Watch Family Ties Online - Full Episodes

Family Ties is a popular family sitcom that aired for seven seasons. The show was about the Keaton family. The heads of the Keaton family are husband and wife Steven and Elyse. They are former hippies and staunch liberal Democrats. Stephen and Elyse have three children. Alex is their oldest child and his political beliefs could not be more different from those of his parents. He is a yuppie Republican whose personal hero is Richard Nixon. Mallory is the oldest daughter, and she is very popular in school with a trend-setting fashion sense. The youngest daughter is Jennifer. She is a tomboy who grows from a little girl to a young woman during the seven years of the show. In season six, the Keatons welcomed a new baby boy, Andy, to the family.

Like most sitcom families, the Keatons had a wacky neighbor. Skippy Handleman lived next door. He is Alex's childhood friend and not-so-secretly pines for Mallory. Unfortunately for Skippy, in season four Mallory found herself a boyfriend, unemployed artist Nick Moore. Alex found love during that year as well when he was introduced to Ellen, who would later leave for college in a very emotional episode. She would later be replaced by a medical student, Lauren.

The show didn't change much during its seven-year run. Every problem that someone in the family had was usually solved with support and love from the family. The program tackled a lot of tough subjects including alcoholism, infidelity, death and teenage pregnancy.

Michael J. Fox got his big break on Family Ties and won several acting awards for his portrayal of Alex. The rest of the cast included Michael Gross as Stephen, Meredith Baxter-Birney as Elyse, Justine Bateman as Mallory, Tina Yothers as Jennifer, Brian Bonsall as Andy, Scott Valentine as Nick and Marc Price as Skippy. Many past and future Hollywood stars guest-starred on Family Ties. Tom Hanks, Gena Davis, River Phoenix, Courtney Cox, Corey Feldman, Christina Applegate and Julia Louis-Dreyfus all appeared on the show.