diff --git a/components/ItemGrid/ItemGrid.bs b/components/ItemGrid/ItemGrid.bs
index 16840b77..b67b2178 100644
--- a/components/ItemGrid/ItemGrid.bs
+++ b/components/ItemGrid/ItemGrid.bs
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import "pkg:/source/roku_modules/log/LogMixin.brs"
 
 sub init()
     m.log = log.Logger("ItemGrid")
+    m.log.debug("start init()")
     m.options = m.top.findNode("options")
 
     m.showItemCount = m.global.session.user.settings["itemgrid.showItemCount"]
@@ -70,6 +71,7 @@ sub init()
     m.resetGrid = m.global.session.user.settings["itemgrid.reset"]
 
     m.top.gridTitles = m.global.session.user.settings["itemgrid.gridTitles"]
+    m.log.debug("end init()")
 end sub
 
 'Genre Item Selected
@@ -79,6 +81,7 @@ end sub
 
 'Load initial set of Data
 sub loadInitialItems()
+    m.log.debug("start loadInitialItems()")
     m.loadItemsTask.control = "stop"
     startLoadingSpinner()
 
@@ -227,6 +230,7 @@ sub loadInitialItems()
     startLoadingSpinner(false)
     m.loadItemsTask.control = "RUN"
     SetUpOptions()
+    m.log.debug("end loadInitialItems()")
 end sub
 
 ' Set Movies view, sort, and filter options
@@ -438,6 +442,7 @@ end sub
 
 'Handle loaded data, and add to Grid
 sub ItemDataLoaded(msg)
+    m.log.debug("start ItemDataLoaded()")
     itemData = msg.GetData()
     m.loadItemsTask.unobserveField("content")
     m.loadItemsTask.content = []
@@ -494,22 +499,28 @@ sub ItemDataLoaded(msg)
     end if
 
     stopLoadingSpinner()
+    m.log.debug("end ItemDataLoaded()")
 end sub
 
 'Set Background Image
 sub SetBackground(backgroundUri as string)
-
+    m.log.debug("start SetBackground()", backgroundUri, m.swapAnimation.state, m.newBackdrop.loadStatus)
     'If a new image is being loaded, or transitioned to, store URL to load next
-    if m.swapAnimation.state <> "stopped" or m.newBackdrop.loadStatus = "loading"
-        m.queuedBGUri = backgroundUri
-        return
+    if not m.top.alphaActive
+        if m.swapAnimation.state <> "stopped" or m.newBackdrop.loadStatus = "loading"
+            m.log.debug("caching new background URI")
+            m.queuedBGUri = backgroundUri
+            return
+        end if
     end if
 
     m.newBackdrop.uri = backgroundUri
+    m.log.debug("end SetBackground()")
 end sub
 
 'Handle new item being focused
 sub onItemFocused()
+    m.log.debug("start onItemFocused()", m.itemGrid.currFocusRow, m.itemGrid.itemFocused)
 
     focusedRow = m.itemGrid.currFocusRow
 
@@ -518,7 +529,7 @@ sub onItemFocused()
     updateTitle()
 
     ' If no selected item, set background to parent backdrop
-    if itemInt = -1
+    if itemInt = -1 or focusedRow = -1
         return
     end if
 
@@ -531,6 +542,7 @@ sub onItemFocused()
     if focusedRow >= m.loadedRows - 5 and m.loadeditems < m.loadItemsTask.totalRecordCount
         loadMoreData()
     end if
+    m.log.debug("end onItemFocused()")
 end sub
 
 'When Image Loading Status changes
@@ -551,6 +563,7 @@ sub swapDone()
 
         'If there is another one to load
         if m.newBackdrop.uri <> m.queuedBGUri and m.queuedBGUri <> ""
+            m.log.debug("Loading queued backdrop image", m.queuedBGUri)
             SetBackground(m.queuedBGUri)
             m.queuedBGUri = ""
         end if
@@ -559,6 +572,7 @@ end sub
 
 'Load next set of items
 sub loadMoreData()
+    m.log.debug("start loadMoreData()")
     if m.Loading = true then return
 
     startLoadingSpinner(false)
@@ -566,6 +580,7 @@ sub loadMoreData()
     m.loadItemsTask.startIndex = m.loadedItems
     m.loadItemsTask.observeField("content", "ItemDataLoaded")
     m.loadItemsTask.control = "RUN"
+    m.log.debug("end loadMoreData()")
 end sub
 
 'Item Selected
@@ -760,6 +775,20 @@ function getItemFocused()
     return invalid
 end function
 
+sub alphaActiveChanged()
+    m.log.debug("start alphaActiveChanged()", m.top.alphaActive)
+
+    if m.top.alphaActive
+        ' fade into an empty backdrop
+        m.swapAnimation.state = "stop"
+        m.queuedBGUri = ""
+        ' use a 1px image because we can't use the animation to fade into a blank uri string
+        SetBackground("pkg:/images/1px-262626.png")
+    end if
+
+    m.log.debug("end alphaActiveChanged()")
+end sub
+
 function onKeyEvent(key as string, press as boolean) as boolean
     if not press then return false
 
@@ -826,11 +855,14 @@ function onKeyEvent(key as string, press as boolean) as boolean
             return true
         end if
     else if key = "left" and topGrp.isinFocusChain()
+        m.log.debug("Now entering alpha menu")
         m.top.alphaActive = true
         topGrp.setFocus(false)
         m.alphaMenu.setFocus(true)
+
         return true
     else if key = "right" and m.alpha.isinFocusChain()
+        m.log.debug("Now leaving alpha menu")
         m.top.alphaActive = false
         m.alphaMenu.setFocus(false)
         topGrp.setFocus(true)
diff --git a/components/ItemGrid/ItemGrid.xml b/components/ItemGrid/ItemGrid.xml
index bea6a14a..74b8665c 100644
--- a/components/ItemGrid/ItemGrid.xml
+++ b/components/ItemGrid/ItemGrid.xml
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@
     <field id="quickPlayNode" type="node" alwaysNotify="true" />
     <field id="imageDisplayMode" type="string" value="scaleToZoom" />
     <field id="alphaSelected" type="string" alias="alpha.letterSelected" alwaysNotify="true" onChange="alphaSelectedChanged" />
-    <field id="alphaActive" type="boolean" value="false" />
+    <field id="alphaActive" type="boolean" value="false" onChange="alphaActiveChanged" />
     <field id="jumpToItem" type="integer" value="" />
     <field id="gridTitles" type="string" />
   </interface>
diff --git a/images/1px-262626.png b/images/1px-262626.png
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5122799a
Binary files /dev/null and b/images/1px-262626.png differ