Ted Danson Talks ‘A Man on the Inside’ Finale and Season 2

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the season 1 finale of A man on the inside“The spy who came in from the cold.”

Ted Danson has had a long career that has included everything from beloved hits (Bowl) for prestige fair (Saving Private Ryan) to existential comedies (The good place), but his latest series, Netflix’s A man on the insidemight just be his favorite yet.

When asked why that is, Danson hearkens back to his days Bowl. Even then, he says, he loved doing anything “drama that has some humor.” His character on that show, Sam Malone, was a recovering alcoholic and commitment-phobe. “So there was sadness there,” he says of the sitcom. “But I love comedy that explores the human condition, and the human condition is full of laughter and full of tears. And then to be able to play that (in A man on the inside) was just a joy.”

Inspired by the Oscar-nominated documentary The mole agentthe eight-episode comedy follows widower and retired professor Charles (Danson), who, encouraged by his daughter (Mary Elizabeth Ellis) to try something new, finds himself answering an ad for a private eye to go undercover like a mole in a retirement community. While there, he solves a series of thefts, makes some new friends and learns to love life again. At the end of the season, he’s back in his home when he gets the call to tackle a new case, which he readily accepts before realizing (and the audience) that he doesn’t even know what the new mystery is yet.

Ahead, Danson opens up for Weekly entertainment about what he’d like season 2 to cover, his thoughts on aging, the show’s universal life lessons, and the surprising but beautiful finale cameo (and Good place reunion!).

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Take me back to the beginning — series creator Mike Schur previously told us you were his immediate first choice to play Charles. Did he have to convince you at all?

TED DANSON: Oh, dear Lord, no. I mean, honestly, I had so loved working with Mike and Morgan Sackett – Morgan Sackett is his producing partner – and actually Mike had seen the documentary and a while later Morgan saw it and said, “We should do this as a series with Ted.” And they sent it to me and Mary (Steenburgen, Danson’s wife) and I watched it. It’s so sweet and tender and funny and kind of a good conversation to have in life about something we don’t usually talk about—aging—so no, I didn’t need any convincing. I couldn’t wait to work with them again.

There aren’t many shows that focus almost exclusively on aging and people over, say, 50.

One of the messages I feel in life and in this story is that Mary always says that we tell our children, “You can do anything, you can be anything.” And then there is a period in life when we stop telling ourselves. Suddenly we think there’s an age limit or something, a shelf life to be creative and productive and give in life. And there isn’t, shouldn’t be, and it’s up to people my age to keep going. And what I would say is that it is also a good message to younger people, to your children, that there is no shelf life on your creativity, your productivity and your contribution to the world. So go ahead. Look, here I am in my 70s and I’m still going. It is also a good message for younger people. So it’s not just about aging – we believe that life begins to end at a certain age. Life doesn’t end until it ends and we should be festive from birth to death. Life is not just the younger part. Yes, it hurts and there is sorrow and grief and loss, but keep going. Continue.

Would you ever do what Charles does – go undercover as a mole in a retirement community?

I’m the worst person in the world for trying to keep a secret. I’m terrible. I just don’t know. I would definitely make the world’s worst spy. (Laughing.) I love the joy and excitement that he gets to pretend to be a spy, which is so foreign to him. This whole thing is so alien, but it just tickles him to death, and it’s this kind of big exuberant life change that you see him start to fall in love with the people around them and their lives and their grief and memory loss and everything, and you see the mystery is not nearly as important to him as these people are.

As a fan of The good placeI squealed when D’Arcy Carden showed up in the finale as a professor who gets Charles to come and give her a guest lecture, even helping to rekindle Charles and Calbert’s (Stephen McKinley Henderson) friendship in the process. When did you know she was going to show up and how did it all come together?

I think I knew about it a week or two before or something. So yes, I was aware of that. But listen, everyone who ever worked with Mike, we should all be wearing “Mike Shur’s Repertory Company” T-shirts or sweatshirts, because all of us would love to stop whatever we’re doing and come to even one day or less on one. of his shows. One of the reasons is that he’s always writing, they’re not just functional characters or props or anything, everyone’s a full person, even if they have half a page or a page to say, he writes people, he celebrates people. We’re all groupies by Mike Schur.

I love that her scene with you just feels like a warm hug.

It’s D’Arcy. The D’Arcy Card is a warm hug. Besides being a really good actor, she just has so much goodness in her that it’s just delicious to be around her.

The finale episode definitely leaves room for a season 2. Have there been any discussions on that front?

Oh, everyone involved would love to do a second season. It’s a bit up to Netflix, so fingers crossed for that. There is no shortage of stories to tell. So yes, to answer your question, but we’ll skip that. People need to see it first. But I would love it because it’s one of my favorite things I’ve been a part of and it’s all of the above – sweet, tender, sad, but just a celebration of life.

I know talking about where it might go would be jumping the gun, but what would you like to explore next? If you could throw out any ideas for Season 2, what would they be?

I’m so thankful I have no idea so I didn’t have to pretend I can’t tell you. (Laughing.) I know Mike has millions of ideas. If we’re lucky enough to see how it plays out in San Francisco, it would be nice if some of these characters (from Season 1) could run into them on the street, because that’s not going to happen in that retirement. home. It will be somewhere else, but they all live in San Francisco, so it would be wonderful to run into them like that.

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All episodes of A man on the inside Season 1 is available now on Netflix.