Last year, Ted McGinley was sure that he was dying.
McGinley, 67, a working actor for four decades and counting, appears on “Shrinking,” the grief-laced Apple TV comedy about unconventional psychologists and their lovers, neighbors and friends. McGinley plays Derek, a recent retiree who lives next door to Jimmy (Jason Segel), one of therapists. He began the show as a guest star before being promoted to series regular in its second season. When he saw that his name had been added to the opening credits — a neighbor finally invited in — he teared up.
“Those little things mean a lot when you’re the guy on the other side of the fence,” he said.
While filming the third season, he received the script for the sixth episode, which premiered last week. (If you haven’t yet seen it, the spoilers start now.) That episode is titled “Dereks Don’t Die,” and early in the script Derek receives an electrocardiogram heart test. McGinley, who has appeared in more than 400 episodes of scripted television — many more if you count voice work — knows how these things work. He figured that the guy on the other side of the fence was going into the ground.
“Oh my God, they’re writing me off,” he recalled thinking.
McGinley confessed this on a chilly January morning as he walked the loop of the Central Park Reservoir, his favorite place in New York. When I’d met him, he was standing in only shirtsleeves, his face turned to the winter sun. For McGinley, this is a typical posture — one of gratitude and enjoyment, with just a touch of male bravado.
But he is also a man who wears the wounds of a long career and can remember every insult, every snub. He has played goodies (“Happy Days,” “The Love Boat”), baddies (“Revenge of the Nerds”), plenty of love interests and other guys over the fence, most significantly in more than 160 episodes of “Married … With Children.”
He considers “Shrinking” his professional capstone and the rare show on which his talents have not been underestimated. “It’s the greatest experience I’ve had in my acting career,” he said. He did not want it to end.
McGinley grew up in Newport Beach, Calif. He was dyslexic, which made school a struggle, but he earned a water polo scholarship to the University of Southern California. He had been an All-American in high school and he had an All-American handsomeness: great hair, a knee-weakening grin. On school breaks, he sometimes modeled and filmed commercials, unaware, he said, that this put him in contravention of his scholarship. He couldn’t afford college without it, and he left before his senior year.
A jock, he’d never shown much interest in acting. But those commercials attracted the attention of a talent agent, who signed him to a deal at ABC. Soon Garry Marshall, the creator of “Happy Days,” hired him as a replacement for a departing Ron Howard. Having had no training, McGinley was stiff at first, reluctant to make fun of himself. He was frightened he would be fired.
“I came from being a guy who mattered in a room to being the dog in the room,” he said.
With the help of an improv class and on-set mentors, like Henry Winkler and Marion Ross, he found his actorly footing. He went from “Happy Days” to “The Love Boat” to “Dynasty.” He earned a reputation, which wasn’t necessarily fair, as a show killer, someone cast when a series was already circling the cancellation drain.
He wasn’t famous, but he made enough to support his wife, the actress Gigi Rice, and their two sons. He was sometimes frustrated with his career.
“I didn’t want to die having made no real mark on anything,” he said. And he didn’t love how the industry saw him, he said: as “this trite, surface handsome guy.” But being a surface handsome guy kept the lights on.
In 2001, he auditioned for the hospital comedy “Scrubs.” Bill Lawrence, the show’s creator, gave the part to another actor. (By coincidence it was another McGinley, John C. McGinley; they are not related.) But Lawrence promised McGinley that they would eventually work together. Two decades later, he made good, offering him a part on “Shrinking.”
“I said, ‘Come and be a joke assassin,’” Lawrence recalled in a recent interview.
The part of joke assassin was originally pretty small. In the pilot, Derek, who is married to Liz, played by Lawrence’s real-life wife, Christa Miller, isn’t given much more to do than to walk a dog. He asked the props department for a large bag of dog poop, knowing that would make the moment funnier. “I hung my hat on that,” he said.
He soon became a favorite among the cast. “I’ve learned a lot from Ted,” said Segel, his co-star and another series creator. “Appreciate it while it’s right in front of you. Don’t overcomplicate things. Life is really good.”
Gradually, the writers rallied to McGinley, particularly his ability to smile through any line. One example: In the third episode of the first season, he cheerfully insults a racist neighbor. The line became a meme.
“Occasionally, I get to write stuff for him that I wish I had the courage to say to my wife in real life,” Lawrence said. “He’s just so good at being charming and emotionally vulnerable.” Lawrence added that he is grateful that McGinley is happily married; otherwise he would be jealous of his rapport with Miller.
McGinley grinned when he heard this. “He can trust me,” McGinley said.
Though McGinley has made many shows, “Shrinking” was different. “This feels like the first time ever I’ve had a good review in anything,” he said. “It’s weird to get this kind of at the end of the ride, and it’s such a blessing.”
He was delighted that the writers had given him so much to do in Season 3. In the fourth episode, “The Field,” Derek eats a bag of candy not knowing that the candy is fortified with THC. McGinley hasn’t been actually high in 40 years, but is extremely persuasive in conveying that experience.
“I’ve been poisoned,” Derek giggles, as he asks a saleswoman to call an ambulance. “I’m a little bit dying.”
He isn’t dying. But two episodes later, when the EKG finds an arterial blockage, Derek faces something more serious. McGinley knew the writers wouldn’t have put Derek in that hospital bed for frivolous reasons, and as an emotional guy who isn’t often given emotional scenes, he savored the depth of that.
Acting those scenes wasn’t a stretch. “This rented machine, at some point is going to give up,” he said of his real body. “I don’t want it to. I’m loving it more than ever right now, but I know that’s a possibility.”
Luckily for Derek, the fictional cardiac surgeons of “Shrinking” treat the blockage. Derek will survive into Season 4. “Life is short,” Derek says in the face of death. “I want to savor every moment.” That’s also how McGinley feels.
“I feel like I’m getting a reprieve, a second chance,” he said in Central Park, the sun on his face. He plans to make the most of it.