Trivia: The daughter of actress Whitney Blake, Meredith Baxter received extensive training in the arts at the Interlochen Summer Camp in Michigan. Meredith worked as an usher, file clerk and cafeteria checker before getting her first film break in Ben (1971). The 5'7" blonde actress entered the "America's sweetheart" category when she was cast as Bridget Fitzgerald Steinberg, the prettier half of a Catholic-Jewish married couple, in the TV sitcom Bridget Loves Bernie (1972). While the series lasted only a year, her "reel" marriage became a "real" one when, in 1974, she wed her B Loves B co-star David Birney. In addition to yielding a new, hyphenated professional name for Meredith, her union with Birney produced three children before the couple divorced in the early 1990s (she also had two children from a previous marriage). In between stage appearances in such productions as Hamlet, Guys and Dolls and Butterflies are Free, Meredith played Nancy Lawrence Maitland on the TV dramedy Family, winning two Emmy nominations during her four-year (1976-80) stint with this series. In 1982, Meredith agreed to star as flower child-turned-suburban mom Elyse Keaton on the weekly TV comedy Family Ties, having been assured that she would be the star of the series in fact as well as in name. As it happened, Family Ties was dominated throughout its seven-year run by co-star Michael J. Fox. A prolific TV-movie actress, she owns the distinction of playing the same real-life character twice, with two entirely different interpretations. When she first played accused murderess Betty Broderick in 1992's A Woman Scorned, Meredith was sympathetic to Broderick's plight, and played the role accordingly (earning an Emmy nomination in the process); but by the time 1993's Her Final Fury rolled around, Meredith, like everyone else involved in the project, was convinced that Betty Broderick deserved what she got--and played the role in the manner of a Gothic Novel villainess. A made-for-TV movie fixture over the course of the next decade, Baxter remained a familiar face on the small screen thanks to appearances in such popular shows as The Closer and Cold Case, later showing her playful side with voice work in such animated series' as Family Guy and Dan Vs. A breast-cancer survivor, she received a public-awareness award from the National Breast Cancer Coalition for starring in and coproducing the 1994 drama My Breast.

Trivia: New York native Justine Bateman was 16 when she originated the role of Mallory, the eternally underachieving daughter of former student radicals Elyse (Meredith Baxter-Birney) and Steven Keaton (Michael Gross) on the TV sitcom Family Ties (1982-1989). Bateman would make a memorable turn in the band movie Satisfaction in 1988, but found more success on the small screen on shows like Men Behaving Badly, Men in Trees, and Desperate Housewives. Bateman would also come find success as a producer on the comedy series Easy to Assemble with Illeana Douglas.

Trivia: It was shortly after moving to Seattle from Illinois that the Washington, D.C. native realized her calling on the stage; a role in a junior high school production of Pinocchio eventually led her to become involved with the local community theater scene. Though Adams would initially enroll in Seattle's Cornish Institute as a political science major, the call of the stage proved too much to resist and she eventually packed her bags and opted to follow the bright beacon of the Broadway lights. Once she was in New York, Adams studied at Juilliard under the tutelage of Bill Kahn, later appearing in a Playwrights Horizons production of The Nice and the Nasty before landing her first Broadway role as the virginal Dierdre in Paul Rudnick's I Hate Hamlet. Moonlighting as a preschool teacher as a means to maintain her sanity during her downtime between roles, Adams set her sights on the screen after making her debut in the 1985 comedy Bombs Away! -- eventually realizing that if she was going to make it in film she would have to make the move to Los Angeles. In the early years of her Hollywood career, Adams got little chance to truly light up the screen since her roles were mainly of the supporting variety, but parts in such widely seen releases as Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, Father of the Bride II, and Kansas City did help to build her resumé and increase her exposure. A Tony-winning role in the 1994 production of An Inspector Calls also served to gain Adams some respect on-stage, and in 1998, she finally got her big break onscreen thanks to her endearing performance as plain Jane, sad sack Joy Jordan in Happiness. Though it was obvious to all who saw the film that Adams certainly had the talent to carry a film, Hollywood still relegated her to supporting roles in Songcatcher, Wonder Boys, and Orange County. If fans had wondered where Adams disappeared to following her small but memorable performance in Orange County, their questions were answered when she appeared in a small capacity in director Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Adams would remain active over the next several years, appearing most notably in movies like The Brave One, and on TV series like Hung.