{"id":744911,"date":"2026-06-18T17:22:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T17:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/744911\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T17:22:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T17:22:13","slug":"bill-lawrence-on-shrinking-success-scrubs-ted-lasso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/744911\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Lawrence on \u2018Shrinking\u2019 Success, Scrubs, \u2018Ted Lasso\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIf you want to feel good about Hollywood again, consider paying a visit to Bill Lawrence<\/a>\u2018s office on the Warner Bros. lot. Down a tree-lined stretch sits a two-story bungalow, where the doors to Doozer Productions\u2019 headquarters open and any nagging worries about contraction and mergers all but melt away.<\/p>\n

\n\tLawrence\u2019s company is behind five current TV series, more than half of them shooting here in Burbank, and at least another two projects on deck. \u201cI worry sometimes that I look like I\u2019m trying to do everything in the world,\u201d says Lawrence, when we meet in early May. \u201cBut when people are dumb enough to let me make things, I try to make as much as possible \u2014 because it\u2019s not just me. It is so fun helping other people through this system when you can pull it off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPeople have been \u201cdumb enough\u201d to let Lawrence make things for more than three decades, though he clearly is the only one who sees it that way. A sitcom wunderkind, he was running the Michael J. Fox comedy Spin City at only 27 years old when mentor and co-creator Gary David Goldberg handed him the reins. From there, he created Scrubs<\/a>, which ran for nine seasons, and Cougar Town<\/a>, which ran for six. And while some swings and misses prompted a few dark years of the soul, his segue into streaming has propelled him to the apex of his Hollywood power.<\/p>\n

\n\tGiven the sheer volume of Doozer projects, his involvement varies. Season two of Apple TV\u2019s Bad Monkey is in postproduction, so he\u2019s just been consumed by the writers room for season two of the Steve Carell vehicle Rooster (HBO). But I find him as the fourth season of Shrinking<\/a> (also Apple TV) is ramping up and again his primary focus. There\u2019s also a Disney-produced Scrubs revival at ABC, but studio politics mean that the Warners-based Lawrence is largely hands off. As for the resurrected Ted Lasso<\/a>, well, we\u2019ll get to that.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI get to bounce back and forth on these shows,\u201d says Lawrence. \u201cThere\u2019s a shorthand because they\u2019re run by people I\u2019ve worked with for years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, Lawrence insists that he\u2019s finally calibrated his work-life balance. He\u2019s home in time for dinner with his family most nights, though wife Christa Miller also stars on Shrinking and his youngest of three will spend the summer break from college as a Shrinking PA. Lawrence has also honed his sense of perspective, even if it\u2019s often masked by self-depreciation. When asked if he believes this is as good as it gets, he responds: \u201cIt\u2019s all downhill from here, man.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWe\u2019re speaking a couple days out from the start of production on season four of Shrinking, a season that a lot of people did not expect to get \u2026 <\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s weird how TV works. I\u2019m directing the first one, just because it feels like a new pilot and a new show in a lot of ways. But it\u2019s the same show \u2026 same new show.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s a lot of online curiosity about you referring to it as a \u201cnew show.\u201d Do you engage with that?<\/p>\n

\n\tI like that people are unsure. I always engage with them online when I\u2019m bored because I talk about TV the same way. I\u2019m obsessed with The Pitt right now. If someone said that next season\u2019s different, it\u2019s the night shift, I would have a thousand questions.<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019m assuming Apple was enthusiastic about you keeping this show going? <\/p>\n

\n\tThe way that I\u2019ve pitched shows has changed. When I started, you\u2019d get asked in meetings, \u201cWhat\u2019s the hundredth episode?\u201d The goal was to get a group of characters that people wanted to watch in perpetuity. They never changed that much. Now, when you\u2019re pitching a streaming show, they often want to know the story you\u2019re telling \u2014 beginning, middle and end. So, like with Ted Lasso, we had three seasons. First year is grief, second year is forgiveness and third year is moving forward. People, understandably, hear that and think that\u2019s the whole show. The show is doing very well, so Apple came to us and asked if we were going to do more. We asked the cast if they wanted to keep going. You\u2019ve heard Harrison [Ford] wax poetic about how much he loves the gig.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tBill\u202fLawrence<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Roger Kisby<\/p>\n

\n\tHe recently said he initially only agreed to do two seasons, not three. Is that how you remember it?<\/p>\n

\n\tI called up Harrison and said, \u201cI\u2019m going to do a three-season show. For you to take this job, you have to promise two seasons. I\u2019ll take a handshake that says if you don\u2019t want to do the third \u2014 and I bet you\u2019re going to want to do it \u2014 you have to come back and let us say bye-bye to you as a character.\u201d And he\u2019s been the biggest champion. He likes to work. And people are coming up to him and talking about the show and not wanting him to sign Star Wars memorabilia.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou might be the only producer in L.A. right now who\u2019s shooting three series on one lot. How\u2019d you swing that? <\/p>\n

\n\tWe shoot Rooster, Shrinking and Bad Monkey on the Warner Bros. lot. I try to do all my production in L.A. Ted Lasso obviously has to shoot in London. Scrubs is our first show that we weren\u2019t able to shoot here.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat\u2019s the obstacle with Scrubs? <\/p>\n

\n\tStraight money. We\u2019re going to try and get it back here for the third season. It\u2019s one of those equations that the money you\u2019re given to make the show \u2014 and this is conjecture \u2014 equals like $3.5 million in L.A. and $5.6 million in Vancouver. And that\u2019s a show that\u2019s already very inexpensive; it\u2019s a network TV show, and I couldn\u2019t afford to make it here.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou\u2019re not day-to-day on Scrubs, but that came back after nearly 20 years. Reboots are real hit-and-miss. How much do you worry about legacy? <\/p>\n

\n\tWe always argue about this in the writers rooms, and I\u2019m the \u201clegacy shmegacy\u201d guy. The ninth year of Scrubs was supposed to be a spinoff called Med School. And people argue, \u201cOh, you ruined the legacy.\u201d No, I didn\u2019t. You loved the finale of season eight. You don\u2019t get to go back in time and not like it because now you\u2019ve seen this other season that, creatively, was a spinoff. I just don\u2019t want to operate that way. I never want anything to feel like a money grab, but the writers and the cast came back, and I thought the idea of that kind of intriguing. Why not give it a shot? I\u2019m never sweating the legacy aspect of it.<\/p>\n

\n\tRooster is your first show to actually air on a Warner Bros. platform. Was there pressure on you as this goose whose golden eggs were all going to Apple?<\/p>\n

\n\tI didn\u2019t expect to be having a career renaissance in my mid-50s. And mid-50s is generous. I\u2019m 57! When I got here, I without a doubt was signed as a guy that knew how to make network shows that could sustain for years. That was the business Warner Bros. was in. Then I had such a down period in my career. They bet a lot on me, and I could never keep anything on the air. After Scrubs and Cougar Town, I had shows like Ground Floor, Undateable, Surviving Jack \u2014 shows that all came and went. The one that broke me was Whiskey Cavalier. That show crashed and burned so quickly that I found myself thinking, \u201cThis might be the end of the line for me.\u201d That\u2019s when I decided to try out streaming. So, the one time I felt pressure and weirdness from Warner Bros. was when I couldn\u2019t get anything to catch on for a good chunk of my time here.<\/p>\n

\n\tHave you heard from David Ellison since the studio accepted his bid?<\/p>\n

\n\tNo, but I don\u2019t think that\u2019s how it works. Both professionally and with friends, I\u2019ll be asked, \u201cWhat do you think?\u201d And you know what I say? \u201cThis is how I\u2019ve always operated in television. I\u2019ve been through the death of the drama, the death of the sitcom. It\u2019s only going to be reality! There\u2019s no more multicams! There\u2019s multicams again!\u201d Six months ago, people were asking me what it was going to be like working at Netflix. It\u2019s the craziest world right now. It\u2019s bananas. And I\u2019m barely three years into a five-year [deal] here. We\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n

\n\tLooking at the whole of your career, was Whiskey Cavalier the low point or was it that string of short-lived jobs \u2014 Friends, The Nanny, Boy Meets World \u2014 in your 20s?<\/p>\n

\n\tI don\u2019t know what\u2019s been the biggest lull. The only thing I can tell you is I\u2019m prepped for the next one. Eventually I\u2019ll do something that doesn\u2019t work or people will decide that this stuff is shitty. It\u2019s just the way the business goes. I\u2019ve been amassing a list of people that have to give me a job when I\u2019m unhireable. I know I\u2019ll get at least a year or two of work from Chris Miller and Phil Lord and a bunch of other people I worked with when they were younger.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs someone who watched Cougar Town, which was not actually a show about Courteney Cox as a woman who dates younger men, the title made it a challenge to recommend. Did it impact the show? <\/p>\n

\n\tI blew it. I\u2019ve made so many mistakes, but that mistake makes me laugh now. I don\u2019t like it when anybody tries to label the show as anything other than grand success. We made 102 episodes! By the way, we got permission to retitle it at one point \u2014 The Sunshine State. Then, just coincidentally, ABC picked up a show that fall called Mr. Sunshine and we stayed Cougar Town. It\u2019s just so weird because after the first six episodes of that show, Courteney Cox\u2019s character is dating Josh Hopkins for the rest of the show.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tBill\u202fLawrence<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Roger Kisby<\/p>\n

\n\tYour wife, Christa Miller, has starred in Scrubs, Cougar Town and Shrinking. What is the biggest creative debate you\u2019ve had in your collaboration? <\/p>\n

\n\tI did her a disservice. When I met her, she was already a successful actress. She was lead of The Drew Carey Show. I just knew her as this super acerbic, funny broad that could turn jokes on a dime. Until we got to Shrinking, I didn\u2019t realize how good of an actress she is. She can do things with tremendous weight and drama. I still give myself shit because I would see independent movies she did and it would never dawn on me that I should be having her do that. I think I just love the safety net of, \u201cI know how to make my wife funny.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIs it true that when you were attached to adapt Fletch in the early aughts, Harvey Weinstein said he wanted you to be \u201cThe Quentin of Comedy\u201d?<\/p>\n

\n\tYes. It was a very weird time in my life. Literally just because of Zach Braff and Garden State, he came out and hired me to be the director and writer of the new Fletch thing \u2014 which he owned only for, like, 10 more months. Our relationship quickly soured. He liked the script, but Zach couldn\u2019t [star in] it. I had a contractual thing where [Weinstein] wasn\u2019t allowed to use my script unless I directed it. I decided to split and go back to Scrubs, but he kept trying to use my script for the movie with other people.<\/p>\n

\n\tDo you still think about movies?<\/p>\n

\n\tThe weird thing about movies is that I was running Spin City when I was 27. It\u2019s really hard then to go write a movie where you\u2019re like, \u201cHey, is it like my TV show where I get to cast it, pick the music, tell the director how to block it and make all the tweaks of the script?\u201d You have virtually no control. It\u2019s just not appealing unless I\u2019m going to write and direct it. So, I\u2019ve been hiding from it forever. The only long-term movie [executive] relationship I have is with Pam Abdy, who\u2019s here at Warner Bros.<\/p>\n

\n\tWriting a movie, to me, feels like gestating a child only to give it up for adoption against your will. <\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s a crazy business. I have friends that have had all this success in it. They\u2019ll be like, \u201cOh, I had a great year last year. I sold three [scripts] that are great.\u201d Cool! Did they make any of the movies? \u201cOh no, no, no. They\u2019re not making any of them.\u201d By the way, the one who\u2019s dragged me back to the idea is [Shrinking co-creator] Brett Goldstein. He\u2019s like, \u201cYou\u2019ve got to do a movie before your career\u2019s over.\u201d I\u2019ll figure it out. I\u2019ll just be too tempted to do it with the same actors and actresses I always work with. I like that Christopher Guest used to do that.<\/p>\n

\n\tAre you involved in Ted Lasso at this point?<\/p>\n

\n\tMy company is because it\u2019s such a big undertaking, but no. I have so many other shows in production, but it would be disingenuous of me to not say that that show is Jason [Sudeikis\u2019] vision and voice. He always knew who Ted was from the start.<\/p>\n

\n\tI am looking at a poster for Bad Monkey, which is billed as \u201cA Bill Lawrence Show.\u201d How do you feel about being a brand \u2014 and do you think you have a strong grasp of what that brand is?<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019m flattered that anybody would say, \u201cOh, Bill Lawrence is doing the show. I want to check it out.\u201d I know if Mike Schur, Armando Iannucci or Sharon Horgan are putting out new shows, I\u2019m going to check them out. I think I know what my voice is, and I would be quick to say, \u201cYeah, I\u2019m always going to write comedy that has some emotional stakes and hopefully you care about the characters.\u201d If that happens to be a generalization that people want to use, I\u2019m OK with it. It\u2019s an advantage in a time that everybody has nine billion choices of what to watch. But it\u2019s been weird to be a brand. That feels more important to business people than to me.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis story appeared in the June 16 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you want to feel good about Hollywood again, consider paying a visit to Bill Lawrence\u2018s office on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":744912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,252530,358512,134,104873,132120,13361,427],"class_list":["post-744911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bill-lawrence","tag-cougar-town","tag-entertainment","tag-scrubs","tag-shrinking","tag-ted-lasso","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=744911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/744912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=744911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=744911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=744911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}