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Family Ties

cooby Aug 20 2010 11:04 AM

I watched a few episodes of Family Ties online the other night. After 20 years my opinions haven’t changed much. I love the show! The characters: Mom-annoying Dad-annoying and not funny Alex-annoying and I could probably beat him up Mallory-cute and funny. Touchingly dense. Jennifer-Absolutely adorable at all ages. The baby- what a stupid addition. What for? I never recall seeing the mom or the dad interact with him. I forget his name. Nick-Funny usually. Cute Skippy- Better off without him, but oh well. All of Alex’s girlfriends-please, let me poke my eyes out. I know this show was a forum favorite. What are your views on the characters?

Frayed Knot Aug 20 2010 11:40 AM Re: Family Ties Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Aug 20 2010 12:02 PM

Interesting that you seem to love the show while hating most of the characters. I rarely watch/watched family-type shows and probably only saw a handful of these so am probably not the right guy to ask. What I remember most about it was that it was originally intended to be focused around the parents as their one-time '60s era counter-culture sensibilities crashed into the 1980s and particularly their precociously conservative son. That MJ Fox became an almost instant break-out star was a bit of a surprise and thus the show went quickly to a Plan B of sorts where it was centered around his character with the parents as merely supporting foils. Other than that: - I probably had a minor crush on what's her name Bateman for a week or two but it wasn't enough to keep me watching - I rarely have anything good to say about youngest children in sit-coms who always get fed a bunch of lines they wouldn't possibly utter in real life - when newer, even younger, children are brought in later on it's generally a sign that the previous youngest one out-grew his/her cuteness and/or the writers have run out of real plot-lines.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Aug 20 2010 11:46 AM Re: Family Ties

This show was supposed to be about hippy parents but Michael J. Fox by sheer magnetism forced it into being a show about a douchey, but very funny, kid. He was like a villian that you rooted for. I think making his hot sister a total ditz was just a vehicle for laughs, although she pulled it off well. And I liked that Skippy had the hots for her; he was funny too. Her boyfriend in the later episodes was a reach though. The fat little sister was supposed to be a smart-mouthed jock, I guess, but you could just tell she wasn't turning out to be as cute as the casting people thought at first so they added a little guy, a sure signal that a shark had been jumped. In summary: Milfy Mom & Peacenick Dad were underutilized; Alex and Skippy were funny; Mallory was hot but strained credulity; Little Sis was a mistake; and Little Bro was the end of it.

themetfairy Aug 20 2010 11:51 AM Re: Family Ties

Frayed Knot wrote: Interesting that you seem to love the show while hating most of the characters. That's like how my grandfather followed the Mets.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Aug 20 2010 11:55 AM Re: Family Ties

I remember crushing on Baxter Birney as a little kid. I remember a whole lot of very special episodes. I remember one with an alcoholic Tom Hanks hitting the Fox. I remember famous girlfriends for Alex (Melrose Place chick, Courtney Cox, the one he married). I remember FT being the first sitcom to pull off the two-dates-for-the-same-prom episode that a few others would later rip.

Centerfield Aug 20 2010 12:29 PM Re: Family Ties

I loved this show as a kid. I loved the storyline about Alex's girlfriend Ellen, I thought Nick (Justine Batemen's BF) was funny. I remember thinking it was one of the few sitcoms that had some feeling behind it. A few years ago, I found the Alex/Ellen episode on Youtube and was surprised at how much I had wrong and how bad it seemed all these years later. Stopped watching it and decided to let it live on in my memory as a really fun show.

Edgy DC Aug 20 2010 12:51 PM Re: Family Ties

I didn't like it at all, except in an ironic sense. There were almost always one of two plots: 1) Alex learns there's more to life than money. 2) Alex learns that just because somebody (Mallory, usually) wasn't as smart as he is, doesn't mean he/she's neccessarily shallow and beneath contempt. The next week, he'd be dicking the same way. All sitcoms tend to hit reset on character growth every week, but being that he was the protagoinist in most of the plots and supposed to grow in one of two ways every episode, but never exhibited any of this growth, was terribly frustating. Look, he's even a huger dick. Isn't he adorable? His conservatism was so overdrawn that it was ludicrous in a show that wasn't supposed to be surreal. He gets the license to sell all his high school's Class of 1986 merchandise and he decides to produce commemorative monacles and moustache wax. What? He takes over management of his sister's crappy teen girl group and makes them put on opera gloves and sing Andrews Sisters standards. Really? I did like when he tried to strut around the kitchen talking down to everybody, he'd always hop on the counter to look them in the eye. He practically stood on a chair whenever Geena Davis was in the room. I also liked that the first few seasons were full of references to his plans to continue his excellence in high school by securing a boquet of acceptances to Ivy League universities. Once he became the center of the show, they re-write all that and he ends up going to some local commuter school.

seawolf17 Aug 20 2010 01:10 PM Re: Family Ties

themetfairy wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: Interesting that you seem to love the show while hating most of the characters. That's like how my grandfather followed the Mets. That's how all of us follow the Mets.

Frayed Knot Aug 20 2010 02:34 PM Re: Family Ties

Interesting that you seem to love the show while hating most of the characters. That's like how my grandfather followed the Mets. That's how all of us follow the Mets. That's been my long-time definition of the stereotyped Met fan: he loves the team, just hates the ballpark, the history, the ownership, the GM, the manager, and each and every one of the players

themetfairy Aug 20 2010 03:10 PM Re: Family Ties

Interesting that you seem to love the show while hating most of the characters. That's like how my grandfather followed the Mets. That's how all of us follow the Mets. That's been my long-time definition of the stereotyped Met fan: he loves the team, just hates the ballpark, the history, the ownership, the GM, the manager, and each and every one of the players My grandfather had nothing against the ballpark.

seawolf17 Aug 20 2010 07:08 PM Re: Family Ties

Interesting that you seem to love the show while hating most of the characters. That's like how my grandfather followed the Mets. That's how all of us follow the Mets. That's been my long-time definition of the stereotyped Met fan: he loves the team, just hates the ballpark, the history, the ownership, the GM, the manager, and each and every one of the players My grandfather had nothing against the ballpark. And the history. We love the history. (Well, most of it.) And we like the OLD ballpark, anyway.

Willets Point Aug 20 2010 10:10 PM Re: Family Ties

I watched Family Ties a lot as a kids but very little has stuck with me. It was light & frothy, but a little more "serious" than the very similar Growing Pains. The parents as aging hippies dealing with their children as Reagan Youth gimmick seems prescient now that the Alex Keatons of the world have grown up to be Palin-lovin' Tea Partiers.

batmagadanleadoff Aug 20 2010 10:16 PM Re: Family Ties

I'm not crazy about their uniforms, either.

soupcan Aug 21 2010 06:56 AM Re: Family Ties

I STILL have a crush on Justine Bateman.

cooby Aug 21 2010 08:20 AM Re: Family Ties

Mallory and Jennifer were as cute as a couple of bugs! I guess what really got me about the whole baby (then suddenly 4 year old) thing was that my daughter was about 2 or 3 at the time and anybody who has ever had a 2 or 3 year old knows that they are not self sufficient and you do not leave them around the house to their own devices. That is what annoyed me about the fact that the parents never ever seemed to be interacting with that child. If anyone did, it was Alex. It was the same with Michelle on Full House.

seawolf17 Aug 21 2010 01:52 PM Re: Family Ties

cooby wrote: It was the same with Michelle on Full House. And look how SHE (they) turned out.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Aug 21 2010 04:09 PM Re: Family Ties

soupcan wrote: I STILL have a crush on Justine Bateman. She's STILL pretty foxy.

G-Fafif Aug 21 2010 09:48 PM Re: Family Ties

First season: More concept than comedy. Second through fifth seasons: As good as anything on TV at the time. Sixth and seventh seasons: I cringe at the thought.

Fman99 Aug 22 2010 05:36 AM Re: Family Ties

Boo.

Frayed Knot Aug 22 2010 06:07 AM Re: Family Ties

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: soupcan wrote: I STILL have a crush on Justine Bateman. She's STILL pretty foxy. OK then, so how do we explain the relative anonymity of her recent career after it got off to such a bang as a 16 y/o TV star, especially in the face of the rising tide of younger brother Jason's? Discuss.

cooby Aug 22 2010 08:02 AM Re: Family Ties

Funny, last night I was at a party next door and they were playing 80's songs and the theme song to Family Ties was one of them. Good question Frayed Knot...

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Aug 22 2010 08:47 AM Re: Family Ties

Frayed Knot wrote: LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: soupcan wrote: I STILL have a crush on Justine Bateman. She's STILL pretty foxy. OK then, so how do we explain the relative anonymity of her recent career after it got off to such a bang as a 16 y/o TV star, especially in the face of the rising tide of younger brother Jason's? Discuss.

Fman99 Aug 22 2010 08:49 AM Re: Family Ties

Frayed Knot wrote: LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: soupcan wrote: I STILL have a crush on Justine Bateman. She's STILL pretty foxy. OK then, so how do we explain the relative anonymity of her recent career after it got off to such a bang as a 16 y/o TV star, especially in the face of the rising tide of younger brother Jason's? Discuss. Smelly biscuit?

RealityChuck Aug 23 2010 10:41 AM Re: Family Ties

I never was impressed by Family Ties. Not particularly funny the few times I bothered to watch. I never saw it enough to know anything about the characters.

Ashie62 Aug 26 2010 09:40 PM Re: Family Ties

I had hot nutz for Justine Bateman.