History YMMV / FamilyTies

** In "Help Wanted" the housekeeper the Keatons take on mainly due Alex having an instant (and let's face it, entirely understandable) crush on her is played by Creator/GeenaDavis (who later the adoptive mother of ''Film/StuartLittle''... Stuart being voiced in the films[[note]]But not the TV series[[/note]] by Michael J. Fox!)

* FanPreferredCouple: Alex Keaton's pairing with his first big love Ellen Reed continues being far more intensely popular with the fandom than his pairing with his endgame love interest Lauren Miller was. Fans ultimately thought the chemistry was way better between Alex and Ellen with a big part of that being that Creator/MichaelJFox and Creator/TracyPollan [[RomanceOnTheSet met on set, fell in love and got married in real life]]. Another is that most fans didn't real seemed interested in Lauren either, even with a young Creator/CourteneyCox playing her.

** In the Season 4 episode "How Do You Sleep?" Alex is suffering from insomnia which keeps his awake for over a week, leading him to say, "This is unbelievable. I've forgotten how to sleep! What's next? I'll forget how to breathe, how to eat, how to walk, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking how to calculate simple interest]]? [[WhatHaveIBecome WHAT IS BECOME OF ME?!]]" It's much less funny when you realize extreme insomnia ''is'' an early symptom of Parkinson's disease, which eventually ''does'' make all the other things - except, perhaps, calculating simple interest - more difficult.
*** Given the original airdate of this episode (December 1985), it was either shot during or immediately after production of ''Film/BackToTheFuture1''. It was later revealed that Fox had to shoot both BTTF and ''Family Ties'' simultaneously due to NBC refusing to release him from his commitments to the latter, with Fox having very little sleep during that period, which actually [[EnforcedMethodActing came across in the film]]. Having Fox shoot an episode where he starts going crazy from exhaustion in that time almost sounds like a cruel joke.

* {{Narm}}: The hour-long episode "A, My Name is Alex" was critically acclaimed and even earned the show an UsefulNotes/EmmyAward, but there's no denying that it sometimes comes across as a glorified after-school special complete with Michael J. Fox hamming it up for a straight hour. Even more narmy, since Alex's "best friend" Greg was [[RememberTheNewGuy never seen or mentioned before that episode]], so the viewers can't really relate to Alex's reaction to his death.

* FridgeLogic: If Skippy's adopted, how come his sister looks like him? [[note]]It is not uncommon for adopted children to resemble non-biological siblings or parents.[[/note]]

* FanPreferredCouple: Alex Keaton's pairing with his first big love Ellen Reed continues being far more intensely popular with the fandom than his pairing with his endgame love interest Lauren Miller was. Fans ultimately thought the chemistry was way better between Alex and Ellen with a big part of that being that Creator/MichaelJFox and Creator/TracyPollan [[RomanceOnSet met on set, fell in love and got married in real life]]. Another is that most fans didn't real seemed interested in Lauren either, even with a young Creator/CourteneyCox playing her.

* FanPreferredCouple: Alex Keaton's pairing with his first big love Ellen Reed continues being far more intensely popular with the fandom than his pairing with his endgame love interest Lauren Miller was. Fans ultimately thought the chemistry was way better between Alex and Ellen with a big part of that being that Creator/MichaelJFox and Creator/TracyPollan met on set, fell in love and got married in real life. Another is that most fans didn't real seemed interested in Lauren either, even with a young Creator/CourteneyCox playing her.

* {{Narm}}: The hour-long episode "A, My Name is Alex" was critically acclaimed and even earned the show an UsefulNotes/EmmyAward, but there's no denying that it sometimes comes across as a glorified after-school special complete with Michael J. Fox hamming it up for a straight hour. Even more narmy, since Alex's "best friend" [[RememberTheNewGuy Greg]] was never seen or mentioned before that episode, so the viewers can't really relate to Alex's reaction to his death.

** As stated under UnintentionalPeriodPiece, Alex's conservative views would seem rather moderate compared to the more reactionary views of the Republican Party in 2020. It's telling that even Michael J. Fox admitted that he could never see Alex supporting Donald Trump.

* {{Narm}}: The hour-long episode "A, My Name is Alex" was critically acclaimed and even earned the show an Emmy award but there's no denying that it sometimes comes across as a glorified after-school special complete with Michael J. Fox hamming it up for a straight hour. Even more narmy, since Alex's "best friend" [[RememberTheNewGuy Greg]] was never seen or mentioned before that episode, so the viewers can't really relate to Alex's reaction to his death.

* FridgeLogic: If Skippy's adopted, how come his sister looks like him?

*** Given the original airdate of this episode (December 1985), it was either shot during or immediately after production of ''Film/BackToTheFuture''. It was later revealed that Fox had to shoot both BTTF and ''Family Ties'' simultaneously due to NBC refusing to release him from his commitments to the latter, with Fox having very little sleep during that period, which actually [[EnforcedMethodActing came across in the film]]. Having Fox shoot an episode where he starts going crazy from exhaustion in that time almost sounds like a cruel joke.

** In the episode "Birthday Boy," Steven is out of town at a conference for Alex's 18th birthday. Alex's friends want to take him to West Virginia, where the legal drinking age at the time (this episode airing on January 5, 1984) was 18 years old, but Elyse refuses, and Alex says, "If Dad were here, ''he'd'' let me go." In the very next scene, Alex's friends show up to take him to Wheeling, and one of them is played by Crispin Glover. Almost 18 months to the day later, on July 3, 1985, ''[[Film/BackToTheFuture Back to the Future]]'' was released, in which Glover played Michael J. Fox's father. So not ''only'' would Alex's "dad" have let him go, he would have taken him there and bought him a round.

** Republicans at the time saw Alex P. Keaton as cool and hip, no doubt due to Michael J. Fox's performance. Cut to 2016: With America still living under the shadow of 9/11 and the Great Recession, race relations becoming more problematic, and the Republican Party's continued controversial attempts to pander to fundamentalist Christians, it's quite possible that most conservatives would now view Alex as a liberal, and the Democratic parents would probably be viewed as Communists. WordOfGod seems to defend this: in one of his [[http://garydavidgoldberg.com/blog/2008/02/wwakd_what_would_alex_keaton_d_1.html last blogs]], written during the 2008 Presidential Election, creator Gary David Goldberg believed that Alex would not fit in with modern-day Republicans, would become a registered Independent, and would consider voting for UsefulNotes/BarackObama because of his Recession-related fiscal reforms.

* TheWoobie: Irwin "Skippy" Handelman.

* FanPreferredCouple: Alex and Ellen. Most people prefer this couple to Alex and Lauren, his girlfriend in later seasons. It also helps that Creator/MichaelJFox and Ellen's actress Creator/TracyPollan are still married in real life.

** In the season 2 episode "Tender is the Knight", Alex and Mallory's childhood friend Carrie was meant to be a refreshing depiction of a young woman who is independent, liberated, sexually confident, and goes after what she wants. However, through a modern lens, she comes across as embodying everything women hate about men. She's forward, pushy, and amuses herself by sexually harassing Alex even though he's clearly uncomfortable and feels threatened.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: If there was ever a show that reflected America under the Reagan administration, ''Family Ties'' is it. Republicans at the time saw Alex P. Keaton as cool and hip, no doubt due to Michael J. Fox's performance. Cut to 2016: With America still living under the shadow of 9/11 and the Great Recession, race relations becoming more problematic, and the Republican Party's continued controversial attempts to pander to fundamentalist Christians, it's quite possible that most conservatives would now view Alex as a liberal, and the Democratic parents would probably be viewed as Communists. WordOfGod seems to defend this: in one of his [[http://garydavidgoldberg.com/blog/2008/02/wwakd_what_would_alex_keaton_d_1.html last blogs]], written during the 2008 Presidential Election, creator Gary David Goldberg believed that Alex would not fit in with modern-day Republicans, would become a registered Independent, and would consider voting for UsefulNotes/BarackObama because of his Recession-related fiscal reforms.

** As stated in UnintentionalPeriodPiece on the Trivia page, Alex's conservative views would seem rather moderate compared to the more reactionary views of the Republican Party in 2020. It's telling that even Michael J. Fox admitted that he could never see Alex supporting Donald Trump.

* {{Narm}}: The hour-long episode "A, My Name is Alex" was critically acclaimed and even earned the show an Emmy award but there's no denying that it sometimes comes across as a glorified after-school special complete with Michael J. Fox hamming it up for a straight hour.

* 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.