Family Ties

For other uses, see Family Ties (disambiguation).

Family Ties
The Family Ties "family painting," used in the opening sequence from 1983 to 1985. This file is a candidate for speedy deletion. It may be deleted after Friday, 25 November 2011.
Format	Sitcom
Created by	Gary David Goldberg
Starring	Meredith Baxter-Birney 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 CBS Television Distribution
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Original run	September 22, 1982 (1982-09-22) – May 14, 1989 (1989-05-14)

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-Birney and Michael Gross). The show 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-Birney, Michael Gross, Brian Bonsall, and Tina Yothers.

Set during the early years of the Reagan administration, Elyse and Steven Keaton (Meredith Baxter-Birney 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 conservative attitudes: Alex is a Young Republican and Mallory is a more materialistic young woman in contrast to her feminist mother.^[2] Mallory was also presented as a vacuous airhead, who was fodder for jokes and teasing from her brother Alex. Jennifer, an athletic tomboy and the youngest child, shares the values of her parents and just wants to be a normal kid. Elyse and Steven have a fourth child, Andrew, born in 1984 whom Alex doted on and quickly molded in his conservative image.

Cast

• Meredith Baxter-Birney 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] Coincidentally, Meredith Baxter had previously starred alongside Matthew Broderick's father James (as his daughter) on the TV series Family.

Supporting cast and characters included neighbor Irwin "Skippy" Handelman (Marc Price), Mallory's Sylvester Stallone-esque 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, episode 17 Elyse gave birth to her fourth child, Andrew (who was played by Brian Bonsall from season 5 onward). Garrett Merriman played baby Andrew. Bewitched actor Dick Sargent guest starred as Elyse's father Charlie in Season 1.

Guest stars

Several Hollywood stars appeared on the show before they were famous or during the early years of their careers

• Judith Light appeared in Season 2 as a colleague of Steven's, whom she unsuccessfully attempted to seduce.
• Tom Hanks appeared during the first and second seasons as Elyse's younger alcoholic brother Ned^[4]
• Geena Davis portrayed inept housekeeper Karen
• River Phoenix played a fourteen-year-old math genius who develops a crush on Jennifer after coming to tutor Alex. Phoenix's sister, Rain, would also appear as one of Jennifer's friends in a different episode.
• 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". Louis-Dreyfus would later co-star on the Family Ties spin-off Day by Day. It was revealed that the family patriarch, Brian Harper (played by Douglas Sheehan) was a college roommate of Steven Keaton. A total of 33 episodes were produced.
• Crispin Glover played one of Alex's friends on the episode "Birthday Boy". Glover would later become famous for his portrayal of George McFly, the father of Michael J. Fox's character Marty McFly, in the blockbuster film Back to the Future.
• Wil Wheaton played a kid in which Jennifer played dumb in order to date him.
• Corey Feldman played a 7th grade classmate of Jennifer who was a nominee to win the Thomas Dewey best student achievement award on the episode "The Disciple"
• Jeff Cohen played 2 different characters, Marv Jr. on the episode, "The Visit", and Dougie Barker on the episode, "4 Rms Ocn Vu".
• Christina Applegate played Kitten, a member of Jennifer's band, on the episode, "Band on the Run".^[6]
• Stephen Baldwin appeared as a member of a therapy group that Alex attends with his girlfriend.
• Daniel Baldwin appeared as an army recruit who harasses Skippy.
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt played Dougie, a friend of Andrew in Kindergarten in two episodes, "Sign of the Times" and "Father can you spare me a Dime".
• Jane Adams played Marty Broadie in two 7th season episodes, "They Can't Take That Away from Me: Part 1" and "They Can't Take That Away from Me: Part 2".
• James Cromwell played John Hancock in the 3rd season episode, "Philadelphia Story".

Theme Song

The Theme Song, "Without Us", was composed by Jeff Barry and Tom Scott in 1982. It was performed by Deniece Williams and Johnny Mathis. The first 10 episodes were performed by Dennis Tufano and Mindy Sterling.

Ratings

• 1982–1983: outside the top 30^[7]
• 1983–1984: #43^[8]
• 1984–1985: #5, 18,847,800 households^[9]
• 1985–1986: #2, 25,770,000 households^[10]
• 1986–1987: #2, 28,579,800 households^[11]
• 1987–1988: #17, 15,327,800 households^[12]
• 1988-1989: #36^[13]

Episodes

Main article: List of Family Ties 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); Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series; Outstanding Technical Direction
• 1988: 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)

TV Land Awards

• 2011: Fan Favorite, Presented by Ben Stiller

Syndication

NBC aired reruns of Family Ties weekday mornings from December, 1985 until January, 1987. In the fall of 1987, several Fox and independent stations, like WNYW-TV 5 in New York City, KTTV-TV 11 in Los Angeles, WFLD-TV 32 in Chicago WSBK-TV 38 in Boston, among others aired the show.

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, YTV, Nick at Nite, TV Land, and Hallmark Channel during the early to mid 2000s. Currently, it airs on The Hub.

In Canada, reruns of Family Ties began airing on CTS, a Christian-based network, on September 6, 2010. On May 15, 2011 Netflix began to stream season 1-7 on its "watch instantly" streaming service.^[14]

In Australia, reruns air every afternoon on Eleven.

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. Seasons 6 and 7 have yet to be released.

DVD Name	Ep#	Release dates
		Region 1	Region 4
The Complete First Season	22	February 20, 2007[15]	April 9, 2008[16]
The Second Season	22	October 9, 2007[17]	September 4, 2008[18]
The Third Season	24	February 12, 2008[19]	April 2, 2009[20]
The Fourth Season	28	August 5, 2008[21]	TBA
The Fifth Season	30	March 10, 2009[22]	TBA

References to prior media

Media critic Ben Shapiro has stated that, based on his interview with Gary David Goldberg, the show was an unintentional comic reversal of All in the Family (which had conservative parents and liberal kids). Goldberg didn't plan it that way, but discovered that later as a happy accident.^[23]

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^[24] and the episode contained a reference to an off-screen character named "Mallory".^[25] In the episode, after Flaherty becomes an environmental lobbyist in Washington D.C., he meets a "conservative congressman named Alex P. Keaton."^[26] Meredith Baxter 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, as it is a favorite show of Seth MacFarlane. 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). In the episode "Movin' Out (Brian's Song)", Stewie Griffin compared Brian's breakup with Jillian to Alex's: "Remember when Alex P. Keaton lost his girlfriend? And then he got another one and everything was all right? And then he got Parkinson's. Yikes." 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. In the episode "Brothers & Sisters", the Griffins are watching a "later-season" episode of Family Ties, in which puberty has changed Jennifer into a buffalo. Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter reprised their roles for the scene. Coincidentally, this episode of Family Guy aired at the same time as the 9th Annual TV Land Awards when the cast of Family Ties accepted the Fan Favorite Award for the show.

The cast of Family Ties publicly reunited for the first time on February 7, 2008 for an interview on The Today Show.^[27]

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

1. ^ For the first 10 episodes, the opening theme was performed by Dennis Tufano and Mindy Sterling. IMDb (1990-2009). "Biography for Dennis Tufano". Amazon.com. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0876179/bio. Retrieved 28 October 2009. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d} The Museum of Broadcast Communications: Family Ties
3. ^ What he left behind: From Tom Clancy to Alex P. Keaton, Ronald Reagan's legacy extends beyond the political and into the cultural
4. ^ ^{a b c} Reagan's Favorite Sitcom: How Family Ties spawned a conservative hero
5. ^ The Biography Channel - Matthew Broderick Biography
6. ^ http://www.tv.com/family-ties/band-on-the-run/episode/15518/summary.html
7. ^ TV hits '82
8. ^ TV hits '83
9. ^ TV hits '84
10. ^ TV hits '85
11. ^ TV hits '86
12. ^ http://fbibler.chez.com/tvstats
13. ^ TV hits '88
14. ^ Netflix:Family Ties (1982-1988) Seasons 1-7
15. ^ http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_item.asp?item_id=1249667
16. ^ http://www.ezydvd.com.au/item.zml/797829
17. ^ http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_item.asp?item_id=1347868
18. ^ http://www.ezydvd.com.au/item.zml/800184
19. ^ http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_item.asp?item_id=1376178
20. ^ http://www.ezydvd.com.au/item.zml/804826
21. ^ http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_item.asp?item_id=1404447
22. ^ http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_item.asp?item_id=1444065
23. ^ http://www.mattlewis.org/?p=5934
24. ^ Putting His Own Spin on ‘City’s’ season finale
25. ^ Shales, Tom. "Michael J. Fox, Playing 'Spin City' to a Fare-Thee-Well." Washington Post, May 24, 2000, C1.
26. ^ Michael J. Fox Database
27. ^ "Family Ties: Reunited After Almost 20 Years!". TVSeriesFinale.com. http://tvseriesfinale.com/articles/family-ties-reunited-after-almost-20-years. Retrieved 2008-02-07. 

External links

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