It’s hard to believe that it’s been 30 years since the TV show Family Ties has been off the air.
The American sitcom that aired for seven seasons on NBC was one of the most popular and watched shows during the 1980’s. Set in suburban Columbus, Ohio during the Ronald Regan era, Steven and Elyse Keaton (played by actors Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter) were a family of five that included Justine Bateman (Mallory), Tina Yothers (Jennifer) and of course, the young, political savvy Republican Alex played by the very popular Michael J. Fox.
By the time the show ended, it had almost a cult like following with fans all over the world.
The Ravi Report caught up with actors Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter while on their recent US tour of “Love Letters” a famous play written by A.R.Gurney based on two individuals who share their lives and love through decades of letter writing to each other, and talked to them about Family Ties, social media, their life long friendship and if they would they want to see the resurrection of the iconic sitcom in today’s political climate.
RR: Thank you both for making time for this interview. Please if you will, tell me a bit about what drew you to take on “Love Letters”?
MB: Well, for me, I was thrilled to be part of it. I did the play with Richard Thomas for the first time and that’s what drew me to it but Michael and I have done it many times. I’ve lost count.
MG: For me, it reads like a novel that I love and found compelling. Plus, Meredith and I have known each other for half our lives so we have history working together. Also, I come from a letter writing family. My mother was a great letter writer and she saved every letter my father wrote during the second world war. I’ve only gone through some of them so there is a kind of some personal history that drew me to the project.
RR: Do you think your successful TV relationship of husband and wife in Family Ties played a key role in the success of this play especially given both of you have such strong history with one another?
MG: I think it plays a small role. We have a familiarity and chemistry that is sort of
built in. We have known each other for 35 years and we enjoy each other. We have done the role with other people but we are both very disciplined enough to take these characters into another world. The audiences also enjoy seeing us together because they have seen us together for so many years on television.
MB: It makes it spicier for me because I know so much for what he (Michael) is doing. I know his actions.
RR: Media critics are saying that both of you bring freshness to the play. Is that difficult to do every night on stage especially with so many performances?
MG: In terms of freshness, that’s part of the job making it appear like it’s the first time for us. It’s an escape from the real world frankly and a bit of meditation. You commit to this for a period of time and you don’t let anything intrude. Also, it’s live theater which can be emotionally different every night.
MB: Also, the audiences are different every night. Sometimes after intermission, I will see they are not into it so I have to be careful to fight the impulse to try to catch them back. But afterwards, they all said they loved it, so it’s hard to tell sometimes.
RR: The premise of the play is letter writing, but in today’s age where the burst of social media gives us instant communication, letter writing and penmanship has taken the back burner so to speak. Do you think social media has taken over and replaced traditional letter writing?
MB: I don’t really have much of an opinion about social media. I don’t really do it and I don’t have much of a presence on it. To be honest, it was a big awakening to me when I wrote a handwritten letter to one of my grandchildren and she said “I can’t read this writing.” She couldn’t read cursive! They don’t teach it in school. What a loss is that!! To me one of the greatest things about a letter is the personal thoughts you put on paper.
MG: This is advertisement for my daughter who teaches 6th grade(smiles). She does teache cursive to students. She says there is something important that happens between the mind body connection when you learn cursive, She has her kids keep diaries in pencils and she encourages cursive writing. With social media, I have a love hate relationship with it. Sometimes I deeply resent it and sometimes I think it is useful as s tool, a way of keeping in touch with certain people. I try to not let it dominate my life and do walk away from it sometimes weeks at a time.
RR: Despite the power of social media and YouTube, Hulu, Vimeo and Netfllix, people, especially the younger generation still like going to see live theater performances? Why?
MB: Because it is immediate and cannot be repeated. Audiences love the live and immediate connection to the actors.
MG: We are social creatures after all. Meredith and I are from an area where someone would get an LP and say “come on over” and we’d all go with a bunch of friends and listen to it together. It was a communal thing. There were so many communal experiences we had growing up that it is hard to let go of that entirely.
MB: It’s a real experience. I live in Santa Barbara and I am on the board of the Assemble Theater, and we make a point that every production we do, we have a couple of only student audiences night and many of these kids have never been to the theater before. They are on the edge of their seats and it’s the most exciting thing they have ever seen because they have been limited to TV, movies and whatever is on their phone. To see how a live performance happens is fun and exciting for them. That is an experience that you don’t want kids to miss. The interaction and the immediacy is right in front of you. You can’t replace that.
RR: Both of you have had incredible careers with Family Ties, movies and published books. When are you the most creative? On stage? Writing? TV?
MG: That is a good one. I actually enjoy writing. I don’t write professionally but I recently spent 5 hours on the plane writing notes to a Universal producer for Tremors 7. I got into it because there are things that I thought needed fixing and I was trying to be persuasive as I could. I done it in the past to a degree with Tremors 6 in terms of story development. I also enjoy film and TV and for me one thing is creation and the other recreation. I inherently enjoy creation more than recreation.
MB: I do like visual arts. I also paint which makes feels creative and so does writing. It’s been mainly theater in terms of creativeness. I love the rehearsal period.
RR:It’s been 30 years since Family Ties went off the air and to this day, fans around the world revere the show. Why do you think the show did so phenomenally well with viewers?
MB: Ok, well my question to you is this, I wasn’t a big TV watcher, so I don’t know what the other shows were like at that time compared to ours. So, I would want to know why do you ask that because, weren’t there other TV families just as tight and loving as ours?
RR: Well, to be honest, your show addressed issues such as parental authority, teenage insecurities and of course politics in a respectful way. You talked with your children, you didn’t order them to listen or put unrealistic rules on them. Plus, your characters as parents were what young children wanted to have as their own. I remember watching the series and hearing my friends say all the time “I wish Elyse and Steven Keaton were my folks.” Also, a lot of the scenes that was scripted seemed unscripted because you all portrayed such a normal life on TV minus the family drama. Plus, your political views were expressed in a respectful and lively manner with your TV kids.
MG: I think one of the things that resonated with people then and probably more so now is politics were discussed in that house but everyone went to bed happy. We were on different sides of the fence. The world of politics now is far more confrontational and divisive but before, we could have these political conversations with children that were much younger than us. We were liberal parents. We could say “we disagree with you but we still love you.” Things have changed a lot today. People have said to me, “I’ve learned being a parent by watching you.” and I would said, “No, I didn’t write that stuff, you should be telling that to the writers.” Good television starts with good writing. Yes, we were a great ensemble and it was a wonderful cast but writing was key. I think viewers loved the Keaton family because we talked with our kids on the show and we respected them. I would hear comments like “I come from a broken home and your show healed me” or “My father said it was his way or the highway and you were more accessible as a father,” or “People seem to express joy and love in that house that wasn’t in mine.”
MB: I can’t tell you how many people said to me that they wanted me to be their mother and Michael as their dad. Gary David Goldberg was the heart and soul of that show. He always wanted this nice and loving liberal family to be portrayed well but in hindsight,we could have been tougher parents a bit. We were too nice.
RR: If Family Ties were to be resurrected today in 2019, amid all the current political drama of the upcoming 2020 elections and dramatic changes in the social family structure, how do you think the show would be portrayed and would you both be part of it?
MB: I don’t see the show coming back and I don’t know how well we would fit into today’s time.
MG: I have occasional reoccurring nightmares that it (show) does come back and I am not happy. It cannot be recreated as well as it was before. It is part of our history, our joyous past, but it’s passed. To gather those writers and cast together to have it come out as perfectly, it was like lightening in bottle and I can’t imagine that happening again. So I would not particular look forward to that. It was perfect for it’s time, perfect with the writers we bought together and I can’t imagine doing it again or even trying.
RR: Thank you both for your time and for a great interview. It was truly an honor and a privilege.
The journey continues…
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