Destroy All Podcasts DX Episode 171 - ALF: The Animated Series

Alf is Keyser Söze... suddenly this show all makes sense! XD

that dude that won the competition would make a less annoying host.

I think Dreg's video has simply overpowered the podcast episode.

Is that your patch, or did you just get the icon?

yeah, thats my unit. no s#$%

ok, not really : ( I googled it. my life sucks.

I was about to sell some of my ALF cels when I noticed this podcast happened!

The ALF cartoon debuted on NBC during the 1987-88 season, with ALF Tales coming out a year later (with the original TV series debuting a year before all this). As a spin-off, I enjoyed ALF Tales a lot for it's rather satire and clever writing. It certainly might be comparable to Rocky & Bullwinkle in it's subversive quality. You often had slams at certainly things like movies, celebrities or even the network they were running on. One episode, Rapunzel, features a king that resembles Ronald Regan and a story that leads to the formation of the Federal Communications Commission to thwart an evil witch's domination of television broadcasting (something kids certainly wouldn't be that interesting in besides me at that age). Another episode I can recall had them doing "Wizard of Oz" with a very Bill Cosby-ish guy showing up to remind Alf (Gordon Shumway) of the 'network' behind this show.

The whole adult level in children's cartoons often was something that's been around for decades, going back to those old Looney Tunes from the 30's and 40's. I noticed you guys mentioned Rocko's Modern Life, which did also have an episode about Rocko losing his driver's license and having to take a driving school after getting his car impounded or something. Since you mentioned Rocko's Modern Life, it was often mentioned that the innuendos and double entrendes that occur in that show was due in how creator Joe Murray basically gave his staff the free will to do so, essentially to emulate the way those old Looney Tunes were created. The end result is giving us a kids show that could be seen both ways as a kid or an adult. Here's some clips to explain that...
https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=187571977939215

Thinking about how ALF's possible backstory and how the whole Melmac thing could be a hoax does prove for some interesting opinions on that matter. Too bad that Alf made-for-TV movie sucked though (if only for not having the Tanners there since they wrote them into a Witness Relocation Program).

Hearing of the Highlander cartoon mentioned, there was an Atari Jaguar CD game based on this show some guy tried to play without going insane!
http://spoonyexperiment.com/2010/10/19/highlander-last-of-the-macleods/

Hammerman was SHIT! Both story and animation-wise, and along with the "New Kids on the Block" cartoon were DIC's lowest point in their history. I know some good stories involving the NKOTB and why they did those stupid video segue moments in the episodes. Basically the episodes were sent off to the usual Asian studios to crank out and send back, but this time they came back badly executed so they tried to fix that up with those stupid video effects. I'm only glad I didn't watch the show, but know a few guys who probably wanted to commit suicide to it! The Hammerman series alone pretty much was the Clutch Cargo of the 90's! Aside from it's opening title sequence, the animation is just flat-out pathetic!

Similarly, the ALF cartoons were not spared similar animation goofs and stuff they had to be redone over time. One person who worked on the show informed me how the Japanese had a heard time with simple western gestures like the "being nervous while biting your nails in a typewriter fashion" bit, as they kept animating that very closely and ruined the timing!

It's only a shame the DVD's that are out of the cartoon series only gives you some 6 or 7 episodes of both cartoons. The main ALF cartoon had 26 episodes while ALF Tales was 21, a total of 47 episodes altogether. The sale of the first volume for both cartoons apparently didn't give the video company much luck to put out further volumes, though I kinda wish a box set had been released for the cartoons instead (or put someplace online to wtach). I have to made due with German-dubbed episodes to watch and stuff I have on tape for years I got from tape trading...

I think that movie Jeremy was thinking about is called "How to Be a Perfect Person in Just 3 Days", based on a book of the same name (or close to). I missed Wonderworks!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0141249/

Incidentally, here's the full half-hour NBC Saturday Morning Preview special from 1987, hosted by ALF!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7P6Fk5PdzI

In leaving here, here's Fatal Farm's take on Alf!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9oB6n6rXUM