WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Catch up with TV's favorite dads

Michael Gross injected some of his own humor into his role as hippie dad Steven Keaton on "Family Ties" (left); TV roles still beckon today for the actor, pictured at NBC's 75th anniversary bash this year.

(PEOPLE) -- Whatever happened to "Family Ties" dad Michael Gross? Did you know that "Diff'rent Strokes" dad Conrad Bain still gets fan mail? Find out more about these and other favorite sitcom dads.

Michael Gross: 'Family Ties'

It was a watershed moment in his life, but Michael Gross didn't know it at the time.

It was 1982, and the unknown actor had just been cast as Steven Keaton, the father in the soon-to-be aired sitcom "Family Ties." The country was about to embrace a new kind of TV family, one that would navigate the tensions between aging hippies and their super-consumer kids -- and Gross, then a 34-year-old, clean-shaven bachelor, was about to grow a beard and get not one, but two families of his own.

The actor's TV family -- which largely revolved around the antics of Alex P. Keaton (played by Michael J. Fox), the ultra-conservative eldest son whose first word was "Nixon" -- would become one of the decade's most beloved ensembles. They were close offscreen as well. "We bonded," recalls Gross, now 54. "But there was never any confusion about our roles off-camera -- Meredith (Baxter) and I were never parental surrogates."

At the same time, Gross began romancing the head of casting for the show, Elza Bergeron, who had two kids, then 16 and 14. "I had led a life of utter simplicity, and I was utterly charmed by Elza and her kids," Gross says. "So 18 years later, here I am." The two tied the knot in 1984 and Gross still maintains his offscreen father-figure role, baby-sitting 34-year-old stepdaughter Katie Budde's 16-month-old son every Friday night when he's not working. "I have a secret life with my grandchild," Gross confesses. "I feed him interesting food, like chutneys and sardines and jalapenos, because I'm training him to be an adventuresome eater."

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That same humor and gentle charm comes through in many of the characters Gross has played, especially in the naive Steven Keaton. For instance, the "Family Ties" producers patterned one episode after the actor's obsession with recycling. "It's very difficult for me to walk past the kitchen trash without taking a look to see if anybody's thrown away any cans or bottles," Gross confides.

Though he found regular work after "Family Ties" went off the air in 1989, mostly on television, the show "was a hard act to follow," says Gross. In 1990 he took some much-needed time off. "After two years of nose to the grindstone, I burned out," he told PEOPLE in 1992. "I ran away to New Mexico. I painted in oils. I swam in mountain streams. I became part owner in a railroad and all sorts of bizarre things."

He returned to acting six months later, feeling refreshed, and since then he has been successful in a variety of roles, most recently as a psychotic criminal during an episode last fall of "Law and Order: Criminal Intent." He also has had a recurring role as the father of Noah Wyle's character on NBC's popular drama "ER."

Gross also made a memorable appearance as a psychologist on Michael J. Fox's last episode of "Spin City" in 2000. Though the actors had fallen out of touch, Gross called Fox that fall when he found out about the younger actor's Parkinson's disease diagnosis. Soon they were back in regular touch, and after their on-camera reunion, Gross told TV Guide in May 2000, "(Michael) just sort of hit me with his hand after we finished and said, 'It feels just like the old days, doesn't it?' And I said, 'Yeah, it really does!'"

Conrad Bain: 'Diff'rent Strokes'

Though his eight-year run as Mr. Drummond -- a wealthy white man who adopts two poor African-American boys -- on the sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes" ended more than 10 years ago, Conrad Bain still gets fan mail.

"I get mail from young boys in Africa," Bain says from his home office in Los Angeles. "Some of them send their school records and their confirmation letters. They tell me that there obviously must be room for another boy in that apartment." Though the letters' content sometimes saddens 79-year-old Bain, he takes pride in receiving them. "We're in the business of creating illusion," he explains. "And this means that they bought it."

It took only five words from plucky little Arnold -- "What you talkin' 'bout Willis?" -- to win over TV viewers when the show debuted in 1978. The phrase made up the comedic center of the program, which revolved around the diminutive Gary Coleman's Arnold, costar kids Todd Bridges and Dana Plato, and the gentle Bain.

The clean-cut kids captured the minds and hearts of TV audiences, and they remained in the public eye after it went off the air in 1986 -- though, unfortunately, it was for the downturn each of their lives took. Coleman, who battled his parents over the money he made on the show, was arrested in 1998 for allegedly punching a female fan who approached him for an autograph. Bridges, who played Willis, battled cocaine addiction. Plato, who played Kimberly, left the show at 18 after becoming pregnant and went on to be a petty crook, an addict and an alcoholic before her death from a prescription-drug overdose in 1999 at age 34.

Bain finds it difficult to discuss his TV kids' troubled lives because "I love them," he says. "They were in young, formative years in their lives (during the show) and it's painful to see the results of that."

Though he doesn't keep in close touch with Coleman, Bain remains in contact with Bridges. "Conrad is like a real father to me," Bridges told Jet magazine in October 1999. "It's like the relationship we had on the show."

Bain's fame came fairly late in life, at age 49, after he had worked successfully in theater for 25 years. In 1972, producer Norman Lear plucked him from the stage to play the stuffy next-door neighbor Dr. Arthur Harmon on the television series "Maude," which preceded his role on "Diff'rent Strokes." After "Strokes" went off the air, Bain landed a part as a White House aide in a short-lived 1987 television series called "Mr. President."

Throughout the next decade, he appeared as the grandfather of Meryl Streep's character in the 1990 film "Postcards from the Edge," as a guest on television shows such as "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and in various theater productions. His last acting performance was onstage two years ago, in "Ancestral Voices," a play by A.R. Gurney, in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

"I haven't been doing any acting recently, partly because I see myself as semiretired, partly because I've really gotten fussy in my old age -- and a lot of things are just no good," Bain explains.

Nowadays, he is content to spend time at his computer with the fictional characters he writes about in screenplays. "This isn't about any illusion I have about a new career," he says. "I sort of stumbled into it, and I love the writing process."

The story he's currently working on is about an accomplished man who finds out that what's missing in his life is fatherhood. Of being a real-life dad himself, Bain, a father of three, says, "There's nothing that's brought me more pleasure than [that]."

Find out what happened to classic TV fathers: Dick Van Patten: "Eight Is Enough" | Gavin MacLeod: "The Love Boat" | Josh Taylor: "The Hogan Family" | John Astin: "The Addams Family"