ALF

Going way back into the 80s vault of cancelled shows, we've pulled out ALF. ALF, short for Alien Life Form, was really a strange, advarkian type of creature named Gordon Shumway (from the planet Melmac) who crash landed into a family's garage (The Tanners) and, because he was stranded, ended up living there while trying to fix his spaceship. The show was pretty funny (particularly when Alf tried to repeated eat the family cat) but it did end with a cliffhanger. Alf was always hiding out from the government, who knew an alien hand landed but were never clever enough to catch him. In the final episode of the series, Alf had been discovered and took off on the run, trying to evade the government he was sure would do all sorts of experiments on him. Writers had hoped the cliffhanger would encourage NBC to pick it up for another season, or at least allow them to do a movie explaining how Alf escaped, but neither worked. At least, not right away. In the early 90s, "Project Alf" aired, a 2-hour tv movie that explained what happened to Alf after he was captured, but had no Tanner family (only mentioned in passing that they had been relocated to Iceland) and really lacked the heart of the show (it was downright horrible in my opinion). Like many fans, I find it best not to think about it, and just figure Alf was smart enough to escape and find a ride home.

You may also remember the short lived cartoon which featured Alf and his buddies on Planet Melmac, which was a prequel to his crashing landing on Earth.

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