While sitting down to talk about his new TV show, Ted Danson admitted he was feeling nervous. Why? “Because I want people to see it, I really do,” he said. “I think it’s an important conversation.”
It’s strange to think that Danson is uptight about anything, but in this case, it’s not hard to see why: his latest project means a lot to him, on a topic that touches everyone. In the new Netflix series “A Man on the Inside,” Danson is a recently retired widower with little to do, until he answers an ad from a private investigator and becomes a spy inside a nursing home.
Like a lot of TV series, the premise seems a little far-fetched, but it’s true: It’s based on a 2020 documentary called “The Mole Agent” about a real 83-year-old man who goes undercover for a Chilean nurse. The home searches for signs of patient abuse. What the documentary finds is a group of seniors battling loneliness and loss with heart and humor.
Ted Danson plays a spy investigating a nursing home in “Man Inside.” Netflix
“Man Inside” is no different, says series creator Mike Schur. “I would say the purpose of this show is simply to discuss a topic that very few people discuss, which is aging,” Schorr said. “This is the subject we don’t like to talk about. In this country (I think more than in other countries) it’s seen as something shameful or almost embarrassing.”
“If you’re dying, you’ve made a mistake somehow,” Danson said.
“I screwed up! Yes, I screwed up. I’ve grown up, you know?” Shor said. “And I think that’s weird, because that’s what happens if we’re lucky. If we’re lucky, we get older!”
At 76 years old, Danson is aging gracefully, with a demeanor inspired by a Hollywood legend: Jane Fonda. “She was 80 years old, and at 70 I started saying, ‘Well, I better look for a nice place to land, you know, this plane of life, or whatever,'” he said. “And I looked at her and it was like, ‘No. She’s got her foot on the gas!’ She’s working 12 hours a day, filming her show, and jumping on the bus to go, you know, to support the service. The industry is in Sacramento with a bunch of women.”
“Don’t slow down, just keep going, keep living your life. I think that’s one of the things that our elders can pass on to us. This is how you live life until the end.”
Danson’s elders seemed to set a good example: his parents did not allow a television in their home. “My mother didn’t like them,” he said. “She would rather read, go outside and play, or be creative.”
But then Danson became famous on television. Finally his parents got one. “But they kind of put this beautiful tapestry over the front of it, so when you walked into their house, you didn’t see a TV, you saw this beautiful tapestry with a candle on top, and they would take it off and watch Cheers,” he said.
Danson still attributes his success today to that show about a Boston bar. But since he hung up his waiter’s apron in 1993, he’s been dealt one blow after another. He was the main character in the movie “Baker”. In “Damages” held with Glenn Close. He’s been to heaven and hell in “The Good Place.” He played himself in the movie “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
Along the way, Danson has used his fame to draw attention to his passion project, Oceana, an organization dedicated to preserving the world’s oceans. When asked if he felt they had made progress, he replied: “Yes. I mean, our focus is to catch fish, to overfish, and to make sure that the world’s fisheries are healthy. Because if it’s done right, you can feed a billion people in the world”. Fish meal every day.”
Actor Ted Danson with reporter Tracy Smith. CBS News
That sounds like a miracle — something he touches on in his new show, and something he says he lives with every day.
When Danson was asked about the miracles in his life, he responded, “Mary Steenburgen, you know, is literally heaven-sent. I did some work on myself for about a year before I met her. After ‘Cheers,’ I became emotionally mature and real. And I worked hard at it.” And then came Mary Steenburgen… We’re so lucky to love someone and to be loved, is it just one of those miracles that happened in heaven on earth, you know?
The idea that Ted Danson hopes to share in his latest project is that miracles can be found in any life, right up to the end. “This is your life,” he said, “not just until you’re 65 and then you retire and decline. No, you have to live until you don’t live. And this is your life. It’s your life.” Such a gift. Explore it, get excited about it. Yes, it hurts. Yes, there is all that. But embrace it, it’s kind of the message of the show that’s what I hope to live with.”
He got so emotionally involved. “I’m just emotional because I finally said something I wanted to say!” He laughed.
To watch a trailer for “Man Inside,” click the video player below:
Inside man Official announcement | Netflix from Netflix on YouTube
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The story is produced by John D’Amelio. Editor: Steven Tyler.
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