Warner Bros. is in the early stages of rebooting of the 1980s sitcom, “ALF,” TheWrap has learned.
An insider stressed to TheWrap that the reboot is in very early stages of development. The news was first reported by TV Line. No network is attached.
NBC, which aired “ALF” for four seasons, and Warner Bros. TV declined to comment.
The name ALF was an acronym for “Alien Life Form.” The character’s actual name was Gordon Shumway, a furry alien that crash landed in the garage of the suburban Tanner family. They welcomed him into their home, with classic sitcom shenanigans. One of the long-running gags was ALF’s desire to eat the Tanner’s cat.
The series starred Max Wright, Anne Schedeen, Andrea Elson and Benji Gregory. ALF was played by puppeteer Paul Fusco, who co-created the series with Tom Patchett.
“ALF” ran for four seasons from 1986-1990 on NBC, making a total of 99 episodes. Some of those episodes were hour-long and thus broken down into two parts to get across the 100-episode threshold for syndication. It can currently be seen on Me-TV and the Starz app.
The original series was produced by Fusco and Patchett’s Alien Productions.
Maybe we should have seen this coming.
Three years ago, NBC entertainment chief Bob Greenblatt joked — during a time when the network was considering a reboot of another classic sitcom in “Coach,” that if it had worked (it never saw the airwaves), “then ‘ALF’ the series is next.”