10 Upsetting Children's TV Show Episodes That Gave You Nightmares
9. Consider Me Gone - ALF
This was never intended to be a particularly upsetting episode. But when a surprise series cancellation made the fourth season's cliffhanger ending the actual finale, things got dark pretty quickly.
The plan was to have ALF captured by the government, presumably for gruesome and painful medical experiments, then in the fifth season he would be living on a military base while his family came up with plans to rescue him. But since the fifth season never materialized, this was it. ALF is discovered by the Alien Task Force and brought in to a top secret military facility.
No rescue, no respite, just pain and likely long, drawn out death. Not exactly the ending for the family-friendly character that most people would have hoped for, right?
This was an incredibly bleak way to end the show's four season run, and the fact that the character of ALF was so beloved against children made matters worse. Watergate may have been the factor that made baby boomers distrust the government, but for their children it was definitely the government's treatment of their favorite alien characters in film and TV.