A Son’s Story of the Journey through His Father’s Terminal Illness

SACRAMENTO REGION, CA (MPG) - The relationship between a son and his dying father is beautifully chronicled in Russ Woody’s new book, Tuesdays with Ted. The memoir is equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking as it details the final months of Claude Woody’s life and the lasting impact that time had on his son.

Claude, who was always known as Woody, served as a Marine in WWII and then worked for PG&E, a job which required the family to move to a new area of California every couple years. Russ spent his teenage years in Fair Oaks, attending Bella Vista High School and then interning at a Sacramento TV station during college.

An Emmy and Golden Globe winning TV writer and producer, Russ has worked in television for more than 30 years on shows including Murphy Brown, Cybill, Mad About You, The Drew Carey Show, and The Middle. But it was the time he spent writing and producing Becker that would turn out to be his most significant project.

In 2001, after Becker had finished its third season, Russ learned that Woody had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) — a terminal neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord, leading to gradual loss of motor function as the muscles in the body atrophy. In the book, Russ wrote that Woody “would die by slow, gradual asphyxiation” as the muscles around the lungs ceased to function. Woody’s form of ALS was aggressive and started in his throat; he quickly lost the ability to speak and had to type on a machine called a LightWRITER to communicate. Russ described it as an “incremental death. His body was going away one piece at a time … while his mind — healthy as ever — was being held hostage.” Woody eventually lost the ability to swallow and was unable to hold his head up without a neck brace.

It was 17 months between Woody’s diagnosis and his death in September 2002. “Since his diagnosis,” Russ wrote, “I’d been marking time, first in months, then weeks, then days and there were still more days to be had, to be shared. Not many, but there were more, and I wanted them, those days, those hours, however many were left.” Russ described that time with his father as “the most meaningful year and a half of my life.”

To spend as much time as possible with Woody, Russ moved him to a home in Studio City nearby his own and brought him to the set of Becker for filming each Tuesday during Season 4.  The cast and crew of Becker treated Woody like family, and Russ was overwhelmed and grateful for the love and kindness they showed his father. Woody was even an extra in one episode and was the inspiration for an episode about ALS. During that time, Woody developed a special friendship with the star of Becker — Ted Danson (hence the book title, Tuesdays with Ted). Russ said that Woody had been a fan of Cheers, so “the idea that Ted Danson would become his pal was kind of flabbergasting to him. And Ted just adored him. It was really sweet to see. … He would just go out of his way to be with my dad.”

Russ wrote the book to both remember the precious time he spent with his father and to help his sons understand, since they were so young at the time. “I think by the time my father died, they were both 4 and 6, so they were in the middle of it … but they didn’t really understand what was going on,” said Russ. The boys, Henry and Joe, have some memories of that time with their grandfather: bunk beds and pancake breakfasts, backyard forts and indoor racetracks. Russ said his main objective was “to put the story in perspective for them.”

“In the last week of my dad’s life, I had a conversation with him; I asked him about his regrets,” said Russ. “He thought about it and he said he wished he’d spent more time with me when I was little.” At that time, Russ was working long hours in the writers’ room at Becker, and he then made the decision that he would stop writing for sitcoms so he could have a more flexible schedule: “I wanted to spend that time with my boys, and I got to do that.”

The experience with his father had a significant impact on how he relates to his own sons: “I’m so glad that both he and they got to spend that time together. … I think about my memories of him, and conversations I had, and the conversations I had with the boys. … It does affect you.”

Woody “had a great capacity for taking what was and living with it,” said Russ, grateful for every moment he was able to share with his father. In the book, Russ wrote that “with the ticking clock of ALS, the time I did spend with him was all the more intense. It forced me to recognize everything, to say everything, and that was a blessing.”