The Characters' Ages

[Brad Russ]

Originally posted by Jen1982
I think it's interesting how not only is time played around with, but the intelligence of the characters.

Mallory goes from being able to do Algebra and Geometry to not knowing how to do long division. In the ep. where she runs for student body president, she mentions to Alex how she still doesn't understand long division and how he used to bang his head up against the wall and once got a concusion from doing so. It doesn't make sense that someone would be able to do Algebra and Geometry (in the early seasons) and not know how to do long division (in the later seasons).

I was actually just thinking about that myself the other day as I was watching the episode where Mallory and Alex took an iq test, and Mallory scored higher then Alex with a 140 iq. Just a few episodes later, there was a scene where Mallory didn't even know the definition to a simple word. How can she go from scoring almost perfect on an iq test, to not knowing the definition of a very common word? I thought that was pretty funny.

Another few things I noticed is in regards to Nick, and how in the first episode he mentions having a little brother at home, and in the next episode he mentions living with his aunt. Not only is his brother never seen in an episode, but he isn't even mentioned after that first Nick episode. As for his aunt, Mallory goes to Nick's house various times, and we never see her, and I believe she is only mentioned one other time in the rest of the shows run.

Also, why was Elyse's sister never mentioned in any episode? Her brother Ned was seen, and mentioned various times, but her sister was only seen once in the episode where her, and her family came to visit in the fifth, or sixth season. You would think that she would have been mentioned at some point before, or after that episode, but she wasn't.

[The Modfather]

Originally posted by Jen1982
This is interesting...
Just another example of how they seemed to play the "time" game.

Alex in the first season (1982) was in 12th grade, & was going off to college in the fall of 1983. In one of the eps. in the first season when he plays chess with Steven he mentions to him, "Just remember Dad, I leave for college in September". But, Sept. rolls around & he's still in high school. Suddenly he becomes the class of 1984. Mallory in the first season was in 10th grade, it was mentioned in the quiz off ep. in season one that she was a 10th grader, but in the third season it's mentioned that she's the class of 1986, which doesn't make sense. She would have been the class of 1985, if she were in 10th grade as they said in the first season. Alex graduated from high school in 1984, but didn't start college until 1985. He waited a year after graduating to start college, which seems weird (for his character). Mallory graduated high school in 1986, & started junior college that year. In the last season, in one of the last eps. it's mentioned that the next year(1990) Mallory would graduate from Grant college. That would have meant that she would have spent four years in junior college, since the 1988-1989 season was her third year at Grant. Why would she be at Grant four years if a junior college is for two years? Alex gradated from Lealand in 1989 four years after he started there in 1985. Jennifer was in 4th grade in the first season(1982) which would mean that she would be in 11th grade in the last season, but as mentioned in the last season she was in 10th grade, so once again, that doesn't make sense. Does anyone find it strange that all three of the (older) Keaton children seemed to take longer then normal to get through school?

Thanks for posting I didn't notice I haven't seen many episodes from the 1st season.