monkeypox

Alf

Alf is a really fascinating show. It’s twisted and bizarre. I’ve been watching it this afternoon with my Dad, and I decided to check out the facts. I was pretty annoyed by the character Alf, but knowing the context makes it way more interesting to watch. Here are a few reasons why it’s so interesting…

(I got all of this from Wikipedia. I’m just condensing it to the interesting parts for you.)

1. Max Wright [the awkward and slightly nelly father on the show] stated that he despised supporting a technically demanding inanimate object that received most of the good lines of dialog. He admits to being “hugely eager to have ALF over with”. Anne Schedeen [the mom] said that on the last night of taping ALF “there was one take and Max walked off the set, went to his dressing room, got his bags, went to his car and disappeared. […] There were no goodbyes.” Schedeen herself said “there was no joy on the set […] it was a technical nightmare - extremely slow, hot and tedious. […] A 30-minute show took 20, 25 hours to shoot.” While fond of her on screen children, Schedeen said some adults had “difficult personalities. The whole thing was a big dysfunctional family”. Schedeen added, “It’s astonishing that ALF really was wonderful and that word never got out what a mess our set really was”. Elson [the daughter, who is revealing some feminist tendencies during my viewing of the show], who suffered from bulimia during the second season of shooting, stated, “If ALF had gone one more year, everybody would have lost it

2. Fusco [the main puppeteer] is notoriously secretive about his character. During the show’s production, Fusco refused to acknowledge that the puppet ALF was anything other than an alien [what???]. All involved with the production were cautioned not to give away any of ALF’s secrets.

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Paul Fusco was the principal puppeteer. He used one hand to control ALF’s mouth leaving the other free to control one of the puppet’s arms. A second puppeteer, Lisa Buckley, accompanied Paul under the stage and operated the other arm. Together, with a third person (Bob Fappiano), who controlled ALF’s facial and ear movements via an RC controller offstage, they worked in concert to make ALF’s movements fluid and believable. During tapings Paul would wear a “halo” which was used to record his voice for the ALF character. All of this made for a painstaking process and there were countless mistakes and retakes.

3. To avoid unnecessary wear-and-tear on the principal ALF puppet, the performers rehearsed with a battered, early version of ALF. They nicknamed him “Ralph.” Often during rehearsals, Fusco would simply substitute his hand for the puppet.

4. In an interview on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Tina Fey said that her biggest frustration as producer of NBC’s 75th anniversary special was dealing with ALF’s “people”. Fey said Fusco would only allow ALF to appear on the show if the puppeteers were completely hidden from everyone else, even the studio audience. After his cameo (as an audience member), ALF disappeared through a hole in the riser, was stuffed into a case and immediately hustled out of the building.