Alex has always had his eye on private Ivy League schools, and the first two seasons of Family Ties focused on the eldest Keaton child working very hard to earn a spot at one of two schools: Princeton or Dartmouth. A letter of recommendation, however, may hang in the balance after his parents assault a teacher at school in "The Harder They Fall."
It's parent-teacher night at Harding High School, and while Steven agrees to go to Mallory's teachers, Elyse visits Alex's. Her first stop is to his favorite teacher, Reuben Tedesco, who teaches (among other language arts classes) European literature. It isn't long before Tedesco proves himself to be nothing short of hostile, rude, insulting, condescending and highly inappropriate with his remarks. Elyse stands up for the other parents by asking Mr. Tedesco to immediately apologize, but that only emboldens him to the point where — when the parents block his exit to force him to at least explain himself — he shoves an elderly woman. Elyse snaps and hits Tedesco in the jaw.
Alex learns about what happened is upset. After all, he likes what appears to him to be a take-charge, take no prisoners, no-nonsense and stand firm attitude ... and admittedly Mr. Tedesco is exceptionally knowledgeable in literature. He can't understand his mother's impression of him as nothing short of a rude human being who has no business teaching literature ... or in any classroom, for that matter.
So Steven goes to the school on his way home from work the next day to apologize for Elyse punching him, but when Tedesco starts making highly inappropriate and personal remarks about Elyse, Steven tries to leave (and perhaps meet with the principal about Tedesco). But Tedesco presses on and whispers something in ear that is implied to be very crude, prompting Steven to hit Tedesco. When Steven tells him what happened and tries to explain that Tedesco is nothing more than a class-A jerk (and certainly that he needs professional help), Alex is mortified and is sure that his letter of recommendation — Tedesco's cousin is said to be on Dartmouth's staff, an influential professor at that — is being withdrawn.
To make one final attempt at smoothing things over and salvage his letter of recommendation hopes, Alex invites Mr. Tedesco over for dinner, and tells his parents, Mallory and Jennifer to be on their best behavior. Tedesco is himself and Alex tries gamely to keep things up, but when they leave the room and Tedesco presents Alex his letter of recommendation ... the teacher finally presses his luck by telling him that he's impressed that Alex is better than his parents and proceeds to roundly insult them. He, after all, doesn't fly off the handle or act like those savage imbeciles his parents after all.
Alex finally realizes that his parents were right about Mr. Tedesco, but overcoming the urge to physically assault his teacher, he instead hits him harder ... with words: For as focused on his success, both present and future as he is, he is proud of his parents and if he winds up half as successful as they have been, he'll be happy. He then rips up the letter and tells his teacher to leave.
Word of God has it that Mr. Tedesco submitted his resignation shortly after the events of this episode.
Tropes associated with this episode:
- Brutal Honesty: How Mr. Tedesco might justify his insulting remarks and, truth be told, his teaching philosophy and his claim that most of his students are underachieving slackers.
- Deadpan Snarker: Mr. Tedesco's personality is full of a cruel form of this ... and perhaps a reason why Alex initially connects well with him.
- Dehumanizing Insult: How Tedesco classifies Elyse, and later, Steven as well. However, his telling Alex he thinks his parents are brute savages who have anger management issues leads to his downfall.
- Evil Teacher and Sadist Teacher: Mr. Tedesco, and we mean sadist and cruel. Eventually, Alex realizes he doesn't like him that much after all.
- Fist of Rage: Which amazingly, Alex holds back. Perhaps knowing he might get expelled from school if he were to assault his teacher (even if he deserved it), Alex realizes his words hit hard enough and tells him to leave.
- Get Out!: After Alex gets done telling Mr. Tedesco what he thinks of him, he opens the door ... and Steven adds, "We'd all appreciate it if you'd leave right now." Which he does.
- Hilarity Ensues: Why the administration at Harding High allowed Mr. Tedesco to get away with his behavior for this long — this is implied to be at least his second year at the school, as he says he had Mallory in a class the previous year — is very puzzling and troubling. (Even if Tedesco was protected by a union that would make it all but impossible to remove him.) Additionally, even if they were provoked, Steven and Elyse might both be facing criminal charges for punching Tedesco.
- Narcissist: Mr. Tedesco, who is borderline psychotic, insults students he perhaps views as low-life peons disinterested in school, who calls their parents vicious names and who would stop at nothing but to call some crude names, and likely thinks of himself as a self-important teacher (with a grossly overinflated sense of his own abilities) who is giving his students a sobering dose of reality. Alex initially seems to like this "take no prisoners" attitude, but when Tedesco begins insulting his parents, Alex finally calls him out and tells him he's no longer associating with him.
- Putting a Hand over His Mouth: Mallory does this Jennifer twice to stop her remarks about re-enacting the punch from the parents' evening.
- Rage Breaking Point: Elyse and Steven both have these with Mr. Tedesco:
- Elyse — already put off a little bit by Tedesco's less-than-tactful comments about Mallory's poor academic performance in his class — calls him on insulting comments to a mother about her daughter needing "to lose about 40 pounds (he adds: "You could lose about 30 yourself!") and tells him to apologize immediately. When Tedesco refuses and tries to leave, and then shoves an older woman out of the way Elyse punches him.
- When Steven goes to apologize to Tedesco for his wife's actions but gets nowhere, and Tedesco tries to make insulting comments about Elyse, Steven patiently tries to dismiss himself before getting much more stern. Tedesco finally makes a highly crude remark, causing Steven to snap.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When Alex finally realizes Mr. Tedesco for who he is — a vile, crude, cruel individual, perhaps even a psychopath who needs psychiatric help — he calls him out in front of his parents, telling him his recommendation letter now means nothing and that rather than accept his opinion that he's above his parents, he'd feel lucky if he is ever as good as they have been.
- Earlier, Elyse immediately calls Tedesco on his rude, insulting comments.
- Given the few comments he does make to their parents, it can be implied Tedesco uses these frequently with his students ... and perhaps incredibly cruel with such criticism.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Twice, both with Tedesco:
- In the parent's night classroom scene, when Elyse and the other parents tell him to apologize for his rude, insulting comments. Seeing as he lost this battle, he begins to leave.
- When Alex has him over to try to allow his parents to make things right, but then sees that he is nothing but a complete asshole and tells him essentially as much, Tedesco gladly accepts Steven's invitation to leave.
- Smug Snake: Tedesco fits this description to a “T.”
- Trash Talk: During parent-teacher night, Tedesco calls one student "Larry the Loser" and a "pimple-faced liar," suggests another student needs to lose weight and then tells his mother that she also needs to lose weight, before he calling an elderly woman "grandma" as he shoves her as while trying to walk out the door.
- Would Harm a Senior: Tedesco has no problems with insulting and physically assaulting an elderly parent.
