Family Ties

Family Ties
The Family Ties "family painting," used in the opening sequence from 1983 to 1985.
Format	Sitcom
Created by	Gary David Goldberg
Starring	Meredith Baxter Michael Gross Michael J. Fox Justine Bateman Tina Yothers Brian Bonsall (1986–1989)
Theme music composer	Jeff Barry Tom Scott
Opening theme	"Without Us" Performed by Johnny Mathis & Deniece Williams[1]
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	7
No. of episodes	180 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	22–24 minutes
Production company(s)	Ubu Productions Paramount Television
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Original run	September 22, 1982 (1982-09-22) – May 14, 1989 (1989-05-14)
Status	Ended

Family Ties is an American sitcom that aired on NBC for seven seasons, from 1982 to 1989. The sitcom reflected the move in the United States from the cultural liberalism of the 1960s and 1970s to the conservatism of the 1980s.^[2] This was particularly expressed through the relationship between young Republican Alex P. Keaton (Michael J. Fox) and his former-hippie parents, Elyse and Steven Keaton (Meredith Baxter and Michael Gross). The program won multiple awards, including three consecutive Emmy Awards for Michael J. Fox as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.

Overview

Cast of Family Ties from a later season. (From left to right) Justine Bateman, Michael J. Fox, Meredith Baxter, Michael Gross, Brian Bonsall, and Tina Yothers.

Set during the early years of the Reagan administration, Elyse and Steven Keaton (Meredith Baxter and Michael Gross) are Baby Boomers, former-Hippies and liberals ^[2] raising their three children: Alex (Michael J. Fox), Mallory (Justine Bateman) and Jennifer (Tina Yothers) in suburban Columbus, Ohio. Married in 1964, Elyse, an independent architect, and Steven, a station manager in a local public television station, were hippies during the 1960s. According to the episode, "A Christmas Story" in season one, they were influenced by John F. Kennedy and were members of the Peace Corps following their marriage in 1964. Alex was born in 1965 in Africa. Mallory was born while Elyse and Steven were students at the University of California, Berkeley in 1967, and Jennifer was born the night Richard Nixon won his second term in 1972.

Much of the humor of the series focused on the cultural divide during the 1980s when younger generations rejected the counterculture of the 1960s and embraced the conservative politics which came to define the 1980s.^[3] Both Alex and Mallory embrace Reaganomics and exhibit right-wing attitudes: Alex is a Young Republican and Mallory is a more traditional young woman in contrast to her feminist mother.^[2] Jennifer, an athletic tomboy and the youngest child, shares the values of her parents and just wanted to be a normal kid. Elyse and Steven have a fourth child, Andrew, born in 1984.

Cast

• Meredith Baxter as Elyse Keaton
• Michael Gross as Steven Keaton
• Michael J. Fox as Alex P. Keaton
• Justine Bateman as Mallory Keaton
• Tina Yothers as Jennifer Keaton
• Brian Bonsall as Andrew Keaton (seasons 5-7)
• 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)

The show had been sold to the network using the pitch "hip parents, square kids"^[4]. Originally, Elyse and Steven were intended to be the main characters. However, the audience reacted so positively to Alex during the taping of the fourth episode that he became the focus on the show.^[2][4] Fox had received the role after Matthew Broderick turned it down.^[5]

Supporting cast and characters included neighbor Irwin "Skippy" Handelman (Marc Price), Mallory's boyfriend artist Nick Moore (Scott Valentine) and Alex's feminist artist girlfriend Ellen Reed (Tracy Pollan, whom Michael J. Fox later married). In season 3, Elyse gave birth to her fourth child, Andrew (who was played by Brian Bonsall from season 5 onward).

Several Hollywood stars appeared on the show before they were famous or during the early years of their careers; Tom Hanks appeared during the first and second seasons as Elyse's younger brother Ned^[4]. Geena Davis portrayed an inept housekeeper, River Phoenix played a fourteen-year-old math genius who develops a crush on Jennifer after coming to tutor Alex and Courteney Cox played Alex's girlfriend Lauren at the end of the series. Julia Louis-Dreyfus portrayed a lawyer in the two-part episode "Read It and Weep".

Ratings

• 1982–1983: outside the top 30^[6]
• 1983–1984: outside the top 30^[7]
• 1984–1985: #5, 18,847,800 households^[8]
• 1985–1986: #2, 25,770,000 households^[9]
• 1986–1987: #2, 28,579,800 households^[10]
• 1987–1988: #17, 15,327,800 households^[11]
• 1988-1989: outside the top 30^[12]

Episodes

Awards

Emmy Awards

• 1988: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Michael J. Fox)
• 1987: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Michael J. Fox); Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series; Outstanding Technical Direction
• 1986: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Michael J. Fox)

Golden Globes

• 1989:Best Performance by an Actor in a TV-Series (Michael J. Fox)

Syndication

FamilyNet aired the program as part of its "Families on FamilyNet" programming block, also featuring My Three Sons and Happy Days between January 2009 and February 2010.

In the summer of 2008, WGN America aired reruns as part of their Outta Sight Retro Night programming block. Reruns previously aired on TBS, Nick at Nite, TV Land, & Hallmark Channel during the early to mid 2000's.

DVD releases

CBS DVD (distributed by Paramount) has released the first five seasons of Family Ties on DVD in Region 1. Each release features music replacements due to copyright issues as well as special features such as gag reels and episodic promos. The second season contains interviews with Michael Gross and Michael J. Fox along with other cast members. The fourth season contains the made-for-TV-movie, Family Ties Vacation.

Paramount has also released the first three seasons on DVD in Region 4.

References in other media

Over a decade after the cancellation of Family Ties, Michael J. Fox's final episodes on Spin City featured numerous allusions to the show. In these episodes, Michael Gross played a therapist for Fox's character Michael Patrick Flaherty^[16] and the episode contained a reference to an off-screen character named "Mallory".^[17] In the episode, after Flaherty becomes an environmental lobbyist in Washington D.C., he meets a "conservative congressman named Alex P. Keaton."^[18] Meredith Baxter Birney also portrayed Mike Flaherty's mother, Macy Flaherty, in the episodes "Family Affair" (Parts 1 and 2).

Family Ties has also been referenced on Family Guy. In the opening scene of the episode Fifteen Minutes of Shame, Peter Griffin is coloring the painting of the Keaton family, just like in the title sequence (with the theme song in the background). Stewie Griffin once compared Brian Griffin's situation to Alex Keaton's: "Remember when Alex P. Keaton broke up with his girlfriend? He got over it and then he got Parkinsons." In the episode "Jerome is the New Black", Family Ties is playing on the television and Jerome buys Peter Griffin a sculpture made by the character Nick.

The cast of Family Ties publicly reunited for the first time on February 7, 2008 for an interview on The Today Show.^[19]

References

• Fox, Michael J. (2002). Lucky Man: A Memoir. New York: Hyperion. ISBN 978-078686764-6 
• Goldberg, Gary David. "Comedy Stop: What Would Alex Keaton Do?." New York Times, March 3, 2008.
• Haglund, David. "Reagan's Favorite Sitcom: How Family Ties spawned a conservative hero." Slate. March 2, 2007.
• Hurst, Alex. "Remembering an icon from the 'Me-Decade'." The Daily Pennsylvanian, April 24, 2001.
• Patterson, Thomas. "What would Alex P. Keaton do?." CNN, November 1, 2006.
• Saenz, Michael. "Family Ties." - Museum of Broadcast Communications
• Stewart, Susan. "The Parents Ate Sprouts; the Kid Stole the Show. New York Times, February 25, 2007.

Notes

External links

• Family Ties at the Internet Movie Database
• Family Ties at TV.com