The Good Wife: How Michael J. Fox’s Appearance Came Together
The Good Wife
Whether it's thanks to his three best-selling memoirs or his research foundation, Michael J. Fox is known around the world for his activism for Parkinson's Disease following his diagnosis in 1991. But he's never played a character with the same illness -- until now.
On Tuesday's episode of The Good Wife, Fox will guest-star as Alicia's newest opponent, Louis Canning, a lawyer for a pharmaceutical company who uses his Parkinson's Disease to his advantage in the courtroom. The 49-year-old actor has played characters with various medical conditions in recent years — his Scrubs character, Dr. Kevin Casey, suffered from obsessive compulsive disorder; he played a man with terminal lung cancer on Boston Legal; and he won an Emmy in 2009 for playing the wheelchair-bound boyfriend of Tommy's ex on Rescue Me. This will be the first time he plays a character affected by his real-life illness.
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When creators and executive producers Robert and Michelle King first heard Fox was interested in appearing on the show, they knew they didn't want to hide his disease. "Michelle and I were interested in how to do it where it wasn't sentimental and going in directions you might expect," Robert King tells TVGuide.com.
"The thought was that with these pharmaceutical companies, they would hire someone that would them seem more sympathetic, because they're giant companies with billion dollar war chests," Robert King says. "So [Alicia's] firm is going up against someone with a handicap who is intended to make his client look sympathetic in a case that is far from sympathetic."
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Fans will have to wait and see whether Canning wins his case, but producers are already looking to bring Fox back.
"He is so spectacular," Michelle King says. "He's absolutely fantastic."
Check out this behind-the-scenes look at Fox's role:
The Good Wife airs Tuesday at 10/9c on CBS.