https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcrWisMZyH4
Tonight’s episode of This Is Us on NBC at 9p is a standalone one. It is the prequel to the day that the triplets were born and Randall was dropped off at the fire station. Get the tissues ready because this is going to be an emotional but outstanding hour of television.
We see a very pregnant Rebecca (Mandy Moore) struggling with the final days of her very uncomfortable pregnancy. She is taking it out on Jack (Milo Ventigmilia) and it is his birthday. Something she forgot with the move into the new house and carrying three babies inside of her. Once she realizes it is his special day, she will do everything she can to make it as special as possible. As we know she goes into labor and delivers their babies. After they are born, we will see a scene that was cut from the pilot but makes it on to tonight’s shows.
Then there is the firefighter (Brian Oblak) who found Randall on the fire station’s doorstep. Tonight we learn his story and it isn’t a happy one. One that a baby might save.
Finally, there is Dr K (Gerald McCrainey) who is still getting over the loss of his wife. Even though it has been almost two years, he still hasn’t gotten rid of her stuff. Something his kids think he needs to do, but he is not ready. Will delivering triplets, help him start to move on?
McRaney gives a performance that is beyond Emmy worthy and I would be surprised if he didn’t bring home the gold statuette because of this episode.
After watching a press screening of this show and wiping away my tears and snot, I spoke to McRaney about the special episode and the role.
Like many actors, he created a backstory for Dr K and this was it. He happily said to the crowd of reporters, “I imagined something like this when I was doing the original pilot. It is just sort of gratifying to realize the writer and creator had the same stuff in mind as this backstory.” Then he explained, “It was obvious in the pilot how close Dr K was to his wife, so they embroidered that quite a bit it is a lovely, lovely backstory. I love how the whole theme of it is so wonderfully woven in it.”
Even though he knew his character’s backstory, how did he prepare for tonight’s theme? He revealed that he did it by, “Imagining losing my wife (Delta Burke), where that would put me and you are there. It is not a pleasant place to go.”
However, going to work on this show is a pleasant place to go for him. This was how he felt when he got the script, “I wondered who I had to pay off for writing such a great role. I mean this is phenomenal writing. It is a gift for an actor to play stuff like this.”
The praise didn’t stop there, “The thing I love about this show is that there are no bad people on it. It is all good people overcoming some bad things. These people I want to sit and have coffee with.” Not only is he talking about the people on the show, he is also talking about them when they are off camera. He told us, “That is the other thing about working on this show, it is populated by the same type of people that their characters are. Everybody who works on this show, they are just great people. They have phenomenal talent. There is not a prima donna in the whole lash of them. It is a very pleasant place to work.”
Talking about work, has he ever had a doctor like the one he portrays on the heartwarming drama? He talked about his inspiration for Dr K, a doctor he had “the whole time growing up, and he was this type of doctor. He didn’t just examine you and send you off to somebody else. He sat and he talked with you. When you went to him, you felt like everything was going to be OK.”
In fact, he is doing such a good job with the role that he told us this story about a recent fan encounter, “The other night, I was out to dinner and a couple stopped me on my way out and they told me how much they liked the show. The gentleman said, ‘I am a physician and you have brought so much humanity to that doctor.'” That is not the only response he has gotten. A friend from high school sent him an email saying, “This is the kind of doctor that everybody wants to have. This is the man you want to go to when you are sick, there is something really wrong with you. You want that guy as your doctor.” He hasn’t only heard it from her, but several other people have said the same thing to him.
As far as TV doctors, he rates tops in our books. How does this show rate in nearly 50-year career? He said it rates “right at the top.”
