In Praise of Nerdy TV and Certain Canadians

What to do when you've just finished teaching a summer course and haven't yet regained the mental bandwidth to pick up The Grapes of Wrath, a book you've promised your friend that you'll finally try to read?  For me, the answer appears to be watch Family Ties on Netflix... and write extremely after-the-fact observations and cultural criticism! I'm inspired by my friend Moxie to begin what I think will be at least a few posts. She has also re-watched TV shows (and Randy Newman videos) and written astutely about them. (Spoiler alert: I am definitely planning a post on Alex P. Keaton sweaters)!

I watched Family Ties when I was a kid, on re-runs and, near the end when I was old enough, as it aired. So I already knew that 9 year-old me liked it, that alongside Peter Jennings, Michael J. Fox was an important Canadian in my early life. But I wasn't sure that I would like it again, that the me of 2014 would have enough in common with the me of 1989. I'm only about two-thirds of the way through season 3, which puts me a little less than halfway through its 7 season run and early in 1985, episode-airing-wise, so my thoughts are still evolving and my views could change as I keep watching. 

But at this early date, I am happy to report that there is a fair amount in Family Ties to sink one's teeth in to and a lot of enjoyment to be had in spending time in this fictional, 1980s Ohio. Chief among these pleasures is the sheer nerdiness of some of the references and plots. 

What to do when your dad is Thomas Jefferson and you find yourself a mere stable boy? Make sure he sits down and gets to writing. 

In one season 3 episode, for example, Alex P. Keaton (played by Michael J. Fox) falls asleep trying to write a paper about the Declaration of Independence for a college course. In a dream, he is transported back to those pivotal days in Philadelphia and has to convince an uninspired Thomas Jefferson (played by his father, Steven, the wonderful Michael Gross) to put pen to paper (preferably cool-looking, crinkly paper). Elsewhere I've read about how this episode seems to openly anticipate Back to the Future, which Fox was filming around the same time and which would be released in theaters later that same year, in July of 1985. But what interests me just as much is how it's a whole episode of a mainstream, live studio audience comedy that revolves around a piece of American history. Yes, it takes a ton of liberties with that history for the sake of making jokes - Jefferson probably never considered writing that "we hold these truths to be pretty obvious, even to a dope" - and in this way is an older, sober cousin to Drunk History. But it also has its 18 year-old character name-checking John Trumbull and his painting and pinning a copy of it and the Declaration of Independence to the kitchen wall for inspiration. 

The whole episode is devoted to the Declaration of Independence. How cool is that?

It's not afraid to be smart or to care about history, in other words, while at the same time being a network comedy. 

I'll write more about the show's sense of history and politics in a later post. I think I'll also write about cameos by famous and later-to-be famous actors, how abortion is represented, and, of course, the aforementioned sweaters. Hope you'll keep reading!