Ted Danson Loves That His New Show ‘Man on the Inside’ Explores Aging (Exclusive)

Ted Danson has taken on a lot of roles in his career, but his latest has a special meaning.

In Netflix’s new series, A man on the inside, Danson, 76, plays Charles, a retired professor who loses his wife and discovers a new hobby as a private detective assistant who infiltrates a senior living facility to help solve a case.

Speaking to PEOPLE about his new role in this week’s edition, Danson says it was something he couldn’t resist taking on, especially since he found himself relating to many of the show’s themes.

“My favorite kind of comedy has serious overtones, and in this case it’s a very funny premise,” he tells PEOPLE of the series, which was based on Maite Alberdi’s 2020 documentary The mole agent. “There’s something inherently funny about a 76-year-old man who’s a (retired) college professor, his life is shut down, his daughter is worried, so she says, ‘Get a project,’ and he randomly comes up with quirky show a project where he becomes an undercover spy in a nursing home.”

“We’re going to explore aging, all the things that in this country we’re sometimes afraid to talk about, memory loss, everything we talk about with a tenderness and a seriousness that’s still contained in a kind of light-hearted, happy way ,” the Bowl the star continues. “I’m so happy because I’m 76 and I get to be a part of this conversation, which is becoming more and more of my conversation in life.”

As a father of four grown children — Danson shares daughters Kate and Alexis with ex-wife Casey Coates and is stepfather to wife Mary Steenburgen’s children Lilly and Charlie — Danson says he could also “recognize myself” in Charles from a parenting perspective.

“My oldest daughter once said, ‘Your love is kind of hit-and-run. I know you love me, but you kind of come in and love me, and then you have to leave.’ I think it came from the fear of relaxing more and more for a moment and not trying to control it,” he explains. “How we love people and express our love is sometimes overshadowed by our own insecurities or ( desired) to control.”

“I’ve had to grow with it, with my kids and with Mary. I’m constantly challenged to be more real, more present,” Danson admits, before noting how Charles is “going through” the same thing with his daughter Emily, played by Mary Elizabeth Ellis.

“He decides (for her),” he adds. “I’ve done this with Mary. She often says, ‘No, you have to tell me everything and let me choose how I want to react to it.'” Because Charles decides to protect his daughter from this sadness and pain that he goes through, completely cutting her off from being a part of his life.

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The topic of aging and parenting wasn’t the only thing that drew Danson to the eight-episode project. The fact that he would also get to reunite with The good place showrunner, Michael Schur, who created and produced this series, was also a big draw.

“In my case, you get to follow Mike Schur’s beautiful words and pretty much just react to the amazing actors he’s hired, and your job becomes more and more easy,” says Danson, who starred as Michael on The good place. “But I loved the conversation we had, which is that life doesn’t end until it ends, so keep going.”

“And for us humans, my age and older, you still have something to contribute tremendously,” Danson adds. “So get out there and keep going and the way you engage life right up until the end is an inspiration to the younger people behind who are coming and your children. Because a lot of times people think creativity and creativity has a shelf life. to contribute to life. It is not self-imposed.

For more on Ted Danson, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribe here.

A man on the inside now streaming on Netflix.