Tournament Round Two: Family Ties vs. Seinfeld

[icecream]

Family Ties aired 7 seasons on NBC from 1982-1989. It was intended to be a starring vehicle for Meredith Baxter (the mom Elyse Keaton). But Michael J. Fox stole the show as oldest son Alex P. Keaton. Yet he was content with being third billed in the cast and did not demand to be moved up. Michael Gross played Elyse's husband Steven Keaton. They have the exact same birthday irl. Justine Bateman and Tina Yothers played the daughters Mallory and Jennifer. Marc Price recurred as next door neighbor Skippy Handleman, who had unrequited feelings for Mallory. Because of Meredith Baxter's real pregnancy, 4th child Andrew was born in season 3. An aged Andrew was played by Brian Bonsall starting in season 5. Season 4 was the best, it had Alex's girlfriend Ellen Reed played by Tracy Pollan. She was too busy to continue with the show in season 5 but did marry Michael irl. Alex's 2nd serious girlfriend Lauren Miller was played by Courteney Cox in seasons 6 and 7. Scott Valentine recurred as Mallory's dumb boyfriend Nick Moore.
How it got this far
1st Round: defeated Grace Under Fire 7-2

Seinfeld is proof that if a network sticks behind a low rated but high quality show, it can become a smash hit. Seinfeld's ratings started to improve when it was given a Cheers lead-in on Thursday nights. When Cheers ended Seinfeld replaced it as the 9PM anchor. It kept rising and is a rare show that ended its run on top and wasn't cancelled. Seinfeld aired 9 seasons total from 1989-1998 on NBC. That includes a total off year in the 1990-1991 season when NBC hadn't fully committed to it yet. Stand up comic Jerry Seinfeld played himself, with Jason Alexander as his best friend George Costanza. Michael Richards was Jerry's eccentric neighbor across the hall Cosmo Kramer. The pilot lacked a strong female character. When it returned several months later, Julia Louis-Dreyfus had joined the cast as Elaine Benes. Seinfeld had its core cast of four, but it also had a deep bench of strong recurring characters, plus memorable guest appearances like the Soup Nazi. Wayne Knight was Kramer's friend Newman who hated Jerry. Newman was also a horrible mailman, hiding bags of mail he was too lazy to deliver. Both Jerry and George's parents were regular recurring characters, as well as Elaine's bosses Mr. Peterman (John O'Hurley), Mr. Pitt, and Mr. Lippman. When George worked for the New York Yankees a faceless portrayal of George Steinbrenner was often seen, as well as his direct boss Wilhelm. In season 7 Heidi Swedberg played George's fiancee Susan Ross. He quickly regretted becoming engaged to her but couldn't break it off. That is until the season 7 finale where cheap George killed her with poisoned wedding invitations. A bunch of recurring and guest characters came back for the Good Samaritan trial in the series finale to testify against Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer. They were sentenced to one year in jail. Series finale was even more of a smash than regular episodes, fourth highest rated finale of all time with 76.3 million viewers behind only M*A*S*H, Cheers, and The Fugitive.
How it got this far
1st Round: defeated Punky Brewster (1984) 8-3

[stevea]

Kind of tough, but Seinfeld. It's retained its popularity; FT, not so much.

[icecream]

This race was neck and neck for awhile. Then Family Ties went on a nice weekend run, defeating Seinfeld 10-6 and advancing to the 3rd round.