Family Ties

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There is also an episode of Arrested Development called Family Ties.

Family Ties was an American television sitcom which aired on NBC for seven seasons, from 1982 to 1989. At the height of its popularity, the program was #2 in the yearly Nielsen ratings for two straight seasons (1985-86 and 1986-87).

It starred Meredith Baxter-Birney and Michael Gross as Elyse and Steven Keaton. Elyse was a very successful architect and Steven ran a public television station; both were former flower children. They lived in Columbus, Ohio with their three children: Alex Keaton (played by Michael J. Fox), Mallory Keaton (played by Justine Bateman), and Jennifer Keaton (played by Tina Yothers).

The majority of the show's humor is derived from the tension between Alex's (Michael J. Fox) conservative, Republican mindset, Mallory's uninformed consumerism, and their parents' attitudes as liberal Democrats.

The show had been sold to the network on the basis of the pitch "hip parents, square kids," and the parents were originally intended to be the main characters. However, the audience reacted so positively during the taping of an early episode in which Alex Keaton lost his virginity to a girl who shared his passion for Milton Friedman that the focus of the show was changed to him (and to a lesser extent, to his siblings).

In 1984, Elyse found out that she was pregnant, and much comedy came from all the children: Alex thought Elyse was too old to be having children, Mallory thought her mother would seriously cramp her social life, and Jennifer didn't want the new baby at first because she wanted to stay the baby of the family. Elyse gave birth to Andrew Keaton in 1985, and the child was aged to a pre-schooler (played by Brian Bonsall) in 1986.

Other characters included the Keatons' neighbor Skippy Handelman (Marc Price), who had an undying crush on Mallory, and in later years, budding artist Nick Moore (played by Scott Valentine), who became romantically involved with Mallory and alarmed various members of the family with how unknowingly crass and unmannered he could be. The final two seasons also featured Courteney Cox as Lauren Miller, a love interest for Alex; before, his primary love interest was a college girl named Ellen Reed (played by Tracy Pollan, who later became Michael J. Fox's real-life wife).

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Popularity

Family Ties was broadcast on Thursday nights from 1984 until 1987, immediately following the top-rated program The Cosby Show and just before the also wildly popular sitcom Cheers. That period represented the height of all three programs' popularity; they were, for example, the top three most-watched U.S. television programs during the 1986-87 season, when 33% of all U.S. households with televisions tuned in to Family Ties during an average week. The show moved to Sundays in 1987, where the ratings began to decline. Producer/creator Gary David Goldberg after the 1988-1989 season so it was decided to end the show with Alex leaving home to move to New York.

President Ronald Reagan declared Family Ties his favorite TV show during the 1980s.

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Trivia

This show begat two spinoffs, Day by Day (television), which lasted less than one season, and The Art of Being Nick, which was produced as a pilot but never picked up as a series.
Matthew Broderick was the initial first choice for the role of Alex P. Keaton, but he had to decline the role because of his filming schedule for different movies he was in.
Meredith Baxter and Michael Gross were born on the same day, June 21, 1947.
The call letters of Steven's public television station were WKS, Channel 3.
Michael J. Fox filmed what would be the first of the Back to the Future films while working on Family Ties during the 1984-1985 season. A good amount of his work came at night, as the movie's production had to work around Fox's Family Ties schedule.
Michael J. Fox almost wasn't cast as Alex because the producers felt he was too short standing next to Michael Gross. Fox is only 5'4" while Gross is 6'4", leading the producers to believe that no one would believe someone as tall as Gross would have a son as short as Fox. Additionally, Fox was viewed as too much of a smart aleck in his first audition, but the casting director liked him and brought him back, where he gave a slightly different pitch, and the part was his.