Product Description

Steve and Elyse Keaton (Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter-Birney), once 1960s radicals, now find themselves in Reagan-Era American trying to raise a traditional suburban family. Son Alex P. Keaton (Michael J. Fox) is an ambitious Young Republican and his sister Mallory (Justine Bateman) is a shallow victim of the corporate culture, obsessed with music, clothes and boys. Their only normal kid is young Jennifer (Tina Yothers), a bit of a tomboy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12872 in DVD
• Brand: PARAMOUNT HOME VIDEO
• Released on: 2007-02-20
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 4
• Formats: Box set, Color, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 4
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 530 minutes

Amazon.com
Though it emerged during the Reagan era, Family Ties remains as relevant as ever. Most children find their parents a little embarrassing, but what sets this sitcom apart is that former hippies Steven (Michael Gross) and Elyse (Meredith Baxter-Birney) Keaton have three children, Alex (three-time Emmy winner Michael J. Fox), Mallory (Justine Bateman), and Jennifer (Tina Yothers), yet they haven't lost their youthful idealism. The ambitious Alex and materialistic Mallory, however, don't share it. Poster children for the go-go 1980s, they'd rather rake in the cash than change the world. As Alex quips in the pilot, "The '60s are over, Dad." If the writing were more cynical, it's unlikely the ABC show would've become a seven-season hit. It works because the Keatons obviously love each other--foibles and all.

In their first year, the family faces a variety of challenges. Steven finds out his father has a fatal illness ("I Never Killed for My Father"), 15-year-old Mallory deals with unwelcome male attention ("Give Your Uncle a Kiss"), and 17-year-old Alex learns a lesson about responsibility when he loses nine-year-old Jennifer while babysitting ("The Fifth Wheel"). Guest stars include Bewitched's Dick Sargent as Elyse's father, Charlie ("No Nukes Is Good Nukes"), and a lanky Tom Hanks as her brother, Ned (two-part episode "The Fugitive"). Though Fox (Back to the Future, Spin City) was the breakout star of Family Ties, he was part of a strong ensemble. Some storylines are also surprisingly hard-hitting, particularly the script dealing with sexual harassment. On the downside, there are no extras and, like many Paramount boxed sets, most of the original music has been changed or eliminated. The theme song "Without Us," for instance, is sung by session players on several episodes rather than by Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

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Customer Reviews

You've GOT To Be Kidding Me!
Paramount has totally let true fans of classic television down with this much-anticipated release. Due to music issues, a handful of episodes (4 or so) have some original broadcast scenes deleted! This is completely unacceptable. They could have changed the music (which is bad enough in my opinion), but to delete the scene entirely is ridiculous! As much as I loved this show, I can't bring myself to support this set.

To add insult to injury, they still used the word "complete" on the cover! I've noticed in some upcoming Paramount releases that this word is suddenly missing. Check out the cover art for "Happy Days" Season Two and "Wings" Season Four. This leads us to wonder, are these shows truly complete, or will they suffer a fate similar to that of "Family Ties"?

As much as I've always despised music alterations, I've still bought DVD sets that used that tactic since the shows otherwise contained all of the original broadcast footage. But I will NOT buy a set that just hacks away at the episodes like this. If we do support these products, the studios will just keep getting lazier and lazier. Why should they care about putting work into their releases if the public will still gobble up whatever garbage they put out?

I really hate this, because I was looking SO forward to finally owning what I thought was going to be the complete and uncut version of each episode. I guess I should have known better than to count my chickens before they hatched.

Set contains edited episodes!
Warning to all Family Ties fans that is buying this set,the set contains edited episodes.What I read is that Family Ties season 1 had some music that Paramount was to cheap to pay for,and so instead of replacing some of the music Paramount decided to delete some scenes from some of the episodes that contain music including a scene from the first episode.I think that's dumb changing the music is one thing but to edit episodes is a bunch of bull,we fans want to buy TV shows on DVD in there uncut form.Yeah go change the music but dont delete scenes.Of course not all the episodes will be edited so that is why I'm still going to buy this set to get the episodes that will be uncut.

The theme song was NOT changed
This is in response to the concerns a couple people have raised about the theme song. In the original broadcast run the theme song was sung by studio singers for the first 10 or so episodes only. After that new vocals were recorded by Johnny Mathis and Denise Williams over the same backing tracks and their vocals were heard on all subsequent episodes. That is exactly what happens on these DVDs. After episode 10 we get the Mathis/Williams recording on all the remaining episodes. I have all these early episodes on VHS recorded MANY years ago and the theme song - with both pairs of singers - is exactly the same.