![]() Searching for meaning in Greg’s dying and his own surviving, Alex realizes that he can best preserve the memory of his friend by using Greg’s attributes as an example and by being the best person he can be. “Family Ties” succeeds here in part because of its ensemble contributions, but primarily because of writing that makes sense of life (“Walking in there was like walking into a hug,” Alex recalls about entering his mother’s kitchen as a child) and death. Fewer still have the capacity to occasionally wipe off the smile and be serious without also insulting viewers’ intelligence. Written by executive producer Gary David Goldberg and producer Alan Unger, the hour is skillfully staged like a play, with Alex’s visit to a therapist a device to blur the past and present, return him to his childhood and allow him to speak to his dead friend and examine his own values.ĭespite intrusive intermittent laughter from the audience, this is bold, risky, thinking, artful TV, with a fine, moving performance by that supreme comedic actor Fox, supported by the usual good work from Meredith Baxter Birney, Michael Gross, Justine Bateman and Tina Yothers as other Keatons.įew sitcoms are funny. “My life was saved out of smallness, out of lack of generosity for a friend,” he says. Hence, Alex is alive only because he was selfish.Īlex tries to bury his shame in jokes, but his guilt and self-doubt soon surface. Fox) is traumatized by the death of his close friend, Greg (Michael McNamara), in a car crash.Īlex would have been in the car, too, had he not turned down Greg’s request to accompany him and help move a piano. Always one of TV’s funniest shows, “Family Ties” this week is also one of its most sensitive and thoughtful as self-centered Alex Keaton (Michael J. That’s where Thursday’s special hour episode of NBC’s “Family Ties” (8:30 p.m. Extended extreme anguish is rarely depicted in TV drama in a meaningful way, even more rarely in comedy.
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