Though Family Ties debuted in September of 1982, it wasn't until the series' third season that the show really took off. Aided by its position behind The Cosby Show on Thursday nights, Family Ties reached #5 in the Nielsen ratings during the 1984-85 season.
Family Ties centers around the Keaton family. Steven (Michael Gross) and his wife Elyse (Meredith Baxter Birney) are liberal, flower children of the sixties. The couple has three children: Alex P.(Michael J. Fox) is the conservative, Reagan-worshiping, money-loving son who uses his middle initial whenever possible, Mallory (Justine Bateman) is a girl whose prime interests are fashion and boys, and Jennifer (Tina Yothers) is the tomboyish baby of the family. The Keatons are a fairly typical suburban family of the 1980s. Steven manages a local PBS affiliate and Elyse is an architect.
By season three it was increasingly clear that Michael J. Fox was Family Ties' breakout star. Fox's sense of comic timing is impeccable and even though viewers might be inclined to dislike Alex's attitudes, Fox keeps him undeniably funny. Alex turns mundane situations into real comedic gems. In "4 Rms Ocn Vu," while their parents are away, Alex decides to turn the Keaton house into a motel to pay for damages to the family car, courtesy of Mallory. This episode is just hilarious. When Steven arrives at the house, he shares the interesting things he saw on the way home: the billboard advertising their motel, the valet parking in the driveway, the 'No Vacancy' sign on the front lawn and the kangaroo in the living room! In "The Gambler" Elyse catches gambling fever on a business trip to Atlantic City, when Alex's "foolproof" method for winning at blackjack turns her into a winner.
Michael J. Fox garnered his first Emmy nomination for the third season of Family Ties partly because he also showed some dramatic versatility along with his comic abilities. In "Hot Line Fever" to earn college credit, Alex volunteers at a crisis hotline. He is quickly confronted with a caller contemplating suicide. For the first time in his life, Alex realizes there is more to life than money and power.
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