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[NOV 2016] WRESTLING PHOTO RESTART


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13 minutes ago, mattdangerously said:

Alf was a great show.  There's nothing wrong with being pro-Alf.

I haven't watched ALF in decades, and while I liked the show then as a child, I feel pretty confident the show has not aged well at all.  And that absolutely zero of these retro stations that will air pretty much anything from that time period but not ALF kinda confirms it.

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5 hours ago, PetrolCB said:

The best part about Alf was not so much the show, but how fucking miserable it was to film, according to the actors. It sounded absolutely god awful. 

Was there ever an E: True Hollywood Story on Alf? If not, there should have been. Come to think of it, E! doesn't do those anymore. My favorite one was on The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

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Re: ALF, from Wiki

Spoiler

Due to the inherent nature of producing a show featuring hand-operated puppets (à la Jim Henson's The Muppet Show), ALF was technically difficult and demanding on series creator Fusco as well as its four lead actors. All confirmed during a 2006 People magazine interview that there was high levels of tension on the set.[7] Max Wright stated that he despised supporting a technically demanding inanimate object that received most of the good lines of dialog. He admitted to being "hugely eager to have ALF over with."[7] Anne Schedeen added that on the last night of taping, "there was one take and Max walked off the set, went to his dressing room, got his bags, went to his car and disappeared... There were no goodbyes." Schedeen herself said "there was no joy on the set...it was a technical nightmare – extremely slow, hot and tedious... A 30-minute show took 20, 25 hours to shoot." While fond of her on-screen children, Schedeen said some adults had "difficult personalities. The whole thing was a big dysfunctional family." Schedeen added, "It's astonishing that ALF really was wonderful and that word never got out what a mess our set really was."[7] Andrea Elson, who suffered from bulimia during the second season of shooting, stated, "If ALF had gone one more year, everybody would have lost it."[7] Wright did later concede, though, that "It doesn't matter what I felt or what the days were like, ALF brought people a lot of joy."[7]

In reference to the tension, Fusco commented in 2012 that "It was just the nature of the beast. There was no way we could have made it go any further or any faster," he insisted. "I think it was frustrating that it would take so long, but people got paid for what they did. Despite what people thought, that there was a lot of tension on set, there really wasn't."[8]

Fusco was notoriously secretive about his character up until the series' premiere. During the show's production, Fusco refused to acknowledge that the puppet ALF was anything other than an alien. All involved with the production were cautioned not to reveal any of ALF's production secrets.

The set was built on platform raised four feet above the ground, with trap doors constructed at many points so that ALF could appear almost anywhere; Fusco operated him from underneath, so the unoccupied holes all over the floor were deep and treacherous. The trapdoors had to be reset multiple times, sometimes during a single scene. Fusco was the principal puppeteer, and used his right hand to control ALF's mouth, while the left controlled ALF's left arm. Second puppeteer Lisa Buckley assisted Fusco beneath the stage, operating ALF's right arm. There was additionally a third puppeteer, Bob Fappiano, who controlled ALF's facial and ear movements via a radio controller offscreen. During tapings, Fusco would wear a head-mounted microphone to record ALF's voice. The process resulted in numerous mistakes and retakes, making it impossible to record ALF in front of a live audience. A laugh track was added during post-production.

and 

Quote

In an interview on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Tina Fey said that her biggest frustration as producer of NBC's 75th anniversary special was dealing with ALF's "people". Fey said Fusco would only allow ALF to appear on the show if the puppeteers were hidden from everyone else. After ALF's cameo alongside former Family Ties star Michael Gross, ALF disappeared through a hole in the riser, was stuffed into a case, and immediately removed from the building.

Well damn

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4 hours ago, Tromatagon said:

Yeah the dumbshits out here taped over them to save money 

There was a big book of Napolitano photos that I had when I was a kid that had a few Blassie - Tolos action shots that were goddamn GRUESOME. I can remember thinking that Blassie had to have been banned from active competition for being too bloodthirsty, and that's why he was managing. 10 year old me didn't think about the fact that he was damn near 70, and that's why he wasn't in the ring slicing and dicing fools.

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