Family Ties

- Season 5

(1986)

Andy starts his first day at preschool, where his favorite activity is Sharing Time. Alex feels he should learn how to deal with a dog-eat-dog world, and tells Andy he does not have to share, which does not go over well.

Alex's girlfriend Ellen left for Paris and Alex is heartbroken. He finally decides to ask someone out. Mallory & Jennifer help him to change his appearance for the date, and he tries to have Sharon change her appearance to look like Ellen.

Mallory has to work with a partner for a paper and is teamed with a senior citizen. The experience gives her a different outlook on college classes and life. Alex offers to help his father write his will, but gets a bit too involved.

A college friend of Steven & Elyse's visits. Matt wants to restart their college magazine. Steven agrees. As the staff talks about holding demonstrations and getting arrested, he realizes he has changed from the radical years of college.

Alex takes a job as a bank intern, but when he finds out his boss is a woman, he has a difficult time taking her seriously, and all their attempts to create a workable professional relationship seem to make the situation worse.

Mallory feels the pressure of college and home, and finds it too much. Talking with Nick, she dreams more of married life with a family than of college. They decide to get married, but her family is shocked and tries to talk her out of it.

Mallory and Nick are determined to get married, so they decide to elope. Alex tries to talk her out of it, but only after they have been gone for some time does he go after them. When Steven and Elyse learn of this, they panic; Steven hopes Alex can stop them, while Elyse concedes they'll have to grudgingly accept the situation. But while waiting for the justice of the peace to be available, Nick has second thoughts about what they're doing.

When Elyse invites Terry Bridgeman - her former architecture collaborator before her pregnancy - for dinner, she learns that his girlfriend left him, and succumbs to matchmaking. Alas, Elyse picks neighbor Liz Obeck, who gave even Alex sleepless nights; Liz tells Steven that men fall for her only to be dumped, and notes that she already has a steady boyfriend of two years. By the time Steven passes the news to the insistently preoccupied Elyse, Terry is smitten with Liz. Nick helps Alex to a free gift for Andy's fellow toddler friend Cindy - a doll refused by the ...

Skippy is frustrated over not getting into a fraternity, so Alex talks to the brothers at his frat's local chapter, and Skippy gets accepted. But Alex is conflicted when he learns they only want to make him a laughingstock.

Nick wants a job at the YMCA, but is turned down because he does not have a high school diploma, so Mallory helps him study for an equivalency test. Jennifer is upset with her father for his carpool conversations.

Alex works with a renowned professor on an economics paper. Reviewing the final content, he finds the hypothesis is incorrect, but the professor wants to submit it with false data. Alex and Mallory have a difference of opinion about Andy's wardrobe.

Mallory brings a friend home from college who immediately becomes pals with Elyse. Mallory's friend Allison is studying architecture, so she and Elyse spend a lot of time together - leading Mallory to question her closeness to her mother. Meanwhile, Alex and Steven play many games of Scrabble. Of course, Alex gets money involved. They both invent words and the stakes go very high.

Steven's brother Rob visits, but stuns everyone by announcing he and his wife have separated and are filing for divorce; he is dating a woman he just met on the plane. Mallory and Jennifer find excuses to see a cute paramedic at the mall.

Rob's wife Maureen arrives at the Keaton home, and tells Steven that Rob left home and his job two months ago without telling her where he was going. Steven struggles to decide where his relationship with his brother is headed.

Mallory is enthralled in a grad student in her poetry reading group at Grant College. Mallory's boyfriend Nick is concerned that he might lose her to the poet.

Steven's work has approved Elyse for remodeling the lobby of the WKS building. Also, they want a contest for sculptures submitted by local artists and will pick a winner. Against Steven's wishes, Nick is included. He has great ideas.

Alex attends a banking conference with his boss, but when his hotel reservation is lost, he shares a hotel room with his boss. The room is quite small. Elyse and the girls want to remodel the kitchen, although Steven is reluctant.

While Alex and Rebecca attend a banking convention, Rebecca is nervous about meeting her boss. She has some drinks to relax, but ends up getting drunk and ruins the meeting. Steven wallpapers the kitchen but makes a mess of the job.

Elyse, Mallory and Jennifer are upset after Alex orders for them at a restaurant, arguing that he was being chauvinistic. Alex and Steven disagree, so the women recall all the times they tried to be overly manly and the disastrous results.

After their recollections give Andy the impression that everyone in the family constantly argues, they tell him about occasions when they offered each other support and comfort, strengthening their relationships.

Jennifer talks Alex into letting her band audition for Leland College's dance. When the band turns out to be good, Alex sees it as a money-making proposition, and takes over as the band's manager, causing problems.

Steven's station offers one scholarship for a child of an employee. Alex happily applies, though Mallory must be talked into trying for it. Alex is certain he will be selected, but has unexpected emotions about Mallory's aspirations.

Alex's friend dies in an accident. As the family grieves, Alex tries to mask his pain, but he can't hide his sadness and other emotions forever.

Jennifer helps tutor a star athlete who is having problem with science class. She pretends to be dumb in other subjects so he does not think she is just a brain. He invites her out, and she continues her dumb act.

Steven wants to throw a surprise birthday party for Elyse, but everyone knows he never throws a good surprise party. Also, Skippy meets one of Mallory's friends and is attracted to her. He asks her out and she agrees. Then he is nervous.

Elyse's sister Michele is visiting with her family. Everyone looks forward to Michele, but not her husband and children; she is friendly and helpful, but the others are loud, rude, and obnoxious. On this visit, they also bring a large dog.

Seeing that Mallory is a wreck after her break-up with Rick and six failed dates, Alex decides to match her with a fellow Leland student. His theoretically ideal choice is Roger Sloate, an engineering major. Alas, Alex's chaperoning isn't rewarded - his dumb sister dumps Roger like the rest, but accepts a last double date, where Roger spontaneously falls for Alex's date Tracy. Something smart Alex can't understand is that love is irrational chemistry. Dad Steven is dead-set against 'dehumanizing' computer games, but after a computer is rented for the kids' homework, ...

On Jen's 13th birthday, she is unusually resistant to the usual party ingredients; she clearly only pretends to appreciate the hand-puppet show her dad revels in, and actually gets completely obsessed with imitating the fashion-obsessed herd of 'cool kids' at school, even if that means abandoning all her rather tomboy habits. Stacie's gang and chasing boys seem to overtake her whole personality, and she even takes lessons in 'cool' signals and talk from airhead Mallory.

Since her birthday party, Jennifer is spending all her spare time with her new 'cool' airhead friends, doing atypical things such as mall-shopping - spending all her babysitting savings - and scorning her own habits and family traditions, and no longer dares to sit with real friend Beth. She even lets Chrissy convince her to ditch a math class for a sale. Ellen and Mallory try to reassure Alex that the newly 13-year-old Jennifer is just becoming aware of her sexuality. A call from vice-principal Ross about Jen's truancy makes Steven and Elyse ground her indefinitely. ...