ALFTALES was an animated spin-off of the live-action ALF TV series. I wasn't a fan of the live-action series and I only stumbled into this show by accident . . . and am I ever glad that I did. ALFTALES is one of those cartoon shows in the tradition of ROCKY & BULLWINKLE, THE SIMPSONS and KING OF THE HILL, in that it uses the traditionally children show-dominated field of animation to tell stories with adult ideas. ALFTALES was actually two shows in one: The actual part called ALFTALES was like the "Fractured Fairy Tales" part of BULLWINKLE. It would take a fairy tale or nursery rhyme and put their own spin on the story. For example, "Rapunzel" dealt with a prince who would speak in rap ("Rap-unzel", get it?) while trying to get into the tower of the princess with the REALLY long hair. A spoof of "Jack and the Beanstalk" had Jack and his "mother" running a certain motel from a certain Alfred Hitchcock movie. In fact, this story is filled with Hitchcock references as the Giant talks like James Mason in NORTH BY NORTHWEST and "Jimmy Stewart" even makes an appearance. There was a scene in "Jack" that would indicate that this wasn't specifically a "kiddie" show: Jack looks at the Janet Leigh character as she walks out of the motel lobby. He looks at the camera and comments to the audience "You'd HAVE to be PSYCHO to not be impressed by that." Not exactly children's material. The other half of the show just chronicled Gordon Shumway's (ALF's real name) life on his home planet of Melmac with his family and friends. This segment was just as funny as the ALFTALES segment. This show had a really cool theme song that was sung in the style of Fifties' rock tune. I'd like to know the lyrics to it as they sounded as hip as they were funny. I'll be keeping a lookout to see if these episodes turn up on video or DVD. They'd be worth collecting.
