TV writer, producer, and showrunner Bill Lawrence is best known for creating the series Spin City, Scrubs, Cougar Town, Ted Lasso, and his two current shows, Shrinking and Bad Monkey. He is busy enough making new seasons of the shows he has in the works, including one starring Steve Carell, but he also has his hands in some exciting possible reboots.
He sat down with Deadline to give updates on everything he’s working on, and first up was the return of the fan-favorite medical comedy, Scrubs.
He told the outlet that he envisions Scrubs 2.0 as a hybrid between a revival, revisiting original characters a decade and a half after the original series ended its run, and a reboot, revamping the concept with new characters.
“We’ve been talking about a lot, and I think the only real reason to do it is a combo. A: people wanting to see what the world of medicine was like for the people they love, which is part of any successful reboot. But B: I think that show always worked because you get to see young people dropped into the world of medicine, knowing young people that go there are super idealistic and are doing it because it’s a calling. There’s no cliché ‘rich doctors playing golf’ — that’s not what it is anymore. So I think that, no matter what it is, it would be a giant mistake not to do as a combo of those two things.”
The original cast have all said that they would be happy to come back. That includes star Zach Braff (J.D.), who recently reunited with Lawrence for a guest stint on Bad Monkey, based on Carl Hiaasen’s novel, as a doctor whose involvement in a medical fraud scheme has tragic consequences.
Next up, is the beloved series Ted Lasso, which ended its three season run with fans clamoring for more. Back in August, it was reported that Apple TV+ and Warner Bros TV have taken a major step toward a fourth season of the series by picking up the options on several key UK cast members.
There has been little information beyond that, and Lawrence made it clear, there is only one person who should provide that.
“Jason Sudeikis, is the voice, heart, driving factor behind the show, not only professionally, but on a personal level, that’s the dude whose life gets upended and who would be making the biggest sacrifices. The only sure bet in Hollywood is that nobody involved with Ted Lasso will ever, ever speak about it until Jason makes his decision of who he wants to talk to and what he wants to tell.”
So we will continue to wait and cross our fingers that a fourth season comes together.
Finally, Lawrence talked a bit about his upcoming HBO college comedy starring Carell, which he is co-creating with frequent collaborator and Bad Monkey EP Matt Tarses. The show is still untitled, and all we know iof it is that it’s “a comedy revolving around an author’s intricate bond with his daughter, set against the backdrop of a college campus.” Lawrence said of the show, and working with Carell:
“Steve Carell is such an inspiring comedic guy to me. For what I do, someone has to be able to be funny and goofy and silly and then turn on a dime, and he used to do that in The Office. That was a ludicrous character that would still make me sometimes well up at the end. So super duper excited and definitely feeling both the pressure and the opportunity at HBO, because for writers like me, it was always the gold standard type channel. And I’m well aware that Curb’s gone and Barry’s gone, their wheelhouse comedies are not around.”
The writers room on the series starts this week, with filming likely to begin early next year.
And in another Bill Lawrence universe link, Carell’s character “is loosely based in our heads” on Bad Monkey author Carl Hiaasen, he said of himself and co-creator Tarses. “Carl is such a self-effacing everyman, author, man of the people, real humble, and Steve is playing a very similar character that lands in the world of academia by accident,” he said.
Lawrence sure has his hands full, but of just the best content. I can’t wait for Scrubs, Ted Lasso, and this new series to move forward, and I am also looking forward to the upcoming second season of Shrinking, which is set to kick off with its first two episodes on Apple TV+ next Wednesday, October 16th.
