Family Ties Free
- Genres: Comedy, Family
- Rating IMDb: 72
- Year: 2020
- Duration: 01:00
Summaries
Chronicles liberal ex-hippies Steven and Elyse Keaton, their conservative son Alex, daughters Mallory and Jennifer, and later, youngest child Andrew.
Steven and Elyse Keaton, once 1960s radicals, now find themselves in Reagan-era America trying to raise a traditional suburban family. Their three first kids are Alex (a very ambitious Young Republican), Mallory (a ditzy and boy-crazy fashionista), and Jennifer (whom we first get to know as a precocious nine-year-old tomboy). Later on, a fourth child (Andrew) was added to the family. Most of the comedy arose from the conflict between the ex-hippie parents vs. the conservative Alex and the brainless beauty Mallory.
It is the Reagan-era 1980s. Steven and Elyse Keaton are happily married with three children, Alex, Mallory and Jennifer. While they were hippies in the 60s, their children have turned out quite differently: Alex is a die-hard Reagan supporter, Mallory cares more about fashion than politics, and Jennifer is very studious. Despite their differences they're one big happy family, sharing life's ups and downs, heartaches, and laughs.
Steven and Elyse Keaton were two hippies with liberal viewpoints who married during the 1960s. They had hoped their children would adopt the same values. How wrong they were, especially in the case of their oldest son Alex. The series, which was based in Columbus, Ohio, explored the relationship between Steven (a public television station manager), Elyse (an architect) and their three children, Alex, Mallory, and Jennifer. Alex was an avid Reagan devotee and card-carrying Young Republicans Club member who sauntered through the house in a shirt and tie and hung a picture of William F. Buckley over his bed. But as intelligent and overachieving as he was, Mallory was as underachieving and, to say the least, a slacker; she was more concerned with shopping and cute guys. Jennifer was the precocious youngster who just wanted to be a normal kid. Skippy Handleman, one of Alex's best friends, was a geeky next door neighbor with an unrequited crush on Mallory. During the 1984-1985 season, Elyse gave birth to Andrew, their fourth child. Alex quickly took him under his wing, and before long he was reading the Wall Street Journal over his Froot Loops. As the years passed, Alex graduated from high school (as salutatorian) and pursued a financial degree from Leland College. It was there that he met his first serious girlfriend, the beautiful Ellen Reed (played by Fox's future wife, Tracy Pollan). After that relationship ended, he met psychology major Lauren Miller. Meanwhile, Mallory (who was in serious danger of flunking out of high school) found love in the form of Rambo-wannabe and high school dropout Nick Moore, of whom Steven and Elyse (at least initially) strongly disapproved; Alex disliked the motorcycle riding Nick even more. Mallory, however, did graduate from high school and became a fashion design major at Grant College. Nick also obtained his general equivalency diploma. While there was time for fun and laughs, many episodes explored serious topics, such as teen pregnancy, censorship, addiction to pills, the effects racial minority homeowners have on property values, and grieving the loss of a close friend. Other episodes dealt with Steven's distant relationships with his own family, particularly his brother, Robert, while plenty of episodes presented flashbacks of earlier ones featuring the Keaton offspring as young children. By the time the series wrapped up, Alex accepted his dream job offer...a job on Wall Street.