Alf!

My second favourite alien life form of the 1980s may have been ALF, who starred in a self-titled science fiction sitcom in the late 1980s. (Colonel Internet informs me that it premiered in September 1986 and survived for 4 seasons and 102 episodes.) I think I only watched for the first season or two, but was impressed enough at the time to pick up the first issue of Marvel's ALF comic book.