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The Worst Episodes of Family Ties

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Every episode of Family Ties ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of Family Ties!

The Worst Episodes of Family Ties

Former 1960s flower children Steven and Elyse Keaton raise their conservative son Alex, daughters Mallory and Jennifer, and later, youngest child Andrew.

Seasons7

  1. Background image for Pilot
    NaN/10(0 votes)

    #1 - Pilot

    S1:E1

    Alex escorts a pretty socialite to a dance at her country club.

    Director:Asaad Kelada
    Writer:Unknown
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  2. Background image for Not With My Sister You Don't
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    #2 - Not With My Sister You Don't

    S1:E2

    Alex heads the household when Elyse and Steven go away for the weekend.

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  3. Background image for I Know Jennifer's Boyfriend
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    #3 - I Know Jennifer's Boyfriend

    S1:E3

    Jennifer gets picked on when she befriends a boy at school.

    Writer:Unknown
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  4. Background image for Summer of '82
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    #4 - Summer of '82

    S1:E4

    Seduced by an "older woman" of twenty-one, the hitherto inexperienced Alex is devastated to learn that she thinks of their relationship as casual.

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  5. Background image for I Never Killed for My Father
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    #5 - I Never Killed for My Father

    S1:E5

    A visit from Steven's father evokes confrontation between the two.

    Director:Dick Martin
    Writer:Unknown
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  6. Background image for Give Your Uncle A Kiss
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    #6 - Give Your Uncle A Kiss

    S1:E6

    Mallory is horrified and confused when a close family friend and older business associate of her father's makes a pass at her.

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    The 20 BEST Episodes of Family Ties

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  8. Background image for Oops
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    #7 - Oops

    S1:E12

    Mallory resents Elyse for the advice she gives her pregnant friend.

    Director:Tony Mordente
    Writer:Unknown
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  9. Background image for Sherry Baby
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    #8 - Sherry Baby

    S1:E13

    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.

    Director:Dick Martin
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  10. Background image for The Fugitive  (1)
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    #9 - The Fugitive (1)

    S1:E14

    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.

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  11. Background image for The Fugitive  (2)
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    #10 - The Fugitive (2)

    S1:E15

    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.

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  12. Background image for Margin Of Error
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    #11 - Margin Of Error

    S1:E16

    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.

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  13. Background image for French Lessons
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    #12 - French Lessons

    S1:E17

    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.

    Director:Tony Mordente
    Writer:Unknown
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  14. Background image for I Gotta Be Ming
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    #13 - I Gotta Be Ming

    S1:E18

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
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  15. Background image for Suzanne Takes You Down
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    #14 - Suzanne Takes You Down

    S1:E19

    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.

    Writer:Unknown
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  16. Background image for The Fifth Wheel
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    #15 - The Fifth Wheel

    S1:E20

    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.

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  17. Background image for Stage Fright (a.k.a. Video Jitters)
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    #16 - Stage Fright (a.k.a. Video Jitters)

    S1:E21

    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.

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  18. Background image for Elyse D'Arc
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    #17 - Elyse D'Arc

    S1:E22

    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.

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  19. Background image for Be True to Your Preschool
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    #18 - Be True to Your Preschool

    S5:E1

    Alex shocks his parents when he visits his 3-year-old brother Andrew's very special preschool class, decides the wrong values are being stressed and withdraws him from the school. Steven and Elyse had pulled strings to get Andrew into the special preschool. They are shocked when Alex announces that the school teaches ""anti-competitive"" values, and argues that his brother should be taught in a more aggressive manner.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
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  20. Background image for Starting Over
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    #19 - Starting Over

    S5:E2

    Distraught that his girlfriend Ellen has gone to Paris on a dance scholarship, Alex desperately tries to find someone to take her place, but finally realizes that falling in love again will take time. Alex mopes around the Keaton house pining for Ellen until Sharon, a pretty waitress, attracts his attention. Once on a date with her however, Alex tries to transform her into another Ellen, with disastrous results.

    Director:Steven Robman
    Writer:Unknown
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  21. Background image for The Freshman and the Senior
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    #20 - The Freshman and the Senior

    S5:E3

    Mallory is teamed with 66-year-old Margaret Hollings on a college sociology project and fins that she has a lot to learn about honesty, sensitivity and older people when she almost causes the woman to quit the class. As Mallory facves the fact that te widowed senior citizen has her own special problems as a college freshman, Alex takes a special interest in the terms of the last wills and testaments of his parents.

    Director:Asaad Kelada
    Writer:Unknown
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  22. Background image for My Back Pages
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    #21 - My Back Pages

    S5:E4

    When Steven is asked by an old college friend to help him re-establish a left-wing political magazine they had worked on 20 years before, Steven realizes he is no longer in tune with the radical thinking it reflected and that his values are more middle-of-the-road than he had ever expected. When Matt Gilbert tells Steven he has the funds to revive ""The Scavenger,"" Steven is excited about the opportunity to again express his viewpoints and to vividly recall the college days when he pursued Elyse. It only takes one story for him to realize, however, that he no longer represents the revolutionary left.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
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  23. Background image for Beauty and the Bank
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    #22 - Beauty and the Bank

    S5:E5

    Alex is emotionally torn when he goes to work in a bank and finds that the vice president to whom he reports is Ms. Ryan, a beautiful, smart and self-confident woman and that he's growing more romantically interested in her each day. The Keaton family delights in Alex's taking orders from Ms. Ryan, but their playfulness wanes when they discover his attitude toward her is taking a toll on his career and ego.

    Director:Asaad Kelada
    Writer:Unknown
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  24. Background image for Mrs. Wrong  (1)
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    #23 - Mrs. Wrong (1)

    S5:E6

    Nick and Mallory make sudden plans to elope when Steven and Elyse vehemently oppose their marriage plans and threaten to ground their teenaged daughter. During a quiet evening together, Mallory pops the ""big question"" to Nick. They are ecstatic until they learn that the entire Keaton family is solidly against the idea.

    Director:Asaad Kelada
    Writer:Unknown
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  25. Background image for Mrs. Wrong  (2)
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    #24 - Mrs. Wrong (2)

    S5:E7

    Alex sees Mallory and Nick leaving the Keaton residence in the predawn hours to elope, and unable to stop them, follows them to New Jersey where he finds the young couple taking a hard look at their decision. After Nick bumbles around the outside of the house with a 16-foot ladder, Alex makes a desperate attempt to keep his younger sister Mallory from marrying Nick. But they are too much in love to listen. It takes Erin and Mike, another couple, to give them perspective on their maturity.

    Director:Asaad Kelada
    Writer:Unknown
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  26. Background image for The Big Fix
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    #25 - The Big Fix

    S5:E8

    When Terry Bridgeman, a colleague of Elyse's, confides that he has broken up with his girlfriend, Elyse decides to fix him up with a family friend, the beautiful Liz Obeck. What Elyse doesn't realize, however, is that Liz has been seriously involved with someone else for two years.

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Worst Episodes Summary

"Pilot" is the worst rated episode of "Family Ties". It scored /10 based on 0 votes. Directed by Asaad Kelada and written by Unknown, it aired on 9/22/1982. This episode scored 0.0 points lower than the second lowest rated, "Not With My Sister You Don't".