Family Ties, Desperate Housewives, Californication
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Family ties run deep in Hollywood, and that’s even included the show “Family Ties”. If you watched the series during the 1980s, then you surely remember Justine Bateman, one of the stars of the series. While her younger brother might be more well known these days thanks to his film career, Bateman achieved a lot of success at a young age. Even in her 50s, Bateman is still making appearances every now and then, showing that she still has those acting chops.
Bateman was born into a family that had some experience in entertainment, with her father being producer Kent Bateman that worked on smaller films during the 1970s and 1980s. Bateman herself was born on February 19, 1966 in Rye, New York. Her brother, Jason Bateman (star of movies like “Horrible Bosses” and “Game Night) was born three years later. The two grew up in California, though, where Bateman began acting.
Bateman’s career got off to a great start in 1982 while she was still a teenager. She was cast as Mallory Keaton on the hit series “Family Ties”. “When I got ‘Family Ties’, I wasn’t even thinking about being an actress,” Bateman said of the show. “I thought I might become a window dresser.” The series ran throughout the entire 1980s, with Bateman maintaining her role the entire time, appearing in more than 175 episodes. Bateman was nominated for several awards for her work, including multiple Emmys and a Golden Globe award.
Talking about her time on the show, Bateman described what it was like working with Michael J. Fox. “Mike and I, we just had really good timing together,” she said. “When you’re working with an audience, you have to have good timing with the other actor, but you also have to have good timing as far as reading the audience.”
As for the relationship between the cast, there wasn't any drama on the “Family Ties” set. “(The cast) hung out all the time,” she said. “Backstage, behind the slats for the scenes, we would draw things…(Creator) Gary David Goldberg created a fantastic environment, from the quality of the scripts to the quality of the people.”
Outside of “Family Ties”, Bateman had several other roles during the 1980s. Bateman guest starred in episodes of shows such as “It’s Your Move” and “Tales from the Darkside”. She also added multiple television movies such as “Right to Kill?” and made her big screen debut with the comedy “Satisfaction” that was produced by NBC in one of their rare feature films that were released in theaters.
“At 16, 19, 20, you’re just kinda going along with whatever’s happening,” Bateman said of the early part of her career. “You’re not as proactive as you become when you’re older. And particularly, something like fame that’s happening so quickly - the requests are coming so quickly for you to do interviews or photo shoots, or you’re getting work opportunities or whatever, it’s happening so fast.”
After “Family Ties” ended, Bateman added several more television movies in the first portion of the 1990s. She also appeared in the films “The Closer”, “Beware of Dog” and “The Night We Never Met”. During the second half of the decade, Bateman had film roles with “Highball” and “Kiss & Tell” and made her return to sitcoms with NBC’s “Men Behaving Badly”, starring in both seasons of the show.
In the new millennium, Bateman had a critically acclaimed role in the miniseries “Out of Order”, adding several more television movies. Bateman had recurring roles in the shows “Desperate Housewives”, “Californication” and “Men in Trees”, as well. Since the 2010s started, Bateman has had guest appearances on shows like “Criminal Minds”, “Modern Family” and “Private Practice”. Her most recent role came in the 2013 film “Deep Dark Canyon”.
As for whether or not Bateman would be part of a “Family Ties” reboot; don’t count on it. “‘Family Ties’, to me, was strictly 80s,” she said. “It was from the beginning of the 80s until the end of the 80s, and it was very specific to that time...My personal feeling about reboots is - I’m very against it. I feel bad for the pop culture of this generation because I feel like they’re getting a lot of retread...a lot of digested and vomited stuff from our teens and 20s and all of that.”
When it comes to fame, Bateman says that she’s one of the lucky ones, and didn’t live a stressed out life, but knows that it can be fleeting. Her advice to the younger generation is “Don’t feel bad if you never ‘get famous.’ Don’t freak out if you have less than 300 Twitter followers...There’s a panic, a rush, to this ‘achievement’ of fame. There’s also the ambivalence of fame: the love of it and the hatred of it. We sometimes hate the famous while, at the same time, straining to achieve fame oneself.”
Bateman has even written a book about fame and how it’s not all cracked up to be. “You’re separate and you’re not real, even,” she said. “You’re not there, even. You’re not there. You can change everything when you walk into a room, but you’re not there. We can talk about you like you’re not there, because you’re not a person. We can rip into you because you’re not real.” For Bateman, though, getting away from that type of fame has been a blessing, as she’s able to live a more normal life.
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