There is one chance for it, though. One. And it involves the show being written by utter bastards: “One idea that has reportedly been discussed for the reboot would involve ALF emerging from Area 51–where he has been held captive since the original series finale–and observing how much the world has changed since that time.” That’s half of it; the other half is, as Cracked.com once noted, that the original show established right away that, if captured, ALF could expect to be “hauled off to be burned, frozen, poisoned, stabbed and finally gutted off-camera.”
So, basically: forget comedy about eating cats. Let’s just go right to the ‘all the friendly aliens you knew on this alien world are probably dead’ (almost thirty years, folks) ‘or brainwashed to betray you to their evil alien secret police if you show up on their doorstep.’ Or, if you absolutely must have a laugh track: show me a Muppet Running Man, Warner Bros. Embrace the pain.
Moe Lane
PS: Of course it’s going to suck! The original wasn’t exactly high-end television. But maybe they could make something that sucked and yet was morbidly interesting to watch as it imploded?
Better yet, have Gordon Schumway behave in a manner that justifies such a response. Also, give him a goal, like a Melmackian ship hidden in a glacier in Greenland. Then, add Tony Danza. Why Tony Danza, you ask? Well, he was good in “Taxi.” (and “Who’s The Boss?”) and I think David Hasselhoff is busy over in Europe.
Well, there was the movie that showed him being interrogated. It had its moments.
And there was the cartoon that showed his life and his family and friends on Melmac before it blew up. Which was cute… as long as you put it out of your mind that his entire family died in a nuclear holocaust.
I am digging the Alf-as-Running-Man motif .. and Alf-discovering-the-internet is a deep vein of comedy that could be mined…
.
That said .. at its’ core, Alf is a smart-assed-fish-out-of-water story .. and I *think* that could be recovered.
.
Could borrow from the not-exactly-a-series “American Horror Story” (or the much more amusing “Trailer Park Boys” or the classic “Quantum Leap” ..) and have every half-season open with Alf improbably arriving in a family’s home, making some sort of promises, doing his (dated .. play it for dated-laughs) schtick .. and a half-season-finale with some variation of fleeing ahead of The Man (be they TSA, NSA, FBI, AFCSME, or AMC) and/or getting booted by the host-family …
.
That’d make stunt-casting (he spends the first half-season on the run, plotting to get to a now-married Brian Tanner’s house .. only to find, in the second half, that Brian’s wife is a shrew, and Brian’s been in therapy for years to expunge the “weird hallucinations” from his childhood…)
.
It’s no nine-seasons-and-a-movie, but it’d be a solid 3 seasons..
.
Mew