Alex P. Keaton
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Alex P. Keaton is a fictional
character Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...
on the American television sitcom '' Family Ties,'' which aired on NBC for seven seasons, from 1982 to 1989. ''Family Ties'' reflected the move in the United States away from the cultural liberalism of the 1960s and 1970s to the conservatism of the 1980s. This was particularly expressed through the relationship between
Young Republican The Young Republican National Federation, commonly referred to as the Young Republicans or YRNF, is a 527 organization for members of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party of the United States between the ages of 18 and 40. It ...
Alex (
Michael J. Fox Michael Andrew Fox (born June 9, 1961), known professionally as Michael J. Fox, is a Canadian-American retired actor. Beginning his career in the 1970s, he rose to prominence portraying Alex P. Keaton on the NBC sitcom ''Family Ties'' (1 ...
) and his
hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...
parents, Steven ( Michael Gross) and Elyse Keaton ( Meredith Baxter). President of the United States
Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
once stated that ''Family Ties'' was his favorite television show.


Character arc


Background

Alex (
Michael J. Fox Michael Andrew Fox (born June 9, 1961), known professionally as Michael J. Fox, is a Canadian-American retired actor. Beginning his career in the 1970s, he rose to prominence portraying Alex P. Keaton on the NBC sitcom ''Family Ties'' (1 ...
) is the oldest child of Steven and Elyse Keaton ( Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter), who were baby boomers and Democrats during the early years of the Presidency of Ronald Reagan. Married in 1964, Steven, a manager in a local
Public Broadcasting Service The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educati ...
station and Elyse, an independent architect, were hippies during the 1960s. According to the episode "A Christmas Story" in season one, Alex was born in 1965 while his parents were on assignment in Africa, having been influenced by John F. Kennedy to participate in the Peace Corps. Alex has two younger sisters, Mallory ( Justine Bateman) and Jennifer ( Tina Yothers). Mallory was born while her parents were students at the University of California, Berkeley in 1967, Jennifer was born the night of Richard Nixon's presidential election in 1972 and a younger brother, Andrew, was born in 1984. The family lives in suburban
Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...
.


Storylines

At the beginning of the series, Alex is a high school student who has a passion for economics and wealth. In particular, he is an advocate of
supply-side economics Supply-side economics is a macroeconomic theory that postulates economic growth can be most effectively fostered by lowering taxes, decreasing regulation, and allowing free trade. According to supply-side economics, consumers will benefit fr ...
. His heroes are Richard Nixon (going so far as to have a lunchbox bearing Nixon's likeness),
William F. Buckley Jr. William Frank Buckley Jr. (born William Francis Buckley; November 24, 1925 – February 27, 2008) was an American public intellectual, conservative author and political commentator. In 1955, he founded ''National Review'', the magazine that stim ...
,
Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
,
Gerald Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...
and Milton Friedman. His favorite television show is ''
Wall $treet Week ''Bloomberg Wall Street Week'' (''WSW''), is an investment news and information TV program airing Friday nights on the Bloomberg Television. The original weekly show hosted by Louis Rukeyser aired each Friday evening on PBS in the United States f ...
'' and he is an avid reader of '' The Wall Street Journal''. He also enjoys music of the big band and swing era but secretly enjoys rock music (as seen in the episode " A, My Name is Alex"). Alex spends the first two seasons of the series preparing to attend Princeton University. While he is attending an on-campus interview, Mallory, who tagged along to pay a surprise visit to her boyfriend, Jeff, who is attending Princeton at the time, has an emotional breakdown when she finds Jeff is seeing another woman. Ultimately, Alex chooses to look after Mallory rather than complete his interview, thus destroying any possibility of attending the university and getting into the Ivy League. Alex receives a scholarship to fictional Leland University, which is located close enough for him to continue to live at home and commute. Keaton excels at Leland and teaches an economics course as a teaching assistant. Alex holds a disdain for nearby Grant College (which Mallory later attends) and regularly openly mocks their courses. While attending Leland, he has two serious girlfriends. His first is artist/feminist, Ellen Reed ( Tracy Pollan, whom Fox later married). After they break up, Keaton pursues a liberal psychology student with
feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
inclinations, Lauren Miller, who is played by Courteney Cox. The relationship ends when he has an affair with music major Martie Brodie (played by Jane Adams) while Lauren is out of town. After graduation, Alex accepts a job on
Wall Street Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for t ...
.


Reception and influence

The humor of the series focused on a real cultural divide during the 1980s, between the baby boomers and Generation X. According to Stephen Kiehl, this was when the "Alex Keaton generation was rejecting the
counterculture of the 1960s The counterculture of the 1960s was an anti-establishment cultural phenomenon that developed throughout much of the Western world in the 1960s and has been ongoing to the present day. The aggregate movement gained momentum as the civil rights mo ...
and embracing the wealth and power that came to define the '80s." While the youngest, Jennifer (an athletic tomboy) shares the values of her parents, Alex and Mallory embrace Reaganomics and consequent conservative values: Alex is a Young Republican and Mallory is a more traditional young woman in contrast to her
feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
mother. In the Museum of Broadcast Communications' Encyclopedia of Television entry for ''Family Ties'', Michael Saenz argues that: In 1999, '' TV Guide'' ranked Alex P. Keaton number 17 on its "50 Greatest TV Characters of All Time" list.


References in other media

When
Michael J. Fox Michael Andrew Fox (born June 9, 1961), known professionally as Michael J. Fox, is a Canadian-American retired actor. Beginning his career in the 1970s, he rose to prominence portraying Alex P. Keaton on the NBC sitcom ''Family Ties'' (1 ...
left his next series, '' Spin City'', a decade after ''Family Ties'', his final episodes as a regular ("Goodbye: Parts 1 & 2", Season 4, Episodes 25 and 26) made numerous allusions to ''Family Ties''. Michael Gross (Alex's father Steven) portrays
Michael Patrick Flaherty ''Spin City'' is an American sitcom television series that aired from September 17, 1996 to April 30, 2002, on ABC. Created by Gary David Goldberg and Bill Lawrence, the show is set in a semi-fictionalized version of the New York City mayor's ...
's (Michael J. Fox) therapist and there is a reference to the therapist's unseen receptionist named "Mallory". After Flaherty becomes an environmental lobbyist in Washington, he makes a reference to having met the junior senator from Ohio, Alex P. Keaton. Actress Meredith Baxter, who played Alex Keaton's mother on ''Family Ties'', also played Michael Flaherty's mother on ''Spin City''. Florida ska/punk band
Victims of Circumstance Victims of Circumstance is an American punk-ska band, known for blending pop-hooks with a unique style of ska. Founded in 2005 in Clearwater, Florida, United States, the current line-up includes band members Michael Smyth (vocals & guitar), Glenn ...
's debut album, ''Roll the Dice'', featured a track titled "Me and Alex P. Keaton". The lyrics parody a typical day spent with a modern, socially conservative Republican. LFO's 1999 single "
Summer Girls Summer is the hottest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, the earliest sunrise and latest sunset occurs, daylight hours are longest and dark hours are shortest, wit ...
" name-checks "Alex P. Keaton" alongside many other cultural references. In the ''
Family Guy ''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show centers around the Griffin family, Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter Griff ...
'' episode "
Movin' Out (Brian's Song) "Movin' Out (Brian's Song)" is the second episode of the sixth season of the American animated television series ''Family Guy''. The 100th overall, it originally aired on Fox in the United States on September 30, 2007. It was written by John Vien ...
", after Brian gets dumped by Jillian when he admits he did not want to move in with her, Stewie tries to help him get over her by comparing the situation to when Alex P. Keaton lost his own girlfriend before getting another one. In the
second episode "Second Episode" is the second episode of the HBO television series ''The New Pope''. The episode was directed by series creator Paolo Sorrentino and was written by Paolo Sorrentino, Umberto Contrarello, and Stefano Bises. The episode takes place ...
of the first season of '' Broad City'', when offered "a few pages from isdad's prescription pad" by a young boy, Abbi refers to him as Alex P. Keaton. During the seventh episode of the third season of ''
Stranger Things ''Stranger Things'' is an American science fiction horror drama television series created by the Duffer Brothers, who also serve as showrunners and are executive producers along with Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen. Produced by Monkey Massacre Prod ...
'', while under the influence of "truth serum",
Steve Harrington Steve Harrington is a character from the Netflix television show ''Stranger Things'', portrayed by Joe Keery. While starting out as a typical unlikable jock, Steve has grown into a more protecting and caring character as the show has progres ...
mistakenly refers to Marty McFly (another character played by Michael J. Fox) as Alex P. Keaton while trying to understand the plot of '' Back to the Future''.


References


Sources

* * Goldberg, Gary David.
Comedy Stop: What Would Alex Keaton Do?
'' The New York Times'', March 3, 2008. * Haglund, David.
Reagan's Favorite Sitcom: How Family Ties spawned a conservative hero
. ''
Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
''. March 2, 2007. * Hurst, Alex.
Remembering an icon from the 'Me-Decade'
. ''The Daily Pennsylvanian,'' April 24, 2001. * Patterson, Thomas.
What would Alex P. Keaton do?
CNN, November 1, 2006. * Stewart, Susan.
The Parents Ate Sprouts; the Kid Stole the Show
'' The New York Times'', February 25, 2007. {{DEFAULTSORT:Keaton, Alex P. American sitcom television characters Fictional characters from Ohio Fictional Republicans (United States) Michael J. Fox Television characters introduced in 1982