The Ten Best FAMILY TIES Episodes of Season One

[TMC]

https://jacksonupperco.com/2021/12/0...of-season-one/

It is often lazily repeated that the sitcom in the 1980s was “dead” until The Cosby Show debuted in 1984. Although such a statement is obviously hyperbole, ignoring some key shows that had premiered prior (like Cheers), this pithy remark does speak to a few truths — one being that The Cosby Show was indeed the most popular sitcom of the 1980s, and it has since served as the fulcrum around which we perceive the rest of the era, just like I Love Lucy is our primary point of reference in the 1950s, and the 1970s hinges around the transition from Norman Lear to Garry Marshall. Additionally, like the culture at large, most decades in TV tend to take a few years to settle into the identities that most define them, shedding the remnants of the previous era’s shows and values in the process. So, it’s fair to say that the early ’80s’ landscape was riddled with aging ’70s comedies that were no longer as good as they once were, and it wasn’t until 1984, with the arrival of an obvious smash hit like The Cosby Show, that it become possible to track a new trend, one that would naturally accelerate because of The Cosby Show but had actually been percolating before it — Family Ties being the most visible predictor — thereby giving the sitcom new direction. I’m referring, specifically, to the traditional family comedy, with parents and kids, a home setting, and uncomplicated stories about growing up and learning relatable life lessons. This, as you know, is not my favorite subgenre of sitcommery, for I think shows in this category are often loaded with storytelling clichés that both undermine character and aren’t great for comedy. Exhibit A is the form’s over-reliance on kids, for unless a young player is defined with a consistent, individual perspective — and typically they’re not, because they have to be maneuvered to support all different kinds of weekly morality tales, forcing a certain broad-brush malleability to their depictions — they tend to become more plot device than character, as we’re not able to ascribe a clear decision-making process to their choices, and if we can’t do that, we’re also not able to attach to them a pattern of behavior, which means they can’t believably motivate stories or laughs. (Immaturity is a fine justification, but it’s not a personal impetus that makes a driving force; it’s just a blanket excuse for otherwise cookie-cutter plots.)