Oprah: I Almost had Nervous Breakdown; Michael J. Fox Returns to TV Tonight
COSTELLO: A piece of rock history could be yours. Kurt Cobain's childhood home is for sale in Washington state. The selling price? $500,000. More than seven times its assessed value. Cobain rose to fame as the lead singer of Nirvana before he committed suicide in 1994. Oprah Winfrey opening up about a very emotional time in her life. The billionaire talk show mogul told "Access Hollywood" she suffered symptoms of a near nervous breakdown last year.</s>OPRAH WINFREY, TALK SHOW MOGUL: The symptoms were just, you know, sort of like, in the beginning, it was just sort of speeding and a kind of numbness and going from one thing to the next thing, to the next thing. I will tell you when I realized that I thought, all right, if I don't calm down, I'm going to -- I'm going to be in serious trouble.</s>COSTELLO: Oprah says at the time, she was busy filming "The Butler" and was trying to revitalize her struggling TV Network OWN. She says she wasn't ready to go run naked in the streets but she did realize that she desperately needed a break. Tonight, Michael J. Fox returns to TV. And his new series is hitting close to home with much of the plot reflecting struggles in his own life. He plays a former news anchor with Parkinson's disease who wants to get back to work.</s>MICHAEL J. FOX, ACTOR: I have an announcement I want to make. I don't want you to get angry or confused or scared, but I'm thinking about going back to work.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, thank you, Jesus.</s>FOX: I said I was thinking about it. I don't know where I stand.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody is happy that you're getting out of the house.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kind of?</s>COSTELLO: CNN's Nischelle Turner sat down with Michael J. Fox. Tell us more Nischelle.</s>NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well actually, I stood up with Michael J. Fox, Carol because I spoke with him at the Emmys about this. Now this is an interesting concept. He's taking real-life issues and putting them on display for America and in the process, finding the silver lining in his struggle.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 911, what's your emergency?</s>FOX: No 911? No, I didn't call 911.</s>TURNER (voice-over): The 411 on Michael J. Fox? He's starring in his own TV show for the first time in over a decade.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You should come back to work.</s>FOX: Are you forgetting why I left?</s>TURNER: In his self-titled new sitcom Fox plays a famous newsman who put his career on hold after developing a serious medical condition.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Since we're both here, can I get you to sign an autograph? My uncle has got Alzheimer's.</s>FOX: I actually have Parkinson's.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Either way.</s>TURNER: Parkinson's of course is what sidelined Fox's own career temporarily. He left his hit sitcom "Spin City" in 2000 after his condition worsened.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh thanks.</s>TURNER: In recent years he's guest starred on several TV shows, including "Curb Your Enthusiasm".</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you shake that up on purpose?</s>FOX: Parkinson's.</s>TURNER: And "The Good Wife".</s>FOX: Good morning Mr. --</s>TURNER: But his new comedy ups the workload dramatically. (on camera): Hello. How are you? Nice to see you. (voice-over): When I talked with him at the Emmys, he sounded up to the task. (on camera): What's it been like?</s>FOX: We did a lot of hard work but it's been -- it's been satisfying. It's been a learning experience to see what is difficult for me to do now. In another sense, what I'm capable of and I didn't give myself credit for being capable of.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I lied. They love you, man. The whole world loves you.</s>TURNER: Co-star Wendell Pierce admires what Fox is achieving.</s>WENDELL PIERCE, "THE MICHAEL J. FOX SHOW": He hasn't lost anything. He hasn't forgotten how to do it. He has you know just a little added challenge that we don't have. And that's the thing I really respect about what he does.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you not have a personal victory right now? We are starving.</s>TURNER: Michael J. Fox dishing out laughs and a generous helping of inspiration.</s>TURNER: Now this is also NBC's attempt to return back to Thursday night destination television, Carol, with his show being the centerpiece. You know when also when I asked him and his wife Tracy if they'd sat down as a family and talked about would he return and how it would affect them, funny enough they said, not really. Not much conversation about it. Michael just pretty much decided he was going to go back and do the sitcom. And Tracy said you know what I knew this meant the world to him so she was behind it 100 percent.</s>COSTELLO: Oh so something else you uncovered that I find interesting. Because you know you look at Michael J. Fox and you think what a strong guy.</s>TURNER: Yes.</s>COSTELLO: He's an example and he really is. He's fabulous. But -- but he had to battle personal demons during his illness, too. Tell us about that.</s>TURNER: Yes, you know, he just talked to Howard Stern about this. And you know Howard always gets the most out of anybody who comes and does an interview with him. And Michael talked about that he -- he was drinking for a while when he first got his diagnosis. He didn't really know how to handle it, and really didn't know how to move forward so he spent a lot of time drinking, about a year. But then he said he kind of sat down, he decided he was going to go to therapy. He learned other ways of coping and other means of dealing with Parkinson's and how he was going to live his life now and he got help for it. But yes, he went through a tough time, too. And you can imagine, when something like this happens and it just completely changes the face of your life, how do you deal and how do you wrap your brain around it all at one time. So he definitely went through a struggle but now he really seems like he's on a good road and on a good path and when you can put that out there for America, your most vulnerable self, that's saying something.</s>COSTELLO: It sure is. Nischelle Turner thanks so much.</s>TURNER: Yes -- sure.</s>COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, catcher blocks the baseline. Brian McCann will not let Carlos Gomez touch home plate after his home run. Benches clear at the Braves/Brewers game. You got to see it.