ALF’s Hit Talk Show – The Retroist

When ALF premiered on TV in 1986, I was all in. I had followed the hype around the show and was there on day one to watch. For the next four seasons, I don’t think I ever missed an episode, which was easier since my family had gotten a VCR. I thought the show was going to last forever (or at least five seasons), but in 1990, the sun set on the Tanner household. While we would get a TV movie and some animated series, I thought ALF wouldn’t show his face ever again in the new millennium. I was very happy to discover in 2004 that I was wrong.

ALF returned to television that year thanks to a network that specialized in classic television, TV Land. There, in 2003, they decided to break out of just broadcasting old programming and create some brand-new shows, but with retro origins. For their first two shows, TV Land Productions leaned heavily on existing properties and decided to produce The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited and ALF’s Hit Talk Show.

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The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited was a reunion special with members of the original cast coming together to share memories in the form of a clip show. It was great to see the original cast together again, but my exposure to The Dick Van Dyke Show was mostly through reruns. What I was really excited about was their next original program starring ALF.

The first episode of ALF’s Hit Talk Show aired on July 7, 2004, as a lead-in for an ALF marathon, featuring guests Drew Carey and Dennis Franz, with special appearances by Joan Rivers and Henry Winkler. What was expected to be a one-shot special seemed to go over well internally, and they slated the show to return in the fall of 2004. Being a big ALF fan, I made sure to be home to watch and assumed, like everyone else, it would be a one-shot event.

The show was done in the style of other late-night talk shows, with ALF seated behind a desk and guests seated on the couch for the interview portion. To add an extra layer of authenticity, they managed to land Ed McMahon as ALF’s sidekick. On his return to TV, ALF was quoted in Entertainment Weekly, stating, “They have demonstrated superb taste by giving me my own show, and it’s humbling that they recognize my unequaled genius.”

Sal Maniaci, the vice president of TV Land at the time, said, “We are excited that we are able to entertain our audience with ALF’s wit and humor. This is definitely an alternative to many of today’s standard late-night programs.” Such optimism for the show came with a commitment to six weekly 30-minute episodes.

That fall, when the show returned, I was excited to see how the format would work in the long run. While I thought it was still a great concept filled with potential, others did not. The press was pretty negative about the show. I can see why they felt that way—the timing was off, and sometimes things felt rushed, with guests lines getting stepped on to squeeze in an ALF punchline. If they had just given the show a bit more time to work out the issues, I think it might have found its place. This is common for most talk shows. The host needs to feel comfortable and get into the rhythm of the show. Sadly, ALF’s Hit Talk Show never got that opportunity.

The show premiered on November 12, 2004, and didn’t light the world on fire. They continued to broadcast episodes weekly as promised, but they never did more than the six promised episodes. The good thing was that if you missed the show during its original run, you could catch it in reruns. Much like the show it spun off from, the talk show was marathoned a few times. Unfortunately, since the show wasn’t popular, it never got a proper digital or physical media release. Fortunately, though, because it wasn’t very popular, uploaded episodes on YouTube aren’t taken down.

Even though ALF’s Hit Talk Show didn’t last, I’m still glad it happened. It was fun to see ALF back on TV, even if only for a little while. The idea had promise, and with more time, it might have worked out better. But at the end of the day, it was just cool to see ALF doing something new instead of just living in reruns. It may not have been a big hit, but for fans like me, it was a nice little bonus we didn’t expect.