"Alph" is an American sitcom in the genre of science fiction comedy. He talks about an ordinary family that has hosted an alien named Alf. From 1986 to 1990, four seasons aired. After that, the series was unexpectedly closed, but received several sequels and spin-offs. It is one of the most popular sitcoms of the eighties.
Creators
The creators of the idea of the series and its executive producers were puppeteer and voice actor Paul Fasco and experienced television screenwriter Tom Patchett, who previously worked on episodes of many famous shows. Fasco developed the character image Alpha, acted as the voice of the protagonist, and controlled the doll in most of the sitcom scenes.
After success among critics and positive reviews on Alpha, Fasco and Patchett founded their own production company, which was mainly involved in creating shows based on their most successful creation.
History of creation
The production of the series was approved by the channel after Paul Fasco held a small demonstration of his new character. The heads of the studio approved the creation of a full-fledged sitcom about Alpha.
The production of the series was quite difficult from a technical point of view, especially for a comedy program. Also, the channel’s leaders were not happy that the Alpha character allows himself quite adult jokes and often drinks alcohol in the frame, in their opinion, the series was aimed primarily at a family audience. Fasco had to give in and slightly change the character of the protagonist.
Plot
The main plot of Alpha is this: an alien from the planet Melmak named Gordon Shumway crashes over one of California's smaller cities. His ship falls into the garage of an ordinary Tanner family. In addition to the alien, the main characters of the Alf series were the father of the Willie family, his wife Kate and two children, Lynn and Brian.
The family decides to shelter the alien, giving him the name Alf, which is based on the English abbreviation, which can be translated as "Extraterrestrial life form." Tanners have to hide the existence of the guest from their annoying neighbors and government agents from a special military unit for the study of aliens.
Characters
Gordon Shumway, aka Alf, more than two hundred years. He is distinguished by a sarcastic and cynical character, a sharp mind and sometimes selfishness. Often his behavior leads to unpleasant situations for the Tanner family, but Alf corrects his mistakes at the end of the episode. Alph is not very tall, his body is completely covered with fur. The character has become one of the most popular in American culture, having received excellent audience reviews. Alf entered the list of twenty-five best characters of science fiction according to the version of the magazine "TV Guide".
Willy Tanner is a social worker. It was his passion for radio that led the Alpha ship to catch the signal from Willy's receiver and landed in their garage. His relationship with the alien is one of the main themes of the series, he is genuinely passionate about astronomy and is glad that it was the alien who got into his house, however, the behavior of Alpha and his character often infuriate Willy.
Kate Tanner is the wife of Willie, a housewife who sometimes works as a real estate agent. In the pilot episode, it was she who was opposed to Alf staying in their house. Throughout the series, she is pessimistic, often trying to punish Alpha for his tricks and instill discipline in him.
Lynn Tanner is the oldest child in the Tanner family. From the very beginning of the sitcom, she became friends with Alf, the plot of many episodes focuses on their relationship. An alien from Melamak often helps her overcome shyness. Sometimes Lynn's parents begin to strain her friendship with Alf, in one of the episodes Willy even jokes that their grandchildren will be covered in fur.
Brian Tanner is the son of Willie and Kate, at the time of the first episode he is six years old. He is sincerely glad that an alien has settled in his house, and is becoming a close friend of Alpha. Tied to a cat Lucky, protects him from Gordon's attempts to eat an animal.
Eric Tanner is the third child of Tanner, born in the last episode of the third season of the series.
Also in the sitcom often appear Tanner's neighbors, Trevor and Raquel Ochmonek, who are trying to spy on the heroes, since they hide from them the presence of an alien in their house.
Actors
Voice Alpha was the creator of the character Paul Fasco, he controlled the doll with the help of two assistants. In some scenes where the alien needed to be shown at full height, the dwarf actor Mihai Messaroche was in an Alpha costume, whose height was only eighty-three centimeters.
For actor Max Wright, the role of Willy Tanner became the main one in his career, after which he starred in several films and mini-series, and also worked actively in the theater. Disappeared from the screens in the middle of the last decade.
For other actors in the series Alf, the project also became the pinnacle of a career. After the closure of the sitcom, Anne Shedin, the performer of the role of Kate, starred in several television programs, but in the last fifteen years she practically does not work, from time to time she teaches acting.
Andrea Elson, known for her role as Lynn Tanner, after the end of the series appeared in several successful television series as a guest star, however, after marriage and the birth of a child, she decided to end her acting career.
Benji Gregory, the performer of the role of Brian, after the end of filming in "Alpha" decided not to continue his acting career. He entered the San Francisco Academy of Arts, and then enlisted in the army, where he served for two years.
Closing and continuing
Despite the excellent reviews about Alpha among ordinary viewers and professional critics, after the second season the series began to lose ratings. In addition, its production was extremely costly and difficult from a technical point of view. In addition, an important factor was the fact that many actors of the project were unhappy that the main character is a doll that receives all the fame. According to Max Wright, during the production of the last season of the sitcom, the atmosphere on the set was heated up to the limit.
The series was closed by the channel after the fourth season, which ended with the Alpha taking the military to a secret base. Fasco claims that he was promised to be given the opportunity to film the fifth season and finish all the storylines. As a result, six years later, he was able to convince another channel to approve the shooting of the television movie Project Alf, which completed the alien storyline.The actors of the original series did not appear in the project.
Other projects
Even during the filming of the series, the channel tried to cover the costs of production through products with a character image. Alpha photos appeared on mugs, T-shirts and other products.
After the project was closed, Paul Fasco created two animated series based on the sitcom, where he again voiced the character, and also launched an evening talk show with Alf as the presenter, it was closed after showing several episodes. In 2012, rumors appeared that a full-length film based on the series was being developed. In 2018, it became known that work is underway to restart the series.
Ratings and reviews
The series received excellent reviews from the very beginning. “Alf” was a hit not only in the USA, the rights to display it were sold to many countries, it was especially successful in Germany and in the territory of the former USSR. The show also received several awards, including "Viewers' Choice" and "Choice of Children".
Other projects involving the character received not so positive reviews. Alf, however, remains one of the most popular characters in the pop culture of the eighties, so far he appears as a cameo in other famous programs.