5
(depiction of a fictional religion)
6
(discussions of sexual activity and crude anatomy jokes)
5
(see it once)
This fourth and final season of "ALF" starts off at a good pace but goes downhill quickly both as a show and as a TVD package. As I began the season I thought “wow, how did this thing get canceled after a season this good?” Closer to the end I started thinking, “Good grief, I hope these episodes improve, I’m ready to see a good one.” By the time it was over I was more of the mind of, “What in the world happened to this show??”
So what’s the problem? I think a large part of it is that nobody on the show wanted to be there. I’ve read about the tensions on set, actors not wanting to play second fiddle to a puppet, and I’m sure that’s at least part of the cause. For Kate it works, she’s always been a little hostile towards ALF. Actress Anne can pull off a softer countenance when necessary but usually doesn’t have to. Brian on the other hand seems like he really doesn’t like ALF much at all these days. I don’t remember him having very many moments of displaying friendship with ALF in the whole season (with the exception of the last episode) which is a complete turn-around from his attitude in the past. They’ve been buddies up until now. I think he’d be happier if ALF just went on home at this point even though the script occasionally calls for him to say otherwise.
The other two, Willie and Lynn, are amicable with ALF, but when the script has them upset with him there seems to be more venom behind their eyes than there should be. It’s no wonder, too. In addition to the behind-the-scenes problems that fed the hostility, ALF as a character has taken a turn for the worst. He’s always been comically obnoxious, but this year he more frequently straddles the fence between that and actually unlikable. Rather than feeling like he’s uncomfortable with strange surroundings and customs he begins to feel more like he’s purposefully being mean. He comments at one point that he likes to make those around him feel miserable, but sometimes that seems more like the truth than a joke.
The writers seem to have trouble coming up with jokes at times. I’m not sure if it’s because they were losing their comedic touch or were purposefully trying to tackle more dramatic themes and failed. In the past they’ve been able to sccuessfully work in some sentimentality such as the birth of Eric. That was a great mix of funny and sweet. While they do manage to get the mix right a few times, like Dorothy and Whizzer’s marital troubles and the visit to the retirement home, most of the more serious content is tedious, boring, and sometimes even uncomfortable given the setting. "ALF" is supposed to be fun not dramatic. Unfortunately someone decided to reach beyond what the capabilities of a show like this could support. If you want more specific details on the plot issues you should check out the episode guide.
Guest stars are unfortunately few. Willie’s brother Neal makes a few appearances which adds much-needed new blood, but others are few and far between. Dorothy and Trevor make one appearance a piece, and Raquel makes two with one of them being little more than a cameo. The retirement home episode is a good one in that it gets ALF into a new setting and interacting with different people for a while. More of these guest roles might have helped the dying series a little.
Morality
While still mostly family friendly another downfall of this season is unneeded sexual content. ALF borders on perverted at times (which also spills over into the TVD features). We get references to Lynn’s breasts, discussion of ALF going to a nudie show, and a whole episode dedicated to Lynn being sexually active against her mother's wishes.
Other than sexual references there is little else questionable. For one thing there is nothing sexual actually shown, it's only in the dialogue.
The strong language would probably average out to be one questionable word for every 2 or 3 episodes.
I don’t think there’s so much as a punch thrown as far as violence. I guess it's still mild compared to a lot of shows, but this more “adult” material is unneeded and even distasteful.
Spirituality
In some past episodes we've had some comments about biblical things that could almost make one wonder if there had been some Christian influence on the writing staff (even a mention of God's ultimate authority). However, any such influence appears to be gone at this point. When views on sexuality are presented they definitely do not follow God's teachings on the matter.
In one attempt at more serious subject matter ALF develops a kind of drug addiction that requires an intervention (he's addicted to cotton). In one of the better moments of drama we see some of the characters face marital problems, and there is some merit in the decisions they make to work it out instead of calling it quits.
The only real spirituality in this is an episode in which ALF decides to become devout in his Melmacian religion. It's silly and played for laughs rather than any kind of obvious statement of the nature of true religion. If you happen to be watching this with younger viewers it might be an opportunity to bring up the nature of God and discuss your real -life beliefs.
Final Thoughts
"ALF" as a whole is a pretty good show. Most of it is kid-friendly, and the comedy still makes me laugh as an adult. Season 4 does not always live up to that. It does have some truly great episodes but only a few. A few others are OK while some are arguably not even worth seeing. It might be worth checking out if you are into cute comedies or the nostalgia from the 80's, but it's really only worth buying if you own the other seasons and just want to complete your series (as complete as it can get with a TVD set that omits episodes and uses shortened versions). It's a weak set, but I'll leave further details for the DVD buying guide.
Buying Guide
For the most part if you liked or disliked the way "ALF" season 1 was handled you can expect more of the same with season 4 except for some glaring issues that may make you want to hunt down a corporate executive and incite nearby cats to scratch a certain someone's eyes out. It's like these people decided that if the crew making "ALF" quit caring about making good episodes they were going to quit caring about making good TVD's (working on the premise that season 1 can indeed be considered to be a “good” TVD set).
You have 1 TVD option. There is no series box set.
What I don’t understand is why Lion’s Gate and Paul Fusco put the effort into filming brand new scenes for the interface and Easter egg, yet they couldn’t do so much as record an ALF and/or Paul commentary or any kind of interview as a retrospective of the series. Past seasons have included some manner of bonus features even if just episodes of the cartoon series. This one, though, offers next to nothing.
Final Recommendation:
Not only do we not get extras, some of the content is repeated making this a smaller package than it would initially seem. Why not ax the repeats and include the ALF follow-up special, "Project ALF" from a few years later? What about ALF’s many appearances in commercials and other shows? Surely the comical commercial bumpers (“If you’re getting up to get a snack, bring me one I’ll be right back!”) would have been easy to gather up. There’s a lot they could have included but must not have cared. In addition to missing portions of each episode we’re missing 2 episodes entirely which is a big downer. It’s mainly for that reason that I don't recommend this set unless you are especially wanting a complete (or as complete as is possible) "ALF" TVD collection on your shelf. Just watch the episodes on Netflix or Amazon or something like that.
Season 4 is a 4 DVD set.
Video
1.33:
This is the TV standard ratio. The video is on par with the previous seasons. It's not impressive compared to modern shows, but if you've only seen the broadcast versions you should be satisfied.
Audio
2.0 Dolby:
Once again, it's nothing impressive by today's standards, but this remastered audio is better than I remember from the broadcast. There are numerous things that I will complain about on this release, but audio/video quality is not among them.
Packaging
On the plus side the DVD case doesn’t stack the discs on top of each other like some of the other packages have. It's a standard plastic case.
The insert is just a thin sheet of paper. If you don't lay it in the case just right you'll crumple it all up. It does have a list of what episodes are on what disc (more or less) with the director and writer for each one. With the other blunders in this set it comes as no surprise that they can't get their act together on writing down the episodes for us, either. The list is inaccurate to the point of being virtually useless. If you’re ever looking to watch a specific episode you can't rely on the list to help you figure out which disc to put in.
The interface is simple as far as menu options go. The episode list has thumbnails with the episode titles and some fun elements that I'll talk about below.
Extras
-Interface hosting: If there is anything positive here it is ALF himself hosting the interface in original and humorous segments. This time he’s selling show segments for portable devices. While not as funny as some of the past scenarios it’s still pretty amusing. Each disc has a different segment forming an original mini-episode all together.
-Episode Summaries: As always ALF also gives a brief description of each episode. I’ve always thought these should be more entertaining than they are. They’re real summaries and are almost never comical. Tell a few jokes, ALF! Select the “?” by the episode thumbnail to activate the summary.
-Credits: A few pages of text.
Easter Egg:
-Comedy Sketch (1:31) This is an original clip of ALF talking about a new show (which I assume is a joke since I've seen no evidence of an actual show in the works) with 2 bimbos to help him out. It’s rather perverted and not something I would recommend letting younger kids watch. Come on, guys, ALF is supposed to be family friendly! Despite my distaste I couldn’t help but laugh at it. It’s hidden on disc 4, page 2 of the episodes list. Move down to reveal a “Babe Magnet” icon and select it.
Episodes
There are 20 unique episodes plus 4 more repeats. Reruns in a TVD collection? Seriously?? Two of them were already included in earlier TVD sets while 2 are in this same set twice. It seems the designers couldn’t decide between airing and production chronology and ended up using a mix of both. This wouldn't be quite so infuriating if two episodes hadn't been omitted as a result: “It’s My Party” and “Make ‘Em Laugh” are not included. They’re listed on the insert which leads me to believe they were omitted accidentally due to poor attention to detail in the design process. Does Lion’s Gate not have a quality assurance department to check things like this? So in other words if you buy every "ALF" TVD release available you will not have all the episodes while you'll have 4 of them more than once.
Most episodes are between 21 and 22 minutes long with a few closer to 20. All the TVD’s include the syndicated versions of the episodes which means a couple of minutes have been trimmed from each episode as they originally aired. If you haven’t seen the uncut versions you won’t miss anything, but there are moments I remember that are now gone. Part of the point of buying a TVD collection is to have a complete collection so missing material is an unfortunate strike against any release like this.
The one thing they get right is the chapter division. Each episode has 4 chapters with one of the stops being after the theme. Don't want to see the opening credits every time? A quick skip gets you past them. There's another division in the middle of the episode and one right before the end credits. It's amazing how many TV releases don't recognize how handy this kind of chapter division is!