The Best Single Television Program I Have Ever Seen

Setting: a dark stage; bare minimum of furniture and indicators of a home and other locales.

We see Alex P. Keaton, played by Michael J. Fox, enter and take a seat.

It begins.

*

On March 12, 1987, I watched the single greatest television episode I would ever see. Now, I did not know this at the time, but it would be a program that would change the way things could be done on television. I also bear in mind that I was only thirteen at the time, more interested in comic books, Doctor Who and the forests nearby than in marking key moments in the media. But there I was, watching one of my favourite television shows, and being drawn into something that would change the way I saw an actor, a show and the whole format of that box.

Let me explain…

Family Ties was the number two show in the mid-1980s, right after The Cosby Show as part of the must-see television group on Thursday night (Night Court would also be one of my favourites of that cabal). It was the only night of television I remember overindulging in as a kid (as a Canadian, it might seem blasphemous to suggest this, but I did not watch Hockey Night in Canada on weekends or the occasional week night, or enjoy a lot of the other popular shows of the time – The A-Team, Magnum P.I., etc.) It was fun to see the Keatons making their way through life in their small town setting, dealing with Mallory’s dating history (hiya, Skippy; bye-bye Nick), Steven’s public-television work, Elise’s running of the home, and Jennifer’s whatever she went through. And then there was Alex P. Keaton.

Michael J. Fox was on an incredible roll by 1987. He was the hottest male star on television, and his film career was also taking off (I still have fond memories of my mother taking me to see Back to the Future and having a very awkward drive home that night). I was a fan, as were most of the girls I knew who had absolutely no interest in me. Even though his Alex P. Keaton was a Reagan conservative, wore a tie, and was more uptight than even I could be, I found myself reflected in his life. An awkward, bright and annoying kid at odds with his own family was a perfect foil for the rest of that family with liberal, former-hippie parents and very Eighties sisters he barely related to (my female relatives fulfilled that role). So, it was very odd to pick up the remote – a new device for our family – sit in our basement, alone, and realize that this would not be just another thirty minutes of humour, life lessons and the like.

Brandon Tartikoff, the head of NBC, deserves some credit for this. He was approached by the writer Gary David Goldberg with an idea that could have ruined the show, and decided to go for it. And what was that idea? Alex is asked to run an errand with his friend, Greg McCormick, and turns him down, and they get into a fight. Later, that same friend dies in a car accident that should have taken Alex’s life, and he cannot understand why he is still alive, losing his long-time self control in one key scene where he begs the world to answer the question, “Why am I still alive?”

Mr. Goldberg, a writer who worked on another of my favourite programs of the time, Moonlighting, had his personal tragedy in his life. His father died of cancer and, just before he passed away, told his son he was proud of him. There was survivor’s guilt, pain, and the same hard questions that had no answer. He needed to have NBC in his corner, and he needed to break the rules of what a sitcom should be. First, the show would run to a full hour (8:30 to 9:30)…and it would have to be done without any commercials. Tartikoff had to be very confident in his star’s ability to pull this off and in the public’s willingness to accept it. And he went for it.

But what about the cast?

*

From what I could learn of the production, they were overjoyed at the chance to do something so outside of the boundaries of network television. And Keaton himself knew that it would be something quite different for his character, but things would be difficult to pull off. First, there was the question of his ability to do what was a straight performance for half an hour. The usual dress rehearsal that would have taken place on Thursday was cancelled. Keaton knew that he was not a stage performer. He had also been a choice for the role that Tartikoff did not want at first. There was also the added pressure of his parents being in the audience for the show.

And somehow, he managed to do this…

After his breakdown in front of his family, there is a commercial break, and we return to set devoid of the usual Family Ties props and background. The setting, all in black, allows Alex to explore his life and what led him to being the person he is, a conservative who wants to understand his feelings, a gifted student who wanted to rebel, a young man still trying to deal with his boyhood.

And his therapist, in voiceover (at least in my theory)…is God.

*

There is so much that I do not want to reveal about this episode. I knew that I was being exposed to something very different in that second half, and I have to give praise to NBC, Brandon Tartikoff, Michael J. Fox and the entire cast and crew for daring to talk about mental health and loss when I had just lost my own father a few years earlier and had to deal with my own very personal pain.

Oh, I did not mention that, did I?

I was ten years old when he died on the day he was to be released from hospital, and to add to that comedy, it was two days before Christmas. I felt as if there was some sort of sign that loss would be a continuing theme in my life. So when I was thirteen, in our basement, alone with a television show and many unresolved issues as I watched another young Canadian handle the storm and pain of emotions that I thought were all my own, I was told that I could make it through this.

I would be able to go on.

I am still grateful to have seen this as a boy becoming a man.

And it is still the greatest television program that I have ever seen.

Selah.

*

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You can find more poems, stories, and articles by Kendall Defoe on my Vocal profile. I complain, argue, provoke and create...just like everybody else.

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