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. 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 in
Family Ties.
Theme song The theme song "Without Us" (credited in season one as "Us") was composed by
Jeff Barry and
Tom Scott in 1982. During the first ten episodes of the first season it was performed by
Dennis Tufano and
Mindy Sterling. From episode 11 onward the song was performed by original recording artists
Johnny Mathis and
Deniece 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 album ''
That's What Friends Are For'', released by
Columbia Records.
"At This Moment" "
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 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). 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 and
Adult Contemporary charts in January 1987. It 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 Weithorn 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 Weithorn: "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-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 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.
Connection to Day by Day 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. Ironically, one episode of
Day by Day was pre-empted by the network television premiere of
Back to the Future, starring Michael J. Fox, airing on November 13th, 1988.
Other appearances 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. ==Episodes==