The Fall 2013 television season is still about a month and a half away from really taking off, give or take a few shows, but Stay Tuned has already fallen in love with NBC's new show The Michael J. Fox Show. And strangely enough we haven't even seen one full episode yet.
How can you love a show if you haven't seen it? Elements my dear Watsons...elements. We don't know if it's our love for Michael J. Fox in general, or if it's about his return to primetime television, or the fact that the show isn't going to hide his Parkinson's disease that has us all geared up to watch the show.
In 1982 we were introduced to Alex P. Keaton on NBC's Family Ties, as well as his portrayer Michael J. Fox. Throughout the show's seven year run, audiences fell in love with America's favorite Republican yuppie whose interest in economics and wealth provided a comedic foil to his parents Steven and Elyse, who were heavily liberal Democrats. Alex Keaton personified the 1980s "Me" generation to a tee. He wore blazers, sweater vests, and neckties pretty much all the time, read The Wall Street Journal just for kicks, and even carried a briefcase for school. While representing a young adult in the 1980s wasn't necessarily a challenging feat, Fox humanized his unlikeable character by demonstrating the side B all people keep hidden within themselves. Whether he secretly loved rock music, sacrificed his interests for the sake of family (remember when he blew off his Princeton University entrance interview just to help his sister Mallory), or mourned the death of a friend, Fox delivered the characteristics that made us overlook Alex Keaton's greedy flaws and helped place him in the company of the greatest TV characters of all time. We've included the season six premiere episode The Last of the Red Hot Psychologists, which also includes the introduction of pre-Friends Courteney Cox as Lauren.
Fox filmed several movies after Family Ties ended and by the mid-1990s he decided to return to sitcom television and star in ABC's Spin City. This time around he played Deputy Mayor Mike Flaherty, the principal man in charge of all the mayor's affairs, which usually consisted of spinning the truth into flattering lies. Flaherty was a genius at his job but disastrous when it came to his personal life. Unlike Alex P. Keaton, Mike Flaherty was a womanizer and often discarded women quicker than the pages in his notepad. While Mike was a polar opposite from Fox's previous TV character, he never achieved the same popularity and distinction. It was during the show's third season that Fox disclosed to the cast and crew that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. He continued to work through the remainder of the third and all of the fourth season before retiring from the show. The symptoms from Parkinson's had progressively worsened and Fox decided to leave Spin City in order to be with his family and treat his illness. During his final two seasons on the show, ratings had rebounded as viewers were curious to see Fox perform with his illness, which gradually became noticeable on camera. His character was eventually replaced by Charlie Sheen and production had relocated to Los Angeles. Even though Fox returned for three episodes in the final season, Spin City was never the same after his departure. We highly recommend the two-part finale where Mike Flaherty leaves City Hall to become a lobbyist and happens to run into a senator named Alex P. Keaton. Hmmm, sounds familiar. In the meantime, enjoy this funny episode from the first season.
When we heard last spring about Michael J. Fox's return to television, we were curious...then we got excited...and now we are stoked. The previews of the new show have been small potatoes but when we heard about the premise our ears immediately perked up. Unlike Spin City, which did not address the issue of Parkinson's disease (most likely due to Fox still trying to understand and cope with the illness), NBC's The Michael J. Fox Show is loosely based on Fox's real life and the illness will be included in the show. Just to be clear, the new show first and foremost is a family comedy where the main character, Mike Henry, is diagnosed with Parkinson's and leaves his career as a news anchor to be focus on his health and family (just like real-life, huh?).
Flash-forward several years and you'll find the meat of the show. After spending years taking control of his health, Mike decides to return to work and struggles to find the balance between family (being a husband and father of three kids) and career. Parkinson's will be present but Fox assures that it won't be the focus of the show. The comedy will focus on his character's perspective and how having Parkinson's can sometimes be frustrating and humorous. It's something that is just there and cannot be controlled, and Fox hopes to present that reality in his character's main juggling act of balancing work and home life. Eventually everybody on the show will have their own version of a type of Parkinson's (though not officially), which Fox asserts as each character having his or her own things to deal with in life.
We absolutely love the fact that Parkinson's will not be the primary focus of The Michael J. Fox Show. While it is important to address the disease and make people aware of the cause and symptoms of Parkinson's, we would like to share Michael J. Fox's perspective and treat it as just a particular trait of a character. Showing that life, and the expectations and frustrations associated with it, does continue after diagnosis is the message Fox wants to relay in his new show. Dealing with it is the new normal, and if anybody can look at Parkinson's with humor and light-heartedness, it's Michael J. Fox.
We've included the trailers that have been released in the past months. The Michael J. Fox Show is scheduled to premiere on September 26.
(Michael J. Fox delivers his trademark comedic timing on the mis-dialing of 917 and the rolling chair scenes)
Share your thoughts on our blog. Are you looking forward to seeing Michael J. Fox back on primetime television?
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