Paul Fusco

As long as the residual checks keep coming in, actor Paul Fusco is probably fine with the fact that very few people realize he was the voice as well as creator and puppeteer of the Muppet-like puppet star of the 1986-1990 TV series "ALF." Key collaborators along the way were manager Bernie Brillstein and writer Tom Patchett, who helped Fusco expand the home-grown character to network star status. For someone like Fusco, whose prior credits consisted of pay cable comedy specials, the temptation to sell the concept of "ALF" to Walt Disney Studios must have been large. But to their credit, Fusco and partner Patchett held firm, eventually landing a more participatory deal over at NBC under the auspices of wunderkind network chief Brandon Tartikoff.

ALF has never really gone away, appearing on game shows such as "Hollywood Squares" and even returning years later on the channel TV Land for a new series, "ALF's Hit Talk Show." But after all sorts of different strands, including guest star spots on other sitcoms, ALF finally ran its course in 2006.