Family Ties is an American television sitcom that was produced by Ubu Productions and Paramount Television and aired on NBC for seven seasons, premiering on September 22, 1982, and concluding on May 14, 1989. The series, created by Gary David Goldberg, reflected the social shift in the United States from the cultural liberalism of the 1960s and 1970s to the conservatism of the 1980s. Because of this, Young Republican Alex P. Keaton (portrayed by Michael J. Fox) develops generational strife with his ex-hippie parents, Steven and Elyse Keaton (portrayed by Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter).
The show premiered on September 22, 1982, and for the first two seasons, aired on Wednesday nights. In the show's third season, it aired on Thursday nights. In 1987, for its sixth season, it was moved to Sunday nights where it stayed until the series' seventh and final season on May 14, 1989.
The show won multiple awards, including three consecutive Emmy Awards for Michael J. Fox as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.
Plot
Set in Columbus, Ohio, during the Reagan administration, the show depicts Steven and Elyse Keaton (Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter), a married couple of liberal baby boomers and former hippies who are raising four children: ambitious, aspiring millionaire entrepreneur Alex (Michael J. Fox); fashion-conscious, gossipy Mallory (Justine Bateman); tomboy Jennifer (Tina Yothers); and Andy (Brian Bonsall) who is born mid-way through the series. Married in 1964, Elyse is an independent architect and Steven, a native of Buffalo, New York, is the station manager of WKS, a local public television station.
Much of the humor of the series focuses on the cultural divide during the 1980s when younger generations rejected the counterculture of the 1960s and embraced the materialism and conservative politics which came to define the 1980s. Alex, the eldest, is a Young Republican who embraces Reaganomics and exhibits conservative attitudes. In contrast to her feminist mother, Mallory is an apolitical and materialistic young woman presented as a vacuous airhead, fodder for jokes and teasing from her brother. Jennifer, an athletic tomboy and the second-youngest child, shares more of the values of her parents and just wants to be a normal kid. Steven and Elyse have a fourth child, Andrew, who is born in early 1985. Alex dotes on his young brother and molds Andy in his conservative image.
Regarding the concept, show creator Goldberg observed, "It really was just an observation of what was going on in my own life with my own friends. We were these old kind of radical people and all of a sudden you're in the mainstream ... but now you've got these kids and you've empowered them, and they're super intelligent, and they're definitely to the right of where you are. They don't understand what's wrong with having money and moving forward." A recurring theme involved Alex hatching a scheme involving some amount of greedy money-making, which led to a humorous misadventure and ended with Alex being forced to apologize for his choices. According to Goldberg, "We actually had this structure that we'd inherited from Jim Brooks and Allan Burns, which was six scenes and a tag ... And then the last scene became Alex apologizes, in every show, we just left it up. Alex apologizes. Some version of it." Nevertheless, Fox's portrayal of a likable Alex proved to be an important part of the show's success. Goldberg again stated, "With Alex, I did not think I was creating a sympathetic character. Those were not traits that I aspired to and didn't want my kids to aspire to, actually ... But at the end of Family Ties, when we went off the air, then The New York Times had done a piece and they said, 'Greed with the face of an angel.' And I think that's true ... [Michael J. Fox] would make things work, and the audience would simply not access the darker side of what he's actually saying."
Cast
Main cast
Meredith Baxter as Elyse Donnelly Keaton, Steven's wife and the mother of Alex, Mallory, Jennifer, and Andy. She is a successful architect and an ex-hippie liberal who lived in California in the 1960s. She is a patient, caring, and loving wife and mother who met Steven in college, where they later married.
Michael Gross as Steven Keaton, Elyse's husband and father to Alex, Mallory, Jennifer, and Andy. He is a branch manager of the local PBS station (the fictional WKS) and an ex-hippie liberal who lived in California in the 1960s. Steven can be argumentative, but is a diligent and supportive father who cares deeply about his family. He met and married Elyse in college in Berkeley.
Michael J. Fox as Alex P. Keaton, the oldest child of Elyse and Steven. He is an intelligent and ambitious Young Republican with two goals in life: to be successful and make money. He goes on to attend the fictional Leland University and has long-term relationships with Ellen Reed and later Lauren Miller. Alex often clashes with his parents about their liberal politics, which conflict with his own conservative views.
Justine Bateman as Mallory Keaton, the second child and first daughter of Elyse and Steven. She is an unscholarly material girl, but kind-hearted and inoffensive. Her main interests are shopping and boys. She has a longtime relationship with Nick Moore. In the episode "Designated Hitter," it is revealed that Mallory has a higher intelligence quotient than the scholastic and overachieving Alex.
Tina Yothers as Jennifer Keaton, third child and second daughter of Elyse and Steven. She cares mostly about athletics. She hews more closely to her parents' liberal views than to her siblings' conservative views. She is aggressive but sweet. She is jealous at first of Andy, but grows to care for him.
Brian Bonsall as Andrew "Andy" Keaton (seasons 5–7)
Garrett and Tyler Merriman portrayed baby Andrew "Andy" Keaton (season 4): the youngest child of Elyse and Steven. He is born during season 3, coinciding with Meredith Baxter's real life pregnancy. After he is born, the whole family quickly shows affection and a loving attitude towards him, especially Alex, who attempts to imbue him with conservative values. Andy quickly ages by about four years between seasons 4 and 5.
Recurring cast
Marc Price as Irwin "Skippy" Handelman
Scott Valentine as Nick Moore (seasons 4–7)
Tracy Pollan as Ellen Reed (season 4)
Courteney Cox as Lauren Miller (seasons 6 & 7)
Guest stars
River Phoenix as Eugene Forbes in the episode "My Tutor"
Jeff Cohen as Marv Jr./Dougie Barker in 2 episodes
Corey Feldman as Student Walter in the episode "The Disciple"
Tom Hanks as Ned Donnelly, Elyse's younger brother and Alex's role model, in 3 episodes
Martha Plimpton as Jessie Black in the episode "You've Got a Friend"
Wil Wheaton as Timothy Higgins in the episode "'D' Is for Date"
David Faustino as Keith Baily in the episode "To Snatch a Keith"
Geena Davis as Karen Nicholson in 2 episodes
Maura Tierney as Darlene in the episode "My Best Friend's Girl"
Crispin Glover as Doug in the episode "The Birthday Boy"
Christina Applegate as Kitten in the episode "Band on the Run"
Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Susan in the episode "Read It and Weep: Part 2"
Brownie McGhee as Eddie Dupree in the episode "The Blues Brother"
Brian McNamara as Greg McCormick in the episode "A, My Name is Alex"
Jane Adams as Marty Brodie, a young co-ed Alex begins tutoring in the episodes "They Can't Take That Away From Me, Part 1" and "They Can't Take That Away From Me, Part 2"
The show had been sold to the network using the pitch "hip parents, square kids." Originally, Elyse and Steven were intended to be the main characters, but the audience reacted so positively to Alex during the taping of the fourth episode that he became the focus of the show. Fox had received the role of Alex only after Matthew Broderick turned it down. Laura Dern was considered for the role of Mallory. Ed O'Neill auditioned for the role of Steven, but later turned it down as he felt he was not right for the part.
Supporting cast and characters include neighbor Irwin "Skippy" Handelman (Marc Price), who has an ongoing crush on Mallory; Nick Moore (Scott Valentine), Mallory's Sylvester Stallone-esque artist boyfriend; Ellen Reed (Tracy Pollan, whom Michael J. Fox later married, in 1988), Alex's feminist artist girlfriend; and Lauren Miller (Courteney Cox).
Production
Main stars Meredith Baxter and Michael Gross are exactly the same age, sharing the same birthday on June 21, 1947. In the series, their characters were intended to be approximately five or six years older, given that their on-screen son, played by Michael J. Fox, was, in fact, only fourteen years younger than Baxter and Gross in real life.
The show had several similarities or parallels to Baxter's prior series, Family. In addition to similar names for both series, the shows both initially featured three children, the youngest a tomboy, and later added another child to the cast. Baxter played the eldest child on the earlier show, and assumed the role of mother in Family Ties.
Theme song
The theme song "Without Us" (credited in season one as "Us") was composed by Jeff Barry and Tom Scott in 1982. During the first ten episodes of the first season it was performed by Dennis Tufano and Mindy Sterling. From episode 11 onward the song was performed by original recording artists Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams, as producers were displeased with Tufano's and Sterling's version. A full-length version of "Without Us" is featured on the 2003 CD release of Mathis and Williams' duet album That's What Friends Are For, released by Columbia Records.
"At This Moment"
"At This Moment" was a 1981 single written by songwriter and recording artist Billy Vera and recorded live by Vera and his band, Billy Vera & The Beaters. Five years after its original release, a studio recording of "At This Moment" was featured at the beginning of several episodes of the fourth and early fifth seasons as the love song associated with Alex P. Keaton (Michael J. Fox) and his girlfriend Ellen Reed (Tracy Pollan). Its exposure on Family Ties renewed a huge interest in the song. People called and wrote NBC asking for the name of the song and its singer. The tune then began a revived chart run, eventually hitting #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary charts in January 1987. It also hit the Billboard R&B Chart and the Billboard Hot Country Chart. "At This Moment" quickly sold over a million copies in the United States, becoming one of the last Gold-certified singles in the 45 RPM format. The song crossed over to the R&B and Country formats, reaching #42 Country; as country was moving away from pop influence at the time, "At This Moment" would be the last song to appear on the country charts and reach number one on the pop charts for 13 years.
The first Billy Vera & The Beaters album was recorded live, so when "At This Moment" was used in Family Ties, only the live version existed. Vera later explained: "We re-recorded pieces of the song. In other words, they'd need 12 seconds here, or 20 seconds there in the show. So we went in and recorded just those pieces in the studio without the audience, because the audience would have been annoying, to the TV viewer. The thing that made it work better the second time was that the story of the song, boy-loses-girl, was the story of the episode "Boy Loses Girl." The first time they used the song, it was when he met the girl."
Family Ties writer Michael Weithorn would later recall: "In 1985, I had written an episode of Family Ties to start the fourth season, and we needed a sort of a sad romantic song. I just happened to go into a bar in Los Angeles and saw Billy and the Beaters. That was the perfect song, and the rest was history." In an interview, Vera talked about his meeting with Weithorn: "One afternoon I got a phone call, and this guy said, 'Hey I produce a show called Family Ties, and some of us were at your show the other night, and we heard you do this song that we thought would be perfect for an episode that we have coming up.' I got my publisher to make a deal for that with them and America responded like crazy." "NBC called us up, they said, 'My God, we've never had any response like this in the history of the network for a song. The switchboards are lighting up, we're getting letters, telegrams, where can we find this song?' People started calling radio stations, which never happens. I mean, it was a total organic hit."
On the DVD releases of both Family Ties' fourth and fifth seasons, "At This Moment" is still included and heard in those episodes.
In an interview with Rachael Ray in 2007, Michael J. Fox good-naturedly said, "Tracy and I couldn't get on the dance floor anywhere in the world for like ten years without them playing 'What did you think..."
At the 2011 TV Land Awards held in New York City, Billy Vera performed "At This Moment" with the main Family Ties cast in attendance that also included Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan, as the show had been nominated for and won Outstanding Fan Favorite.
Connection to Day by Day
During its final two seasons, Family Ties was scheduled on Sunday nights, often followed by Day by Day, another series from Ubu Productions. Michael Gross and Brian Bonsall brought their respective roles of Steven and Andy Keaton to the Day by Day episode "Trading Places," which reveals that Steven went to college with Brian Harper (Doug Sheehan). This episode is included on a bonus special-features disc in the Family Ties: The Complete Series Deluxe Family Album Collection Edition Box Set DVD. Ironically, one episode of Day by Day was pre-empted by the network television premiere of Back to the Future, starring Michael J. Fox, airing on November 13, 1988.
Other appearances
Some characters were featured on Mickey's 60th Birthday, broadcast on November 13, 1988, on NBC, and featured Justine Bateman, Tina Yothers, and Brian Bonsall as their Family Ties characters, trying to help Mickey Mouse when everybody fails to recognize him due to a spell. Michael J. Fox additionally had a cameo in a flashback using archive footage.
Episodes
Awards
Emmy Awards
1986: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Michael J. Fox)
1987: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Michael J. Fox)