As of June 2026, Family Ties Season 5 aired in 1986 with 28 episodes — streaming now on Paramount Plus Premium. Full episode guide and where to watch below.
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Family Ties Season 5

1986 28 Episodes Comedy · Drama ⭐ 7/10

Family Ties Season 5 is currently streaming on and , and its 7/10 TMDB rating reflects what viewers who have already found it know. A tightly focused run that does not overstay its welcome. That rating comes from 264 viewer scores — enough to represent a genuine consensus rather than a handful of enthusiasts. The availability across streaming platforms means you can start tonight without hunting for a disc or a dodgy stream. Meredith Baxter is the obvious draw, but once you are in, it is the writing and the ensemble that keep you watching. If it has been sitting on your watchlist untouched, there is no better time to finally start it.

Former 1960s flower children Steven and Elyse Keaton raise their conservative son Alex, daughters Mallory and Jennifer, and later, youngest child Andrew. Meredith Baxter and Michael Gross lead a cast that brings real weight to the material. It aired in 1986. The real test of any comedy is whether it is still funny once you know all the jokes, and Family Ties Season 5 holds up on rewatch in a way that separates it from one-season curiosities. It delivers reliably on what it promises, which is more than most of its competition manages.

The kind of show you put on in the background and find yourself actually paying attention to. It earns every laugh across its entire run — no coasting on goodwill. The comedy comes from character rather than situation, which means it holds up on rewatch in a way that pure farce never does. Meredith Baxter sets the tone, but the supporting cast is where a lot of the best moments come from. A reliable pick for any night when you want quality comedy without the homework.

📡 Where to Watch Family Ties Season 5

🇺🇸 United States
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🎬 Family Ties Season 5 — Episode Guide

E1
Be True to Your Preschool
1986-09-25
Alex shocks his parents when he visits his 3-year-old brother Andrew's very special preschool class, decides the wrong values are being stressed and withdraws him from the school. Steven and Elyse had pulled strings to get Andrew into the special preschool. They are shocked when Alex announces that...
E2
Starting Over
1986-10-02
Distraught that his girlfriend Ellen has gone to Paris on a dance scholarship, Alex desperately tries to find someone to take her place, but finally realizes that falling in love again will take time. Alex mopes around the Keaton house pining for Ellen until Sharon, a pretty waitress, attracts his ...
E3
The Freshman and the Senior
1986-10-09
Mallory is teamed with 66-year-old Margaret Hollings on a college sociology project and fins that she has a lot to learn about honesty, sensitivity and older people when she almost causes the woman to quit the class. As Mallory facves the fact that te widowed senior citizen has her own special prob...
E4
My Back Pages
1986-10-16
When Steven is asked by an old college friend to help him re-establish a left-wing political magazine they had worked on 20 years before, Steven realizes he is no longer in tune with the radical thinking it reflected and that his values are more middle-of-the-road than he had ever expected. When Ma...
E5
Beauty and the Bank
1986-10-30
Alex is emotionally torn when he goes to work in a bank and finds that the vice president to whom he reports is Ms. Ryan, a beautiful, smart and self-confident woman and that he's growing more romantically interested in her each day. The Keaton family delights in Alex's taking orders from Ms. Ryan,...
E6
Mrs. Wrong (1)
1986-11-06
Nick and Mallory make sudden plans to elope when Steven and Elyse vehemently oppose their marriage plans and threaten to ground their teenaged daughter. During a quiet evening together, Mallory pops the ""big question"" to Nick. They are ecstatic until they learn that the entire Keaton family is so...
E7
Mrs. Wrong (2)
1986-11-13
Alex sees Mallory and Nick leaving the Keaton residence in the predawn hours to elope, and unable to stop them, follows them to New Jersey where he finds the young couple taking a hard look at their decision. After Nick bumbles around the outside of the house with a 16-foot ladder, Alex makes a des...
E8
The Big Fix
1986-11-17
When Terry Bridgeman, a colleague of Elyse's, confides that he has broken up with his girlfriend, Elyse decides to fix him up with a family friend, the beautiful Liz Obeck. What Elyse doesn't realize, however, is that Liz has been seriously involved with someone else for two years.
E9
My Brother's Keeper
1986-11-20
Alex must choose between his friendship with Skippy and allegiance to his college fraternity when Theta Pi Sigma pledges Skippy with the idea of making him the object of a cruel prank. Skippy is desperate to become a member of a fraternity, but in his zealousness he fails to recognize that he is th...
E10
High School Confidential
1986-12-04
Nick faces a serious dilemma when he learns that to teach an art class he must have a high school diploma. Mallory volunteers to tutor him, but it takes the skills of another Keaton to help him prepare for his final exam. When Mallory fails to make Nick understand grammar, Alex finds a unique way t...
E11
Paper Lion
1986-12-11
While assisting his economics professor in the final stages of an important research paper, Alex faces a serious moral dilemma when he finds that his mentor's conclusions are not supported by the facts. On the threshold of winning the coveted Wilson Award for his work with economics professor Rhode...
E12
My Mother, My Friend
1986-12-18
When Mallory brings her new friend, Allison King, home with her to study, little does she expect that Allison will find a kindred spirit in Elyse. Bound together by their love of architecture, Allison and Elyse soon become fast friends, with Elyse even becoming the subject of Allison's architecture...
E13
O'Brother (1)
1987-01-08
It's bad news for the Keatons when Uncle Rob arrives for a visit and announces that he and his wife, Maureen, have split up. News of Robert and Maureen's separation throws the whole Keaton family into an emotional tailspin, despite Robert's insistence that the decision was a mutual one and long ove...
E14
O'Brother (2)
1987-01-15
The emotional roller-coaster continues at the Keaton household with the arrival of Aunt Maureen, Uncle Rob's estranged wife. It seems like Rob has been less than candid when he told his brother Steven that the marital separation had been a mutual decision. According to Maureen, Rob left two months ...
E15
Higher Love
1987-01-22
Mallory's relationship with Nick is put to the test when she joins a poetry reading group and becomes infatuated with its handsome and sophisticated leader, English grad student Colin Spenser. Newly exposed to poetry and enormously flattered by Colin's persistent attentions, Mallory begins to quest...
E16
Architect's Apprentice
1987-01-29
Steven and Elyse are forced to take a new closer look at Nick and his considerable artistic talents when they invite him to compete with other local artists to create a sculpture for the lobby of Steven's television station.
E17
A Tale of Two Cities (1)
1987-02-05
The Keaton's are a house divided over a ""major"" domestic issue whether to redecorate their old-fashioned, but cozy kitchen. Elyse, Mallory and Jennifer think the time has come to leave the familiar behind and opt for a new, more modern look. Steven loves the kitchen's history, and doesn't want to ...
E18
A Tale of Two Cities (2)
1987-02-12
While Steven tackles the job of re-wallpapering the Keaton kitchen singlehandedly, Alex is in Chicago with his boss, Rebecca Ryan, attending an important banking conference. Forced to share a tiny room due to a shortage of hotel space, the two spend an awkward and uncomfortable nite together, with A...
E19
Battle of the Sexes
1987-02-19
When Alex plays "gentleman" to his mother and two sisters and orders for them at a restaurant without even asking them what they want, the battle begins with Elyse, Mallory and Jennifer on one side, and Steven, Alex and Andrew on the other.
E20
Band on the Run
1987-02-26
As chairman of the entertainment committee for the Leland College 10th reunion, Alex has big plans, which include hiring some great bands to impress attending alumni in the music business. Jennifer finally talks a very skeptical Alex into letting her new all-girl band, The Permanent Waves, audition ...

🎭 Cast of Family Ties Season 5

Meredith Baxter
Meredith Baxter
Elyse Keaton
Michael Gross
Michael Gross
Steven Keaton
Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox
Alex P. Keaton
Justine Bateman
Justine Bateman
Mallory Keaton
Tina Yothers
Tina Yothers
Jennifer Keaton
Brian Bonsall
Brian Bonsall
Andy Keaton

📋 All Seasons of Family Ties

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