Customer Reviews

ALF - Season One

5 star:		(80)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

At long last, my favorite sitcom is being released on DVD.
I remember when my father had me watch the show ehn it first aired. I was 5 years old at the time. He taped several episodes which I continued to watch. A few years ago, I was able to gat all the episodes on tape from a friend. The humor became much more understandable as I was 20 years old.

An interesting fact is that almost all the episodes are named after songs and that the episode name often describes the plot.

Here is a brief synopsis of the episodes

Pilot Episode
ALF crash lands his spaceship in the Tanner family's garage and he begins to live with them

Strangers in the Night
The next door neighbor babysits Brian and ALF causes trouble but later catches a burglar

Looking for Lucky
After ALF trashes the house and the family cat, Lucky disappears, the family falsely accuses ALF of eating him.

Pennsylvania 6-5000
When ALF usus Willie's shortwave radio to call the president on Air Force One, Willie is arrested for the crime

Keepin' the Faith
ALF buys $4000 worth of cosmetics and convinces the family to resell them at a higher price

For Your Eyes Only
ALF meets a blind woman on a call in radio show and wants to meet her in person.

Help Me Rhonda
ALF manages to contact his girlfriend, Rhonda, on the shrtwave radio and debates about whether he wants to live with her

Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue
ALF has a crush on Lynn and makes a rock video to woo her.

Jump
ALF convinces Willie to try again on a skydive that he chickened out on years earlier.

Baby You Can Drive My Car
After Lynn complains about not having a second car in the family, ALF sells the gold on his spaceship to buy a $90,000 Ferarri

On the Road Again
The family go on a camping trip and Willie gets mad at ALF and ALF gets lost.

Oh, Tannerbaum
After ALF cuts up the family Christmas tree, and all the places are sold out, ALF convinces Willie to go out to the mountaians to cut one down.

Mother and Child Reunion
Kate's mother comes to visit but stays because she has nowhere else to go. Fed up with having to stay in the garage. ALF decides to meet her.

A Little Bit of Soap
When Kate and her mother get in a fight, ALF turns what they say into a script and sends it in for a soap opera which airs on TV

I've Got a New Attitude
ALF helps Kate's mother, Dorothy with finding a new friend.

Try to Remember (two part episode)
After getting electrocuted in the bathtub, ALF gets amnesia and believes that he is an insurance salesman from Michigan. The family helps him jog his memory and we see flashbacks of what they talk about.

Border Song
A teenager from Mexico meets ALF and they become friends

Wild Thing
ALF enters a day long phase that his species goes through were extreme craziness occurs.

Going Out of My Head Over You
Fed up with ALF's antics, Willie consults a psychologist to meet with ALF

Lookin' Through the Window
ALF believes he saw the next door neighbor murder his wife and begins to investigate

It Isn't Easy... Bein' Green
When Brian plays an asparagus in a school play, ALF tries to help him overcome stage fright.

The Gambler
After ALF loses a lot of money betting on a horse race, he changes the prices on the items on the garage sale.

Weird Science
When Brian adds planets to his solar system model at ALF's suggestion, he flunks the contest and ALF covinces Willie that the extra planets do exist there.

La Cucharacha
A cockroach from ALF's spaceship gets loose and a can of bug spray causes it to greatly increase in size.

Come Fly With Me
The family goes on a trip with their neighbors, the Ochmoneks.

I have waited a long time for the show to be released and am glad that they are finally doing so.

If you've read the other reviews, you'll already know that the episodes on this disc are syndicated versions, not the original NBC ones. That's a shame, as my wife and I watched the show since Day 1 (I'm 38 in 2004, you do the math).

It is nice to have them on DVD. Would it have been better to have the original uncut ones? Hell yeah. But I'll take this. I just hope that if the next seasons are released, that they don't use syndication.

The comments by Alf on the DVD menus are pretty funny, and the blooper reel is awesome (What the hell is that? A plane?) As a long time Alf fan, I'm glad to see these on DVD, but my excitement is tinged with disappointment over them being edited.

The DVD intros recorded by Alf are quite funny. The bit about more FBI warnings made me laugh out loud, as did some of the blooper reel - to hear Alf (mildly) swear made me and my wife really laugh out loud). The syndicated issue aside, the show is STILL damn funny - there's no getting around that issue. :)

NOTE: There's a statement from Lion's Gate on why they have the syndicated versions over the originals online over at TVshowsondvd.com - look in their Alf section.

I have most every episode taped from the original NBC airings. I expected to be able to eliminate them from my ever-cluttered collection of stuff with the purchase of this long awaited set. Why Lions Gate chose to use edited syndication episodes completely baffles the imagination. Perhaps they plan on later releasing a "Deluxe Edition" so that the consumer will get hit twice to pay for the same product. The $40 list price should have more than adequately covered licensing the rights to the full episodes, but I guess there's no end to corporate greed.

I am stunned by the rave reviews of the Extras: 1) a short gag reel of which only about 15% is funny, 2) some brief trivia screens which is mostly made up of obvious facts that any fan of the show already knows (like A.L.F. stands for Alien Life Form, for example), and 3) credits screens - credits for the DVD authoring is now considered a bonus extra?!?! Sheesh! Would have made better sense to have included some of the best ALF bits from Hollywood Squares, or even included some of the many commercials ALF has appeared in over the years. Or interviews with the cast reflecting on being a part of the show.

The omission of a feature to play all of the episodes on a disc is simply appalling. Interactive is nice, but can you imagine an audio CD in which you have to select each song separately? Adding this feature would have taken the authors mere minutes to code. I just don't get it.

Rather than deluxe packaging, like you get with most TV series box sets, a clamshell case crams in the four discs in a clunky, overlapping layout. No book, either, just a single sheet listing the discs and episodes, and a slipcover for the case. I've seen public domain sets packaged better.

I'm not sure if the picture quality is due to the original source or not, so I'll reserve judgement on that. Just don't touch the Zoom button because the artifacting from the low bitrate encoding is completely useless. Even still frames in normal mode look bumpy. No other TV series sets in my collection have these problems. How could so many elements get overlooked?

The three stars are for the episodes themselves, which are priceless. A smart, funny, irreverent sitcom that eclipsed "Mork and Mindy", which aired opposite ALF on rival network ABC. I still laugh out loud every time I view this wonderful series. The disc introductions by the ol' ALFer himself are quite amusing in their own respect and deserve to be a part of a package that was created with more care, passion, and respect to the fans of the series.

I'd love to give the DVD set a good review, as the show is funny. However, in an outrageous and unacceptable move, the studio has released EDITED, CUT versions of the series, made for syndication. When I go out and BUY a TV series on DVD, I do not expect edited junk, I can see that on cable stations.

BOO! HISS! AVOID THIS DVD! Write the studio and tell them you will not sit still for this. Save your money and record the edited versions from TV reruns yourself. Glad I have the uncut network versions from NBC.

Let me just add my voice to the outcry of disappointment over the release of the edited, syndicated versions of the episodes rather than the originals. Don't they know that people who buy DVDs want and expect the definitive, uncut version? This is just unacceptable! I implore Lions Gate (or whoever else might have the ability to do so) to re-release the season one set with the original versions, and not to use that horrible, overlapping disc configuration in the case. What a bad idea!! Please... DO THE RIGHT THING AND RE-ISSUE!!!

Love the show, but hate this DVD set. I can only hope Lion's Gate revisits this show on HD-DVD and does it right, with UNCUT episodes. Until I get whole episodes, I won't buy them.

When a show comes out on DVD you expect it to be uncut, unedited, and the way it's supposed to be shown. This is not the case with "ALF," or at least, the first season box set. Being a big fan of the show I used to record the episodes on VHS tape during the first run. I was disappointed to find out that in the DVD set, the episodes do not contain the original opening in its entirty, and that a lot of content of the episodes has been cut. I thought I was watching a re-release of the show on TV Land which butchers episodes of TV only to fit in more rediculous commercials. Of the box sets of my favorite shows I've purchased, this is the first I've seen where a show has been horribly cut up, not reflecting the original length. I have returned the set directly to Lions Gate Entertainment who publishes the discs, seeing "Best Lie" would not take them back for a credit or a refund. Save your money. Do not buy these DVD's. In a positive kudo to Lions Gate, they did indeed send me a full refund for this DVD set. Perhaps if more customers do that, Lions Gate will take the hint.

"ALF" is an excellent television show, and its first season (which aired in 1986-87) was probably its best. The show takes a standard family sitcom premise and adds its delightfully loony twist: the Tanners, a typical American household, get an indefinite houseguest in the form of a furry, 3-foot creature from another planet. The planet is Melmac, and the alien is ALF, a sarcastic, and lovable little guy. The sitcom delivered interesting plots and no shortage of laughs, and it never needed to add objectional material, allowing it to excel at entertaining the whole family.

So, after all these years of the DVD industry thriving, and television sets being quite the hit, my dream of "ALF" on DVD in season sets finally has come true. I'd anticipated the release of this first season DVD set like few others, and when the day arrived, I made my trek to the store with excitement.

First, the good news. All twenty-five episodes from the wonderful debut season of the show are presented here, with commendable picture and sound quality, and chapter stops. The menus are hosted by ALF himself and are clever, easy to navigate, and remarkably amusing. There's even a few genuinely interesting bonus features on Disc 4, in the way of a Gag Reel, Trivia Facts, and an alternate pilot.

The bad news is, as a few other reviews have mentioned by now, is that the show is not presented in its original form. I thought that the 21-minute running times were a bit on the slight side, and it turns out that Lions Gate has released syndication edits of episodes, lopping off several minutes from each show. Why this decision was made, I have no idea. It's a terrible choice, and one which taints an otherwise delightful release. I was particularly troubled by "Help Me, Rhonda", one of my favorite episodes, which removes the Beach Boys song altogether through unusual editing and definitely changes the episode.

Now I must admit that even if I knew the episodes were trimmed I'd still have bought it. "ALF" isn't on the air anymore, so this edited DVD is the only realistic alternative for those of us who didn't make our own tapes. The DVD format allows us to instead have instant access to any episode and in a superb digital presentation.

I am sure that the complete episodes of the first season with music and all scenes intact will never see the light of day on DVD, so waiting for a correction is futile. Lions Gate has an opportunity to fix things for future season, but even if they do, that won't change the fact that they've taken ALF's best year and tainted its long, highly-anticipated DVD release. Surely, they'll lose some sales from those with strong enough wills to go without seeing the show. I love it too much to abstain altogether.

Anyway, you should know that as you look into buying the set. I didn't know and I am quite disappointed that this "Complete First Season" is not complete. Still, it's episodes of "ALF" on DVD, and that's not a bad thing. I only wish that this wonderful sitcom would have received more appropriate treament on this format.

5 stars for the show and maybe 2 for the DVD. Rounding down, that makes for a mediocre 3-star review for what should have been the easiest sitcom DVD to recommend.

If you're buying this DVD box set, thinking the episodes are uncut, you will be disappointed, they aren't, they are the Cut-Up Syndicated Version, missing about 3 min. per episodes.

Created by Tom Patchett & Paul Fusco (the soul of ALF), ALF was one of NBC's bigger 80s icons that remains just as popular today as he did when he first ruled supreme over TV airwaves back in 1986. Whether its the resurgence of the 80s boom or because Paul Fusco still performs ALF with a lovable rascal-ness, ALF still connects with TV viewers of all ages on several levels. This 4-disc set features interactive menus hosted by ALF himself, 2.0 Dolby Digital Surround, and crisp video. While there is no scene selection screen for each episode, there are chapters (4-6) on each episode, which you can use with your remote. Here are the special features:

Unaired Pilot: Same plot, but different first 6-7 minutes from aired pilot featuring the same cast. Runs 23:50 min.

Gag/Outtakes Reel: Not great, but watchable quality reels of hilarious bloopers that run just under 7 min.

ALF Trivia Facts: Text info from the show; some obvious, some useful.



A must-have for any TV DVD collection!