Family Ties

Having grown up in the 80’s I watched Family Ties and it was memorable enough, the episodes I did watch, that I can remember most of the casts names and some of the episodes. When I saw it in my work pile I thought I’d take a stroll down memory lane with it and came away with wondering if I had been watching the same show when I was a kid.

I put this show right up there with Growing Pains, Valerie, The Cosby Show, Different Strokes, 227, the list can go on and on. I watched them all, some more closely then others. As for Family Ties, I always thought Michael Keaton’s character was a bit of a douche, Nick Valentine was the worst bad boy character ever, and the show was pretty tame. There were a few episode, two of which pop up on this set, that towed the line. One example is The Sign of the Times, an episode in which little Andy (a last ditch effort character) meets a new friend at school who is deaf and is ridiculed by his classmates. In protest, Andy stops speaking. Though I found a lot of the episodes in this season to be a bit on the lame side, this episode really pulled at the heartstrings. Another, a double episode, is when Jennifer (who is oddly limited in this season) does a book report on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a banned book, and is threatened with suspension from school for it. I can look back on the 80’s and remember the banned books epidemic that popped up now and again and this was a pretty well put together couple of episodes.

While I did find some of the episodes manufactured some of the other stand out episodes are actually pretty powerful. The show deals with divorce, suicide, in a light sense, sexuality, domestic strife, mental illness, and some other more mature elements that I don’t recall ever being part of the show. It quite literally was like watching an old kids show and finding all of this diverse deep meaning stuff that you missed back when you weren’t so well engrossed in the world. I have to give the show props for being somewhat ahead of its time. The only other time I can recall a family show being so dark is when a neighbor on Different Strokes was a pedophile trying to get the kids to strip off their clothes so he can take pictures of them. Looking back on that I think that episode may have crossed the line, but this season of episodes for Family Ties does a great job of mixing in the family perspective in a realistic fashion that doesn’t go to far.