|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
ALF is a 30-minute television sitcom that originally ran on NBC from 1986 to 1990. The plot involves the title character Gordon Shumway, an alien nicknamed A.L.F. or (Alien Life Form) portrayed by Paul Fusco and Michu Meszaros, who crash lands in the garage of the suburban middle class Tanner family. The series starred Max Wright as father Willie Tanner, Anne Schedeen as mother Kate Tanner, and Andrea Elson and Benji Gregory Hertzberg as their two children Lynn and Brian Tanner.
Gordon Shumway is an alien nicknamed A.L.F or (Alien Life Form). ALF was born on October 28, 1756, though he mentions that his birthday is in August in Episode 7 ("Help Me Rhonda") on the Lower East Side of the planet Melmac. The planet Melmac was located six parsecs past the Hydra-Centaurus Supercluster and had a green sky, blue grass and a purple sun. The commonly-used currency is "Foam".
ALF's body is covered with orange fur. He has a rippled snout, facial moles, eight stomachs, and he likes to eat cats.
The earliest toys were made from materials found in nature, such as rocks, sticks, and clay. Thousands of years ago, Egyptian children played with dolls that had wigs and movable limbs which were made from stone, pottery, and wood. In Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, children played with dolls made of wax or terra cotta, sticks, bows and arrows, and yo-yos. When Greek children, especially girls, came of age it was customary for them to sacrifice the toys of their childhood to the gods. On the eve of their wedding, young girls around fourteen would offer their dolls in a temple as a rite of passage into adulthood.
As technology changed and civilization progressed, toys also changed. Whereas ancient toys were made from materials found in nature like stone, wood, and grass modern toys are often made from plastic, cloth, and synthentic materials. Ancient toys were often made by the parents and family of the children who used them, or by the children themselves. Modern toys, in contrast, are often mass-produced and sold in stores.
This change in the nature of toys is exemplified by the changes that have taken place in one of the oldest and most universal of human toys; dolls. The earliest and most primitive dolls were simple wooden carvings and bundles of grass. Egyptian dolls were sometimes jointed so that their limbs could move realistically. By the early 1800s there were dolls that could say "mama". Today there are dolls that can recognize and identify objects, the voice of their owner, and choose among hundreds of pre-programed phrases with which to respond. The materials that toys are made from have changed, what toys can do has changed, but the fact that children play with toys has not changed.
