I traveled to Newport Beach this week to moderate a rollicking panel with the cast of Apple TV’s hit series Shrinking. And right after I introduced
I traveled to Newport Beach this week to moderate a rollicking panel with the cast of Apple TV’s hit series Shrinking. And right after I introduced them, Ed O’Neill came on stage at the landmark’s 86-year-old Lido Theatre to present them with the four-day festival’s Outstanding Comedy Ensemble Award.
Shrinking has been racking up a number of honors in its three seasons on the air including seven Emmy nominations last year, for Best Comedy Series and for actors Jason Segel, Harrison Ford, Michael Urie and Jessica Williams. Coming out to Newport Beach on a clear day to share secrets of their success were Segel, Urie, Williams, Lukita Maxwell, Luke Tennie and Newport Beach native Ted McGinley, who afterward joined O’Neill on stage for a special bonus conversation about his roots in this quintessential Southern California beach town, as well as their time together on Married With Children.
Tiffany Rose/Getty Images for Newport Beach TV Fest
After accepting their award I talked to each of the cast members about their roles on the show, but I was particularly interested in where it would be heading. So I asked Segel about progress on a fourth season for the show and how long he would like to go on doing it.
“We started filming about a week and a half ago, two weeks ago. Yeah. It’s off to an amazing start and I think we all feel really lucky to be back. Everyone on this stage has done a really amazing diverse body of work, but I think that there is something really unique about a show where we all get along really well,” he said. “We all want the best for each other. And also sometimes there’s a trade off when it’s fun and nice and easy that the show isn’t that good, but you’re like, ‘Oh, we have a great time’. And then there’s no second sentence. But I think I can speak for everybody involved that this is a show that seems to have an impact on people. It’s a show more about how we’re all alike versus how we’re all different. We pick a few issues each year that are very human issues, grief, love, being stuck moving forward and we see how that lives in the lives of a pretty diverse group of people and like, ‘Oh, look, we’re all dealing with the same kind of finite set of bullshit and trying to make it through with each other’. And so I think it’s really cool to be back and I would do the show as long as they want us to.”
Tiffany Rose/Getty Images for Newport Beach TV Fest
I noted that the final episode of the third season felt like it could have been a series finale, with everyone going off in different directions, but fortunately it seems like it will continue for a long time. I pointed out one of my favorite moments of any show this season was when Segel and Urie broke out into a full-throated rendition of “The Confrontation” from Les Miserables while driving along through Pasadena with Harrison Ford in the back seat. Ford was actually unaware they were going to be doing this, which made his priceless reactions all the funnier.
“We were being towed around on a picture car, I think. Just me, Harrison Ford, and Michael Urie singing our guts out. There are so many things about making the show that are a dream that you’ll have with you for the rest of your life. And I look back on some of these memories and think, ‘Oh, make sure you don’t miss it, lock it into the brain,’ ” said Segel, who went on to say how special it is to have Ford doing this series.
Segel and Ford in ‘Shrinking’
Apple TV
“I honestly think that when you offer a part to somebody like Harrison Ford, it’s so you can say you have an offer out to Harrison Ford and then you have the list of people who will do it, but it makes your project sound cool. They go, ‘We’re out to Harrison Ford’, And then he said yes. And honestly, you kind of had to reconceive the show a little bit because originally that character was meant to pop in and out every once in a while and give some advice. And then all of a sudden Harrison Ford wants to do it and you don’t want to waste Harrison Ford on a couple scenes here and there. And so it became the show that it is today. And yeah, I still can’t believe it sometimes. I really can’t.”
Tiffany Rose/Getty Images for Newport Beach TV Fest
And speaking of gigantic stars, Shrinking this season had some very big-name guest stars who popped in including Jeff Daniels playing Segel’s father, Candice Bergen, Michael J. Fox … the list goes on. “I’m sure the rest of the cast feels the same, but every time someone signs on, I’m like, ‘They watch the show?’ You know what I mean?” said Segel. “Oh my God, they know what the show is. These are people that I think a lot of us grew up idolizing and learning from and getting to share the scream with them or even just to be able to tell them that you admire them or you learn from them has been one of the coolest things. I mean, I stole a lot of Jeff Daniels moves, you know what I mean? And to be able to go up to Michael J. Fox and tell him what an inspiration he was. I think we all feel really, really lucky.”
You can catch all three seasons of Shrinking now streaming on Apple TV.
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