My two boys were the same ages as the kids in the show. In real life or in between the breaks I was raising two kids off camera who were not unlike the two kids who were being paid to be my kids.
I’m not able to go in with an act that I use month to month year to year all the time. It’s constantly evolving and changing and that keeps me on my toes but certainly adds to the challenge.
I wouldn’t call myself a standup in the presence of Jerry Seinfeld or Chris Rock, but I do my share of it and it has been and remains part of my activity and I like it.
There are psychological repercussions to illness and we need a little more help to get through the effects not only on the afflicted but on the family. And I think there’s even a place for humor in that.
So we had psychiatrists and counselors and therapists around the set regularly, especially for those scenes in which Jason would be dealing with a patient to make sure we were doing it all appropriately.
So there was a constant flow and a thin line there between reality and television and yes, much of what I was experiencing in my real life was also what was going on in the television show to the extent that I had to take writers’ advice and from the counselors around.
And introduce an element of cynicism and darkness into it and just realize that we’re all vulnerable. We are humans. There is a finite end to this life and we’re all going to face it and a little silliness can help.
I’m a big proponent of having a mental health component go along with whatever the physical realities are.
My priority is to turn people – especially kids – on to sports and being active so they don’t even have to think about it being good for their health. If people participate for the fun of it, and believe me – it is fun, then fitness programs will be much more successful.
We look for opportunities to play together including basketball, tennis, swimming, riding bikes and touch football. I try to provide a loving environment where we can play. I think that’s good on so many levels – emotionally, for family interactions and, of course, physically.
About 100 things that your kid will do that will surprise you and break your heart and it will be a combination of fact based therapy, medically advised kinds of passages accompanied by celebrity anecdotes and just some funny stuff to lighten the load.
If one tends to be a humorous person and you have a sense of humor the rest of your life then you can certainly lighten the load, I think, by bringing that to your trials and tribulations. It’s easy to have a sense of humor when everything is going well.