We get an Elyse (Meredith Baxter) story with Suzanne Takes You Down. Written by Ruth Bennett it debuted on 16 March, 1983.

One of Elyse’s friends, Suzanne (Brooke Alderson) who we’ve seen before with her husband, Ron (Jay Tarses), is having a bit of a tough time. She is suffering from empty nest syndrome and is looking for something to do, so Elyse, being the good friend she is, brings her on as an assistant.

Unfortunately, things take a turn pretty quickly when Suzanne begins to take over Elyse’s architect business.

Meanwhile, Jennifer (Tina Yothers) is working on biographical sketches of her parents and siblings for a class assignment and this is where Michael J. Fox and Justine Bateman shine as Alex and Mallory. Though Alex does make some pretty horrible comments about women in the workplace, that’s the character, and it’s played for comedy but wow, Alex lean into your republican nature.

While it’s fun to see Elyse step into the limelight and get a moment and story to shine, it’s not as strong as it could have been especially considering the fact that we know Baxter has the chops to really bring the drama and the comedy.

Instead, it almost focuses too much on Suzanne as she and Ron go through some real marital problems, but it will be up to Elyse to save her own business. Perhaps their friendship and Suzanne will have to figure out what to do about her broken marriage.

It’s not great, but it’s still a fun show.

The Fifth Wheel puts the siblings front and center in this story by Bennett and Micheal J. Weithorn. First broadcast on 28 March, 1983, the episode finds Steven (Micheal Gross) and Elyse going out for the evening leaving Alex and Mallory to argue over who is going to look after Jennifer for the night.

Mallory has a date with Jeff the tutor (John Dukakis) and has to come up with a deal for Alex to watch over her. When a deal is made Alex gets stuck with his younger sister and lets her tag along with him to the poker game he’s enjoying with his friends.

Unfortunately, when Jennifer gets bored with the game, she wanders off and that sends Alex into a huge panic. Fox playing full-out panic as he tries to figure out where Jennifer is, avoiding his parents and making things right, but it all goes sideways when Jennifer walks in the door.

Responsibility is the key to the story here and as both Mallory and Alex shirk their duties, you know that not only things are going to go badly, but they are both going to get called out for their actions. It’s also about the connection between siblings, and the three of them try to make amends as best they can, and find a way to show each other they love one another.

It’s a fun episode, and it’s got heart.

Stage Fright was written by Bennett and Weithorn and first debuted on 4 April, 1983. The penultimate episode of the first season sees Alex gearing up for a quiz-off which will be broadcast on Steven’s public access channel, on a set that Elyse designed, and redesigned and redesigned because she and Steven can’t agree on what the set should look like.

He’s hyped and ready to go, but when one of the team members can’t make it, they need to fill the space. And it’s going to be filled with… Mallory?!

Alex has to prep Mallory and get her ready for the quiz. He sees it as a My Fair Lady-like challenge and leans into it. He does everything he can to make sure Mallory is okay, but when the cameras are rolling Alex freezes up.

That ends up being okay though, because even if Mallory gets the answers wrong the judges all seem to have a crush on her and their decisions are final.

This is just a very fun episode, and it lets Bateman shine while Fox spends most of the episode with his head on the table because he can’t deal with the camera. Alex has to learn that he can’t win all the time, and Mallory learns that she shouldn’t be confined to what people think of her.

Both siblings are able to help each other out, and it makes for an enjoyable episode that lets each of the cast members have a moment to shine.

Next time, we finish season one and dive into season two!