My Only Problem With The Show

So the primary species on Melmac looks like ALF, but cats evolved to be exactly the same as they are on earth

One more beloved TV show from everybody's past crapped all over by Jeremy.  Why does it have to be like this?   

It's just how the world works.  Lucky you!

So anyway, ALF was a sitcom from back in the late 80's.  It starred a puppet as alien Gordon Shumway who crash landed on top of the house of the Tanner family.  The family subsequently had to hide him from the government and their nosey neighbors while teaching him all about life, love, and culture here on earth.  

Despite the fact that the family knew his name was Gordon Shumway, they persisted in calling him "ALF" which was an acronym for "Alien Life Form" first introduced by family patriarch Willie Tanner in the first episode.  Seems an awful lot like getting a new puppy, naming him "Phydeaux" and referring to him as "Dog" for the rest of his life. 

Despite the fact that Gordon grew up on a planet multiple light years from earth (named Melmac, though the planet is said to have been destroyed in a nuclear war), and having myriad physical and philosophical differences from humans, a remarkably illogical number of similarities existed between the two species.  Melackians had pianos, a version of baseball, a standard currency, similar indoor plumbing fixtures, personal address through a given name and surname, and somehow were able to speak English (I don't know if this was ever canonically explained, but I don't care, it's ridiculous).  

 In addition, Melmackians had domesticated cats.  Their roles in society were completely different, as cats were similar to cows on Melmac, primarily used as food, but basically the same species.  So much so that Gordon was able to instantly recognize the Tanner family cat as a cat and proceed to try to eat him at every opportunity...to hilarious effect, of course.  This seems strange.  It's Well Documented that Melmac has a purple sun, among other planetary differences.  If we assume for a moment that traditional cats were not native only to earth (and transported within the last 9000 years as the current domesticated species), we're supposed to assume that life evolved on planet Melmac entirely differently for humanoids (resulting in an ALF-looking species) than it did for felines?  

By the way, this Blag is written by a scientist, so we believe in evolution here.  Sorry if this offends you.  

I'm forced to Call Bunk on Melmackian cats.  Thousands upon thousands of different species have existed, evolved, and maybe even become extinct here on earth, and the ones that have remained are here through unbelievably remote odds.  To believe that even one species could possibly progress in the same manner on two different planets with striking physical differences over millions of years of evolution is just too much of a reach for me.  Sorry, Gordon.