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“Family Ties” celebrated the 40th anniversary of its television debut on Thursday and two of its stars, Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter, spoke with Fox News Digital about the show’s lasting legacy and what it was like making the show.
The show introduced audiences to the Keaton family, with liberal former hippies Elyse and Steven as the heads of the household, along with their three children. Alex, played by Michael J Fox, was a conservative ready to take over American politics, and his two sisters Mallory and Jennifer were played by Justine Batemen and Tina Yothers. In the later seasons, they introduced a fourth child, a son named Andrew.
The popular sitcom ran for seven seasons and launched the careers of many of its stars, most notably, Michael J. Fox, who went on to star in the “Back to the Future” trilogy, “Stuart Little,” “Doc Hollywood” and “For Love or Money.”
Both Gross and Baxter revealed hey were surprised when the show became such a big hit, because it wasn’t actually very popular in the beginning.
“Family Ties” launched the careers of many of its actors including Michael J. Fox who went on to star in “Back to the Future.”
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“At first, we were doing fine, but nothing special. People took a long time to discover us, and NBC was moving us around from place to place. It wasn’t really striking gold in some ways,” Gross told Fox News Digital. “We weren’t really a top ten show until they put us behind Cosby on Thursday night. Then it was Cosby, ‘Family Ties,’ ‘Night Court,’ ‘Cheers… we were solidly in the top ten, but that took a few years to get around to that.”
The camaraderie among the actors on set was fantastic, and both Gross and Baxter had nothing but kind words for their co-stars, especially Fox.
“We learned to really love each other and recognize each other’s strengths, and I really appreciated the skills that we each brought to our part,” said Baxter. “When Michael started emerging as this wonderful character, that they could really feel the heat and the energy and excitement around him, no one really begrudged him that because he did it so well.”
Baxter also acknowledged that nobody was surprised Fox became the breakout star of the show.
“I think because it’s frankly, it’s very easy to write about a young boy who’s got his finger in all sorts of pots, you know, girlfriends in a college, high school being so big, smarty-pants, you know, Ronald Reagan, all of that,” Baxter said. “I think they found that they could use him in so many different ways, and they were able to use us. I think they learned they could write for him in a way that allowed him to emerge.”
Michael J. Fox became a huge star while on the show, but it didn’t affect the comradery between the cast and crew. The rest of the cast knew his popularity was good for the show.
(Photo by Paul Drinkwater/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)
She praised his ability to deliver a joke and land major laughs each time. Baxter claimed there was no jealousy towards Fox and his growing stardom because they all knew his popularity was also good for the show.
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“We were gifted because it was always quite good from the very beginning. When Mike Fox got to be more important, quote unquote, that didn’t change either,” Gross said. “Everybody knew why we were there and what we owed to the fact that we were there, that this had given us a start.”
Once the show’s success became apparent, the cast began receiving fan mail telling them how the show positively affected fans’ lives.
“I began to realize that America needed us in some ways as much as it needed Cosby and the Huxtables, because real families weren’t doing as well as ours were,” Gross explained. “I learned that from the mail I got, (saying) ‘I wish I had a dad like you’…these kinds of letters. I began to think, ‘wow, American families are kind of troubled in a way. And we’re filling a gap for a lot of these kids.'”
“People would come up to me all the time…they would say, ‘boy, I wish you were my mom. I wish he was my dad…because we were an intact family that talked,” Baxter said. “We discussed things. We had difference of opinions, and we still loved each other. That doesn’t really happen in a lot of families today.”
The show lasted for seven seasons and Gross had an idea as to why the writers decided it was time for the show to end. He believed it had something to do with Fox’s character, saying he had gone through many phases in his life and the writers were struggling.
Gross believes the show ended because the writers weren’t sure what to do with Michael J. Fox’s character as he got older.
(Photo by: NBC/NBCU Photo Bank)
“The writers came to us a year before we canceled and said, ‘We’re having trouble coming up with storylines. It’s not making sense anymore,'” said Gross. “Why is this young man who wants to conquer the world still living at home with mommy and daddy? We had five people who were the heart of this story and five of them were growing out of their clothing, and so it was time to stop.”
In terms of the lasting impact of the show, both Gross and Baxter touched on the political climate in America today and hope people can remember the time when people with different political ideologies could come together with respect and not as much divisiveness.
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“I love when there was a time in the eighties when conservativism and Ronald Reagan was at its peak, and yet people got along. People could respect each other. There’s a different divisiveness going on right now,” Gross explained. “I wish we had that love as Americans right now. That’s how things get done in families and that’s how things get done in politics. And I miss those days.”
“It demonstrated what a family can be to each other despite differences. You get all the political differences in families today,” Baxter said. “You’re talking to someone who you loved a couple of years ago. There was no issues a couple of years ago. They’re the same person…find some commonality.”
While the cast was close when they were filming, many of them have fallen out of touch over the years. Gross and Baxter see each other the most, and continue to work together on occasion.
Gross and Baxter have kept in touch over the years since the show ended.
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“We tour with a play called Love Letters all the time,” she said. “I was just texting him today because we’re looking to get another project off the ground, so we were just exchanging some ideas on that.”
“The person I kept in touch with the most is probably Meredith… I’m still quite close to Meredith,” Gross said. “Michael Fox, I try to see when I’m in New York, (but) I haven’t seen Michael in a while. I keep in touch with him to a degree on an email and that sort of thing. We just we drifted apart in some ways, not because of any anything controversial, just time took its toll.”
Even though they have great memories of making the show, Gross doesn’t think there is much of a chance there will be a reboot, mainly because their show runner and head writer has passed away.
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Gross shot down any possibility of a reboot due to the death of the head writer.
(Photo by: Ron Tom/NBCU Photo Bank)
“We loved it when we did it and honest to God, without our author in chief, Gary, and some of those writers out, it would be difficult to step into those roles again,” Gross said. “They were the heart and soul of it. I mean, we contributed something, I said their lines, but they were the soul of those characters. I attribute so much of the success to their writing.”
