John LaMotta: ALF was the "worst work I ever did"

[ALF]

Say it ain't so! In a recent desperate grab to fill in cyperspace airtime because of a slow gossip day, TMZ dug up an unreleased 20-year-old blooper reel from ALF and highlighted the fact that our furry friend was seen swearing and shouting the N-word repeatedly. I'm sure that some of you have seen the reel since it first surfaced on YouTube, but even more shocking news to me is how John LaMotta (who played Trevor Ochmonek) said that "I thought the show 'ALF' was a piece of sh*t... worst work I ever did." Here's the full story:
http://www.tmz.com/2010/12/27/alfs-n-bo ... -defend/1/

In defense of Paul Fusco, the behavior was most definitely a spoof of a then-recent episode of L.A. Law, where a man has Tourette's Syndrome.

This news saddens me, as does my recent reading up and discovering how tense the set of ALF often was. Here's a paragraph from Wikipedia:
Max Wright has stated that he despised supporting a technically demanding inanimate object that received most of the good lines of dialog. He admits to being "hugely eager to have ALF over with." Anne Schedeen has said 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." Elson, who suffered from bulimia during the second season of shooting, stated, "If ALF had gone one more year, everybody would have lost it." John LaMotta said in 2010, "I thought the show ALF was a piece of shit ... worst work I ever did." Wright would eventually reflect more kindly on ALF, saying in June 2006, "It doesn't matter what I felt or what the days were like, ALF brought people a lot of joy."

Yikes! Was anyone else aware of any of this?

[thehackercat]

I was. Yikes. I guess I wouldn't have liked the tediousness of producing the show either, but Max got it right: however much work it took, the show did bring folks a lot of joy. Which is why we're here 20-odd years later.

[Joe Shumway]

I read this before, well what can i say, the actors are not always grateful on the projects that they worked, but say something like the show was a piece of sh#t it's very inappropriate and ungratful. Yes there were tension on the set, and it was hard to do, but come on the name of the show is Alf, just Alf,,,,and as a actor you must understand that the most of good or the best lines will go to him and that is that. Also Max shouldn't leave on last day like that, but I am glad that he said on his new interviuw about Alf that Alf bring people lot of joy..

[Bring Back ALF]

That's disappointing to hear, if its true that is, I wouldnt put it past TMZ to make something up saying he said that just to make a story.
I have read some nonsense on there over the last few years!

[spanks_4]

Ok so as I was finishing up my ride on my newly acquired Alf big wheel I came across this. I had never heard anything from John Lamotta before, but the dude was a worthless slob and still is.

[thehackercat]

Ok so as I was finishing up my ride on my newly acquired Alf big wheel I came across this. I had never heard anything from John Lamotta before, but the dude was a worthless slob and still is.

Well, hey, he WAS Trevor. Maybe they casted him because his personality was conducive to the part.

[ALFicionado]

The LaMotta thing has been discussed when the news first hit about the ALF blooper reel. As for the other stuff about the show, that is very old news that has been discussed on the forum before as well.

[Bring Back ALF]

Just noticed that Alien Productions have been removing the bloopers clips on You Tube, first time I have seen that done from them.

[samstokes80]

Yeah, I just read this recently and all I have to say to the "worst work I ever did" comment would be, "What other work did you do?" Yes, he has a modest filmography on imdb, but most of them are small parts or even bit parts. The one thing that most people will be likely to care about, or even remember him for, is ALF. If you're going to say it's the "worst work I ever did," you'd better be able to say what you did that was better or in any way more significant.

[CirothUngol]

Just noticed that Alien Productions have been removing the bloopers clips on You Tube

Yea, I've just become aware of those blooper reels and can understand why Alien Productions worked so dilligently to have them eraticated from the web. They're rude, crass, insulting, and portray a poor image for everyone's favorite furry alien. I must admit... they've done a very good job of removing those bloopers from the face of the web. It took me over an hour to find them (but I did eventually find them ^_^)

[samstokes80]

I wonder who put that clip together. It looks like they were intentionally trying to emphasize the more shocking moments rather than editing together a coherent and humorous blooper reel.

[Admin]

Wonder where they got all that footage too...think he/she worked on the set?

[Alflover24/7]

Ok so as I was finishing up my ride on my newly acquired Alf big wheel I came across this. I had never heard anything from John Lamotta before, but the dude was a worthless slob and still is.

Well, hey, he WAS Trevor. Maybe they casted him because his personality was conducive to the part.

Ha ha yup

[robodog]

I don't think any of the actors ( except for the actress playing Mrs. Ochmonek ) were in much of anything beyond ALF. I've never seen most of the Tanners in anything else and I only saw Max Wright in a low budget movie the Disney Channel used to run called The Boy Who Loved Trolls. I remember it well because as a kid I thought it was weird seeing Willie in another show.

[Ninjadragon5]

I heard max wright played a minor role in the first few episodes of friends, not sure if that is true or not.

[ALFicionado]

I heard max wright played a minor role in the first few episodes of friends, not sure if that is true or not.

True. He was the manager at the coffee house they hung out at.

[Calmly Taken Flame]

Does anyone know how John LaMotta is now ? Hope he`s doing well, and living a good life !

The comments don`t bother me, I enjoyed his character, and would have liked to see more of him and Raquel, and playing
on them never actually meeting ALF, and always being so close ! A shame we`ll never get to see ALF & Trevor, eating pizza
and watching a ball game !

The comments could have been anything, he might have got a call to say they want to interview him about ALF, and not wanting
to spend all day answering questions, he might have greeted the interviewer by saying what he did, to try and keep it short !

They could have said "ALF was a terrible show, what were you thinking ??" And he made a joking reply in the same manner !

I`ve bumped into people that I really don`t want to talk to, and knowing there are certain things that trigger them, I`ll just blurt
out a comment, that I know will annoy them inside, and sure enough, they`ll say their goodbyes and move on. Works every time !

It could even be, that he never said them, and they were added just to be spiteful to him, who`s going to believe John LaMotta
over tmz or any of the other rags that churn out this garbage, and who always tell the truth, and never lie.

If he`s still living well, and maybe even reads these boards, then maybe, like Max Wright, he might have grown to see ALF differently
to how he did 20 years ago, and appreciate his time on the show.

Or maybe he did truly hate the show, and has never changed his mind on that.

If someone could ask him, or know how to contact him, that would be awesome.

Unless he says something even worse, in which case, shhhhh ! we don`t want to know !

[AlfAlfa_26]

What's strange about LaMotta is that some internet sites are declaring him dead, while others list him as still alive. For example, depending on in which language you read Wikipedia, he his dead in some language versions, and alive in others...

[ALF]

I had no idea he had passed, let alone 10 years ago! It looks like it's probably true, even though there aren't a lot of details about his death: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/216 ... hn-lamotta

He wasn't exactly famous, so I'm not surprised there's not a whole lot out there about his death (though I would expect to find at least an obituary online if he had passed as recently as 2014). Still, the fact that he's still listed as deceased on those sites after 10 years and nobody has corrected them probably means he is no longer with us.

Regardless of his later comments about the show, he played Trevor Ochmonek perfectly and added a lot to the cast. He'll be missed.

[AlfAlfa_26]

Regardless of his later comments about the show, he played Trevor Ochmonek perfectly and added a lot to the cast. He'll be missed.

Well said!