Family Ties The Fourth Season

• Release Date: August 5th, 2008
• Genre: Comedy
• Price: $29.99 on Amazon
• Run Time: 673 Minutes
• Publisher: Paramount
• Starring: Michael J. Fox, Michael Gross, Meredith Baxter Birney, Justine Bateman, Tina Yothers
• Special Features: Family Ties Vacation (TV Movie), Gag Reel, Episodic Promos

Family Ties was a long running comedy during the 1980’s. Since I was only 1 year old when the show went off the air I obviously never saw the show live. I also hadn’t gotten around to seeing it in repeats. So when I received the fourth season of Family Ties in the mail I obviously didn’t know what to think since I had never seen the show before. The only things I knew about the show was that it was a family comedy and that Michael J. Fox was in it. That was it. Being over 20 years I was actually a little surprised by how well the show holds up.

Family Ties follows the Keaton’s. Alex is a college sophomore who has fallen in love with a girl named Ellen who is his total opposite. Mallory also has her own crush on the junkyard sculpter Nick. Jennifer becomes a teenager and faces the problems that every teen has to face. Finally there is Elyse and Steven who are taking care of baby Andrew along with the rest of their children. While they might not always get along they will always be bound by their family ties.

If you have never seen the show you can probably tell from the plot description that Family Ties is your typical family comedy. Obviously it has it’s own twists but it is essentially your typical family comedy at least in my opinion. That isn’t a bad thing since I am kind of a sucker for family comedies. Families Ties doesn’t really stand out from other family comedies though which keeps it from being anything more than an slightly above average family comedy.

As I already mentioned, the show does hold up pretty well being over 20 years old. Most family comedies do hold up pretty well though. Most of the things addressed in the show are still relevant today so that always helps make the show hold up better. I still found the show to be pretty funny and I wasn’t even alive when the fourth season aired on TV.

As far as special features are concerned they are kind of hit and miss. The Family Ties Vacation TV movie is a nice addition. It isn’t great but very solid and clocks in at an hour and a half. The gag reel and the episodic promos are exactly what you would expect and neither are anything special.

So Family Ties isn’t a spectacular show but a very solid show. It is pretty consistent show. So if you enjoyed Family Ties when it originally aired, have enjoyed the first three seasons on DVD, or even are just a fan of family comedies (I hadn’t watched the previous three seasons and still knew what was going on) I would suggest you look into purchasing the fourth season of Family Ties.

My Rating:

Fans of the Show or Family Comedies: