Putting His Own Spin on 'City's' Season Finale

They had come to see the taping of "Goodbye," the season finale of ABC's hit sitcom and Michael J. Fox's final episode as Michael Flaherty, the savvy chief strategist to a fictional New York City mayor. Sixteen months after making public his longtime battle with Parkinson's disease, Fox was quitting the show he helped to create, going out with a script that everyone agreed was crafted to use Flaherty's exit to provide a glimpse into Fox's heart.

After five minutes on the set, this much was clear: If your nose wasn't running and your eyes weren't tearing, you didn't have a pulse.

"So, you walked right into the big weep-fest," Fox told DreamWorks SKG co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg with characteristic deadpan during a break. But a moment later, Fox, too, choked up. "You've made this a lot easier," Fox said as he bear-hugged Katzenberg, who had flown in from England, rerouting a business trip to witness Fox's departure from the DreamWorks-produced show.

As televised farewells go, this was an unusual one. The 38-year-old Fox, who TV viewers first embraced in 1982 when he played Republican poster boy Alex Keaton on NBC's "Family Ties," is leaving at the top of his game, putting his career on hold to spend more time with his family and to help raise awareness about his degenerative neurological disease. And unlike other TV finales, "Spin City" is still going strong: It will continue next year, with actor Charlie Sheen joining the cast and the entire production moving to Los Angeles.

"This is unique--a guy going out at the height of his power from a show that's not being canceled and has no contract dispute, a guy saying goodbye not only to his cast but to a part of his life," said Gary David Goldberg, co-creator of both "Spin City" and "Family Ties," who fought to shake off tears as he spoke. In his final episode, Goldberg said, there were things Fox "wanted to approach both as an artist and as a man. And he is a very special man."