ALF (TV Series) - Production

Production

Due to the inherent nature of producing a show featuring hand-operated puppets (à la The Muppet Show), ALF was technically difficult and demanding on series creator Fusco as well as its four lead actors. All confirmed during a 2006 People magazine interview that there was incredible tension on the set. Max Wright stated that he despised supporting a technically demanding inanimate object that received most of the good lines of dialog. He admitted to being "hugely eager to have ALF overwith." Anne Schedeen added that on the last night of taping, "there was one take and Max walked off the set, went to his dressing room, got his bags, went to his car and disappeared. There were no goodbyes." Schedeen herself said "there was no joy on the set it was a technical nightmare – extremely slow, hot and tedious. A 30-minute show took 20, 25 hours to shoot." (The taping lengths were not unusual for a show of ALF's nature, as a single 25-minute episode of The Muppet Show took nearly one week to film.) While fond of her on-screen children, Schedeen said some adults had "difficult personalities. The whole thing was a big dysfunctional family." Schedeen added, "It's astonishing that ALF really was wonderful and that word never got out what a mess our set really was." Elson, who suffered from bulimia during the second season of shooting, stated, "If ALF had gone one more year, everybody would have lost it." Wright would eventually reflect more kindly on ALF, saying in June 2006, "It doesn't matter what I felt or what the days were like, ALF brought people a lot of joy."

In reference to the tension, Fusco commented in 2012 that "It was just the nature of the beast. There was no way we could have made it go any further or any faster,” he insisted. “I think it was frustrating that it would take so long, but people got paid for what they did. Despite what people thought, that there was a lot of tension on set, there really wasn’t.”

Fusco was notoriously secretive about his character up until the series premiere. During the show's production, Fusco refused to acknowledge that the puppet ALF was anything other than an alien. All involved with the production were cautioned not to reveal any of ALF's production secrets.

The set was built on a raised platform with trap doors constructed at many points so that ALF could appear almost anywhere; Fusco operated him from underneath, so the unoccupied holes all over the floor were deep and treacherous. The trapdoors had to be reset multiple times, sometimes during a single scene.Fusco was the principal puppeteer. He used his right hand to control ALF's mouth, while the left controlled ALF's left arm. Second puppeteer Lisa Buckley assisted Fusco beneath the stage, operating ALF's right arm. Together with third person Bob Fappiano who controlled ALF's facial and ear movements via a radio controller offscreen, they worked in concert to make ALF's movements fluid and believable. During tapings, Fusco would wear a head-mounted microphone to record ALF's voice. The painstaking process resulted in countless mistakes and retakes, making it impossible to record ALF before a live audience. As such, a laugh track was added to the soundtrack during post-production.

To avoid wear and tear on the principal ALF puppet, the performers rehearsed with a battered, early version of ALF that was nicknamed "Ralph". Fusco would often substitute his hand for the puppet during rehearsals.

In an interview on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Tina Fey said that her biggest frustration as producer of NBC's 75th anniversary special was dealing with ALF's "people". Fey said Fusco would only allow ALF to appear on the show if the puppeteers were completely hidden from everyone else, even the studio audience. After ALF's cameo alongside former Family Ties star Michael Gross, ALF disappeared through a hole in the riser, was stuffed into a case, and immediately hustled out of the building.

While a puppet was usually used for ALF, there were some shots of the tiny alien running or walking around. This was accomplished by actor Michu Meszaros wearing an ALF costume. This can be seen in one of the series' intros, which concludes with the Tanner family getting their picture taken; ALF, (played by Meszaros) walks over to be part of the photo. However, Meszaros' services became too costly as well as time consuming, and the full ALF costume was abandoned after the first season.

ALF scored its highest ratings during Seasons 2 (#10) and 3 (#15), but plummeted to #39 during Season 4. NBC moved the show from its traditional Monday night slot to Saturday in March 1990, but ratings continued to fall. The series finale "Consider Me Gone" became an unintentional cliffhanger when NBC gave Alien Productions a verbal commitment for a fifth season, but ultimately withdrew its support. ABC resolved the cliffhanger on February 17, 1996 with the TV movie Project ALF. NBC executive Brandon Tartikoff later told Fusco that the network regretted cancelling ALF prematurely, saying "It was a big mistake that we cancelled your show, because you guys had at least one or two more seasons left."

Fusco co-produced the series with Tom Patchett. Patchett also co-created, wrote, and directed the series. The series was first syndicated by Warner Bros. Television and Lorimar-Telepictures. The North American syndication rights are currently owned by Debmar-Mercury as its parent company, Lionsgate, now owns home video rights.