The Big Picture
- The '80s sitcoms represented a shift in television, with shows like ALF pushing the boundaries and blending traditional family dynamics with wacky characters.
- ALF was a beloved sitcom that followed a stranded alien's presence in an American family, offering humor and comfort through predictable storylines and a laughter track.
- ALF, as an over-the-top character, became an iconic part of the '80s pop culture, bringing humor and heart while also exploring darker themes through his backstory and experiences.
The '80s were a strange time. Technology was beginning its takeover, a former actor was president of the United States, and television was starting to push boundaries. Those lines seem tame compared to today, but this era of television was nestled in between the sweet safety of shows like The Waltons and The Brady Brunch, and edgier fare of the '90s like Seinfeld and NYPD Blue.
Nothing was more loved in the '80s than a good old-fashioned sappy sitcom. For 30 minutes every week we could watch our favorite families get themselves involved in some kind of drama, then work it out, leading to some hugs and a lesson learned. And if that sitcom had a wacky lead with one-liners and pop culture appeal, even better. One strange series called ALF, about a stranded alien who takes up residence with a family, represented the decade better than any other.
The Best Sitcoms of the 1980s
The '80s may have some cool adventure and cop shows like Miami Vice, Hill Street Blues, MacGyver, and Magnum P.I., but it was the sitcom that showed who we were in the decade. Times were changing and so were families. There were more Black families represented in the form of The Cosby Show or Family Matters. Married... With Children gave us a crude family that could barely stand each other. There were less traditional families in Full House, where a widowed man was raising his kids with his brother-in-law and best friend. Still, no matter how much the sitcom evolved, it also stayed the same. The sets looked familiar, the characters were often cookie cutter, and the laugh track was there. Rather than being bored by it, audiences craved that soothing comfort of predictability. After a long day at school or work, we just wanted to unwind together watching a family acting silly for half an hour, bickering and fighting, only to make up at the end.
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Some sitcoms aimed to give us that big, over-the-top wacky character, the one the studio audience went nuts over every time they entered a scene. Going into the 1980s, Robin Williams' high energy was perfect for his portrayal of a bizarre alien in Mork and Mindy. Ending the decade, there was the nerdy hijinks of Steve Urkel (Jaleel White) on Family Matters to carry us forward into the 1990s. Then there was ALF. It had it all.
'ALF' Had the Format of a Traditional '80s Sitcom
The premise of an alien who crash lands on earth and flees the military who are out to catch him, only to become a member of a traditional American family might sound a bit off the wall, but ALF worked by feeling so normal. That was because the craziness of its gimmick was grounded in the familiar of a run-of-the-mill sitcom.
Without ALF the character, the series is your normal sitcom you could find on any channel or any night during the '80s. There's the dad, Willie Tanner (Max Wright), a grumpy, bespectacled middle-aged man. He likes his hobbies of collecting and amateur radio, and his clashing with the new addition to the household will be the source of much conflict and laughs. There is the mom, Kate (Anne Schedeen), your normal good mother and wife who puts up with all the mischief and fighting, and brings everyone together. You gotta have kids too, so there's a teenage daughter, Lynn (Andrea Elson), who has your average teenage girl problems, and a young son, Brian (Benji Gregory), a curious boy who befriends ALF. And few sitcoms can get by without adding a baby, so in Season 3 of ALF's four-year run, we were introduced to an infant son.
A good sitcom needs a good supporting cast as well. ALF had a lot of that in family and friends, with so many episodes revolving around the Tanners trying to hide ALF. They are the only ones who know of his existence and want to keep it that way. So, obviously, there is the nosy neighbor character, played by Liz Sheridan, who would play Jerry's mom during the '90s on Seinfeld. No character was better, however, than ALF himself.
'ALF' Had One of the Most Memorable Over-The-Top Characters
ALF (alien life form) is a hairy, three-foot tall alien named Gordon Shumway (yep, really) from a planet called Melmac. He doesn't feel alien though. ALF might look different, but he's familiar. He's Robin Williams from Mork and Mindy, Steve Urkel from Family Matters, or any sitcom that had that crazy character who moves into a family's life and takes it over.
ALF takes over the Tanners' lives when he crash lands and they take him in. They let him live in their garage, but this isn't your normal alien you're used to. ALF can speak English. He's a smartass with a quick wit and a lot of good jokes for the studio audience. He loves his pop culture, and because every good '80s sitcom needs a running gag, his is the never ending desire to eat the family cat Lucky, which he thankfully always fails at.
ALF is cool, so much so that he became a toy that took over the decade. As hip and funny as he might be though, he was also kind. In the third season's Christmas episode, ALF gets lost and ends up at a hospital. There he meets a girl who is terminally ill. He befriends her, and later it's hinted at that she dies. At the hospital ALF also meets a man who wants to take his own life, but the wisecracking alien gets serious and talks the man into wanting to live.
ALF was also a bit of a tragic character. He spends almost his entire life on Earth cooped up like a prisoner inside the Tanner house, sleeping in the garage. If he goes out, he risks being caught. That doesn't mean he never leaves. He sometimes does and comes close to getting himself caught. The Tanners are all ALF has. He depends on them for everything. Without him, he'd be a goner. The series took some criticism for having their lead alien be a beer drinker, but when you dig into it, it's understandable. What else does he have?
As Paul Fusco, who played ALF's voice, once told The Hollywood Reporter, "ALF used to drink, he was a party animal. He drank beer and everything, and once the kids and families started watching it, they said, ‘ALF's not really a great role model if he’s drinking beer; maybe you should pull that back a little bit.’ And our response was ‘He’s 225 years old; he can drink beer, he can do whatever he wants to do.'"
The best '80s sitcoms have some darkness to them, even if they're not discussed. Full House wouldn't exist without death. Steve Urkel bothers the Winslows so much on Family Matters because his parents are annoyed by him and constantly kick him out of the house. And ALF is a creature who left his planet behind and saw it destroyed. Now he's alone and turned into almost a prisoner.
The series was aware of that darkness and leaned into it at the end of the fourth season, when ALF is finally caught by the U.S. military. There was meant to be a fifth season with ALF at the military base, but the series was canceled, so ALF captured is how the series ended! In 1996, an ill-fated TV movie would dive into ALF's life at the military base, but it was a bold direction for the series to take; '80s sitcoms were about tradition and everything in a nice, soothing predictable package. Season 4 of ALF, however, ended in 1990, a decade where anything goes.
ALF's pop culture status has held on like few other '80s sitcoms have. There was once a cartoon, and now, in 2023, he's back, creating content, with Paul Fusco as the voice of the alien, for Ryan Reynolds' Maximum Effort channel. Let's see Steve Urkel do that.
