ALF: The Complete Series: Deluxe Edition DVD Review

THE SERIES — 4/5

A smart-mouthed creature, ALF (aka Alien Life Form), crash-lands in a suburban garage. His spaceship is beyond repair, he’s ugly, he’s short, and he’s got a bad attitude. What’s a family to do? Why, take in the furry creature, of course, and watch as he comments on humankind and tries to eat the cat — a delicacy on his home planet of Melmac.

Quick Hit Review: Alf was a show me and my family watched every week, one of the staples of the 1980s alongside The Wonder Years and The Cosby Show, and from time to time Cheers. This was and still is a unique sitcom that re-watching really for the first time in decades still landed plenty of laughs. And I don’t think I liked it due to some sort of member-berries or anything but it genuinely is a humorous, and witty, show and Alf’s dynamics with the Tanner family was lots of fun.

SPECIAL FEATURES – 4¼/5

This large 26-disc set is split into three wide DVD cases. Unfortunately there’s no episode guide booklet but the listings are inside the inner sleeves. Seasons 1 & 2 in one case, Seasons 3 & 4 in the second and “The Animated Series”, “ALF Tales”, “Project: ALF” TV Movie in the third along with other bonus features, and I’ll include the two shows as well, as outlined below:

• ALF: The Animated Series ran for two seasons and are presented here across four discs. The show ran from 1987 to 1989 though I don’t really have any memories watching it back in the day, with my primary focus during that timeframe was “The Real Ghostbusters” and “He-Man”.
• ALF Tales was a spin-off of “The Animated Series” that ran from 1988-89.
• A Look Back at ALF with Creators Paul Fusco and Tom Patchett (34:16) are new interviews with the creators as they discuss how the series came to be.
• Project: ALF (1:31:16) is a TV movie that aired in 1996 and serves as the series finale as the one that aired back in 1989 ended on a cliffhanger before the network cancelled the show. I actually remembering watching this when it aired along with my parents.
• ALF on ALF are audio commentaries on the episodes “A.L.F.”, “La Cucaracha”, “Working My Way Back to You” and “Some Enchanting Evening” with ALF and series co-creator Patchett.

VIDEO – 4½/5, AUDIO – 4¼/5

Alf: The Complete Series presents each episode in the originally 1.33 full frame aspect ratio as it aired back in the day. Detail on this was nice, even at DVD quality. Colors were bright and vibrant in keeping with the quirky and light-hearted humor and I didn’t notice any major instances of artifacts or any damage to the source material.

Each episode is accompanied with a standard but still quite effective Dolby Digital 2.0 track. Dialogue comes across with good clarity but given this is a sitcom, you’re not going to get a whole lot of examples of depth other than a few instances like when Melmac’s ship crashes.

OVERALL – 4¼/5

Alf: The Complete Series: Deluxe Edition brings together all the available materials from this wonderful sitcom, including ALF: The Animated Series and ALF Tales, not to mention the then long-awaited true series finale with Project: ALF, though MIA are the Tanners.