Now that Elyse and Steven Keaton (Meredith Baxter Birney and Michael Gross) have gone and had baby Andrew, there’s an instant temptation to say, “Whoops, ‘Family Ties’ has jumped the shark, time to call it a day and start dismissing the show.” As it happens, however, it’s just as easy to argue that Season 4 is where “Family Ties” really hit its stride, since it’s the year that Alex (Michael J. Fox) started dating Ellen Reed (Tracy Pollan, who would soon go on to become Mrs. Michael J. Fox) and Mallory (Justine Bateman) started dating brain-damaged biker Nick Moore (Scott Valentine). We also get guest appearances from the late River Phoenix as a 13-year-old genius who tutors Alex in non-Euclidian mathematics, Martha Plimpton as a teenage shoplifter, and Peter Scolari as a fellow architect who falls head over heels in love with Elyse. All in all, it’s another enjoyable season of the series, but “Family Ties” fanatics will likely be most thrilled to find that the set kicks off with “Family Ties Vacation,” where the Keaton family goes to London and, as Alex learns the ins and outs of Oxford, Elyse and Steven deal with a highly ridiculous plot involving their accidental possession of some spy film. Oh, yes, and somewhere in the middle of it all, Mallory falls for Alex’s roommate at Oxford. Series creator Gary David Goldberg has never been a fan of the film, but once you get used to the lack of a laugh track, it’s fun to see the Keatons out of their element.
