ALF Tales

ALF Tales was a 30-minute Saturday morning cartoon that ran on NBC between September 10, 1988, and December 9, 1989. It spun off from ALF: The Animated Series, with that show’s characters taking on roles in fairy-tale parodies. The stories were rewritten for comedy, similar to Jay Ward’s “Fractured Fairy Tales.”

Each episode worked like a resident theater troupe: Gordon “ALF” Shumway and Rhonda played the leads, Larson Petty and Sloop were the villains, and the rest of the cast filled parts based on their personalities. Many tales spoofed film genres—for instance, a “Cinderella” episode was done as an Elvis Presley movie. Some episodes broke the fourth wall, showing Gordon backstage preparing while a character named “Roger Cowan, network executive” gave him notes. In one medieval-themed episode, Cowan told Gordon that “less than 2% of our audience lives in the Dark Ages.” Early episodes also featured the live-action ALF answering fan mail in a mailbag segment.

The voice cast included Paul Fusco as Gordon “ALF” Shumway and Sloop; Paulina Gillis as Augie Shumway and Rhonda; Peggy Mahon as Flo Shumway; Thick Wilson as Larson Petty and Bob Shumway; Dan Hennessey as Sloop; Rob Cowan as Skip; Ellen-Ray Hennessy as Stella the Waitress; Noam Zylberman as Curtis Shumway (1988); and Michael Fantini as Curtis Shumway (1989). The first seven episodes were released on DVD on May 30, 2006, in Region 1 by Lionsgate Home Entertainment as ALF and The Beanstalk and Other Classic Fairy Tales. The complete series was remastered and released on October 17, 2023, by Shout! Factory in the box set ALF: The Complete Series (Deluxe Edition), which also included the original 1986–90 sitcom, ALF: The Animated Series, and Project: ALF.