This is probably going to be a really deep cut for the younger readers, though there was that strange resurgence in Mr. Robot but that’s another thing entirely.
Andrea Elson was known for her work on Alf, which is distinguishable for having what is probably the darkest possible ending for a comedy about an alien puppet. We’re talking about Andrea Elson first though, so we’ll get there.
Originally born and raised in New York City starting in March of 1969, Andrea Elson would be the youngest of two daughters and pick up on her love of acting almost immediately with a role as Alice in a school production of Alice in Wonderland.
Her family would move to San Diego briefly, before eventually relocating to Los Angeles where she would find success as a young model and eventually actress.
Time’s Whizzin’ By
After a few commercials and local ads, Andrea would be one of the young teens cast in the show Whiz Kids, about a crime-solving group of very intelligent kids and a talking computer which… is not such a far-off and whimsical possibility these days.
Weird how times evolve. Unfortunately, Whiz Kids wouldn’t get a chance to evolve and be canceled instead after one season, leading Andrea Elson to another massive sitcom role that’s much more plausible by today’s standards of real life.
The writers for Humanity kind of told their whole plot with the “averting Y2k” thing and we’ve been floundering since.
Andrea became Lynn Tanner, the typical teenage daughter with attitude on the sitcom Alf in 1986.
The sitcom would see the Tanner family take in extraterrestrial Alf, an alien with a particular fondness for eating cats and an, unfortunately, dropped alcohol tendency early in the series.
While it might seem like it was probably an easy enough show to make, it was in fact a shitshow of massive proportions that would become legendary even by NBC standards.
That’s Alf’d Up
This series led to massive meltdowns from some of the actors involved, including Max Wright who played family patriarch Willie Tanner who seemingly had it the worst.
While Anna Schedeen and the kid actors including Andrea mostly had complaints about falling into the puppeteer trenches or just general set hazards with everything Alf involved, Max went old school and threw hands with a goddamn puppet.
Not even because of the set hazards. Nope, he was upset because the puppet got the best lines and he was tired of playing support to Alf.
Like I understand wanting to have your moment to shine but my dude, you signed up for a show about an alien that eats cats played by a puppet that looked like a half-aborted aardvark. Chill, man. It’s not worth punching some dude’s left hand in a glorified sock over.
She would star in the show alongside Max Wright, Anne Schedeen and Benji Gregory.
Blissful, Alien Free Existence
(photo)
Anyway, Andrea got free of that mess when Alf was used as the test run for Community twenty years later when NBC edged fans into a cliffhanger about the alien’s fate after being captured by malicious government entities.
Damn, it really is plausible by today’s standards. Either way, the show was canceled after the writers attempted to use the cliffhanger and guarantee another season, but it was all for nothing as the NBC machine crushes all hopes with indifference to dreams.
Andrea Elson would bounce around other sitcoms and dramas on television through the nineties, making appearances on everything from Parker Lewis Can’t Lose as she descended to the unfortunate place of ‘Girl #1’ in Men Behaving Badly.
That’s not a great trajectory over the seven years since Alf, but in the meantime she found love for herself and had her own little family, welcoming a daughter the same year she left acting in 1997.
Today she lives a carefree lifestyle as a wife and mother, running her own yoga studio and living happily with husband and former Alf set manager Scott Hopper, who she married in 1993.
While she’s quiet on most social media and hasn’t updated her blog or made a television appearance in years, it’s probably for her own good as the world is sort of on fire, and the less you know the better at this point.
Hopefully, she’s in a healthy, happy place in life.
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