"Diary of a Young Girl" is the twenty-first episode in the second season of the NBC family sitcom Family Ties. It originally aired on May 3, 1984, and is the forty-third episode of the series overall.
Synopsis[]
Jennifer is in the hospital to have her tonsils taken out and is worried she will not survive. Awaiting the surgery, she writes down her thoughts and memories of her family.
Plot[]
Jennifer is in the hospital to have her tonsils removed. She is understandably afraid of the procedure ahead, so she writes her fears to her diary. The episode flashes back to earlier memories of Jennifer thinking about how badly she's treated her family (though apparently not from older episodes). Mallory is nervous about her date with Kevin Jenkins (played by Michael David Wright), and Jennifer does her best to mess it up. She tries to manipulate her parents against one another, fails to help Alex rehearse, and has a major attitude with her mother for going back to work. She learns some things along the way, and makes amends with her family after the operation.
Cast[]
Starring[]
Guest Starring[]
- Nancy Parsons as The Nurse
- Michael David Wright as Kevin Jenkins
Co-Starring[]
Quotes[]
- Alex: "I need help rehearsing for my audition."
Mallory: "I have too much respect for the theater. Besides, Gilligan's Island's on now."
Trivia[]
- The title is a play on the title of the book Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, who also faced a difficult time in life. However, getting tonsils out is nothing compared to the horrors that Anne Frank went through in the Holocaust and it is disgraceful for anyone to compare the two.
- See Board Games page.
- Michael David Wright also appears in "My Back Pages" and "Heartstrings" (parts 1 and 2)
- Mallory pretends to like several things that Kevin does just so he'll like her (didn't she learn from Alex's similar attempt? - "Ladies' Man")
- Alex is trying out for the part of Stanley Kowalksi in A Streetcar Named Desire (famously played by Marlon Brando, which Jennifer points out, comparing Alex to Deputy Dawg).
- After the operation, Jennifer can't talk, and everyone thinks she's playing Charades. She wants something to write on, but Alex guesses From Here to Eternity, and Steven guesses No, No, Nanette.
Gallery[]
