Alf: The Complete Series Deluxe Edition - DVD Review

[Michael Scott]

Alf: The Complete Series



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:

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Movie
Alf has always been that sleeper hit show from the 1980s to early 1990s that people REMEMBER, but usually don’t rave about. Shows like Family Matters, The Golden Girls, Married with Children and many others have been gushed about and shown on syndication ad nausea, but for some reason the quirky 80s series of Alf was pushed to the side. That’s not to say that Alf didn’t have it’s fans. Or the fact that it gained a massive cult following in the surrounding decades, but for some reason it just didn’t leave that big of a mark back in the late 80s.

Luckily for us, Shout Factory has gone back and released the entire series in one massive boxset, including not only the 4 seasons of the live action show, but Alf: The Animated Series in it’s entirety, and Alf Tales. Plus, the 1996 movie TV finale Project Alf to round out everything as well. Being that I’m not an Alf aficionado, I can’t tell if the series is completely uncut in all ways, but from what I could tell from other sources, as well as comparing individual episodes, this is about as uncut as I’ve ever seen it, about on par with the uncut German DVDs from back in the day (supposedly quite a few episodes were cut for syndication, and haven’t been available in the U.S. market in the uncut form for decades. However, Try to Remember was edited and unavailable in it’s uncut version, so we have to make do with that episode being cut).

Now, everyone remembers Alf in some way shape or form. The loveable alien who crash lands on Earth, loves to eat cats, and ends up “crashing” with the Tanner family. The Tanners are your typical 80s suburbanites, with father Willie (Max Wright), mother Kate (Anne Schedeen), daugther Lynn (Andrea Elson) and son Brian (Benji Gregory) living the suburban dream until Alf shows up. One night they’re listening to a HAM radio broadcast and end up talking to a stranger which leads an unexpected visitor on their room. An alien spacecraft has rammed itself into their domicile and a single being is on board. Willie renames the creature as A.L.F. (Alien Life Form) as the Tanners figure out what to do with their new guest. Willie doesn’t want a visit from the military industrial complex, and their new best friend sort of stands out. But sadly Alf isn’t exactly great at keeping a low profile. The crazy alien gets into hijink and hijink as he and the Tanner’s figure out a way to navigate their way through life without anyone knowing that they’re harboring an alien.

The series may have only run 4 short seasons, but it certainly had a revolving door of anyone who was anyone back in the 80s showing up. Fran Drescher makes an appearance as a snobby rich lady, Ted Raimi drops in, and we even get to see the snobby waiter from Ferris Bueller’s Day off make an appearance. Honestly, I haven’t seen ALF since the syndicated episodes in the late 1990s, but I have to admit that it was a fun blast tearing through the series again. I fully understand why it didn’t make a giant mark in the 80s though. Unlike like indelible sitcoms like Married with Children or The Golden Girls, Alf is rather dated and feels like it’s from an entirely different universe some time (pun not intended). There’s plenty of fun gags and the show is definitely family friendly, but it also is a bit trite and certainly wore out it’s welcome on the air by the end of the 3rd season. The series was in the top 10 during the first two seasons, but by season 3 was #13, and season 4 saw a MASSIVE slump down to 39, which sort of explains the cancellation of the show.

On the flip side, Alf is a bit unique among sitcoms. It actually has a beginning and an end with the 4th season MOSTLY wrapping everything up (but the TV movie is the true finale really). The 4th seasons came with a giant cliff hanger with the military closing in on ALF, only for fans to watch the 5th season never get picked up. Luckily the TV movie that happened in 1996 (six years after the series ended) wraps up everything in a nice package and lets the series finish properly.

The animated series was less a continuation of the show, but a prequel to the series, giving us a look at his life on Melmac before the series begins. It was cute, funny, and DEFINITELY aimed at the younger generation. Personally I find it less engaging than the show itself, but much like Star Trek: The Animated Series, fans are going to love having it included in the deluxe edition. On the other hand, Alf Tales was an animated show that broadcasted as a sister show to the series, running from 1988 to 1989 where Alf revisiting old fairytales. Again, like the animated series, not that great, but fans will be glad it’s there.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

Now, here’s the “fun” part. The DVDs themselves look OK for what they are, and Shout has done a solid job with the encodes, it’s just that the series was created in the 1980s on a shoe string budget and recorded on tape. The quality of the show looks pretty rough in comparison to other 80s shows, and doesn’t appear to have much in the way of restoration done on it. That being said, the image is clean and clear, with just the typical lack of resolution from a tape to DVD transfer, and colors can look a bit washed out. The image is a bit soft (again, tape to DVD), but there’s no signs of any major artifacting and the tapes look to have been in fairly good condition. Too put it simply, the show looks as good as its going to look for a late 80s TV show that was never intended to be seen in HD, let alone home video in any format. As such, expectations must be tempered.









Audio:

The standard 2.0 Dolby Digital track is about what you’d expect to. It’s nothing spectacular, but it encompasses the heart of the series with intelligible dialog and strong front room presence in the mains. Again, it’s a bit thin on the high end, and doesn’t have a lot of depth, but as a simple dedicated dialog 2.0 track it does everything well ENOUGH.
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Extras:

• NEW A Look Back At ALF With Creators Paul Fusco And Tom Patchett
• NEW "ALF On ALF" – Audio Commentaries With ALF And Tom Patchett For Select Episodes

Final Score: ​

Alf was a fun, if not niche, 1980s sitcom that I used to see over my brother’s shoulders when it aired on NBC back in 1988-1990. Like most series of that time period, this will directly appeal to those of us who grew up with the series rather than new people first coming into contact with it. Shout Factory has released 3 different variations on the show, with the Regular Edition (being this one) being a 24 disc boxset housed in 3 different cases inside of a chipboard box, Poster and Prism Sticker, The 2nd is the Deluxed edition with all of that + a Vinyl disc.. The 3rd is an ultra mega super duper deluxe edition, with all of the above mentioned swag plus Enamel Pins a Lunchbox and Melmac Rocks disc, which I would consider as the ultimate edition for the super Alf fan.

There’s only one thing that I have to really complain about with this set. And that is the packaging itself. I understand that a 24 disc set is going to have to fit into multi disc cases, but Shout! uses the same overlapping plastic tray cases that Paramount was using for their complete series sets for years. This setup is prone for discs to falling off the hubs and getting scratched, which is exactly what happened to mine. About 5 discs out of the 24 came off the hubs and were a bit beat up when I got the set, but luckily with some mild buffing of the discs they all played fine. Personally I wish that Shout! Would have used a different style of casing for this set, as the overlapping disc flip tray setup that Paramount used was NOTORIOUS for this type of situation, and could easily be remedied with a different case. But that being said, it’s not the end of the world, just a minor irritant. Definitely a boxset for fans of classic 1980s sitcoms.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Mihaly Meszaros, Paul Fusco, Max Wright, Anne Schedeen, Andrea Eslon
Created by: Tom Pratchett, Paul Fusco
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 MPEG2
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 2.0
Subtitles:
Rated: NR
Runtime: 3570 Minutes
DVD Release Date: October 17th, 2023

Recommendation: Nostalgic Watch

 

[Todd Anderson]

Oh, my. Michael... 3,570 minutes of Alf!!!????

No

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I do remember watching this series.. Good series back then.. I will have to see if it is available streaming and will try and catch a few episodes.

 

[Michael Scott]

Oh, my. Michael... 3,570 minutes of Alf!!!????

No

what? you don't want to relive your childhood?

 

[Todd Anderson]

Ha! Honestly, ALF didn't do it for me then, either. Though, I watched plenty of Small Wonder, which is probably worse!

 

[WesleyBurks]

Thanks for the review