(Credits: Mark Seliger)
Sat 10 January 2026 21:15, UK
Most actors have been in the position of realising they were making a terrible movie while they were shooting it, but contractual obligations leave them powerless to abandon a ship they know is going to sink. However, when Michael J Fox did it, he didn’t have an excuse.
Even though he didn’t have any discernible creative influence as an actor-for-hire, he was still a valuable enough commodity that his ideas and suggestions would be taken on board by the producers. It was something he immediately regretted, though, since opening his big mouth yielded disastrous results.
The production of Back to the Future, and how Fox replaced Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly weeks into principal photography, has become one of modern Hollywood’s most famous stories. Initially, Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg’s first choice couldn’t get out of his commitments to the sitcom Family Ties, but a compromise was eventually reached.
He remained as the show’s Alex P Keaton until its final episode aired in May 1989, despite being well within his rights to leave after the time-travelling classic turned him into a movie star. He didn’t know Back to the Future was going to hit as big as it did when it first premiered, and he wasn’t even in attendance for its first screening.
Instead, he was in London, filming Family Ties Vacation. A made-for-TV movie that finds the Keatons heading to London after Alex wins a university scholarship, only for the family to become embroiled in international espionage involving some shady Soviets. It was quite the tonal switch, and he knew it.
“It was not good,” he admitted. “The movie, intended to be a big ratings stunt to open our fourth season, had been partially my idea, and I couldn’t believe how stupid I’d been; I’d just shot myself in the foot.” He could have been basking in the glory of Back to the Future‘s rapturous reception in the United States, but he found himself on the other side of the world, trapped in a film he knew would be awful.
He’d heard whispers that the sci-fi romp would be a sure-fire box office smash, but he couldn’t begin to think of wrapping his head around it until he was back on home soil. That meant he had to power through the rest of Family Ties Vacation, which turned out exactly as he had expected.
“We finally put the Family Ties movie to bed, where it should have stayed hidden under the covers,” Fox recalled. “Unfortunately, the end result was every bit as terrible as we predicted.” Finally, he flew back to Los Angeles and opted to catch the film for himself. He snuck into a packed cinema, and when the credits rolled, he knew things would never be the same.
“This was next-level shit,” he remarked. “My life had changed yet again, another degree beyond the whirlwind changes that the TV show had brought.” He was right, and he’d have found that out even sooner if it wasn’t for Family Ties Vacation becoming an albatross around his neck.
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