How Do You Sleep? gives us a cold opening, which is unusual for the show, and gives us Alex (Micheal J. Fox) suffering his sixth night of insomnia. Written by Marc Lawrence, this episode debuted on 12 December, 1985.

Alex finds himself struggling, he’s exhausted but is also troubled and worried about all the things going on in his life, and his future, and this is keeping him up. And by extension, he’s starting to keep the rest of the family up, and constantly setting off the family’s new smoke alarm which acts more like a burglar alarm.

He seeks advice from Skippy (Marc Price) and Mallory (Justine Bateman) and Jennifer (Tina Yothers) offer help but it isn’t until he has a conversation with his mother, Elyse (Meredith Baxter) that he learns that she occasionally suffers from insomnia, and that he needs to relax, and until then to make use of the time.

Fox is a lot of fun, and he looks convincingly tired – probably tapping into the time when he was shooting Family Ties and Back to the Future back to back.

Beyond Alex’s need for sleep there’s not much else going on in this episode, there’s no real message, no real ethical issue, just Alex having trouble sleeping. It’s not quite a filler episode, but it doesn’t do much in the way of advancing any of the characters or the like, but that’s not a surprise, as it is a sitcom.

You’ve Got a Friend was written by Ruth Bennett and debuted on 19 December, 1985.

Martha Plimpton guest stars as Jessie, a young woman who lives in a home for abused children. She runs afoul of Mallory and Alex when she shoplifts in Mallory’s store. After calling security, Mallory wants to learn more about Jessie, maybe reach out to her, help her, befriend her.

Everything seems to be going well, a friendship develops, but Jessie puts it all in jeopardy when she shoplifts in Mallory’s store again.

Mallory has a tough time understanding what Jessie’s thought process is, not understanding why she behaves the way she does, though Jessie reveals that the wanted to hurt Mallory before Mallory could hurt her. All the people she thought cared about her, hurt her.

It’s a horrible thought, but one that happens everyday for countless people. And while the concept isn’t explored, it is mentioned and could conjure discussion, and that’s a good thing. Plimpton is so much fun, and she was one of those actors who seemed to be everywhere in the 80s. I’m glad to see her pop up here.

Nothing But a Man was written by Jean Kraynak Brinck and Jurgen Wolff and had an original airdate of 2 January, 1986.

Steven (Micheal Gross) gets a promotion at work, to a position that he’s always wanted, and now has the opportunity to foster some of his dream projects. Unfortunately it means more and more time away from the family.

Alex is proud of his dad and is very focused on making sure his dad gets to do his job, even coming up with a calendar to schedule family appointments.

But the more time Steven spends away from his family, the more he begins to rethink his decision, and he has to think about what is really important to him.

It’s a smart episode, and though it doesn’t quite come out and address the life/work balance that has become increasingly important, it dances at the edges of it, and reminds us that we have to figure out what is most important to us, and balance that with the rest of our lives.

There’s also a silly b-plot that sees Alex very bothered by the fact that the baby, Andrew, is enjoying playing with a doll that Ellen (Tracy Pollan) gave him.

A pleasant enough episode, and something to think about when it comes to our own lives.