Alf

His homeland is the planet Melmak, his place of residence is Los Angeles . He is self-confident, moody and greedy. He is a decent glutton, rude and grumbler. He loves cats ( in the culinary sense ), his curiosity knows no bounds, and destructive abilities are amazing. But his thoughts are pure, his soul is open, and his heart is responsive.

His name is Gordon Shamway, he is 229 years old (born October 28, 1756 according to the Earth's timetable). He is one of the few surviving residents from the exploding planet Melmak, crashed into his garage in the garage of an ordinary American Tanner family in September 1986. The head of the family, Willy Tanner, called him “Alf” (short for the English Alien Life Form - an extraterrestrial life form), which replaced Gordon with his real name for a very long time. Tanners sheltered Alpha and hid him from the so-called Aliens Unit. He became a member of their family, and although the stranger did not always appreciate the kindness shown to him, he sincerely loved Willy, his wife Kate, their children Lynn and Brian and even the Tanner Lucky cat ( English - “Lucky”), which he often hunted for - on Melmak, cats were considered a delicacy. Moreover, the alien managed to meet many people, in addition to the Tanners themselves. The adventures of Alpha on Earth constitute the basis of the plot of the series.

• Paul Fasco - Alf (voice acting)
• Max Wright - Willy Tanner
• Ann Shedin - Kate Tanner
• Andrea Elson - Lynn Tanner
• Benji Gregory - Brian Tanner
• Anne Mira - Dorothy's grandmother
• Liz Sheridan - Raquel Okmonak
• John LaMotta - Trevor Okmonak
• Josh Blake - Okmonakov's nephew Jake

Gordon Chumway (Alf)

Gordon Chumway is an alien who received the nickname "Alf" from Willy Tanner in the pilot series of the series. The alien is 96.5 cm tall. Alf was born on October 28, 1756 according to the Earth's reckoning (at the time the series began, Alpha was 229 years old) on the lower-western side of the planet Melmak. Melmak, who was in six parsecs behind the Hydra-Centauri supercluster , had green sky, pink grass and purple sun. The currency used at Melmak was called a “varnik”, and the material, known as lint on our Earth, was valued in the homeland of Alpha just like our gold is valued (gold on Melmak was not of special value). On Melmak there is / was a disease - “Terrible Melmakian hiccups”. It can last a couple of days, or maybe a couple of years (for example, Uncle Alpha hiccuped for 50 years).

Alpha's body is covered with brown fur (he himself describes this color as “burnt siena”). Alpha has a folded nose, moles on her face, green blood. According to its own statement, of the 10 main organs of the body, Alpha has 8 organs - the stomachs (there is another stomach that is used during depression), so it has an incredible appetite; hence the unusually heavy weight of the alien. Cats were considered one of the finest delicacies in Melmak, so during his stay on Earth, Alpha has to constantly struggle with the desire to eat Lucky, Tanner's domestic cat, who dies in the fourth season.

After his spaceship crashed into the garage of the Tanner family living in Los Angeles in 1986, they sheltered an alien at home and replaced his relatives and friends. Alf is forced to live secretly without being caught by anyone except the members of the Tanner family — otherwise, Alf runs the risk of being captured by the Alien Task Force.

Alf has the ability to repeat phrases in the voices of different people, which is demonstrated in some episodes of the 1st season, as well as attract troubles, constantly putting Tanners in an uncomfortable position and risking being discovered. However, when it goes too far, Alf does everything he can to rectify the situation, and sometimes he really succeeds. Alf has a number of positive qualities: kindness, responsiveness, sense of humor. Alf has visited the farthest corners of the universe, so much of what he knows seems unbelievable to earthlings.

It is not known exactly what kind of life Alpha had on Melmak, how and by whom he worked. In the Keeping The Faith series, Alf claims to have his own slime machine business:

Alf: “The slimy motor was classic!”

Brian Tanner

6-7 year old son of Tanner. Alpha's best friend, who supports him in every undertaking, even if they contradict the earthly norms of behavior.

Willie (William Francis) Tanner

Head of the Alpha Shelter family. 45 year old social worker. In his spare time, Willy is fond of shortwave radio communications , he designs various equipment. Using his radio transmitter, Willy tries to help Alpha get in touch with his relatives.

Kate (Katherine Daphne Halligan) Tanner

Willie's wife, a housewife. Although sometimes it seems that she does not like Alpha, she often takes his side. Kate sincerely loves her husband and children. Sometimes he conflicts with his mother (living separately), but also loves her. Alf has a special affection for her and is used to seeing Kate at home caring for him.

Lynn Tanner

The eldest daughter of Tanner, age - 16-19 years. Alpha loves and always protects him, although she sometimes does not appreciate the peculiar attempts to take care of her. Alf at the beginning of the plot was in love with Lynn.

The series consists of 102 episodes, divided into 4 seasons (26 episodes in 1-3 seasons and 24 episodes in 4th season). The names of most episodes are the names of various songs that are somehow related to the plot. The full-length film “Project ALPH” is a continuation of the series. 6 series are combined into 3 long ones, while 1.16-1.17 series contains a unique screensaver (that is, it appeared in only one series).

• 1986-1987: # 28 (14.4)
• 1987-1988: # 10 (21.3)
• 1988-1989: # 12 (15.8)
• 1989-1990: # 39 (13.7) ^[2]

Initially in the 1990s, the series was released on VHS and Laserdisc . In the United States and Canada, the first season was released on videotape around the late 1980s, and on the Video CD in the mid-1990s. In North and South America, it was produced in the NTSC system , and in Europe, Asia, Australia and Oceania - PAL .

The series was released on DVD in the spring of 1997.

The series premiered in Russia on December 2, 1996 on the STS channel, which had started broadcasting the day before. The series went from Monday to Friday at 21:00, with a repeat of the series the next day at 14:20 ^[3] . This version was also shown on the channels Home and TV-3 . Also, the series with another translation was broadcast on the ORT channel. The premiere took place on September 4, 1999 . Broadcast on weekends at 10:40 ^[4] . This version was shown once. In two versions, the role of Alpha was voiced by Alexander Klyukvin . Since November 16, 2018, the series has been broadcast on the STS-Love TV channel.

2012

In August 2012, it was announced that Sony Pictures Animation had acquired the rights to a film about Alpha and was preparing a feature film with Alpha drawn through computer animation. ^{[5] The} film was supposed to be produced by the Smurfs producer along with and Paul Fasco. ^[6] The project was not implemented.

2018

In August 2018, Warner Bros. Studio announced a decision to restart the series. The new series will be a direct continuation of the original ^[7] . According to the plot, the alien Alf returns to Earth, this time he will fall into a completely different American middle-class family and will adapt to modern realities. The screenwriters again became Paul Fasco and Tom Patchett, who were involved in the original show ^[8] . The project was not implemented.

• ALF (game)
• Alf Project
• Alf (animated series)

• Alph on the Internet Movie Database