History YMMV / FamilyTies

** In the episode ''Margin of Error'' Elyse has a B-plot where she's designing an interfaith chapel. Her description of it at the end bears a remarkable resemblance to the layout of TabletopGame/TheTempleOfElementalEvil.

** In "Remembrances of Things Past", Steven dreamed when he was a kid to a moment where he said something bad about him which he didn't mean. He woke up, Elise asked what's wrong, he tells her that he said many bad things to his dad while growing up. He starts crying, [[PartingWordsRegret saying it's too late to take them back]]. Elise comforts him.

** In the Season 2 episode "Double Date," Alex as chair of the committee and his date Rachel decide to have a Southern plantation ''[[Film/GoneWithTheWind Gone with the Wind]]''-themed prom. [[FromBadToWorse As if that weren't enough,]] a prominent climbing rope hanging in the gym as they decorate it for the prom looks ''exactly'' like a lynching noose.
** As stated in UnintentionalPeriodPiece on the Trivia page, Alex's conservative views would seem more moderate compared to the more reactionary views of the Republican Party in 2020. It's telling that even Michael J. Fox admitted that he could never see Alex supporting Donald Trump.

** In the episode "Birthday Boy," Steven is out of town at a conference for Alex's 18th birthday. Alex's friends want to take him to West Virginia, where the legal drinking age at the time (this episode airing on January 5, 1984) was 18 years old, but Elyse refuses, and Alex says, "If Dad were here, ''he'd'' let me go. In the very next scene, Alex's friends show up to take him to Wheeling, and one of them is played by Crispin Glover. Almost 18 months to the day later, on July 3, 1985, ''[[Film/BackToTheFuture Back to the Future]]'' was released, in which Glover played Michael J. Fox's father. So not ''only'' would Alex's "dad" have let him go, he would have taken him there and bought him a round.

** Watching the Keatons preach to Uncle Ned about his alcoholism is kind of hard to watch after Michael J. Fox and Meredith Baxter admitted they both had drinking problems.

** The episode "Have Gun, Will Unravel" sees Steven and Elyse consider and then debate on purchasing a gun for home defense after a burglar breaks into their home, something both ex-flower children would previously find unthinkable. And then literally the day after he finished playing Steven, Michael Gross began portraying GunNut CrazySurvivalist Burt Gummer in the ''Film/{{Tremors}}'' franchise, who shows a monster what happens when it breaks into the wrong rec room.

* FanPreferredCouple: Alex and Ellen. Most people prefer this couple to Alex and Lauren, his girlfriend in later seasons. It also helps that Creator/MichaelJFox and Ellen's actress Tracy Pollan are still married in real life.

* NeverLiveItDown: “A, My Name Is Alex” has become the poster child for sitcoms doing an overly schmaltzy and sentimental VerySpecialEpisode. It's especially notorious in that we never once heard about Alex’s supposed lifelong best friend until he died.
** There is an explanation for Alex's newly discovered "lifelong friend." WordOfGod has it [[WhatCouldHaveBeen the original pitch in the writers' room]] was that [[TheWoobie Skippy]] would be [[AnyoneCanDie the character who died in the car accident]]. It was rejected because [[PlotArmor none of the writers wanted to kill Skippy off]], and also, if he had died, [[TheBaroness the audience would ''never'' forgive Mallory]] if she had not had as bad or worse a breakdown than Alex, and that would have required a split focus to the episode.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: Alex was a riff on an observable trend of the time. Gen X'ers were rebelling against the leftist stint of their Boomer/Silent Gen parents from the sixties and seventies. Politically, Gen X has always been seen as uninvolved, although most polls suggest a 50/50 split between conservative and liberal, whereas subsequent generations lean increasingly left. (Pew broke down age brackets. In 2016, that 30-49 demo voted 40% for [[UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump Trump.]]) The current GOP has a demographics problem. If enough white, middle aged Gen X'ers swing right, it could be enough to keep them afloat.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: Alex was a riff on an observable trend of the time. Gen X'ers were rebelling against the leftist stint of their Boomer/Silent Gen parents from the sixties and seventies. Politically, Gen X has always been seen as uninvolved, although most polls suggest a 50/50 split between conservative and liberal, whereas subsequent generations lean increasingly left. The current GOP has a demographics problem. If enough white, middle aged Gen X'ers swing right, it could be enough to keep them afloat.

** In the Season 4 episode "How Do You Sleep?" Alex is suffering from insomnia which keeps his awake for over a week, leading him to say, "This is unbelievable. I've forgotten how to sleep! What's next? I'll forget how to breathe, how to eat, how to walk, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking how to calculate simple interest]]? [[WhatHaveIBecome WHAT IS BECOME OF ME?!]]" It's [[DudeNotFunny much less funny]] when you realize extreme insomnia ''is'' an early symptom of Parkinson's disease, which eventually ''does'' make all the other things - except, perhaps, calculating simple interest - more difficult.

** In the Season 4 episode "How Do You Sleep?" Alex is suffering from insomnia which keeps his awake for over a week, leading him to say, "This is unbelievable. I've forgotten how to sleep! What's next? I'll forget how to breathe, how to eat, how to walk, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking how to calculate simple interest]]? [[WhatHaveIBecome WHAT IS BECOME OF ME?!]] It's [[DudeNotFunny much less funny]] when you realize extreme insomnia ''is'' an early symptom of Parkinson's disease, which eventually ''does'' make all the other things - except, perhaps, calculating simple interest - more difficult.

** In the Season 2 episode "Double Date," Alex as chair of the committee and his date Rachel decide to have a Southern plantation ''[[Film/GoneWithTheWind Gone with the Wind]]''-themed prom. [[FromBadToWorse As if that weren't enough,]] a prominent climbing rope hanging in the gym as they decorate it for the prom looks ''exactly'' like a lynching noose.

** There is an explanation for Alex's newly discovered "lifelong friend." WordOfGod has it [[WhatCouldHaveBeen the original pitch in the writers' room]] was that [[TheWoobie Skippy]] would be [[AnyoneCanDie the character who died in the car accident]]. It was rejected because [[PlotArmor none of the writers wanted to kill Skippy off]], and also, if he had died, [[The Baroness the audience would ''never'' forgive Mallory]] if she had not had as bad or worse a breakdown than Alex, and that would have required a split focus to the episode.

** The episode "Have Gun, Will Unravel" sees Steven and Elyse consider and then debate on purchasing a gun for home defense after a burglar breaks into their home, something both ex-flower children would previously find unthinkable. And then literally the day after he finished playing Steven, Micheal Gross began portraying GunNut CrazySurvivalist Burt Gummer in the ''Film/{{Tremors}}'' franchise, who shows a monster what happens when it breaks into the wrong rec room.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: You'd be surprised the number of times the audience was actually ''not'' meant to agree with or sympathize with Alex in a certain situation, but did anyway due to how charming and likable Michael J. Fox was in the role.

* FridgeBrilliance: In the episode "Say Uncle" we Elise's brother (Uncle) Ned has developed a drinking problem. Early in the episode after she says he's going heavy on the beer, she tells him she wants to talk to him, which is a proposal to find a new job. The way Ned reacts at first means he thinks she's going to nag him about being an alcoholic.

** Watching the Keatons preach to Uncle Ned about his alcoholism is kind of hard to watch after Michael J. Fox and Meredith Baxter admitted they had drinking problems.

* HeartwarmingInHindsight: The FanPreferredCouple actually did get married after all, as Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan began dating some years after the show had finished it's run and eventually got engaged. They're still married to this day.

** The episode "Have Gun, Will Unravel" sees Steven and Elyse consider and then debate on purchasing a gun for home defense after a burglar breaks into their home, something both ex-flower children would previously find unthinkable. And then literally the day after he finished playing Steven, Micheal Gross began portraying GunNut CrazySurvivalist Burt Gummer in the ''Film/{{Tremors}}'' franchise, who went on to show a monster what happens when it breaks into the wrong goddamn rec room.
** At the beginning of the episode "Heartstrings" Alex is celebrating George Bush's win. He tells Andy that he was born under Reagan, Bush was elected, and that he'd have a Democrat-free childhood. UsefulNotes/BillClinton was elected four years later.

* MisaimedFandom: Alex became an icon among conservatives, to the point that UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan said ''Family Ties'' was his favorite show, even though the audience was never intended to seriously agree with his political views. It's just that Michael J Fox was so likable.
* NeverLiveItDown: “A, My Name Is Alex” has become the poster child for sitcoms doing an overly schmaltzy and sentimental VerySpecialEpisode. Especially notorious is how we never once heard about Alex’s supposed lifelong best friend until he died.

** In a two-part episode where Alex finds himself having to choose between Lauren and another young woman he's become attracted to, Alex realizes that he doesn't have a future with either girl and gently breaks it off with both of them, allowing all three to move on with their lives.
* UnintentionallySympathetic: You'd be surprised the number of times the audience was actually ''not'' meant to agree with or sympathize with Alex in a certain situation, but did anyway due to how charming and likable Michael J. Fox was in the role.
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** Bruce Helford wrote five episodes. Helford is best known as creator and executive producer of * ''Series/AngerManagement2012'' and co-creator and executive producer of ''Series/TheNormShow'', ''Series/TheDrewCareyShow'', and ''Series/TheGeorgeLopezShow''.

** Bruce Helford wrote five episodes. Helford is best known as creator and executive producer of * ''Series/Anger Management2012'' and co-creator and executive producer of ''Series/TheNormShow'', ''Series/TheDrewCareyShow'', and ''Series/TheGeorgeLopezShow''.

** Bruce Helford wrote five episodes. Helford is best known as creator and executive producer of * ''Series/{{Anger Management|2012}}'' and co-creator and executive producer of ''Series/TheNormShow'', ''Series/TheDrewCareyShow'', and ''Series/TheGeorgeLopezShow''.

* EnsembleDarkhorse:
** Alex was the most popular character when the show aired and remains the best-remembered aspect of it. Interestingly, the character was originally intended to be amusingly obnoxious, but 1980s audiences loved his yuppie behavior unironically.
** Mallory's Creator/SylvesterStallone-inspired boyfriend Nick became extremely popular. NBC even planned a spin-off for him, but cancelled it since they were worried his absence would hurt the parent show.

** Bruce Helford wrote five episodes. Helford is best known as creator and executive producer of ''Series/AngerManagement'' and co-creator and executive producer of ''Series/TheNormShow'', ''Series/TheDrewCareyShow'', and ''Series/TheGeorgeLopezShow''.