Who Played Nick On Family Ties & Did He Really Almost Star In 3 Failed Spinoffs?
Chronicling the ups and downs of family life as they help the next generation grow up. That's "Family Ties," the beloved 1980s sitcom that follows Steven (Michael Gross) and Elyse Keaton (Meredith Baxter) as they raise their children, navigating them through life lessons and matters of the heart. And love is exactly what brings Nick Moore (Scott Valentine) to the Keatons during Season 4, Episode 3, "Mr. Wrong." His artistic abilities and kind heart would be seen throughout the show while dating Mallory Keaton (Justine Bateman). The character is well-known to fans of 1980s TV, but it's a role that Valentine wasn't always fond of.
Valentine told AM radio station CJAD, "I'm so glad I went to the [American Academy of Dramatic Arts] and to all the other fine acting institutions so I could grunt on prime time television (laughter). ... It was a lot of fun, but literally there were times where I only had to utter two guttural utterances in a show and they paid me a bundle of cash for it. I felt bad at times." The actor also noted that he felt typecast for a few years after the show ended.
Valentine would stay with the series until its finale in 1989. He has since been spotted and heard in other popular series, including "Batman: The Animated Series," "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman," and "Murder, She Wrote." But there was a time when Nick's adventures briefly extended beyond "Family Ties."
The spinoffs that tried to expand Nick Moore's world
Nick Moore was originally a guest role, but Scott Valentine told Fancounters Podcast that the plan quickly changed during a conversation with the show's creator, Gary David Goldberg. "He's like, 'Look, um, you know me and the other writers we've been talking and we kind of like having you around ... So, you know, after this, would you to come back and maybe do a couple more?' I'm like, 'Yeah. Sure. Cool ...' So that was that talk ... took maybe three minutes, which led to the date that wouldn't leave," he said.
They would try to expand Nick's world even more by attempting three different spinoffs. Valentine told CJAD that the first show follows Nick as he moves back in with his family, including his grandfather, played by Herschel Bernardi. It was well received by the network but was canceled due to Bernardi's death. The second try at a spinoff was not Valentine's favorite. "The second time around, the writing was so bad that I said I can't do this," he said.
The third spinoff idea made it to air, but only for one episode. "The Art of Being Nick" aired in 1986 and follows the artist as he moves in with his older sister, Marlene (Kristine Sutherland), who runs a bookstore with Rachel (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). "And when they aired it, it came in at number two and they still didn't pick it up," he said, noting that he turned down the idea of a fourth series following the cancellation of the third attempt.