Ted Danson Is 'A Classic Spy' in New Mike Schur Comedy Series

Ted Danson is going undercover in the new comedy series A Classic Spy, reuniting him with The Good Place creator Mike Schur.

Based on the Oscar-nominated documentary The Mole Agent, the eight-episode series follows a retired man, Charles (Danson), who gets a new lease on life when he answers an ad placed by a private investigator and becomes a mole in a secret investigation of the Pacific View Retirement Residence in San Francisco. Joining him is a pedigreed list of stars, including several Schur veterans from Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

The original film, which was nominated for a best documentary Oscar in 2021 (My Octopus Teacher won that year), takes place in Chile and follows an 83-year-old widower who is hired by a private investigator to infiltrate a nursing home in order to find out if its residents, including the mother of the PI’s client, are being mistreated.

Here’s who else is joining the cast: 

• Mary Elizabeth Ellis (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Licorice Pizza, Red One) as Emily, a married mother of three boys who has to adjust when her father, Charles (Danson), makes a surprising late-life career move and becomes an undercover detective.
• Stephanie Beatriz (Twisted Metal, Encanto, Brooklyn Nine-Nine) as Didi, the all-seeing, all-knowing managing director of the Pacific View Retirement Residence in San Francisco.
• Lilah Richcreek Estrada (Chicago Med, Four Dads) as Julie, a San Francisco-based private investigator. Julie hires Charles to be her mole and pretends to be his daughter to maintain the ruse at the retirement home.
• Two-time Tony nominee Stephen McKinley Henderson (Fences, Dune) as Calbert, a transplant from Washington, D.C., who’s the stoic eyes and ears of the Pacific View community.
• Two-time Emmy Award winner Sally Struthers (All in the Family, Gilmore Girls, Still Standing) as Virginia, the vivacious life of the party who immediately takes a shine to Charles.
• Eugene Cordero (Loki, Easter Sunday, The Good Place) as Joel, Emily’s husband, a supportive and exceedingly competent 10th-grade science teacher.
• Academy Award nominee Margaret Avery (The Color Purple, Being Mary Jane) as Florence, Virginia’s sweet best friend. Florence loves poetry and the Golden State Warriors in equal measure.
• John Getz (Transparent, Grace and Frankie, The Social Network) as Elliott, Pacific View’s resident lothario. Elliott immediately feels threatened by all the attention Charles gets when he moves in.
• Four-time Emmy nominee Susan Ruttan (L.A. Law, Sprung, Mom) as Gladys, a glamorous former costume designer from New York who lives next door to Charles at Pacific View.
• Lori Tan Chinn (Joy Ride, Kung Fu Panda 4, Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld) as Susan, the president of the Pacific View resident council, which she rules with an iron fist.
• Clyde Kusatsu (Young Rock, Never Have I Ever) as Grant, a Princeton grad at Pacific View who’s deeply concerned with you knowing he’s a Princeton grad.
• Marc Evan Jackson (Lessons in Chemistry, The Good Place, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Dead to Me) as Evan, the client who hires Julie to investigate the theft of his mother’s necklace.
• Jama Williamson (The Good Place, Parks and Recreation) as Beatrice, the Pacific View activities director who’s never had a bad day in her life.