LEILA FADEL, HOST:
There are a lot of comedies from TV producer Bill Lawrence on right now. There's a reboot of the sitcom "Scrubs," a new season of "Shrinking" and a new HBO show, "Rooster." NPR critic-at-large Eric Deggans caught up with Lawrence to find out how he's quietly building a comedy TV empire.
ERIC DEGGANS, BYLINE: Unless you're a media nerd, you might not know Bill Lawrence. But if you're a fan of quirky TV comedies built around grown folks hanging out together as found families, then you've probably enjoyed his work. There's the quirky Apple TV hit that Lawrence developed with star Jason Sudeikis, "Ted Lasso."
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "TED LASSO")
JASON SUDEIKIS: (As Ted Lasso) If I were to get fired from a job where I'm putting cleats in the trunk of my car...
BRENDAN HUNT: (As Coach Beard) You got the boot for putting boots in the boot.
SUDEIKIS: (As Ted Lasso, laughing) I love that.
DEGGANS: There's the occasionally bawdy comedy that Lawrence cocreated with star Jason Segel and costar Brett Goldstein about a therapist struggling to connect with his daughter, called "Shrinking."
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SHRINKING")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) I understand that you have father-daughter tattoos.
JASON SEGEL: (As Jimmy Laird) Yes, but they are in tasteful and in appropriate locations. I'm saying in, space, appropriate.
DEGGANS: And there's his newest show, the melancholy yet hopeful "Rooster," which Lawrence created with "Scrubs" alum Matt Tarses. It features Steve Carell as a novelist who never went to college, teaching at a small university alongside his grown daughter.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "ROOSTER")
STEVE CARELL: (As Greg Russo) Everybody says college is the best time of your life, but I think it stinks.
DANIELLE DEADWYLER: (As Dylan Shepherd) You sound like a college freshman but you're 60.
BILL LAWRENCE: It's my sad, middle-aged guy trilogy. Come on.
DEGGANS: That's Lawrence, who can be loose and funny as his characters, juggling work on several projects at once. They all feature stories centered on quirky adults bonding to face tough challenges, like the shows Lawrence loved as a kid, especially the Korean War dramedy "M*A*S*H."
LAWRENCE: A show that could switch gears from comedy to emotional stakes, and a giant need to be writing on something that felt like it had some hope and optimism. Like, hey, even if this show doesn't work, at least we're in here kind of writing about people who look out for each other and relationships the way we wish they would be. It's kind of refreshing.
DEGGANS: In "Rooster," Carell plays an author Lawrence says is loosely inspired by Carl Hiaasen, the Florida journalist and novelist. Lawrence says the situation, in which a 60-year-old dad tries to help his grown daughter, is inspired by the way he, Carell and Tarses try to help their kids in ways that children don't often appreciate.
LAWRENCE: And all three of us have reached that phase in our kids' lives where we want to control them, keep them safe. And not only do they reject it, you know, unapologetically, but they should be rejecting it. It's not about them needing it, it's about us still needing it. And that kind of became the show.
DEGGANS: Brett Goldstein, who costars and writes on both "Ted Lasso" and "Shrinking," says Lawrence has a talent for making dark ideas appealing. When Goldstein suggested "Shrinking" focus on a therapist grieving a wife murdered by a rejected patient, Lawrence offered something more relatable - a wife killed by a drunk driver.
BRETT GOLDSTEIN: Somehow, it ended up being a version that is much more accessible and much, much better. I much prefer this. But we turned it into something that I think hits a bigger target.
DEGGANS: Lawrence started his TV writing career in the 1990s on shows like "The Nanny" and "Boy Meets World," finding later success as cocreator of the sitcom "Spin City," starring Michael J. Fox, along with "Scrubs" and "Cougar Town," starring Courteney Cox. Lawrence says his process is pretty simple.
LAWRENCE: I really like that comedy amongst characters, that shorthand that friends have. But I think if you can do that quick banter combined with real characters, who are mostly people stolen, you know, from our lives that we know, then it sometimes will work.
DEGGANS: As Lawrence juggles more shows across broadcast, cable and streaming TV than ever before, it seems audiences agree. I'm Eric Deggans.
FADEL: Both HBO and its parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, are financial supporters of NPR. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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