Party of Five

Party of Five is a Teen Drama that aired on FOX from September 1994 to May 2000.

The main plot focuses on the five kids of the Salinger family who have been orphaned after their parents are killed in a car accident. Charlie, an irresponsible 24-year-old worker of odd jobs has to step up and be the new man of the house. The second oldest is Bailey, a 16-year-old responsible team mom (at least for the first few seasons), despite not being the oldest. 15-year old Julia is sensitive, and 11-year-old Claudia is a child prodigy. The fifth is Owen, barely a year old. The siblings all have to take over the restaurant. During the series, they deal with issues like alcoholism, cancer, abuse, and death.

It was Uncancelled after having a poor run with audiences and a favorable reception with critics the first season due to a small pool of loyal fans protesting cancellation.

It generated the unsuccessful Spin-Off Time of Your Life.

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Tropes used in Party of Five include:

• A-Cup Angst: Claudia, an episode even involved her buying a special padded bra for this very reason.
• The Alcoholic: Bailey.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Played straight with Julia and Griffin.
• Back for the Dead: Julia's friend Libby makes two appearances in Season 1 and then reappears in a Season 3 episode where she ends up killing herself.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Claudia (brown), Julia (black) and Kirsten (blonde) fill these roles. Sarah also counts. There's also an episode in which three different women ask Charlie out for a date and they all meet up at his house. One is a blonde, one a brunette and the other a redhead.
• Blond Guys Are Evil: Ned.
• Bottle Fairy: Bailey seems to have a thing for these girls. His Season 1 girlfriend Jill and his Season 3 fling Callie. Daphne from the last two seasons starts out as this.
• Brainy Brunette: Julia and Sarah.
• Breakout Character: Sarah Reeves, Jennifer Love Hewitt's character. Enough so that she got her own spinoff.
• Brick Joke: The episode before Charlie and Kirsten were to be married in Season 2, Claudia rented what she thought was An Affair to Remember for her and Kirsten, but it turned out they had been given a porn movie by mistake. Near the end of the episode, at Charlie's bachelor party, we see the guys are watching that copy of An Affair to Remember.
• Brother Chuck: Nina, Julia's BFF from the first season makes one appearance in Season 2 and is never seen again and is only mentioned a few times offscreen before disappearing completely in Season 3.
• Cerebus Callback: The Halloween Episode has a funny opening of Sarah trying to convince Bailey to buy a pair of Snow White and Prince Charming costumes. After he cheats on her with Callie in that episode, he buys the costumes as an attempt to make things up to her.
• Child Prodigy: Claudia.
• Coming Out Story: Claudia tries to set her violin teacher Ross up with a waitress at the restaurant but he reveals he is gay. Claudia gets over the shock however.
• Continuity Nod: Justin makes a couple of appearances after his and Julia's breakup. Also the mother's old co-worker Avery from Season 1 shows up in a few Season 3 episodes.
• Convenient Miscarriage: Julia's.
• Drunk Driver
• Dysfunction Junction: The whole Salinger family.
• Fail Polish: Sarah was initially shown as a little mousy and awkward but eventually shown as attractive and fashionable.
• Finagle's Law: Everything that can possibly go wrong does. And hilarity doesn't ensue.
• Five-Man Band: The Hero: Charlie.
  • The Lancer: Bailey.
  • The Chick: Julia.
  • The Heart: Claudia.
  • Tagalong Kid: Owen.
• Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Subverted with Julia, who intends to get an abortion but ends up having a miscarriage.
• Halloween Episode: In the third season.
• Head-Tiltingly Kinky: Kirsten's reaction to the porn tape Claudia accidentally rents for her. See Brick Joke above.
• Heterosexual Life Partners: Bailey and Will.
• Important Haircut: After recovering from cancer, Charlie decides to get blond highlights.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Charlie and Bailey, though in Bailey's case the Jerk part usually cancels out the Heart of Gold part.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Coupled with a bit of Fridge Brilliance. Julia has a habit of stealing other people's boyfriends or entering relationships through cheating. Guess how they all turned out? Justin (stolen from Libby) unplanned pregnancy and miscarriage, Griffin (started while still seeing Justin) failed marriage among a lot of other things, Ned (stolen from Maggie) he ends up hitting her.
• Lovable Alpha Bitch: Nina in Season 1 and Alexa in Season 6.
• Lovable Jock: Will.
• My Fist Forgives You: Will when he finds out Bailey wants to get back with Sarah.
• Once a Season: After both leaving the main cast after Season 2, Justin and Will each appear in at least one episode (sometimes more) the following seasons.
• Promotion to Parent
• Put on a Bus: Sarah in Season 6, so she could star in the spin-off.
• Rapunzel Hair: The mother Diana is said to have had long hair down her back which her husband wouldn't let her cut.
• Real Song Theme Tune: "Closer to Free" by the Bo Deans.
• Relationship Upgrade: Julia and Justin.
• She's All Grown Up: Compare Claudia Season 1 to Claudia Season 6.
• Shout-Out: The name of the Salinger family is a shout out to the author of The Catcher in The Rye J.D. Salinger.
  • In one episode, Bailey and Julia are arguing about who gets to move into a spare bedroom, and Justin and Sarah are reminded of an episode of The Brady Bunch.
• Teens Are Short: At the height of 5'1 (at that time), Lacey Chabert was shorter than all of the adult cast members.
• There Are No Adults
• Title Drop: Joe says it at the end of the first episode when the kids sit down for dinner at Salingers.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Claudia is the tomboy and Julia is the girly girl. Changes once Claudia becomes a teenager.
• Very Special Episode: Though the show was a drama there were two that could qualify, since the show's opening credits weren't shown in either. The first was a Season 2 episode where Julia discovers she is pregnant and spends the episode debating what to do with the baby. The second was a Season 3 episode where the family try to get Bailey around for an intervention.
• Walk On the Wild Side Episode:
  • In the third episode, straight-A student and bookworm Julia convinces her friend to start going to parties during the week. The friend eventually has enough and disappears from the show but Julia keeps on with this new lifestyle and her grades start slipping. Her brothers try to convince her to go back to her goodie-two-shoes persona but she eventually finds a balance.
  • Pops up as a joke in the second season where Charlie tells Kirsten she's a lot like her mother, prompting her to fret that she doesn't always make plans.

Kirsten: You know what, I was supposed to call the man about the invitations today. And you know what? I didn't. (claps hands) What the hell!

• What Happened to the Mouse??: Josh, a guy Julia had a flirting thing going on with at the start of Season 5, promptly vanishes after the Halloween episode so that the Julia and Ned storyline can progress. No explanation is given.
• What If: The show's 133th episode shows an alternate reality where the parents never died.