Did You Know?
Michael Eisner, head of The Walt Disney Company, made an unsuccessful bid to buy the series outright before Lorimar made a syndication deal with Alien Productions.
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The final episode ("Consider Me Gone") was, indeed, intended as a cliffhanger. At the time it was filmed, NBC was still up in the air over whether the show would be cancelled. The cliffhanger format was intended to help persuade NBC to give the show one more chance, if only to resolve the "To Be Continued" ending. Six years later, the TV movie Project: ALF finally brought closure - although the lack of the original human cast, and poor writing, cause many fans to reject Project: ALF as part of the show's canon.
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The name of every episode is also the name of a song. Each is relevant to the episode's plot.
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The character 'ALF' was ranked #8 in TV Guide's list of the "25 Greatest Sci-Fi Legends" (1 August 2004, Vol. 52, No. 31) and appears on one of three collectible covers.
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The names of the Melmacian holidays and currencies mentioned by ALF in some episodes are actually the surnames of the crew-members.
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When the show first aired in Germany it became an instant success. But it was unfortunate for the German city of "Alf", located at the Moselle river. The city-limits-signs, featuring the city's name, were stolen so many times, that the city council decided to buy a huge number of signs for sale.
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In the years since the show's demise, both Max Wright and Anne Schedeen have stated that tensions were very high among the cast and crew. The technical demands of the series made for very long shooting schedules, and none of the actors enjoyed playing supporting roles to a puppet who always had the best lines.
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Two kinds of ALF puppets were used: The first one was was remotely controlled and used for all shots where ALF was shown only from the stomach up (most shots). Whenever ALF's entire body incl. his feet were visible(occasionally), another puppet with a human inside it was used. This is easily discernible as the faces of these two puppets look quite different from one another.
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ALF staff writer Jerry Stahl wrote a memoir called "Permanent Midnight" about becoming a success as a television writer on this show (as well as Moonlighting and thirtysomething) while simultaneously dealing with his addition to heroin. The book was made into the movie Permanent Midnight, starring Ben Stiller as Stahl, and showed several scenes on the set of "ALF" (renamed "Mr. Chompers"), including a nightmarish drug-induced hallucination featuring the show's puppet.
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