| Family Ties | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Sitcom |
| Created by | Gary David Goldberg |
| Showrunner | Gary David Goldberg |
| Starring | |
| Theme music composer | |
| Opening theme | "Without Us" performed byDennis Tufano and Mindy Sterling (season 1, episodes 1–10);Johnny Mathis andDeniece Williams (remainder of series run) |
| Ending theme | "Without Us" (instrumental) |
| Composer | Tom Scott |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 7 |
| No. of episodes | 176 + one film(list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
|
| Producers |
|
| Cinematography |
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| Editors |
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| Camera setup | Multi-camera,Videotape |
| Running time | 24 minutes |
| Production companies | |
| Original release | |
| Network | NBC[1] |
| Release | September 22, 1982 (1982-9-22) – May 14, 1989 (1989-5-14) |
| Related | |
| The Art of Being Nick (TV pilot) Day by Day | |
Family Ties is an American televisionsitcom that aired onNBC for seven seasons, premiering on September 22, 1982, and concluding on May 14, 1989. The series, created byGary David Goldberg, reflected the social shift in the United States from thecultural liberalism of the 1960s and 1970s to theconservatism of the 1980s.[2] Because of this, Young RepublicanAlex P. Keaton (portrayed byMichael J. Fox) develops generational strife with his ex-hippie parents, Steven and Elyse Keaton (portrayed byMichael Gross andMeredith 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 started airing 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 consecutiveEmmy Awards for Michael J. Fox asOutstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.
Set inColumbus, Ohio, during theReagan administration, the show depicts Steven and Elyse Keaton (Michael Gross andMeredith Baxter) asbaby boomers,[3] liberals and formerhippies,[2] raising their 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 localpublic television station.
Much of the humor of the series focuses on the cultural divide during the 1980s when younger generations rejected thecounterculture of the 1960s and embraced the materialism and conservative politics which came to define the 1980s.[4] Alex, the eldest, is aYoung Republican who embracesReaganomics and exhibits conservative attitudes. In contrast to herfeminist mother, Mallory is an apolitical and materialistic young woman[2] 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."[5] 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 fromJim Brooks andAllan [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."[6] 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 ofFamily Ties, when we went off the air, thenThe 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."[5]
The show had been sold to the network using the pitch "hip parents, square kids."[7] 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][7] Fox had received the role afterMatthew Broderick turned it down.[8]Laura Dern was considered for the role of Mallory Keaton.[9]Ed O'Neill auditioned for Steven Keaton,[10] but he later turned it down as he felt he was not right for the part.[11]
Supporting cast and characters include neighbor Irwin "Skippy" Handelman (Marc Price), who has an eternal crush on Mallory; Nick Moore (Scott Valentine), Mallory'sSylvester Stallone-esque artist boyfriend; Lauren Miller (Courteney Cox); and Alex's feminist, artist girlfriend Ellen Reed (Tracy Pollan, whom Michael J. Fox later married, in 1988).
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.[12]
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 inFamily Ties.
The theme song "Without Us" (credited in season one as "Us") was composed byJeff Barry andTom Scott in 1982. During the first ten episodes of the first season it was performed byDennis Tufano andMindy Sterling.[13][14] From episode 11 onward the song was performed by original recording artistsJohnny Mathis andDeniece 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 albumThat's What Friends Are For, released byColumbia Records.
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"At This Moment" was a 1981 single written by songwriter and recording artistBilly 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).[15] Its exposure onFamily Ties renewed a huge interest in the song. People called and wroteNBC asking for the name of the song and its singer. The tune then began a revived chart run, eventually hitting #1 on both theBillboard Hot 100 andAdult Contemporary charts in January 1987. It also hit theBillboard R&B Chart and theBillboard 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 the45 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 inFamily 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 writerMichael Weithorn would later recall: "In 1985, I had written an episode ofFamily 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 calledFamily 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."[16]
On the DVD releases of bothFamily Ties' fourth and fifth seasons, "At This Moment" is still included and heard in those episodes.
In an interview withRachael 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 the2011 TV Land Awards held in New York City, Billy Vera performed "At This Moment" with the mainFamily 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.
During its final two seasons,Family Ties was scheduled on Sunday nights, often followed byDay by Day, another series from Ubu Productions.Michael Gross andBrian Bonsall brought their respective roles of Steven and Andy Keaton to theDay 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 theFamily Ties: The Complete Series Deluxe Family Album Collection Edition Box Set DVD.
Some characters were featured onMickey's 60th Birthday, broadcast on November 13, 1988, on NBC, and featured Justine Bateman, Tina Yothers, and Brian Bonsall as theirFamily Ties characters, trying to helpMickey Mouse when everybody fails to recognize him due to a spell. Michael J. Fox additionally had a cameo in a flashback using archive footage.
| Season | Episodes | Originally released | Rank | Rating | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First released | Last released | |||||
| 1 | 22 | September 22, 1982 (1982-9-22) | April 4, 1983 (1983-4-4) | 56[17] | — | |
| 2 | 22 | September 28, 1983 (1983-9-28) | May 10, 1984 (1984-5-10) | 42 | 16.0[18] | |
| 3 | 24 | September 20, 1984 (1984-9-20) | March 28, 1985 (1985-3-28) | 5 | 22.1 | |
| Film | September 23, 1985 (1985-9-23) | — | 22.1 | |||
| 4 | 24 | September 26, 1985 (1985-9-26) | May 1, 1986 (1986-5-1) | 2 | 30.0 | |
| 5 | 30 | September 25, 1986 (1986-9-25) | August 13, 1987 (1987-8-13) | 2 | 32.7 | |
| 6 | 28 | September 13, 1987 (1987-9-13) | May 1, 1988 (1988-5-1) | 17 | 17.3 | |
| 7 | 26 | October 30, 1988 (1988-10-30) | May 14, 1989 (1989-5-14) | 35 | 14.5[19] | |
NBC aired reruns ofFamily Ties weekday mornings from December 1985 until January 1987 before it was replaced by the Bill Rafferty version ofBlockbusters. In the fall of 1987, the series went intosyndication in the United States. Currently, reruns air onAntenna TV,Rewind TV andPluto TV. Reruns previously aired onFamilyNet,TBS,Nick at Nite,TV Land,Hallmark Channel,The Hub andPop.
In Canada, reruns ofFamily Ties began airing onCTS, a Christian-based network, on September 6, 2010. On May 15, 2011,Netflix began to stream seasons 1–7 on its "watch instantly" streaming service.[20]
In Australia,Family Ties originally screened on theSeven Network from 1983 onwards. It became a perennial favorite repeated many times before being bought by theNine Network which screened it up until 2008.[citation needed] It later screened on pay TV networkTV1 before airing on10 Peach (then known as Eleven) in the afternoons and late night until June 2013. As of June 2020, two episodes are shown on Saturday afternoons between 1 and 2 p.m.
In Germany,Family Ties was first aired onZDF in 1984 under the title "Hilfe, wir werden erwachsen!" ("Help, we grow up!"), later onRTL (1989) as "Familienbande" (translation of the original title) and onProSieben as "Jede Menge Familie" ("Whole lot of family").
Austria aired the show onORF as "Jede Menge Familie" similar to ProSieben.
In the UK,Family Ties aired onChannel 4 from July 1985.[21]
In Indonesia,Family Ties aired onRCTI andSCTV between 1990 and 1993.
In Italy, the show aired on Italia 1 under the name ofCasa Keaton (Keaton House) from 1986 until 1992.
In the Philippines, the show aired onGMA Network from 1983 to 1991 and was simulcast onRPN (now RPTV),IBC from 1984 to 1989,PTV from 1986 to 1988 andABS-CBN (now Kapamilya Channel) from 1987 to 1991. It moved toABC (now TV5) was dubbed in Filipino from 1998 to 2000.[citation needed]
The show screened in New Zealand onTVNZ in the 1980s and early '90s, but has never been repeated.
CBS DVD (distributed byParamount) has released all seven seasons ofFamily Ties on DVD in Region 1, as of August 13, 2013[update]. The second through fifth season releases contain special features, 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.
On November 5, 2013,CBS Home Entertainment releasedFamily Ties - The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1.
On November 11, 2014, CBS Home Entertainment re-released a repackaged version of the complete series set, at a lower price, but did not include the bonus disc that was part of the original complete series set.[22]
In Australia (Region 4), after the first three seasons were released, no further release came to light. In 2016, Via Vision Entertainment obtained the rights to the series and re-released the first three seasons along with season four on July 6, 2016. The remaining seasons were released each month after including a 'Complete Series' box set.
| DVD name | No. of episodes | Release dates | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Region 1 | Region 4 | ||
| The Complete First Season | 22 | February 20, 2007 | April 9, 2008, July 6, 2016 (re-release)[23] |
| The Second Season | 22 | October 9, 2007 | September 4, 2008, July 6, 2016 (re-release)[24] |
| The Third Season | 24 | February 12, 2008 | April 2, 2009, July 6, 2016 (re-release)[25] |
| The Fourth Season | 24 | August 5, 2008 | July 6, 2016[26] |
| The Fifth Season | 30 | March 10, 2009 | August 3, 2016[27] |
| The Sixth Season | 28 | April 9, 2013 | September 7, 2016[28] |
| The Seventh Season | 26 | August 13, 2013 | October 5, 2016[29] |
| The Complete Series | 176 | November 5, 2013/November 11, 2014 | November 2, 2016[30] |
In addition to DVD, the TV series is available through a variety of services such asPrime Video andVudu in the digital format.
Over a decade after the end ofFamily Ties, Michael J. Fox's final episodes onSpin City featured numerous allusions to the show. In these episodes, Michael Gross played a therapist for Fox's characterMichael Patrick Flaherty[31] and the episode contained a reference to an off-screen character named "Mallory".[32] In the episode, after Flaherty becomes an environmental lobbyist in Washington, D.C., he meets a "conservative junior senator named Alex P. Keaton."[33] Meredith Baxter also portrayed Mike Flaherty's mother, Macy Flaherty, in the two-part episode "Family Affair".
The main cast ofFamily Ties -- Fox, Gross, Baxter, Bateman, and Yothers, sometimes with a few other recurring cast members -- has reunited publicly on three occasions (along with series creator/producer Gary David Goldberg on two occasions). They first reunited on February 7, 2008 (without supporting playersTracy Pollan,Scott Valentine,Marc Price,Brian Bonsall andCourteney Cox) for an interview onThe Today Show to help promote Goldberg's memoirSit, Ubu, Sit.[34] The cast reunited again (with Pollan and Price, but still without Valentine, Bonsall and Cox) for a second time for the 2011TV Land Awards in March of that year, which included Pollan alongside her husband Fox. That awards show would be the final appearance of Goldberg with the entire group.[citation needed] In October 2015, the main cast reunited for a third time with a second appearance (which included Pollan alongside Fox, but minus Price, Valentine, Bonsall and Cox) onThe Today Show, and the first cast reunion since the 2013 death of Goldberg from cancer.[citation needed]
The 2021Marvel Cinematic Universe series for theDisney+video streaming service, references the series in the fifth episode, "On a Very Special Episode...," such as a stylizedtitle sequence partially parodying theFamily Ties opening that depicted the family first as a penciled sketch before finishing as a painted portrait, along with an upbeat theme song praising the family's love and closeness. In the episode,Wanda Maximoff andVision are attempting to navigate raising their new childrenTommy andBilly, both of whom are developingsuperhero abilities of their own.