Family Ties

• Meredith Baxter-Birney 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 '60s. She is a patient, caring, and loving wife and mother. She 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, who is an ex-hippie liberal who lived in California in the '60s. He can be argumentative at times, but in the end is a diligent and supportive father who cares about his family deeply. He met and married Elyse in college in Berkeley.
• Michael J. Fox as Alex P. Keaton: the eldest child and elder son of Steven and Elyse, and brother to Mallory, Jennifer, and Andy. He is an intelligent and ambitious Young Republican with only two goals in life: to be successful and make money. He later goes on to attend Leland University and has long-term relationships with two women: Ellen Reed and Lauren Miller. He often clashes with his parents about their liberal politics which conflict with his own conservative views.
• Justine Bateman as Mallory Keaton: the second-eldest child and elder daughter of Steven and Elyse, and sister to Alex, Jennifer, and Andy. She is an unscholarly material girl, but kind-hearted and inoffensive, whose only main interests are shopping and boys. She has a longtime relationship with Nick Moore.
• Tina Yothers as Jennifer Keaton: the third-eldest child and younger daughter of Elyse and Steven, and sister to Alex, Mallory, and Andy. She is a tomboy whose cares mostly include athletics. She shares her parents liberal views in contrast to her siblings’ more conservative views. She is shown to be aggressive, but sweet. She is shown to be jealous at first of Andy, but later cares for him.
• Brian Bonsall as Andrew "Andy" Keaton (seasons 5–7)
  • Garrett and Tyler Merriman as Baby Andrew "Andy" Keaton (season 4): the youngest child and younger son of Elyse and Steven, and brother to Alex, Mallory, and Jennifer. He is born during season 3 due to Meredith Baxter-Birney being pregnant in real life. After he is born, the whole family quickly shows affection and a loving attitude towards him, especially Alex who attempts to mold him into a Republican just like him. He quickly ages by about four years between seasons 4 and 5.

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.[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)

• 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 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"

The show had been sold to the network using the pitch "hip parents, square kids."[8] 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.[3][8] Fox had received the role after Matthew Broderick turned it down.[9]

Supporting cast and characters includes neighbor Irwin "Skippy" Handelman (Marc Price), who has an eternal crush on Mallory; Nick Moore (Scott Valentine), Mallory's Sylvester 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). In season 3, episode 17, Elyse gave birth to her fourth child, Andrew (who was played by Brian Bonsall from season 5 onward). Twins Garrett and Tyler Merriman played baby Andrew.

"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 the original release of this song, a studio recording of "At This Moment" was featured on several episodes the start of the fourth and early fifth season 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[4] and Adult Contemporary charts in January 1987. The song 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 Whitehorn 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 Family Ties writer Michael Whitehorn: "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-naturally 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.

The theme song, "Without Us" (credited in season one as "Us"), was composed by Jeff Barry and Tom Scott in 1982. During the first season, it was originally performed by Dennis Tufano and Mindy Sterling.[10][11] For the rest of the show's run, the song was performed by Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams, a full length version of "Without Us" is featured on Mathis and Williams' duet album, "Without Us", which was released by Columbia Records.

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.

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.

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

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

• 2008: Character You'd Pay to Do Your Homework for You (Michael J. Fox)
• 2011: Fan Favorite, Presented by Ben Stiller to the Family Ties cast

• 1985: Best Young Actress in a Television Comedy Series (Justine Bateman)
• 1985: Best Young Supporting Actress in a Television Comedy Series (Tina Yothers)
• 1986: Best Young Actor Starring in a Television Series (Marc Price)
• 1988: Best Young Actor Under Nine Years of Age (Brian Bonsall)
• 1989: Best Young Actor Under Ten Years of Age in Television or Motion Pictures (Brian Bonsall)

CBS DVD (distributed by Paramount) has released all seven seasons of Family Ties on DVD in Region 1, as of August 13, 2013. 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 released Family 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.[16]

In Australia, Region 4, after the first 3 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 long with season four on July 6, 2016. The remaining seasons were released each month after including a Complete Series boxset.

All seven seasons of the series were made available for streaming through Netflix (removed again August 15, 2015[25]) and Amazon Video as well as Hulu Plus.[26]

As of February 2019, all seven seasons are still available on Prime Video (included with Amazon Prime membership), and also available on CBS All Access, but no longer available on Netflix or Hulu.[27] The first ten episodes of the series are also available for free (with commercials) on the CBS website.[28]