Some people believe that after each season the ALF sitcom became less funny (perhaps they were targeting a younger audience). Just to prove or disprove this belief I have started this poll to find out which season most people prefer.
In my opinion, the quality of scripts did degenerate with the passing seasons, and was most noticeable in the latter half of Season #3 and throughout Season #4. Unfortunately, the original concept probably proved to be too confining and they likely ran out of quality ideas for storylines about a furry, little alien (ALF) who must be kept sheltered from mainstream society.
I'm definitely in agreement with you there! It was nice that they added a few characters here and there to socialize with ALF (Dorothy, Jake, Larry, etc.) but there are limits to that as well. By the end it was pretty much a "you name it ALF has done it" type of this (same thing with the Simpsons as well...but somehow they still seem to make that show funny). It would have opened up a whole new world if ALF would have met the Ochmoneks...but I'm sure the writers thought about that at one time or another and shot it down.
Even though the plots weren't as good and the humor was a little more "silly" I still enjoyed many of the fourth season episodes as well (I really liked the Sendrax episode - Willie taking the phone - the garage scene with ALF writing those letters was actually one of the funniest scenes I've ever seen on ALF).
I remember an ALF site (I think it was Rance's ALF Page but I don't remember) where they had a "Season 5" of ALF written by fans. Wonder if it still exists? I'll have to check into that and post a link if it still does.
The link provided on that page leads to a broken link unfortunately. I tried to get the information from Archive.org but the information was never stored because Rance wouldn't allow it in his robots.txt file.
Seasons one and two were very good. And I remember these two the most when they came out 20 years ago. I haven't seen seasons three or four for a long time. So I can't comment on those.
Season 2 totally rocks! As far as I am considered the very best episode of ALF is the hour long Christmas show and that was the crown jewel of Season 2. Yes, Season 1 is an excellent start--what with the tremendous-sized cockroach--but Season 2 is the bomb!
This topic needs to resurface for all the new members to chime in.
Since I haven't seen the fourth season yet (expecting it this week), I can't give my vote yet. Though from what I've heard of it, I don't think it has a chance of edging out season 1 or 2, probably not even season 3.
Speaking of which, I've always considered season 1 to be my favorite of the 3, but when I watched the episode Tonight, Tonight today, and saw all those hilarious clips from season 2, I think I may have to re-think my position on that. I'm currently going through all seasons and am giving each episode grades. I'll let you know how I rank the seasons when I'm done.