{"id":3947,"date":"2024-12-25T10:24:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-25T18:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/?p=3947"},"modified":"2024-12-25T10:24:00","modified_gmt":"2024-12-25T18:24:00","slug":"shrinking-boss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/shrinking-boss\/","title":{"rendered":"Shrinking Boss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Article<\/strong><\/p>\n

Career Renaissance<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bill Lawrence has been around long enough to hear the comedy, the multicam sitcom \u2014 everything, really \u2014 declared dead. And for just as long, he\u2019s kept his head down, making shows like \u201cSpin City,\u201d \u201cScrubs\u201d and \u201cCougar Town.\u201d<\/p>\n

Current Projects<\/strong><\/p>\n

Just summarizing his full plate leaves little doubt. There\u2019s \u201cShrinking,\u201d starring Jason Segel as a grieving widower and therapist who takes an unconventional approach with his client and those in his orbit, including his grumpy mentor, Paul, played by Harrison Ford. The Apple TV+ series, which Lawrence co-created with Segel and Brett Goldstein, concludes its second season Wednesday and has been renewed for a third. There\u2019s also \u201cBad Monkey,\u201d an adaptation of Carl Hiaasen\u2019s novel starring Vince Vaughn that launched on Apple TV+ earlier this year and was recently renewed for a second season, and a forthcoming campus-set HBO comedy starring Steve Carell, which revolves around an author\u2019s complicated relationship with his daughter.<\/p>\n

Reviving the Past<\/strong><\/p>\n

Then there are the shows many thought were over for good. After years of being asked about a reboot of \u201cScrubs,\u201d his NBC medical comedy starring Zach Braff and Donald Faison that ran from 2001 to 2010, one is finally in development, with Lawrence attached as an executive producer. And a year after \u201cTed Lasso,\u201d the feel-good comedy about a British soccer team and their wholesome coach, aired what appeared to be its series finale, it was announced that the series \u2014 co-created by Lawrence, Jason Sudeikis, Brendan Hunt and Joe Kelly \u2014 will actually return for a fourth season.<\/p>\n

Interview<\/strong><\/p>\n

Taking a break from the writers room of the Carell-led series, Lawrence sat down with The Times to discuss \u201cShrinking\u2019s\u201d season finale, what finally got him to revive \u201cScrubs,\u201d and whether television can get back to its days of making stars.<\/p>\n

Season Finale<\/strong><\/p>\n

Season 1 ended with a cliffhanger, literally. This season\u2019s finale feels like an emotional cliffhanger, with the start of some closure for Jimmy with Louis, the person responsible for his wife\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Louis\u2019 Character<\/strong><\/p>\n

We wanted to use the ending of the first season to set people up to think that something very bad was going to happen at the end of the second season. That\u2019s why we had bad things happen to Brett Goldstein\u2019s character, Louis \u2014 had him at the train station with Alice talking about how he\u2019d had bad thoughts being there before.<\/p>\n

Paul\u2019s Speech<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s talk about Paul. Another emotional moment from the finale is the speech he gives at Thanksgiving. It\u2019s so powerful and tender. We know his Parkinson\u2019s disease will continue to progress. And I know that character\u2019s story is a personal one for you.<\/p>\n

Michael J. Fox<\/strong><\/p>\n

Has Michael seen the show? Has he given any feedback?<\/p>\n

Cobie Smulders<\/strong><\/p>\n

Might Cobie Smulders, Jason\u2019s former \u201cHow I Met Your Mother\u201d co-star who guest starred this season, make a return next season? Is there interest in exploring that dynamic for Jimmy for the season focused on moving forward?<\/p>\n

Scrubs Reboot<\/strong><\/p>\n

What is Jimmy to you? What are you working through in Jimmy?<\/p>\n

Ted Lasso<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another show that\u2019s returning is \u201cTed Lasso,\u201d which you\u2019re an executive producer on. Throughout its third season the question loomed about whether it was a series finale or a season finale. Jason Sudeikis had conceived it as a three-season show, but things changed. What happened?<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

As I was looking back at our previous coverage of you, there was a quote from 2013 that stood out to me that I want to read to you. I\u2019m curious how you would amend this quote: \u201cThere are two ways to survive in television now, and one is really hard, and I haven\u2019t cracked it yet, which is to grab hold of this giant zeitgeist hit like \u2018Modern Family,\u2019 where everyone in the world wants to see it, and you just write your own ticket. The other way is to appeal to a very specific, very loyal group of people, and if you make that contract, you can keep a show like \u2018Scrubs\u2019 alive for nine years.\u201d<\/p>\n

FAQs<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q: What inspired the decision to incorporate Louis\u2019 character into the show?
\nA: It was loosely connected to a true story of a family that had embraced a young person who was their Louis, [a person who had] gotten drunk and made a mistake.<\/p>\n

Q: Will we see Michael J. Fox on the show?
\nA: He is way too young and is still such a rock star with that disease.<\/p>\n

Q: Is there a plan to revive more of your past shows?
\nA: Yes, there are talks about reviving other shows.<\/p>\n

Q: Will Cobie Smulders return for the third season?
\nA: Good idea.<\/p>\n

Q: What is Jimmy to you? What are you working through in Jimmy?
\nA: I\u2019m trying to say this without divulging too much about the third season. But Jimmy has built a found family around himself. I have a real family around me. My last kid is 18 and about to spl…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Article Career Renaissance Bill Lawrence has been around long enough to hear the comedy, the multicam sitcom \u2014 everything, really \u2014 declared dead. And for just as long, he\u2019s kept his head down, making shows like \u201cSpin City,\u201d \u201cScrubs\u201d and \u201cCougar Town.\u201d Current Projects Just summarizing his full plate leaves little doubt. There\u2019s \u201cShrinking,\u201d starring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3947","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/0cc8c01\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/4000x2100+0+35\/resize\/1200x630!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F87%2F0d%2F2a816e3f46d1af1c874b221cf576%2F1481581-la-et-shrinking-bill-lawrence-running-the-show-jja-003.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3947"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3947"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3949,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3947\/revisions\/3949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}