Family Ties

Family Ties is a sitcom that aired on the NBC network for much of the 1980s. For much of its run Family Ties aired right after The Cosby Show, helping it to gain the high ratings it did week after week. It was one of the most popular American situation comedies of the 1980s. It revolved around two liberal parents and their children, the oldest of which was a Reagan-style dyed-in-the-wool conservative. It ran for seven seasons and launched the acting career of Michael J. Fox.

Family television shows that rely on cute kids for their humor all run into the same problem eventually: the kids grow up and lose a fair measure of their cuteness. So what to do? Family Ties took the time-tested approach of adding a baby to the family. Eventually the youngest Keaton, Andrew, grew old enough to bring on Brian Bonsall as the toddler, infusing more child-based humor into the show. Bonsall himself did not work in the industry long, however, and in 2007 he took the time-tested approach to former-child-star meltdowns, pleading guilty to third-degree assault for beating up his girlfriend.

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