Aaron1375 Review of ALF

ALF (1986–1990)

A cross between two earlier shows, "Mork and Mindy" and the lesser known "Small Wonder".

[7/10 · 2 March 2010]

Yes, the funny thing is "Small Wonder" was the lesser known show, but lasted 96 episodes (only 9 episodes less than this one did) and lasted the same amount of seasons. This one by far though started out the hottest, but like so many shows it fizzled late in its life. It did a rather fast fizzle too, as one minute it was one of the most popular shows on television, the next it was gone after a very weak conclusion that was very reminiscent of the ending to "Mork and Mindy" which basically ended on a cliffhanger that would never get resolved. This one sort of tried to resolve the ending by having a television movie years later, but I have never saw that one so I can not comment on how well it wrapped things up. Here you have your alien that lands in a family's garage and then lives and becomes part of the family. All the family learns to really love him, until the end where the mother for some reason goes from accepting Alf to kind of disliking him to an extreme degree. There are a lot of funny episodes to be seen, but then there are more than a few flop episodes too. I loved the one with the alien roach and the one where Alf buys the daughter a car when he is cruising and his hair is blowing in the wind. The family can be described as not very consistent as they act one way one episode and have different values the next. Also, the mother and father were supposedly at Woodstock which raised the question my dad asked "why did every set of parents in these shows attend Woodstock?" Seriously, Woodstock was not attended by the whole world and I would think it would be rare for a mother and father to have attended that function and quite frankly still be together. Alf though is the star and he by far carries the show. There was the typical neighbor in this show who gets nosy and almost catches Alf and then that neighbor had a kid move in with them and he got to meet Alf too. For the most part it was okay, I think a different family would have helped immensely, but this probably explains why this show which is more well known did falter so fast and in the end made only a few more episodes than the lesser known now show "Small Wonder".