Cult-beloved ‘80s sitcom ALF, about a sarcastic alien who crash-lands on Earth and finds refuge in a middle-class suburb, is (finally) set to come back to screens in a big way.
According to Deadline, Shout Factory will leverage its own multi-platform streaming service, Shout Factory TV, to bring ALF out of the archives again. The company now has rights to all 102 live-action episodes as well as all episodes of animated spin-offs ALF: The Animated Series and ALF Tales, as well as the movie Project: ALF. Shout Factory’s acquisition, which was done in partnership with Alien Productions, also includes home entertainment and digital distribution in North America — and the companies also plan to develop new ALF content in what Deadline describes as “an ‘aggressive rollout’ of pop-culture content related to ALF later this year.”
Since its ‘80s heyday, ALF — short for “alien life form” — has spawned a cult following across the globe. The alien’s notoriously bumbling humour came from a fish-out-of-water trope pushed to the absolute limits of good taste (and often pushed much further than that) that comedy writers could get away with on NBC at the time. “I couldn’t be more excited that Shout Factory will be marketing and distributing ALF and working with the series’ creators, Paul Fusco and Tom Patchett,” Jeffrey Peisch, Shout’s SVP of programming and new business development, said to Deadline. “ALF was an instant classic when it debuted on network television over 30 years ago, and the series stands the test of time and appeals to multiple generations.”
Co-creators Patchett and Fusco (who puppeteered and voiced ALF) are, as you might expect, extremely stoked about ALF’s second coming. “[Shout] is the home-away-from-Melmac that ALF has been looking for. We’re looking forward to bringing you ALF in a totally new way — with new content, unseen art, and restored footage not seen in 30 years. This is the moment ALF fans have been waiting for.”
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