TMC
01-02-2022, 06:00 AM
https://jacksonupperco.com/2021/12/29/the-ten-best-family-ties-episodes-of-season-seven/
https://i0.wp.com/jacksonupperco.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ft-s7-cast.png?resize=300%2C196&ssl=1
Family Ties’ final season aired concurrently with the public controversy that gave rise to Married… With Children (then in its third year) — FOX’s no-holds-barred satire of Family Ties, The Cosby Show, and the entire family sitcom subgenre — along with the debut of the immediately successful Roseanne, ABC’s more mainstream application of Married’s ideas, injecting blue-collar realism and anti-sentimental comedy into this traditional domestic structure, but with more sincerity than FOX’s parody. And while there would continue to be family sitcoms in the conventional and rose-colored Family Ties vein throughout the ’90s, it was clear that these hot new anti-family family comedies had corrupted the trend and indeed become the more popular, critically lauded, and (I think) more enjoyable alternative, leaving Family Ties, in its seventh season, something of a dinosaur. This fact seems to have bred a little bit of an identity crisis for the aging series too, as its final year is tonally schizophrenic, still engaging in untenable Very Special Episodes — dramatic offerings that the show and these characters can’t support (a trilogy where Steven has a heart attack, a two-parter about racism, an entry where Nick has to put down his beloved dog, etc.) — while also trying to increase the episodic humor quotient above the last two years’, not just with plot but even character(!), as Mallory is more elementally dim than ever before (removed, even, from Alex) and Jennifer finally has a comic perspective: she’s just as politically progressive as her folks and therefore more prone to clashing with Alex over differences in opinion — particularly the 1988 election, which appears to spark this evolution in her definition. Remember, the series can’t have the adults arguing with Alex as forcefully, but if he’s against his sister, they can step in as even-keeled mediators and validate the genre’s requirements, making it a win-win-win: Alex gets spotlighted, the show’s politics get voiced, and the subgenre’s rules remain intact. It’s a shame the series didn’t think of this earlier — if not in Season One, then a few years ago, once the parents had been diluted.
https://i0.wp.com/jacksonupperco.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ft-s7-cast.png?resize=300%2C196&ssl=1
Family Ties’ final season aired concurrently with the public controversy that gave rise to Married… With Children (then in its third year) — FOX’s no-holds-barred satire of Family Ties, The Cosby Show, and the entire family sitcom subgenre — along with the debut of the immediately successful Roseanne, ABC’s more mainstream application of Married’s ideas, injecting blue-collar realism and anti-sentimental comedy into this traditional domestic structure, but with more sincerity than FOX’s parody. And while there would continue to be family sitcoms in the conventional and rose-colored Family Ties vein throughout the ’90s, it was clear that these hot new anti-family family comedies had corrupted the trend and indeed become the more popular, critically lauded, and (I think) more enjoyable alternative, leaving Family Ties, in its seventh season, something of a dinosaur. This fact seems to have bred a little bit of an identity crisis for the aging series too, as its final year is tonally schizophrenic, still engaging in untenable Very Special Episodes — dramatic offerings that the show and these characters can’t support (a trilogy where Steven has a heart attack, a two-parter about racism, an entry where Nick has to put down his beloved dog, etc.) — while also trying to increase the episodic humor quotient above the last two years’, not just with plot but even character(!), as Mallory is more elementally dim than ever before (removed, even, from Alex) and Jennifer finally has a comic perspective: she’s just as politically progressive as her folks and therefore more prone to clashing with Alex over differences in opinion — particularly the 1988 election, which appears to spark this evolution in her definition. Remember, the series can’t have the adults arguing with Alex as forcefully, but if he’s against his sister, they can step in as even-keeled mediators and validate the genre’s requirements, making it a win-win-win: Alex gets spotlighted, the show’s politics get voiced, and the subgenre’s rules remain intact. It’s a shame the series didn’t think of this earlier — if not in Season One, then a few years ago, once the parents had been diluted.