In hindsight it looks so easy. Take a furry little alien with big ears and a long snout. Give him the manners of Archie Bunker, a voice like Rodney Dangerfield’s and the wisecracking wit of a Borscht Belt comedian. Make him cuddly enough to appeal to kids but caustic enough to keep adults tuned in. Need a catchy name? How about ALF, for Alien Life Form?
That offbeat idea has become a hit prime-time series, a Saturday morning cartoon show and the hottest licensed character in the country. ALF’s creators will not have to wait for syndication to make a fortune; they are earning millions after ALF’s first season on NBC, and the ALF products boom has just begun.
The Wisecracking ALF Doll is nudging Cabbage Patch Kids off shelves. ALF, the poster, is outselling Vanna White. ALF-brand watches, greeting cards, sneakers, towels, skateboards, lunch boxes and luggage tags are flooding store shelves — more than 200 products are out already. This year alone ALF will ring up more than $250 million in retail sales.
When NBC announced its 1986-87 schedule, advertising agencies panned the show. ALF started slowly but NBC stuck with it. Like all programmers, Brandon Tartikoff plays favorites. Tartikoff believed in ALF, and what Tartikoff believes in, NBC promotes.
“We promoted ALF more heavily than any other show on our fall schedule,” says John Miller, NBC’s vice president of advertising and promotion. “Certainly in terms of creative energy ALF got the lion’s share.” Before long, NBC viewers knew what ALF was about. Network promotions showed the creature bantering with Bea Arthur, flirting with Betty White and cheering the Red Sox during last year’s World Series. ALF was showcased all over NBC’s schedule. He ate breakfast with Bryant Gumbel and hosted Friday Night Videos and the Orange Bowl parade. He picked winners on NFL ’86 and popped up repeatedly on Hollywood Squares.
ALF originator Paul Fusco and writer-producer Tom Patchett carefully cultivated ALF’s mystique. Like Big Bird and Miss Piggy, ALF always appears in character; no actor comes forward to spoil the illusion. “ALF is ALF,” Patchett has said. “He has his own personality and he can speak for himself.”
ALF’s ratings climbed slowly as kids exposed their parents to the show. Then ALF got unexpected help. When CBS pre-empted Kate & Allie to run the Fresno miniseries NBC tried a stunt. “We placed an episode of Family Ties on Monday night at 8,” NBC executive Warren Littlefield says, “and gave ALF a great lead-in.” Thanks to that one-time-only boost from the No. 2 show on TV, ALF found a new audience and won its time period for the first time. During the spring and summer, ALF consistently beat Kate & Allie; by August ALF had landed among Nielsen’s top 15 shows.
Meanwhile, producer Fusco and executive producers Patchett and publicist Bernie Brillstein — through their company Alien Productions — were reaching out for bigger money. ALF: The Movie will be shot next spring; it is expected to be released in 1989. ALF and Friends, a Saturday morning cartoon series, premiered on NBC in September.
But the big jackpot lies in licensing. Within days of NBC’s buying ALF, Brillstein was on the phone pitching his pet idea. He struck a deal with Lorimar that enlisted the studio’s licensing agent, Leisure Concepts, as ALF’s exclusive agent. (Lorimar also got international syndication rights and an option on domestic syndication.)
In July 1986 — two months before the public had laid eyes on ALF — Leisure Concepts contacted Coleco, the toy company, about producing a line of ALF dolls. Coleco offered a hefty advance plus a percentage of the wholesale revenue ALF rakes in (probably 10 percent to 20 percent). Coleco also agreed to launch an expensive ad campaign for ALF last fall — vital reinforcement for NBC’s promotion.
Coleco rushed to the stores with a plush ALF doll. This year’s Wisecracking ALF Doll spouts ALFisms such as “Gimme four,” “No problem” and “How about a hug for the Old Alfer?”
Network exposure gives ALF a big boost, but licensing is still a risky business. Successful characters such as Mickey Mouse and Snoopy ring up huge profits, but most characters burn out quickly. “Licensed products have a short life span,” says Marybeth Roach of The NPD Group, a company that tracks the licensing business. “They tend to drop off suddenly, and once they drop off they are dead.” There is nothing less salable than a warehouse full of last year’s licensed product — or this year’s “can’t miss” item that does.
Steven Weston, president of Leisure Concepts, has tried to exploit ALF while he is still hot. Licensees have pasted ALF’s face on a staggering range of products: pajamas, trading cards, board games, backpacks, calendars, comic books, toothbrushes and tricycles.
In virtually every incarnation ALF has been a hit. Last winter, a survey of toy retailers found that he was the most profitable new license of 1986; ALF now ranks fourth among all toys and games, trailing only GI Joe, Barbie and PoGo Bal. “ALF is selling at a faster rate than Cabbage Patch Kids did when they were introduced,” says Barbara Wruck of Coleco.
ALF’s cartoon series ALF and Friends creates new opportunities. It depicts ALF’s adventures back on Melmac and presents a galaxy of ALF’s companions who are ripe for their own licensing campaigns. “It is important to freshen the license,” says Sid Kaufman of Leisure Concepts. “All the best characters have a group of friends.”
Fusco worries about overexposure, which could dilute the value of his character. Fusco can veto any licensing deal and says he has turned down dozens. Rejects include cereal, powdered mayonnaise and even endorsement offers from Coke and Pepsi. “We do not want ALF to sell out,” Fusco says.
Nevertheless, the selling goes on. When letters poured in from ALF’s young viewers, Alien Productions started an ALF fan club. So far, 8,000 fans have joined at $6 each. The club’s newsletter, Extraterrestrial Times, features long blurbs for ALF-licensed products along with a convenient order form. ALF has even gone international. The show has been sold in more than 50 countries.
Kaufman says that ALF-related products will generate more than $200 million in retail sales this year — plus another $50 million overseas. If the ALF craze continues, Fusco’s brash little alien could become the most profitable character created by television. The Old Alfer recently celebrated his 230th birthday back home, but if sales figures mean anything, he is just reaching his prime.
