typical American family until an alien spaceship crashed into their garage and they met an ALF (Alien Life Form), who moved in and completely changed their lives.

Stars: Paul Fusco, Max Wright, Anne Scheeden, Andrea Elson, Benji Gregroy, John LaMotta, Liz Sheridan, Josh Blake, Anne Meara, Jim J. Bullock, Bill Daily, Paul Dooley
Created by: Paul Fusco
Tags: family, scifi/fantasy

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Episode Tropes

Season 1

Psycho: Episode 2, "Strangers in the Night" (1986). Mrs. Ochmonek watches Psycho while babysitting Brian and gets scared by every noise she hears.
Risky Business: Episode 3, "Looking for Lucky" (1986). Alf does the Risky Business dance while the Tanners are out.
Pyramid Scheme: Episode 5, "Keepin’ the Faith" (1986). ALF feels like a freeloader, so he decides he has to get a job. He answers an ad in the paper that turns out to be a cosmetics pyramid scheme.
I Want My MTV: Episode 8, "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" (1986). Alf develops a crush on Lynn, and he writes a song about her and records a music video to show her how he feels.
Jump: Episode 9, "Jump" (1986). Willie regrets chickening out the one time he tried sky-diving, so he's determined to prove he can really do it.
Moonlighting: Episode 10, "Baby, You Can Drive My Car" (1986). Lynn gets an after-school job at a fast food joint to save up for a car, and she can barely stay awake while studying the employee manual.
Vacation from Hell: Episode 11, "On the Road Again" (1986). The Tanners' camping vacation is rained out and morale is low, leading to a blow-up between Alf and Willie.
Pathetic Christmas Tree: Episode 12, "Oh, Tannerbaum" (1986). ALF mistakenly chops the Tanners' Christmas tree into firewood, so Willie buys a fake one, but he can’t quite put it together. The result is a wooden pole with a few stray branches sticking out of it.
Write What You Know: Episode 14, "A Little Bit of Soap" (1987). Alf writes an episode of a soap opera based on the Tanner family's conflict with Kate's mother, Dorothy, and both Kate and Dorothy are offended by the dialog.
Séance: Episode 15, "I've Got a New Attitude" (1987). Alf claims he can talk to Dorothy's late husband (Kate's father), Sparky, and he holds a séance to prove it.
Amnesia: Episodes 16-17, "Amnesia" (1987). Alf slips and hits his head, causing him to get amnesia and think he's an insurance agent.
Clip Show: Episodes 16-17, "Amnesia" (1987). Alf's amnesia serves as a wraparound story for a shameless two-part clip show.
Role Reversal: Episode 20, "Going Out of My Head Over You" (1987). Willie brings his psychologist friend, Larry, over for dinner to help him and Alf get along. Larry suggests they try a role reversal.
Ah, the Dribble Glass: Episode 20, "Going Out of My Head Over You" (1987). Alf plays practical jokes on the Tanners, including giving Willie a dribble glass.
Rear Window: Episode 21, "Lookin’ Through the Windows" (1987). During a power outage, since Alf can't watch TV, he watches the Ochmoneks through a window and suspects Mr. Ochmonek of murdering Mrs. Ochmonek.
Wanna Bet?: Episode 23, "The Gambler" (1987). Alf thinks the Tanner family is broke, so he tries to make them some money by betting on horse races. At first it seems like he can't lose, but soon he gets in a hole and has to raise the money he owes before the bookie shows up to collect.
Timeshare Torture: Episode 26, "Come Fly with Me" (1987). Alf receives a letter in the mail saying he won a free weekend trip. Willie points out that it's just a sales pitch for a timeshare, but when Mr. Ochmonek tells the Tanners that he and Mrs. Ochmonek are going too, they decide to go anyway.

Season 2

Going My Way: Episode 4, "Wedding Bell Blues" (1987). While looking through the luggage from his spaceship, Alf discovers that he was born after his parents were married, which is a big faux pas on Melmac. He's so devastated that he runs away to become a monk.
Beauty Contest: Episode 7, "Oh, Pretty Woman" (1987) Alf enters Lynn into a beauty pageant to boost her self-esteem.
Weird Wedding Venue: Episode 8, "Something’s Wrong with Me" (1987). Kate's mom is getting married, and Kate insists she have the wedding at the Tanners' house.
Hiccups: Episode 8, "Something's Wrong with Me" (1987). Alf gets a case of the melmacian hiccups, which are much louder than human hiccups, and they threaten to ruin Dorothy and Whizzer's wedding. Unfortunately, there's only one cure: cat juice.
What a Dummy: Episode 23, "I'm Your Puppet" (1988). Alf's ventriloquist dummy, Paul, develops a personality of his own, and he's a total asshole.
Neighborhood Watch: Episodes 17-18, "Someone to Watch Over Me" (1988). After several homes in the neighborhood are robbed, including the Ochmoneks', the Tanners join their neighbors in forming a neighborhood watch, and Willie is elected block captain.
Dog Gone Blues: Episode 20, "You Ain't Nothin' But a Hound Dog" (1988). Brian finds a stray dog, and Willie and Kate agree to let him keep the dog until they find her owner, but Alf gets jealous of all the attention the dog is getting and hands her over to a woman who is obviously trying to use the dog to extort money. When the dog's real owner shows up to collect her, Alf confesses what he did, and Willie has to get the dog back from the scammer.
Bullies Don't Back Down: Episode 21, "Hit Me with Your Best Shot" (1988). When Brian gets in a fight with a boy at school, Willie tells him that if he refuses to fight and just walks away, the bully will leave him alone. He finds out he was wrong the next day when Brian comes home with a bruised face.
Top Fist: Episode 21, "Hit Me with Your Best Shot" (1988). When the father of Brian's bully antagonizes Willie, to everyone's surprise, Willie throws the man out of the house bodily. Soon the town is a buzz about Willie's badassery, and Alf starts planning a fighting tournament with the other dads in the neighborhood.
Don't Buy This House: Episode 22, "Movin' Out" (1988). Willie gets a promotion that means the Tanners have to sell their house and move to San Diego, but Willie's miserable in his new job, and no one wants to move. So, when a couple comes to look at the house, Alf sabotages it to scare them away and keep the family from moving.
Drug PSA: Episode 24, "Tequila" (1988). Kate's friend, Maura, spends the night at the Tanner house, and Alf discovers she's an alcoholic. He poses as one of her hallucinations to convince her to get help.

Season 3

It's a Wonderful Life: Episode 2, "Stairway to Heaven" (1988). When the Tanners get annoyed with Alf for his constant shenanigans, he has a dream where his guardian angel, Bob, shows him what his and the Tanners' lives would be like if they had never met each other.
Fish and Visitors Stink in Three Days: Episode 3, "Breaking Up is Hard to Do" (1988). After Mrs. Ochmonek throws Trevor out, he asks if he can stay with the Tanners for a few days, but he starts to settle in for a permanent stay, to the chagrin of everyone in the family, especially Alf.
Clip Show: Episodes 4-5, "Tonight, Tonight" (1988). Alf guest hosts The Tonight Show and introduces clips from previous episodes while bantering with Ed McMahon.
On Strike: Episode 9, "Changes" (1988). Willie's union goes on strike and names him picket president.
The Ascent of Stan: Episode 10, "My Back Pages" (1988). Willie and Kate find their home movies from Woodstock in the attic, and Willie tells Alf about the '60s. Alf criticizes Willie for selling out because he's no longer a hippie.
The Magician: Episode 12, "Do You Believe in Magic?" (1988). Willie gives Alf his old magic kit, and Alf keeps inflicting his shoddy attempts at magic tricks on the Tanner family.
Get Out: Episode 13, "Hide Away" (1989). Willie carpools with a guy form work who invites himself over for dinner, then invites himself to spend the night.
Witness Protection: Episode 13, "Hide Away" (1989). The cops arrest a thief who turns out to be in the Witness Protection Program, and sending him to jail could cost him his life, so they try to convince his victim to drop the charges.
Cyrano de Bergerac: Episode 18, "Standing in the Shadows of Love" (1989). Jake has a crush on a girl, but he's too shy to talk to her, so Alf offers to write love letters to her for him. When Willie tells him about Cyrano de Bergerac, Alf feels a connection to the character because they both have big noses, and he starts calling himself "Cyrano de Melmac." He even hides in the bushes and whispers words of love for Jake to yell up to the girl's bedroom window.
Who Brings a Dog to a Leg Funeral?: Episode 21, "Funeral for a Friend" (1989). Alf accidentally leaves his ant farm in the sun too long, and his ants die. To help him deal with his loss, Willie decides to hold a funeral for the ants.
Camping Out: Episode 22, "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" (1989). To help Brian get over his fear of the dark ahead of his first scout camping trip, Jake and ALF take him camping in the backyard.
It's a Jungle Out There: Episode 25, "Shake, Rattle and Roll" (1989). After an earthquake hits the Tanner house, Alf becomes terrified that something is going to kill him any minute, and his fear starts to rub off on Brian.
Labor Drill: Episode 26, "Having My Baby" (1989). Alf wakes up Kate and Willie several times throughout the night for "labor drills" to prepare for Kate's baby being born, despite their emphatic assurances that they know what to do when the time comes because they already have two children.

Season 4

America's Most Wanted: Episode 3, "Wanted: Dead or Alive" (1989). Alf thinks Willie bears a strong resemblance to a serial polygamist and swindler he saw on "Crime Stoppers."
Playing the Market: Episode 4, "We're in the Money" (1989). Thinking he's playing a computer game, Alf uses Willie's computer to invest the Tanners' money in the stock market, and he makes a bundle, so Willie asks him to invest more, but Alf becomes addicted to playing the market and starts losing all their money.
Drug PSA: Episode 6, "Hooked on a Feeling" (1989). Alf gets addicted to eating cotton, so to help him kick the habit, Willie invites a support group over and poses as Alf, pretending he's trying to quit smoking.
The Odd Couple: Episode 11, "Happy Together" (1989). When Alf gets into a big fight with Willie, he decides to move in with Willie's brother, Neal. At first, they're both happy with the arrangement, but Alf quickly wears out his welcome.
Poor Baby: Episode 12, "Fever" (1989). Willie comes down with a cold and stays in bed while Kate waits on him.
No Joke: Episode 14, "Make 'em Laugh" (1990). After watching a stand-up comic perform on TV, ALF thinks he could be a comedian too. He stays up late writing a comedy routine, then falls asleep and has a nightmare about being a famous comedian and then falling on hard times, so he changes his mind.
Sham Wedding: Episode 15, "Love on the Rocks" (1990). Neal's ex-wife Margaret says she wants him back, and Neal decides to re-marry her out of fear of ending up alone, but before they can go through with the $45 basic wedding package, Alf talks him out of it.
What Happens in Vegas...: Episode 15, "Love on the Rocks" (1990). When Neal decides to drive to Las Vegas to re-marry his ex-wife, Margaret, Alf sneaks into the backseat to try to stop him from making a big mistake. While Neal is in the chapel telling Margaret the wedding's off, Alf is winning big on a slot machine in the next room.
Art Class: Episode 16, "True Colors" (1990). Lynne takes an art class and accidentally turns in one of Alf's paintings, and her teacher gushes over it.
When I Paint My Masterpiece: Episode 16, "True Colors" (1990). When Lynne accidentally brings one of Alf's weird mixed-media paintings to her art class, her teacher assumes she painted it and goes on and on about how talented she is. When she tells Alf, he becomes convinced that he's a brilliant artist, dons a beret, and creates several more strange works of art.
Hot for Student: Episode 16, "True Colors" (1990). Lynne shows Alf's paintings to her art teacher, pretending they're hers. The teacher seems to think they're genius, but eventually he admits he's just saying that because he wants Lynne to go out with him.

Character Tropes

Fish Out of Water: Alf - Played by Paul Fusco.
Nosey Neighbor: Raquel Ochmonek - Played by Liz Sheridan.
Mommie Dearest: Dorothy Halligan - Played by Anne Meara.
Backwoods Bumpkins: Sam & Artie - Played by Sam Whipple & Mickey Jones in season 1, episode 11, "On the Road Again" (1986).