"The Fugitive, Pt. 1" is the fourteenth episode in the first season of the NBC family sitcom Family Ties. It originally aired on January 19, 1983, and is the fourteenth episode of the series overall.
Synopsis[]
Elyse's brother Ned shows up unexpectedly, and displays odd caution about anyone knowing where he is. After he admits ending his highly promising business career in New York, the Keatons are concerned about who might be hot on his tail.
Plot[]
Elyse's brother Ned Donnelly (played by Tom Hanks) is coming for a visit (with very little notice). When she calls, Ned doesn't want his mother to know that he's at the Keaton's. When an airline calls, he poses as Stanislaw Demkowski. Ned finally reveals that he's been fired (for standing up for a good principle) and that the company brass is now looking for him. Bert Carlyle (played by Richard Venture), a bumbling FBI agent shows up looking for Ned (who just went out the back door) because he allegedly stole $4.5 million dollars from Syntram.
Cast[]
Starring[]
- Meredith Baxter as Elyse Keaton
- Michael Gross as Steven Keaton
- Michael J. Fox as Alex P. Keaton
- Justine Bateman as Mallory Keaton
- Tina Yothers as Jennifer Keaton
Guest Starring[]
- Tom Hanks as Ned Donnelly
- Richard Venture as Bert Carlyle
Co-Starring[]
Quotes[]
- Alex: "Let's face it. You owe it to humanity to make money."
Trivia[]
- Title: Either an allusion to the 1960s TV show "The Fugitive" or simply a reference to Ned being a fugitive from justice.
- Uncle Ned shows up one more time in "Say Uncle."
- At the beginning of the episode, Mallory is watching CHiPs, a 70s and 80s era TV cop show (a little foreshadowing of the episode, perhaps?)
- Alex likes Uncle Ned because he is the Junior Vice President of the Syntram Corporation, the 12th largest multinational corporation in the world.
- Carlyle reads the family dossier: "Steven and Elyse Keaton, married May 1964. Participated in no fewer than 15 subversive political subversive demonstrations between 1966 and 1973. Arrested three times." Ned reveals that one of those times in jail was during the Democratic Convention in 1968.
- The airline ticket agent is played by Earl Boen, a well-known character and voice actor.
- Ned impersonates a Russian on the phone, but ends the conversation in German: "Danke. Danke. Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" ("Thank you, thank you. With me, you are beautiful.")