Alex (Micheal J. Fox) makes a series of sexist mistakes when he applies for, and finally gets, a job at a bank. Written by Stephen Curwick, Beauty and the Bank first aired on 30 October, 1986.

Alex makes a number of mistakes, when he applies for the job, mistakenly thinking Rebecca Ryan (Melinda Culea) is a secretary, when in fact, she is his boss, and right from the off, she has problems with the way he talks down to her and treats her, and, rightly, calls him out, and turns it around on him.

When they agree to try to work together, things go well for a few minutes until Alex makes another huge mistake, and he begins to wonder if men and women were ever supposed to work together.

This is a great episode for highlighting sexism, and while we as an audience love Alex, we also know he’s incredibly wrong in this situation, and that his views, which have been entertaining within the context of the show, are actually very harmful.

Eventually, he realizes that he can work with Rebecca because they both share the same love of money and are intrigued by all aspects of banking and finances.

Fox is great in this, as it is a really fine line to walk. You know you want to hate Alex for the way he is talking to people, and you know it’s going to blow up on him, and you want to see that happen, but feel bad for him that he has to go through that in the first place, simply because he won’t learn.

Mrs. Wrong: Part 1 launches a Mallory (Justine Bateman) two-parter. The first installment aired on 6 November, 1986 and was written by Alan Uger.

It seems despite a strong start, and Mallory really enjoying herself, college has become a bit of a slog. Add that to the pressures of her home life, and she’s starting to look for a way out.

Without a lot of forethought, she asks Nick (Scott Valentine) if they should get married. She thinks that once that happens all of her troubles will be over and that she won’t have anything to worry about.

When she tells Alex, he advises her it’s a bad idea, and when she and Nick talk to Steven (Micheal Gross) and Elyse (Meredith Baxter) it doesn’t go as smoothly as they thought it would and sends Steven into a spiral of spiritual dirges.

Alex attempts to introduce her to someone else, but Mallory has her mindset, and even a potential grounding can’t keep her from leaving home and pursuing this course of action.

Yes, she’s having a reaction to a stressful situation, but she’s simply going from one extreme to another, and while it’s unrealistic that this is the way things would play out in reality, there are some really great comedic and dramatic moments throughout this episode that make it a lot of fun to watch, and had viewers coming back the following week to see how it all played out.

And through it all, little Andrew (Brian Bonsall) is a cute kid.

Mrs Wrong: Part 2 aired the following week on 13 Novemeber, 1986. It was also written by Uger.

The show picks up where it left off, and Mallory is about to elope with Nick, and Alex asks her not to go, but they leave, in the middle of the night!

Alex sets off after them, determined to stop them while Jennifer eventually breaks the news to Steven and Elyse over breakfast. The parents are less than thrilled and don’t know how to reconcile their feelings.

While Nick and Mallory await their turn they begin to wonder if they aren’t rushing into things and have a deeper discussion about what is going on, and how neither of them are quite ready to take the plunge yet. Mallory realizes she’s trading one set of problems for another, and they aren’t just going to go away because she got married.

Alex storms in, inadvertently interrupting the ceremony ahead of Mallory’s, but things have already been settled. They are going to wait. Happy ending for all involved and Alex gets a nice emotional moment by admitting he cares about what happens to his sister.