‘Shrinking’ Star Ted McGinley Thinks Derek Would Be With This Character if He Weren’t Married to Liz

For Shrinking fans, it might be hard to imagine Liz (Christa Miller) and Derek (Ted McGinley) being married to anyone else. After all, they’re a hilarious, weird, and lovable TV couple. In short, they just work. But if they weren’t together McGinley knows exactly who Derek would couple up with on the Apple TV+ original series. 

Derek would be married to Gaby: ‘He loves her’

Therapist Gaby (Jessica Williams) and Derek? The Married…with Children alum thinks it’s possible. “Derek just loves Gaby. I think if Derek wasn’t married to Liz he would be married to Gaby; he loves her,” McGinley told Screen Rant. “They have this thing that is sort of unsaid.” 

“In real life, we just hit it off in season 1,” he said of him and Williams, who received an Emmy Award nomination for her performance. “It was fun to hang, and I just thought, ‘Wow, I can feel this going,’ and it worked on camera. […] Derek listens to her, and Derek gets her, and Derek really does love her and respect her.” 

“I think it’s one of the great things about Derek,” the actor added. “He sees people and he makes room for people, and you don’t have to be perfect.”

‘There is a lot going on’ for Liz and Derek in ‘Shrinking’ Season 2

As for what’s in store for Shrinking Season 2—new episodes began on Oct. 16, 2024—McGinley shared that Liz and Derek have “a lot going on.” 

“There is a lot going on with the two of them and that is one hell of a ride,” he said. “You will meet their family, you’ll meet the boys, so it’s a great year for Derek and Liz.” 

Just like season 1, however, there are ups and downs. Praising Miller’s acting chops in a “very difficult season” with what “she has to play,” McGinley teased that it’s full of surprises. 

“Everything is different than you think it’s going to come, and I love that, I live for that,” he said. “In fact, there’s not one actor on the show that gives you what you think is going to come, and that’s so much fun.”

The series stars Jason Segel as Jimmy, a single father and therapist who decides to try unconventional methods with patients—brutal honesty—while grieving the death of his wife and raising their daughter, Alice (Lukita Maxwell). Colleagues Paul (Harrison Ford) and Gaby, along with next-door neighbors Derek and Liz, soon become his support system.

McGinley didn’t want to tell anyone about his ‘small’ part on ‘Shrinking’

The Shrinking star wasn’t eager to share his addition to the show with the people in his life. Why? As McGinley explained during a panel discussion alongside the rest of the show’s cast, he didn’t want loved ones to be disappointed upon seeing his “so small” role. 

“I’ll never say I’m on a show again,” McGinley said (via Vanity Fair). “Because every day more people are discovering it and giving me a hard time for not mentioning it It’s been such a joy.”

Initially, McGinley played Derek as part of a recurring role before becoming a series regular in Shrinking Season 2.   

The Shrinking script, the actor recalled, really stood out to him. “It was the best half-hour script I’ve ever read in my lifetime; it made such a mark,” McGinley said. 

A new episode of Shrinking Season 2 drops every Wednesday on Apple TV+.