Jennifer (Tina Yothers) and a friend, Simon (Jason Naylor) have a school project to work on together about teens in the workplace and have gotten a job at a fast food restaurant, Chicken Heaven. Unfortunately, Simon is completely smitten with Jennifer and can’t concentrate on the job at hand.

Written by Katie Ford the episode was first broadcast on 5 March, 1989.

Jennifer gets a moment to shine as she gets to work, and how she navigates her personal relationships and her first job.

Alex (Michael J. Fox) is having problems in the neighbourhood because the newspaper girl, Marla (Jaclyn Bernstein) has a huge crush on him and won’t leave him alone. It makes for some fun moments to see Alex chased around by someone smaller than him.

There are also a lot of fun comedy bits with the rest of the Keatons, but the stuff with Simon’s physical bits seems a little too much. Unfortunately, Simon loses his job because of his smitten behaviour, and while Jennifer appreciates Simon as a friend, she isn’t happy with his job performance and has to break his heart as he gets friend-zoned.

It’s an alright episode, but it definitely doesn’t show how rough it is working in the food industry. It’s more played for laughs and goofiness, even for a sitcom like Family Ties.

All in the Neighborhood Part 1 gives us a message episode in the Family Ties way.

Steven (Micheal Gross) tells Gus (John Hancock) his longtime co-worker down at the station, that they should move into the neighbourhood. Gus and his family end up purchasing the house across the street from the Keatons, but there seems to be some pushback from the neighbours about a black family moving into their little corner of suburbia.

Things start right from the beginning with some problems with the realtor. Things escalate when a mailer is sent out about the new ‘troubling’ element in the area, and horrible racist phone calls. The Keatons host a neighbourhood meeting to deal with the situation. But things escalate when Glen (Kevin Dunn) makes comments about property value and how people should stay in their own ‘neighbourhoods.’

The conversation and episode end with a question about what families are thinking about moving out, and what ones are staying and making their neighbourhood a welcoming place. The episode ends with Gus and his family go back to their home and decide whether to stay or not.

Written by Ruth Bennett, this episode was first broadcast on 12 March, 1989, and for some reason, this is one of the episodes that I vividly remember watching when it first aired.

I like the interactions between Alex and Gus, especially their love of elevator and polka music.

All in the Neighborhood: Part 2 aired a week later on 19 March, 1989, and was also written by Bennett.

The Keatons continue to persuade Gus and his family to stay, but Maya (Rosalind Cash) and Keith (Micheal Thompson) are becoming increasingly uncomfortable. That is elevated to a breaking point when they come home one evening to find their home vandalized.

The Keatons reflect on how the neighbourhood wasn’t always white, which is one of the things they enjoyed about it, and they love and embrace the diversity that comprised it. Steven and Elyse (Meredith Baxter) are so pure of heart and see the best in people, they are ideal and wonderful. They give us something we should strive for, even if sometimes they are a little goofy.

Of course, Alex and Andy (Brian Bonsall) have a discussion about racism in case you missed the message of treating everyone equally and fair. Isn’t that what the democracy is all about? There’s a discussion about complicity as well, which sadly, is still relevant today.

It’s an important episode and handled fairly well and deals with a subject that doesn’t seem to have gone away. And wow, the end of the series is on the horizon…