On this day in 1986, ALF crash-landed on Earth and captured the hearts of millions. Debuting in prime time on NBC Monday in September of that year, ALF would find his biggest fan in one of the biggest stars on our planet — Prince.
Around the world, fans of the late Prince Rogers Nelson have mourned the legend’s death since 2016, but one light in the darkness has been the promise of previously unheard material unleashed from the infamous “Vault” — Prince’s mythical and vast catalogue of unreleased songs and music videos. Originally began as an effort to surreptitiously hide material from Warner Bros., his label at the time, the Vault became synonymous with content the incredibly prolific artist deemed either not worthy or ready to be released to the public.
Recently, Prince’s sister Tyka Nelson, and half-siblings, Sharon, Norrine, and John Nelson, Jr., the executors of Prince’s estate, have delighted fans by piecing out various tracks and videos in the wake of the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer’s death. They’ve only scratched the surface of what’s to come, but perhaps the strangest revelation so far is an aborted collaboration with another 80s breakout star: none other than TV’s ALF.
ALF, created by puppeteer and voice-over artist Paul Fusco (who also voiced the titular character), ran for four seasons on NBC between 1986 and 1990. While initially a ratings and pop culture juggernaut, it was cancelled after its final season before receiving a poorly reviewed movie-length epilogue episode, Project: ALF, several years later — sadly, long after most viewers had moved on. Its eponymous protagonist was a furry, hard-partying refugee from the doomed planet Melmac, who took shelter in the suburban home of the Tanners, an American nuclear family in the Reagan-era 1980s.
While not immediately available for release, Sharon Nelson teased the project’s origins in this exclusive interview: “Prince never really watched too much TV, but caught ALF fever early on. Everybody loved ALF when it first started, but Prince really loved ALF. He taped every episode. He spray-painted each one gold and wrote the episode title purple nail polish.”
Prince, like millions of viewers across the globe, instantly fell in love with the cat-eating extraterrestrial prankster, but was especially moved by the first season episode, “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue?” in which ALF (an acronym for “alien life form”), née Gordon Shumway, writes and records a love song for Lynn Tanner, the teenage daughter of his human hosts, as well as shooting an accompanying music video in the Tanner family garage.
As guitarist Wendy Melvoin recalls, “Prince got really emotional after the episode from the week before, the one where ALF gets really lonely and tries to call his ex-girlfriend, Rhonda, in outer space because he’s hung up on that stupid Beach Boys song, ‘Help Me, Rhonda.’ Prince couldn’t keep his shit together that night and sent us all home early. We didn’t hear from him for about a week. Driving his motorcycle and purifying himself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka or something, right? A lot of his songs are about, like, missing people, like, this huge sense of longing and distance, and I think he related to that. So when he saw that next one, the one where ALF writes the song for the human girl, his mind was like, completely blown all over again.” Keyboardist Lisa Coleman added, “I think ALF’s song reminded him of ‘Delirious.’ Like, go compare the lyrics and song structure and get back to me.”
“Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue?” aired on November 17, 1986. The resulting video, “You’re the One Who’s Out of This World,” became a pre-internet viral sensation, even receiving play on MTV, plus the syndicated music video platform Night Flight, as well as NBC’s own Friday Night Videos. The song itself, with lyrics written by Tom Pratchett and music by the show’s composer, the appropriately named Alf Clausen, received its own top-selling 7” 45 pressing, with the theme from ALF (written by Clausen and Tom Kramer) as a B-side.
“Prince immediately wanted to cover the track and work with ALF,” says drummer Bobby Z. “He felt like it was something he should have written and reached out to Paul Fusco and NBC, but merchandising rights between Prince and the ALF people prevented a team-up. The whole thing died on the vine.”
Re-recorded with The Revolution and retitled “U R the 1”, Prince personally directed a shot-by-shot remake of the video to pitch the network about a possible duet, but was immediately met with a cease-and-desist letter by NBC. The track and the video have subsequently never been heard or seen, but that may soon change.
Known in the 1980s for romancing a steady string of the era’s most stunning women, including Batman beauty Kim Basinger, Sherilyn Fenn of Twin Peaks, Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles (for whom he wrote the band’s #2 hit “Manic Monday”), and Madonna, Prince, like ALF, similarly fell for and briefly dated Andrea Elson, the actress who played the hirsute alien’s unrequited crush, Lynn Tanner — eleven years his junior. Elson, now a licensed yoga instructor in Bangor, Maine, says, “He was incredible — sweet and charming and goofy. But looking back, I think he wanted to somehow live, not vicariously through ALF, but the other way around — like he wanted to make ALF’s fantasies about Lynn real through him with me. When he played me his version of ALF’s song, I thought he’d really written it for me.” Prince was 28 at the time of recording “U R the 1.” Minnesota age of consent is 16.
Despite being exiled to the Vault, rumors have persisted for years that “U R the 1” was not the one and only collaboration between Prince and ALF.
Aired on February 16, 1996 by ABC, just two days after Prince’s Valentine’s Day wedding to dancer Mayte Garcia, Project: ALF was a made-for-TV movie meant to wrap up the original series’ shocking cliffhanger, wherein ALF is abducted by the military, presumably for experimentation. Some claim that this timing is no mere coincidence.
Halfway through the TV special, a road trip montage featuring a newly escaped ALF riding through the desert in a pink Cadillac convertible is accompanied by a suspiciously Prince-sounding tune called “Just Wanna Drive,” credited on imdb.com to “The JL Band.” Although the unidentified singer is obviously not Prince, the song does bear a few of the Purple One’s hallmarks when in full-on classic rock mode. Despite a lengthy Internet search, no information is available about “The JL Band,” which has led to speculation amongst die-hard fans that Prince actually wrote, composed, and produced the track, but was forced by contractual circumstances to use a band of professional ringers to complete the final product. Prince’s ex-wife, Garcia, seems to confirm these rumors, explaining, “Prince was excited to hear about the new ALF movie and somehow managed to get a copy of the rough cut. He wrote and recorded “Just Wanna Drive” in one day. Everyone was excited about it — except Warner Bros.” Indeed, Prince’s controversial, decade-plus contract with Warner Bros. was finally set to expire following the release of the Chaos and Disorder LP that July, and rather than let the track fall into the hands of the label, Prince chose out of spite to give away his writing credits and hire a group of studio musicians instead.
“Prince wanted one last chance to do the ALF thing, but the timing was off by a couple months. And he wanted the song to air as a combined wedding and Valentine’s present to the both of us. He was disappointed it wasn’t his voice, but he was still happy he’d managed to sneak it in somehow and finally be a part of ALF,” said an emotional Ms. Garcia, whose memoir, “The Most Beautiful: My Life With Prince,” was released in 2017. The Project: ALF incident is not mentioned in the manuscript. “The JL Band” could not be reached for comment. The final owner of the rights to “Just Wanna Drive” remains unknown.
No release date has been given for the debut of “U R the 1,” but experts at both Christie’s and Sotheby’s auction houses have confirmed that Prince owned the most comprehensive collection of ALF memorabilia in the world, from plush dolls and trading cards to T-shirts and DVD box-sets. Prince’s personal VHS tapes of the series have yet to be appraised, but are expected to raise unprecedented bidding offers from music collectors.
It was no secret that Prince’s tumultuous relationship with his father, jazz musician John Nelson, Sr., was the inspiration for the plot of the smash hit film Purple Rain, but watching ALF together helped them forgive and forget. Sharon Nelson remembered that, “Every week, before practice, when the show was on, Prince would have Pop picked up in a limousine and driven to Paisley Park. Prince would cook something up and they’d watch it together before the band got there — just father and son time, you know? It was a special part of his routine. After the show was over, they would jam a little bit, and that eventually became the score for Under The Cherry Moon, and then the soundtrack album for the movie, Parade. It reminded me of how Willie, the dad on the show, and ALF would butt heads for a while, but always came together in the end. If you watch it, remember that Willie tries to help ALF write the music to ALF’s lyrics, even suggesting different keys, but ALF has to do it his own way. Prince and Pop, and ALF and Willie were kind of like that, and I think they saw that, too, and it was a big part of their healing.”
When asked for clarification on the star’s obsession with the wise-cracking alien, Ms. Nelson offered: “I guess Prince related to ALF on a few levels. They were both musically gifted outsiders who couldn’t interact with the outside world for fear of being tortured by the government. They were both very funny and secretly generous and entirely misunderstood. I always used to joke that they were both short and hairy, too. In terms of originality, our father used to joke that Prince must have come from the planet right next to Melmac.”
###
On this day in 1986, ALF crash-landed on Earth and captured the hearts of millions. Debuting in prime time on NBC Monday in September of that year, ALF would find his biggest fan in one of the biggest stars on our planet — Prince.
Around the world, fans of the late Prince Rogers Nelson have mourned the legend’s death since 2016, but one light in the darkness has been the promise of previously unheard material unleashed from the infamous “Vault” — Prince’s mythical and vast catalogue of unreleased songs and music videos. Originally began as an effort to surreptitiously hide material from Warner Bros., his label at the time, the Vault became synonymous with content the incredibly prolific artist deemed either not worthy or ready to be released to the public.
Recently, Prince’s sister Tyka Nelson, and half-siblings, Sharon, Norrine, and John Nelson, Jr., the executors of Prince’s estate, have delighted fans by piecing out various tracks and videos in the wake of the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer’s death. They’ve only scratched the surface of what’s to come, but perhaps the strangest revelation so far is an aborted collaboration with another 80s breakout star: none other than TV’s ALF.
ALF, created by puppeteer and voice-over artist Paul Fusco (who also voiced the titular character), ran for four seasons on NBC between 1986 and 1990. While initially a ratings and pop culture juggernaut, it was cancelled after its final season before receiving a poorly reviewed movie-length epilogue episode, Project: ALF, several years later — sadly, long after most viewers had moved on. Its eponymous protagonist was a furry, hard-partying refugee from the doomed planet Melmac, who took shelter in the suburban home of the Tanners, an American nuclear family in the Reagan-era 1980s.
While not immediately available for release, Sharon Nelson teased the project’s origins in this exclusive interview: “Prince never really watched too much TV, but caught ALF fever early on. Everybody loved ALF when it first started, but Prince really loved ALF. He taped every episode. He spray-painted each one gold and wrote the episode title purple nail polish.”
Prince, like millions of viewers across the globe, instantly fell in love with the cat-eating extraterrestrial prankster, but was especially moved by the first season episode, “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue?” in which ALF (an acronym for “alien life form”), née Gordon Shumway, writes and records a love song for Lynn Tanner, the teenage daughter of his human hosts, as well as shooting an accompanying music video in the Tanner family garage.
As guitarist Wendy Melvoin recalls, “Prince got really emotional after the episode from the week before, the one where ALF gets really lonely and tries to call his ex-girlfriend, Rhonda, in outer space because he’s hung up on that stupid Beach Boys song, ‘Help Me, Rhonda.’ Prince couldn’t keep his shit together that night and sent us all home early. We didn’t hear from him for about a week. Driving his motorcycle and purifying himself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka or something, right? A lot of his songs are about, like, missing people, like, this huge sense of longing and distance, and I think he related to that. So when he saw that next one, the one where ALF writes the song for the human girl, his mind was like, completely blown all over again.” Keyboardist Lisa Coleman added, “I think ALF’s song reminded him of ‘Delirious.’ Like, go compare the lyrics and song structure and get back to me.”
“Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue?” aired on November 17, 1986. The resulting video, “You’re the One Who’s Out of This World,” became a pre-internet viral sensation, even receiving play on MTV, plus the syndicated music video platform Night Flight, as well as NBC’s own Friday Night Videos. The song itself, with lyrics written by Tom Pratchett and music by the show’s composer, the appropriately named Alf Clausen, received its own top-selling 7” 45 pressing, with the theme from ALF (written by Clausen and Tom Kramer) as a B-side.
“Prince immediately wanted to cover the track and work with ALF,” says drummer Bobby Z. “He felt like it was something he should have written and reached out to Paul Fusco and NBC, but merchandising rights between Prince and the ALF people prevented a team-up. The whole thing died on the vine.”
Re-recorded with The Revolution and retitled “U R the 1”, Prince personally directed a shot-by-shot remake of the video to pitch the network about a possible duet, but was immediately met with a cease-and-desist letter by NBC. The track and the video have subsequently never been heard or seen, but that may soon change.
Known in the 1980s for romancing a steady string of the era’s most stunning women, including Batman beauty Kim Basinger, Sherilyn Fenn of Twin Peaks, Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles (for whom he wrote the band’s #2 hit “Manic Monday”), and Madonna, Prince, like ALF, similarly fell for and briefly dated Andrea Elson, the actress who played the hirsute alien’s unrequited crush, Lynn Tanner — eleven years his junior. Elson, now a licensed yoga instructor in Bangor, Maine, says, “He was incredible — sweet and charming and goofy. But looking back, I think he wanted to somehow live, not vicariously through ALF, but the other way around — like he wanted to make ALF’s fantasies about Lynn real through him with me. When he played me his version of ALF’s song, I thought he’d really written it for me.” Prince was 28 at the time of recording “U R the 1.” Minnesota age of consent is 16.
Despite being exiled to the Vault, rumors have persisted for years that “U R the 1” was not the one and only collaboration between Prince and ALF.
Aired on February 16, 1996 by ABC, just two days after Prince’s Valentine’s Day wedding to dancer Mayte Garcia, Project: ALF was a made-for-TV movie meant to wrap up the original series’ shocking cliffhanger, wherein ALF is abducted by the military, presumably for experimentation. Some claim that this timing is no mere coincidence.
Halfway through the TV special, a road trip montage featuring a newly escaped ALF riding through the desert in a pink Cadillac convertible is accompanied by a suspiciously Prince-sounding tune called “Just Wanna Drive,” credited on imdb.com to “The JL Band.” Although the unidentified singer is obviously not Prince, the song does bear a few of the Purple One’s hallmarks when in full-on classic rock mode. Despite a lengthy Internet search, no information is available about “The JL Band,” which has led to speculation amongst die-hard fans that Prince actually wrote, composed, and produced the track, but was forced by contractual circumstances to use a band of professional ringers to complete the final product. Prince’s ex-wife, Garcia, seems to confirm these rumors, explaining, “Prince was excited to hear about the new ALF movie and somehow managed to get a copy of the rough cut. He wrote and recorded “Just Wanna Drive” in one day. Everyone was excited about it — except Warner Bros.” Indeed, Prince’s controversial, decade-plus contract with Warner Bros. was finally set to expire following the release of the Chaos and Disorder LP that July, and rather than let the track fall into the hands of the label, Prince chose out of spite to give away his writing credits and hire a group of studio musicians instead.
“Prince wanted one last chance to do the ALF thing, but the timing was off by a couple months. And he wanted the song to air as a combined wedding and Valentine’s present to the both of us. He was disappointed it wasn’t his voice, but he was still happy he’d managed to sneak it in somehow and finally be a part of ALF,” said an emotional Ms. Garcia, whose memoir, “The Most Beautiful: My Life With Prince,” was released in 2017. The Project: ALF incident is not mentioned in the manuscript. “The JL Band” could not be reached for comment. The final owner of the rights to “Just Wanna Drive” remains unknown.
No release date has been given for the debut of “U R the 1,” but experts at both Christie’s and Sotheby’s auction houses have confirmed that Prince owned the most comprehensive collection of ALF memorabilia in the world, from plush dolls and trading cards to T-shirts and DVD box-sets. Prince’s personal VHS tapes of the series have yet to be appraised, but are expected to raise unprecedented bidding offers from music collectors.
It was no secret that Prince’s tumultuous relationship with his father, jazz musician John Nelson, Sr., was the inspiration for the plot of the smash hit film Purple Rain, but watching ALF together helped them forgive and forget. Sharon Nelson remembered that, “Every week, before practice, when the show was on, Prince would have Pop picked up in a limousine and driven to Paisley Park. Prince would cook something up and they’d watch it together before the band got there — just father and son time, you know? It was a special part of his routine. After the show was over, they would jam a little bit, and that eventually became the score for Under The Cherry Moon, and then the soundtrack album for the movie, Parade. It reminded me of how Willie, the dad on the show, and ALF would butt heads for a while, but always came together in the end. If you watch it, remember that Willie tries to help ALF write the music to ALF’s lyrics, even suggesting different keys, but ALF has to do it his own way. Prince and Pop, and ALF and Willie were kind of like that, and I think they saw that, too, and it was a big part of their healing.”
When asked for clarification on the star’s obsession with the wise-cracking alien, Ms. Nelson offered: “I guess Prince related to ALF on a few levels. They were both musically gifted outsiders who couldn’t interact with the outside world for fear of being tortured by the government. They were both very funny and secretly generous and entirely misunderstood. I always used to joke that they were both short and hairy, too. In terms of originality, our father used to joke that Prince must have come from the planet right next to Melmac.”
###
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