Cats beware: Shout! Factory is gearing up for a full-on ALF revival
Remember ALF? He’s back in streaming and new content form
When we last saw Gordon Shumway, the furry, big-nosed puppet known to most of the world as “ALF,” he was guest-starring on an episode of Mr. Robot. The lovable 80s relic, divorced from its original relevancy, posed no real threat to modern viewers. “Oh, look who it is, our old friend ALF,” the contemporary viewer said in 2017. “He’s no longer our concern.”
We were wrong.
ALF is making a comeback after a distribution coup by Shout! Factory, which wrestled the distribution rights away from Alien Productions, the former owners of the series’ various properties and archival masters. Now, Shout! promises to share their “unparalleled access” of their recently acquired treasure trove with the world.
“I couldn’t be more excited that Shout! Factory will be marketing and distributing ALF and working with the series’ creators, Paul Fusco and Tom Patchett,” said Jeffrey Peisch Shout!’s senior vice president of programming and new business development. “ALF was an instant classic when it debuted on network television over 30 years ago, and the series stands the test of time and appeals to multiple generations.”
The announcement focuses on, what else, streaming. Per Deadline, Shout! now holds the rights to everything ALF, including all 102 episodes of the live-action TV series, 26 episodes of ALF: The Animated Series, 21 episodes of the ALF Tales cartoon, and the TV movie Project: ALF. In addition, the company plans to leverage an “aggressive rollout” that will saturate the culture with ALF-related material.
The plan, for now, is to recreate the success Shout! had with Mystery Science Theater 3000, The Johnny Carson Show, and The Carol Burnett Show. As for the new ALF, well, that’s in the cards too. The report states that Shout! is looking into developing “new ALF-related content.”
Hug your cats a little tighter this evening. The ALF revival is nigh.