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Oh, Tannerbaum is the twelfth episode of the first season of ALF.
It originally aired on Dec. 22, 1986.
Plot Summary[]
Prologue[]
Kate and Willie are in bed on the morning of Christmas Eve and looking at old Christmas cards they received. Alf burts in with a cog rattle and announces he has finished hiding the eggs. Willie and Kate correct him and say that that is an Easter tradition. Alf tells them he has another surprise. He has cut their Christmas tree into firewood
Act One[]
The family are in the living room and Willie has gone out to buy another tree. Alf asks when the snow will start and Kate says that it does not snow in that part of the state. Willie arrives with a box, and explains that all the lots had sold out but a a man named Fahid,was auctioning off. Willie had backed out and bought a fake tree instead. They overhear carolers, Kate and the children go out to join them Unable to assemble the tree, it in part due the instructions being in Japanese. Alf is able to read them but Willie is still having trouble. ALF is reading the weather report on snowfall and Willie remembers one of the town names as a place in the mountains where he and Kate used to cut down real trees. With ALF navigating, Willie drives the car off of the road and gets stuck in the mud due to ALF's errant directions.
Act Two[]
Kate and he kids arrive home and to find Willie and ALF gone. Kate finds an note explaning where they went. Trevor Ochmonek comes in to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, and fignales a couple glasses of eggnog. He notices the fake Christmas tree and jokes that he thought it was a coatrack Willie and ALF attempt to free themselves from the mud by pushing. Willie tells Alf about how when he was a kid they always had a real tree, even if there wasn't money to buy presents and they kept the tree up until every last needle fell. Willie takes a nap and has a nightmare about his family leaving him after realizing that the Christmas tree he gave them was fake after a tree repairman (Alf) told them so. Kate reveals that Trevor was her lover, Brian joins the army and goes to Central America to fight the communists in Central America, and Lynn runs off with her boyfriends. When he wakes up from his dream, he finds that ALF has cut down a tree and tied it to the car. As a ranger shows up to fine them, It starts snowing.
Epilogue[]
On Christmas morning, the family opens their presents and it is revealed that Alf bought gifts from a mail-order catalog "Hardware Hamlet" Lynn gets a staple gun, Brian gets a leaf blower, Kate gets a rotary sander and Willie gets weatherstripping.
Note[]
In syndication, this episode is skipped when this show aired reruns. It only airs in December.
Title Reference[]
"Oh, Tannerbaum" is a take-off of the German carol "Oh, Tannenbaum" which is commonly known in English as "Oh, Christmas Tree."