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ALFicionado
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Post by ALFicionado »

MR. Littwack wrote:Personally, I never had much in the way of strong male role models, except for my heroes on TV. Most people that know me will say that I always try to be fair and do the right thing. I think much of this is due to the fact that I was influenced greatly by my TV heroes and seeing how they dealt with situations, Be it death or anything else.
The exact same thing applies to me.

And I wholeheartedly agree on therest of your post as well. Well said!
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MR. Littwack
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Post by MR. Littwack »

Glad you agree. I'm always worried that I'm going to offend people on here when posting things like that. I don't mean to.

Glad to see there are others who are on board with me though.
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Post by melmac_alf »

Mr Littwack,
I was going to write a long email about how you offended me but seeing that people are agreeing with you maybe I just looked at the post wrong. I do have to say that I thought it was kinda wrong for you to say how can you deal with real life. I deal with real life just fine and have been around death in my real life, I was just saying that it's a depressing episode, maybe I'm just too sentimental, but if anyone got comedy out of that let me know. We all know it was a dramatic episode. TV is a whole lot different than real life. I don't know what else to say. I know you didn't mean to offend anyone, and I didn't mean to get on a soap box myself.
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MR. Littwack
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Post by MR. Littwack »

Well, I hope I didn't offend you beyond forgiveness. I wasn't trying to singal anyone out either. I realize that people have different points of view on most subjects.

I wasn't trying to say that you can't deal with life if you can't watch something depressing. A perfect example here is myself following the attacks on 9-11. Some of my favorite movies are action films that involve in some cases, buildings blowing up (Die Hard 1) planes being hijacked (Delta Force/ Airforce one) and so on. After being glued to my TV for several days following the attacks that really happened, anything I watched on TV that was fictional had to be something light hearted. I had to turn to some of my favorite comedy movies for that.

So I can understand to a degree how some people may feel like that more often towards depressing episodes of a show. But I still stand that it makes the characters more easy to relate to seeing how they deal with a depressing situation. It shows that bad things do happen, but our heroes can take it in stride.

As one of my favorite fictional characters once said, "How we deal with death is at least as important as how we deal with life"

It is difficult for me to understand how someone can't watch an episode of their favorite show because parts of it are depressing. To me that is saying you'll only watch your favorite characters when good things happen to them. But lets face it, there were funny parts to this episode as well. Most of the first half of it. and the baby delivery scene, that was hilarious!

The episode is a drama and has a very different flavor than the rest of the series, I will give you that. It also did indeed have the soap opera lighting. But I guess I personally feel it was one of the best written episodes of the series because it was kind of dramatic yet there were jokes as well. And I feel bad when others say they don't care for it as much. I wasn't intending any offense as I said before, and I apologize if it came off that way.
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Post by ALFanatic »

melmac_alf,

No denying that this episode dealing with untimely terminal illness (child) at most inopportune time (Christmas) is sad, but I hope you can also appreciate the many positives that are also to be realized.

Life, for all of us, is brief and we should cherish every happy moment spent with family and friends, most especially duing impotant occasions like Christmas.

More than any other episode, the veneer of ALF's wise-cracking, happy-go- lucky character was removed to reveal an alien capable also of expressing sympathy, compasion and sorrow. I loved ALF long before this episode, but loved him even more due to this insight.

Also, it seems that you tend to remember too much the ending without enjoying much of the prior storyline. The episode contained numerous humoruous scenes and I am willing to bet you were outright laughing at Dr. Shumway's by-the-book delivery of a baby in hospital elevator.

I believe "ALF's Christmas Special" in some small way has helped many enjoy the Holidays with much deeper meaning.

Mike
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Post by melmac_alf »

I didn't mean anything really by my posts, I just thought the episode was sad and off of what alf was. no, mr littwack, I'm not offended. It just felt personal, I realize that you didn't mean it that way.
all in all, it's just a show and everyone has there own opinion.
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Post by ALF1986 »

Mr. Littwack.
I really enjoyed what you just said yestruday about your thoughts on the Christmas Special. That is exactly how I feel. Now granted, I prefer watch "Oh Tannerbaum" better since it is funnier then the Christmas special, I watch that first than I watch the special during the Christmas season. The Christmas does give a great message though
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Post by MR. Littwack »

Well, it's good to see I didn't -Alien-ate- anyone. Ok, sorry. Bad pun. But I am glad to see the responses to my posts aren't attacking me. I understand that everyone has their own opinion about the episode and that is great. I just felt at first as though many were kind of politely attacking one of my favorite episodes. I just wanted to point out the strong points of it as well as my own feelings. Its one of my favorites of the series. :D
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Re: alf christmas special

Post by DefLeppardVanHalen »

I loved both "Oh Tannerbaum" and "ALF's Special Christmas," however "ALF's Special Christmas" from Season 2 made a bigger impact.

"ALF's Special Christmas" was really perfect, because it mixed the usual comedy with drama, and it worked in perfection.

Although the main cast were amazing, I believe the main stars on that particular special were Cleavon Little for his portrayal of Mr. Foley, and the kid that portrayed Tiffany. Every time I watch it, it makes me cry in the end.
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Re: alf christmas special

Post by Jessica »

Yeah, it had some serious scenes, and funny ones. Just perfect!!
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Re: alf christmas special

Post by voluryn »

Beautifil episode. I like it.

what did he say in 0:01-0:07? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZp-Ml-Ieno
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Re: alf christmas special

Post by Jessica »

He said: "Taxfree funds like these, and when people get contributions, they're usually in round numbers, 100 dollars, 1000 dollars.

I think.
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Re: alf christmas special

Post by Joe Shumway »

yeah, really a great episode..one of alf best episodes ....well you already said everything about this episode. it have so emotional aspect...it was sad...funny .....with great message.....
well christmas is slowly coming so i know what i am going to watch for christmas.. :D
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Re: alf christmas special

Post by Jessica »

Same here! :D
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Re: alf christmas special

Post by Earthling »

One of the best ALF episodes ever. I'm gonna watch it this year again in december, together with my kids who like ALF as well.
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Re: alf christmas special

Post by vampirevsrobot »

It's a classic ALF episode for sure, (I also think it was the highest rated episode) but I could be wrong, I wish they Christmas episodes in season 3 & 4.
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Re: alf christmas special

Post by Ninjadragon5 »

you do make a good point, while having tv teaching kids can be both a good and bad thing,it can be a good thing when tv shows actually address some serious issues, such as death. you make a good point we can't handle the things we see on tv, we can't easily handle things in real life, but it not the whole point of TV is to escape from reality? let's say you had a really tough and depressing day at work or whatever, the last thing you would want to watch is something that makes more depressed, you want something to make you laugh to forget about the bad day you just had. but you also made a good point at having a sad emotional episode once in while in a sitcom lets the audience get to know the characters at a more deeper level.
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Re: alf christmas special

Post by ALFicionado »

vampirevsrobot wrote:It's a classic ALF episode for sure, (I also think it was the highest rated episode) but I could be wrong, I wish they Christmas episodes in season 3 & 4.
Interesting if it was the highest rated episode, I haven't heard that before. I also wish they made Christmas episodes for the third and fourth season, I'm always a sucker for those.
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