''ALF Tales'' is a 30-minute Saturday morning animated series that aired on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

from September 10, 1988, to December 9, 1989. The show is a spin-off of '' ALF: The Animated Series'' which featured characters from that series playing various characters from

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...

s. The

fairy tale parody Fairy tale parody (also known as a fractured fairy tale) is a genre of fiction that parodies traditional fairy tales. The parodies are often created as new literary stories, movies, or television shows. The genre was popularized on television b ...

was usually altered for comedic effect in a manner akin to Jay Ward's "

Fractured Fairy Tales ''The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends'' (commonly referred to as simply ''Rocky and Bullwinkle'') is an American animated television series that originally aired from November 19, 1959, to June 27, 1964, on the American Broadca ...

". The episodes were performed in the style of a resident theater company or

ensemble cast In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that is composed of multiple principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17 Structure In contrast to ...

where Gordon and Rhonda would take the leading male and female roles, and the other characters were cast according to their characteristics. Many stories

spoof Spoof, spoofs, spoofer, or spoofing may refer to: * Forgery of goods or documents * Semen, in Australian slang * Spoof (game), a guessing game * Spoofing (finance), a disruptive algorithmic-trading tactic designed to manipulate markets __NOTOC__ ...

a film genre, such as the "Cinderella" episode which is presented like an

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

film. Some episodes featured a "

fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this ''wall'', the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th cen ...

" effect where Gordon is backstage preparing for the episode, and Rob Cowan would appear drawn as a TV executive (who introduced himself as "Roger Cowan, network executive") who tries to brief Gordon on how to improve this episode. For instance Cowan once told Gordon who was readying for a

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

themed episode that "less than 2% of our audience lives in the Dark Ages".

Cast

Paul Fusco Paul Fusco is an American puppeteer, actor, television producer, writer and director. He is best known as the puppeteer and voice of the title character on the sitcom '' ALF'', for which he also served as creator, writer, producer, and directo ...

– ALF (Gordon Shumway)/Rick Fusterman *

Tabitha St. Germain Tabitha St. Germain, formerly known as Paulina Gillis Germain and also known as Tabitha or Kitanou St. Germain, is a Canadian actress and comedian. She is known for a variety of roles across many different shows. She has been actively doing voi ...

(as Paulina Gillis) – Augie/Rhonda * Peggy Mahon – Flo *

Thick Wilson Thick may refer to: * A bulky or heavyset body shape or overweight * ''Thick'' (album), 1999 fusion jazz album by Tribal Tech * Thick concept, in philosophy, a concept that is both descriptive and evaluative * Thick description, in anthropolog ...

– Larson Petty/Bob *

Dan Hennessey Dan Hennessey (born August 25)https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/Dan-Hennessey/ is a Canadian voice director and voice actor who, early on in his career, performed with a children's comedy troupe The Zoo Factory (with John Stocker, Bruce Gord ...

– Sloop *

Rob Cowan Rob Cowan (born 14 April 1948) is an English music broadcaster and writer. Employed by music publisher Boosey & Hawkes for nineteen years in various capacities, his first record review was published in 1967.

– Skip * Ellen-Ray Hennessy – Stella the Waitress *

Noam Zylberman Noam Zylberman (born June 30, 1973) is an Israeli-born Canadian voice actor. Early life Zylberman was born in Haifa, Israel to Jewish parents. His family relocated to Canada when he was two years old. He attended Arlington Middle School and ...

– Curtis (1988) *Michael Fantini – Curtis (1989)

Episodes

Season 1 (1988–89)

Season 2 (1989)

Home media

The first seven episodes were released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

on May 30, 2006, in Region 1 from

Lionsgate Home Entertainment Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered in ...

in a single-disc release entitled ''ALF and The Beanstalk and Other Classic Fairy Tales''.

References

External links

* {{Children's programming on NBC in the 1990s ALF (TV series) 1980s American animated television series 1980s American comic science fiction television series 1988 American television series debuts 1989 American television series endings American animated television spin-offs American children's animated comic science fiction television series Animated television series about extraterrestrial life English-language television shows NBC original programming Television series by DIC Entertainment Television series by Lorimar Television Television series by Saban Entertainment Television series created by Paul Fusco Television series created by Tom Patchett Television shows based on fairy tales Television series by Lorimar-Telepictures