ALF Reboot in the works with Warner Brothers

[John]

https://tvline.com/2018/08/01/alf-reboot-warner-bros-developed-new-series/

[Wendy]

Was anyone clamoring for an ALF reboot? Really?

[SFK]

I read that by the end of the series, the cast absolutely hated working on the show.  They taped on an elevated set to accommodate ALF and everything revolved around the set-ups for the puppet which meant lots of long hours on set waiting for ALF to be ready. The last day of taping, they wrapped and Max Wright got in his car and sped off.

[ChitHappens]

 

Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!  

[Soapsuds]

I loathed this show. Hated it...never liked it. 

[ChitHappens]

 

Oh my.  

[DRW50]

 

The thing is they have tried several attempts - the TV-movie, the talk show - but it never worked.

 

I did like the show somewhat back then - somebody even gave me an Alf watch as a gift - but I can't see it working today. Maybe it could on Disney, if they are taking a break from destroying the lives of child actors.

[DramatistDreamer]

I'm speechless.  Just the day before yesterday, I read that Norman Lear now wants to re-boot All In The Family, Good Times and The Jeffersons.  It's all become too much.

[Khan]

We have officially scraped the bottom of the reboot well.

 

[Soaplovers]

I loved Alf.. loved the cartoon series, had the Alf stuffed animal and lunch box.  Although, I think it's a show best in the 80s and not being updated for modern day.

[KMan101]

 

No. But the studio wants to make money, so they were

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I love Alf but meh.

 

But I think we should just get used to this being a "thing" right now. It'll fade and go away eventually.

 

ALF could work on Netflix.

 

We may not like it, but the reality is these things have a built in audience. Nostalgia is strong and "in" right now. Reboots are the rage. It's nothing new. Just how it goes. Everyone wants to jump on the trend and when they do they slowly kill it because it becomes an overload and people lose interest. I mean, Patrick Stewart is returning as Picard in a new Star Trek series. It's now "cool and accepted" to go back and play a role you once tried to run from. Like George Clooney still does (besides ER)

 

I like ALF but the show was nothing special. It was very 80s and basic but with ALF. It was just an updated My Favorite Martian. Even though we may love a lot of the 80s sitcoms, there's a reason they struggle in reruns ... there was a sitcom overload in the 80s leading to a bunch of random sitcoms that all seemed the same. Sure I like a lot of them but they're nothing special apart from maybe the cast standing out. It's like the 90s when FRIENDS came out and then NBC and everyone else wanted their own version (poor wasted Brooke Shields, Tea Leoni, Sharon Lawrence, and Lea Tompson)

 

Apparently that was a mistake. It was more about ideas he has. Not really the shows themselves. At least that's how I took it.

 

Shows like them can't work again because they were special because of the characters themselves. Sure one of them could be a new One Day at a Time (Good Times? - maybe James comes back from the dead, he faked his death because he was on the down low. Too Young and Restless?) but the pull would be too much to have it tied to the original that they really can't reboot any of them.

 

And people panic when hearing "reboot"

 

There's various forms of a reboot.

 

Reboot with the original cast = "Roseanne", "Murphy Brown", "Will & Grace", "Dallas"

 

Reboot with same/similar characters new cast = "Magnum", "Hawaii", "Dynasty"

 

Reboot of original but only wants to be loosely tied to them: "Dallas" (it was a mix of both), "90210", "Melrose Place"

 

Anytime people hear reboot they automatically think of rebooting the original show with the same cast. Or pulling a Dynasty. Sometimes they can turn out like One Day at a Time. A surprise success based around the formula of the original. I see no problem with that, but I get it's lazy.

[DramatistDreamer]

 

Good Times is probably the only other series that could have hope of working.  A similar formula to ODAAT - a different family living in public housing and sadly, in the U.S.A. that has not changed- it is still bursting with ghettos.  Perhaps Miami instead of Chicago?  

It's the most sad, that with GT, they wouldn't have to do much to reboot it, much of the same conditions still exist.

If they did, I would not kill off the father and would definitely not have a J.J. type character--that type of buffoonery would have no hopes of playing at all in this day and age.

[Vee]

I watched Alf religiously as a kid - to a point. I had no idea it ended on a cliffhanger or had a movie til years later.

 

I think what later became of Max Wright says it all about Alf. The BTS stories are both nihilistic and hilarious. To me Alf's sort of a figure of dark, gonzo comedy.

[Khan]

 

Talk about "Florida Flips," lol!

 

In my mind, James Evans faked his death, because he had lost that cushy gas station managing gig that the rest of the family was relocating to Mississippi for.  He couldn't accept being a failure again to his family, so when a man who had stolen his wallet (with his driver's license) was struck down and killed by a car, he just...checked out.  (Which is ironic, since James had sworn he would never leave his family like his father had done when James was a boy.)

 

However, in another, ironic twist, James, now living under a new name, became the financial success he had always wanted to be for Florida and the kids, owning and managing a chain of hardware stores on the East Coast...but he reasoned that returning to his family at that point, after they had adjusted to his being (supposedly) dead, would be cruel, so he stayed away.

 

But the family finally knows the truth when they realize he's the new boss of Keith and Thelma's daughter, Florida (Anderson), a recent Harvard Business School graduate.  (By now, both Keith and Florida (Evans) have passed away; and Keith and Thelma's son, James Henry ("Jimmy") Anderson, has grown up to be a pro football player like his dad.)

 

Meanwhile...

 

Michael had a change of heart about going to law school, dropped out of college and ended up becoming a professional singer.  (He also married and divorced a white woman, by whom he had a son.)

 

J.J. moved to Hollywood to develop "Dyno Woman" as a successful TV series and movie franchise.  In fact, his success in that field finally allowed him the opportunity to pursue a career as a "serious" artist -- back in Chi-Town, back in the projects, where he can help promising young artists "paint their way out of the ghetto" -- without having to worry about finances.  (But he still isn't married.)

 

Despite doing everything she could to give Penny a more stable home life, Willona faced a real dilemma when her adopted daughter became pregnant at age fifteen, then abandoned the infant when the pressure of being an unwed teen mother with no education overwhelmed Penny (who began abusing her child like she herself had been abused).  However, with help and encouragement from the Evanses, Willona took in her granddaughter, and supported her all the way through medical school.  (And even though she and Frank Mason never married...well, let's just say they still get together from time to time.)

 

And Bookman...well, he's still Bookman...only there's not as much buffalo to old "Buffalo Butt," thanks to a healthier lifestyle he adopted (...sort of...) after quadruple bypass surgery and a Type II Diabetes diagnosis.

[DramatistDreamer]

I was reading a Black film & TV blog and most people were uninterested in a reboot of Good Times, although one poster did suggest that Sean Blakemore play the father and I could actually see that.

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Like I said though, it would be silly to try to recreate the Evans family in the Chicago projects (the Evans all moved out of the ghetto and Cabrini Green no longer exists).  A new family similar to what was done for ODAAT would be the only sensible option.