ALF deeply loves watching television.
It is unknown how ALF managed to learn so much about Earth television quickly since he is an alien from Melmac, as it was only the second episode ("Strangers in the Night") when ALF first mentioned wanting to watch a particular movie on TV. However, it is known that Melmacians were somehow aware of and had even borrowed from Earth cultures before Melmac was destroyed, as ALF was once in a production of Man of la Mancha on Melmac and his friends Skip and Rick sang the song "Help Me, Rhonda" on the day Melmac was destroyed.
ALF said, "TV is my lifeline" in the episode Weird Science.
What TV shows and movies ALF watches[]
- The Three Stooges, he also imitates Curly's "certainly!" line and "woo-woo-woo" speech. However, he doesn't like Shemp as much he liked Curly. This is a reference to most Three Stooges fans who were not impressed by the change that Curly was replaced by Shemp. (Episode: "Keepin' The Faith")
- Untitled program about X-rays (Episode: "A Little Bit of Soap")
- Polka Jamboree, ALF's favorite TV show. Polka Jamboree airs on NBC, the original TV channel that aired ALF from 1984 to 1988. (Episode: "Prime Time")
- Gumby (Episode: "Weird Science"), failed to see the movie when the TV malfunctioned
- Gilligan's Island, extremley obsessed with it and annoys the Tanners family by talking about it all the time (Episode: "The Ballad of Gilligan's Island").
- Wall Street Weekend Review (Episode: "Baby, You Can Drive My Car"): ALF criticized that the show was talking about gold being valuable, which he didn't know of since as the opposite of Earth, gold was worthless on Melmac due to being extremely common.
- Political debate speeches (Episode: "Hail to the Chief"): these speeches made ALF first think he should be the President of the United States due to mistakes made by the government but when near the end of the episode, he decided the current politics are how they should be.
- Street Crime (Episode: "Lookin' Through the Windows"), however, it was possibly also by video tape or DVD as ALF didn't mention watching it on TV
- Godzilla movies, such as Godzilla vs. The Thing (a 1964 movie where its' actual title is Mothra vs. Godzilla), Godzilla vs. King Kong (1962, its' actual title is King Kong vs. Godzilla), and Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster (1971, its' actual title is Godzilla vs. Hedorah). However, the footage shown on-screen that ALF watched was not from a Godzilla movie. (Episode: "Isn't It Romantic?")
- Wheel of Fortune (Episode: "It Isn't Easy Bein' Green")
- Consumer Ed (Episode: "Weird Science")
- Psycho (Episode: "Strangers in the Night")
- Beauty pageants (Episode: "Oh, Pretty Woman")
- One World to Hope For (Episode: "A Little Bit of Soap") - A soap opera about a family mostly focusing on the wife of the family. Because he was unsatisfied with the TV show's plot and wanted Dorothy to know about Kate wanting her to leave, ALF wrote scripts to the TV show which the director had accepted and sent checks to ALF.
Trivia[]
- In "Weird Science," the TV broke and Willie shipped the TV back to have it repaired. In the meantime, ALF used the time when the TV was broken to help Brian with his science fair project.
- There is a small black and white TV located in the garage as said in the episode "Mother and Child Reunion."
- HBO and Showtime are mentioned on "Do You Believe in Magic?"