Peter Gallagher on Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist's Emotional, Tear-Inducing Season 1 Finale

All season long on Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, the songs that Zoey (Jane Levy) hears have provided her with clues as to what is going to happen, so when she sings “Bad Moon Rising” as the finale begins, it strikes fear in her heart for those she loves.

Could something more happen to Max (Skylar Astin), who just lost his job? Will Simon (John Clarence Stewart) have an accident on his trip back from his mother’s wedding in Las Vegas? Will Joan (Lauren Graham) lose her job due to issues with the Chirp? Or will her dad Mitch (Peter Gallagher), whose health has been deteriorating all season after being diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), take a turn for the worse?

Gallagher, who won’t give away the ending, says he understood the role of Mitch because his mother had Alzheimer's for 20 years, and while they are different diseases, they are not entirely dissimilar. They both affect the brain and they both have different expressions in different people.

“It was an interesting journey for me because I was very close to my mom and she had it for so long, and I spent a lot of energy over the years as a child would, trying to reach her,” Gallagher exclusively tells Parade.com.

“When I'd be home, I would sing to her and dance with her a little, so she would feel loved. The last three words that she said before she abandoned all of them were, ‘That was real.’ There’s nothing better than that. That's like the sun just came out. So, it confirmed what I suspected that she was in there.”

Not unlike the songs that Mitch sings in the show do for Zoey, who learns what her father is feeling from hearing his “heart songs,” and is the final way she gets to connect with him.

So, Gallagher had no qualms about taking the role, which he saw as a way of honoring show creator Austin Winsberg’s experience with his own father, which was the basis for the series.

“Austin was there [during filming], which was great, because I knew that if I was really way off base, he would say, ‘Nah, I don't think so.’ And if he had to leave the room because he was crying, I would think, ‘No, I'm in the ballpark.’”

Despite Zoey’s best efforts to stop something bad from happening on the series finale, there is only so much that is in her control, so Sunday night’s Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist will definitely require tissues. Have a box handy.

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But first, here is more of our conversation with Gallagher:

Did you have to be convinced at all to take this role, since it's not really a speaking part. Your character really only has a conversation when he's singing.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. What appealed to me about the show is just what appealed to me about The O.C. when it came around. I thought The O.C. was the perfect response to post 9/11 xenophobia. People didn't abandon who they were or their sense of humor just because there were people that didn't look like them in the neighborhood. So, in the same way Zoey's in this intentionally divided and divisive time, I thought, “Well, how great it would be to be part of the story that's all about what connects us? All the things you just can't deny that reside in all of us, and assisted by these hit songs?"

The hit songs were huge because the hit songs already reside in us and they're just waiting to be awakened. They excite memories and experiences in us that we share. So, I just thought, and I never really expected it to succeed, because I've done 10 million workshops for new musicals for Broadway over the years. A new musical is like finding a unicorn, and this guy  wanted to make a new musical every eight days. I thought, “I want to work with someone who swings for the fences.”

I just think it's a really powerful story; it's almost bold in revealing the fabric that connects us. And I think it taps into an ache in people for connection that has been denied them for reasons of power and profit and general insanity.

So, that's why I didn't even hesitate. In fact, Mary [Steenburgen] and I were doing Grace & Frankie, ­she was playing my ex-wife and people were saying, "Oh, my God. Do you two work together a lot?” I said, “No, we just met.” And she's talking about this musical she's about to do up in Vancouver. And I'm thinking, “My God, everybody’s doing musicals these days and nobody wants me to do it. I’ve done a lot of musicals and, at least a lot of performances, but I guess, okay, no problem.”

And then I ran into her a couple of days later and I had been offered to play her husband. I jumped at it. And look at the company, to work with Mary Steenburgen, and Lauren Graham, although, Lauren wasn't part of the original thing, but yeah.

And you have all those Broadway performers on the show, too, which is fabulous.

In fact, I saw Alex Newell (Mo) in Once on this Island, and Skylar Astin. They’re phenoms. Michael Thomas Grant (Leif) and all these kids.

Your movement is so limited in what you can do for a performance in this. I wondered if it's taught you something new.

Not really. It just reassured me that just because you don't know how you’re going to do something, it doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. It had its challenges. The challenges for me were the obvious ones physically, because maintaining your body in that position with that kind of tension, it takes a toll physically, and emotionally, I had to make friends with sadness. I was sad a lot, because it was basically a rehearsal for the inevitable for all of us. I was further down the line than the younger cast and I just kept feeling like I was watching my own preview.

And, the other thing, and I've said this before, but I kept thinking about when I'd worked with James Cagney on the last thing he did. For an Irish American kid, it was like meeting the pope – depending on which pope it was. He was towards the end, and after the first couple of days, he got very, very tired. He would sometimes be in the middle of the set, and in the setup changes, he would be like, “Hey, pass me this.” But I just kept thinking about that when people would lean over me between shots to talk to Mary or Jane like I wasn't there.

That was the challenge, the feeling of getting benched before the big game. So, I did learn something. I was reacquainted with a fundamental vulnerability.

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What did Austin share with you about his father, because this is based on his real-life story?

Austin told me that he loved his dad. He told me about the disease and that it was the inspiration for the show, imagining what was going on in his dad's head in terms of musical numbers.

It's crazy. As I was walking down the road yesterday, a guy in a social-distancing way, said, “Hey, I just want to tell you, I think you're doing a great job on the show. I knew Austin’s dad. I grew up with Austin. It's amazing. We all knew him and it's really powerful to see you doing that."

Can you imagine what it would be like, not necessarily that people would break out into heart songs, but to hear what people are thinking? Would that drive you crazy?

No, because we all suspect it and we're wrong 90 percent of the time. My dad, whom I loved and was a good man but didn't really talk to me, whether it was his experiences in the war, or not, I don't know, but he didn't. And I would watch him twirl his hair and pull it, and his 1,000-yard stare, and wonder, “What the heck is going on?” I felt like my big failing in life was I couldn't ever get him to really communicate with me or respond to me.

As an actor, I understand the ache that one has to connect with someone they can't connect with, so you know what's going on, so you just know where they're at. But then as you get older, you realize you're probably more connected than you fear you're not.

Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist airs Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.