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Family Ties: Difference between revisions
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As stated, it was rather straightforward, though a lot of the humor came from the conflict between the Republican Alex and the very Democratic parents. In a rare example, there was no [[Strawman Political]] sequence to be found here: both ideologies were given equal time in the spotlight, and there was no [[Idiot of the Week]] episode either.
The aforementioned straightforwardness was actually notable in itself. Not many [[Dom Com]]s—then or now—are actually about a completely standard [[Nuclear Family|"nuclear" family]]. Think ''[[My Three Sons]]'', ''[[Family Affair]]'', ''[[The Brady Bunch]]'', ''[[Diff'rent Strokes]]'', ''[[Full House]]''. The fact that '''Family Ties''' had no adopted kids, cousins, kids from previous marriages, or single parents actually made it something of a subversion.
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* [[Can't Get Away with Nuthin']]
* [[The Cast Showoff]]: In later seasons, Jennifer. In earlier episodes, Elyse.
* [[Clip Show]]: several. Two sees the Keatons share stories with Alex's girlfriends Ellen and later Lauren, another has the men and women of the family rehashing past incidents.
** Parodied on ''[[SNL]]'' when Justine Bateman hosted. They did a ''Family Ties'' spoof where they would flashback to another episode and in that episode they flashback to '''another''' episode and so on until they flashbacked to a real episode of ''[[The Jeffersons]]''.
* [[Cool Uncle]]: Uncle Ned (played by [[Tom Hanks]]) is really cool, but has a drinking problem.
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* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: EVERYONE.
* [[The Ditz]]: Mallory
* [[Ditzy Genius]]: Alex. He's a hypercompetitive straight A student and math genius who was doing his parents' taxes when he was five years old and advised his parents on mortgage rates when they bought their house. Yet in everyday activities he often proves completely incapable. His little sister frequently beats him in sports, he fails at things like building kites, cooking or fixing cars even with extensive directions.
* [[Dom Com]]
* [[Drop
* [[The Eighties]]
* [[Eighties Hair]]: Jennifer's hair in later seasons was a fairly extreme case.
** Alex had a bit of a mullet around season 6, too.
* [[Evil Matriarch]]
* [[Excellent Adventure]]: In one episode, Alex P. Keaton falls asleep - and he witnesses the Declaration of Independence. As this episode occurred around the time that Michael J. Fox (Alex's actor) was also playing Marty McFly on ''Back to the Future'', this episode was possibly a nod to the then upcoming film. In the film, Doc Brown types in the date of the Declaration of Independence - when demonstrating to Marty how his time machine works.
* [[
* [[Good Parents]]: Steven and Elyse
* [[G-Rated Drug]]: One episode has Alex becoming dependent on "diet pills" (implied to be amphetamines) to stay up late studying.
* [[Hair-Trigger Temper]]: Steven's father.
* [[Heel Realization]]: Happens in about half the episodes, usually to [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold|Alex]], though the other characters get their fair share as well.
* [[Hey, It's That Guy!]]: [[Tom Hanks]] as Elyse's alcoholic brother.
** Courtney Cox as Alex's girlfriend Lauren.
** Geena Davis as Karen, the Keatons' housekeeper when Elyse is pregnant.
** Ronny Cox as Ellen's blustery father.
* [[Hollywood Nerd]]: Alex is the "sexy" nerd, while Skippy is an [[
* [[I Want You to Meet An Old Friend of Mine]]
* [[Inter Class Romance]]: Mallory and Nick.
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* [[Where Did We Go Wrong?]]: The Keatons are at a loss as to how their kids ended up so differently, particularly Alex.
* [[Yet Another Christmas Carol]]: Jennifer and Mallory take the form of the Ghosts of Christmas past and future (respectively) and Alex learns the true meaning of Christmas, and what his greed could lead to.
* [[You Are Not Alone]]:
** A particularly impactful example is the episode "'A,' My Name is Alex," where Alex has a nervous breakdown after his best friend dies in a car accident.
** Mallory actually winds up doing this for the shattered mother of a friend who committed suicide.
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