History Series / ALF

* UglyGuyHotWife: Willie and Kate Tanner. Apparently, the kids more closely resemble the mother. By the standards of a middle-aged man, Willie isn't really "ugly"; he is, however, [[HollywoodHomely bespectacled and nerdy]] in comparison to his more conventionally attractive (again, by middle-age standards) wife.

** The comic book featured a WeirdCrossover with ''[[CrisisCrossover The Evolutionary War]]'', an event running through all of Marvel's 1988 summer annuals; the High Evolutionary, an ''[[ComicBook/TheAvengers Avengers]]'' and ''Franchise/XMen'' villain, ends up encountering ALF.

* ParentalBonus: The comic was ''steeped'' in references and parodies that seemed more aimed at the older audience. Various Melmac-flashbacks featured Melmac-versions of such diverse things as Franchise/XMen, Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian, the Creator/MarxBrothers Series/TheHoneymooners, Creator/HumphreyBogart, Film/JamesBond, Film/{{Psycho}}, Film/CitizenKane, and even Hippie leader/drug use advocate Timothy Leary.

As is typical of the AlienAmongUs plot, ALF has to deal with the particular customs of living on Earth. In a subversion, however, he is not depicted as particularly advanced or powerful. He's a little freaky teddy-bear monster, who is lazy, gluttonous, and tries to eat the family cat (cats were his home world's equivalent to chickens). He hides out in the attic, and makes no attempts to ever leave the house[[note]]Except for one time when he was driving a car[[/note]], perfectly content to freeload off the family patriarch, Willie, and tease the NosyNeighbor Raquel Ochmonek.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alf_4.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Hello, is this the Lucky Lantern? I would like to order some sweet and sour cat."'']]

* SatelliteCharacter: The Tanner family all mostly lack any wacky or eccentric personality traits. Most of the humor involving them comes from their reactions to the antics of ALF, as well as the more over-the-top human characters like the Ockmoneks.

* RearWindowWitness: In one episode, ALF (house-bound because he's an alien) thinks he witnesses a neighbour commit murder.

* ForHalloweenIAmGoingAsMyself: ALF turned a party into a costume party, and invited himself. He even put a zipper on himself to make his appearance look more like a costume.

* HoldingBothSidesOfTheConversation: In one episode, ALF manages to get himself into a situation wherein he has to (vocally) play the role of a hostage-taker as well as a whole bunch of hostages. This ends up being [[JustifiedTrope completely justified]] as we learn in one episode that he can do absolutely ''flawless'' imitations of the voices of others (he does so with Brian, Willie, and Kate), which would make ALF an absolutely ''terrifying force'' to be reckoned with if he ever put his mind and vocal talents to it.

* ToBeContinued: {{Parodied}} at the end of "Someone To Watch Over Me, Part 1" where ALF gives a "Next Time On" announcement, followed by a StockFootage montage of old movie car crashes. He then quips that they're actually clips from next week's ''Series/MacGyver1985'' and running a real clip of the next episode.

* ForHalloweenIAmGoingAsMyself: He turned a party into a costume party, and invited himself. He even put a zipper on himself to make his appearance look more like a costume.

** This leads to a bit of FridgeLogic in RealLife: Fusco's puppet is n amed ALF. He insisted on it being addressed like any other actor. That means the puppet ALF portrayed the biological alien character Gordon Shumway, who was nicknamed ALF by another character. This makes ALF TheDanza.

* AllJustADream: In "Suspicious Minds", ALF becomes obsessed with the idea of a new neighbor secretly being Creator/ElvisPresley. It gets to the point that he breaks into the man's house, gets caught, and refuses to take "I'm not Elvis" for an answer, which all turns out to be the result of ALF zonking out after eating an entire plate of fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches.

* ExposedExtraterrestrials: ALF is smart enough to crack wise with the Tanners, but can't be bothered to put on a pair of pants.

* LameComeback: In "Something's Wrong with Me":

* FormulaBreakingEpisode: The season three episode "Tonight, Tonight" is totally different from all the others. Basically, it's ALF guest-hosting ([[ShamelessSelfPromoter and ultimately hijacking]]) ''Series/TheTonightShowStarringJohnnyCarson''. It deviates from the show's usual canon of ALF hiding with the Tanner family and from the military (though the Tanners do appear in [[ClipShow the clips throughout the episode]]). Also, ALF is guest-hosting the ''Tonight Show'' as if nothing is out of the ordinary instead of the show's normal canon of him being an alien from another planet.

'''ALF:''' Yeah? Well... you're a wienie!

The brainchild of puppeteer/producer Paul Fusco and veteran television writer Tom Patchett, ALF is the story of Gordon Shumway, a hapless '''A'''lien '''L'''ife '''F'''orm [[note]]Sometimes he was billed as an Alien ''Laugh'' Form[[/note]] who crash lands in the backyard of the Tanner family (no, not [[Series/FullHouse them]]) after his home planet, Melmac, [[EarthShatteringKaboom explodes]]. The original series lasted from September, 1986 to March, 1990 on Creator/{{NBC}}, with a total of 102 episodes in four seasons, plus a movie released on February 17, 1996, to wrap up the series. The show was produced by Alien Productions, the production company of Patchett and Fusco. In syndication, the show was distributed by Creator/{{Lorimar}}-Telepictures, then Creator/WarnerBros after they acquired L-T in 1989.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The first few episodes of season one. ALF had a much deeper, gruff-sounding voice and was a bit more competent and less of {{Jerkass}}. Lynn was slightly more ditzy and had braces. It was somewhat rare to see ALF and Brian separated; with a few exceptions, Kate was more antagonistic towards ALF — sometimes for no good reason — rather than just simply being strict, Willie was less bumbling and seemed to not be as big of a ButtMonkey, ALF was occasionally depicted as a beer drinker before this was dropped for being unsuitable behavior for a children's hero, [[note]]ALF's ceasing his beer drinking was at least acknowledged in-universe; in one second-season episode, ALF swears off alcohol after waking up with a hangover from a night of binge-drinking with Kate's alcoholic sorority sister [[/note]]and the humor and jokes seemed more somber and slow-paced, rather than the DenserAndWackier show into which it evolved.

* FinaleMovie: After the series ended on a cliffhanger, a movie was made to finally wrap things up.

** This leads to a bit of FridgeLogic in RealLife: Fusco's puppet is named ALF. He insisted on it being addressed like any other actor. That means the puppet ALF portrayed the biological alien character Gordon Shumway, who was nicknamed ALF by another character. This makes ALF TheDanza.