TVSquad

Give Justine Bateman credit: She could have been typecast after playing the dippy, fashion-obsessed Mallory Keaton on Family Ties, but she's been able to build a nice career for herself over the last twenty years by playing interesting supporting roles in movies like The TV Set and series like Desperate Housewives. But she's also been -- just like 75% of the people in Hollywood -- an aspiring writer, struggling to get her scripts produced (and you think having connections helps ... she knows Michael J. Fox and her brother is Jason Bateman, and she still couldn't get her scripts produced).

But now she can add "sitcom writer" to her credits; she just wrote an episode of The Disney Channel's hit Wizards of Waverly Place, according to the New York Daily News. Apparently, she's a friend of executive producer Peter Murrieta, and she got to know some of the show's writers during the writers' strike. So, when the strike ended, she was invited to write an episode for the show.

Note that other sites have categorized this as merely a rumor since I first posted this. Update at end of post.

Like most people who wish for dumb things, I've been patiently waiting for someone to remake the 1985 Michael J. Fox movie Teen Wolf, or to at least film my script that re-imagines Beowulf with Scott Baio in the lead role (I call it BaioWolf). Yes, I know Beowulf has nothing to do with werewolves, but in BaioWolf, everyone is a werewolf, something I believe the original epic poem lacked.

Well, apparently it's happening, and Smallville's Tom Welling has signed on for the Teen Wolf remake, but not as the titular werewolf. In this remake, the werewolf will be female. No word yet on who will play the lead, and apparently the filmmakers are still scouting locations.

The first season of Family Ties will be available on DVD on February 20 of next year. For those of you who didn't grow up watching this series like I did, it focused on two hippies (Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter-Birney) from the '60s raising a family in the Reagan era. Michael J. Fox starred as Alex, their Republican son, and their two daughters were played by Justine Bateman and Tina Yothers. The set will include all twenty-two episodes of the first season, including a two-parter featuring Tom Hanks as Elyse Keaton's secretive brother.

The series, which managed to be very smart and funny while also dealing with series subjects, aired on NBC for seven seasons. While it struggled during its first season, the show soon became part of NBC's sitcom domination when it was placed right next to The Cosby Show. I have to say, though, I always thought Family Ties was the better series. It would sometimes cross the line between funny and preachy, but never to the degree that The Cosby Show did. Both shows had lessons to teach, but Cosby sometimes felt more like a half-hour lecture on good behavior.

Our sister sites Cinematical and Ad Jab --that's me who wrote the Ad Jab post, but when I write for Ad Jab I wear a mustache so as not to confuse me with myself-- have been all over this, so forgive us for being a bit behind, but as many of you probably know, Michael J. Fox has been appearing in campaign commercials for people who are running for senate and who support stem cell research. He's appeared in ads for Maryland's Ben Cardin and for Missouri's Claire McCaskill (clip after the jump).

To drive the point home, Fox appears in these ads, sans medication and with the involuntary tremors and shakes that are a part of his Parkinson's made obvious.* Other celebs from television, however, don't share Fox's view, and one of them is Patricia Heaton, who appears in an ad (also after the jump) that opposes the measure in Missouri. I'll let you folks watch both ads and duke it out in the comments, though my friendly advice to anyone is to not get caught up in the politics of this debate and instead read up on the actual science behind it and then make an informed decision. You may not come to the same conclusion I have, but at least you'll be well-informed and not persuaded by actors, or Rush Limbaugh for that matter.

*Fox's tremors are actually a side effect of being on his medication, not off it. Apologies for my assumption.