The ALF cartoons were clearly not written by the same people behind the sitcom. Where else do you find Saturday morning cartoons with post-modern meta-humour not dissimilar to Mystery Science Theater 3000? Standout episodes include Madame Poughkeepsie, the fortune teller who grants Gordon's wish to have a more many head of hair, but curses him to tender anyone he touches instantly hairless, or the Arnold Schwarzenegger parody filming "The Gutsquisher" in his hometown, complete with Arnold likeness and voice impression, "AAAUHNGG! I mahst skvish gütts!".
Alf Tales also has laugh-out-loud re-tellings of Cinderella (with Marlon Brando as Fairy Godmother and evil step-sisters Janet & Latoya) and loads of gags kids under 10 wouldn't even get when the show was current. This was really subversive TV in the mid-late '80s. The sitcom was just a puppet show and the groaning that comes along with their attempt at "jokes".
The writers earned their paycheques on the cartoons, though. Watch and listen, as much of the humour zips past if you're not paying attention.
