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CBS.com recently posted a number of classic episodes of the ’80s sitcom Family Ties (thanks to Mike for the tip), and I’ve been steadily watching them over the past few weeks. I can remember watching Ties with my mom as a kid, but only very vaguely, and for some reason, I never really encountered the show in syndication while growing up.

It’s fun to watch a show that is dated in so many ways, from minor details, like jokes about “the Russians,” to the show’s very premise: a pair of now-grown-up hippies raising their far more yuppie children in a new era of conservatism and materialism. (Indeed, I wonder what a modern-day Family Ties would be like. Alex P. Keaton would now be old enough to be the dad on the show; what, exactly, would his comically opposite son be like?)

It’s also interesting to explore the development of the situation comedy genre through this lens. In the 1990s, arguably my prime television-watching years, sitcoms were dominated by two generally orthogonal forces: (a) the twin towers of Friends and Seinfeld, and (b) an array of family-oriented sitcoms. The latter group included such well-known hits as Full House and Family Matters (both TGIF stalwarts produced by Miller-Boyett Productions), as well as shows like Home Improvement, which differed slightly in approach but was similar in setup and spirit.

Fundamentally, Family Ties is a family sitcom, and so it’s easy to lump it together with the second group above. The next obvious step, frankly, is to dismiss it, because the Miller-Boyett style that became so emblematic in the ’90s can often be painful to relive, except for the meta-comedic value inherent in such shows. But I think that such a dismissal would be a mistake. Ties really is worth watching, and here’s why:

1) Michael J. Fox is a flat-out great actor. There’s a reason his character, Alex, quickly became the anchor for the show’s success. Fox’s exceptional versatility, which allows him to combine excellent comic timing with capable dramatic acting, put him a cut above the what’s-his-name actors that typified ’90s family sitcoms. Hardly any other show in this genre has benefited from having this kind of megastar at the center of such a highly skilled ensemble cast. Fox somehow managed to make an almost-loathsome character lovable; it’s clear that the writers realized this early on and found ways to make Alex Keaton as complex as the actor playing him deserved. (As an aside, I’ve been listening to Fox’s memoir in the car lately; it’s interesting and engaging.)

2) The drama on Ties is just plain better. The show isn’t weighed down by the schmaltzy music and “awwww” tracks that exemplified the Miller-Boyett modus operandi; as a result, it leaves room for the writers and cast to explore serious situations and their impact on the characters. The Keatons are real people, human and flawed, and they get into real arguments and suffer real heartbreaks that stretch beyond the tidy plot devices of lesser shows. How many family sitcoms have you seen, for example, in which the father figure comes seriously close to an extramarital affair? Or in which the daughter is sexually harassed by her father’s close friend? Or in which the son doesn’t just think about taking drugs but actually does, gets addicted, and suffers the consequences? The degree to which Ties writers were willing to explore heavy situations made for a much higher-quality show than most of the ones I grew up with. (Incidentally, a ’90s family sitcom that does get this right, in many of the same ways, is The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.)

3) The comedy is just plain better, too. Many ’90s family sitcoms relied largely on slapstick and cheap gags for laughs; Ties‘ humor is far more sophisticated. There’s still plenty of cheese, but the show’s writers also drew on political and social commentary for material and made liberal use of sarcasm and deadpan delivery, devices that neither the writers nor the cast of Family Matters were adept enough to employ. It wasn’t just Michael J., either; everyone in the cast, from Tina Yothers’ snarky little sister to Justine Bateman‘s lovable ditz, managed to find their comedic space and exploit it to full advantage.

It always impresses me a little when shows featuring white-collar characters, like Family Ties, The Cosby Show, and Frasier, become successful, because I don’t think most Americans really identify with these characters in any meaningful way. Making these shows work requires both a talented cast and a writing team willing to take risks. I’d say Ties demonstrates both, and so you really should check out a few episodes and see what you think.

For some reason, I started thinking yesterday about how I’m not very good at acting, but I’ve nevertheless starred in my fair share of plays. For some reason, acting in the school play is something of an American archetype; almost everyone has done it, and we can all relate to sitcom episodes that portray the childhood fears that come with these productions.

In retrospect, the roles I’ve played generally seem to fit me surprisingly well, almost too well in some cases. Below is my acting resume, to the best of my recollection, for your review and amusement.

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1991: “Narrator,” untitled Mother’s Day play
I was one of the few kindergarteners who could really read, so this was a fairly straightforward casting choice. To be honest, I have no memory of what the play was about, although I know for a fact that we have the program in a box of my old things back home; it was printed from a dot-matrix printer. I do remember that they served tea and that my mother did attend.

1994: “Boy #3,” How the West was Really Won
This one was a musical! I had a few forgettable lines as Boy #3 (and I am pretty sure I was #3 and not #2 or #4); something about Horatio Alger, as I recall. I had to wear suspenders. My friend Vikas had a much more prominent role as “the prompter”, who had to remind the aging narrator to stay on topic.

The entire group sang all the songs as a chorus, though; the only song title I can remember is “Silver in Washoe,” whose tune I actually remember pretty well. I confidently sang the line “silver on the Comstock Lode / silver in Washoe / Hi ho, hi ho, hi ho” but had utterly no idea what a ‘Comstock Lode‘ was until today, when I looked it up for this post.

My only other vivid memory from this performance is that I had a terrible itch on my right calf during the performance, and I started scratching it pretty aggressively (I was standing in the background with the chorus during a soliloquy, with the lights down, so it’s not quite as bad as it sounds), until Mrs. Jordan disgustedly motioned to me that I should stop. I’ll never forget her expression.

ca. 1996: “The Manager,” Interview
This was a Tamil-language play performed at some Tamil Sangam function I can’t remember, maybe the Pongal celebration. The performance of this play, which was perhaps fifteen minutes long, is almost certainly the longest period in my life over which I have exclusively spoken my mother tongue.

Interview, which starred a number of kids from the Tamil community, was a straightforward comedy of errors. I was a manager looking to hire someone for an accounting position. I had a peon (see the “South Asian English” usage) who showed in a series of candidates who turned out to be musicians and dancers, not accountants. I became increasingly exasperated (obviously, this wasn’t a very challenging role for me to play) until the straw that broke the camel’s back: a couple of would-be rock stars, one of whom was played rather embarrasedly by my brother, burst in and started belting out “Beat It.” Seeing my mounting rage, my office assistant, played by Harry, finally admitted that he had taken a second job at a music school because he was having trouble making ends meet, and he accidentally mixed up the contact information with another job posting he had made. I was credited by the director with saving the play when I ad-libbed a prompting line to my peon, who seemed to have forgotten that he was supposed to bring in the next candidate.

I recall distinctly that my mother forced me to join this play. My audition consisted exclusively of the director asking to me to call him an idiot; I didn’t want to be there, but at that age, I was powerless to resist taking that particular kind of bait, and I was cast. Thinking about it now, I’m certain that my mom had already agreed that I would play the lead role before we ever arrived there.

1998: “Zach,” eighth grade play whose name I can’t remember
My memories of this one are hazy; I think the play was generally about a mysterious event in a classroom, something like discovering a weird skull that could have had ancient powers, or a curse, or something equally thrilling. The cast was reasonably large, probably fifteen students, with “Dirk” being the ringleader, a likeable smart aleck with a hairstyle that I, for whatever reason, generally associated with such people. I distinctly remember thinking how much cooler he was than me.

Zach, on the other hand, was the nerd of the class, and the voice of reason — I’m fairly certain about having a line that there “must be a rational explanation” for the paranormal phenomenon that gave the fictional class of students so much concern. I also remember a rehearsal in which I tried to improvise a line that made the character even more nerdy; Mr. Preuss wisely told me to stick to the script.

Part of me feels saddened in retrospect by how ruthlessly I was typecast; but on the other hand, it’s perfectly likely that Mr. Preuss created this role specifically so he could cast someone in it who ordinarily would not have justified inclusion in any kind of stage production. God knows I couldn’t have played Dirk; indeed, I still couldn’t, at least not without a new hairstyle.

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I believe that the above list is exhaustive, though I’m not entirely sure; there might have been another musical in elementary school that I can’t remember.

What plays have you acted in, and what roles did you play?