This episode is such whitney-nip. Not only discussions over staples like ER and 30-Something but Mathnet?! Relativity?!?! Rags to Riches?????!!!!!!!! I still see actors from that show and think of them as "the dad from Rags to Riches" or "An orphan from Rags to Riches." I would love to read a re-cap of that show.
The orphan plot line did not bother me back when I was kid. As far as I remember, EVERYTHING I watched in the 80's was about orphans with questionable guardians (Punky Brewster, Webster, Different Strokes, Jem, Sister Kate, The Facts of Life (not technically orphans but they might as well be) and movies like The Leftovers, and Unlikely Angel). So much so that I often pretended that I ran an orphanage as a child.