Fans of the NBC series will recall that the Season 4 finale introduced the character, played by Josh Hamilton, as Madison’s obstetrician when she realized she was pregnant with Kevin’s twins.
In a call with reporters after that episode, Fogelman said the doctor would become “an important character” in Season 5 as parenthood approached for Kevin and Madison.
The executive producer added: “It’s no coincidence he was introduced in the same episode that Dr. K returned.”
Alas, we’ll never know whether This Is Us‘ Dr. Mason offered the kind of homespun wisdom for which Dr. K was famous;
after the COVID-19 pandemic altered production in 2020 and beyond, Hamilton never appeared on the show again.
But the character served his major purpose, Fogelman told reporters in a conference call Tuesday. “The intent of that episode had been that [Mason’s young daughter, Sadie] and Mason,
the advice they gave to Madison that led her to go have an honest conversation with Justin [Hartley]’s character, Kevin, and led to them co-raising and co-parenting twins and changing his life,” he said.
forward, find out where Mandy Moore was during Rebecca’s funeral and hear about what Randall and Kevin actually said during those elusive eulogies!