Exclusive: Where Are They Now? The Keatons Reunite, Animation Style, on Dan Vs.
Family Ties patriarch Michael Gross talks to Snakkle about reuniting with his on-screen wife and real-life dear friend Meredith Baxter, to voice some overbearing parents on The Hub’s Dan Vs. By Erin FoxWatching them when we were kids, they seemed like the perfect parents. We loved seeing Steven and Elyse Keaton gently/firmly deal with preppy and uptight Alex, ditzy Mallory, and sage yet sarcastic Jennifer on the ’80s hit Family Ties. Years later, Meredith Baxter and Michael Gross have reunited to play the very opposite kind of parents on The Hub’s animated series Dan Vs.
Gross spoke to Snakkle about his time on Family Ties, his relationship with Meredith Baxter today, and how their animated reunion came about.
Snakkle: Can you tell us about the first time you and Meredith read for the parts of Steven and Elyse Keaton? Was there instant chemistry?
Michael Gross: Actually, I never set eyes on Meredith throughout the audition process. I was put on tape in New York City, flown to Hollywood to meet the network executives, and was cast in the pilot without Meredith and me ever being in the same room. It was the following week, when the chosen cast sat around the table and read the pilot together for the first time, that I met Meredith. For the sake of a good story, I wish I could tell you I was immediately struck by our “chemistry,” but I don’t recall it as such. I was so overwhelmed by the situation—having been cast in my first pilot, working on the Paramount lot, seeing my first palm trees—that everything was a bit of a blur.
Snakkle: When the Keaton kids were cast, did you ever spend time with them outside the set to bond as a “family”? Or did that feeling evolve since you spent so much time together at work?
Gross: We rarely spent time with the kids outside of the show. For one thing, Michael J. Fox was already 20 or 21 years of age and traveled in a completely different circle of friends. For another, both the girls, Tina Yothers and Justine Bateman, had very hands-on parents who almost always spent their days with us on the set. What feeling of family that grew over time largely happened on the set, in the process of the work, rather than outside the workplace.
Snakkle: Trying to pick a favorite is so difficult, but is there one episode of Family Ties that just felt extra special or really stands out to you as the most memorable/emotional?
Gross: You’re right: It is difficult to pick a favorite episode. One that still stands out for me, however, is one in which I played only a peripheral role. It was a two-part story about Alex losing a close friend in a traffic accident—Alex dealing with his shock, his grief, his guilt—a lovely episode that won the writer, Alan Uger, an Emmy and several other awards.
Snakkle: If you had the chance to go back and do one more episode of Family Ties, what would you want it to be about?
Gross: That’s a tough one, as I don’t envision ever doing the show again, or any possibility of a reunion. Just off the top of my head, however, it might be fun to have a show where Steve and Elyse Keaton had a kind of role reversal with Alex. That is to say, like many older people, the parents have become more cautious and conservative with age, whereas Alex has gone the other way, becoming less conservative and more idealistic in light of our present-day Wall Street and banking mess. Perhaps he has become more like the parents he knew as a boy, and so makes it his quest to restore them to their liberal, lovable selves. Quite a switch!
Snakkle: How did the voice roles come about on Dan Vs.? We hear you play overbearing parents—how fun was that compared to your more fun-loving parenting roles on Family Ties?
Gross: The roles on Dan Vs. came about through an old friend from our Family Ties and Paramount days, Jay Fukuto, with whom I had kept in touch over the years. Jay was organizing the project and approached us with the idea of our working together again. We both signed on immediately. These parents are fun because whereas Steve and Elyse Keaton forever extended themselves to others, these people think only of themselves and their own comfort. They hate their son-in-law and his friend Dan, are full of sarcasm, and are so comically self-involved. It’s fun to be this dysfunctional!
Snakkle: Would you like to work together in live action again? What would be your dream project?
Gross: Though she and I have played a great many different characters since the days of Family Ties, Meredith and I are so identified with those roles that I wonder if the public would even accept us as anything other than Steven and Elyse if we were paired again. But, setting that aside, I think we are both good enough actors that we could convince them otherwise.
Snakkle: You’ve stayed in touch over the years since working on Family Ties together. How has your personal friendship developed over the years? Has your dynamic changed at all?
Gross: I think that, if anything, Meredith and I are more intimate and the relationship deeper. As with many people, our relationship became closer as we shared not only our good times but our bad. I have seen Meredith through a tough marriage, problems with addiction, divorce, remarriage, illness, and now her coming out of the closet. And that’s just her side of things! The two of us share such a rich history that it is impossible to imagine my life without her. Our friendship is one of the greatest legacies of Family Ties.
Season 2 of Dan Vs. premieres Saturday, November 19, at 8 p.m. ET on The Hub TV network.