ALF, Whiz Kids
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There were a lot of bright young stars in the 1980s that many people may have forgotten about as we get farther away from the decade. Not everyone went on to become an A-list star like Michael J. Fox or Leonardo DiCaprio. There were many that chose to walk away from show business and live a normal life, even after finding early fame. Among them is Andrea Elson, who got off to a hot start with two network TV shows, one of which ran long enough to make its way to syndication. Now she’s entered her 50s, and is focusing more on yoga and motherhood than acting for over 20 years now.
Elson was born in New York City on March 6, 1969 where her father worked in the advertising business. Because of this, Elson had moved around quite a bit while growing up. Elson’s father was able to get her into being a child model for print ads, and she started appearing in commercials early on. Like many child models, the next step was to try out acting, and she began the audition process for television when her family finally settled down in Los Angeles. When she became a teenager, Elson started landing work.
Elson’s first acting role came in 1983 when she took on the role of Alice Tyler in “Whiz Kids”, which aired on CBS for one season and 18 episodes. The series focused on Elson and three other high schoolers that went on to solve crimes each week. “Whiz Kids” was met with critical acclaim for the most part, but didn’t last for long. There weren’t enough people watching the series, and “Whiz Kids” met an early fate.
Elson had appeared on an episode of “Simon & Simon” during the time of the show’s run, and after it ended in 1984 she made a guest appearance on “Silver Spoons”. Thankfully for Elson, it wasn’t long until she landed on her feet once again. This time, she switched over to NBC and was on a series that lasted for more than 100 episodes.
Of course, that show is “ALF”, which all of us that were around in the 1980s remember stands for Alien Life Form. The father of the household was Willie, while Lynnie Tanner was the family’s oldest child and only daughter. Elson took on that role for the entirety of the “ALF” run. Elson earned herself a pair of nominations for “ALF” at the Young Artist Awards in the process, too.
While “ALF” rolled on, Elson had just one other role with a television movie called “Class Cruise”. Then, when the 1990s kicked off, Elson wasn’t taking on regular roles, instead finding herself in guest appearances. The early part of the decade included appearances on shows like “Parker Lewis Can’t Lose”, “Who’s the Boss?” and “They Came from Outer Space”.
Elson’s career wouldn’t go to the end of the 90s, however, as she added television on the shows “Mad About You”, “Married with Children” and “Step by Step”. She wrapped up in 1997 with “Men Behaving Badly” and a pair of 1998 episodes of the soap opera “The Young and the Restless”. It was right around this time that Elson and her husband Scott Hopper welcomed their first child, and Elson had stepped away from acting just before her 30th birthday.
So what is Elson up to these days away from show business? According to her social media pages, “I am now a wife, mother and world traveling yoga instructor,” she says. “When things can be going crazy in life and you’re busy, busy, busy and going in a million different directions, yoga teaches you to be present,” Elson said. “It teaches you to just stop and be simple focused as opposed to multitasking all the time which is really unhealthy. So it helped for me to just chill out when I needed to chill out.”
Elson ran a blog for a while, and her kids are almost all grown up at this point. Elson didn’t exactly fall off the rails when leaving Hollywood, appearing to be living a perfectly normal and happy life with her family. Elson doesn’t update much online these days, but she’s doing just fine.
Elson actually met her husband while on the set of “ALF”. He was working as a production assistant and delivered the scripts to the cast, hitting it off with Elson. “I was so smitten,” she said. “ALF” brought a lot of happiness to her life, as well as many of those that watched on television. However, Elson says that things weren’t always happy on the set.
Elson claimed that there was “tension” on the set because the actors “had to play second fiddle to a puppet. It was ALF and then there was the little family.” Elson also had her personal struggles, developing an eating disorder during the show. “I just wanted to be stick skinny,” she said. “I was at the gym five days a week, two hours on the treadmill. I was obsessed.” Becoming pregnant really saved Elson, as she started focusing on her overall health, “But at last I’ve found myself,” she added.
Like many of the shows that were popular during the 1980s, there have been talks about “ALF” possibly coming back to television in the form of a reboot. Possible reboots have been shot down to this point, though. It’s now been 30 years since “ALF” has been off the air, and Elson says she’s “busy with family, and that comes first.” Her yoga studio is doing quite well, meaning that Elson isn’t exactly desperate to get back into show business.
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