Years before Michael J. Fox became known for Family Ties and the Back to the Future films, he starred in the Canadian sitcom Leo and Me. The series reportedly ran for just 12 episodes and is not available on streaming services or home media. Only brief clips can be found on YouTube.
Fox was 16 when he played Jamie Romano, an orphan living with his fun-loving uncle Leo, played by Brent Carver, aboard a boat Leo had won in a poker game. Episode listings describe plots involving a disco contest, peanut butter advertising and a run-in with the mafia.
The show aired on Canadian television in the late 1970s or early 1980s, though accounts differ on the timing. It drew renewed attention in 2002 after the documentary The Parkinson’s Enigma highlighted that Fox and three other people who worked on the series were later diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Fox received his diagnosis in 1991, at age 29.
A medical investigation examined the cluster, but the theory that an infectious agent was responsible was widely dismissed. Director Don Williams, who was among those diagnosed, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that he could not recall any significant illness on the set.
Sources: TVLine.