Michael J. Fox Had A Real-Life Inspiration For Family Ties' Alex P. Keaton

When Michael J. Fox auditioned for his star-making role in "Family Ties," he didn't have to look far for inspiration. In fact, you could say that the character of Alex P. Keaton has some real-life familial ties with Fox himself.

During a May 2001 interview with the Television Academy, Fox opened up about his uphill battle to secure the role of Alex in NBC's hit family sitcom. He revealed that, ahead of his audition, he'd channeled his own flesh and blood to nail the character's signature cadence and sharp wit. "I got it. I understood it. I knew how to make it funny," Fox recalled. "I was basically just playing my brother, who was the smarta** in our family, who was so much smarter than everybody else." 

Fox noted that, while he hadn't quite mastered comedic timing at that point in his career, he did pick up a few pointers by watching how his brother held everyone's attention around the dinner table. "He'd put his glass of milk down, and from the minute he took the glass away from his mouth, you were waiting for what he had to say," he shared. "So, later on, that all became part of Alex, so I just knew that as I was auditioning. I just got it. There was just a sense that I had — that that was it." 

Observing his brother certainly paid off for Fox. As it turned out, using his own experiences to help flesh out the character was the key to overcoming the major obstacle that was series creator Gary David Goldberg. According to Fox, Goldberg didn't want him anywhere near the role; speaking to Route Magazine, Fox once quoted Goldberg as saying, "I don't want to see him again. I'm a grown man. I know what I like, I know what I don't like. I didn't like him." But casting director Judith Weiner was in Fox's corner, and she convinced Goldberg to give him another shot.

"So I went and I read that second time, and I could tell right away he was laughing," Fox recalled to the Television Academy. "He's laughing, and I know I'm scoring, and now I'm learning this thing that I didn't really know because I hadn't done that much of this level of sitcom — feeding on the laugh and playing up the expectation that he had, and the more he laughs the more I know what he likes, and I hit that harder the next time."

After Fox nailed that second audition, Goldberg turned to Weiner, asking her why nobody ever told him how good the actor was; Fox later recalled that, from then on, the showrunner was his biggest champion. Not long after "Family Ties" turned him into a household name — the era-defining NBC series aired for seven seasons from 1982 to 1989 — Fox catapulted to stratospheric fame when he landed his role as Marty McFly in 1985's "Back to the Future," fully cementing his status as a pop culture icon.