Michael J. Fox’s new show could have ignored his affliction – he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1991 – and it probably woud have still been funny. He’s a funny guy. But for Fox, years of battling the disease have put him in a position to laugh at it, and he thinks you will to.

Michael J. FoxFox's new show is out in September

"There's nothing horrifying about it to me," he says. "I don't think it's gothic nastiness. There's nothing horrible on the surface about someone with a shaky hand. The way I look at it, sometimes it's frustrating, sometimes it's funny. I need to look at it that way." (USA Today)

Fox, who is most famous for portraying Marty McFly in Back to The Future, has played on his disability before, most notably in Curb Your Enthusiasm where Larry David gets confused as to whether Fox is using his Parkinson’s to terrorise him or not. "We all get our own Parkinson's, our own thing, (and people will say) 'I need to laugh at that, too.' If someone wants to be outraged, they can. I don't think it's that outrageous," he said.

Michael J. FoxMichael J. Fox speaks to TV Land

It’s not as if the whole show centres on Fox and his Parkinson’s, but it certainly provides the basis towards the beginning of the run. "It's always going to be there, but it's not going to be the spotlight," says executive producer Sam Laybourne. The Michael J. Fox show will air on NBC and premiere on September 26, 2013 and will be on every Thursday.