Fusco had been producing a series of puppet-centered
television specials that aired on
Showtime Network, many centered around the holidays, beginning in the early 1980s.
ALF Through
Bernie Brillstein Fusco met
Tom Patchett, and together they came up with the concept behind the
ALF sitcom. They pitched the idea to
NBC's
Brandon Tartikoff, who commissioned the show.
ALF began in 1986 and lasted four seasons, during which 99 episodes were produced. Fusco also created and produced two animated series for NBC:
ALF: The Animated Series and
ALF Tales. A co-production of
DIC,
Alien Productions,
Lorimar-Telepictures, and
Saban Entertainment, the cartoons portrayed Gordon Shumway (ALF) and his family in their days on Melmac prior to the planet explosion. Animated segments were hosted by the live-action ALF, who read letters from viewers and told stories about life back home.
Space Cats, a Paul Fusco-produced show in association with
Marvel Productions, also ran on NBC in the early 1990s, which was another mix of
live action puppetry and
animation. The episodes would begin with the live action puppetry where Captain Catgut (voiced by Fusco), the leader of the Spacecats, would receive a mission briefing about the trouble at hand.
Space Cats lasted one season and produced 13 episodes, being cancelled after NBC withdrew its commitment to
Saturday morning cartoons. NBC cancelled
ALF in 1990 after production wrapped for Season Four, leaving the final episode ("
Consider Me Gone") as an unresolved cliffhanger. ABC offered Fusco closure to the story arc and produced a television movie in 1996 called
Project ALF co-starring
Martin Sheen. The movie (produced by Paul Fusco Productions) saw ALF escaping from the military base where he had been held for testing, but the scientist who he thinks will help him is really plotting to expose his existence to the world on a television talk show. Between 1996 and 2001, ALF made television guest appearances including
The Cindy Margolis Show,
Talk Soup, and
Love Boat: The Next Wave. Fusco continued the trend by featuring ALF on NBC's 75th Anniversary Show and the 2003 TV Land Awards. During 2003–04, he revived his guest spot on
Hollywood Squares, and also became the "spokesalien" for phone company
10-10-220. ALF merchandise also returned with posters, figures and T-shirts. The American-Canadian DVD release of the original sitcom was the recipient of much critical and fan backlash due to distributor
Lionsgate Home Entertainment's insistence on utilizing syndicated/edited versions instead of remastering the original uncut NBC-TV broadcast versions, resulting in poor sales. The ALF renaissance led to ''
ALF's Hit Talk Show'' in 2004, created and produced by Fusco for
TV Land. The show was a mix of celebrity chat and skits filmed in front of a live audience from
Hollywood's
Sunset Boulevard and lasted eight episodes. In November 2007, ALF appeared as "TV Icon of the Week" on ''
The O'Reilly Factor. In 2016, ALF made appearances on two different television series, Mr. Robot and Young Sheldon'', one episode of each. In August 2012, Fusco confirmed that
Sony Pictures Animation had acquired the rights to
ALF and would develop the property into a
CGI-live action hybrid feature.
The Smurfs producer
Jordan Kerner would also produce the film, along with Tom Patchett and Fusco. ==Filmography==