Did You Know?

Stars Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter share the same birthday: 21 June 1947. Gross was born in Chicago and Baxter was born in L.A.

The producers originally wanted Matthew Broderick to play Alex P. Keaton, but the actor had to decline the role when his father became terminally ill. Ironically, Broderick's father James Broderick played Meredith Baxter's father on the drama Family.

Ed O'Neill was considered for the role of Steven Keaton.

The show was modeled after producer Gary David Goldberg and wife Diane's real-life experiences as former 'hippies' transforming into suburban family life.

According to Michael J. Fox's last Spin City episode, Alex P. Keaton became a Junior Congressman from Ohio.

When Meredith Baxter became pregnant during the hiatus between the second and third seasons, her pregnancy was written into the show. However, she still was written out of several episodes after giving birth to twins in real life.

Tom Hanks played Elise Keaton's brother Ned.

Skippy was adopted as a baby by his parents.

The name of the public television station that Stephen Worked for was WKS.

Alex, Mallory and Skippy attended Harding High School, Jennifer went to Rudolph elementary.

The cast wanted to end the show with the entire Keaton family dying in a plane crash. They absolutely didn't want to do a reunion show in the future.

Throughout the series' run, exterior establishment shots of the Keaton home were never used in any of the episodes, which is very unusual for a family sitcom. The vast majority of all scenes were played out in the kitchen.

In March 2008, creator Gary David Goldberg wrote an essay for The New York Times speculating about what Alex Keaton's political beliefs would be now. Goldberg said that Keaton, as a "true Conservative Republican," would probably no longer feel comfortable in the Republican Party of the late 2000s, "a party whose legacy will include Terri Schiavo and Hurricane Katrina, [and]...waging war against science." Goldberg said that Keaton would have supported McCain in 2000 but no obvious candidate in the 2008 race. He also said that he and Michael J. Fox have different ideas about Keaton's current career; Goldberg thinks Keaton is a pro bono lawyer for the Children's Defense Fund, while Fox believes Keaton is finishing a prison sentence.

Tracy Pollan, who played Alex Keaton's girlfriend Ellen, later married Michael J. Fox in real life.

In one of his autobiographies, Michael J. Fox said that for at least ten years after his marriage to Tracy Pollan, the two couldn't get on a dance floor anywhere in the country without someone starting to play the 1981 song "At This Moment" by Billy Vera & The Beaters because of its strong association with the romance storyline between Fox's and Pollan's characters Alex and Ellen.

Gary David Goldberg named the family Keaton after Actress Diane Keaton.

Michael Gross made a crossover appearance as Steven Keaton on the short lived NBC Sitcom Day by Day, which like Family Ties was created and produced by Gary David Goldberg.

An episode set to air shortly before the 1988 Presidential Election was to have featured a scene showing Alex's bedroom full of George Bush campaign posters and related items. The scene was dropped as NBC felt it could be viewed as overtly political and potentially violated Equal Time laws. Instead a scene was shown after the election where Alex hung up and admired a poster of Bush in the living room to celebrate his victory.

Columbus, Ohio was selected as the setting of the series as that section of the country is viewed as being 'Middle America'.