One of the most memorable series from my childhood. Most of the episodes were very good, and at times the humour was absolutely brilliant.However, there was a problem with the central premise: Alf is a mentally ill individual. The only way they could extract maximum humour out of Alf's character was, unfortunately, to turn him into a tyrannical, psychotic monster. And we can, for the most part, ignore that fact and just enjoy the humour. But every once in a while I personally became a little tired of it.So the thing that makes Alf so funny is also the thing that ultimately alienates a devoted viewer.Another complaint on my part is that the series was already starting to exhibit signs of 'political correctness', which was only starting to kick in back in the 80s.Still, the writing is mostly good, the characters are likable and well played, and the supporting roles played by Liz Sheridan and John LaMotta were superb. These two proved invaluable for the series, and a good counterpoint to the ordinary and dull Tanners.Eventually the cast became tired of being upstaged and dominated by a puppet and the series was brought to an abrupt and dissatisfying end. Yes, this series has the worst ending in the history of sitcoms.Still, I give it eight stars. I'd give it ten on the nostalgia scale, but considering some of the flaws I think eight is pretty accurate.

As a little kid in the mid/late 1980s I loved ALF. Like the other poster here I also liked shows like the Smurfs, Transformers, Thundercats, He-Man, G.I. Joe, Alvin & the Chipmunks, the Muppets and - yes - even those old Marvel super hero shows. But he's right to point out that was all on Saturday mornings. My earliest night-time TV watching memories are of watching ALF. I still remember the first episode where he crashed into Willy Tanner's garage and was found and taken care of. I really loved this show and watched it every week, I was so sad when it went on the air. I watched it again recently though in reruns and it just was not as good, I'm sure I expected too much of it and it couldn't live up to my memories. Still it was a great show and it's still good, especially for family entertainment.

I remember ALF very well. Seasons 1 and 2 were fantastic. It was a different kind of show for the time. The star was a 3 foot tall brown alien named Gordon Shumway aka Alf who crashed on earth and was taken in by the Tanner family. It was a lovely idea and it took off really well. The show had a nice feel to it and it was aided tremendously by good stories, sharp sarcastic humour and a fast pace. This was the formula for the show which managed to last for 2 seasons and steadily picked up impressive audience figures. Seasons 3 and 4 however did not have the same effect. In fact, quite the reverse. What happened? Maybe we'll never know. For some reason after season 2 Alf failed to deliver. The show became slow, dull, repetitive and no longer had the funny stories or dialogue. The writers had obviously ran completely out of ideas. The show wasn't the only thing to change. The actors changed also. They looked totally bored to death. Not surprising really since they were given nothing to work with. The show just went down and down during the last 2 seasons and even though it picked up slightly in places, it lost viewers and continued to lose them at an alarming rate until the network finally pulled the plug. I personally think that they should have left it alone after season 2 when it was popular instead of trying to keep it going when there was no material left and having to leave it because viewers no longer cared.

One of the greatest US products made for TV. I really wish I could travel in time back some years so I can regain the endless joy of viewing the series for the first time. The dialog is full of fresh jokes, no sexual offending or humiliating ones like in Friends for example. It reminds me to the classics like Kermit's show or Jack Lemmon's Some like it hot *my absolute top 1 movie of all time* It is so sad that entertainment like this one is never been created, it is not good for the entertainment industry as a whole. But who knows, maybe we're cursed with the ancient Chinese curse "to live in the interesting times" I give it wholeheartedly 10/10 and highly recommend it for viewing/renting/buying the DVDs. I really do hope DVDs will be shipped to Europe soon.