Noiseless Chatter Archive

  ALF Reviews: Character Spotlight – Kate Tanner With four seasons and four Tanners, I thought I’d use the break between seasons to spotlight them one by one. I’d go over what makes them tick, their function within the show as a whole, and their relationships with the other characters. Here I am, however, at the end of season one, and we still don’t have any characters. The closest thing we  do  have is Kate Tanner, which is disappointing because it doesn’t leave me with much of a choice…but is also kind of nice, because I like Kate. Part of me wants to give all of the credit for this to Anne Schedeen, the actress who plays the character. And, certainly, I can (and will) give her a great deal of it. But I do have to give some credit to the writers as well. That may come as a surprise to folks who have been reading these articles for the last 26 weeks, but it’s true. Kate Tanner is the closest thing  ALF  has to a character, and that’s at least partially due to t...

Recently I had the honor of interviewing Palmer Scott , of Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! fame. As I mentioned at the time, I was hopeful that he wouldn’t be the last member of that cast that I got to speak with, as there was a wealth of fascinating individuals on that show. Michael Q. Schmidt might be the most fascinating. Not only did he make his Tim & Eric debut a few years earlier than the Awesome Show gang, but he’s also had probably the richest, most varied career as well. I was — and am — flattered that Michael took the time to speak with me, and so enthusiastically provided me with all of the images you will see in this article as well. He’s a smart man, very chatty, and up for anything, which makes him a more perfect fit for this site than I realized. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed speaking with him. LAST MINUTE ADDENDUM: Michael has actually volunteered to answer any reader questions, so don’t be shy if you have them! They ...

These glasses were made available at no cost to me in exchange for a review. Details below. I try to be pretty choosy about the products I review here. A film or book or album is always fair game, as far as I’m concerned, but products are a little hairier. As some of you know, I lost my job a couple of months ago. It was nothing personal…just some unfortunate downsizing, and the president of the company wrote me a great recommendation. Great for the ego, but bad for the wallet. As even more of you know, I’m insane…which is why I dove right into a 24/7 job hunt. I qualified for unemployment, but I didn’t want that. I knew I could do this on my own, and I figured that if I did have money coming in (however small an amount it might have been), it would reduce my incentive to find steady work. Writing this, today, I have found employment. It’s contract work, but I love it, and I hope it turns into something full time. That part might be a story for another day, thou...

  ALF Reviews: Season One, Reviewed And so we’ve come to the end of  ALF , season one. I have to admit, it was both better and worse than I remembered it being. Watching this show again is a strange experience. It’s a bit like going out and recognizing somebody you haven’t seen since high school. You say, “It’s so nice to see you again!” because it is. There’s a comforting familiarity, but the more you talk and the more you catch up, the more you realize you don’t actually remember this person. You know the name, of course. The kinds of clothes they wore or the shape of their face. But were they friendly? Were they an asshole? Were they smart? Were they funny? You have no idea. You can’t remember who their friends were, how you met, or if you had anything in common. The only thing you remember is that at some point in your life, this person was there, and while it may be nice to see them again, the fact is that that’s all they ever were to you: there. That’s been my experience...

Well, at least slightly unexpectedly, some folks out there are willing to chip in to buy me German ALF DVDs. In my last review for season one, I said this: If anyone out there is feeling generous enough to shell out for copies of the season two, three, and / or four boxsets that were released in Germany, I’ll use those for my reviews moving forward. The reason I specify the German releases is that those are the complete versions of the episodes…not the syndicated ones I’m reviewing here. All other regions, as far as I can tell, got these shorter edits. […] I’m perfectly happy to keep reviewing these as they are; I just figured I’d ask. A few folks offered to pony up to prolong my misery by several minutes per episode, culminating in commenter ERK finding this , which he says came to $66.94 after shipping. I didn’t check his math because fuck math. So I figured I’d open the flood gates here: if you would like to donate anything to buy me die komplette serie of ALF , you ...