ALF on DVD- edited U.S release versus (mostly) unedited Canadian release

Wasn't there a made for TV "reunion movie" that wrapped things up, or am I having a false memory?

That's why I try to read-up on series before I buy them... If it's a series that's been out for a while, I'll occasionally read the tvshowsondvd site and/or Amazon reviews, etc. to see if they mention edited episodes...

 

Yup! Project: ALF.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_ALF

 

They're wrong on both counts. The right answer is: "we screwed up and we're sorry. Unfortunately, we lack the means and budget to be able to fix this in the future."

 

They should have taken the opportunity to release the complete unedited episodes in one of those expensive box sets to "correct" the mistake and make fans double-dip to get the proper release.

 

Alf was great! My son is 9 now but when he was 5 or 6 we would watch it all the time.

 

They should offer a trade-in/trade-up deal if they were morally straight about it. Jerks.

 

I read somewhere that Australia (Region 4) was one of the few places to get the non-syndicated versions of "Roseanne" on DVD, from one of the cheaper cheap-ass companies here. Their releases of old shows carried this disclaimer on the back, in very small print, under the usual copyright notices: "DISCLAIMER: These DVD's are authentic episodes from Roseanne and have been developed from the original transfer of the original Carseny Werner masters made for US television in 1994. There may appear intermittent audio and visual imperfections in the episodes. These errors occour on the original masters." Substitute the year, production company and show title, I've seen that disclaimer so far on "The Cosby Show" and "Inspector Gadget" as well (Gadget has since been deleted here). For the most part everything is OK (as far as old NTSC-to-PAL 576i, 20+ year old videotape can look) although their release of "Inspector Gadget", you could see it was an old transfer on old videotape. I can't quite describe it, but the picture could have been sharper and the colours weren't quite right.

 

We're the Jerry Stahl episodes really that out there? I think he wrote the episode where ALF fought a giant cockroach. That's all I can remember. Jerry Stahl was the drug addicted writer that later had a movie made about his writing career in Hollywood and was portrayed by Ben Stiller.

 

How would it even be possible to remaster this in HD? I thought that it was shot and edited on videotape.

 

Yeah, there's really not much you can do with it.

 

How much of the Canadian Alliance set features uncut episodes? I can't find a review or a reference online to the Canadian Alliance set having any uncut episodes. Most references to the set seem to be that it's simply a repressing/repackaging of the Lionsgate discs.

I recall hearing that the German DVD set has mostly uncut episodes, but I would think if a Canadian set had many uncut episodes would have been discussed more back when it was released.

 

I believe the Canadian Alliance set contains all uncut episodes with maybe one exception in one episode or thereabouts but I can't find a source for that right now.

 

Definitely let me know if you can confirm longer episodes compared to the US discs, and/or can find an article/review/online comment suggesting this.

I'm finding several comments from people saying the discs are just repackagings of the Lionsgate discs, down to the same bonus features, etc.

There are some screenshots of the menus on the Canadian set on the Amazon Canada website, and they are indentical to the US Lionsgate set.

The set with "all uncut episodes except for one" that I've heard about is the Region 2 German set.

 

I might be confusing the German and Canadian releases in my head now that you mention it.

 

Which gets its own flak for having poor video quality in seasons 1 and 2 and the German audio track not synched to the video.

 

Yeah, one wishes Paul Fusco would set out to make a definitive DVD set. The problem is, the show obviously has limited appeal, and all of the seasons have been on shelves for super cheap prices for many years now. Not much of a market for big deluxe Alf sets.

I did get the couple of VSC Canadian DVDs released, the "Project Alf" TV movie as well as the "The Alf Files" compilation DVD that has a few uncut episodes and what I think is still an exclusive commentary track.

 

You may need S2 of Mr. Robot as well....

 

Yeah, I checked that out back when it aired. Very cool to see Alf, though I otherwise had/have never seen Mr. Robot, so of course the context of the episode was pretty well lost on me.

 

An interesting bit of ALF trivia- apparently there's only ever been one ALF puppet (so there's no back up) and Paul Fusco treats ALF like he's a real celebrity much to the annoyance of pretty much anyone who has to work with him.

 

I've definitely heard some stories about Fusco being weirdly "difficult." I think Tina Fey told a story somewhere about working with "Alf" at an NBC anniversary function. To be fair, it appeared Fusco's eccentricities might be rooted in closely guarding the "illusion" of puppeteering Alf. I don't think he's interested in having photos out there like the photos where you can see someone operating Kermit from below, etc.

I have to believe there are several Alf puppets, at least over the course of all time. The puppet used more recently, such as the in the DVD menu bits and other commercials/TV appearances, looks much more "groomed" than the one you see in, say, the early seasons of the TV show.

I'd love for Fusco to license a *realistic* Alf puppet/replica sort of thing, either full size or even scaled. There really is nothing out there as far as Alf merchandise that really looks a lot like him. The best you can get is the talking stuffed animal sort of thing released a few times.

I'm surprised Fusco hasn't in general merchandised Alf more. Maybe there's little interest. But there would have to be *some*, and there's really nothing out there much other than the DVDs.

I think there was one new "wave" of merchandise in the mid-late 90s where a few things came out, but not much, and little since.

 

I just saw in a banner ad in a ME-TV Newsletter that ALF is apparently coming to ME-TV this Summer! No details yet but I'll let you guys know when I find out when it's launching.

This load of vintage merchandise shows just how massive ALF was back in the 1980s

 

Here's the launch date and schedule for ALF on METV:

MeTV Summer of Me 2017 schedule (includes ALF, return of My Three Sons, Rhoda, etc) - Sitcoms Online Message Boards - Forums

 

Here is what's leaving:

Leaving: Diagnosis Murder, CHiPs, MacGyver, The Incredible Hulk, Land of the Giants, The Time Tunnel, Planet of the Apes, Laverne & Shirley, Dobie Gillis

And where is The Brady Bunch?