NBC
September 28, 1987
Sitcom
VHS
B-
I did not like ALF the show or ALF the character, but my then-future-ex-husband taped this for me for obvious reasons. And it's not bad, even the segments without the castaways. Once we hit the dream sequence on the island though, well, it's good to be home. Everyone's aged (except of course Dawn Wells), but they're still comfortable with themselves and each other, and the writing kicks up a notch or two. Note that the absent Jim Backus and Natalie Schafer were still respectively almost two and almost four years away from death, while Alan Hale had about two and a half years left, although you'd never guess it from here. This may or may not be the first sitcom to pay a fond if mocking tribute to a "classic" predecessor, but it does predate, for instance, the superior Day by Day homage/reunion for The Brady Bunch. And even Roseanne would honor Gilligan down the road.
Thirty-eight-year-old Anne Schedeen, who had multiple roles on Three's Company, most notably as his girlfriend Linda, plays wife and mother Kate Tanner. Andrea Elson, who plays teenage daughter Lynn, would be Melinda on Who's the Boss?, while Max Wright, who plays her dad Willie, would be Dr. Wormser a couple years later on WtB. Nick Havinga, who directed one Welcome Back, Kotter episode, here does one of his thirty for this series.
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