At 76, Ted Danson refuses to let his age hinder him from working on screen. Instead, he continues to live fully with no plans of slowing down.
Ahead of releasing his latest series “A Man on the Inside,” Danson shared his newfound perspective on aging after being inspired by film icon Jane Fonda.
“And I looked at her and it was like, no. She has her foot on the gas pedal! She’s, like, doing a 12-hour day, shooting her show, jumping on a bus to go, you know, support the service industry in Sacramento with a handful of women.
“Don’t slow down, just keep going, keep living your life. I think that’s one of the things our elders can pass on to us. This is how you live life right up until the end,” he added.
The Netflix comedy series addresses the experience and stigmas surrounding aging. Based on the 2020 documentary “The Mole Agent,” in which an 83-year-old man goes undercover in a Chilean nursing home and discovers the hardships elderly people face, creator Mike Schur says “A Man on the Inside” has a similar aim.
“I would say the purpose of this show is simply to discuss a subject that very few people discuss, which is aging,” he told CBS. “It’s this subject that we just don’t like to talk about. It’s thought of in this country (I think more than other countries) as something almost shameful or embarrassing.”
“If you’re dying, you somehow made a mistake,” Danson added.
Schur responded in concurrence: “You screwed up! Yeah, you screwed up, you got old, you know?” Schur said. “And I think that’s weird, because this is what happens if we’re lucky. If we’re lucky, we get old!”
With a five-decade career in television, Danson said the message he hopes the show conveys to viewers is to live life to the fullest, up until the end.
“This is your life,” he stressed, “not just up to, you know, 65 and then you retire and are going down. No, you get to live right up until you don’t live. And it’s your life. It’s such a gift. Explore it, and be excited about it. Yes, it hurts. Yes, it’s sad. Yes, there’s grief. Yes, there’s all of that. But embrace it. Embrace it, is kind of what I think the message of the show is. It’s what I hope I live with.”
Ted Danson’s Career
Born on Dec. 29, 1947, in San Diego, Ted Danson graduated with a degree in drama from Carnegie Mellon University before launching his television career on the daytime soap opera “Somerset.”By the late ‘70s, he played Dr. Mitchell Pierson in another soap opera titled “The Doctors” and made several guest appearances in shows, including “Laverne & Shirley,” “Taxi,” “Magnum, P.I.,” and “The Amazing Spider-Man.”
Danson’s best-known role was as Boston bartender Sam Malone in the NBC sitcom “Cheers.” Premiering in September 1982, the series ran for 11 seasons before ending in 1993. The series finale became the second-most-watched in television history, with more than 80 million people viewing the episode.
Danson also appeared in several films, including 1979’s “The Onion Field,” 1985’s “Little Treasure,” 1987’s “Three Men and a Baby,” 1993’s “Made in America,” and 1998’s “Saving Private Ryan.”
Danson’s latest project “A Man on the Inside” premieres Nov. 21.
