The best sitcoms ever are only counted on one hand reaching to 5, 1) Sceinfeld, 2) Family Ties, 3) Perfect Strangers, 4) Married with Children, 5) Dream On. There are other good shows like The Nany, Friends, Taxi, According to Jim, Mind your language,Everybody loves Raymond, Becker, and few others but don't stand up to category "best". Family Ties being among the best gives the credit to Michael J. Fox (Alex P. Keaton) and only who watched the show know why. The other characters, however, were also funny but not as Alex. There were Skippy, Malory and Michael Gross probably the funniest next to Michael J. Fox. As for the rest they weren't as funny but they completed the set.<br /><br />The show was so smart and original compared to other family based sitcoms. Contrary to Married with children (which is also an extremely funny and smart show), it depicted the ethics that most of the families miss today - ethical parents, democrats, charity loving and enjoy the bonds they have and though they play it so safe during the whole show, they still got you laughing in a joyous way. Alex was so funny in almost all the episodes with a lovely contradictive character. Though he seemed to be so materialistic, a big fan of Nixon, womanizer, always making fun of his naive sister(Malory), he had so depth and wasn't really a happy character all the way. There was this episode when his friend dies in a car accident and Alex was supposed to be with him but lucked out because of his selfishness. In this episode, Alex reveals so much depth of a character, he exhibits regret for not going with his friend, realization of the useless meaning of being ambitious while everything is going to end one day and at the same time he gets you laughing while he is visiting a shrink for help and the latter turns out to be a Grant College graduate, same college where Malory is studying and Alex always makes fun of it. He also tells the shrink that when he was a kid he was just as normal as any kid playing with toys and stock market. He could also identify the coin's value from the sound after they used to cover his eyes and toss the coin for him to guess. In other episodes we also see Alex so romantic in love with Elen and later hurt because she leaves him for dancing scholarship to France and then he falls in love with Lauren (Courtney Cox). That was another funny and memorable episode because she is a psychology student and interviewing Alex to study high achievers. Definitely, an unforgettable show!