The ALF Cartoons

[BLT]

I think that both 'ALF' and 'ALF Tales' were the best cartoons based on a live-action sitcom. The problem with shows like 'Fonz and the Happy Days Gang' is that they had to add a wacky/absurd kiddy quality that wasn't so prominent in the original.

I loved seeing that the animated 'ALF' was a prequel to the night-time show, the spirit of the ALF character was transferred perfectly. Also it was nice seeing the ALF-like spin on fairy tales on 'ALF Tales." Among my favorites were 'The Wizard of Oz," where Gordon (ALF) wore red sneakers and had to beat the wicked witch at Basketball with his two buddies tripping and accidentally melting the witch with 'Gatorade' instead of water. Classic stuff in my book.

[TMC]

http://rowdyc.com/tv-trash-alfs-animated-adventures/

It’s finally time to show you the greatest cartoon you may never have seen…

[TMC]

Originally Posted by TMC

http://rowdyc.com/tv-trash-alfs-animated-adventures/

ALF TALES

Created by Paul Fusco and Tom Patchett, ALF Tales was a spin-off of ALF: The Animated Series, which in turn was a spin-off of the live-action/puppet sitcom ALF. ALF had become a major success for NBC, and it was only natural for the network to want to try and expand upon that success; particularly with their ever-increasing younger audience. And if one ALF animated show was good, two would have to be even better.



As with its predecessor, the series was set on Melmac and followed ALF, aka Gordon Shumway (Fusco) as he and his friends put on productions of fairy tales and other public domain stories. For whom and why beyond entertaining the real-life audience at home was never revealed. Gordon and his girlfriend, Rhonda (Tabitha St. Germain), were typically the stars of the productions. Other roles would be filled out by Gordon’s family, father Bob (Thick Wilson), mother Flo (Peggy Mahon), sister Augie (Germain), and brother Curtis (Noam Zylberman & Michael Fantini); his friends, Rick Fusterman (Fusco), Skip (Rob Cowan); Melmacian citizens like fortune-smeller Madame Pokipsi (Deborah Theaker) and waitress Stella (Ellen-Ray Hennessy); and even his enemies, Larson Petty (Wilson) and Sloop (Dan Hennessey). Cowan would also play a new character modeled after himself named Roger Cowan, a TV executive who tried to impart notes on the productions. The entire cast was carried over from The Animated Series with the exception of Fantini, who was briefly replaced by Zylberman for the first season.

As stated, those productions were parodies of various fairy tales and legends. They were often set in different eras and locations, featured various Melmacian elements native to the franchise, served as spoofs of various genres, films and television shows and featured numerous pop culture references. The episode “Cinderella”, for example, not only did their rendition of Cinderella, but was also presented like an Elvis Presley film as the prince was replaced by a rock star looking for love. “Rumpelstiltskin” played out like a detective noir as private eye Sam Shovel (ALF), a play on Sam Spade, needed to uncover Rumpelstiltskin’s (Sloop) name to get a miller’s daughter (Rhonda) out of a bad deal. “The Three Little Pigs” was bookended by scenes reminiscent of Rod Serling’s intros and outros for The Twilight Zone. The crocodile in the “Peter Pan” episode was portrayed as a caricature of the titular character from “Crocodile” Dundee. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” was presented as an episode of Unsolved Mysteries with ALF playing a parody of Robert Stack.



ALF Tales debuted on NBC on September 10, 1988; paired with the second season of The Animated Series to form The ALF/ALF Tales Hour. It was produced by DiC Entertainment, Alien Productions, Lorimar-Telepictures and Saban Entertainment. Only Alicia Marie Schudt, Bradley Kesden, and Skip Shepard were carried over from The Animated Series’ writing staff; although Richard Raynis still served as a producer as he did on the other series. Joining them were David Steven Cohen, Roger S.H. Schulman, Eddie Gorodetsky, Michael Rowe, Ellis Weiner, Mitchell Kriegman, Steve Roberts, Richard J. Schellbach, Phil Harnage and Judy Rothman, with Cohen, Schulman and Rothman serving as story editors and Harnage as assistant story editor. Fil Barlow was the character design supervisor over Paul Wee, Marcelo Vignali, Ed Lee, Michael Goguen, Charles Crawford, Adriana M. Galvez, Dean Gordon, Brian Hogan, David S. Karoll, Joey Banaszkiewicz, David Feiss, Mike Kim and Lou Police. Haim Saban and Shuki Levy provided the music, and animation duties were handled by KK C&D Asia and Mook DLE. In the rare event an episode’s story ran short, a brief live-action ALF segment was tacked onto the end where he’d read and answer fictional fan mail.



The Animated Series was cancelled after its second season and its reruns were split from Tales to allow its brief second season to air independently. Tales’ intro showcased Gordon directing an off-camera symphony as his outfit and background changed to the various settings featured in the respective tales, while the Hour intro just used The Animated Series’ with the new title. Unfortunately, it was also cancelled after two seasons as new leadership was moving into NBC with no investment in the ALF franchise. All versions of ALF left the network by the fall of 1990. The animated ALF made one additional appearance in the drug-prevention special Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue, which was broadcast across all the major networks on April 21, 1990 and starred a collection of Saturday morning characters.



A VHS was released in 1989 in the United Kingdom by The Video Collection, featuring the episodes “Robin Hood” and “Sleeping Beauty”. In 2006, Lionsgate Home Entertainment released the first seven episodes of the series to DVD in ALF Tales: ALF and the Beanstalk and Other Classic Fairy Tales. In 2023, Shout! Factory released Alf: The Complete Series Deluxe Edition, which contained the complete original series, spin-off film Project: ALF, and both animated series. The following year, both animated series became part of the debut line-up of retro animation network MeTV Toons. The series is also available to stream on Prime Video, Fubo, Peacock, The Roku Channel, Tubi and Crackle and the official ALF YouTube Channel.