LOOKIN’ GOOD: Betsy Brandt and Michael J. Fox; inset, Fox and co-star Jack Gore on Fox’s NBC show. (
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Is Michael J. Fox the savior NBC has been waiting for?
Will he help everyone forget the nightmare that was “Smash”?
The TV icon returns this fall with his own sitcom, “The Michael J. Fox Show,” playing someone very much like himself — a man afflicted with Parkinson’s disease. It’s a risky premise, but Fox’s charm and some snappy writing by executive producers Will Gluck (“Friends With Benefits”) and Sam Laybourne (“Cougar Town”) keep things light.
Fox is cast as NBC television news reporter Mike Henry, who walked away from his career once he received his diagnosis. Henry is the kind of TV guy New Yorkers think of as a member of their own family, and he’s frequently stopped on the street — even though he hasn’t been on the air for five years.
His wife Annie (Betsy Brandt from “Breaking Bad”) and former boss Harris Green (Wendell Pierce, “Treme”), would like that to change. Henry is driving his kids crazy with the interest he’s taking in their affairs; the guy simply has too much energy for a second career as a house husband.
A “chance” encounter is arranged, and soon Henry and Green are taking a meeting to the rapturous applause of everyone in the control room.
In real life, NBC is so confident that “The Michael J. Fox Show” will succeed that the network gave ita full-season order — and it’s easy to see why.
Fox has remained one of the industry’s most beloved performers, and recently scored an Emmy nomination as Best Guest Actor in a drama series for his recurring role as a scheming attorney on CBS’ “The Good Wife.”
With two previous hit shows — “Family Ties” and “Spin City” — he has the kind of solid-gold credentials few TV stars have anymore, and this new role shows him as a man who can still do a job he enjoys, despite his illness.
Few TV viewers will be able to resist that inspirational message.