Tonight the Michael J. Fox Show airs on NBC at 9:00 (a special two back-to-back episode premiere). I hope you will tune in to watch.

You might have noticed in interviews that MJF has done that the conversation around PD is front and center. Many have focused on the audaciousness of him staring in a network sitcom given the grueling production requirements. You all likely also aware that his character, Mike Henry, has PD. MJF has talked about the "role" of PD in the show ... it is a comedy not a science special. He has shared many of his own personal stories as fodder for the scripts and you will see the warm humor in which PD is portrayed as part of this particular family's life. It won't work for everyone but already, many who have seen the trailers have commented that MJF's work has enabled the conversation around PD to be normalized. You can go to our website if you want to leave a message for MJF. http://www.michaeljfox.org/thinkable...thinkable.html

There are some great articles on the stands right now (Good Housekeeping, Rolling Stone, USA Today) and he was on a couple of shows already (Today, Kelly and Michael, Jimmy Fallon, In Play with Jimmie Roberts) ... but today, Todd Sherer has a piece in Scientific American http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...ns-researchers that calls on scientists to be audacious as well. We have much work to be done.

I hope that some of you are attending one of the over 2,200 premiere parties being hosted around the country. I'm having local PD families over myself. We will be watching the conversation in social media as well @michaeljfoxorg #thinkable. But certainly, I will be listening to the national conversation from PD families and otherwise. And to your thoughts and feedback. It is an exciting time for PD.

Debi

I live in Canada and have had the pleasure of seeing the first two episodes a day early. I was delighted with the show and am so glad that humour is incorporated so naturally. We often joke about my symptoms and interactions so it felt perfectly natural to me.

Please convey my love to Micheal. He is da man!

He doesn't talk like a genius or an artist, but he is both.
This is an unprecedented event in using media for change.
This show will be dubbed into other languages and shown around the world; it will go into re-runs for years; it will teach tens of millions of people to see Parkinson's with new eyes, and it is full of love.

I also have an op ed today in the daily beast...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...-optimism.html

Debi

Love the article! I did spit in the tube and have made arrangements to leave my brain for research. Having had DBS will make it even more of an object to derive information from. Might give an idea how DBS works.

Great article Debi!. With all of the attention and accolades that MJF receives, and deservedly so, I think we all tend to forget that you've been right there beside him as a driving force from the beginning. I think we all owe you a great big thanks for everything you've done for our cause.

Thank you,

Gary

Can't even get the videos from the homepage to come up....all it does is buffer. But I know it's going to be a big hit even though some people say they won't watch it because "they shouldn't joke about PD" Apparently they haven't read YumaBev's book.

We're having a viewing party at the Booth Gardner Parkinson's Center in Kirkland, in partnership with the Northwest Parkinson's Association. We have 50 RSVP's!

Please come if you are in the area - it starts at 8:00 p.m.!!

Great article, Debi. Thank you so much for saying this (emphasis mine)

"Tremendous work remains to be done to address the unmet medical needs of the estimated 5 million Parkinson’s patients worldwide. Our Foundation is helping drive tangible progress to improve treatment options, and today there are more promising Parkinson’s drugs in the development pipeline than we’ve seen in decades, if not ever. But there is still no standard way of diagnosing Parkinson’s, still no way of assuring that all Parkinson’s patients are receiving a basic standard of care for their disease, and there is still no cure."

These things deserve more attention - and we can't rely on MJFF to do it all.

Debi, it's an honor counting you amongst our members here at NeuroTalk, and I want to thank you for reminding us about MJF's network television show and renewed public focus on Parkinson's. He provides a valuable and important voice to patients everywhere.

DocJohn