With what I’m writing here… I am NOT minimizing the fact that a Hollywood great has died. A couple of days ago the diminutive actor, Michu Meszaros, passed away at the age of 76 after several years of ill health. He had various film and television roles, but most of what he is being remembered for in news stories is ALF.
With all the “viral” RIP mash-up vids and some of the articles proclaiming as such— Michu was not ALF. That is Paul Fusco.
The video above— the first eight seconds— that’s Michu Meszaros, in a full ALF suit, standing with the box over his head. And immediately thereafter is Paul Fusco’s puppeteering and voicing of ALF. That’s essentially what Michu did over about ten episodes during the life of the series which lasted four seasons. Rare occasions called for ALF to be seen in wide shots either standing, walking or even running for a few scant seconds. The biggest prominence of this was the series intro in the first couple seasons, at the end, which I’ll post below.
I best remember Michu in his role in Big Top Pee-wee where he had a few scenes, including in the finale with the late Kevin Peter Hall…
Another thing I remember is the time he had a street named after him in the late 1980s in the city of Hawthorne…
I think what’s gotten me the most is the fact that some journalists refuse to do full research, and those born in the latter half of the 90s and into the millennium haven’t as well… especially when they mock up these RIP videos of Paul Fusco’s work as ALF with a music track. And they don’t include any of Michu’s scenes.
Just my two cents.
Signed,
An ALF fan since 1986
Tommy R. Donovan 