History Trivia / FamilyTies

* ExecutiveMeddling: Defied. NBC Entertainment president Brandon Tartikoff ''hated'' the idea of casting Creator/MichaelJFox as Alex P. Keaton, relenting only when creator and executive producer Gary David Goldberg fought hard for him. Tartikoff insisted that his was "[[ExactWords not the kind of face you'll ever see on a lunch box]]". Fast forward a few years to 1985, and Fox personally sent a ''Film/BackToTheFuture1'' lunchbox with, you guessed it, Marty [=McFly=]'s face on it, and a note saying "Brandon, they wanted me to put a crow in here but... Love and Kisses, Michael J." Tartikoff, always graceful in defeat, kept the lunchbox on display in his office.

* DawsonCasting: Creator/MichaelJFox was 21 when he was cast as 16-year-old Alex.

* EasterEgg: In the episode "Don't Kiss Me, I'm Just the Messenger," when [[TheWoobie Skippy]]'s room is shown, on his nightstand is prominently displayed a picture of UsefulNotes/GeraldFord. This is a sly reference to Skippy's role - both in this episode and elsewhere - as the good-hearted, fundamentally decent BumblingSidekick to the often conniving, manipulative, morally corruptible Alex, who idolizes UsefulNotes/RichardNixon.

** The penultimate episode of Season 2, "Diary of a Young Girl," makes reference to Elyse having taken a job outside the home at an architecture firm. However, it was not until what aired as the season finale, "Working at It," when Elyse actually took that job at the firm.

* TheRedStapler: "Mallory" as a name for girls owes its entire existence to this show, since it was basically just a surname up to that point. Tellingly, it didn't even crack the top 1000 for baby girl names in the Social Security database until 1983, but quickly rose to #83 by 1986. Creator/JustineBateman was also responsible for a ColbertBump for "Justine" as a name. It made the top 200 in the Social Security girls' names rankings for the first time in 1987.

* YouLookFamiliar: Michael David Wright first appeared in "Diary of a Young Girl" as Mallory's date while Timothy Busfield played Alex's best friend Doug in a couple of episodes ("Little Man on Campus" and "Best Man"). The producers later brought them back to play young versions of Steven and his best friend Matt for the flashback episode "My Back Pages".

* TroubledProduction: Minor for this show, but an example of how this trope can bleed over into different productions. Fox was the original choice to play Marty [=McFly=] in ''Film/BackToTheFuture1'', but scheduling conflicts led to casting Eric Stoltz instead. Stoltz was [[TheOtherMarty famously fired several weeks into production]] and they begged to find some way for Fox to take on the role. The solution was essentially Fox doing ''Family Ties'' during the day while filming ''Back to the Future'' at night. For several months he operated on three hours of sleep, and he recalled running around the ''Family Ties'' set trying to find his camcorder prop, which was for ''Back to the Future''. This actually led to some EnforcedMethodActing that benefitted Fox for ''Back to the Future'', allowing him to sell scenes where Marty was tired a lot better than intended.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Defied. NBC Entertainment president Brandon Tartikoff ''hated'' the idea of casting Creator/MichaelJFox as Alex P. Keaton, relenting only when creator and executive producer Gary David Goldberg fought hard for him. Tartikoff insisted that his was "[[ExactWords not the kind of face you'll ever see on a lunch box]]". Fast forward a few years to 1985, and Fox personally sent a ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' lunchbox with, you guessed it, Marty [=McFly=]'s face on it, and a note saying "Brandon, they wanted me to put a crow in here but... Love and Kisses, Michael J." Tartikoff, always graceful in defeat, kept the lunchbox on display in his office.

* TroubledProduction: Minor for this show, but an example of how this trope can bleed over into different productions. Fox was the original choice to play Marty [=McFly=] in ''Film/BackToTheFuture'', but scheduling conflicts led to casting Eric Stoltz instead. Stoltz was [[TheOtherMarty famously fired several weeks into production]] and they begged to find some way for Fox to take on the role. The solution was essentially Fox doing ''Family Ties'' during the day while filming ''Back to the Future'' at night. For several months he operated on three hours of sleep, and he recalled running around the ''Family Ties'' set trying to find his camcorder prop, which was for ''Back to the Future''. This actually led to some EnforcedMethodActing that benefitted Fox for ''Back to the Future'', allowing him to sell scenes where Marty was tired a lot better than intended.

* CompletelyDifferentTitle: The show was titled ''Blomsterbørns børn'' (Children of Flower Children) in Denmark, ''Fem i familjen'' (Five in the Family) in Sweden, and ''Quem Sai aos Seus'' in Portugal and Brazil (an [[{{Irony}} ironic]] reference to the expression "''quem sai aos seus não degenera''", a rough equivalent to "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree").

* TroubledProduction: Minor for this show, but an example of how this trope can bleed over into different productions. Fox was the original choice to play Marty [=McFly=] in ''Film/BackToTheFuture'', but scheduling conflicts led to casting Eric Stoltz instead. Stoltz was famously fired several weeks into production and they begged to find some way for Fox to take on the role. The solution was essentially Fox doing ''Family Ties'' during the day while filming ''Back to the Future'' at night. For several months he operated on three hours of sleep, and he recalled running around the ''Family Ties'' set trying to find his camcorder prop, which was for ''Back to the Future''. This actually led to some EnforcedMethodActing that benefitted Fox for ''Back to the Future'', allowing him to sell scenes where Marty was tired a lot better than intended.

* TheRedStapler: "Mallory" as a name for girls owes its entire existence to this show, since it basically only existed as a surname up to that point. Tellingly, it didn't even crack the top 1000 for baby girl names in the Social Security database until 1983, but quickly rose to #83 by 1986.

* TheRedStapler: The name "Mallory" was almost nonexistent prior to this show's premiere - as a given name, that is; as with many non-classic given names, it is also a surname.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Defied. NBC President Brandon Tartikoff ''hated'' the idea of casting Creator/MichaelJFox as Alex P. Keaton, relenting only when creator and showrunner Gary David Goldberg fought hard for him. Tartikoff insisted that his was "[[ExactWords not the kind of face you'll ever see on a lunch box]]". Fast forward a few years to 1985, and Fox personally sent a ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' lunchbox with, you guessed it, Marty [=McFly=]'s face on it, and a note saying "Brandon, they wanted me to put a crow in here but... Love and Kisses, Michael J." Tartikoff, always graceful in defeat, kept the lunchbox on display in his office.

* CompletelyDifferentTitle: The show was titled ''Blomsterbørns børn'' (Children of Flower Children) in Denmark, ''Fem i familjen'' (Five in the Family) in Sweden and ''Quem Sai aos Seus'' in Portugal and Brazil (an [[{{Irony}} ironic]] reference to the expression "''quem sai aos seus não degenera''", a rough equivalent to "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree").

* YouLookFamiliar: Michael David Wright first appeared in "Diary of a Young Girl" as Mallory's date while Timothy Busfield played Alex's best friend Doug in a couple of episodes ("Little Man on Campus" and "Best Man"). The producers later brought them back to play young versions of Steven and his best friend Matt for the flashback episode "My Back Pages".

* YouLookFamiliar: Michael David Wright first appeared in "Diary of a Young Girl" as Mallory's date. The producers later brought him back to play the young version of Steven in several flashback episodes.

** The season 3 clip show "Return of the Native" (originally meant as the third season finale) had the biggest gap, it didn't air until the end of season 6! The episode makes reference to Jennifer's boyfriend from "Designated Hitter" which was supposed to air before this one (it didn't air until season 4, see the above entry).

** The season 3 show "Return of the Native" (originally meant as the third season finale) had the biggest gap, it didn't air until the end of season 6! The episode makes reference to Jennifer's boyfriend from "Designated Hitter" which was supposed to air before this one (it didn't air until season 4, see the above entry).

* WordOfDante: In March 2008, 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 Creator/MichaelJFox 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.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: If there was ever a show that reflected America under the Reagan administration, ''Family Ties'' is it. Republicans at the time saw Alex P. Keaton as cool and hip, no doubt due to Michael J. Fox's performance. Cut to 2016: With America still living under the shadow of 9/11 and the Great Recession, race relations becoming more problematic, and the Republican Party's continued controversial attempts to pander to fundamentalist Christians, it's quite possible that most conservatives would now view Alex as a liberal, and the Democratic parents would probably be viewed as Communists. WordOfGod seems to defend this: in one of his [[http://garydavidgoldberg.com/blog/2008/02/wwakd_what_would_alex_keaton_d_1.html last blogs]], written during the 2008 Presidential Election, creator Gary David Goldberg believed that Alex would not fit in with modern-day Republicans, would become a registered Independent, and would consider voting for UsefulNotes/BarackObama because of his Recession-related fiscal reforms.
** If the radical politics of Millennials and Zoomers (fueled by the Great Recession) are anything to go by, Alex would certainly not fit in with the Alt-Right and the 'liberal' parents would not fit in with modern-day leftists, either.
** The same can be applied to generational conflict, since Baby Boomers like Steven and Elyse would become known for being "conservative" demographics while Gen-Xers like Alex would be known for "liberal" stances, especially during and after [[UsefulNotes/BillClinton Clinton Presidency]].

* TroubledProduction: Minor for this show, but an example of how this trope can bleed over into different productions. Fox was the original choice to play Marty [=McFly=] in ''Film/BackToTheFuture'', but scheduling conflicts led to casting Eric Stoltz instead. Stoltz was famously fired several weeks into production and they begged to find some way for Fox to take on the role. The solution was essentially Fox doing ''Family Ties'' during the day while filming ''Back to the Future'' at night. For several months he operated on three hours of sleep, and he recalled running around the ''Family Ties'' set trying to find his camcorder prop, which was for ''Back to the Future''.

** If the radical politics of Millennials and Zoomers (fueled by the Great Recession) are anything to go by, Alex would certainly not fit in with the Alt-Right and the 'liberal' parents would not fit in with modern-day, either.