Michael J. Fox has a new show, aptly titled "The Michael J. Fox Show." In a revealing interview, he claims that he receives no more pity, "Which is great!" He also explains how Parkinson's Disease 'saved' him.

The Guardian fills us in on the premise: "The show tells the story of Mike Henry, a news anchor who retired five years previously because of Parkinson's and has now decided to return to work. It is an avowedly traditional sitcom and, judging from the pilot, it hasn't quite figured out how to let Fox display the sparkiness and bite in which he always excelled as a comic actor. But for those of us who grew up watching Fox, it is a joy to see him working again, and it is a sentiment he echoes."

He has been thrust as the public face of Parkinson's Disease, a role he has not really auditioned for: "I never set out to be heroic" I take the medication for myself so I can transact, not for anyone else. But I am aware that it is empowering for people to see what I do and, for the most part, people in the Parkinson's community are just really happy that Parkinson's is getting mentioned, and not in a pitying way,"

"Because of all the things I've done, nobody pities me, and that's great. I couldn't stand it," he says. "Pity is just another form of abuse."

In the Guardian interview he explained how getting Parkinson's is "a gift", albeit "one that keeps on taking", and he has been an unflappable advocate in finding a cure. His eponymous foundation has raised more than $350m to fund research into Parkinson's.

 "You get what you get and you don't get upset", "It is what it is." He knows that some people might doubt the veracity of his attitude: "But all my happy talk and rah-rah cheering, that's as real as someone else's anger. I chose not to choose anger," he says.

It was really his wife who helped him to make that choice. Fox and Pollan met when she played his girlfriend on Family Ties and he was helplessly smitten when she told him off one day for being rude. They got married in 1988.

"I wouldn't be alive today if it weren't for Tracy, I don't doubt that. People picture Tracy as this paragon of stoicism, this long-suffering wife, and that's all bullshit. This is my situation and she deals with it, and I never feel like, 'I'm sorry you have to put up with this' - it's nothing like that."

"The Michael J. Fox Show" premiered last September 26.