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Wild Thing is the nineteenth episode of ALF's first season.
It originally aired on March 2, 1987. The picture is Brian in the cage.
Synopsis[]
Prologue[]
ALF is trying to teach himself telepathy. Brian keeps thinking of a fork but ALF is unable to know this. He puts on some trick X-ray glasses and Leers at Kate
Act One[]
Alf gathers the family into the living room to make an announcement: Every 75 years on March 2, (which is the next day) ALF goes through a day (sunset to sunrise) of bizarre physiological and psychological transformation in which he will do anything to get his hands on a cat. He warns Willie that he will need to have build him a cage with reinforced sides. Willie is in the garage building ALF the cage. ALF comes in and shows Willie pictures of the last cage he used. Trevor Ochmonek, starts to approach singing "The Lady is a Tramp" and ALF hides inside the cage. Willie joins the song, and then Trevor asks if the cage is for a monkey. Willie then asks Trevor if he and Raquel can petsit Lucky. Raquel is allergic so Trevor plans to have her sleep in another room.
That night ALF prepares to be put in the cage along with his pillow, owl costume, hash-brown potatoes, and Danish postcards.
ALF goes into the cage warning that he is not to be let out under any circumstances. Once locked in ALF tries to trick his way out of the cage, doing spot on impressions of Brian and Lynn, to which the family rejects as another trick. When Brian gets up in the middle of the night for some milk, ALF tricks Brian into letting him out of his cage, and ALF locks Brian in it.
Act Two[]
Brian's screams to be let out wake the family. When they run into the family room and see Brian they wonder if ALF can change his shape. To confirm his identity, Willie asks Brian his mother's maiden name (although, by this point ALF had met Kate's mother Dorothy Halligan and even confirmed her last name during his phony seance). Willie runs over to the Ochmoneks house to see if ALF went over to find Lucky. ALF is in their kitchen and opens a can of minestrone soup, then walks out with toaster which Willie takes, ALF runs out of the house and takes their riding mower
They listen to the police scanner to track where ALF may have been seen, and they hear reports of a treed cat, a break-in at a pet shop and a missing tiger at the zoo. Kate and Lynn go out drive around looking for ALF but they do not find him, but they did find the Ochmonek's riding mower with a bonsai tree stuck in the blades. He eventually returns, possibly because he was practicing mental telepathy with Brian, who was thinking of a fork to lead ALF back home. When ALF arrives, he asks, "Do you good people have a fork?" ALF starts compulsively quotes people, which is the final stage of his transformation.
Epilogue[]
ALF and Willie are in the kitchen, and ALF is finishing up the end of his final phase. ALF tells Willie he doubts he managed to eat any cats during his transformation, but has a hazy memory of storing something in the garage. When ALF and Willie go to check, they find the tiger that was reported missing from the zoo. Willie says he will return the tiger after breakfast
Background information[]
Production history[]
- Premiere airdate: March 2, 1987
- Production number: 1018
Trivia[]
- One of the quotes ALF repeats "It ill becomes us to jest at the spectacle of a fallen potentate, and still less so before he has fallen." is from the novel "The Human Boy and the War" by Eden Phillpotts. The quote is from a schoolteacher who admonishes his students for laughing at a poem about anticipating the German kaiser's downfall when losing the then-ongoing First World War. Phillpotts is best known for his play, "The Farmer's Wife" which was made into a silent romantic comedy film directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
- While talking about Raquel and her sisters' allergy to cats, Trevor reveals her maiden name to be Pitzer.
Title Reference[]
- "Wild Thing" is a song by Chip Taylor. The 1966 cover by The Troggs reached no. 1 on the Billboard Chart.