List of ALF characters
A listing of the characters from the ALF television series that ran between 1986-1990.
Gordon Shumway
Gordon Shumway is an alien nicknamed ALF (for Alien Life Form) by William Tanner in the pilot episode. ALF was born on October 28, 1756, though he mentions that his birthday is in August in Episode 7 ("Help Me Rhonda") on the Lower East Side of the planet Melmac. Melmac was located six parsecs past the Hydra-Centaurus Supercluster and had a green sky, pink grass and a purple sun. The commonly-used currency is Wernicks, and the substance we call lint is as precious on Melmac as gold is on Earth.
ALF's body is covered with rust-colored fur (he once described his color as burnt sienna). He has a rippled snout, facial moles, eight stomachs, his heart is apparently located in his head, and he likes to eat cats and had a best friend on his home planet named Malhar Naik. He attended high school for 122 years and was captain of a Bouillabaisseball team (which is played on ice using shellfish as a ball).
ALF is troublesome, sarcastic and cynical, and sometimes he puts himself at the risk of being discovered while doing some of his often unintentional pranks. However, if things have gone too far, he does as much as possible to make up for his mistakes, generally with good results. In one episode, he tried to help Brian to gain confidence during a school show, because he was too afraid to perform. In another occasion, he helped Dorothy to deal with Sparky's death and move on, and accept Whizzer's friendship. And he also helped Raquel Ochmonek with a depression she suffered, because she became the laughing stock in a TV program. He has at least two cousins "Pretty Boy Shumway" and "Blinky", and has had liposuction. During a bout of amnesia, he believed he was an insurance salesman named Wayne Schlegel.
The Tanner family
Willie
William "Willie" Francis Tanner is the father figure, and a social worker by trade. Willie is a shortwave radio enthusiast, and it was a result of his shortwave radio signals that ALF followed them and crashed into his home. Willie also avidly collects scale model train sets. He attended Claremont High School, then later graduated from UCLA. When Willie uses his ham Radio to call somebody, he uses the callsign "K726XAA".
He was arrested by the Secret Service after ALF made telephone calls to the President in an attempt to convince the President to deactivate the nuclear weapons program and disassemble America's Nuclear Stockpile, which were misconstrued as the alien trying to threaten the president. Like his wife, he was a flower child during the 1960s.
Willie and Alf have a good, if often strained, relationship. They tend to bicker and snipe at one another, but each will also do their best to come to the others aid in times of strife, though Willie tends to be more strict than Alf would like. Next to Brian, Willie seems to have the strongest bond with Alf out of the cast and the two share as many scenes together, if not more, than do Alf and Brian, Willie's first son. Many of the arguments that the characters often engage in revolve around the cross cultural difference between Earth and Melmac, or sometimes simply come about because of some bizarre behavior Alf is engaging in.
Despite their strained relationship, Willie has referred to Alf as being "amazing" and often marvels at some of the things Alf has revealed about the universe beyond the Earth's solar system. Alf holds Willie in high regard for letting him stay with the Tanners and protecting him from the Alien Task Force and despite their arguments, Alf is usually the first to try to help Willie when things go wrong.
Kate
Katherine "Kate" Daphne Halligan Tanner is the mother figure. In addition to her mother who plays a role in the series, she has at least one sister. She majored in art history and sometimes works in real estate. Like her husband, she was a flower child during the 1960s. In the episode 'Jump' it was mentioned that she once had a poem published in a magazine which was her goal, this shows her interest in poetry.
Lynn
Lynn Tanner is the eldest child of the Tanner family and their only daughter. She was a shy girl whom ALF attempted to make more extroverted. Kate actually confided to Willie once that she was concerned her daughter was spending too much time with ALF, sardonically suggesting that if they weren't careful they might end up with half-alien grandchildren.
One of ALF's ways to get Lynn to raise her confidence was entering her in a beauty contest. She dated a man nicknamed "Lizard". In later episodes she was seen starting relationships with a performer named Robert and an athlete named Danny Duckworth.
Brian
Brian Tanner is the elder son and middle child of the Tanner family. He seems to bond with ALF the most. It is fairly common to see the two paired in scenes together during the series, and Brian is often involved in some of Alf's pranks and schemes. Nicknamed 'B' by the rest of the cast, Brian formed a friendship with the Ochmonech's cousin Jake, who also discovered the existence of Alf, and the three characters were often seen together during the third season of the show. Brian usually acts as the straight man to Alf's jokes and gags out of the duo, but Brian has gotten in a few jokes at Alf's expense during the series as well. They often appear to have a relationship resembling that of siblings despite the gap in their relative ages and cultural differences (Brian was in elementary school during the series' run, while Alf was well over two hundred by the time he arrived on earth.). Brian is also the one who is quickest to worry for Alf's safety if it seems something has happened to him, and Alf seems to have the most regard for Brian's feelings throughout the series than any other member of the cast. Alf will go to great lengths for Brian both to cheer him up if he's upset, or to help out when he needs it though his plans tend to go awry, though Brian usually forgives him for any problems he's caused due to the fact that he knows the alien is simply trying to help.
Eric
Eric Tanner is the younger son of the Tanner family. He was born during the third season.
Uncle Neal
Willie's younger brother, Neal lived with the Tanner family briefly after his wife Margaret left him, before moving on to his own apartment and gaining employment in the same apartment building as a handyman. Neal met Margaret in the Future Farmers group at Claremont High School. ALF originally did not like Neal as he was forced to hide, but eventually got to form some friendship after Willie revealed ALF's existence to Neal.
Silas Tanner (Willie's Great-Grandfather)
In Season 4, Willie finds a treasure trove of memories of his great-grandfather. Later on the episode, he and ALF journey into the desert to find a hidden treasure buried by his great-grandfather, which turned out to be water. He was called a "selfish idiot."
Other characters who know about ALF
Dorothy Halligan
Kate's mother is a widow, played by Anne Meara. She has a love-hate relationship with ALF, often threatening to hand him over to the military if he does not behave. She is afraid to remarry, until ALF in his own way convinces her it would be a good idea not to die lonely. She eventually marries a jazz musician nicknamed "Whizzer".
"Whizzer"
Grandma Dorothy's husband, played by Paul Dooley, meets ALF in Season 4 accidentally. He ran into the kitchen where ALF usually hides when there is company, and before the Tanners were able to hide him, Whizzer fainted when he first saw him, and they both eventually came to hate each other.
Jodie
A blind woman who ALF seems interested in meeting befriends Jodie in the first season of the series. She appeared again in Season 2 when ALF celebrated a reunion, featuring everyone who's ever met him at a party. Note: The only one who met ALF who didn't show up at that party was Luis, the Central American immigrant that he met in the first season.
Larry the Shrink
Larry Dykstra, played by Bill Daily, appears in numerous episodes of the ALF TV Series. He first appears in Season 1 when ALF and Willie Tanner have problems living together, in Season 2 when ALF is addicted to a ventriloquist dummy who starts controlling ALF, and one last time in Season 3 when ALF seemed too bored to do anything.
The Retirement Home
ALF finds in a newspaper that one of his favorite movie actors, "Louise Beaumont", is in the neighborhood, but in a retirement home. In much envy, he leaves the house to go to the apartment, and meets her, while also meeting four other seniors: Jack, Rebecca, Berny, and a pigeon he named Tonto.
The Neighborhood
The neighborhood the Tanners live in include the following families: the Ochmoneks, the Byrds, the Holbuts, the Metcaps, the Polmanskis, the Fitskis, the Sipkeys, the Lipkats, the Feins, the Steins, the Logans, the Hogans, the Kogans and many other families.
The Ochmoneks
Raquel
Raquel Ochmonek always wanted children, but never had any. Willie tells ALF she is very nosy. One time she spots ALF and reports him to the Alien Task Force. When Jake came to live with her, she considered him a replacement for the children she never had. A cheerleader in high school.
Trevor
Trevor Ochmonek is a Masters of Arts graduate, who played football for 7 years through high school. He is a veteran of the Korean War.
Jake
Jake Ochmonek is the nephew, who was sent to live with Raquel and Trevor after his father was incarcerated. His mother struggles with kleptomania and is unable to care for Jake. A mechanical genius, he has an unrequited crush on Lynn, although he also falls for a schoolmate named Laura. He was one of ALF's best friends. His girlfriend appeared in one episode in Season 3.
Jake's mother
Jake's mother returned to the Ochmonek family in Season 3, but only appeared for one episode. Jake realized that his mother was a kleptomaniac, and wouldn't accept her, which is why he decided not to move back East with her.
The Alien Task Force and other Government
Various actors appeared in the ALF TV series as the Alien Task Force in many episodes, such as the ALF pilot (both versions), and the Thanksgiving special. Also, many police officers appeared at their house whenever there was chaos in the neighborhood, including when a notable actor appeared as a thief in an episode of Season 1. Also, Air Force One appears in an episode in Season 1, where it shows two men monitoring phone calls made by ALF, until we finally hear Ronald Reagan's voice, but the President does not appear in the show. Two FBI agents showed up at their house when they found out ALF was making phone calls to the President, which were misconstrued as threatening, when in fact Alf was trying to convince the president to disassemble the nuclear weapons program due to nuclear war being the cause of the destruction of Melmac, something he feared would happen to Earth as well if countries continued to stockpile nuclear weapons. In Season 4, Willie also meets the founder of a company called Syndrax that continuously created ozone-damaging CFC's, and proudly destroys the company from within.
Alfina's Owner
In an episode of Season 2, the Tanner family take in a stray dog, whom Brian names Alfina. There are two people looking for her, one was a crook. Her character was Ethel Buttonwood who was played by Anne Ramsey. The real owner was a little girl, who later came in the episode to take the dog home.
The National Inquizitor
In Season 4, ALF sends in an article about outer space under the name "Mr. Universe", and the staff eventually comes to the Tanner residence to interview him.
In Season 3, ALF also reads the National Inquizitor and is convinced that his cousin Blinky is living in Barstow. He persuades Willy to take him there, but it is found out to be a sham.