 Cast: Michael J Box, Meredith Baxter, Michael Gross, Justine Bateman
No. Seasons: 7
No. Episodes: 180
Original Run: 1982 - 1989
Why We Picked It: Colm bought season one the other day and thought it would be a nice bit of nostalgic viewing for all the Electric Dreams community. Simple as that! Plus it was a great show that helped launch the career of one of the 80s best know actors... Micheal J Fox.
Set in Columbus during the early years of the Reagan administration, Elyse and Steven Keaton (Meredith Baxter and Michael Gross) are Baby Boomers and liberal Democrats raising their three children: Alex (Michael J. Fox), Mallory (Justine Bateman) and Jennifer (Tina Yothers) in suburban Columbus, Ohio. Married in 1964, Elyse, an independent architect, and Steven, a manager in a local public television station, were hippies during the 1960s. According to the episode, "A Christmas Story" in Season One, they were influenced by John F. Kennedy and thus participated in the Peace Corps. Alex was born in 1965; Mallory was born while Elyse and Steven were students at the University of California, Berkeley in 1967, and Jennifer was born the night Richard Nixon won his second term in 1972.
Much of the humor of the series focused on the cultural divide during the 1980s when younger generations rejected the counterculture of the 1960s and embraced the wealth and power that came to define the 1980s. Both Alex and Mallory embrace Reaganomics and exhibit conservative values: Alex is a Young Republican and Mallory is a more traditional young woman in contrast to her feminist mother. Jennifer, an athletic tomboy and the youngest child, shares the values of her parents.
The show ended in 1989 after Alex graduated from nearby Leland College, leaving home for the first time, and moving to a career on Wall Street. |
