“ALF” Issues That Make Us Scratch Our Heads
ALF was one of the best 1980s sitcoms. It ran from 1986 to 1990 and spawned several guest appearances from ALF on other shows and spin-offs. It revolved around Gordon Shumway, an alien from the planet Melmac. He crash landed on Earth in the backyard of the Tanner family, who took him in. Patriarch Willie Tanner nicknamed him “ALF,” which stood for “Alien Life Form,” shortly after the crash. It was one of my favorite sitcoms when I was a kid, but even then I knew it had issues. I just didn’t quite realize how many there were.
For one thing, there is a thing called “suspension of disbelief” (SoD) that sitcoms take advantage of all the time, and ’80s sitcoms seemed to use it to their advantage more than many others before or since. Essentially, SoD means totally disregarding logic and reason in order to enjoy a story. We all do it constantly when we read, watch TV, play games, and more. It is what made ALF and many other sitcoms possible, and we all love those sitcoms for their zaniness. Yet, it’s still sometimes fun to explore just how “out there” they all were. ALF definitely had some SoD issues.
Other problems with ALF included disturbing character aspects, set tension, and some strange specific episode plots. Kids may not have noticed them as much, but how did adults miss some of them, even back in the ’80s? I know it was a different time…
