Ryan Reynolds Admits to an ‘Irrational Love’ for ‘ALF’ as He Brings Back Out-of-This-World ’80s Sitcom

ALF is coming back to Earth thanks to Ryan Reynolds!

The Deadpool 3 star is reviving the classic ‘80s sitcom through his Maximum Effort Channel in collaboration with ALF creator Paul Fusco and Shout! Studios. It will premiere July 29 as the channel’s first series of “Maximum Moments” — old ALF episodes will air alongside shorts promoting sponsored brands like Mint Mobile, Fubo, Hims, MNTN and Ring.

The actor, 46, said the concept was partially inspired by the fact he used to geek out over ALF when he was a kid.

“At Maximum Effort, we love taking risks and blurring the lines between shows and sponsorship because we believe both can be equally entertaining,” Reynolds said. “Besides my irrational love of ALF growing up, one of the reasons we licensed this show was precisely because Paul, Shout! Studios and our intrepid brand partners wanted to plot with us to bring ALF back to life.”

Maximum Effort’s ALF “Caturday” Marathon — the name of which is inspired by the character’s ever-thwarted hunger for felines — will include classic ALF episodes, ALF-starring shorts centered around sponsored content and Maximum Effort’s Podcats: The Pawdcast.

As part of the announcement, Reynolds posted a preview of the program. In the video, ALF and Eric — seemingly a nod to Baby Eric from the original series — discuss various products and services.

“It’s Henry again, from two blocks over,” ALF says, watching a video of a cat from his phone. “With Ring, I can see who’s at the door before I answer it. Apparently, he finds the classic ‘ding-dong ditch’ to be hilarious.”

Later in the video, ALF signs them up for Fubo — which he says is “the best of cable, the best of streaming” — and proceeds to cut all the cords in the house, including “the TV, a few lamps and the garden hose, just to be safe.”

He then turns on the TV and sees an old clip of himself from the ‘80s series. “Whoa!” he shouts. “Who is that handsome devil?!”

ALF aired on NBC from 1986 to 1990. It followed the title character — whose acronym stands for “Alien Life Form” but is actually named Gordon Shumway — after he crashed into the garage of the Tanner family’s suburban home. Puppeteer Paul Fusco, who co-created the series with Tom Patchett, was behind the iconic performance.

In 2018, Warner Bros. shared that it was in the early stages of creating a reboot. However, the plans were canceled later that same year after failing to find a home for the project. In February, Shout! Factory announced that it had acquired the rights to ALF and would be developing new related content.

ALF is available to stream now on Peacock and Amazon Prime.