A TV sitcom with a furry orange puppet? A dumb idea, right? Probably, but as a kid I thought that ALF was great. ALF (Alien Life Form) was a sitcom that ran from 1986-1990 and centred around a family of everyday Americans who were pretty much adopted by Gordon Shumway (also called “Alf”), an alien from the planet Melmac. For a puppet, Gordon was both obscene and cool – despite his outrageously large snout, he also had a hair “flick” that reminds me of all the best power hair-do’s of the 80’s.
To be honest, I don’t remember a lot of specific episodes of ALF. What I do remember is Alf’s deep masculine voice (which really seemed odd after a diet of The Muppets and Sesame Street), sarcastic sense of humour and his constant desire to eat the family cat!
To me, Alf is one of the iconic characters from my youth, like Macguyver, Monkey Magic and Alex P. Keaton. Alf is a ridiculous over the top and often flawed figure that lives clearly in my head.
Who were the iconic TV characters of your childhood?
I am sharing today via Flog Your Blog Friday.
Thanks for that clip – brought back memories! I used to love Alf too…not sure why!? lol funny the fads that take hold! I think my brother may have even had an Alf stuffed toy haha. If you’re interested, come over to my blog and link this post up for Flashback Friday (just started the link up today). Great post!
ALF was an awesome show. We weren’t allowed to watch a lot of TV but this one was on the allowed list. Like you though I can’t recall specific episodes but as I was reading this post I could clearly hear ALF’s voice in my head!
I loved ALF! Best show ever! Wonder what happened to those actors. Haven’t seen them since, except the mosey neighbour who played Jerry’s mum in Seinfeld.
Oh, so many. The kids from Diffrent Strokes (read that the dad died recently 🙁 ), Richy Cunningham (as opposed to Fonzie) and the kids from Swiss Family Robinson – they are the first that came to mind 🙂
Monkey was definitely the one character that springs to mind for me. I remember spending many hours wondering why the priest was played by a woman, pretending to be a man – it did my young head in for years!
I LOVED Alf, he was the best. I probably didn’t understand a lot of it, but I thought he was cool all the same. I also LOVED Punky Brewster, I wanted to be her so bad, I even went to school dressed as her once for a themed mufti-day. And I love Rainbow Bright too. And, though I really shouldn’t admit this, I loved Baywatch! Oh how I loved Mitch’s son Hobie, probably my first tv crush!
Alf was one of my ‘shows’ too! 21 Jump Street was the most memorable show of my youth. Oh how I loved Johnny Depp!
Oh I am totally with Sophie, 21 Jump Street, Johnny Depp, my younger sister was a big ALF fan! 🙂
Oh! You brought back so many memories with that post! I loved Alf! It was one of my favourite program!
Oh I remember Alf … he wasn’t my favourite though, I wanted to move in with the Keatons 🙂
And then what happened in 1990? That’s right we moved to the farm and your Dad took more than a year to put up the TV antenna…
Yep. Missed the entire first Gulf War and goodness knows how many cartoons. That’s life living in the sticks, right?
Haha! I remember Alf!
I loved Family Ties, Different Strokes and the Wonder Years. I wonder what Fred Savage is up to now?