"A, My Name Is Alex" is a two-part hour-long very special episode of the NBCtelevision seriesFamily Ties. The episodes aired on March 12, 1987, as an hour-long episode, with the second half-hour broadcast without commercials.
While the rest of the Keaton family grieves over the sudden death of Alex's childhood friend Greg McCormick, Alex himself is acting strangely, gradually being overcome by a volatile mixture of emotions that he futilely tries to hide. We learn that Greg was killed in a car crash while running an errand that Alex had declined to help him with.
After Greg's funeral, Alex begins showing symptoms of survivor guilt, admitting to Mallory that, "My life was saved out of smallness, out of lack of generosity to a friend"; he then says that he should have been in the car with Greg, and then angrily asks himself, "Why am I alive??". Steven and Elyse attempt to comfort Alex, and help him deal with his emotion by getting him professional help.
Part 2
Alex is talking with an unseen therapist, who helps him to confront the issues he must now deal with resulting from Greg's untimely death. Through play-acting, Alex revisits his grade school days and situations with his family and attempts to reassess his own life.
When the therapist asks if he believes in God, Alex's analytical side tells him no, but when he expounds on "miraculous things", "phenomena of nature", Alex tells the therapist that he does indeed believe in God, even though he doesn't understand His logic behind allowing Greg to die. Alex begins to accept Greg's death and realizes that he can keep Greg's memory alive by being more like him.
The staging of the entire second part is similar to the classic American play Our Town.
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