A MILLION LITTLE THINGS Writer M.D.J. Clarke Previews ‘father’s day’

It’s “father’s day” on the Wednesday, April 5 episode of A MILLION LITTLE THINGS—and there’s not a whole lot to celebrate.

With young Charlie going through a health scare, Eddie (David Giuntoli) has to take lead while a frantic Delilah (Stephanie Szostak) travels back to the U.S. “He’s in a bit of a predicament, of course…he has to deal with that emergency solo,” “father’s day” co-writer M.D.J. Clarke tells Give Me My Remote. “And there’s Nicole in the mix. And he just wants to keep Delilah happy, but also…he wants her to know that he is an equal parent and that he’s not the babysitter, you know?”

Things are equally tense for Rome (Romany Malco) and his father, as they try to find an assisted living home for Walter (Lou Beatty Jr.) to move into. For Clarke, the story hit close to home, as she was caretaking for her father during the day, while writing the show at night. (Clarke is located in the UK, so the time zones made it possible for her to Zoom into the room during their normal hours.)

“His experience in this episode is similar to mine…he wants to do the best for his dad,” she says. “His heart’s telling him one thing, his head’s telling him another. So his head is telling him, ‘This [living situation] isn’t gonna work for Regina and I. We’ve both got jobs…you can’t give the right care because you can’t physically be there 24/7.’”

“But his heart—it’s heartbreaking,” she continues. “You feel like you’re letting your parents down. You feel like there’s that sense of betrayal and the emotional guilt that is connected with [that decision]…it is frowned upon [by some], to put your parent in a home. And now, being in this situation, I understand why people do it. My dad’s from Barbados, and being half West Indian, we don’t do that to our elders. We don’t put them in homes. There is some judgment, so he’s struggling.”



Clarke felt comfortable opening up about her own journey in the writers’ room “because I think it helps the story,” she notes. “As a writer…by being true to yourself, and by allowing your version of life to be put into a story, it makes it stronger, because you’re speaking to your voice.”

“If you open up, you often find other people open up as well,” she continues. “So as a joint effort, we can create something beautiful and also something very sad but equally beautiful. I’m comfortable with there being a level of vulnerability. And in A MILLION LITTLE THINGS, in that particular writers’ room, it’s very easy to do that, because everyone is so open and supportive. People can be vulnerable. There’s been tears, there’s been laughs, and it’s great. So I was happy to do that.”

But despite some of the more serious tones of the episode, there is a lightness to it, too. “[‘Father’s Day’ co-writer] Michelle [Leibel], she’s naturally really funny, much funnier than myself,” Clarke says.

Though this is the first Father’s Day without his father, Gary’s (James Roday Rodriguez) storyline allows for some humor. Plus, Sophie (Lizzy Greene) and Tyrell (Adam Swain) go on a road trip. “There are some funny elements,” Clarke says. “So we did try to match up light with dark—you can always find humor in the darkest of moments. And that’s what we did try to do by layering other people’s storylines…We didn’t want to be doom and gloom, but wanted to be realistic at the same time.”

A MILLION LITTLE THINGS, Wednesdays, 10/9c, ABC

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