If you were to ask me how Apple TV+‘s hit grief comedy Shrinking starts, I’d say it begins with a Billy Joel song. But if you were to ask me on a deeper level, I’d say it all starts with Derek.
Rather than opening with a shot of Jimmy (Jason Segel) blasting the king’s music and playing air piano by his pool at 3:00 a.m., Shrinking’s story begins by checking in with his worn out neighbors Liz (Christa Miller) and Derek (Ted McGinley). As Liz whisper-screams her husband’s name twice, the camera pans up to McGinley’s character, who’s faking a sound sleep in hopes that his wife will head next door and solve their noise problem again, which she does. The intro creatively establishes Jimmy in crisis before viewers even meet him. But in hindsight, I like to think the double “Derek” also fortuitously foreshadows the evolution of McGinley’s once minor, but always lovable character.
In Season 1 of Bill Lawrence, Brett Goldstein, and Jason Segel’s critically-acclaimed series, McGinley’s role was so small that he opted not to tell people about it for fear they’d be disappointed by his limited screen time. Despite Shrinking‘s initial Derek deficiency, through amusing one-liners, scene-stealing deliveries, and contagious energy, McGinley not only charmed viewers, but left them begging for more. As a result, he was welcomed back as a series regular in Season 2, and since then, the love for him and Derek has only grown.
“When they said they were going to make me a regular I couldn’t believe it. It was literally the coolest thing that’s ever happened,” McGinley told Decider over Zoom. “I was a day player last season. There was no guarantee. I’d just come and go. But I think they began to see something. Because the writing is so smart and so good, they created this character and found this place in the chaos where people could land. And that’s Derek.”
Throughout McGinley’s four decades on screen, he’s starred in everything from Revenge of the Nerds and Happy Days to The Love Boat, Married… with Children, Hope & Faith, and more. The 66-year-old actor has nearly 100 credits to his name, but looking back on them today, he considers Shrinking the highlight.
“I learned the economy of words, in that Derek had so little to do, but it didn’t mean he didn’t get to score,” McGinley mused. “I’ve been on shows where the character resonates a little bit. Jefferson on Married…with Children hit with a lot of people, but Shrinking has been very exciting for me. Really, I have never had anything like this in my career. It’s been so much fun.”
Much to the delight of Derek’s devoted fans, McGinley’s character is retired in Shrinking Season 2, which means he has ample time to hang around the house, his wife, and their friend group. Whether he’s shouting off of a balcony, naming a new foster dog, or setting out on an intrepid search for the scissors, Derek still masters the art of taking potentially trivial lines to the next level, but this time around, he gets more substantial storylines that let McGinley shine even brighter.
Season 2 not only gives McGinley meatier dialogue and expands his scene partners (fulfilling his dream of sharing a one-on-one scene with Harrison Ford), but it challenges Derek and Liz’s marriage in a way that allowed the actor to set aside his character’s signature sense of humor and explore his emotional depths.
“It’s so interesting, because I didn’t really have that much to go on when we started the show. I had to come up with my own inner life for Derek — who I think he is and what he does. I created my own thing, just so I had something to hang on to, but I knew there was a reason they didn’t tell me. So I just went with it. I didn’t try to pry open any doors,” McGinley said. As Season 1 progressed and he started learning more about Derek, McGinley felt on track backstory-wise, but nothing prepared him for the Season 2 twist, when a lost Liz kisses her ex, Mac (Josh Hopkins), then comes clean about her infidelity to Derek.
For fans who overcame the thrill of a Cougar Town reunion and screamed “NOOO!!!” at their television screens when Liz and Mac locked lips, McGinley wants to assure you, you weren’t alone in your disappointment. “I opened the script one day and there’s a story that Liz is making out with some guy. I couldn’t believe it. I was very hurt personally. I was like, ‘Oh my god!’” the Shrinking star recalled. “When I went to work the next day after they shot that, the crew — every single one, man and woman — pulled me aside and said ‘I could barely hold the boom!’ and ‘I wanted to get it out of focus!’ because they were all angry. And that made me feel so good. Everybody loves Christa, of course. The only reason this story works is because she’s brilliant, and she’s incredibly generous. And it’s courageous, in my opinion, for them to write this for her to play, because it’s like kicking the puppy a little bit.”
After Liz tells Derek about the kiss in an emotionally gutting Episode 7 scene (a series stand-out for both Miller and McGinley), a teary-eyed Derek retreats to Gaby’s (Jessica Williams) house to clear his head. In the phenomenal Episode 8, “Last Drink,” written by Sasha Garron and directed by James Ponsoldt, McGinley’s character confronts Mac, only to find he’s “very hospitable for an asshole.” Rather than take his emotions out on Liz’s ex, Derek looks inward and suspects he’s not completely innocent, so he heads to Gaby’s office for an impromptu therapy session, giving viewers another heartwarming scene between one of Shrinking‘s most underrated duos.
“I think [Jessica] is brilliant. Any time you get to work opposite her, it’s just magic. She’s so unique and such a massive talent. I’m her biggest fan,” McGinley said. “To have a scene like that where it really is centered and she hits it right on the nail — I still have not seen it, but I just remember playing it, how it felt. And we were both taken aback by where it went.”
With help from Gaby, Derek realizes that although Liz screwed up, he could have been more present for her in her crucial moment of vulnerability. In a move that absolutely crushes Liz (and anyone with a beating heart), Derek apologizes, and the mutual forgiveness simultaneously softens the couple, strengthens their 26-year marriage, and speaks volumes about their characters in the actor’s eyes.
While four episodes remain, Shrinking Season 2 was already so monumental for Derek and McGinley that fans online are clamoring for the actor to win his first Emmy.
“That’s like not even in my vernacular. I’ve been doing this for 44 years. I’ve never been to [The Emmys]. Maybe I went once when Marion Ross or somebody was nominated and I was in the cheap seats and we were asked to go support. But I’ve never really been to any of those things,” McGinley shared. “My wife and I are always at home watching. We don’t even feel like we’re part of that conversation ever. So to hear something like that…my god. I can’t even begin to think about what that would even be like. I can’t even hear what you’re saying.”
When chatting with Decider ahead of the Season 2 premiere, Lawrence acknowledged that Shrinking “definitely turned some heads” by making “the original Jump the Shark guy” a series regular, but after almost casting McGinley in various projects over the years (he even auditioned for Scrubs but lost out to John C. McGinley!), Lawrence felt confident in his decision.
On top of the fact that Lawrence’s wife Miller plays McGinley’s Shrinking wife, there’s another reason why Derek holds a special place in the showrunner’s heart. “There is a lot of Bill in Derek — the best parts of Bill. I still haven’t seen the bad part. It’s so unusual to have a guy who’s been doing this as long as he has at his level, and he comes into the set and, like the rest of us, cannot wait to get in and start mixing it up. You can’t hold him back. He’s like a wild Mustang that wants in. He couldn’t stop if he tried,” McGinley explained. “With Derek, it’s that glimmer — that positive nature of Bill’s — and the fact that he and Christa have this shorthand and a way of communicating that’s so honest. It’s beautiful to watch and really hard to achieve. And there’s so much of them in Liz and Derek’s relationship.”
While reflecting on his own evolution as an actor and a human during his two seasons on Shrinking, McGinley teared up before sharing a few major takeaways.
“With the overall concept of the show, what I’ve really had to face is how human we all are, and that no matter what you do, no matter what you have, no matter where you go, you will always be fallible, and run into difficulties, and run into love, and fortune, and pain, and agony. That’s part of being alive. And it makes it so much better when you have someone you can talk to. And sometimes just that is enough to save your life,” McGinley said. “Shrinking, as funny as it is, is really important, I think, because people are seeing that… There are real moments where it’s just about finding someone and having someone, or being the other person. Reach out. Make time. I think that’s the bigger picture.”
The actor’s experience on the Apple TV+ series has been so rewarding that he has no requests for Derek in Shrinking Season 3. He’s continuing to trust the process and is grateful for whatever comes his way — even if it’s another literal cliffhanger.
“That’s the fun, opening the script and saying, ‘OK, what’s going to happen?’ I find that really enjoyable. I love to be challenged. So for me, I don’t want to know. I’m not asking. I’m staying out of it, and I’m going to open it up one day and go ‘NO!’ and they’re going to boop me off the cliff,” McGinley laughed.
If there’s one thing we’ve learned from Season 2, it’s that “everyone wants a Derek,” so Shrinking writers, if you’re reading this, don’t you dare boop Ted McGinley.
New episodes of Shrinking Season 2 premiere Wednesdays on Apple TV+.
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