Here’s the Best-Ever ‘ALF’ Joke That the NBC Censors Nixed
TV comedy legend and founding Simpsons writer Mike Reiss is used to pushing the boundaries of corporate censorship, and NBC is just lucky that he never introduced ALF to Michael Jackson.
For all of Reiss’ incredible writing and producing credits — The Simpsons, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, It’s Garry Shandling’s Show and more — it’s easy to overlook his time working on a brief, bizarre, science-fiction sitcom shortly before The Simpsons shot into the stratosphere. As Reiss openly admits, the average fan who approaches him on the street is more likely to talk to him about Queer Duck than they are to ask about ALF, but that doesn’t mean that Reiss’ memories of the NBC show about a wise-cracking, cat-eating alien living with a middle-class family in the San Fernando Valley are any less out-of-this-world.
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Reiss recently appeared on the #1 (and only) ALF fan podcast ALFsplaining to reminisce about the puppet-starred project that somehow enjoys a second life online, and following the talk, Reiss blessed the die-hard ALF-heads of the internet by revealing the very best joke that ALF never told:
Reiss admitted to the ALFsplaining hosts that strangers who recognize him don’t really ask him about ALF, and “not only that, I do a lot of public speaking where I take people through my career and I say, ‘I worked on this show, and, here’s Johnny Carson, and I also worked for a comic genius!' And I put up a picture of ALF, and people don’t seem to recognize it. I’m expecting a big laugh, or an ‘Oh!’ and they don’t know what it is.”
Despite the popularity of ALF in its time, the ALF fandom seems to have mostly returned to their home planet in the 35 years since the series went off the air, but Reiss remembers how sure he was that working on the ALF writing staff would be the biggest job of his career. “I remember thinking — this was, you know, before I ever got to The Simpsons — I go, ‘This is gonna last!’” Reiss said of his impression of ALF during the show’s heyday. “I didn’t think the show necessarily would run a long time, but I thought, ‘It’ll be syndicated forever like Gilligan's Island and Mister Ed, the talking horse show.’ It was just one of the shows (where) I go, ‘My children and grandchildren will see this!’”
Sadly, ALF disappointed on syndication (lotta cat-lovers on the off-networks), and today, the only sitcom fans who still remember and adore the show co-host a podcast to preserve its legacy. Thankfully for Reiss, however, the end of ALF in 1990 coincided with the rise of a certain sitcom that would become a comedy phenomenon to eclipse ALF, Gilligan's Island and Mister Ed combined. And, while ALF the series may not be primed for a comeback, ALF himself will live on in our hearts — and on our pogs.
