I’ve been an entertainment journalist for 14 years now and I have met all the wonderful, amazing talents who affected me as a viewer, and discovered all the amazing, wonderful new talent who have emerged in the last decade.
Michael J. Fox was always one of those elusive “gets” though. I knew it would be tough with his limited appearances since “Spin City,” and I never quite got on his book tours. So the presentation of “The Michael J. Fox Show” to the Television Critics Association Press Tour was a huge moment for me.
More importantly, Fox, an actor who has really impacted my life in “Family Ties,” Back to the Future, Teen Wolf and personal favorites like The Hard Way and The Frighteners, is back. He has developed a show that accommodates his struggles with Parkinson’s disease, and come to a place in his own treatment where he is comfortable working a 22 episode schedule.
Selfishly, it meant I finally got to meet Michael J. Fox, but it’s nice to still have those moments when you’re a veteran on the job. Fox stars as Mike Henry, a New York newscaster who goes back to work after taking time off to deal with his Parkinson’s and be with his family. The show premieres on NBC tonight, but a Michael J. Fox interview will always be news.
CraveOnline: Michael, it’s great to see you back on television, I’m very glad that you feel ready to do a full 22-episode commitment and TV makes sense for you. Do you also feel like you would be up for going back into the movie realm? Because it seems like 2015 would be the perfect year for Back to the Future IV. You could send another kid off the 1985, and wave them on their way.
Michael J. Fox: I would have to play Doc Brown.
Serious question though, would you feel up to doing movies too?
Yeah, I know, to answer your question, I don’t know. I mean, I’m going to knock this off first, but when I was talking to Will [Gluck], one thing that I’m feeling in doing this show, we’ve done six episodes now, is that I knew one of two things was going to happen. I was either going to atrophy as I went on through the year, or rebuild the muscles, and I’m planning on rebuilding the muscles. I’m getting more comfortable with this schedule every day, and every week, and really happy with how it feels to be back at work.
A movie, I don’t know. I mean, I’d have to take it as it comes, but I can’t imagine doing 22 episodes of this and then spending my summer doing like I did in ’87, doing Light of Day and Secret of My Success, and then going back to work. I mean, it’s crazy, and that’s how I got into this mess.
Can you believe there’s a TV version of “Teen Wolf” on the air, and have you seen that?
No, I haven’t seen it. I hear it’s really serious and scary.
I know Robert Zemeckis doesn’t want to do it, but I do think a Back to the Future IV, sending a kid from the real 2015 into the old 1985 would be a good idea.
It would be interesting but I don’t know anything about it.
On the show, in the pilot, was the pickle jar something that was adapted from your home life?
Yeah, I said to the writers it’s not unusual for me to pass off to one of my kids something. It just happens without breaking a stride. It’s not like, “Can you do this for me?” It’s like jar, open, hand back, moving on.
My family has just adapted to my realities, especially with the way they change. There might be one day when I can’t do something that I can do perfectly well the next day. It’s just at that moment I can’t do it, so they’ve learned to not count on everything being exactly the same but to react to subtle changes in the situation. I think they’ve learned resiliency.
Is the story of the pregnant woman in the tree a real story and one you look to for inspiration?
Yeah, look it up. A lady in Mozambique.
How quickly did you and your writers come up with the idea of being a television reporter?
It was pretty early on and I think Will came up with it. I immediately loved it because local anchors have a unique kind of celebrity that’s really based on deep affection and trust. People really relate to their local anchors. It’s kind of a celebrity that we wanted him to be well known, we wanted him to have a public persona but we didn’t want to make him an actor, a movie star, an athlete. It would kind of separate him from people.
We wanted him to be someone that was kind of of the people and celebrated by the people. News anchor just seemed natural.
How much of this is about showing people what you can still do while having Parkinson’s, and how much is just making a good show?
I’d say it’s most about making a good show, but it’s not lost that I have Parkinson’s and I’m doing the show. It makes the point without me having to make it, but our number one priority is making a good show.
