As the series unfolds, viewers start to see a weird and downright scary relationship between Dr. Isaac Herschkopf (played by Rudd) and his ostensible patient, Martin “Marty” Markowitz (played by Ferrell). It turns out that Markowitz, an Ivy League-educated millionaire, is being manipulated by the medical professional he sought out for help. Dr. Ike infiltrates his business, keeps him from family and even moves into his house as a way to control him completely. (Again, believe it or not, this is all based in fact!) “It’s so relatable in a way—obviously it has special meaning for anyone who has done any amount of therapy,” Ferrell told Entertainment Weekly about the show. Ferrell, like many people, hadn’t heard anything about the true-life story beforehand and couldn’t believe it actually happened until he learned all the facts. “That whole kind of seduction of it at first, and then just the rapid ringing around the toilet bowl before you go down, was the part that really jumped out to me," he explained. Intrigued? Confused? Both? Keep reading to find out just how much The Shrink Next Door is based on a true story, what really happened, what occurs in the series—and how, somehow, Gwyneth Paltrow is involved!
What is The Shrink Next Door about?
In 1981, Martin “Marty” Markowitz, a textile fabrics company owner, visits Dr. Isaac Herschkopf (”Dr. Ike”) for help with depression. Markowitz is initially thrilled with how his therapy is going but slowly finds his life becoming more and more controlled (if not downright taken over) by the charismatic doctor. The psychiatrist makes ever-stranger demands on Markowitz that he can’t help but submit to—for three decades.
Is The Shrink Next Door a true story?
Even though the story of a psychiatrist taking over someone’s life seems like the stuff of soap operas, this one is chillingly true. Among other abusive moves Dr. Ike made against Markowitz, he and his wife moved into his patient’s Hamptons home! They put a fake surname, Stevens, on Markowitz’s mailbox and even had the home listed in the White Pages under Isaac Stevens, while Markowitz was decamped to a guest room. Dr. Ike also took over part of Markowitz’s business (even serving as its president), got himself listed as a co-signer on his patient’s $2.5 million Swiss bank account, urged Markowitz to change his will so that Herschkopf’s wife would inherit the Hamptons house and became Markowitz’s power of attorney. (Herschkopf has claimed that “his medical relationship with Mr. Markowitz ended around 1983 and that he served as a business consultant in the years after.”) “I felt like I was in a cult,” Markowitz told the New York Post in 2019 about his bizarre but true ordeal. “He took over my life very quickly. . . It was one ethical violation after another.” Markowitz had no reason to suspect Dr. Ike would be like this; he was well-known on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, counting Gwyneth Paltrow and Courtney Love as two of his clients. Paltrow even attended a party at Markowitz’s home, reportedly. The story came to light when Bloomberg columnist Joe Nocera moved to the Hamptons and was invited to a barbecue at the house next door by someone who he thought was the gardener. Meeting the host, “Dr. Ike,” Nocera was invited back for another get-together, where the good doctor insisted on having a picture of Nocera to add to his pictures of celebrities like Brooke Shields and OJ Simpson. However, Nocera ultimately discovered that the man he thought was the gardener, Martin Markowitz, was the actual homeowner—even though Dr. Ike acted like he owned the place. And that’s just the beginning of the shocking truths Nocera ultimately came to learn about the “shrink next door." (Meanwhile, Markowitz has said about being made to serve as the help during Dr. Ike’s frequent social gatherings, “I hated those parties because they consumed me.") Of course, Herschkopf has denied all of the accusations against him and has stated that Nocera “has had a vendetta against me for 10 years.”
Who made The Shrink Next Door podcast?
The podcast was written and hosted by Nocera, the Bloomberg writer who uncovered the story. “Undue influence is what this case was really about: People came under his spell and did things for his benefit, not for theirs,” Nocera says. The podcast was produced by Wondery, the same shop that produced the very popular Dirty John and Dr. Death series. The six-episode Apple podcast went right to #1 and stayed there for weeks. In a 2020 update to the series, listeners learned that Markowitz wasn’t Dr. Ike’s only victim; in 2021, it was revealed that Herschkopf’s license to practice medicine was revoked.
Where is Isaac Herschkopf?
In April 2021, Herschkopf had his medical license revoked. It took a while, as Markowitz had written his first complaint 10 years earlier. As of today, Herschkopf is reportedly laying low, but it doesn’t look like he’ll be spending any time in prison for the things he allegedly did to Markowitz and others. Markowitz, however, feels that he’s received justice. “It’s my 40-year ordeal. It was 29 years under his power and 11 years seeking justice. I finally got it. What matters most is that I got justice. That’s what I wanted,” Markowitz said in July 2021. Markowitz, who is now 79 years old, plans to retire and spend half the year in Thailand with his girlfriend, a woman he met there.
Is The Shrink Next Door a film?
No. It is a limited television series with eight episodes. In fact, Markowitz received $100,000 for his life rights, which makes it impossible for him to shop his own story to a film studio, or to write a play or book about the events. He was not involved in the making of the series at all, although he was visited by Rudd, Ferrell and director Mike Showalter before shooting. “They came by themselves, no entourage, there wasn’t any joking around. It was just them asking me question after question,” said Markowitz. “After filming, Will Ferrell sent me an email saying, ‘I don’t know if you’ll like the series, but hopefully you’ll like the arc.’” Ferrell remembers Nocera joining them all for lunch, and asking Markowitz why he’d publicly reveal something so embarrassing about his life. “I’ve been through so much that I just didn’t care,’” Ferrell recalled Markowitz saying. “I thought, ‘What the heck? I’ll tell my story? Why not?’”
Is The Shrink Next Door a comedy?
With Ferrell and Rudd attached, it’s easy to think that The Shrink Next Door would be an overt comedy. However, the mood of the podcast was so serious that it’s hard to picture a slap-your-thigh atmosphere taking hold in the series. Several outlets are calling it a dark comedy. “I think everyone just had the shared vision of: This was all to be played very real,” Ferrell told Entertainment Weekly, even though the scenarios were outlandish and the characters are… well, real people, but ones you’d describe as “characters.” As Ferrell explained, “When you spend time with Marty, he’s a real character himself. It’s very heightened — the way he moves, the way he talks. But I think everyone that we wanted to cast and become part of this creative process [was] just on the same page that no matter how outlandish the circumstances might get, we were going to be deadly serious about portrayal.”
Who stars in The Shrink Next Door?
In addition to Ferrell and Rudd, the core cast includes the always exciting Kathryn Hahn, who was just nominated for an Emmy for her work on WandaVision and has worked with both Rudd and Ferrell before on several projects (for one: They were all in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy). In The Shrink Next Door, Hahn plays Phyllis Markowitz Shapiro, the sister who is removed from Markowitz’s life by Dr. Ike. Casey Wilson (from Happy Endings and Black Monday) is playing Bonnie, Dr. Ike’s wife.
Are any of The Shrink Next Door’s cast members Jewish?
While the story doesn’t revolve around religion, the podcast and story “created a stir in Manhattan’s tight knit philanthropic and Modern Orthodox Jewish circles” and is littered with Jewish characters and references. Markowitz was encouraged to see Dr. Ike by his well-known rabbi, Shlomo Riskin (who has his own Wikipedia page) and Dr. Ike regularly invited Orthodox leaders to Markowitz’s house. So is anyone involved in the series Jewish? Rudd is the only main cast member who is himself Jewish, although Hahn, raised Catholic, is married to a Jewish man and her sons go to after-school Hebrew lessons.
Where was The Shrink Next Door filmed?
“The one disappointment in the trailer is that the house is nowhere near as nice as my house is,” Markowitz said in an interview. The real house boasts a main and guest house, pool, koi ponds, basketball court, a mini-golf course and sculptures throughout the property. Still, the house used for filming (seen in the trailer) isn’t too shabby either; it’s just in Los Angeles. Filming took place there from around November 2020 to early March 2021. COVID-19 pandemic had some effect on the shooting schedule; some party scenes that were meant to have hundreds of attendees only have a few dozen, for instance.
Is there a trailer for The Shrink Next Door?
The series’ first trailer, which arrived back in June 2021, starts out fairly harmless with Billy Joel’s “My Life” playing, as Marty meets Dr. Ike. As scenes are shown, the trailer slowly becomes more ominous, but seemingly ends on a pleasant note with a declaration of a breakthrough, the end of a session and a smarmy smile from Rudd. In October 2021, a second trailer was released that sheds more light on Marty’s relationship with his sister and how Dr. Ike came between them.
When is The Shrink Next Door release date?
The Shrink Next Door starts airing on Fri., Nov. 12, 2021. The first three episodes will premiere that day, with another one arriving every Friday afterward.
Is The Shrink Next Door on Netflix?
No, it won’t. The Shrink Next Door will stream exclusively on Apple TV. Next, 65 of the Best Movies Based on True Stories—Must-Watch Movies From History!
