(Week 5) ALF (1986-1990)

ALF

Summary

ALF standing for (Alien Life Form) crash lands his spaceship into a suburban garage, and it is damages beyond repair. ALF himself is smart mouthed and has a bad attitude. The family take him in and the show really seems to revolve around his interpretation of mankind, while throwing in the occasional oddity of him attempting to eat a cat.



What does he say of 1980s America

ALF himself says a lot about the 1980s. The whole fascination surrounding Aliens and conspiracies of aliens on earth was no less prominent in the 1980s to how it is now. ALF is a tv representation of peoples doubts and ideas surrounding alien life form on earth. In a way this is no different from the movie 'Paul' where a judgemental, bad mouthed little alien avoids unwanted attention and sits back a judges the human race while on earth.

ALF (Animal Liberation Front)
When searching through the internet for information on ALF the tv shows, i constantly came across this group of activists from the 1980s. The group was organised and has roots back to 1963 but it was the 80s where the group were in full swing and began to spread throughout Europe.  

• ALF released footage which showed primate researchers laughing and joking at a baboon, as they inflicted brain damage as part of research project into head injuries caused by accidents. 

Although this has nothing specifically to do with the tv show, the name ALF may have been given to the character to highlight the groups success and growth in the 1980s. It just seems too much of a coincidence not to have some sort of relation.

ALF is also a figure of how the desirable life style of the 1980s, may not be as desirable as people would like to think. We already know that the Yuppie lifestyle was sort after in the 1980s and the dream of suburbia, but ALF is an example of how it is not as dreamy and flawless as people may think. He is constantly causing trouble for the family and is almost just an uncontrollable baby. The show still represents the suburban life style that was so popular to people in the 1980s, but it does it in a way that suggests it may nto be all it cracked up to be.

ALF sets up the ideal 1980s family, a dad that goes to the office, a stay at home wife and a son. ALf was popular amongst people because it spoke out to peoples desires of how they should live, but with a comic edge. However all of the points I have made above may not be a serious and as accurate a representation of the 1980s as the show is a comedy and should not be taken as having too serious meanings.

No matter what ALF suggests, be that alien intervention on earth, a secret link with a radical animal rights group that spread to Europe in the 80s or another representation of the suburban life style in the 80s, it must have been popular to the audience of the 80s as even though it only ran for four years 1986-1990, a movie was made in 1996 of the same little alien.