ALF: The Animated Series · The Forgotten Melmac Cartoon
Was There an ALF Cartoon?
Yes. NBC aired an animated ALF series on Saturday mornings from September 26, 1987, to January 7, 1989: two seasons, 26 episodes, a prequel set on Melmac before the crash. It was a prequel set on ALF’s home planet of Melmac before it exploded, following Gordon Shumway’s days with his family, his friends, and a planet where cats were on the menu and bouillabaisseball was the national sport. Paul Fusco, who created ALF and performed the puppet on the primetime sitcom, voiced Gordon in the cartoon too. He was the only performer from the sitcom cast to cross over. The full backstage story of the puppet, the suit, and the voice is in our who played ALF guide.
The series spawned a sibling show called ALF Tales, ran its whole life while the sitcom was still in primetime, and then vanished so thoroughly that most people who grew up watching ALF have no idea it existed. Here is the full story of the cartoon that time forgot.
What the Show Was
ALF: The Animated Series, also known as ALF on Melmac, was created by Paul Fusco and Tom Patchett, the pair who built the primetime sitcom. It was produced by DIC Animation City, Saban Productions, and Fusco’s own Alien Productions, with animation outsourced to TMS Entertainment in Japan and character designs by Fil Barlow.
The premise took ALF back before his crash landing on Earth. On Melmac, Gordon Shumway resided in the town of East Velcro with his parents Bob and Flo, his younger brother Curtis, and his younger sister Augie. His father Bob worked at a mayonnaise factory and tinkered as an amateur inventor. Gordon’s friends Skip and Rick Fusterman served alongside him in the Orbit Guard, and his girlfriend Rhonda was a pilot.
The show played it as a sitcom, with the humor coming from ordinary activities happening in an alien setting. Gordon got into trouble. His family tried to manage him. Villains like Larson Petty, a general trying to invade Melmac, and Louie the Pruner showed up to cause problems. It was a cartoon built on the same wisecracking energy as the primetime show, just aimed at a younger audience on a Saturday morning.
The Puppet Bookends
One of the more unusual touches: each episode began with the actual ALF puppet, not the cartoon version, talking directly to viewers from the Tanners’ garage, then wrapped up with another puppet segment after the cartoon. Fusco performed these bookend segments himself, bridging the animated prequel and the primetime sitcom that was airing the same week. A kid watching ALF on Saturday morning and then again on Monday night was seeing the same character, performed by the same person, in two different formats on the same network.
It Aired While the Sitcom Was Still On
This is the part that sounds made up but checks out. The animated series premiered on September 26, 1987, while the ALF sitcom was in its second season on NBC. For two years, NBC was airing an ALF show on Saturday mornings and an ALF show in primetime, simultaneously. The cartoon depicted Gordon’s days on Melmac before the planet blew up, while the sitcom showed his days on Earth after it did. Same character, same network, same week, two different timelines.
The cartoon premiered a year after the sitcom and left the air first, while the primetime show played on without it.
ALF Tales: The Sibling Show Nobody Remembers Either
As if one animated ALF show were not enough, NBC added a second. ALF Tales premiered on September 10, 1988, and aired for 21 episodes across two seasons, through December 1989. It was a spin-off of the animated series in which the Melmac characters acted out fairy tale parodies in the style of Jay Ward’s Fractured Fairy Tales, with Gordon and Rhonda taking the lead roles.
During the 1988 to 1989 season, the two shows aired back to back as the ALF & ALF Tales Hour. So at one point, NBC’s Saturday morning lineup included a full hour of ALF animation while the primetime sitcom was airing on weeknights. That is a saturation level most franchises never reach, and ALF hit it with a show most people cannot name today.
Why Nobody Remembers It
Saturday morning cartoons depended on whether you happened to be in front of the television that morning, at that hour, on that channel. There was no streaming, no DVR, and no YouTube playlist to catch up on. If you missed it, you missed it. And unlike the primetime sitcom, the animated series produced just 26 episodes over two years and then disappeared.
The show also suffered from its own prequel premise. The reason ALF worked on the sitcom was the fish-out-of-water comedy: an alien sharing a house with a human family. On Melmac, surrounded by other Melmacians, the character was just a guy in his own world. The comedic engine was quieter.
For decades, finding the animated series meant tracking down out-of-print DVDs. Lionsgate released a selection of episodes on DVD in 2006, and in October 2023, Shout! Factory put out a deluxe box set that included remastered episodes of the animated series alongside the original sitcom, ALF Tales, and the 1996 TV movie Project: ALF.
Air dates and episode counts on this page come straight from the record, the same way we check everything we publish.
FAQ
Was there an ALF animated series?
Yes. NBC aired ALF: The Animated Series on Saturday mornings from September 26, 1987, to January 7, 1989. It spanned 2 seasons and 26 episodes.
What was the ALF cartoon about?
It was a prequel set on the planet Melmac before it exploded. The show followed Gordon Shumway (ALF’s real name) and his family and friends in the town of East Velcro.
Did Paul Fusco voice ALF in the cartoon?
Yes. Fusco, who created ALF and performed the puppet on the primetime sitcom, voiced Gordon Shumway in the animated series. He was the only performer from the sitcom cast to appear in the cartoon.
What was ALF Tales?
ALF Tales was a spin-off of the animated series that aired on NBC from September 1988 to December 1989, with 21 episodes. It featured the Melmac characters acting out fairy tale parodies in the style of Fractured Fairy Tales.
Can you still watch ALF: The Animated Series?
Shout! Factory released a deluxe box set in October 2023 that includes remastered episodes of the animated series. Streaming availability varies and should be checked at the time you are reading this.
Did the ALF cartoon and the ALF sitcom air at the same time?
Yes. The animated series aired on Saturday mornings from 1987 to 1989 while the primetime sitcom aired on the same network, NBC. For two years, both shows were on the air simultaneously.
For the full story of the sitcom that started it all, see our ALF TV show guide. And for more of the cartoons that owned your Saturday mornings, check out our 80s Saturday morning cartoons roundup or browse the full 80s TV shows hub.