ALIENS IN THE FAMILY: A strange forgotten TGIF relic from 1996

[@mikeharlow]

OMG I used to love this show as a kid!!!!! I didn’t think anyone else remembered it!!!!

[@VinnieRattolle]

Right after the show was pulled, the press said that both this and companion series Muppets Tonight tested THROUGH THE ROOF with small children, but TGIF audiences tuned them out en masse. That's how it ended up on Saturday mornings (and Muppets moved to the Disney Channel). I copied my tapes of the show for a neighbor's brood of kids and was regularly told that it was their favorite show ever -- and that they were all endlessly imitating Bobut.

[@PugMugsly]

Very interesting! I can see why kids would like this show. (And there are a lot of subtle adult jokes for parents too!)

[@VickiKolman]

I didn't know about this show, but I wish it had gone further! It makes me think a little of a mix of Family Guy and American Dad... if Stewie and Roger merged to become Bobut. Btw, I came across one of your videos the other day when KZbin recommended it, then I started adding more... and now you've basically been my binge watch for two days... That sounds creepier than I mean it to, but basically, these videos are a ton of fun whether I've heard of the source or not. Thanks!!

[@PugMugsly]

Thank you!! (Lol, not creepy at all! I love sharing all this random nostalgia.)

[@belg4mit]

Odder than being the mixer, the mother was vacuuming with the hose in her mouth in episode 1.

[@PugMugsly]

Good catch!!

[@vuhoang8265]

Another great video. I have never heard of this show before. Too bad it didn’t get a season run. The two episodes seemed interesting enough. But I need to know more about Probing My Heart.

[@PugMugsly]

Probing My Heart is a joke I made in my “Hallmark Movies Can Have Magic Now” video about how, if I made Hallmark movies, I’d make a sci-fi rom-com about an alien scientist coming to earth, crash landing on a farm, and falling in love with the farmer. So not QUITE the same, plus mine would have that cheesy Hallmark flair.

[@surrealkit4843]

I would love to visit the dimension where this show was a hit.

[@Red-Wolf-Ben]

Me too! This totally should have been the next sensation like Dinosaurs! Imagine what the later seasons would have been like!

[@averymerrick]

ABC's TGIF block declined beginning in fall 1997, stemming from a combination of aging sitcoms like Family Matters and Step by Step moving to CBS (who started - and ended - their own family-friendly Friday night sitcom line-up in 1997-98 called "The Block Party"), the oversaturation of supernatural/magic type shows (Sabrina the Teenage Witch & new series You Wish and Teen Angel, the latter of which both lasted only one season), the failure of Two of a Kind and Brother's Keeper (which was the last sitcom produced by the previously reliable Miller-Boyett group) starring the Olsen twins the following year (1998-99), and ultimately the ending of Boy Meets World after seven seasons and Sabrina... moving to The WB after the 1999-2000 season. ABC would bring back the TGIF brand for the 2003-05 seasons, but it never met the same success it had before.

[@hezekiahramirez6965]

OH MY GOD YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS SHOW TOO! I felt like I was the only person who remembered this... Bonkers thing. It's so wild. I was glad you mentioned the Dinosaurs similarity but let me add another one that probably went over most people's heads. The daughter is called "Snizzy," right? Well, that's an adult joke. Snizz/snizzy is obscure slang for vagina. In Dinosaurs, the baby curses in one episode and the word he said was "smoo." Well, guess what smoo means in Australia. You don't need to guess. You already know. An ex-girlfriend of mine was Australian so she clued me in. I feel like there was a lot of that kind of thing in the 90s At any rate, I have a soft spot for SF that is not part of the action adventure genre and this is definitely that. I'm actually glad it was as gloriously awful as it was. I love a good trainwreck TV series. If you like this show, I would suggest Meego. It's similar but Bronson Pinchot plays the alien and Jonathan Lipnicki is his precocious child friend. It's actually even worse than this show I'm just glad someone else remembers this. And that someone shares my unironic love for Bobut. He was the only thing I actually liked about this show. And yes, he is ADORABLE. Thank you for bringing some more awareness to this buck wild show. I continue to enjoy your videos and I feel like you're kind of a kindred spirit vis a vis bad media

[@PugMugsly]

Now there's two of us in the unironic Bobut fanclub! It's funny, the slang went right over my head. But there were a lot of hidden adult jokes in the show. Part of me wonders if there was something that went a little TOO far for the network, and that's why they suddenly pulled it from the air. (Although, considering they snuck adult jokes into Full House with no issues, it probably wouldn't be the main reason.)

[@dua86]

Yeah I think the show might've just been a tad smarter than the audience it played to. Think I definitely heard a whistling noise during all those odd silences you noted. Oddly enough, the only reason I remember this show is because of an old factoid about the Tiffany character being played by Kristanna Loken, aka the T-X in Terminator 3.

[@PugMugsly]

I looked at the main cast’s IMDB in case there was anything noteworthy. But I didn’t look at Kristanna’s till now. And it turns out - if I ever run out of content ideas, there are several interesting contenders on her IMDB page!

[@hezekiahramirez6965]

The Mortal Kombat TV series is amazing!

[@MrReded69]

Just by looking at the Thumbnail, I had a sad image of Boburt being told he's jobless and forlornly walking off to the Creature Factory warehouse. Where he resides there still, sharing bitter stories about what could have been with his fellow rejected would be toy stars.

[@Kyleology]

Never heard of this show but the humor is right up my ally. I'll need to check this one out.

[@DangerDave-e7u]

Thanks, Mugsly!

[@PugMugsly]

Thank YOU for watching!

[@angelagokool9514]

I remember this show! It was weird, but also kind of cute. I didn't know anyone else remembered it. But I can see why it got cancelled. It wasn't quite as popular as other TGIF shows, such as Full House and Family Matters. Even Dinosaurs had surpassed it in popularity. Clearly, the humor of Aliens in the Family was too sophisticated for its target audience. Without a laugh track, some of the jokes were less obvious. Maybe if it had been written better, it would've lasted longer.

[@Red-Wolf-Ben]

I was a big TGIF fan growing up, and I always thought this show should have been a way bigger hit than it was... maybe even the next Dinosaurs, like it was obviously meant to be! Thanks for talking about this show, and please, PLEASE do a part two! Tiffany gets totally horny for Spit as the season progresses, and it's great, she totally wants some alien action! And Spit also makes up his own holiday called Tweeznax, it's so funny! Man, this show was great, I can only imagine what season two might have been like! And season three....

[@noahstackhouse9818]

I remember watching this show when my family was living in New Zealand. One of the channels there aired all the episodes. I'd agree that this show was a poor fit for the TGIF lineup. As an 11 year old, I found it to be quite funny. So did other kids I went to school with.

[@nelsoncordova6140]

Maybe I missed it but why was the baby destined to be ruler of the galaxy and not the oldest brother??🤷‍♂️

[@yeahsureimdownforthat1698]

You got a 'Probing my heart' call back in, when a Battletoads one was right there?

[@PugMugsly]

You’re right - I could have joked about a Battletoads/Aliens in the Family AU crossover fanfic where Snizzy invents the Battletoads. It would work surprisingly well!

[@goku48071]

The show actually reminds me of Family Guy and American Dad. The babies from this show and Family Guy are very similar characters.

[@userasdf]

Yes was looking for that. Bobert is totally proto stewie. And AMerican dad has an alien too right? THey totally stole this idea.

[@corneIius]

@@userasdf and alf, a series about an alien living with a human family, preceded both american dad and aliens in the family. i'm pretty sure american dad took their inspiration from alf, given that a big part of roger's plots have to do with his alien identity being hidden, much like in alf.

[@that44rdv4rk]

how did you make such a sophisticated deepfake of a show that clearly could never have existed? well done.

[@PugMugsly]

Oh man, if I could, I ABSOLUTELY would.

[@deederkez]

I think there’s 8 episodes of you look it up on here

[@juicekovacs6547]

I remember enjoying this show. Thanks for remind me me it exists. Where are you watching this at?….not Like your geographic location. But where on the internet did you find this?

[@baldchinchilla]

How do you even find these shows?

[@PugMugsly]

My brain hold onto a lot of random information!

[@baldchinchilla]

@Pug Mugsly I'll try to track down those episodes later. Bobut looks like nightmare fuel to me.

[@PugMugsly]

@@baldchinchilla One person's dream is another person's nightmare.

[@baldchinchilla]

@Pug Mugsly I was fully on the governments side in ET growing up.

[@bustownbc2787]

Good video but konda long lol

[@G0rd0nHealth]

The color balancing on this video is terrible. I do enjoy the video though and some of your other vids. Thanks for the upload!

[@PugMugsly]

Thank you for watching! I don't know what to say about the color balancing, lol.

[@KingCap74]

There's always 1 clown like you.