Michael J. Fox was so moved by 'Shrinking,' he asked his former 'Spin City' boss for a part

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The call from Michael J.Fox didn’t need any punching up.

It arrived after he began watching “Shrinking,” the Apple TV comedy co-created by his former “Spin City” boss Bill Lawrence that features Harrison Ford as a therapist adjusting to life with Parkinson’s.The actor, who was diagnosed with the disease at 29, was moved by the depth and nuances he felt in the writing and performance.

“It’s so human and it was accessible for me,” he recalls thinking.“I know what that is.” And, so, he called Lawrence roughly a year ago, once he burned through episodes, to say as much.

But this being Fox, he slapped it with the sort of wry delivery that long ago made him a master of comedic timing.“Bill, why the f— am I not on the show?”Immediately launching into laughter, Lawrence pipes in: “It’s true.”The pair are recounting the moment during a recent video call — Fox beaming in from his home in New York; Lawrence from his office on the Warner Bros.

lot in Burbank— to promote the guest role for Fox that spun from that conversation.In Season 3, premiering Wednesday with two episodes, Ford’s character, Paul, after noticing a progression of his Parkinson’s symptoms, schedules a doctor’s visit.

While waiting to be seen, he encounters Gerry (Fox), a fellow patient with Parkinson’s who, like Fox, hasn’t lost his humor.(The series has been renewed for a fourth season.) It reunites Fox and Lawrence, who first worked together on “Spin City” through the show’s fourth season, after which Fox departed to manage his health.

The pair last worked together in 2004 when the actor guest starred on Lawrence’s medical comedy “Scrubs.” Here are edited excerpts from the conversation.You get the call from Michael that sets this in motion.

But had it been in your mind, Bill, having Michael stroll through “Shrinking” at some point? Lawrence: I’m a suc...