Family Ties Cast Then and Now (2023)

Even after almost 40 years, Family Ties remains one of the most beloved sitcoms in TV history. Many stars of the iconic ’80s show, which ran from 1982 until 1989, will reunite on “Stars in the House” on Nov. 10 at 8 p.m. They’ll reminisce about all things Family Ties.

00:00 - Intro
0:18 - Marc Price as Irwin "Skippy" Handelman
1:24 - Courteney Cox as Lauren Miller
2:29 - Scott Valentine as Nick Moore
3:24 - Michael Gross as Steven Keaton
4:39 - Meredith Baxter as Elyse Keaton
5:44 - Tine Yothers as Jennifer Keaton
6:52 - Justine Bateman as Mallory Keaton
7:54 - Tracy Pollan as Ellen Reed
9:00 - Michael J. Fox as Alex P. Keaton

The cast members taking part in the reunion include Michael J. Fox, 59, Tina Yothers, 47, Meredith Baxter, 73, Michael Gross, 73, Marc Price, 52, and Scott Valentine, 62. The Family Ties stars have gone on to have successful careers in television, film, and more. See the legendary cast then and now.

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Family Ties Cast Then and Now

Set in suburban Columbus, Ohio, during the Reagan administration, Steven and Elyse Keaton (Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter) are baby boomers, liberals and former hippies, raising their three children: ambitious, would-be millionaire entrepreneur Alex (Michael J. Fox); fashion-conscious, gossipy Mallory (Justine Bateman); and tomboy Jennifer (Tina Yothers). 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 oldest, is a "Young Republican" who embraces Reaganomics and exhibits conservative attitudes. Mallory is apolitical and a materialistic young woman in contrast to her feminist mother.[3] Mallory is also presented as a vacuous airhead, who is 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 (or "Andy", for short), 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 likeable 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."
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