Ted Danson on his Emmy highs and lows and giggling with wife Mary Steenburgen on the set of ‘A Man on the Inside’
Ted Danson won’t give away many details about the upcoming season 2 of A Man on the Inside, but he’s happy to share how thrilled he is to once again work alongside his wife, actress Mary Steenburgen.
“I’ll tell you how excited we both are. We are literally giggling when we get to work together again,” Danson tells Gold Derby. “The material is so sweet and funny. I shouldn’t say too much more than that but what a joy.”
The series, which has begun production on it's second season, centers on Charles (Danson), a retired man who is grieving the loss of his wife when he answers a mysterious ad and ends up working undercover in a retirement home. Steenburgen joins the cast playing Mona Margadoff, “a former musician who factors heavily in the case Charles is trying to solve.”
Showrunner Michael Schur, known for The Good Place and Parks and Recreation, quipped about the real-life couple’s on-screen reunion. “We basically cast Ted in season one hoping we can get Mary.”
Schur and Danson spoke to Gold Derby at the NBCU Emmy kick-off luncheon on April 11 where Schur admitted that when it comes to awards season, he’s stopped trying to predict the outcome. “I have so long ago given up understanding what makes things win awards or not win awards,” he says. “We made something we really love, we put it out into the world and everything that happens after that is not in our control. We are just happy we get to do it again.”
Danson, who's been acting in television for 50 years, agrees. “This is a couple of losers’ perspective on Emmys,” he jokes. “I’ve been nominated 20-something times and won twice.” (Danson previously won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 1990 and 1993 for Cheers.)
Awards aside, both Schur and Danson say the real reward is telling stories that resonate — especially when they tackle subjects many shows avoid. In addition to Danson, the cast includes Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Stephanie Beatriz, Lilah Richcreek Estrada, Stephen McKinley Henderson, and Emmy winner Sally Struthers. Executive producers are Schur, Morgan Sackett, David Miner, Maite Alberdi, Marcela Santibañez, Julie Goldman, and Christopher Clements. The series is based on the Academy Award-nominated documentary “The Mole Agent.”
The heart of A Man on the Inside lies in its exploration of aging, family, and grief, all while blending humor and pathos. “Aging and adult parents of adult children and the problems in the lives of those people is something America is bad about talking about,” says Schur. “America finds it shameful to get old. Everybody lies about their age down. I have an aunt who is Irish, and she is like, when you lie about your age, you go up. If you are 63 you say you are 70, everyone goes ‘Oh my god, you look amazing.’ We are obsessed with youth and embarrassed by natural things like aging and memory loss, and as a result you just don’t talk about it on TV.”
From the start, Schur and Danson were committed to addressing those themes head-on. “We are going to make jokes, but when we are serious we are going to be serious—we are not going to hide it,” says Schur. “I think it was cathartic for a lot of people to see these things talked about in a straightforward way.”
Danson has experienced that impact firsthand. “I have people who said, ‘We lost a child and the other child would not come out of their room because they were mourning so much.’ And the family said, ‘Let’s watch this together,’ and it became such a healing thing. They’re so grateful to be able to talk about it.”
Adds Schur, “If the show provides an avenue for people to feel something, process something, and start conversations, then that was essentially the goal.”