History Series / FamilyTies

* {{Costumer}}: In the episode "Philadelphia Story," Alex has a dream where he must convince Thomas Jefferson to write the Declaration of Independence and the cast wears clothing from that time period.

* TheCouch

* DomCom
* DropInCharacter

* EvilMatriarch

* GoodParents: Steven and Elyse

* HairTriggerTemper: Steven's father.
* HappilyMarried: Steven and Elyse

** The two-part episode "Remembrance of Things Past" has Steven convinced that he was the misunderstood, rebellious hero of his family with his father and brother being the uptight jerk-asses. However, through flashbacks and a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech from his brother, Steven realizes that he was a brat who thought he was always right without ever considering how his actions affected his family.

* IWantYouToMeetAnOldFriendOfMine

* InfantSiblingJealousy: Jennifer, having previously been the youngest, gets hit with this hard when baby Andrew comes home and turns the household on its ear. One episode has her freaking out at her parents because the baby has woken everyone up in the middle of the night and she has an important test in the morning.

* IvyLeagueForEveryone: Subverted.

* LockedInARoom

** In "Heartstrings Part 2", we find out the happenings of the day Steven's father died. Steven and Alex are watching the World Series on TV when the phone rings. Steven goes to answer it and while he is in the other room on the phone, the game ends. Alex is excited for his father that the Detroit Tigers had just won. However, Steven somberly enters the room and explains that his his father (and Alex's grandfather), Jacob, had just died from heart failure. Alex pauses and then begins to talk about how well-off his grandmother will be because of his grandfather's earnings, and when Steven stops him, Alex tearfully admits it will be the only way to stop himself from crying. Steven, beginning to get emotional, tells Alex that it is okay to cry, and the two embrace, sobbing in each other's arms. Played straight -- the two were the only ones home when the call came, and there was no scene where the women came into the room, saw Alex and Steven crying, and mistakenly concluded that the Tigers had lost -- the scene was critically praised as a very sweet, tender moment between father and son grieving the loss of a loved one.

* PapaWolf: Steven is a very nice guy who generally gets along with everyone; but harm his children and he will get you. Even his brother-in-law (played by Creator/TomHanks) is not safe from his wrath.
* ParentExMachina

* PopularIsDumb:

* SmugSnake: Mr. Tadesco, Alex's teacher in "The Harder They Fall".
* SoapboxSadie: Jennifer in later years.

* SuckySchool: Grant College.

* TalkAboutThatThing

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent:
** ''Family Ties Vacation'', a two-hour [[TheMovie movie]] episode which was filmed on location in London.
** "A, My Name is Alex", an hour-long character piece dissecting everything that made Alex who he was. Arguably Michael J. Fox's finest hour.

* OpeningCreditsCastParty: The shows credits open with the Baxter family looking at family photo albums at the couch and introduces the cast members in order.

* AbsenteeActor: Meredith Baxter Birney is completely or ''almost'' completely absent from almost all of the first 16 episodes of Season 3. Although it was really due to Baxter Birney's maternity leave for her real-life pregnancy, it is usually explained in-show as Elyse's being either bedridden or out of town visiting relatives for her in-show pregnancy to Andrew. However, in one or two cases, it is explained as her being out of town for her recently acquired job out of the home at an architectural firm, and in at least one episode ("Auntie Up"), why she is out of town is not explained other than to say she is.

* BadassBeard: Worn by Steven beginning in Season 2.[[note]]Michael Gross had grown the beard for a Broadway production, and liked it enough to keep it.[[/note]]

* ThematicThemeTune: "Without Us", sung by Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams.

** In "Heartstrings Part 2", we find out the happenings of the day Steven's father died. Steven and Alex are watching the World Series on TV when the phone rings. Steven goes to answer it and while he is in the other room on the phone, the game ends. Alex is excited for his father that the Detroit Lions had just won. However, Steven somberly enters the room and explains that his his father (and Alex's grandfather), Jacob, had just died from heart failure. Alex pauses and then begins to talk about how well-off his grandmother will be because of his grandfather's earnings, and when Steven stops him, Alex tearfully admits it will be the only way to stop himself from crying. Steven, beginning to get emotional, tells Alex that it is okay to cry, and the two embrace, sobbing in each other's arms. Played straight -- the two were the only ones home when the call came, and there was no scene where the women came into the room, saw Alex and Steven crying, and mistakenly concluded that the Lions had lost -- the scene was critically praised as a very sweet, tender moment between father and son grieving the loss of a loved one.

* ArtisticLicenseEducation: The season 5 episode "My Brother's Keeper" revolves around Alex trying to get the Grant College chapter of his frat to accept Skippy while Mallory claims that six sororities are courting her. Greek life is not common in public schools. City schools don't even have housing and yet the Grant chapter is shown having their own frat house. Even the few city school's that do have some version of Greek life are usually more akin to an independent club, they're not chapters of national organizations.

* LoveTriangle: Between Alex, Lauren, and Marty (a music student for whom he develops feelings while tutoring her). RealityEnsues--despite the deep feelings he has for both women, he realizes that neither of them is "The One" for him and ends it with both of them.

* YesVirginia: "[[Recap/FamilyTiesS6E17MiracleInColumbus Miracle in Columbus]]" has a little girl called Michelle not believe in Santa Claus; but by the end of the episode, Santa's existence is confirmed.

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!!Provides Examples Of:

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Steven Keaton is generally a mellow, understanding person. Unless you make him mad, in which case you best vacate the premises at once.

* BunnyEarsLawyer: In the episode "The Fugitive," Bert Carlyle, the FBI agent who comes to apprehend [[spoiler: Uncle Ned]], is this. He is so quirky, especially in his first and last appearances, that it makes you wonder how he even became an agent. However, he isn't as dumb as he seems, since he knows the Keatons are lying, successfully follows Alex to the airport and, while he doesn't make an arrest, he prevents a "known criminal" from fleeing the state. He also knows the law very well. And while he kinda got lucky that the fugitive gave up running, he took the correct actions to get him, although he almost let him slip through his hands ''after'' catching him. He still qualifies. He even says, "I'm pretty good at this, aren't I?"

* CousinOliver: Andrew. The youngest Baxter child who was born in season 5 (due to actress Meredith Baxter being pregnant in real life at the time).
* CrisisMakesPerfect: In the Season 3 episode "Auntie Up," with Elyse out of town and Mallory grieving the death of her beloved great-aunt - his own Aunt Trudy - Steven says "funerals, first dates and plumbing" have always been Elyse's job, while he handles "colds and flus, open school nights and office supplies." He also says, "I don't deal that well with death myself." Season 3 would end with the two-parter "Remembrances of Things Past," in which Steven travels to his own father's funeral, which he had known was imminent since the Season 1 episode "I Never Killed for My Father," and he must comfort his mother.

* TheDitz: Mallory. Although she's not as bad as most examples.
* DitzyGenius: Alex. He's a hyper-competitive straight A student and math genius who was doing his parents' taxes when he was five years old and advised his parents on mortgage rates when they bought their house. Yet in everyday activities he often proves completely incapable. His little sister frequently beats him in sports, and he fails at things like building kites, cooking or fixing cars even with extensive directions.

* TheEighties: The show ran from 1982 til 1989 and was drenched in the fashion and look of upper middle class 1980s Reagan America.
* EightiesHair: Jennifer's hair in later seasons was a fairly extreme case.
** Alex had a bit of a mullet around season 6, too.

* FieldTripToThePast: In one episode, Alex P. Keaton falls asleep - and he witnesses the Declaration of Independence. As this episode occurred around the time that Michael J. Fox (Alex's actor) was also playing Marty [=McFly=] on ''Back to the Future'', this episode was possibly a nod to the then upcoming film. In the film, Doc Brown types in the date of the Declaration of Independence - when demonstrating to Marty how his time machine works.

* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Alex (choleric, a very gentle and affectionate choleric, but a choleric nontheless), Steven (melancholic/phlegmatic), Nick (melancholic), Mallory (melancholic), Skippy and Andy (sanguine), Elyse (sanguine/choleric), and Jennifer (phlegmatic).

* InWithTheInCrowd: Alex and Mallory's trying (and often failing) to get in with the popular kids.

* LamazeClass: Elyse and Steven attend this during Elyse's pregnancy with Andy. It's also the focus of the episode "Oh, Donna" in which Alex becomes obsessed with helping out an unmarried student of the class.

* LongLostUncleAesop: Elyse's alcoholic brother Ned (Creator/TomHanks), and Elyse's sister Michelle (although in an earlier episode Elyse argues with her mother and refers to herself as "your only daughter"). There's a VerySpecialEpisode featuring Mallory's favorite aunt, the never-before-seen Trudy, who dies of a heart attack (which of course is never again mentioned). Also teen pregnancy was dealt with by bringing in a never-seen-before friend, and both Alex and Mallory mourn friends whom we'd never seen alive or would hear about later.

** There's also a one-off episode with Elyse's ''other'' sister, Stephanie, who never gets mentioned in any other episode. She's a perfectly lovely person, but for some reason her husband and two children are self-centered boors who have the entire Keaton family counting the days until they leave. Steven eventually gets fed up and throws them out.
* LoveTriangle: Between Alex, Lauren, and Marty (a music student he develops feelings for while tutoring her). RealityEnsues--despite the deep feelings he has for both women, he realizes that neither of them is "The One" for him and ends it with both of them.
* ManlyTears

** In "Heartstrings Part 2", we find out the happenings of the day Steven's father died. Steven and Alex are watching the World Series on TV when the phone rings. Steven goes to answer it and while he is in the other room on the phone, the game ends. Alex is excited for his father that the Detroit Lions had just won. However, Steven somberly enters the room and explains that his his father (and Alex's grandfather), Jacob, had just died from heart failure. Alex pauses and then begins to talk about how well-off his grandmother will be because of his grandfather's earnings, and when Steven stops him, Alex tearfully admits it will be the only way to stop himself from crying. Steven, beginning to get emotional, tells Alex that it is okay to cry, and the two embrace, sobbing in each other's arms. Played straight -- the two were the only ones home when the call came, and there was no scene where the women came into the room, saw Alex and Steven crying, and mistakenly conclude the Tigers had lost -- the scene was critically praised as a very sweet, tender moment between father and son grieving the loss of a loved one.

* SmugSnake: Mr. Tadesco, Alex' teacher in "The Harder They Fall".

* SoapOperaRapidAgingSyndrome: Andy. Went from infant in season 4 to about four years old in season 5.

** "Family Ties Vacation", a two-hour [[TheMovie movie]] episode which was filmed on location in London.

* WhatHaveIDone: Uncle Ned (SpecialGuest Creator/TomHanks) in "Uncle Ned" (from Season 2), where he loses out on an opportunity to work at the TV station where Steven works (after he shows up to the job interview drunk), then comes home even more drunk ... and then (fitting the trope) after getting into an argument with Alex, punches him in the head, sending him flying across the room. Only then is Ned shocked into realizing he has a serious problem.

** Also, with Mallory, when she begins dating Nick. They had envisioned Mal dating a nice guy, perhaps college-educated ... not some biker and Rambo-wannabe.
* YesVirginia: "[[Recap/FamilyTiesS6E17MiracleInColumbus Miracle in Columbus]]" has a little girl called Michelle not believe in Santa Claus but by the end of the episode, Santa's existence is confirmed.

** Mallory actually winds up doing this for the shattered mother of a friend who committed suicide.
* YoungerThanTheyLook: In the last couple of seasons, Jennifer is 15 or 16 years old, but looks like she could be in her late teens or early twenties toward the end of the series. Also, Michael Gross who plays Steven. He went grey early, his hair thinned a bit, and was only about 42 by the time the show ended.
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* WackyGuy: Mallory's boyfriend, Nick

* OppositesAttract: Alex and Ellen.
** Marty also. She's downright flaky at times, and at the very least, far more carefree than he is, as well as shy and awkward.
** Alex and Skippy are [[HeterosexualLifePartners a platonic example]].

* GrowingTheBeard: In the most objective sense possible. In Season 1, Steven is clean-shaven, but from Seasons 2 on, he has a beard. It is also worth noting the first half of Season 1 (including some episodes taped earlier but aired later, such as "Suzanne Takes You Down") are almost entirely Steven-and-Elyse focused, but from "The Fugitive, Part 1" and "Part 2" on, the series becomes increasingly focused on the kids, particularly Alex and Mallory. By Season 2, [[BreakoutCharacter Alex]]-driven episodes are the norm, with Mallory taking a distant second, and Steven-and-or-Elyse-driven episodes being only slightly more common than Jennifer-driven ones.

* InWithTheInCrowd

* CantGetAwayWithNuthin

* CousinOliver: Andrew

* OpeningCreditsCastParty

* ScreamingBirth

* MiddleChildSyndrome: Jennifer, having previously been the youngest, gets hit with this hard when baby Andrew comes home and turns the household on its ear. One episode has her freaking out at her parents because the baby has woken everyone up in the middle of the night and she has an important test in the morning.
* MysteriousMiddleInitial: Both actor Michael J. Fox and character Alex P. Keaton.
** It's been suggested that the P stood for [[EmbarrassingMiddleName Peace]]. Mallory at one point suggests, not necessarily jokingly, that it stands for Pompous.

* ActorAllusion: The episode where Jennifer forms a GirlGroup and Alex decides to manage them. Their song: "[[MisterSandmanSequence Mr. Sandman]]."

* AbsenteeActor: Meredith Baxter is absent from some of the season three episodes. Sometimes it is explained, but often nobody bothers with an excuse.
* AcademicAthlete: Jennifer, the sporty tomboy, gets good grades and is stated to be just as much as a TeenGenius as Alex. The "athlete" part is removed in later seasons, though.

* TheWoobie: Irwin "Skippy" Handelman.

** Also, with Mallory, when she begins dating Nick. They had envisioned Mal dating a nice guy, perhaps college educated ... not some biker and Rambo-wannabe.