By now you have probably heard about Michael J Fox’s return to television this week in the show “Shrinking” on AppleTV+. The main character of the show, Paul, is played beautifully by Harrison Ford. In the first season the show we learned the Paul has Parkinson’s. His progression is fairly quick, this being tv, and Paul ended Season 2 with an amazing monologue about living with Parkinson’s. If you have not yet seen that episode, go to AppleTV+ and watch it.
After the season ended, we learned that Michael J Fox was going to show up sometime in Season 3, which came out this week. Fox appears in the first scene of the episode as Gerry, a patient with PD, in the waiting room of Paul’s neurologist. I don’t want to spoil this for anyone except to say that the new Parkinson’s anthem, uttered by Gerry, is F**K Parkinson’s!
As always, “Shrinking” does not miss an opportunity to educate the audience about the realities of living with Parkinson’s Disease. Brett Goldstein and Bill Lawrence, co-creators along with Jason Segal, both had fathers with Parkinson’s, and wanted to include a character with PD in the show. According to Lawrence: “It’s cool to get to write about things you care about now. And Michael J. Fox is my first mentor. So we wanted to represent it in hopefully an inspiring and not sad or tragic way.”
Thank you to everyone on the show for portraying people with Parkinson’s as we really are – productive people who are just trying to live their lives well and fight off the inevitable progression of PD.
To Michael J Fox – You are an inspiration and a force for change in our world for Parkinson’s. We cannot thank you enought for all that you have done for us.
F**K Parkinson’s!
Two Programs in February
Dr. Michael Okun answers all of your questions on Friday, February 20 at 12:00 PM EST, 9:00 AM PST. Email your questions ahead of time to twitchywoman18@gmail.com. Register here.
2 days later, on Sunday, February 22, Julie Fitzgerald will join us to talk about her new book for children,The Secret Switch, about Parkinson’s and DBS. Julie wrote the book with her granddaughter to answer questions children have about PD. If you have had DBS and have young children or grandchildren, you won’t want to miss this. Register here.
Have a great week!
Dr. Michael Okun answers your questions about Parkinson’s. Join us on Friday morning, February 20 at 12:00 EST. Register here. Email
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