After witnessing retiree and widower Charles (Ted Danson) master the art of undercover sleuthing in Season 1 of A Man on the Inside, you’d think nothing could distract him from the myriad cases he takes on as a private eye. But in Season 2 of Mike Schur’s beloved comedy series, Charles meets his match in Mona, a rock star turned music professor played by Oscar-winning actor Mary Steenburgen, who is also Danson’s wife of 30 years.
The latest installment of A Man on the Inside, now streaming on Netflix, takes Charles to Wheeler College to find out who is trying to obstruct a hefty donation from a problematic alumnus, Brad Vinick (Gary Cole). Once on campus, he meets a slew of faculty members, including Mona, with a range of qualms about the billionaire’s involvement in Wheeler’s future.
Almost immediately, Charles falls head over heels for the free-spirited Mona, causing a few hilarious and heartwarming stumbles as he navigates later-in-life love. “I wasn’t quite sure how to be funny now that Charles is good at his job,” Danson tells Tudum. “The funny comes along with how Charles reacts once he’s smitten with Mona. He just falls apart and becomes like an all-thumbs teenager.”
PHOTO BY COLLEEN E. HAYES
According to Schur, and as evidenced by the conversation between Danson and Steenburgen below, Mona and Charles’s dynamic is not dissimilar to the real-life couple’s. “They are so in love with each other, they respect and admire each other so much,” the TV maestro says. “Frankly, it’s very annoying. They set an impossible standard. I did not enjoy working with them for that reason, and I don’t intend to do it again.”
A Man on the Inside presents a compassionate and poignant depiction of some of the frailties and triumphs of getting older that we rarely get to see on TV: Season 1 charted the way Charles coped with retiring and losing his wife to Alzheimer’s. With Season 2, Schur felt it was time to wade into even sweeter unexplored territory: later-in-life love. “This guy has processed loss and grief and sadness, and the next logical question is, is there room in his life for a new romance?” continues Schur. “There was only one possible person to play that role. It was not a story that could have been told without her, and I’m very glad that she said yes.”
Over decades of immeasurable contributions to comedy films and series such as Step Brothers, Book Club, Cheers, and Curb Your Enthusiasm, Danson and Steenburgen have established themselves as pillars in the genre. But playing across from each other in A Man on the Inside, they’re somehow even more watchable and charismatic. After listening to the two in conversation, what shines is their love for each other and for their craft. As Danson puts it, “We really love the process of acting, we love each other’s work, and we got to get up and giggle every morning over how lucky we were to work with Mike Schur.”
An edited version of the conversation follows.
Ted, what’s the biggest difference between this case and Season 1’s?
Ted Danson: In the first season, the mystery was really incidental in that it was [a device] to get us into this retirement home. The real mystery was why people are the way they are. The comedy was easy because Charles was giddy with joy about being out in the world and being a private detective, but terrible at [the job].
This time, we were in a totally different locale. Besides the funny that falling in love at 77 brought, it was also like, “How is this going to impact my daughter and my friends? Is it okay to fall in love again?” That became the fascination for me as an actor.
Mona and Charles are such a charming couple, and they’re so different. What do you think they teach each other?
Steenburgen: Mona has lived a life of freedom and creativity, going where she wants and putting her own heart first. In the Thanksgiving episode and in the very last episode, she runs up against a limit to this. She learns that spitting out whatever she wants to say 100% of the time sometimes has a cost for someone else. I’m just guessing, as the person who played her, but she might’ve had her heart broken for the very first time in her whole life at age 70. I’m 72, but Mona’s supposed to be 74, which really pissed me off. I’m like, “I’m old enough. Do you have to age me up?”
She seems 72 to me, don’t worry.
Steenburgen: It had to do with when Mona’s playing at Woodstock. She would’ve been too young if they hadn’t added two years.
I’d rather be 74 and have played at Woodstock than be 72.
Steenburgen: Exactly! It did shut me up finally. She learns a lot from Charles, and she [teaches him to] be more free. We don’t have that much time left. Go for things. She learns that sometimes there’s a cost for not meeting a heart where it can meet you. Top that, sucker!
Danson: Charles discovers that he’s still a little fear-based. He meets somebody who’s just total love, no fear. She’s just, “Let’s live, stay in the moment, and have joy be the word for the day.” I love it. My character loves it, and is excited by it. He thinks he can run with her, but he bumps into his limits and realizes, “Actually, I can’t leave my daughter and go to Zagreb with Mona.” He is smitten by her, and it’s very hard for him to let go of that and wish he were different.
How much of your own relationship comes through in your characters’ dynamic?
Danson: [Mary and I] are of one heart and what matters most to us in life is almost identical, but I am a little more fear-based than Mary. Mary is always curious about going around the other corner. The joke in our house is, if I say “No, oh no, no, no, no,” to whatever she’s suggesting, we both know it’s a really good idea and we will end up doing it. I am that kind of ragtail to her kite. That’s part of the relationship in the show.
Steenburgen: Both parts are important to flying a kite.
PHOTO BY COLLEEN E. HAYES
Danson: As far as acting it, Mary knows me more than I know me and she patiently lets me catch up. She witnesses me. I have nothing to prove to her. So when we are acting out falling in love and I look into her eyes, I don’t have to hold anything back or pretend to be suave or cool. There’d be times when I would just fall into her eyes. And using Mike’s words … I don’t want to be full of hyperbole, but it was the most amazing acting experience I’ve ever had, truly. Top that, sucker.
I read that you guys love doing the New York Times’ games together. Did you have any other traditions?
Steenburgen: We brought our dog to work every day. People would call our driver and say, “Could you guys bring Blue over to our office around 2:30?” And these were people in offices that had nothing to do with Man on the Inside. Ted and I also shared a trailer. That was fun.
Danson: Everybody who works with Mike and his producing partner Morgan [Sackett] as a crew member, actor, writer, director, wants to work with them again. You walk into a set and it’s like, “We worked together six years ago on a Mike Schur project.” We will be best friends for life with most of these people. It is kind of miraculous: He creates family and the desire to keep working with him.
Steenburgen: It was just fun. Ted was the butt of so many jokes because it was a mostly female trailer except for Ted.
Danson: I made one mistake …
Steenburgen: Do you even want to tell it? Find a nice way to say it. Please don’t embarrass me.
Danson: One of our kids is a doula, and she became a lactation specialist. I tried to show what an interesting feminist guy I am, so I said something about lactation in the hair and makeup trailer. They made me a T-shirt: “Ted Danson, lactation expert.” Just horrible.
PHOTO BY COLLEEN E. HAYES
The show is so funny, but it’s also so moving and at points, heartbreaking. What themes does Season 2 explore? How did you find that balance in your characters?
Steenburgen: When Mary Elizabeth [Charles’ daughter, Emily] is crying at Thanksgiving dinner over how much she misses her mother — all four of our parents have been gone a long time, and we still miss them.
I only went to one year of college, and then I went to acting school. But my acting school, the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York, was like Wheeler College is to them. It’s where I found myself, where I was part of a community, where I really learned something I wouldn’t have learned anywhere else. The theme of how hard it is to have a small liberal arts college with funding [issues], and how these things are threatened by billionaires who just want to turn them into a place for the big moneymakers of tomorrow and forget about things like the arts. That’s a big theme that I care about in life. There are so many things about this season beyond the laughter that are just such worthwhile themes.
Danson: [Our characters’ arc] is about whether you have a second chance at the love of your life. There’s also mother-daughter friction and anger. Will they give each other a second chance and bond? The whole second-chance thing is pretty cool.
What’s your favorite A Man on the Inside fan reaction you’ve gotten so far?
Danson: It’s not just that you made them laugh, but there was a family connection made: “You made me feel connected. You gave me a sense of community. You made me want to step out and be courageous.”
Somebody saying that their father watched it and now he’s stepping out [in the world]. Parents who had lost a child, and the child’s sister was secluded in her bedroom, and they slowly brought her out to watch this show with them. We’re not just telling jokes. Mike’s talking about purposeful real-life things that human beings go, “I see that. I know that in me.”
Watch A Man on the Inside Season 2 on Netflix.
