Prolific film actor Samuel L. Jackson moves to the small screen as he stars in Apple TV Plus's new drama series The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, debuting March 11. 

The six-part series, based on the novel of the same name by Walter Mosley, explores the exploits of Ptolemy Grey (Jackson), an elderly dementia-stricken man who is mostly shunned by his family and society. With the help of his great nephew Reggie (Omar Benson Miller) and young caretaker Robyn (Dominique Fishback), Grey is introduced to a doctor (Walton Goggins) who offers Grey a new experimental medicine that would restore his memory temporarily but would leave him worse off once it wears off.

“That’s an interesting question for a lot of us,” Jackson told Multichannel News. “If you had a chance to go back and fix one thing in your life, what would it be, and would you do it.”

Multichannel News spoke to Jackson as part of its Content Spotlight podcast.

Jackson, who also serves as executive producer of the series, said that he has been preparing to play the Ptolemy Grey character in his head for years. “It’s a fantastic character for me because I’ve been walking around with him for 12 years or so waiting to [play] him,” he added.

The series also serves as a passion project for Jackson, who lost several family members to the debilitating illness. He added the series provides an opportunity to shine a light on the issues surrounding dementia and on those who struggle with the condition.

“I’ve seen the light go out in several people’s lives, and know that they lived a life worth celebrating, and we needed to take care of them in the end the way they took care of us,” he said.

The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey also stars Cynthia Kaye McWilliams, Damon Gupton and Marsha Stephanie Blake. The series is produced by Apple Studios, with Jackson, Mosley, Diane Houslin, Ramin Bahrani, Eli Selden, LaTanya Richardson and David Levine. ■  

Content Spotlight is a new podcast from Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable that looks at new and returning television series through the eyes of the show’s stars and creators. 

Multichannel News senior content producer R. Thomas Umstead talks with actor/producer Samuel L. Jackson about his new Apple TV Plus series, The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, in which he plays an elderly man suffering from dementia who is given an opportunity to remember past events so that he can complete some unfinished business in his life. The series also stars Omar Benson Miller as Grey's great nephew Reggie and Dominique Fishback as Grey's young caretaker Robyn. 

The six-episode series debuts with the first two episodes on March 11.

Apple TV Plus will chronicle the life of NBA legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson as part of a new four-part documentary debuting April 22, the streamer announced during its Television Critics Association tour presentation Friday. 

The docuseries, The Call Me Magic, follows Johnson’s journey from being the face of the Los Angeles Lakers to changing the conversation around HIV and transforming into a successful entrepreneur and community activist, said network officials. 

Johnson will also be featured as part of HBO's upcoming scripted series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty. ■

The streaming service also released premiere dates and video trailers for several of its upcoming original shows during its presentation.

Apple TV Plus on March 11 will debut its limited series The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, starring Samuel L. Jackson as an ailing elderly man forgotten by his family who learns of a treatment that can temporarily restore his dementia-addled memories, said the service.

Apple TV Plus also announced the premiere its comic anthology series Roar on April 15. Based on a book of short stories by Cecelia Ahern, the series stars Cynthia Erivo, Issa Rae, Merritt Wever, Alison Brie and Betty Gilpin.

Epix will team with actor Samuel L. Jackson on a six-part series that will look to shed new light on 400 years of human trafficking from Africa to the New World.

The six-part Enslaved series debuts Sept. 14 and follows three separate story lines: the quest for a sunken slave ship, a personal journey by Samuel L. Jackson and a historical investigation led by investigative journalists Simcha Jacobovici and Afua Hirsch, said the network. 

Based on a DNA test identifying his ancestral tribe, the series traces Jackson’s personal journey from the U.S. to Gabon for his induction into the Benga tribe, with rare and unprecedented access to secret ceremonies and local customs. 

The series also tracks the efforts to search for and locate six slave ships that sank drowning the enslaved humans aboard. Featuring the most dives ever made on sunken slave ships, Enslaved also chronicles the first positive identification of a “Freedom Ship,” an American schooner that ferried African American runaways to Canada, said the network.