Family Ties: Season 1

1982 · 22 episodes · ★ 7.3

What Season 1 of Family Ties

Columbus, Ohio, in the heart of the Reagan era. Steven and Elyse Keaton are a liberal couple, former hippies from the baby boom generation, raising four kids. She is a freelance architect, and he works at a public television station. The comedy comes from the clash between their ideals and those of their children. Alex, the oldest, is an ambitious Republican who admires Reagan's economics and dreams of becoming a millionaire. Mallory is into fashion and boys, while Jennifer, the youngest, is a sporty girl. Each episode follows the family's missteps, from dates and broken promises to a school cheating scheme, and shows how the parents try to understand a family that thinks differently from them.

22episodes

Sep 22, 1982premiered

Apr 10, 1983Latest episode

9.1 hrtotal runtime

Season 1 Episodes

1x01 Pilot
Sep 22, 1982 · 24 min
Alex escorts a pretty socialite to a dance at her country club.
Directing: Asaad Kelada · Starring: Toni Sawyer, Cindy Fisher, John Petlock, Maurice Marsac
1x02 Not With My Sister You Don't
Sep 29, 1982 · 25 min
Alex heads the household when Elyse and Steven go away for the weekend.
Directing: Tony Mordente · Writing: Lloyd Garver · Starring: Betsy Russell, Lee Montgomery, Jay Tarses, Brooke Alderson
1x03 I Know Jennifer's Boyfriend
Oct 6, 1982 · 24 min
Jennifer gets picked on when she befriends a boy at school.
Directing: Michael Zinberg · Starring: Jeremy Schoenberg
1x04 Summer of '82
Oct 27, 1982 · 25 min
Seduced by an "older woman" of twenty-one, the hitherto inexperienced Alex is devastated to learn that she thinks of their relationship as casual.
Directing: Tony Mordente · Writing: Michael J. Weithorn · Starring: Amy Steel, John Putch
1x05 I Never Killed for My Father
Nov 3, 1982 · 25 min
A visit from Steven's father evokes confrontation between the two.
Directing: Dick Martin · Starring: John Randolph
1x06 Give Your Uncle A Kiss
Nov 10, 1982 · 25 min
Mallory is horrified and confused when a close family friend and older business associate of her father's makes a pass at her.
Directing: Will Mackenzie · Writing: Lloyd Garver · Starring: Sal Viscuso, David Spielberg
1x07 Big Brother Is Watching
Nov 17, 1982 · 25 min
As the new editor of his school paper, Alex uncovers a cheating scandal and to everyone's chagrin, prints a list of students who were caught including Mallory.
Directing: Alan Bergmann · Writing: Ruth Bennett · Starring: Philip Sterling, Andrew J. Lederer
1x08 No Nukes Is Good Nukes
Nov 24, 1982 · 24 min
To the dismay of the Keaton children and their equally conservative grandparents, Steven and Elyse take time out Thanksgiving Day to attend an anti-nuke rally-and end up spending the holiday in jail.
Directing: Frank Bonner · Writing: Ruth Bennett · Starring: Priscilla Morrill, Larry Hankin, Dick Sargent, Jack O'Leary
1x09 Death Of A Grocer
Dec 1, 1982 · 25 min
Though Alex loves working at Mr. Adler's "Mom and Pop" grocery store, to the old man's dismay, he quits to "climb the corporate ladder" at an ultramodern supermarket.
Directing: Will Mackenzie · Writing: Michael J. Weithorn · Starring: Marc Price, Jack Somack, Randy Lowell, Alan Haufrect
1x10 Have Gun, Will Unravel
Dec 8, 1982 · 25 min
The Keatons consider buying a gun for protection after getting burglarized.
Directing: Alan Bergmann · Starring: Jack Riley, Mary Jackson, Pat McNamara, Enid Kent
1x11 A Christmas Story
Dec 15, 1982 · 25 min
When a blizzard forces the Keatons to spend Christmas at home, Elyse's gift to Steven, an album filled with fascinating old photos, sparks flashbacks to the birth of their three children.
Directing: Will Mackenzie · Starring: Chris Hebert, Peter Jurasik, Mari Gorman, Bruce French
1x12 Oops
Dec 22, 1982 · 25 min
Mallory resents Elyse for the advice she gives her pregnant friend.
Directing: Tony Mordente · Starring: Julie Payne, Cristen Kauffman
1x13 Sherry Baby
Jan 12, 1983 · 25 min
When popular sorority girl Sherry Marshall befriends Mallory to get close to Alex, Mallory brings them together in hopes of joining Pi Nu but her plan backfires.
Directing: Dick Martin · Writing: Barbara Hall · Starring: Marc Price, Lisa Lucas, Robin Evans
1x14 The Fugitive (1)
Jan 19, 1983 · 25 min
Elyse's younger brother and Alex's idol, Ned, makes a surprise visit. However, everyone is puzzled by the go-getter corporate executive's suspicious behavior.
Directing: Will Mackenzie · Writing: Michael J. Weithorn · Starring: Tom Hanks, Richard Venture
1x15 The Fugitive (2)
Jan 26, 1983 · 24 min
With the FBI hot on Ned's heels for embezzling 4.5 million dollars in corporate funds, Elyse's ethical brother and Alex's idol tells the family why and where he hid the money.
Directing: Will Mackenzie · Writing: Michael J. Weithorn · Starring: Tom Hanks, Richard Venture, Earl Boen, Woody Eney
1x16 Margin Of Error
Feb 9, 1983 · 25 min
Alex amasses a bundle by playing the stock market on paper for his economics class, and courts disaster by secretly investing his father's money.
Directing: Tony Mordente · Writing: Michael Russnow · Starring: Anne Haney, Philip Charles MacKenzie
1x17 French Lessons
Feb 15, 1983 · 25 min
Mallory's handsome but shy French tutor, Jeff, finally musters up the nerve to ask her out and then courts disaster by enlistening Alex's advice on how to behave on the date.
Directing: Tony Mordente · Starring: John Dukakis, Zeke Zacarro
1x18 I Gotta Be Ming
Feb 22, 1983 · 25 min
As ""Big Brother"" to a 10-year-old Vietnamese boy, Alex tries to mold Ming into his own image, and he learns an unforgettable lesson when he breaks a promise to the adoring child.
Starring: Gene Akutagawa, Irene Yah-Ling Sun
1x19 Suzanne Takes You Down
Mar 15, 1983 · 25 min
Soon after free lance architect Elyse Keaton hires her friend Suzanne Davis to handle clerical chores, she wants to fire the under-qualified, overly aggressive secretary, but Suzanne's marriage breaks up, making the new job her only salvation.After 20 years as a housewife, Suzanne feels she lacks an identity outside the home. Swamped with paperwork, Elyse decides to solve that problem while easing her friend's mid-life crisis. Unfortunately Suzanne's take-charge approach to business throws a wrench into Elyse's client dealings and threatens to ruin the women's friendship. On the brink of firing Suzanne, the frustrated Elyse faces a terrible dilemma when Ron Davis decides he ""needs space"" and leaves his wife.
Directing: Will Mackenzie · Starring: Terry Wills, Jay Tarses, Brooke Alderson
1x20 The Fifth Wheel
Mar 27, 1983 · 25 min
Alex gets stuck babysitting for his little sister Jennifer, who is fed up with feeling in the way at his poker game and decides to disappear.
Writing: Michael J. Weithorn · Starring: Grant Heslov, Moosie Drier, John Dukakis, Michael Spound
1x21 Stage Fright (a.k.a. Video Jitters)
Apr 3, 1983 · 25 min
While gearing up to face the TV cameras as captain of his high school's team on "Quiz Off," Alex panics at first when a teammate drops out. He then launches a major tutoring program for his sister Mallory.
Directing: Sam Weisman · Writing: Michael J. Weithorn · Starring: Deborah Foreman, Carlos Lacámara, Margaret Fitzgerald, Kerry Noonan
1x22 Elyse D'Arc Season Finale
Apr 10, 1983 · 25 min
In her zeal for good causes Elyse devotes so much energy to committee work that a neglected Steven feels shortchanged.Ecstatic to have won an award for his public television documentary, Steven arrives home eager to celebrate, but every effort is foiled by Elyse's obligations to her various projects. Finally, the over-extended wife-mother-architect-committee volunteer begins to realize she's neglecting her most important committee.
Directing: Michael Zinberg · Writing: Michael J. Weithorn · Starring: Belita Moreno, Enid Kent