Gordon Shumway crashes his spaceship in Los Angeles in 1986 and moves in with the Tanners. The patriarch, William “Willie” Tanner (Max Wright), becomes protective of this furry aardvarkian alien, and keeps him in hidden in the garage for four years. A govt agency, the Alien Task Force, has hinted at dissecting the cat loving ET. Kate (Anne Schedeen), Willie’s wife, learns to tolerate the parasitic house guest. Alf is a student of the Don Rickles school of insults and he is inclined to driving the Tanners to bankruptcy. He burns through the Tanner’s groceries each week, he maxes out Willie’s credit card on junk, and carelessly wrecks the house. At one point Alf attempts to create a lagoon in the Tanner backyard after getting excited over Gilligan’s Island. Still, Alf livens things up in an otherwise mundane Tanner home and the children, Lynn (Andrea Elson) and Brian, seem to genuinely like having him around. ALF ran for almost 100 episodes before being cancelled in favor of the upstart Fresh Prince of Bel Air in 1990. Alf is voiced by his creator, Paul Fusco, a native of Connecticut. Fusco was inspired by the Muppet’s Rowlf the Dog character when creating Alf. Alf was said to be one of President Reagan’s favorite shows. Fusco visited the White House in 1987 where he and Alf kibitzed with first lady Nancy Reagan at a Christmas party for the children of diplomats. Max Wright (Willie) was born in Detroit and nominated for a Tony for his role in Ivanov in his post-Alf period. Wright was married to Linda Ybarrondo for over 50 years. A 2001 National Enquirer headline reported that Wright was battling a “crack addiction.” He passed in 2019.Today a NECA Alf 6’ toy figurine is priced at $37 on Amazon. Fans of ALF may be intrigued with Philip Reed’s extensive hate watch reviews of every episode of ALF in 2013: “It had a puppet. A midget. A sci-fi plot it never did anything with. It had notable guest appearances, nearly all of which were totally wasted… I watched it. I cared about it. I was invested in it. And I mean that twice over. As an adult now, and as a kid way back when. ALF meant something to me when I was young. I was on its side. I thought ALF was funny. I enjoyed the show on its terms. It was something I’d rush home to watch… I certainly can’t ignore the fact that that was me. And now I did it again as an adult. I still thought ALF was funny… I enjoyed the show on my terms.”