‘Family Ties’ Producer Didn’t Want to Hire Michael J. Fox

“When we cast Michael Fox, I didn’t want him.”

That’s what Family Ties creator Matthew Broderick. 

Casting director Judith Weiner “had found this young guy in New York, never acted before, Matthew Broderick,” Goldberg explained. “So Matthew was the first one to read for Family Ties for the part of Alex, and I said what any normal producer would say: ‘Yes, get him a pen, let's make a deal.’ And then that deal fell through.”

Note to Goldberg: Broderick was an accomplished stage actor in the early 1980s, so “never acted before” was a bit of hyperbole. Broderick’s Tony-winning run in Brighton Beach Memoirs coincided with the time that Family Ties premiered, so that’s likely why the “never acted before” actor turned down the sitcom. 

But it wasn’t just Broderick nailing his audition. Fox apparently blew his own tryout. “Mike is such a gifted actor that he could make his choices very specific, and he could play any role any way, and he had made a very specific choice that day in the room at Paramount to play the darker side of Alex Keaton,” said Goldberg. “And it didn’t work. You have to believe me that it didn’t work. I said, ‘No.’”

Weiner urged Goldberg to give Fox another chance, but the producer wasn’t interested. After the actor’s failed audition, Goldberg was convinced he was “not the guy.” But Fox did get a second shot, and his new take on Alex P. Keaton blew Goldberg away. “This kid’s great, why didn’t you tell me about him?” he joked to his casting director.

But Fox still had hurdles to clear before becoming a sitcom star. While he wasn’t the main character in the pilot, he felt like everything was clicking and Family Ties was destined to be a hit. Brandon Tartikoff, an NBC executive, evaluated the pilot and determined Fox wasn’t the right guy for the role. “When we had a pickup order for the first season, Brandon Tartikoff wanted to fire me,” Fox told Parade in 2012. “He said, ‘I love the show, you've just got to get rid of the kid. I can’t see that face on a lunchbox.’”

Goldberg was on Fox’s side this time and stuck with the future star despite the boss’ objections. “Years later, when Back to the Future hit and Family Ties was the number two show on TV, I made Brandon a lunchbox with my picture on it,” Fox ed. “And I wrote, ‘This is for you to put your crow in. Love, me.’”

“Brandon being Brandon, put the lunchbox right on his desk, so it was the first thing you’d see when you walked in the office,” Goldberg said. “Brandon said, ‘I make 100 decisions a day. That was the wrong one.’”