Oft Off Topic

ALF Pt.1 - From concept to stardom to merchandise

• GenXGeekery • Season 1 • Episode 19

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In the late 1980's it was almost impossible to avoid Alf. From guest appearances out the wazoo, to merchandise of every conceivable kind, Alf was a ubiquitous part of life back then. Today we talk about his creator, Paul Fusco and what how he went about getting Alf from a concept to a prime time tv show to an merchandising juggernaut, in this first half of our two-part series on Alf.

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Shaun:

Alph yes, that lovable cat-eating scam from the faraway planet of Melmac, who captured our hearts and Nielsen ratings from 1986 through 1989. Nate, what do you know about Alph?

Nate:

Alph was amazing, I remember he's. Actually one of my core memories is watching Alph, like holding a doll and just like really enjoying it. I couldn't tell you what episode it was, but I just remember like really, really being into Alph. I mean, okay, I was in the turtle and it teased me to turtles and like stuff like that more than Alph, but in terms of just like one of my favorite things to watch. You know, when it came on Primetime with Alph, I love that show.

Shaun:

Yeah, it was one of those few shows on Primetime TV that kids could actually like, because I remember back then for the most part thinking Primetime TV was kind of boring for kids, you know shows like Cheers and the Such. But then Alph came along and was like, hey, this is kind of kid-oriented.

Nate:

I mean it was kind of it was inappropriate a lot of times. But I mean, looking back then again, it was 80s so a lot of things were inappropriate, but I really, I don't know, I really did enjoy it. You know it's. Yeah, I have very fond memories of.

Shaun:

Alph, same here. I remember pretty much the same thing being excited for new episodes, seeing all the cool merchandise and cameos on other shows. He had cartoons, comics, video games. My God, he was everywhere, wasn't he?

Nate:

Yeah, I'm waiting for you to be like and he was a Nazi like. Well, damn it.

Shaun:

Oh, actually there we are going to talk about a racist rant that emerged from about from Alph a few years ago.

Nate:

So there's that one yeah.

Shaun:

And we're also going to talk about which actor Alph's light or which actor's life Alph probably destroyed. Let's see, we got an epic Alph crossover that we got denied, and we're going to learn out why and how Alph's cancellation allowed for one of the most talked about moments of 2022. All that on this episode of Off to Off Topic Could.

Nate:

I guess what was the dad? I mean because I don't remember seeing the dad ever again.

Shaun:

Yeah, yeah, actually kind of was. He actually did do some stuff after Alph, though, so he wasn't completely destroyed from Alph. Yep, he did some other stuff, like he was on the Norm McDonald's show. The Norm Show Remember that the Norm McDonald's show? Yeah, it was like 99 through 2000. It did not last long.

Nate:

And are you laying in it?

Shaun:

No, yeah, no, he was also the store manager and or the central perk manager and friends.

Nate:

Yeah.

Shaun:

And I only know this from the episodes or the research I did. Okay, I gotcha.

Nate:

I mean he must have like popped in there real quick. He's like ta-da, here I am.

Shaun:

I think he was there for a season. Maybe it wasn't like a long term thing, gotcha. Anyhoo, here we go. Our story starts January 29th 1953 in New Haven, connecticut, usa.

Shaun:

Alph creator Paul Fusco emerges from his mother with one thing on his mind having a hit network primetime show starring a wisecracking puppet. However, being a newborn, he was unable to achieve this dream until later in life. So the wee baby Fusco knew this and thus bid his time and honed his craft until the time was right. By the time he graduated high school, fusco was good enough puppeteer, slash ventriloquist, slash, musician that he was actually able to use these skills to pay his way through college doing various acts and shows for people, which is really impressive. But it kind of gets knocked down a little bit when you realize college was kind of a fraction of the price back in the 70s. Still good for him, though. It was through these gigs that he met fellow college students, bob Papiano and his wife Lisa Buckley, and soon the three started working as a team. Bob was a puppet maker and puppeteer, and Lisa was also a puppeteer, and together they were the three puppeteers and eventually had a candy bar named after them. I believe In the early 80s this platonic, polyamorous puppet posse would become part of the image and magic on studios who would make some puppet shows for the likes of HBO and Showtime in the early 80s.

Shaun:

Among these shows were the Crown of Bog, the Valentine's Day that almost wasn't Santa's Magic Toy Bag and a few other little guys. You can find all these videos on YouTube. I watched the Crown of Bog and it's actually pretty good for what it is. You know, a little low budget puppet show. It's about a kingdom of one puppet's getting overthrown by evil puppets and oh, the trials and tribulations within. And a fun fact, the bad guys on this kind of look like the Skeksis from the Dark Crystal, sort of like a cross between the Skeksis and Gonzo from the Muppets. So that was kind of neat. Or I guess the Skeksis kind of looked like these guys because this just came out about a year earlier.

Shaun:

Okay so yeah, or possibly. Fusco and his crew were on a Willy Wonka-style tour of the Muppets studios and they had like an everlasting gobstopper moment, but with designs for an evil puppet. Jim Henson was like this is our new villain puppet for a movie coming up. Don't steal these ideas. And they're like wah-ha-ha-ha.

Nate:

I mean, there's always so many. It's like music, you know, you hear one song and you're like that sounds like another song.

Shaun:

Really, there's only so much stuff you can do with, like a certain number of people and also to you know, like villain 101 means they gotta have like sharp lines and a certain look to them kind of thing, whereas like good guys have like the pudgy round look, which they did in this show. Actually the good guys were round and pudgy and the bad guys were sharp and angular.

Nate:

Well, there you go. I mean, yeah, I think it's probably just coincidence.

Shaun:

Yeah, oh, it is.

Nate:

I'm just trying to joke, oh well, no, I mean I was creating with you. It's probably coincidence. I mean, meanwhile, like you know, many years ago there was some ninja snuck into, like you know, jim Henson's house, like haha, no, we're gonna do.

Shaun:

Exactly During the four years that these shows were being produced, fusco Star were working on his own puppet idea and honing in on a wise, cracking and snarky fellow who would be rude and crude and make jokes with the boys Kind of a more adult-oriented puppet than you'd uh, than you're used to. At the time. He would actually take around this new puppet and test it out on friends and family at family gatherings and the such pulling pranks on people, cutting jokes on people and just seeing how they reacted. Apparently, most of the family members were kind of annoyed by this. Nobody really liked Fusco dragging around a puppet that would make fun of them and pull pranks on them. But Fusco was undeterred. He was busy creating and if his family had to be annoyed, so Alf may flourish, so be it. And annoyed they were. Oh, and also initially Alf's voice was going to sound like Rolf from the Muppet Show. But Fusco realized that that is way too hard on the vocal course to be doing all the time, so he nixed that one in a hurry.

Nate:

Which is true.

Shaun:

Yeah, I get that, yeah that gravelly voicing, that kills you. People don't realize it, but woohoo.

Nate:

You can also destroy your vocal cords if you're not good, reading to my daughter at night sometimes, like I'll make voices, and the one voice I don't know if you were seeing the the pigeon, like don't let the pigeon drive the bus, or don't let the pigeon, or was it don't let the pigeon do this, don't let the pigeon do that. They're really cute, like short stuff. Well, the voice I gave this pigeon is like I know it's sustaining it past, like you know, 20 or so short pages with only says a few things pro page. I couldn't do it. I mean, it was stuff like I don't know what to say. I'm going to talk like this and things and pigeons don't let me do. Oh, see already, yeah, I do that voice, you know, and it works. You know I can cough or whatever and she loves it is fine, but yeah, I do, I form it there. I'm like, oh, I'm gonna, you'll do this one, this cart, one of my animations, with this voice. I'm like, never mind.

Shaun:

Two seconds into it, like nope, nope, nope, that's not gonna work. I mean, if I was getting paid to do it.

Nate:

Oh, dude, I. You know I'd kill my vocal chords for that, but you know, it's just, you know, for for a little animation that no one's even appreciate and you know not or even see. Yeah, it's like, whatever, I'll do my old voice.

Shaun:

So we're at about 1984 now and all those shows that they were doing for the Magicon Studios have run their course. Their contract are up and Fusco decides that it is now time to start shopping alph around and see if he can get buyers for the idea. First up was Disney and they actually liked the idea of alph. In fact, they offered to buy alph outright from Paul. However, alph was Paul's baby and he wasn't gonna sell to anyone. Alph and Fusco were at package deal. As Fusco insisted, he retained any and all rights to alph. He might have actually been paying attention to that Howard the Duck lawsuit a few years earlier because, yeah, it's about the same time period and a lot of people with ownership rights were watching that case. Yeah, that was a smart play. Yeah, yeah, it really was. It'll come in to be kind of smart later too. My opinion probably best Disney didn't buy it. They probably would have dropped the ball. It's not like 80s. Disney was peak Disney at that time, especially since it's more of a adult oriented puppet idea kind of thing.

Shaun:

Yeah, fusco then shops the idea of alph to agent and producer Bernie Brillstein. Bernie was the executive producer on Blues Brothers and Ghostbusters, as well as Jim Henson's agent and Fusco figured he'd be a good person to target. Initially Brillstein turned down the alph idea as he considered Jim Henson the best and the best and only real puppeteer that he wanted as a client and didn't want, you know, a lesser puppeteer solely in his good name or his client list. However, after some soul searching, brillstein decided that alph was indeed for him, and by soul searching I mean he realized alph didn't have to be good to be merchandisable and the merchandising potential for a wise, cracking alien puppet aimed at adults was through the roof.

Shaun:

Brillstein then set up Paul Fusco with another one of his clients, a man named Tom Pratchett who did a lot of work with Jim Henson and the Muppets, namely co-writing the Muppet movie and Muppets Take Manhattan. Paul, bernie and Tom would then form the studio Alien Productions and Paul would also bring along friends we talked about earlier, bob Papiano and Lisa Buckley, the fab four of Paul. Tom, bob and Lisa got right to work hammering out all the story details for Alph's show and the logistics for bringing that puppet right to life. Story-wise we get Gordon Shumway, a 230-year-old orbit guard from the recently exploded planet Melmac, who crash lands on Earth into the Tanner family's house lives and hearts. Helf would be a wise, cracking, beer-drinking cat, eating, possibly racist alien, as we talked about earlier, who is indeed to be more of an adult-oriented character than for kids. At least that was the intention anyway.

Nate:

So wait, his planet was destroyed, Like Superman, I mean. I guess I didn't realize his planet was destroyed, I just remember. Again, I forgot a lot about the show.

Shaun:

So from Nuclear War, the most 80s of ways to blow up a planet.

Shaun:

No they go. It's pretty dark. After hammering out the storyline, brilstein knew exactly who'd be interested in this show NBC. It's currently 1985, and just a few years ago NBC was a laughing stock of the Big Three networks and on a long, long losing streak. In fact, in 1983, all nine of the new shows at NBC launched for that season tanked horribly. Examples of that Conehead's the Animated Series, which I never knew existed. I watched the starting episode of it, or I tried to. It has a laugh track, nate, so that should tell you a lot about, right there, the animated show had a laugh track.

Shaun:

Yeah.

Nate:

Conehead's did Well.

Shaun:

Flintstones did, I guess.

Shaun:

But I mean yeah as did Uskiu, we do yeah, which I thought was stupid too, then. So I mean, just because they do it doesn't mean it's a good idea, true, yes, and Conehead's, the Animated Series, was just flat out bad. It did have Dan Aykroyd's voice, though, and Jane Curtin's voice in it. That was kind of impressive. Another example of the movies or shows that they released that year Manimal the cop who could turn himself into any animal to solve crime. I was unable to find a full episode of that online and I didn't really want to, but you can find a full clips of the Manimal transformations throughout the entire series, where he turns into like a cat or a bird and then solves cat or bird related crimes. I'm guessing. Yeah, it looked really bad.

Shaun:

But shortly after this horrible, horrible season, new president Peter Tartakov started to turn things around for NBC by greenlighting exciting and thrilling action-packed new shows such as A-Team, night Rider and Punky Brewster. Riding high on this run of hits, tartakov decided to take a chance on Alph and order as a pilot for the 1986 season. First, go and crew get right to work on shooting the pilot. It's a huge amount of effort, versus A had to construct a custom set to shoot the show so they could accommodate the puppet crew. What they wound up creating was a set full of open pits, tunnels and trap doors for the puppeteers to get where they're going to and be able to, you know, just like hide out of sight and little trap doors so they can pop in and out wherever they wanted. And this kind of made for a very hazardous set, because those little pits were four feet deep, so if you weren't paying attention to where you're going, you had a nice four foot fall in your future. Or if they actually left like a trap door open randomly.

Shaun:

so not only did you have to act and wander around the set. You had to be very mindful of where you were, because four foot fall ain't fun man.

Nate:

No, I would say four foot falls doesn't sound like much, but it's something.

Shaun:

Yeah, you could send to the hospital if you're not anticipating it.

Nate:

If suddenly the floor fell out from under you and you dropped four feet without prep, yeah, you could break a leg.

Shaun:

Yeah, oh yeah, very much so, especially if you land like head first or put your arms out to stop you. Not good times.

Nate:

Yeah, that would be. Yeah, no bueno.

Shaun:

No serious injuries were reported, but plenty of regular injuries were reported. No serious, not enough to get the lawyers involved is what I'm thinking. That means Exactly. I'm serious because we're able to settle out of court.

Nate:

Fortunately, no one loved that child.

Shaun:

Right, we just had to replace him. We had to get a new Timmy for the show. Story wise, we get Alf, or Gordon Shumway. He's, as he's known, on his home planet of Melmac, where he his job is an orbit guard, which I guess means guarding the orbit of the planet. Melmac blows up due to a nuclear weapon war and Alf escapes the explosion and crash lands on Earth, crashing into the house of the Tanners and hilarity ensues. So his home planet, Melmac kind of an interesting place.

Shaun:

I saw a rundown of some of the weird laws and facts about it and you want to hear some facts about Melmac Nate? Yay, yay, I'll take that as a yes. Yes, so it was founded 23,000 years ago by Harold Twink when he took the wrong off ramp on his way to Neptune and found himself in the Al Dente Nebula in the Andromeda Galaxy. The planet was already inhabited by a species of salesman dinosaurs who are part salesman and part dinosaur and always looking to make a sale. We are never told what happened to these salesman dinosaurs, so I'm guessing there was probably just some colonization going on. They're all rounded up and put in the camps, as is tradition.

Nate:

Well, salesman's not a race Like that's a job they do.

Shaun:

It's a sale According to you. Oh narrow minded one. It says right here part salesman, part dinosaur and that is their race. All salesman dinosaur. Then you're saying alpha's stupid.

Nate:

Well, I'm saying that salesman dinosaur is stupid.

Shaun:

Well, what about nurse shark? Do you think a nurse shark is stupid? What about carpenter ant? Or a lawyer bird?

Nate:

Well, okay, a carpenter ant is actually a thing. Yeah, so is a nurse shark?

Shaun:

No, it's not Nurse shark, yeah it is.

Nate:

There's no such thing as a nurse shark. Yes, there is. I call she that again. There is a nurse shark. What the fuck is that?

Shaun:

It's a shark dude. It's a nurse shark. Yeah, right up there with a carpenter ant, all sorts of other working animals.

Nate:

But again, like it's not it's profession, it doesn't, it's a nurse shark, it's like the caretaker of the sea. How do?

Shaun:

you know that it might have an RNA registration. I'm sure Wikipedia the origin of the name nurse shark is currently up for debate, so I guess they're not. They're not aggressive.

Nate:

But that initially mean like just because someone's not aggressive, like oh, that person did kick my ass. I guess they're right.

Shaun:

Mike Tyson didn't beat me up the one time I saw him, so therefore he's not aggressive. So now you know an animal that exists, nate, nurse shark. I learned something today. You did so. See, animals can have jobs, despite what you think. They're called service animals, and sometimes that service is being a nurse or a salesman.

Nate:

Those are domesticated animals that we force jobs upon them. It's not like the dog woke up. Like I want to be a service animal. I'm going to help blind people.

Shaun:

I was thinking about forcing a nurse, a shark, to become a nurse. You're just on the bus and you're seeing this poor shark and scrub struggling to breathe on the bus, just riding along. What are you doing? They forced me into this work, this line of work.

Nate:

Get me. Dr Kallso, Scalpel the shirt like. Looks to the door. There's some guy standing with sunglasses, arms crossed, shakes his head no.

Shaun:

Yeah right, you are not escaping.

Nate:

Reluctantly grabs the scalpel, heads to the doctor.

Shaun:

Using his fins like knocking everything off the table except for the scalpel. Trying to pick up Dr is like I don't know why we're doing this. We'd like to see the poor thing suffer, I guess.

Nate:

Like what are we doing this? There's like an actual human nurse, like outside the door.

Shaun:

Oh times, they have changed, times changed.

Nate:

Back when we used to take animals and force them to do things they weren't supposed to be doing, never mind with the guy behind this shark who's constantly dumping water on him.

Shaun:

See that shark is a job creator. You need people to keep it from escaping, you need people to keep it moist, you need people to teach you what to do. So therefore, hey, everything's working out good. See, we need more nurse sharks in society.

Nate:

I had the one and ten chance that shark finally leaves his mind at each station. Like all the blood in the grass, Like I can't take it anymore.

Shaun:

I have a problem with blood when I see it Right.

Nate:

Oh, I thought I bit some melds yeah.

Shaun:

Back to Melmac. Melmac also has green skies, blue grass and a purple moon. Its planetary motto is are you going to finish that sandwich? Its anthem is dance till you drop by Homer T Swipe. Its national flowers Roger the Turnip. Figure that one out. That's national mascot is Buster the Groundhog. The three most valuable things on the planet are foam, bronze and carpet, did I figure?

Shaun:

that one out Carpet, carpet, yep yeah, something that apparently is made is actually a findable and valuable. It's a foam, I guess. Are you trying to process the little carpet being the third most valuable thing on the planet?

Nate:

Yeah, I mean, whatever, whatever I mean, and then they're all furry. So, like you know, theoretically they could like make their own carpets, like oh yeah, who thinks so? Who made this carpet? Oh, ned, oh well what's the name of? Ned.

Shaun:

It's quite why it smells like.

Nate:

Ned Get away with murder. You have murder. You know like I killed my whole family. Well, are you sure he calls his whole family? We can't find them. I don't know, but he turned to a carpet salesman the other day. Awesome.

Shaun:

That carpet pattern looks just like your calico sun. What's the deal? First pass times, they get to play. They enjoy playing boolean baseball. Get it like boolean base, but baseball like boolean cubes yeah, that's one of the dumber puns I've ever seen.

Nate:

And also that's pretty bad.

Shaun:

Yeah, it's bad. And yogurt mining is also big. On Melmac, apparently, you can mine yogurt. It's illegal to name your children after wood. The biggest cause of arrest was tickling a barber, and dancing with mailmen is a federal offense. And one final note the month it blew up was called Nathan Ganger. There's Nathan in there, yeah.

Nate:

Well, if you're dancing with a mailman is a felony, who gets arrested? Like is the mailman like do they lose a mailman if they dance with someone else? Or like, who is it who initiates the dancing? Or if, like, the mailman is trying to make his own, like just kind of deliver the mail and someone's, like you know, grinding up on him and he's walking along.

Shaun:

Like I assume that latter one. Yeah, it's like you're delaying the mailman by dancing with them. You can't delay the mail.

Nate:

Be my guest so what if the mailman's enjoying it? So is he in trouble now too, Because he's like? Well, since you are enjoying it, you are now active participant in this grinding.

Shaun:

They get they're on a three strike warning system. If you get three strikes then you're beheaded in public or immediately.

Nate:

There's no question, yeah or immediately.

Shaun:

Yeah, just there's a van falling around each a mailman, a dude in there with just a little pad paper like check one All right cool.

Nate:

You imagine the pressure if you're like delivering mail. There's a van always watching you just in case they would cut the dance with you and you're like can't cannot enjoy it.

Shaun:

And there you're coming up on a break dancing crew just like two blocks up ahead. You're like oh god. Oh god they got their cardboard out and everything. Also, what happens if you're just like dancing near a mailman and he just starts dancing with you Unprovoked? I guess that's for the people in the van to decide. I'm pretty sure too, with what you just learned, you could pass the Melmac citizenship Nate Melmac citizenship test.

Nate:

Again. I mean, I know we, I'm constantly quibbling, I'm like we're never going to get through this. I keep on doing this, I'm trying to stop, but like Melmac again, it's like the Star Wars thing Melmac's the planet itself. So are they constantly taking in people from outside to become a Melmac and then, once you're a Melmac, like then what I don't know? Okay, you know what. Nevermind, I'm going to let them go. I'm letting it go.

Shaun:

Yeah, melmac citizenship test thing. I don't even know if that exists.

Nate:

Far as I got open borders there. I thought that I thought that was part of your research, Like, oh yeah, this is what they say about the planet.

Shaun:

No, just me adding on a little joke on the end. Well, there you go. Yep, there you go. Forgive me for picking apart your joke. You do it all the time. It's fine, it's fine. So now we got the story out of the way. We got the casting and crew to come up with. So far as casting went first, they had Alf Clausen do the theme song Alf, writing music for Alf. That's kind of neat. As far as acting crew went first, they got Max Wright and Anne Sheedon playing Willie and Kate Tanner, the parents, on the show. These two are actually pretty well established actors at this point, with good acting resumes for both of them, and Max Wright was actually a very well respected stage and film actor at this point and that may have been why he was absolutely miserable on this set the entire time. More on that in a moment.

Nate:

Oh, I can imagine. Yeah, if you're serious, like it's, like those that, let joke, you know where it's. Like I wasn't Joe Shakespeare.

Shaun:

Yeah right, and they're dressed up like a clown Shakespeare in the park. You do not understand. I played Hamlet.

Nate:

What's that school? Yeah, I was, like I was, I would do.

Shaun:

I was trying to, I was trying to think of it, juilliard.

Nate:

There you are, yep, like, did you know that? He's out there on the street shaking, like shaking that sign saying you know, free car wash or something like that. How was it? No-transcript Makes you wonder how often he cried. You're like he let the set and it's thing about a day. Everyone left, he goes home, he walks in the house, he closed the door, he looks himself in the mirror. It just burst into tears.

Shaun:

Just crying and crying. Tell the tears don't come out, yeah. Actually he cast the checks, he cast those check actually, apparently, he said he mainly did the show for the money. Actually, yeah, there you go yeah right.

Shaun:

Yeah, he's like hey, you know prime-time network TV on NBC, hey, decent money. Actually, what role max ride played was Joseph Mengele in a made-for-TV movie in the early 80s, which got me thinking about what would happen if we had a movie where Alph crash landed in a Mengele's house instead of the Tanner family. Feel like that wouldn't be a family show anymore, probably more.

Nate:

I'm probably super dad.

Shaun:

Yeah, but it would kind of make for an interesting show if we did, though. I mean we could have guest stars like Anne Frank in it and maybe have the Hogan's heroes do a special guest star, kind of thing, or it could be like Schindler's list, where everything is black and white but just alphas brown running around being chased by Mengele or what if I mean this is dark, but whatever.

Nate:

What if it is Schindler's list and Alph is there and no one mentioned it like Part of the thing, like the camera, pens left, all this horrible stuff's going and Alph just standing there in there like a Little uniform fit to him. I'm not you gonna add no, no one Acknowledges that there's Alph there right, I like that idea.

Shaun:

The fucking Nuremberg trials are going on. There's just Alph sitting there at the desk with a microphone in front of them. So tell me what did you see that night?

Nate:

He cracks jokes there's like okay, whatever, yeah.

Shaun:

Andrea Elson and Bingee Gregory would play the kids Lynn and Brian Tanner. Andrea had a couple of roles and stuff like Silver Spoons already, but far as I can tell this was little bingies first acting role. Well, alph was a puppet with animatronic face. They didn't need an actor in costume for certain long shots and walking shots, namely the one you see in the credits at the very beginning, because basically they had the same setup as Howard the duck, which was an actor for the far long shots where he needs something, wandering around and sauntering, and For the closer up stuff is animatronic puppet, a puppet with animatronic face. But for the far away shots they hired Barnum and Bailey performer meet you Mizaros Standing at a whopping two foot nine, hungry, hungarian born.

Shaun:

Me too was a perfect role for Alph. As a circus performer. Me too was a poodle trainer who did poodle acts, basically did that thing, even though like the whips and having the poodles like jump on chairs and stand up. Well, the natural is like this is dogs couldn't murder this person right in front of your eyes, these wild beasts. This was his first movie that he did how it or first show he did, but he would also go on to appear in the movies wax work, big top peewee and Lucas talking as the quote-unquote baby stunt performer. That'd be cool job to have on your resume, baby stunt performer. As far as the alph puppet itself, that was a three-man job. Paul Fusco was Alph's mouth, voice and right hand, lisa Buckley was the left arm and Bob was the eyes, ears and eyebrows, which he handled from a remote controlled setup across the room. These four peoples would be the ones controlling Alph, but in the credits you'll only see them referred to as Alph's assistance. Nate, you want to take a guess as to why that is, do ya?

Nate:

Yeah, my guess is it's just that stupid ass. How are the duck thing where they're like oh no, he's real.

Shaun:

Bingo, yep oh. Fusco went the hard of the duck route and said Alph is to be treated as a real person at all times and never referred to as a puppet, never, ever, ever. This would be a stipulation and fusco would have for any and all alph guest appearances from here on out. And this thinking would actually, kind of unsurprisingly, bite the franchise in the ass, because of course it would, yeah, and also add to the stress on the set, because everybody on the set had to refer to alph is alph and treat him like a human being. And, yeah, not fun times.

Nate:

No one. I mean, I get it, I get it as concept. You're like okay, we're gonna treat you in our marketing, we're gonna treat this guy like you know, oh yeah, it's real. But you know it's like okay, we all know it's not. You know it's not. There's no real alp here. It's, it's fine, but To go the full way where it's like no, he is a living preacher and I don't know it. Just, it's so fucking stupid.

Shaun:

Yeah, it really is, especially when it's always just like this or do it this way or die, kind of thing. There's no in between, there's not a hey, we're all set you do.

Nate:

Yeah, you must this. You must do it this way or else.

Shaun:

So the Paul foots going them. They shot the pilot and sent it off to NBC, who put it on in the air. However, in NBC's eyes, the pilot episode underperformed and the show almost didn't get made. Except for one thing NBC president Tartakov loved Alf and his daughter loved Alf even more and he did not want to break the poor girl's heart, so he decided to green light the show for initial season. So we can think Tartakov's daughter for this, because she loved Alf and she's the reason they got me. Yeah, oh, and probably those father daughter bonding moments.

Nate:

I mean there's a lot here that happened. A lot like, oh yeah, my kid liked it. Like that's how my Harry Potter got made. You know, they got that first book and the kids wrote it. Kids read it, they liked it. So he's like well, green light it for the kids. Then, billions of dollars later, he's like who?

Shaun:

Well, yes, huh. Well, I got this giant pile of money, though Kids probably drowned under it.

Nate:

My kids left me. They don't speak to me more about made a child made of money, so it's all good actual physical money.

Shaun:

Originally, foosco in the crew wanted the show to be done before a live studio audience to capture their energy for the show. However, they quickly determined that this would not work, as working with a puppet required a lot of reshoots and a lot of downtime To set the puppet back up and get everything back to square one. All these reshoots and long reset times meant that each episode would often take about 20 hours to shoot, which is that's actually a long time for a 30-minute episode. Honestly, I had no idea how long it takes, huh.

Nate:

It's a long time period, jesus Christ.

Shaun:

Yeah, apparently, for a comparison, an episode of friends only took five hours to shoot and that was actually kind of considered on the long end for a sitcom back then. So 20 hours, incredibly long for a sitcom. And oh, one thing I did learn to while they're doing of the rehearsals for the puppet or for the show one thing they did that was actually pretty smart is they used one the very, very early versions of Alf as a Stand-in puppet, so they didn't do wear and tear on the main puppet, the expensive one. This crude early version of Alf was actually named Ralph or rehearsal alien lifeform. Yeah ha. Also another little side note this alpha is the very first show to be broadcast in Dolby surround sound for all like five people who had it in their homes back then. First season is underway and the ratings are good. But the audience isn't what NBC expected.

Shaun:

See, early Alf was a wise, cracking beer drinking alien who is aimed at adults. What happened was kids loved an alien who got to experience the world for the first time along with them, and this led to some reshoots that NBC had to do after some parental complaints were filed because their kids were Mimicking some stuff that they saw on this show, such as in the first episode, you get see Alf drinking a beer and once he realizes all kids were mainly kids watching show. Nbc said no more beer for Alf. Initially, paul Fusco fought this idea, saying that Alf is 230 years old, he should be able to have a beer when he wants. Network said nope, that'll get us in trouble. No more beer for Alf. So that's why you only get one scene with him. Oh, actually, I take that back. There's a second scene where I think it's like a dream sequence, where he has a beer with an alcoholic or something like that, or pretends to have a beer Pretends.

Nate:

I'm beer.

Shaun:

Yeah, pretends to Early along. Early on they made a lot of cat eating jokes, since that was the food on his home planet, melmac. These had these comments had to be curbed because apparently someone's child somewhere decided to recreate a scene where Alf puts a cat in a microwave to cook it. No word on whether the cat was okay or not. Hmm, hard to say.

Nate:

So that's why I had kept me up?

Shaun:

probably not. And another early episode they had to reshoot. Alf attempts to make an electric, take an electric mixer and turn the bathtub into a jacuzzi. Alf gets shocked in hilarity ensues. Well, somewhere in America another child attempted that stunt and hilarity did not ensue. In fact he died. And they had to do a complete reshoot of that scene where Alf now uses a hand mixer. And they also added a PSA style moment to, with Alf explaining electricity and water do not mix, which is true learning stuff off the sitcom, and the problem also is it's mixed with the 1980s version of parenting where they were just like latchkey kids.

Nate:

The child yeah, it's like he saw this thing is like oh, but do this, and no point anywhere, like saw him doing it or try to stop him. They're just like oh, what's little Timmy doing? Well, never mind.

Shaun:

Yeah, well, they just say hey, timmy, go, do whatever you want, just be back when the street lights come on. Another fun fact about Alf randomly, episode 16 of Alf is a clip show, two-part clip show featuring the first 15 episodes, which kind of feels like a clip show speedrun as far as TV shows go and you make it 16 episodes in and you're like we're doing a clip show whoo. Yeah yeah, and then this even kind of early to you.

Nate:

It's super early. Yeah, I mean you're gonna do a clip show. You have to wait, like I don't know what you think. Three seasons in, I would think so. Yeah, we three seasons was like pushing it, that's. That's still a little early, but at least you've got enough footage. But yeah, I mean, at least I don't know I'll push it back to four seasons at least.

Shaun:

Yeah, that way you have enough like episodes to kind of coal from yeah, they're kind of running out of ideas on Alph sort of early because of the whole setup of the thing. It's not like Alph could leave the house very easily, so they're kind of restricted to him just sort of being in the house for the most of their scenes. I Mean granted, yes, he did leave now and then, but for the most part doing that was kind of expensive and difficult. Alph's popularity was huge. It said there was Ronald Reagan's favorite show, and now I can picture is Nancy Reagan sitting a senile Rodney down in front of the TV, with a Big Rodney sitting around and footed PJ snacking on a bowl of jelly beans. Well, nancy cackles Eveli, yeah, sit here, you old mushy-minded president, enjoy your own jelly beans. For him it was for him.

Nate:

They like we need to keep the illusion. Ha ha ha for Reagan.

Shaun:

Okay, I like that one right there. For the gipper we got to do for the gipper.

Shaun:

The show is popular but a little bit short-lived and it only lasted four seasons, the second season being highest rated as it reached number 15 on the Nielsen ratings. And what follows, big ratings? Nathan, nathan, merchandise and boy howdy. Alf may have been the king of 1980s merchandise. You said it wrong, did I? White and ice moich and dice. It's all about the white and dicing. Yeah, he had so much merchandise and he was only around for four year at the latter half of the 80s, so I mean that kills, not just worry.

Nate:

I mean, I don't know how long he went on, but I thought it would be more than that.

Shaun:

Yeah, it feels like more than four years. So it really does. 1987, and 250 million dollars of alfalfa merchandise was sold that year. Coleco produced a 22 inch tall doll that accounted for 85 million dollars of that's those sales. Doll cost $30 on release, which and 1980s money, I'm pretty sure $30 could buy you a brand new car in a house.

Nate:

It wasn't there like a. I feel like there was a like a McDonald's toy, I'm not wrong and think of that there was a.

Shaun:

There was a. Burger King actually released a Set of little kids meals that had puppets in them and a cardboard records that you could play and listen to alfa sing songs Like take me alf to the ballgame.

Nate:

Yes, I just give a little Burger King, that's. That's what I had. I had the one of Burger.

Shaun:

King dolls, take me alf to a ballgame is just bad, bad. We need to take a moment to boo how that horrible joke of a song that's awful. Yes, whoever came up with take me alf to the ballgame. Boo, that's probably Paul Fusco. He seems kind of have like a cheese ball sense of humor Because he does most of the writing for alf. It feels like Also around this time alf's poster out sold John Bon Jovi's poster. So there's that. I don't know if that's impressive or not, but it was a fact I saw.

Nate:

Part of me is surprised me, with all this merchandising or moichandizing, that they would have gotten rid of them. So you know, after four seasons. But think about what you said earlier about how there really isn't much you can do with them. Yeah.

Shaun:

Yeah, they actually had a plan. We'll get into that in a few Cool. Yeah, indeed, alph also had a tops trading card set. That was quite popular and I had a ton of those. It was just pictures of Alph doing just Alph stuff. I remember there's a set of them where it was very every state and Alph would be like doing something in each state. They came wrapped in wax paper instead of foil packs. Remember that back when baseball cards were wrapped in wax paper. I never did baseball cards, or any cards, I guess.

Nate:

No.

Shaun:

They never had Alph cards, huh no but never Alph cards. I don't think the early, I think Marvel cards were in foil packs by then.

Nate:

Yeah, I just was never really I didn't do cards.

Shaun:

Yeah Well, your loss. They're fun to trade. It is my loss and exciting, and you can also get that horrible gum to cut your lips open and cut your gums. Good times 1987, marvel releases Alph comics under the Star label, which is a their label aimed at younger readers, kids, even 50 issues of the Alph comics over four years. I actually had some of those comics and they're they're pretty good, nice and imaginative, and since it wasn't tied down to a puppet, alph could go do things. Other places have like slightly more advanced adventures than just hanging out at home doing telemarketing.

Nate:

Do they ever reference it? Like you know, in the show they're like oh man, remember that time you went to Russia. Like oh yeah.

Shaun:

The original family guy cutaways came from Alph.

Nate:

I took a shot of Gorbachev. I missed.

Shaun:

Oh yeah, Star comics was also the home of Peter Porker, the spectacular spider ham. I had issue number of that. Yeah, I had issue number two of that. Read a lot it was actually pretty good, Was it crossover with Alph no.

Shaun:

1987, the first video game is released for the Atari ST and Apple to 1988 saw a series of five educational games for kids Alph teaches math, alph teaches history, alph teaches typing that kind of stuff. In 1989, sega Master System got Alph release. I watched videos all these games and none of them looked good. The Sega.

Nate:

Master, I ain't Rand. No I just ain't Rand.

Shaun:

Alphless shrugs. Just a picture at least. Shrug on the cover is just Alph just shrugging. I don't know.

Nate:

The government's dressed up for you.

Shaun:

Alph had a music single in 1987 called Alph Stuck on Earth, where musician Ben Libren mixed audio samples from the show and put it to beat behind it. It was not released in the United States but that horrible song made it to number four in the Netherlands and number three in New Zealand. That song not good and I will forever judge those two countries for putting that song so high on the charts.

Nate:

Yeah, I mean, come on, guys, yeah.

Shaun:

And it's exactly what it sounds like. It's just like hey, I hit number four on my Casio keyboard with the rumba beat and then it's just like Alph samples from the show. It's, it's that. Just be noted that Alph was huge in Germany as well, probably about as big as he was in the US, and Tommy Piper, alph's German voice actor, released a single with the voice of Alph's onscreen girlfriend. This song translated to Hello Alph, this is Rhonda, and it's been 12 weeks on the German charts, and also the title of that song sounds kind of ominous in the right light. Hello Alph, this is Rhonda. You may want to go get checked out by a doctor.

Nate:

Turns out I have a thing. I just came back from the clinic.

Shaun:

I have bad I just came back from a clinic. If anything is dripping on you, you might want to go to the clinic as well. Yeah, 1988, burger King released that series of Alph puppets that comes along with the cardboard records that we just talked about. Alph doing a sing-alongs Take me out to the ballgame Once again. Boo that song. It's bad. Number two, cardboard records that's not something I was really aware of, to be honest. I remember those really floppy like thin plastic ones, but I don't really remember cardboard records. Well, I don't either, really. Yeah, I mean, obviously it was the thing. It probably sounded like ass, oh sure.

Nate:

I mean cardboard is not exactly a permanent solution to anything.

Shaun:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Most things that come in a happy meal aren't permanent, however, which is probably the justification for cardboard. Yeah yeah. Also keeps it out of the landfills, I guess, because it would just rot after a while. Sure, so yeah, hey, burger King, head of the time, being proactive with the Poor thingers.

Shaun:

Yeah, Look at them. Go Proud of you, Burger King. And that will conclude part one of our series on Alph. Stay tuned next week when we talk about what amazing Alph crossover we were denied. Now Alph caused one of the most talked about moments of 2022, and we discuss whether or not Alph is a racist. Tell this and more on next week's episode.

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