If asked to name five network television executives, it may take us a moment. But the first that pops top of mind is undoubtedly the late Brandon Tartikoff, a Hollywood titan responsible for greenlighting a slew of important shows like Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, Cheers, The Cosby Show, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. One of the biggest feathers in his cap was Family Ties, even though he almost got it wrong.

The seven successful seasons of Family Ties focused on the Keaton family, led by ex-hippie parents (played by Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter) adapting to responsibility and the more conservative vibe of the 1980s. The gag was that their eldest son, Alex, was a young Republican who kept photos of Richard Nixon and William F. Buckley in his bedroom. He was played, of course, by Michael J. Fox. Could you ever imagine anyone else in the iconic role?

Apparently, the boss could.

The young actor only had a few credits under his belt, with guest spots on shows like Teachers Only and Trapper John, M.D. and films like Class of 1984 and the cult classic Midnight Madness, but he recognized Family Ties was going to be a success. For a minute, however, it looked like he’d lose the gig.

“I knew there was something special there,” he told Parade in 2012. “I wasn’t the featured character in the pilot, but my stuff all seemed to work. But when we had a pickup order for the first season, [network executive] Brandon Tartikoff wanted to fire me. He said, ‘I love the show, you’ve just got to get rid of the kid. I can’t see that face on a lunchbox.'”

Luckily, this recommendation was ignored.

Fox continued, “Years later, when Back to the Future hit and Family Ties was the number two show on TV, I made Brandon a lunchbox with my picture on it, and I wrote, ‘This is for you to put your crow in. Love, me.'”

The NBC exec apparently took the ribbing in stride.

“Brandon turned out to be a good friend and a great guy,” Fox said. “He kept that on his desk until the day he died.”

Amazingly enough, the series’ creator, Gary David Goldberg, also had misgivings about casting Fox. In an interview he gave to the Television Academy in 2013, he said, “When we cast Michael Fox, I didn’t want him.”

That’s because he initially had his heart set on someone else. Who might that be, you ask?

“We had an extremely talented casting director, Judith Weiner… and she had found this young guy in New York, never acted before, Matthew Broderick,” Goldberg said. “So Matthew was the first one to read for Family Ties for the part of Alex and I said what any normal producer would say, ‘Yes, get him a pen, let’s make a deal.’ And then that deal fell through.”

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As Goldberg tells it, Broderick didn’t want to leave New York City for California, and declined the role. Fox was the second actor Goldberg saw and his initial reaction was a negative one.

“Mike is such a gifted actor that he could make his choices very specific, and he could play any role any way and he had made a very specific choice that day in the room at Paramount to play the darker side of Alex Keaton and it didn’t work,” he recalled. “You have to believe me that it didn’t work. I said, ‘No.'”

Weiner, however, urged Goldberg to give Fox another shot. Goldberg put it off several times, saying that he created the character, he knew what he was looking for and Fox was “not the guy.” Eventually he relented, gave Fox a second reading, and was floored. As a joke, he said to Weiner, “This kid’s great, why didn’t you tell me about him?'”

Now, to answer your question. Was there ever a Family Ties lunchbox? Our cursory study (i.e. searching on eBay) says no. Indeed, the only Family Ties merch we could find seems to be cheapo bootleg shirts and fridge magnets in violation of a copyright claim few would have the energy to enforce. (You can be sure there are plenty of Back to the Future lunchboxes, though.)

We did, however, find a 1986 tie-in novel penned by one Joe Claro called Family Ties: Alex Gets the Business. A review on the website Television Obscurities says it does “a fine job capturing the spirit, tone and humor of the television series.” (The premise is that Alex invests in a beauty salon, which, it is revealed, is involved with some shady characters.) So at least there’s something.

Incidentally, Claro was a bit of a legend in the world of ancillary fiction, and wrote a string of movie novelizations that may be sitting in your attic, including the ones for Meatballs, Condorman, SpaceCamp, and Herbie Goes Bananas. We salute your work, Joe Claro, and all who toiled in this now extinct pre-internet industry.