Steven’s (Michael Gross) brother Rob (Norman Parker) is furious over his daughter, Marilyn’s (Tammy Lauren) behaviour and the fact that she stayed over at the Marine’s place. Is Steven going to be able to give Rob any helpful advice? Will Rob and Marilyn be able to connect and find a way back to one another after the fallout of the divorce?

Written by Alan Uger, this episode first debuted on 6 December, 1987.

Mallory (Justine Bateman) and Elyse (Meredith Baxter) try to support Marilyn and help her deal with the issues, while the brothers try to sort out and hone their parenting skills.

Alex (Micheal J. Fox) is given some comedic material to work with by trying to slip into all the gossip conversations, but everyone locking him out.

There’s a lot of discussion about divorce and its effect on both the adults and the children in the mix, and it’s handled very well, if occasionally played for laughs. It was a subject that was becoming increasingly irrelevant at the time it aired, so many people were going through it, and this series looked at it head-on.

And of course, it couldn’t have been the main Keaton family because we know how much they love one another, but Rob has been around on the series, and they’ve definitely laid the groundwork for this following on his prior appearances.

It’s smartly handled and isn’t afraid to be blunt, but also funny and heartfelt.

Hey, it’s been a year, it must be time for another clip show. On 13 December, 1987, The American Family aired as an hour-long episode. The wrap-around material was written by Katie Ford.

It seems Lauren (Courtney Cox) is writing a paper on the typical American family and wants to use the Keatons as her subject, and through her questions, the family reminisces about their life together, the things that make them who they are, and cue up the clips please. A large portion of the clips in the first half have to deal with the addition of Andy (Brian Bonsall) to the family.

It then explores the relationships of parents and their children in general allowing for a number of clips from a variety of clips showing how fun, and funny the series can be.

I love Family Ties, I love the cast, I love the writing but it seems they’ve done clip shows one per season and that seems a little much for me. Maybe every few seasons, but every season? I don’t think we needed it. Were there production reasons?

Oh well, back to regular episodes next time. Thank goodness.