Angelica Jade Bastién wrote a piece for Vulture posted yesterday called “The Hilarity and Horror of Ted Danson on The Good Place.” Bastien’s essay is so on point it prompted me to have a solid 20 minute conversation with my friend Brian about how underrated The Good Place is. We were obsessing over The Good Place when we both should have been working. I think my exact words were, “why isn’t it winning all of the awards?”
Last night, the Broadcast Film Critics Association decided to give Ted Danson an award for his impeccable work as Michael on The Good Place. He won for Best Actor in a Comedy Series in a stacked category against Anthony Anderson, Randall Park, Thomas Middleditch, Hank Azaria and Aziz Ansari. Ted Danson’s character on The Good Place is brilliant and hilarious but he isn’t exactly sexy. I don’t want to give away too much (if you haven’t watched this show yet, WATCH IT NOW before the twist gets ruined for you damn it!) but it’s not like I’m watching every week for Michael’s sex appeal – that slot is occupied by Manny Jacinto’s Jason Mendoza, goddamn. But when Ted Danson got up to accept his award, gave a lingering kiss to his wife, Mary Steenburgen, and swaggered on up to the podium, I thought, OK Ted Danson can still get it. Lainey’s observation was that he and Mary have great sex. (Lainey: Duana’s response to that was – um, yeah, wouldn’t you f-ck Ted Danson? This proves my point that Duana is only attracted to people who were on TV in the 80s.)
Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen rivaled Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon for Most Adorable Couple last night. Ted thanked her first in his speech:
“Mary Steenburgen, I love you so much. I’m so happy I get to go through life with you; that we both get to be in this community and still work. We’re so very grateful.”
Goals.
Ted also thanked his costars Kristen Bell, Manny Jacinto, and Jameela Jamil. After my 20 minute The Good Place rant with Brian yesterday, I went down a Google hole and read this GQ feature on Jameela Jamil. She plays Tahani and The Good Place is her first acting gig. She told GQ about what Ted Danson did to make her less nervous on her first day on set.
“All I remember is that Ted was amazing. He kept pretending to fart on me, just to make me less nervous. And while that was perfectly disgusting, it was also incredibly effective, because how weird, when Ted Danson keeps making fart noises and pointing his bottom at you.”
Shockingly, even after that anecdote, he’s still doing it for me.
