h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: 'Family Ties' - The TV Series - A1101204
Author: Jodan - Mining 42 - Join the Miners and UG! Info at A1092539. - U201497

Yes, another TV show

Some random 'clean-up' notes:

'hippy' = hippie

The first footnote does not seem to make sense. There had clearly been family sitcoms before Family Ties, so I'm not really sure what you're talking about.

Also remember that footnotes should be complete sentences with periods, whereas the stuff you put in parentheses should be the opposite (for example, it shouldn't start with a capital letter).

You use the words liberal and Republican in the first paragraph as if they are complete opposites, whereas the actual opposites would be liberal/conservative, Democratic/Republican. I would consider sticking to liberal/conservative, as that makes less of an assumption about the knowledge of the non-Yanks reading the entry.

I have absolutely no idea what the second paragraph in the Alex Keaton section is trying to say -- it's quite muddled.

You mention that Alex was generally arrogant/rude to the rest of the family, but actually, many of the episodes focused on him trying to "raise" Andrew to grow up to be just like him -- his relationship with Andrew was generally much warmer than with the rest of the family.

The order in which you present the characters is rather odd -- two of the children, then the parents, then the other two children. I would think it clearer to simply go from oldest to youngest, despite the fact that MJF was the bigger star.

You mention Courtney Cox but not Tracy Pollan -- and I remember the latter having a rather larger role on the show, even though she was on for a shorter period of time. Plus, they did end up getting married and all.

In the actors move on section, you only mention MJF, but the other characters had lives after the show as well. Plus the paragraph makes the chronological order of events somewhat unclear, and doesn't mention that he made quite a ton of movies in the intervening years. And of course, today, he's known far more for his health problems than the entertainment work he currently does. It would probably be cleaner to simply provide an IMDB link when you first mention the actor.

There was also at least one made-for-TV movie from the show.

Oh, and, the rather larger issue. One can read the entire entry and still have remarkably little clue as to what the TV show was actually about. You talk about the history of the show, and who each of the characters were, but there's not a lot beyond that. You mention that the show was a family sitcome, and briefly that the show handled some controversial issues, but that still gives people amazingly little idea as to what they would have seen had they sat down and actually watched an episode.

>>The first footnote does not seem to make sense. There had clearly been family sitcoms before Family Ties, so I'm not really sure what you're talking about.

It was at the beginning of a wave of family sitcoms.

>>You use the words liberal and Republican in the first paragraph as if they are complete opposites, whereas the actual opposites would be liberal/conservative, Democratic/Republican. I would consider sticking to liberal/conservative, as that makes less of an assumption about the knowledge of the non-Yanks reading the entry.

Alex *wasn't* really conservative. He was Republican. I didn't mean for them to come across that way.

>>In the actors move on section, you only mention MJF, but the other characters had lives after the show as well.

Not much.

Second post-

Fair enough. What do you suggest then?

"It was at the beginning of a wave of family sitcoms." This is not at all clear from what you have written in the footnote.

"Not much."

I don't know that I would agree with that. Both the actors who played the parents have had lasting, stable careers. Neither shot to the stars, but neither were really stars while they were on the show, either. Meredith Baxter Birney is right up there with Melissa Gilbert for being in more made for TV movies than almost any other actress -- not exactly a "hot" career, but definitely a stable and consistent one. It would be incredibly inaccurate to say that she "didn't do much" after Family Ties. Same thing with Michael Gross, although he also pops up in supporting roles in theater-released movies and tons of TV guest spots in most of the major US series.

And while we haven't *seen* much of Justine Batemen, that doesn't mean she hasn't been *doing* anything -- she's actually been in quite a decent amount of stuff, it's just all been things we'd rather not see.

Tina Yothers went from doing the acting thing to doing the music thing -- not that I especially cared for either, but again, it's not the same as not doing anything at all. Here's a useful link:

http://www.thecelebritycafe.com/interviews/tina_yothers.html

The main point, though, is that you titled the section "The Actors Move On...", and yet only discussed *one* of the actors. And while the info about the other actors might be something new or even possibly interesting to readers, the information you have there is material that everyone who has ever heard of Michael J Fox is already aware of.

I really think the point should be to dig a little deep to give people information they might not already have (or remember), rather than simply write up the material you can remember off the top of your head, that a good chunk of people who would click on the title would also already remember off the top of *their* heads.

And yes, Alex was conservative (adjective describing beliefs and values, not the political parties in various countries, as denoted by small c versus capital C), by the standard definitions of the word. He dressed conservatively. He had conservative beliefs about finances. He had conservative beliefs about how his sister should act on dates.

"It was at the beginning of a wave of family sitcoms." This is not at all clear from what you have written in the footnote.

"Not much."

I don't know that I would agree with that. Both the actors who played the parents have had lasting, stable careers. Neither shot to the stars, but neither were really stars while they were on the show, either. Meredith Baxter Birney is right up there with Melissa Gilbert for being in more made for TV movies than almost any other actress -- not exactly a "hot" career, but definitely a stable and consistent one. It would be incredibly inaccurate to say that she "didn't do much" after Family Ties. Same thing with Michael Gross, although he also pops up in supporting roles in theater-released movies and tons of TV guest spots in most of the major US series.

And while we haven't *seen* much of Justine Batemen, that doesn't mean she hasn't been *doing* anything -- she's actually been in quite a decent amount of stuff, it's just all been things we'd rather not see.

Tina Yothers went from doing the acting thing to doing the music thing -- not that I especially cared for either, but again, it's not the same as not doing anything at all. Here's a useful link:

http://www.thecelebritycafe.com/interviews/tina_yothers.html

The main point, though, is that you titled the section "The Actors Move On...", and yet only discussed *one* of the actors. And while the info about the other actors might be something new or even possibly interesting to readers, the information you have there is material that everyone who has ever heard of Michael J Fox is already aware of.

I really think the point should be to dig a little deep to give people information they might not already have (or remember), rather than simply write up the material you can remember off the top of your head, that a good chunk of people who would click on the title would also already remember off the top of *their* heads.

And yes, Alex was conservative (adjective describing beliefs and values, not the political parties in various countries, as denoted by small c versus capital C), by the standard definitions of the word. He dressed conservatively. He had conservative beliefs about finances. He had conservative beliefs about how his sister should act on dates.

Gotta hate double posts.

"What do you suggest then?"

The exact same thing I seem to remember people suggesting regarding some of your other TV show entries. Discuss some of the more famous episodes, mention some of the common themes througout episodes (i.e., Alex chooses an opportunity to make money over an opportunity to spend time with one of his family members, and regrets it by the end of the episode; Alex interferes with Mallory's dates).

Lots of potential material there.

Jodan. Can you imagine what I'm going to post? Here's a hint: it starts with "Michael" and ends with "adian". It sort of adds irony to the political leaning of his character, don't you think?

I knew that one was Canadian! I read his autobiography

Oh, and I think I'm gonna withdraw this one from PR. I already told you why, anhaga

but it's good!

that's really not the issue