It Must Be Said...

"ALF" rocks!

I found a copy of ALF Season 2 at a pawn shop for cheap, and I thought I would flip it... but when Karen and I watched it we laughed at almost every joke. I had forgotten how surprisingly clever it could be. It wasn't clever in the "Frasier" way, but just well written jokes performed by a talented voice actor. In fact, speaking of well-written jokes and talented voice actors, one of the first episodes we watched just happened to be written by Al Jean, who would go on to write and show-run "The Simpsons!"
In fact, there's a very Simpsons-esque joke in one of the episodes I watched, "The Boy Next Door." After waiting for a whole scene to get a piece of cake, Alf finally is offered some and makes the same "Gaaach" sound that Homer makes when he drools "Mmm...cake" or "Mmm... open-faced sand wedge" or whatever.
Also, the Tanners' next-door neighbor asks if the has any tools he can borrow. "Sure," the Tanner's dad says, "they're in your garage." That joke is similar to the running bit on the Simpsons where Homer borrows Flanders stuff without returning it.
In the other Season 2 episode credited to Jean, Alf is doing a jigsaw puzzle. One character tells him that the piece he is holding does not fit, and Alf says that it does and pounds it into the puzzle. I haven't done my homework on which Simpsons specific episode Homer pounds a piece into a puzzle, but I know he does. Are these direct-line links between the two shows? You be the judge!