Tell 'Em, Michael J. Fox

Michael J. Fox appeared in the season premiere of Shrinking a couple weeks ago, which was cool for a lot of reasons, one of which was that it meant we as viewers got to watch Marty McFly and Indiana Jones do a scene together. Mostly, though, it was cool because it meant we got to see Michael J. Fox out there still doing it, and doing it well, despite a pile of physical limitations that have been trying to slow him down for a few decades now. That's something we should stop and recognize. It's something I'm going to stop and recognize. There are personal matters at play here, to be fair. We'll come back to those.

Michael J. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1991 and revealed the diagnosis to the world in 1998. That puts it at just about 30 years of a public battle with a real asshole of a condition. He’s dialed back his workload substantially in recent years as the disease progresses, but he’s still a very forward-facing figure for research and fundraising to help other people dealing with the same thing. There’s a good chance you knew all of that already, but still, it’s important to say.

Last season on Shrinking (a show executive-produced by Bill Lawrence, who worked with Fox back in the 1990s on Spin City), Harrison Ford’s character was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, too. It started slowly, with a few tremors, but it’s progressing to the point where it requires an increasing amount of treatment. Part of this treatment involves going to a clinic. In the season three premiere, he plopped down in a chair in the waiting room of the clinic and looked over to find a man named Gerry sitting next to him. Gerry was played by Michael J. Fox. This is how their conversation started.  

The year is young. It’s only February. But I will be genuinely surprised if I laugh harder at a moment of television than I did at this one. It’s beautifully written and it's delivered with precision, that little twinkle in his eye flashing to remind you he’s still got the spirit of a rascal. I mean, “just a haircut.” You try to top that. Take all the time you need. 

Shrinking also released a behind-the-scenes video from the episode, which opens with the scene I just screenshotted, which you really should watch to capture the timing and humor of it all. But keep watching after that, because that’s where things get real, and when they get real is where they are more important. 

Okay, here’s where I make it all about me.

I, too, as regular readers already know, have a pile of physical limitations. Mine are from a spinal cord injury that happened just over 20 years ago — fell from the loft bed in my college apartment, broke the C4 vertebrae in my neck, ended up mostly paralyzed from the shoulders down other than limited movement in my right arm, etc. I, too, can attest to how hard this kind of crap is sometimes, both the actual day-to-day grind of dealing with it all and the spinning of plates to make sure people’s compassion doesn’t teeter over into pity when I’m talking about it. I, too, like to make jokes about my situation. My favorite is when I’m in bed and a nurse or aide has to walk away for a second and they say “I’ll be right back,” and I get to reply with a deadpan “Okay, I’ll stay here.” 

That’s what I mean about this whole thing being cool, though. The layers to it. The thing where the general public gets to see Michael J. Fox fighting hard and keeping his sense of humor about it and the thing where other people going through a bunch of physical and/or neurological bullshit — Parkinson’s, spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, pick any card you like here — get to feel represented by someone who knows what that struggle is like and is able to put it into words accurately. The world of TV and film has not always been very good at this. Progress is nice.

There’s not really a right or wrong way to go about handling a disability or chronic medical issue. Everyone has to walk their own path, which, yes, is another joke from me, a guy in a wheelchair. I’ve always liked the way Michael J. Fox has gone about it, though — acknowledge it’s hard and unfair and sucks, do whatever you can do despite that, and try to come out a better person. 

Here’s something he said in that behind-the-scenes video that I want to highlight, in part because it’s great and in part because it’s something I feel about my situation, too, and it was nice to see put into words this succinctly. 

“It teaches you acceptance, it teaches you tolerance, it teaches you compassion, it teaches you resiliency, and at the end of the day you say, ‘I’ll take it.’ Take it and you learn from it." 

Sometimes someone will ask me how I deal with all my stuff, the disability and the wheelchair and the little and big things related to all of it that stack up through the day. That’s about it right there, man. It’s impossible to be perfect with it, obviously. Resilience is a lot easier when it’s 75 degrees outside than when it’s, like, 4 and you don't want to leave the house for physical therapy. Tolerance and compassion are easier when my beloved Philadelphia Eagles aren’t playing the goddamn soulless and evil Dallas Cowboys. But, overall, on a day-to-day basis, that really is just about the whole deal. 

You do it because the alternative is not doing it. You build from there.

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STUFF I CLICKED ON

— Mike Ryan, my former coworker and one of the best interviewers working in film and TV writing, is starting a newsletter, which I swear I am not just plugging because he mentioned me in his first entry 

— every few years I go black in the eyes and become a total Olympics freak, and I feel compelled to share the most important pieces of writing on the subject I’ve read so far, both of which are about ski jumping, oddly: Kelsey McKinney on the ski jumping penis fiasco and Rodger Sherman — whose newsletter is a vital resource on this subject — on the ski jumper who is afraid of heights

— Kayleigh Donaldson made a list of celebrities who would make good Muppet Show hosts, which I agree with top to bottom, although I would also like to add Tracy Morgan and maybe Brian Cox

— speaking of The Muppet Show, I loved it, to no one’s surprise, and while the highlight was probably Sabrina Carpenter singing Islands In The Stream with Kermit and Miss Piggy, I don’t think anything made me laugh harder than this guy

— everything you needed to know about the poop cannon on The Pitt

— THR went long on Steve Carell’s new show, also from executive producer Bill Lawrence

— incredible breakdown of Bad Bunny’s halftime show in this mega Bluesky thread from superfan Becky Hammer

— yes, the wedding was real, which you probably know by now, but it doesn’t make it any less cool

— I love that the local CBS affiliate in Philly was like “okay, the Eagles aren’t in the Super Bowl this year but we still wanna try to make the story local…” so they interviewed an Eagles fan who was dressed as one of the trees

— the teacher in Philly whose car got buried in a whole-ass sheet of ice (and was remarkably cool about it) got a new car

— “Dallas hires 300 goats to clean up White Rock Lake and yes, they’re very baaa-sy”

— “N.J. man called cops to brag about escaping a police chase. It didn’t end well for him.”

— “Mangled and bent, the Louvre heist’s surviving treasure is undergoing ‘complete restoration’”

— yes, I will watch the Cliff Booth movie, thank you very much

Okay, that's it for this week. Please subscribe and share and try to be as cool as Michael J. Fox.