The Ten Best FAMILY TIES Episodes of Season Five

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Family Ties‘ fifth season sees the series at the peak of its commercial and critical favor, with its highest annual ratings ever, and, once it was over, three Emmy wins, including Michael J. Fox’s second of three consecutive triumphs and the show’s only top-line creative victory outside of its leading man, for the script of the iconic “A, My Name Is Alex.” On the outside looking in, this would seem to be one of the best seasons of Family Ties. But it isn’t, and there’s no finer example to use when disproving the link between commercial success and artistic value, or even golden statues (industry acclaim) and artistic value, than this subpar season of a series that had recently been better. What happened? Well, coming after a year that we’ve previously defined as the show’s best (see more last week), Season Five does almost the exact opposite of its predecessor. While the previous year was principally interested in comedy and consciously seemed to avoid the family subgenre’s noxious fixation on empty and unmotivated Very Special Episodes (VSEs), heavy-handed dramatic segments that banal domestic sitcoms can’t support, especially when they aren’t given much aid from undefined leads, this season is back in that mindless fold, offering several serious entries that are not only unfunny, but also not well-connected to the regulars — boasting neither of the qualities that make the situation comedy an art form. In fact, the aforementioned “A, My Name Is Alex,” a winning showcase for Michael J. Fox as a dramatic actor, is the epitome of these unfortunate efforts, with a self-important laugh-lite teleplay that claims a narrative not actually motived by Alex P. Keaton, the show’s only dimensional regular and someone whom previous years were more dedicated to spotlighting. We’ll talk more about this famous two-parter below, but that VSE is emblematic of other trends this year too, for while it’s clear that Alex remains the series’ star, he’s not narratively driving as much as he was in the two most recent years, as Five devotes more time to his largely undefined sisters and comedically diluted parents. As always, their outings are almost exclusively bland and unrewarding, and without Alex around in a motivated capacity, there’s little about them that’s recommendable. (Okay, Nick is helpful to Mallory, but, with Alex not in great form, Nick’s fortunes are more dependent than ever on external comic story, so he’s not as reliable either.)