In the Museum of Broadcast Communications' Encyclopedia of Television entry for Family Ties, Michael Saenz argues that: įew shows better demonstrate the resonance between collectively held fictional imagination and what cultural critic Raymond Williams called "the structure of feeling" of a historical moment than Family Ties. According to Stephen Kiehl, this was when the "Alex Keaton generation was rejecting the counterculture of the 1960s 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 mother.
Who played alex p. keaton on tv series#
The humor of the series focused on a real cultural divide during the 1980s, between the baby boomers and Generation X. After graduation, Alex accepts a job on Wall Street. The relationship ends when he has an affair with music major Martie Brodie (played by Jane Adams) while Lauren is out of town. After they break up, Keaton pursues a liberal psychology student with feminist inclinations, Lauren Miller, who is played by Courteney Cox. His first is artist/feminist, Ellen Reed ( Tracy Pollan, whom Fox later married). While attending Leland, he has two serious girlfriends. Alex holds a disdain for nearby Grant College (which Mallory later attends) and regularly openly mocks their courses. Keaton excels at Leland and teaches an economics course as a teaching assistant. 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.Īlex receives a scholarship to fictional Leland University, which is located close enough for him to continue to live at home and commute. 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. Alex spends the first two seasons of the series preparing to attend Princeton University. 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"). His favorite television show is Wall $treet Week and he is an avid reader of The Wall Street Journal. Buckley Jr., Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford and Milton Friedman. His heroes are Richard Nixon (going so far as to have a lunchbox bearing Nixon's likeness), William F.
In particular, he is an advocate of supply-side economics. Storylines Īt the beginning of the series, Alex is a high school student who has a passion for economics and wealth. The family lives in suburban Columbus, Ohio. 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. Alex has two younger sisters, Mallory ( Justine Bateman) and Jennifer ( Tina Yothers). Kennedy to participate in the Peace Corps. 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. Married in 1964, Steven, a manager in a local Public Broadcasting Service station and Elyse, an independent architect, were hippies during the 1960s. Fox) is the oldest child of Steven and Elyse Keaton ( Michael Gross and Merh Baxter), who were baby boomers and Democrats during the early years of the Presidency of Ronald Reagan.
0 kommentar(er)
