Ryan Reynolds Is Bringing ‘ALF’ Back to TV

He’s fuzzy, he’s an alien, his name is an acronym, and now he is coming back to Earth. That’s right, ALF, of Alien Life Form, the late 1980s sitcom icon, is coming to the world of streaming and be warned, he’s selling products. The beloved alien-puppet is going to be brought back to life for a series of branded segments to be included in Ryan Reynolds‘ Maximum Effort Channel.

Reynolds’ Maximum Effort channel is available on streaming platforms such as Fubo, Amazon’s Freevee, and Tubi. Maximum Efforts has acquired the rights to the iconic 1980s sitcom, which centers on a family that takes in a fuzzy, cat-eating alien. Maximum Effort will air episodes of the series while also inserting new sponsored segments into the episodes, which will be called “Maximum Moments”. Maximum Effort worked with ALF’s creator Paul Fusco and Shout! studios to create the sponsored segments.

A Fuzzy Alien…and Salesman?

The segments will promote such products as Mint Mobile, a company that was owned by Reynolds’ before he sold to T-Mobile. ALF will also be hawking Ring doorbells, HMS, and Fubo, among other products and services. The sponsored inserts will begin airing when ALF premiered on Maximum Effort on July 29, 2023. The event will be marked with an ALF marathon to be called “Caturday”, in honor of ALF’s habits of eating felines.

Of the new venture, Reynolds said, “[a]t Maximum Effort, we love taking risks and blurring the lines between shows and sponsorship because we believe both can be equally entertaining.” He continued, noting”[b]esides 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. Tune in this Caturday!”

It is certainly an interesting choice, to blend advertisement and content in such a seamless way. Altering a nearly 40-year-old series to advertise such products as video doorbells and cellphone companies is, well, not exactly an obvious choice. But maybe that’s what The Maximum Effort Channel is going for. The channel launched in June. The channel features some content created by Reynolds himself, including a series in which he reads bedtime stories to viewers. The choice to incorporate a classic series into a new channel is not a particularly new idea, however, the addition of original, and sponsored content into said series is, at the very least, novel.

You can catch ALF on THe Maximum Effort Channel this Saturday, July 29, 2023, during its premier all-day marathon.