Do you consider The Animated Series canon?

[ALFicionado]

The Animated Series, as most of you know, takes place before Gordon Shumway becomes ALF, meaning before he crashed in the Tanners garage. Do you consider these stories told on The Animated Series to be canon or do you only think about the sitcom as true ALF-canon?

[ALFanatic]

AxelFoley.

Think you are stretching the definition of the word, "canon", but getting gist of your question, I believe the Animated Series pales in comparison to the importance of the ALF TV Series.

Mike

[ALFicionado]

Well, by "canon" I basically mean if the viewers think it's a part of ALF's history. If it happened in TAS, it belongs to his character, so to speak.

[Gordo]

The Animated Series, as most of you know, takes place before Gordon Shumway becomes ALF, meaning before he crashed in the Tanners garage. Do you consider these stories told on The Animated Series to be canon or do you only think about the sitcom as true ALF-canon?

I think it and the comics could be loosely considered canon - i don't think the writers were sticking rigidly to any ALF history tho, it was more about coming up with fun stories. There are fans who dicovered ALF via the animation, and others who just stuck to the sitcom - depend who you ask i guess, lol

[ALFan]

I have been wondering the same thing and wanted to post this question,but didn't know how to word it.Therefore, I am glad you posted it.Personally,I all I want to watch is the sitcom.So like stated,it is just personal opinion.
P.S. I do not consider it important to know.

[BountyHunter]

I do. Why? Because there is no reason not to. If they ever make that new ALF movie that takes place before the TV series and something in it contradicts stuff in the Animated series, then I may not consider it canon anymore.

But I'm assuming the new movie (if it ever gets made) will probably take place after the animated series and before the sitcom, so hopefully nothing will be contradicted.

[Gordo]

I do. Why? Because there is no reason not to. If they ever make that new ALF movie that takes place before the TV series and something in it contradicts stuff in the Animated series, then I may not consider it canon anymore.

But I'm assuming the new movie (if it ever gets made) will probably take place after the animated series and before the sitcom, so hopefully nothing will be contradicted.

There may well have been contradictions between the comics and the cartoon. I think they repeated the whole "H.A.L.F" thing in the comics and expanded on it. Maybe some ideas for one came from the other.

I'd really like to see the full series of each cartoon on DVD. Its the only ALF thing not now released, apart from specials.

[samstokes80]

This is a tough question. Unfortunately, the cartoon is very inconsistent with the TV show as far as any sort of historical continuity, but on the other hand, the ALF TV series had plenty of internal inconsistencies within itself. To reconcile this, I have taken the viewpoint that the ALF animated series is simply ALF's retelling of the events to the best of his memory, keeping in mind that in his 230s, some of the details might be a little fuzzy and there may be a little historical mishmashing with the correct order of various events.

[Briwhit1]

I think It was a welcome change. Because even though the show was a big hit, I think we needed a " Backstory" of how alf was on Malmac.
& the cartoons provided that. Plus at that time it seemed like every year the network was testing the waters for popular Cartoon series and Alf fit the bill.

[gav69]

I found this site selling original hand painted A.L.F. production cels & illustrations actually used in the making of the cartoon series. check them out at http://www.animationvalley.co.uk

[ALFreak]

I found this site selling original hand painted A.L.F. production cels & illustrations actually used in the making of the cartoon series. check them out at http://www.animationvalley.co.uk

wow, that's awesome! Do they ship to the U.S.?

[ILoveALF]

Yes, I do think that it's considered canon.

[Ninjadragon5]

yes, I think it could be considered canon too because it does counteract a lot of things that were mention in the sitcom and the idea of it is mostly based off Alf's memories. that is why I'm taking a lot of liberty with my fanfic.

[ALFreak]

I think it's cannon, but I do agree that parts of it were probably mixed up by ALF's memory. It's too bad there wasn't a finale episode about the big Melmacian nuclear explosion, but I guess it would have been too shocking and sad for the target audience. The episode could have ended with ALF crashing into the Tanner's garage, setting the stage for the Sitcom.

[Ninjadragon5]

yeah, kind of a shame the cartoon series did not last that long, it still left a lot of things unanswered. but yeah, an episode showing his planet explode might be too sad for younger audiences.

[robodog]

That's kind of my problem with the series. As a kid I never thought much about this. I just enjoyed the cartoon because I loved Alf. Once I got older the fridge horror of the animated series hit me. Most of the characters you see on the cartoon are doomed. They're going to die in a horrific planetwide explosion at some point. I'm not sure how much I'd enjoy the cartoon now because that would always be at the back of my mind.

[Ninjadragon5]

yes. the horrible reality that most of all the characters in it are going to die in the future does make it hard to watch sometimes, but later in the sitcom we find out rhonda and skip survived some how, so it makes me think that maybe not all of them died in the explosion, that a handful manged to escape.

[robodog]

That's probably true. I'm sure quite a few managed to escape in ships. And chances are good there were quite a few Melmacians off planet when the explosion happened. At least that's what I like to think.

[Ninjadragon5]

yeah, I mean if ALF had a spaceship, I'm pretty sure everyone on melmac did, so they probably knew a lot about space travel to other planets.

[ALFreak]

yes. the horrible reality that most of all the characters in it are going to die in the future does make it hard to watch sometimes, but later in the sitcom we find out rhonda and skip survived some how, so it makes me think that maybe not all of them died in the explosion, that a handful manged to escape.

This really put's ALF's situation in full perspective. Having a whole bunch of friends, family, neighbors, and more surrounding you one day, and the next day-nothing.