This is the character sheet for ALF.
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ALF
Gordon "ALF" Shumway
Puppeteered by: Paul Fusco
Played by: Mihaly 'Michu' Meszaros (Full-body ALF, uncredited)
Voiced by: Paul Fusco (English), Roger Carel (French)
The lovable main character of the show.
- Advice Backfire: What usually causes his problems in most episodes.
- Alien Blood: He states in one episode that he has green blood.
- Aliens Are Bastards: Whenever he acts aggressive.
- An Alien Named "Bob": An alien named Gordon. Although he prefers to be called ALF.
- Aliens Speaking English: His entire species has a good grasp of English.
- Amusing Alien: Why the audience loves him so much.
- Anti-Hero: He has aggressive and rude moments.
- "Ass" in Ambassador: In Project Alf he becomes the representative of Melmac.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Threaten his family and he'll threaten you. And in those moments, despite his having the appearance of a mutant teddy bear, he is surprisingly good at it.
- Big Eater: He does have eight stomachs to fill.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: His species have 10 vital organs. Eight of which are stomachs. He also has an average body temperature of 425 degrees.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: He was formerly the captain for the Bouillabiasseball team back on Melmac. He was also in the Orbit Guard, Melmac's military force. Which may explain why in the pilot, he recognized military garb on humans. He's shown to be reasonably capable as a member of the guard in the animated spin-off, which goes to show what Alf is capable of, if he truly wanted to apply himself.
- Butt-Monkey: At times. Usually it's from his own mistakes.
- Character Catchphrase: "Haaaa! I kill me."
- Cloudcuckoolander: By Earth standards he comes across as this.
- The Cloudcuckoolander Was Right: However, he does have his moments where he is smart.
- Covert Pervert: Knows a lot about human anatomy than he lets on.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Apparently, Alf is powerful and stealthy enough in his crazed state in the episode Wild Thing that he manages to successfully hijack a tiger from a zoo. While on a lawnmower. And then brought it to the Tanners' home and stuffed it into their garage without anyone seeing him do it. Bear in mind, most tigers go about seven to ten feet long and weigh in excess of four hundred pounds on average. Then compare that to Alf, who's about three feet tall, if not shorter. And probably isn't more than a hundred and ten pounds soaking wet. Makes one wonder just what Alf might be like if he applied this strength and stealth while in his normal mindset.
- This was also the episode where it was revealed that Alf can do flawless imitations, when he does pitch perfect impressions of Brian, Lynn, and Willie, all in the span of about a minute. Needless to say this particular ability completely freaked the Tanners out, and they were already worried for/about Alf due to his psychological shift, which Alf himself claims would make him potentially dangerous till it wore off.
- Alf also displays telepathy as part of a Brick Joke that ran throughout the episode. It is never explained if Alf can access any of these abilities outside of the crazed state he enters every 75 years.
- Deadpan Snarker: The majority of his jokes come from this trait.
- The Dog Is an Alien: One time he pretended to be a dog in order to fool humans. The surprising thing? It actually worked.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": He didn't like humans using his real name of Gordon Shumway. He actually preferred that they call him Alf.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: In Project Alf he avoids being killed by the Big Bad, becomes the representative of Melmac, and gains acceptance from humanity.
- Everybody Calls Him "Barkeep": Alf preferred that humans refer to him by his nickname. He never explains why, but he didn't like humans using his real name of Gordon Shumway.
- Exotic Eye Designs: The latter is not noticed by many but ALF actually has Black Bead Eyes WITH white pupils.
- Gadgeteer Genius: He was a skilled enough engineer to rework Willie's ham radio so it was capable of contacting Air Force One, the U.S. Presidential plane.
- The Hero Dies: Was mostly likely to be killed after getting captured by the Alien Task Force, at the end of the regular series. Averted in Project Alf (see Earn Your Happy Ending above).
- Hidden Depths: He's a very talented musician.
- Hidden Heart of Gold: Beneath all the snark is a guy who deeply loves his surrogate family and laments the destruction of his planet. Also shown in “ALF’s Special Christmas,” when he befriends a terminally-ill girl, helps a woman trapped in an elevator with him give birth (and got her to name the child after the girl), and stops Mr. Foley from jumping off a bridge in sorrow over his late wife.
- Hypocrite: Claims that he is fully capable of cleaning up his own messes then relies on the family to help bail him out of trouble.
- I Choose to Stay: "Help Me, Rhonda" gives him the opportunity to reunite with Rhonda and Skip, but he just can't bring himself to leave on Brian's birthday. He "accidentally" misses the ride while saying his goodbyes. As for his friends, he's confident he'll see them again some day, due to how long Melmacians live.
- Idiot Hero: He does more bad than good throughout the entire series.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: One of the main reasons he's forgiven by his actions.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Feels this way about Lynn.
- Innocently Insensitive: He often insults people accidentally.
- It's All About Me: Sometimes he only worries about himself too much. This may partly stem from his situation; he's one of the last of his kind, and has next to no real freedom of movement, sometimes even in the house itself, due to fear of being taken into custody by the Alien Task Force. Occasionally subverted, however, when he'll spend an episode trying to help someone out. Usually the Tanner family, and often with hilarious results.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He can be a real jerk, but he does love his family. Goes to great— and often odd— lengths for the Tanners. He's especially close to Brian and has a very weird mix of brother and surrogate son relationship with Willie. If either of these two are in trouble, Alf will pull out all the stops to come to their aid, even if it means going against his own nature to do it.
- Karma Houdini: Sometimes he doesn't get punished for his mischief.
- Kick the Dog: More like "kick the cat". He casually reminisces about his cat kills.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: Overcomes his hate against cats after adopting a Cute Kitten.
- Last of His Kind: Subverted. He is believed to be the last of his species until it's revealed that other Melmacians escaped the explosion.
- Lazy Bum: Does nothing to help out the family. Justified since he is an alien, but that's no excuse since he creates messes at their home.
- Lovable Coward: He has a tough time handling his problems and hides behind his family.
- Made of Iron: Survived a space crash, a car crash, and a kitchen explosion.
- Manchild: He's over 200 years old and still behaves like a 5 year old. May be justified due to the trauma of being one of the last of his kind, a fact that he seems desperate to forget as much as possible.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Most of the time he causes the problems of the show. He even screws up when he tries helping his family out of easy problems.
- The Nicknamer: Constantly greets people with (often pop-culture-related, but not always) phrases playing off their real names.
- Not Me This Time: Some episodes will have the family blaming ALF for something he didn't do, all while he tries to clear his name.
- Only Sane by Comparison: While the Tanners know him as an excitable, non-stop joke machine with unusual habits, a flashback in "Help Me, Rhonda" and the cartoons show he was actually rather subdued and rational compared to his more extraverted friends and family.
- Pet the Dog: He occasionally looks out for his family and does come through when they need him.
- Pinocchio Nose: His ears flutter when he lies.
- Shrinking Violet: According to Alf, he's this by Melmacian standards."It was a planet full of game show hosts."
- Small Name, Big Ego: Apparently, he was known as Mr. Science back on his planet.
- Smug Snake: Can be selfish at times.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: Has a moment with everyone.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Has a moment of this with Trevor Ochmonek, as they both believed someone in the neighborhood was building a nuclear weapon in their basement.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: In the first episode, he uses Willie's ham radio to try to contact other Melmacians, but no one answers, and he appears to recognize what that could mean. He learns in "Help Me, Rhonda" that there actually are other survivors out there, which does a lot for his mood.
- Too Dumb to Live: It's amazing he's even alive after all the crap he's pulled. A particularly infamous example of this happens in "Try To Remember", where he tries to fake the feeling of a jacuzzi by taking a bath with an electric mixer. Naturally, he zaps himself, and gets amnesia in the process.note
- Took a Level in Badass: He fought off a giant cockroach in La Cucaracha.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: In the last season.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Started out hating humans and condescending towards Earth concepts, but grew to accept and appreciate it over time.
- Trademark Favorite Food: While ALF will eat just about anything other than spinach, Alf mentioned his favorite food is cat and he desperately craves it, but he seems to have adjusted comfortably to Earth favorites, like pizza, sandwiches, cheeseburgers and fried chicken.note
- Ungrateful Bastard: Subverted. He comes across as this a lot of times, but he really is grateful to the Tanners for saving his life. This comes up in several episodes, including one where, thinking Willie was either being mistaken for a criminal (or possibly that he had been a criminal leading a double life), Alf did his utmost to keep Willie from being captured by the police. A case of Poor Communication Kills meant this didn't come off the way Alf intended it to until he finally explained himself near the episode's climax, but the Tanners were extremely touched by the lengths he went through to keep Willie out of jail once they understood what he was trying to do earlier in the episode.
- Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: He is usually sympathetic, but sometimes he doesn't apologize.
- Vocal Evolution: In the earliest episodes, Paul Fusco's voice for ALF is notably gruffer, more deadpan and lower in pitch. Over the course of the first season, though, the pitch raises slightly, and the voice grows both softer and livelier, fully morphing into the classic ALF voice in the second half of the season.
- We Are as Mayflies: Like all Melmacians, ALF has a centuries-long lifespan.
Willie Tanner
William "Willie" Francis Tanner
Played by: Max Wright
The often-frazzled head of the Tanner clan.
- Beware the Nice Ones: When pissed off he can get very intimidating.
- Bumbling Dad: Zig-Zagged. Willie is generally pretty competent, but having to cover for Alf tends to make him look stupid to others.
- Butt-Monkey: Usually the one who suffers from Alf's mischief. It's common to see Willie have his dinner stolen by Alf or get forced to pay hefty bills for Alf's TV watching and clumsy damage to the house.
- The Chew Toy: Is constantly annoyed by Alf.
- Deadpan Snarker: What makes his character funny.
- Good Parents: With Kate.
- Happily Married: With Kate.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's only this towards Alf.
- Large Ham: ALF! What you did was WRONG! WRRROONNNNG!...wrong.
- "You're STALLLLLLLLLLLLLL-ing!
- Nerd Glasses: He's got 'em and he's a bit of nerd.
- Only Sane Man: Compared to Alf and everyone around him, he's the only one to think rationally. Though this is occasionally subverted when he sometimes seems to go off into weird tangents and the rest of the family (sometimes including Alf himself) have to get him back on track again.
- The Scapegoat: Since the Tanners were hiding ALF from the authorities and neighbors, Willie was often forced to take the blame when ALF did something bad. This would result in Willie being punished or suffering embarrassment that he didn't deserve. The season one episode "Pennsylvania 6-5000" and the season four episode "Hooked on a Feeling" are the most profound examples of this.
- Stereotypical Nerd: He's got the glasses, is rather dorky, owns a ham radio and dabbles in some science & tech stuff (like examining a hairball sample ALF coughed up and proving ALF didn't really eat Lucky).
- Serious Surrogate Father, Wacky Surrogate Son: Crossed between this and Big Brother Mentor to Alf, who never quite gets over the Culture Clash between Earth and Melmac. Willie has his silly moments as well, and Alf, of all people, sometimes has to point out these moments. Given their usual relationship, this actually makes those moments much more hilarious.
- Tranquil Fury: He tries his best to hold back against Alf. And that's saying something.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: The ugly guy to Kate's hot wife.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Occasionally this with Alf on those occasions when the two are arguing or Willie is upset with Alf. However, the two will always back one another up when in trouble.
Kate Tanner
Kate Daphne Tanner
Played by: Anne Schedeen
The often-irritated (by ALF) mother of the Tanner clan.
- Deadpan Snarker: Always delivers at least one sarcastic quip per episode.
- Everyone Has Standards: She was the one most against ALF staying with the family, but upon learning what ghastly treatment would await him in government custody, she feigned ignorance when questioned by a federal agent.
- Fiery Redhead: When she gets in an angry mood.
- Good Parents: With Willie.
- Happily Married: Again, with Willie.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's sometimes this way towards ALF.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: The hot wife to Willie's ugly guy.
Lynn Tanner
Lynn Tanner
Played by: Andrea Elson
- Butt-Monkey: She has her moments.
- Deadpan Snarker: As expected of a teenage daughter character.
- '80s Hair: Her style is outdated by today's standards.
- Jerkass Ball: In the season two episode "Varsity Drag" and the season three episode "Promises, Promises". Lynn becomes quite bratty and pouty in the formernote and downright hostile with ALF and Brian in the latter.note
- Plucky Girl: Always the optimist of the family.
- Shrinking Violet: She lacks confidence in herself too often.
- The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: The hot daughter to Willie's ugly guy.
Brian Tanner
Brian Tanner
Played by: Benji Gregory
The Tanner's middle child and ALF's closest friend on Earth.
- Cheerful Child: His defining characteristic.
- Children Are Innocent: By far Alf's biggest defender in the family, taking to him from the get-go and consistently seeing the best in him. Alf frequently spares Brian his usual biting comments out of respect for this innocence.
- Flat Character: Receives the least character development out of every character.
- Morality Pet: For Alf.
- Nice Guy: Treats Alf with respect and kindness. Because of this, he's probably the closest to Alf in the family, and Alf genuinely reciprocates Brian's kindness and respect, jumping to Brian's aid whenever the need arises, which just feeds into their mutual respect and friendship. The two are quick to come to one another's aid or defense if accused of something, and Brian's behavior goes a long way towards helping Alf settle in. In many ways, Brian treats Alf as a kind of elder brother, despite the fact that Alf often does strange things and occasionally gets Brian in on the act, though Alf has always been careful never to put Brian in harm's way due his unfailing kindness towards the Melmacian.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Because of Brian's usual cheery, happy-go-lucky attitude, you can tell things are really bad when he is the one who gets angry or upset with someone. note
Lucky
Lucky
The Tanner family cat...and constant target of ALF's appetite.
- The Chew Toy: Alf's literally trying to chew him up, but always fails.
- Lost Pet Grievance: In the episode, "Live and Let Die".
- That Poor Cat: Always chased by Alf.
Raquel Ochmonek
Mrs. Raquel Ochmonek
Played by: Liz Sheridan
The Tanner's obnoxiously nosy neighbor.
- Awful Wedded Life: Watching the Ockmoneks is like reading a The Lockhorns comic.
- Badly Battered Babysitter: Becomes one in an early episode...not due to anything Bryan does (Bryan's asleep the whole time) and none of it is physical but due to hearing ALF's antics while watching Psycho (sounds she can't explain) and her husband assuming she's over-reacting to nothing.
- Bickering Couple, Peaceful Couple: She & Trevor are the bickering one to the Tanner's mostly peaceful one.
- Evil Old Folks: Averted. She isn't really evil, just really annoying.
- Nosy Neighbor: Her defining characteristic.
Trevor Ochmonek
Mr. Trevor Ochmonek
Played by: John LaMotta
Raquel's crass, boorish husband.
- Awful Wedded Life: Watching the Ockmoneks is like reading a The Lockhorns comic.
- Bickering Couple, Peaceful Couple: He & Raquel are the bickering one to the Tanner's mostly peaceful one.
- Big Applesauce: Where he's from and has the "Noo Yawk" accent and attitude to match.
- Big Rotten Apple: Why he moved away from New York City.
- Dad the Veteran: Is a Korean War vet.
- Drop-In Character: His main role.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Has shown to sometimes think along the same lines as Alf, such as the time when both of them thought someone in the neighborhood was building a nuclear weapon in their basement.
- Jerk Jock: He tends to have his moments, but these also tend to be the result of him telling stories of his behavior in high school.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Takes whatever opportunity he can get to say snarky things, but he's always tried to do the right thing.
Jake Ochmonek
Jake Ochmonek
Played by: Josh Blake
Trevor's nephew, who moves in with them after his father is arrested.
- Abhorrent Admirer: Often makes passes at Lynn, much to her annoyance.
- Mr. Fixit: He's very good at fixing things because his father taught him how while they were getting by finding things in the trash to repair and sell. He even boasts that his motto is "If I can't fix it, it ain't broke".
- Secret-Keeper: Becomes one to ALF after ALF catches him breaking into the Tanner's garage and intimidates him into not telling anybody, though they quickly become friends afterward.
Dorothy Halligan
Dorothy Halligan Deaver
Played by: Anne Meara
Kate's initally overbearing mother.
- The Bully: To ALF. He tends to reciprocate, making them Arch Enemies, or as close to it as the show ever got.
- Hypocrite: In her first appearance, she is irate that ALF seems to have taken over the Tanner's house, even though she was doing the exact same thing up until ALF got fed up with hiding and made himself known to her.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She is very rude to ALF, but she loves her daughter and her family.
- My Beloved Smother: In her debut episode she takes over Kate's life. She grows out of this thanks to Alf.
