Welcome to the Cast and Actors section, where you will find lists of all regular cast members, a comprehensive list of guest stars in the show, as well as complete cast lists for a number of selected Family Ties episodes. If you have any questions about the information on this page or need cast information for a specific episode, please e-mail me.

On this page: | Main Cast | Major Guest Stars | Other Important Guest Stars | Cast and Credits for "The Real Thing" | Cast and Credits for "Itīs My Party" | Cast and Credits for "A Tale of Two Cities" | Cast and Credits for "My Name is Alex" | Cast and Credits for "Last of the Red Hot Psychologists" | Cast and Credits for "Alex Doesn't Live Here Anymore" (last episode) |

Main Cast:

Note: Andrew (Andy) appeared in the show for the first time in the third season, episode 62. He was then played by the twins Garrett Merriman and Taylor Merriman. They were never officially credited on either the Main Title nor the Closing Credits. From the fifth season (episode 99: My Back Pages) he was played by Brian Bonsall (credited).

Major Guest Stars:
(guest stars who appeared in more than just a few episodes)

(*) Alex's first girlfriend in the series, played by Tracy Pollan, Michael J. Fox´s wife in real life!
(**) Alex's second girlfriend in the series, played by Courteney Cox, nowadays starring in Warner Bros. sitcom Friends
(***) The character´s "real" name was Irwin Handleman. Skippy was just a nickname.

Note: The cast members mentioned above did not appear in all specified episodes (I e 74 - 98); the specified episodes are the first and last episode in which each character appeared.

Other Important Guest Stars:
(in order of first appearance)

Note: Episode numbers within brackets mean that the respective actor/actress also appeared in a flashback episode (whose number is mentioned within brackets), with scenes from one of their earlier appearances.

(*) Better known as Eric Forrester in CBS' popular daytime drama series The Bold and the Beautiful
(**) Ellen's father, who appeared in one episode
(***) The bank manager which Alex works for in a short period of the show (and gets a crush on...)
(****) Steven's brother, who appeared in two occasions, the latter regarding his divorce from Maureen
(*****) Became famous later thru the sitcom "Married with children", and during the late 90's, Jesse.
(******) The girl in which Alex gets a crush on in the double episode in the end of the series (ep. 171/172), where he and Lauren (Courteney Cox) break up. This double episode is called "They Can't Take That Away from Me", and is the real weeping episode of Family Ties.
(*******) Jane Adams played both these characters, by a coincidence.

Complete Cast of the TV Movie "Family Ties Vacation"

Please note: "Family Ties Vacation" has on some channels been shown as a feature film, while some other channels have screened this movie as four separate episodes. The total length is the same as most other movies (about 1 hour 33 mins, excluding commercials, for the European PAL version. It might differ slightly for the US NTSC version).

Complete Cast of "The Real Thing" (ep. 74/75):

Note: This is my personal favorite episode. It is the first episode with Ellen Reed, played by Tracy Pollan.

Complete Cast of "Itīs My Party" (ep. 77/78):

Complete Cast of "A Tale of Two Cities" (ep. 114/115):

Complete Cast of "My Name is Alex" (ep. 119/120):

This episode was originally aired as one long episode. Its total length is approximately 50 minutes (for the PAL version).

Complete Cast of "Last of the Red Hot Psychologists" (ep. 126/127):

Note: This is the first episode with Lauren (played by Courteney Cox). It was originally screened as one 46-minute episode (running time listed applies to the European PAL version).

Complete Cast of Series Finale: Alex Doesn´t Live Here Anymore (ep. 175/176)

This final episode of Family Ties was originally screened on May 14th 1989. These two episodes (175/176) are longer than all other episodes. They are together slightly over an hour long (about 1 hour 2 mins, excluding commercials, for the European PAL version. It might differ slightly for the US NTSC version). They were originally screened as one long episode.

Written and compiled by: Daniel Hofverberg,
with information from Paramount Pictures.
(additional information and corrections from Lora Colver, Michael J. Fox Official Fan Club)

Page last updated:
07-11-2002 (MM-DD-YYYY)

This page will be extended as often as possible. If you find that I have forgotten any important guest stars, or have missed an episode that an actor has appeared in, please e-mail me at daniel_hofverberg@yahoo.com right away.