William Van Duzer "Bill" Lawrence IV is the creator of Scrubs and worked as the showrunner, a producer, a writer, a director, an actor and an extra for the series.
Bio[]
Bill was born in Ridgefield, Connecticut, as the only child of a working-class mother, Suzanne, working as an auctioneer, and a very conservative blue-blood father, William, working as a Pitney Bowes salesman. Lawrence's mother is a self-proclaimed redneck (the first member of her family to ever go to college), whilst his father is of the fabled Van Duzer Lawrence-lineage.
"So, money is toxic, and my dad's crazy rich family, I wouldn't say they were necessarily the best and most open-minded in generations passed. But this guy, the original William Lawrence, was a real-estate baron, and he met Sarah Bates, who believed in arts for women. And she was a poet and there was no arts for women back then, and she changed him, and when she died he had their estate turned into an all-girl college of the arts" - Lawrence on Armchair Experts with Dax Shepard, 2024.
On one side young William lived in a world of butlers, servers and manners-practice. On the other side he grew up surrounded by "largemouth bass fishing guides on the St. Johns River in delightful Deland, Florida." Lawrence has made the claim that this inherent cultural contrast in his upbringing was his original comedic fuel. Lawrence has long been a fan of author Carl Hiaasen, and in addition to adapting his book "Bad Monkey" into a limited series for Apple TV+, the HBO show he (per. 2024) is working on with Steve Carell has a Hiaasen-inspired main character. Lawrence's connection to Florida through his mother's side of the family helped fuel his connection to Hiaasen's work when he read it at age 15. When the family would come out to Florida to visit relatives young William was often sent out fishing with his counsins, he hated fishing, and he'd bring a book, this got him the nickname "College." Lawrence's parents met at Rollins College, his mother got a scholarship there, and his father was shipped off there because "that's where private fuck-up rich kids go." All the men in the Lawrence-family were either named William Lawrence or Robert Clitherall Lawrence, and Lawrence's dad and uncle were "the first two men in six generations (of the Van Doozer-family) to work for a living".
"My parents took great pains to make sure I didn't grow up as a rich kid, and I didn't, we were middle-class ... in the mean streets of Commeticut (haha)" - Lawrence on Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, 2024.
Lawrence was baptized because his grandparents promised his father to throw a party. His next brush with spirituality was being a tennis-counselor in an all-Jewish sports camp, where his buddy Bob would elbow him into leading the prayer on the first day of camp every year, in hopes of turning him Jewish. The prayers didn't stick. Spiritually, Lawrence's parents "exposed him to everything," and he considers himself spiritual, but not religious. Lawrence's grandmother would bring him to Miami Dolphins-games, he¨'s still a fan, and inclined to geek out about sports in general, but also musical theater. Lawrence has been described by Zach Braff as being the most competitive person he knows, though it's worth mentioning that Lawrence does champion constructive collaboration, and is very open to things such as improvisation. Braff, Neil Flynn, and many other Scrubs-alumni, have also pointed out Lawrence's tendency to over-exaggerate when recounting old stories, like his story of The Janitor being intended to be a figment of JD's imagination all throughout Season 1. (This is worth mentioning because these over-exaggerations might very well sneak into this biography). Lawrence attended Ridgefield High School.
"We're all shrinked up, the three of us (talking about the team behind Shrinking.) Admittedly, for me, late in life, cuz I grew up with a weird waspy family in Connecticut where ... you know, if I told my dad I wanted to see a therapist in my 20s he would have been like; what's wrong with you?" - Lawrence in an interview with The Movie Podcast, 2024.
young Bill with his father.
Lawrence spent a lot of his time in high school playing sports and socializing, all he cared about was "finding free beer and playing sports." Lawrence was a talented tennis-player in high school. The young boy reached a turning point when his English teacher, Bob Cox, a former journalist, took a shine to him. Lawrence and a buddy used to sneak out with to drink beer across the road from the school. Mr. Cox took notice, and suggested they both meet him in his free period two days a week to "shoot the shit about movies, TV, whatever" instead.
When Lawrence was a junior in high school, Bob Cox flat out said that he wasn't that great of a student, but that he was very good at writing dialogue. Cox suggested he try to make a living off of it, seeing as it was the only thing he seemed to enjoy doing at school. The thought stuck, and Lawrence started "consuming movies, TV, (and) standup comedy like a crazy person." (Lawrence has gone on to describe Bob Cox as both rash and very funny, implying the inspiration drawn from him for the character of Perry Cox extends beyond just a surname.)
The buddy Lawrence used to sneak off and drink beer with was Rick Street, a 6'8, 240 pound jock. Because of Rick's stature, Lawrence could stand next to him and quip away towards other students without worrying about getting beaten up. However, when Street thought Lawrence was being crude, he'd walk off and leave Lawrence on his own. Lawrence didn't worry too much about this, in his mind a high school-fight ended after 2 hits, when you got knocked down. In Lawrence's freshman-year, this was disproved. Lawrence got knocked down, but the other student kept going, taking ahold of his ears and banging his head into the ground. This wasn't the last time Lawrence got into trouble. When Lawrence was a senior, he attended a party where he ended up kissing a girl who, unbeknownst to him, had recently gotten back together with her ex. The ex was a tall, big, nasty bully, and showed up ready to fight. The bully quipped: "come on Lawrence, why don't you say something funny now?" Lawrence replied: "(Name) you know, I would say something funny, but someday you'll be putting gas in my car. And I might need regular, and if you put unleaded ..." Before Lawrence got to complete the word "unleaded" the bully hit him hard, sending him to the ground.
A photo from the 1989 William & Mary yearbook, featuring Lawrence.
Bill in the 1988 Kappa Alpha group-photo.
After high school, Lawrence didn't wish to go to Sarah Lawrence College, considering his family ties a social burden. Lawrence instead ended up studying English at the College of William and Mary. Lawrence's application was helped along by his tennis-skills. Lawrence found he couldn't keep up with the college tennis-players, and thus his tennis-career quickly came to an end. Lawrence briefly wanted to drop out of college and move out to LA to be a comic, but after being told by his father that the love and support from parents was unconditional, but that dropping out of college would put him in a position of "ITI" (instant total independence) financially, Lawrence continued his education. Lawrence quieted down in College, only getting into a couple of fights before accepting a more passive demeanor. Lawrence indulged in more innocent types of shenanigans during his time at W&A, once dialing up Jonathan Doris' roommate Josh's biology teacher at 1 a.m. to ask him to settle an argument about who would win in a fight; a polar bear or a gorilla. (The biology-teacher ended up agreeing with Bill, siding with the polar bear.) During his time at William & Mary, Lawrence was a member of the Kappa Alpha social fraternity.
Lawrence graduated W&M in 1990, and lived in Manhattan for a short period, before moving to LA. Lawrence lived up in the hills, and would eat breakfast at Hugo's. Lawrence made his living painting houses, and doing standup. During his sets, Lawrence would wear a cap, and when he got nervous he would reposition it on his head. According to Lawrence, after reviewing his standup-tapes years later, it looked like he was trying to screw himself down into the ground. Another problem Lawrence faced was that he'd subconsciously slip into the cadences of comics he admired, particularly Brian Regan, when on stage. Lawrence eventually got to a point where he could move on from open mics to getting bookings, but in the early 90s LA comedy-scene, Lawrence he felt out of his depth. Lawrence would occasionally hang out and play poker with Vince Vaughn around this time. Every 5 weeks, Lawrence's father would get one of his friends to call and offer Lawrence a job, but thankfully, Lawrence strayed upon another path. During his time at William and Mary, Lawrence had written several plays. Lawrence's mother was an auctioneer at the time, and had held an auction once for a gentleman named Norman Barasch, who wrote on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Barasch caught wind of Lawrence's aspirations, and asked him to send over some of his work to his old agents, George Shapiro and Howard West. Lawrence gave them a call, and soon thereafter sent them three scripts to be used for standup-bits at the beginning of Seinfeld-episodes, seeing as they were executive-producers for the series, and managed its lead, Jerry Seinfeld. Attached was a note saying that Lawrence promised to never bother them again if they just read these scripts of his. Lawrence got a note back saying, “These are pretty good, but we’re not looking to add other clients. And they’re a little raw and rough.” A month later he sent them two more scripts. Impressed by Lawrence's Chutzpah, the team gave the scripts a read. Howard West signed Lawrence as a client on a Thursday, and a week and a half later Lawrence was brought on as a staff writer on the short-lived Billy Connolly-vehicle Billy. A couple of West's associates had seen Lawrence do standup at locals clubs, and when taking on Lawrence, West clarified: "you're a very good joke-writer, (but) you're a mediocre performer." Lawrence's standup-career ended around this time. West later remembered Lawrence as one of the most charming pests he'd ever met. "He always looked like he stepped out of the shower, bright and perky," he said. "He'd come into the office bouncing like a St. Bernard."
Sometime in the early 1990s Lawrence married Megyn Pryce.
Billy was cancelled in the summer of 1992. Thankfully, April Kelly, a writer on the show, had grown a liking to Lawrence, finding him "young, funny and energetic", and so when she went on to co-create Boy Meets World, Lawrence found himself back in a writer's room. Lawrence ended up writing some episodes of the series, including Topanga's original introductory episode, but made it clear that he wasn't part of the target audience, and that he found the show's humor to be below him. One time, after writing an episode of the show where a character uttered the line "I can't believe I hurt my dad, I love him more than anything in the world." Lawrence got home to a slew of messages on his answering-machine from old friends from back home, tauntingly saying that line and playing off it after having seen his name in the credits. Bill has in later years made it clear that this experience taught him an important lesson about how anything that generates an audience has value. That writers sometimes have to write what a show's creator thinks is funny, not necessarily what they think is funny themselves, without pointing it out. In his later work on shows like Scrubs, Lawrence made it a point to be clear about this when bringing on new writers.
Lawrence then moved on to writing for The Nanny. However, the staff was split at one point, the show's original creators were leaving, and two parties were pushing for the job of showrunner, and supporting their respective new staff writers. Lawrence was one side's candidate. This tension lead to higher-ups on the other side openly criticizing one of Lawrence's writer's drafts. Lawrence suspected the higher-ups hadn't even read his draft, and set them up in a way to reveal they hadn't, the plan succeeded, and Lawrence got a snarky dig in at them. However, it was a bad career-move, and led to Lawrence getting fired.
"The worst thing I've bequeathed upon my children is completely unearned confidence" - Lawrence on Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, 2024.
Lawrence's managers, George Shapiro and Howard West, would always get annoyed that Lawrence, when he was feeling like he was at a standstill, in response to the question of "what's going on?" would be flat-out honest and say "nothing, I'm lucky I got out of my boxers today." Lawrence, in his own words, used to be "bad at handling the valleys" (meaning career-lows).
Lawrence went on to write a play, Full Cycle. His management-team produced it in 1993, and it featured Robert Maschio, fresh from New York. The play was a success, and Lawrence got some good publicity.
Bill Lawrence, aged 27
After letting Jenji Kohan go in pre-production, a new show by the name of Friends just so happened to be in need of a staff-writer, and so Lawrence was back into the TV-business. While writing on the show, Lawrence went on a trip back to Ridgefield, and found the guy who had knocked him down in high school mowing the Lawrence family-lawn, on contract from a local landscaping-company. Their eyes met, and Lawrence felt horrible. Lawrence figured out that he didn't want to use comedy to hurt people, and later in his career he'd walk the fine line between well-crafted, character-based, snark and mean-spirited, directed, attacks carefully. Lawrence wrote the episode "The One With The Candy Hearts." When in LA, Lawrence jibed well with one of the Friends' creators, David Crane, however, his personality didn't mesh with that of the other creator, Marta Kauffman. This led to Lawrence not being brought back for the second season. After slipping up during the season 1-wrap party and accidentally revealing (in subtext) to Lawrence that he was done writing for the show, David Crane placed a call to Gary David Goldberg. Crane told Goldberg that Lawrence sadly didn't mesh with their group, but that he'd recommend him wholeheartedly for Gary's future projects. Goldberg kept the recommendation in mind, and brought Lawrence on for his next project, DreamWorks' first sitcom, Champs. While working on the show, Lawrence got to know associate-producer Randall Keenan Winston, who was staying with friends of his. 12 episodes were shot, one written by Lawrence, but the show was cancelled before the 3 last episodes had even aired, the last episode airing August 7, 1996.
Bill during his Spin City-years.
Lawrence and Goldberg's partnership outlasted their first outing, and after winning a bidding war for Michael J. Fox's televisional return, the duo got working on Spin City, with a guarantee of 2 years on air, and no studio-notes. Fox was sick with Parkinson's at this point, and Lawrence was informed from the get-go that the goal was to efficiently make 200 episode over the course of 4 years. Due to 1990s television-censorship, shows were only allowed a limited amount of certain swear-words, for the word "ass", that limit was 2. After turning in the pilot-script for the show, Lawrence got a note from a network-exec saying "you have the word ass on page 7, and the word ass on page 19, and the word ass on page 29. Please pick your ass." Lawrence found the note hilarious, and kept it. Now, 30 years later, he has it framed in his office.
One of MJF's conditions for doing the show was that it had to be shot in New York, and so Lawrence moved out there, to a small studio-apartment loft at the corner of Prince and Mercer, while Goldberg sporadically went out to his place there to mentor and assist him. Lawrence moving away to a different state played a part in him and Megyn Price ultimately separating that very same year, 1996. John Michel, the editor of the show, came out to his apartment around this time and took him out for a beer to cheer him up. The two of them went out, drank, and talked about sports. Lawrence very much appreciated it.
"we worked 47 days in a row to start that show (Spin City) off, 16 hour days, including Saturdays and Sundays, and a lot of us were married and relationships fell apart and stuff" - Lawrence in his 2023 speech at Sarah Lawrence College, + 2024 episode of Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard.
for Christmas that year Gary David Goldberg jokingly gifted all the Spin City writers very deluxe cots/beds, for their offices, he found it very funny.
One of the central themes of the Spin City, the friendship between Alan Ruck and Michael Boatman's characters, was inspired by Lawrence's own friendship with Randall Keenan Winston. The mayor depicted in the series was also named after Winston, and he was an associate-producer on the show. Close to the end of season 1, Goldberg asked if Lawrence felt like he was getting into the groove of things, Lawrence responded affirmatively, and so Goldberg started to space out his visits a tad more, letting Lawrence take control. John Michel stepped in to teach Lawrence how to edit, as that was a skill a sole-show runner would have to be able to handle.Even though the show was off the ground, the stress didn't cease, the team was still under great pressure to produce 100 episodes in 4 years.
"I was doing a ton of blow, drinking, being crazy. The narcotics were almost a work-requirement when doing 25-episode seasons." - Lawrence on Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, 2024.
Sam Lloyd appeared in a Season 2-episode of the show, and he and Lawrence ended up playing basketball together after the shoot. Lawrence worked on 3 seasons of the show, and his parents went out to New York to attend all the late-night tapings. Lawrence returned to co-write the season 4-finale, Michael J. Fox's sendoff. Lawrence struggles to watch Spin City because his mother tended to over-exaggerate her laugh when a joke didn't land with the wider audience, and he recognizes it right away. Rags, the pet of Michael Boatman's character, was inspired by the 17-year-old dog of a writer's mother, whom Lawrence had convinced himself was talking to him when he came over to visit, in an altered state. Most of the series' crew was under the age of 27, because Lawrence was afraid to hire anyone who would be able to see his inexperience. Barry Bostwick, Richard Kind, Alexander Chaplin, Michael Boatman, Alan Ruck, Robert Maschio, Sean Whalen, Peter Jacobsen, Michael Hobert and John David Conti would all come to return (in some capacity) for Lawrence's next show. Lawrence in retrospect likes to jokingly refer to the show as "Spin Shitty."
Lawrence has later talked about the Spin City years feeling somewhat empty personally. Lawrence had a lift going up and down from his loft-apartment every night for 6 years, and his life became about figuring out "how to get people to leave without having brunch with them, and it was all so empty and horrible." At times he hated himself, only to wake up and do the same thing again.
Christa Miller posing for Maxim, 1997.
That all changed when Lawrence met Christa Miller in May of 1998, at a ABC party in the Mercer Hotel in SoHo. Miller had grown up in New York, and was well-known for having played Kate on The Drew Carry Show.
"(Lawrence) followed Ms. Miller around the party, showering her with one-liners. "For me and my circle of friends," he recalled, "the big question is, Will she get my jokes? Christa did. Then I found out she was seeing somebody. I thought, 'Oh, it's me being tortured again.' " - New York Times, 1999.
The relationship started out as a flirt-laced friendship. Lawrence would comment on thing such as how Miller kept dating short actors, and how she should date a comedy-writer. Miller called him up one day and said "you know what? I've decided to finally break down and date a comedy-writer". She continued "I bet you know him," Lawrence, thinking it was him, answered "I bet I do." The writer turned out to be Les Firestein. Lawrence would call in from New York (she was living in LA) once or twice a week as a friend, and after about 3 months Miller told him that her boyfriend didn't like that they talked so much on the phone. That's when he knew he was in.
"The following December, she was visiting New York and sitting alone in a SoHo cafe, turning her cell phone on and off, like someone plucking petals from a daisy. "I was thinking, 'Should I call him, should I not call him?' " she remembered. "Finally, I called and left a message, and when I didn't hear back from him, I thought, 'Oh, it's too late.' "
In fact, he was in Puerto Rico with a big group of friends. When he returned, he got her message, called immediately, and said, " 'You better be single.' "
Miller came along for Lawrence's trip to Cabo with some friends that Christmas.
Bill and Christa kissing at their wedding.
"A bi-coastal romance ensued, and in March Lawrence left "Spin City" for Los Angeles, where he is now developing new sitcoms for ABC. The couple live in the Hollywood Hills and spend their weekends battling each other at various outdoor sports."
On Nov. 27, 1999, they were married in New York in the chapel at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, where Ms. Miller went to school. In some ways, it resembled a Hollywood wedding. Guests had to check their cameras at the door since there were celebrities inside, including the casts of "Drew Carey" and "Spin City."
Neil Flynn had appeared in a season 4-episode of The Drew Carey Show, playing opposite Miller. Shortly afterwards Flynn got invited to come along with some friends to a dinner with Christa and "her new husband." Flynn recognized Lawrence. It turned out they had been part of the same basketball-team years prior, when Flynn lived in LA (prior to moving back to Chicago for 5 years).
Bill, unknown year.
Even though Lawrence left Spin City after Season 3, he returned to write the Season 4 finale. The finale aired on the 24th of May, 2000. The Aaron Sorkin show Sports Night (which Sorkin, according to Lawrence, had wanted to name Aaron Sokrin's Sports Night) got cancelled that same year, after 2 seasons of airing after Spin City. The show was struggling by the end, and Lawrence would later recall having to do end-of-episode lead-ins to Sports Night on Spin City to boost viewer-retention. When the show got cancelled Aaron said in a New York Times-interview that it was no surprise that the show got cancelled, after all they were "on after a show that had a talking dog." Lawrence didn't appreciate Sorkin's dig at the show, and it's occasionally voiced dog Rags. Fittingly, Lawrence already had a retort on hand. One of his writer's room-jokes was to act like he was a pizza guy in a Aaron Sorkin show. Lawrence had found that Sorkin didn't know how to write unique and contrasting characters, a pizza guy in The West Wing would always be as quick and quip-y as the main characters, and he found that to be funny. When Lawrence later ran into Sorkin at a bar, he did the imitation right to his face. Lawrence has later clarified that when Sorkin writes for something that warrants that importance, and it isn't contextually overkill, like in The Social Network or A Few Good Men, it's "really really good."
"I try super-duper hard to be specific. If you're writing a pilot, and you have a joke and go "eh, instead of this character saying the joke I'll have a different character saying the joke, it's my personal belief that you've failed, because you shouldn't be able to take a line from one character and give it to another, Gary David Goldberg taught me that." - Lawrence in a 2021 WGF Library Script Breakdown
Bill and Christa welcomed their first child, Charlotte Sarah Lawrence, into the world on June 8th, 2000.
Bill sporting Zach's antlers from My First Day.
Back in LA, writing, Bill got the idea to draw some inspiration from his childhood-friend Jonathan Doris, nicknamed JD. Lawrence and JD had joked around so much back in high school that JD had to go back to undergraduate school to get onto his desired career-path: medicine. Lawrence couldn't imagine anything scarier than awaiting surgery and seeing JD's face just as he was being put under. Lawrence had seen the wild, immature, partying side of JD, and now he was a doctor. It was surreal, and definitely sitcom-material. Lawrence had made a name for himself in the last decade, he pitched the show successfully, and the pilot got picked up. Thus, Scrubs was born, eventually premiering October 9th, 2001, under Lawrence's fresh production-company, Doozer. In Lawrence's mind, the show was to be both a live-action hospital-set version of The Simpsons, and a cross between The Wonder Years and M.A.S.H. The show's central relationship, between J.D. and Christopher Turk, was once again inspired by Lawrence's friendship with producing-partner Randall Keenan Winston. Winston got at least two characters named after him (Randall Winston, Robert Dolan's Mr. Winston), as well as the Season 9 medical school Winston University. Naturally, he also worked on the show as an associate producer, as well as playing Grim Reaper and Leonard the security guard. Lawrence, who had always been rooting for Robert Maschio, wrote him the part of "The Todd," Maschio moved back to LA and took on the role. John C. McGinley's mentoring character was based off Lawrence's old English teacher, Brian Cox, as well as his father in law, a stern surgeon. In the casting-call, the character was described as a "John C. McGinley-type." Zach Braff, Donald Faison and Sarah Chalke got the series' leading roles after regular audition-processes, though Faison blew one of his auditions. Thankfully Lawrence had his back, allowing him to try one more time. Braff and Chalke had a brief relationship around the start of the series, and a volatile breakup soon thereafter. Some of the same casting-personnel from The Drew Carey Show was brought on for Scrubs, and Neil Flynn got a call, originally suggesting he audition for the role of Dr. Cox. By the time Flynn auditioned, Lawrence already considered the part locked down, and suggested he audition for another part instead. Flynn ended up in the role of The Janitor, and after seeing Flynn do an improv show as part of Beer Shark Mice, Lawrence made Flynn's character a bigger part of the pilot. Sam Lloyd, who Lawrence had gotten to know through Spin City (and their following basketball-matches) got the part of the resident lawyer, Ted Buckland. Lawrence wanted to shoot the show in a real abandoned hospital, and was presented with a saddening amount of options. The pilot was shot at a hospital in Glendale, California. The rest of the show ended up being shot at North Hollywood Medical Center, with the exception of season 9, Med School, which was shot across various sets at Culver Studios. Christa Miller ended up being the music-supervisor on the show, with help from Neil Goldman and Zach Braff. Shortly after being cast in the show, Zach Braff recommended Lawrence the song Superman, off Lazlo Bane's third album, All the Time in the World. The song ended up as Scrubs' theme song. Colin Hay, the former vocalist of Men At Work, ended up contributing music to the series, starting with the Season 1 finale, My Last Day, after Miller had brought Lawrence to several of his concerts at Largo at the Coronet. Joshua Radin, a friend of Zach Braff, also contributed music to the series, starting with the first song he had ever written and recorded, Winter, which was used in My Screw Up. John Michel from Spin City was brought on to edit several episodes over the course of the series. The cast and crew crafted a unique atmosphere. Actors had dressing rooms on one floor of the hospital, editors worked on another floor, and everyone were allowed to bring their dogs, and it was not uncommon for people to stick around at the hospital and drink in the late hours of the day. Lawrence once pulled a prank on Zach Braff by putting a fake license plate on his car that said "TV DOC," "so he he looked like a tool when he took his girlfriend out."
"Scrubs was the last of the Wild West in television." - Lawrence on Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, 2024
Bill with the the cast of Scrubs, posing with the TV Land Future Classic Award.
At the very beginning of Scrubs, some of the network-suits weren't sure if it was possible to fulfill what Lawrence had put down on the page, to go from gut-busting funny and absurd to gut-wrenchingly heartfelt and sad at the turn of the dime. In response Lawrence joked "If I turn down the lights and play some emotional indie-song I think it'll work." Lawrence used a recording of his daughter Charlotte saying "bye, bye" as the background audio for his production company's logo-slide, displayed at the end of episodes. Lawrence had intended for (what is now labeled) Season 9 of the show to be a spinoff, but the network "chickened out" and released the season under the Scrubs-name. Lawrence had little involvement in the spinoff.
Christa dancing with Charlotte, in Their Story.
Lawrence acted as a sort of godfather to Phil Lord and Christopher Miller when they were making Clone High for MTV in 2001, and when they couldn't afford their own offices, Lawrence got part of North Hollywood Medical Center, the filming-location for S01-08 of Scrubs, cleared out for them. Many Scrubs-cast members crossed over into Clone High, because the teams would frequently cross paths. Lawrence once got a call from higher-ups at ABC, complaining about how the food they financed being eaten by the crew of a MTV show. Sarah Chalke briefly dated Phil Lord. Lawrence was also a producer on Clone High, voiced The Shadowy Figure, co-wrote an episode and was in every sense of the word a co-creator.
In 2004 Lawrence was driving with his wife, Christa Miller, to the filming of the Matthew Perry-penned Scrubs episode My Unicorn. Perry was a friend of Miller's, back from her LA days, and Lawrence had always wondered how friendly the two of them got. As a test, Lawrence asked her "are you sure it isn't gonna be awkward working with Matthew, seeing as you slept together?" Miller answered "no, no, that won't be a problem." Lawrence was ecstatic that he managed to fish that information out of her, and he frequently tells the story.
In 2005, Lawrence was brought on to direct Fletch Won for Miramax, a prequel to the previous Fletch films. Zach Braff, who had done other Miramix films, at one point became Harvey Weinstein's choice as a lead, but ended up dropping out as the production wasn't moving along (long story). Dax Shepard at one point had a meeting with Lawrence about taking the spot. Lawrence ultimately ended up quitting the project, seeing as it was at a standstill, and he only had 6 weeks available for other projects before being in breech of his Scrubs-contract. Weinstein took a liking to Lawrence's version of a script for the movie, and wanted to put it to film after Lawrence left. Lawrence made it clear that he wouldn't allow them to make the movie based off his script. Weinstein took advantage of Lawrence's wording and started passing around the script to different studios as the basis of a TV-show instead of a movie. The disagreement evolved into a legal battle.
In 2005 Lawrence, along with the Scrubs writing-duo Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan, wrote a pilot for the show Nobody's Watching. The pilot starred Taran Killam and Paul Campbell, both having worked on Scrubs. Paul Adelstein also played a part. The show was not picked up, however, the pilot leaked onto YouTube in 2006. The pilot garnered some traction, and Warner Bros. TV agreed to produce webisodes of the series. Webisodes of varying length were released until January 12, 2007. In an interview with TV Squad, Lawrence divulged that NBC would broadcast a live TV special in March 2007. However, soon thereafter a NBC spokesperson stated, "The project is not going forward." The actors' contracts were set to expire at the end of February. There has been no live TV special as of September 2024.
Lawrence spent 9 years working as the showrunner on Scrubs (2001-2010). Over the course of the show's production, Lawrence and Miller had two more kids, William Stoddard Lawrence in January of 2003, and Henry Vanduzer Lawrence in October of 2006.
When Scrubs Won a Peabody-award in 2006, Lawrence accepted the award, and held a brief speech, but managed to forget to thank his wife Christa. Lawrence quickly re-entered the stage, interrupting Bob Costas, to correct his mistake.
In 2009, during Scrubs' eighth season, Lawrence co-created the sitcom Cougar Town with Kevin Biegel, starring former Scrubs guest star Courteney Cox, and Christa Miller. The series went on for 6 seasons, and had a cast containing of many Scrubs-alumni. The show got it's start when Cox showed interest in doing a sitcom, and ABC got in contact with Lawrence. Lawrence didn't feel like he was good enough at writing for women to take the task upon himself. He went back to the Scrubs writer's room and ranted about how it was so hard to get a show on air, and how strange it was that if he called up ABC and pitched a show called Cougar Town, about Cox's character getting divorced at 40 and being on the prow for younger guys, the network would put it right up on the schedule. The fictional show became a running gag in the writer's room, but one day Kevin Biegel approached Lawrence and expressed interest in actually pitching the idea. The two guys went ahead, and the network-president Mark Pedowitz did as they had joked about, and gave it an immediate green light. The show went on for 6 seasons, ditching the joke-concept after 6 episodes. The show was off the air for 9 months between Seasons 2 and 3, but a spot opened up on the ABC-schedule and the show got it's third season. Lawrence and the crew ran a grassroots-marketing campaign to promote the new season, hosting watch-parties around the country, with an open bar and and celebrity-guests from the cast. Lawrence also promised to answer every Twitter-post he got tagged in during this period, and encouraged the cast members to do the same. Lawence and Biegel left their day-to-day duties on the show after 4 seasons. Ken Jenkins played Courteney Cox's father in 19 episodes of the series. Sarah Chalke played Angie, a doctor, for 4 episodes, while Robert Clendenin, Dr. Zeltzer, was a series-regular, playing a neighbor to Cox's character for 65 episodes.
Bill shooting A One Story Town with Sam Lloyd
Sam Lloyd appeared as Ted Buckland in two season 2-episodes. In addition, S03E05 of the series, A One Story Town, contains cameos from The Worthless Peons, Robert Maschio, and Zach Braff. Maschio is credited as "Pool Man / The Todd," and appears to be in character, offering a confused Ted Buckland a high-five. Zach Braff goes uncredited as a pizzaboy, whilst the Peons are all credited under the names of their Scrubs-characters. The list of other Scrubs-actors who appeared in the series includes Barry Bostwick, Matthew Perry and Nicole Sullivan.
Lawrence jumped ship from ABC in 2012 to sign a deal with Warner Brothers Television. He left on good terms with Paul Lee.
Lawrence continues to create and executive produce Doozer-television series under contract with WB Television. Neil Flynn appeared in an episode of Lawrence's short-lived series Surviving Jack in 2013. The series starred Christopher Meloni. John C. McGinley was a co-star in the Doozer-series Ground Floor from 2013 to 2015, appearing in all 20 episodes.
Show-running is such a high-burnout thing, and if you love your family and love your relationships you either have to stop doing it; if you're a control-freak and can't let go, and can't empower other people, or; you need to learn you have to empower other people and go home. Christa had done 22 years of back-to-back sitcoms, from The Drew Carey Show to Cougar Town, and was taking a break to look after the kids. I didn't, and I was absent for a bit, I tried to catch up later, but I had missed out. I really regret that. - Lawrence on Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, 2024.
Robert Maschio appeared in a 2014 episode of the Lawrence-ran series Undateable, credited as "The Todd." Tom Cavanagh played a part in the very same episode. In 2014, Lawrence and four other cast members from Undateable did a standup comedy tour to promote the show, scratching Lawrence's old standup-itch. Zach Braff, Donald Faison, Neil Flynn and Christa Miller all appeared in a 2015 live-taped 2-part episode of the show (Miller had previously appeared in another S03-episode,) whilst Sarah Chalke appeared in a separate 2015 episode, portraying herself. The show was on air from 2014 to 2016.
In 2015, Lawrence co-wrote a series-adaptation of Rush Hour, airing in 2016. The show was cancelled after one season. In 2017, Lawrence started developing a new multi-camera comedy series called Spaced Out, a show set in the world of commercial space travel. Along for the ride was Undatable co-creator and executive producer Adam Sztykiel. Brett Goldstein acted in the pilot, but the show didn't get picked up. Lawrence was an executive producer on Whiskey Cavalier in 2019, only one season was produced.
Lawrence was feeling like he was throwing shows off a cliff, and had trouble adjusting from the dead format of network-television to streaming. Lawrence didn't let the stagnation bring him down, he loved writing, or having written something (Lawrence jokes that people who actually enjoy the act of writing itself are sociopaths,) wasn't all that hung on securing a legacy, and he had always been financially stable. One day Lawrence decided he was going to wager a bit on his future success, he and Christa sold one of their houses, and he started getting serious about making a streaming-show.
Bill, Jason Sudeikis and Zach Braff. Zach directed the second episode of Ted Lasso, and has gone on to direct 3 episodes of Shrinking.
The wager payed off, and in recent times Lawrence is best known for having co-created and executive produced the Emmy-award winning series Ted Lasso for Apple TV+. The show was based off a series of Premiere League ads. Lawrence originally approached Sudeikis with the idea of adapting Carl Hiaasens Bad Monkey into a series, with him as a lead. Sudeikis, on the other hand, was more interested in doing something more with the old Ted Lasso-character, and that's what they ended up doing. The show has been credited with offering a lifeline of positivity during the COVID-19 pandemic, and was critically acclaimed throughout its run. Through the show, Lawrence crafted productive relationships with actor and writer Jason Sudeikis, and actor, co-creator and writing-partner Brett Goldstein, expanding his creative horizons. Goldstein was brought on through his Spaced Out-connection, originally to play Higgins, but the role was quickly filled. After a meeting with Sudeikis, Goldstein started writing for the show instead, and became part of the creator-trifecta. Goldstein started sniffing around one of the other roles, the role of Roy Kent. He made a self-tape, showed it to Lawrence, and Bill found it worthy of sending to Sudeikis. Sudeikis liked it, and Goldstein got the part. Lawrence gradually left the reigns more and more to Sudeikis, the character not originally being created by Lawrence made it easier for him to step aside and abide when his "ego and narcissism had to go away."
"When filming a pilot a character belongs 60% to the writers, ideally the dynamic shifts to 50-50 pretty quick, and on Scrubs the actors took full ownership of their characters by the end of the first season" - Lawrence in a 2024 WGF Library Script Breakdown.
Lawrence and Goldstein went on to make Shrinking.
In 2020, a Clone High-revival was greenlit. Two further seasons of the show have aired, with Lawrence returning as an executive producer.
Bill recovering from a Vince Vaughn-induced belly laugh on the set of Bad Monkey.
Lawrence has found a new home on the Apple TV+ platform, with his 3 seasons of Ted Lasso, 2 seasons of his series Shrinking (featuring Neil Flynn), and his adaptation of the Carl Hiaasen-book Bad Monkey all releasing through Apple's pipeline over a 4 year period (2020-2024). (Harrison Ford's character in Shrinking is loosely based on Phil Stutz, Christa Miller's psychologist.) Additionally, Lawrence is working on a project with Steve Carell for HBO. On his podcast, Pete Holmes dubbed this professional resurgence, helped along by Lawrence teaming up with fresh writing-partner Brett Goldstein, the "Lawrenaissance."
Following up on his promise to Carl Hiaasen, Bad Monkey was filmed in Florida, and made to be as authentic as possible. Lawrence and producer Matt Tarsis shared a condo in Florida during filming to be in close proximity of the shoot,
"I think I've always written with a relentless sense of optimism. I have to be inherently optimistic or I feel slightly buried by all the bleakness. The dialogue out there has gotten so toxic, and when you find people out there trying to ride whatever ship they're on through that storm ... man, I wanna get on board as much as I can." "The Ted Lasso-experience, that people embraced that show, it feeds it for me. I go "Wow, people are craving optimism and kindness" you know?"
In spite of it not being what Lawrence tends to write himself, he appreciates good snark, and he has on several occasions mentioned Veep being his favorite show.
On Set And in The Writer's Room
Lawrence is known to uphold a no asshole-policy on his sets. Furthermore, Lawrence is known to be supporting of his cast- and crew-members, and tries to take the role of caretaker. Lawrence has admitted that his supportive nature sometimes has been counterproductive, in situations where actors would be better served by frankness, but he also claims to have gotten better at addressing this over the years. During auditions, Lawrence is known to ask actors if they're happy with what they've showcased, if they're not; they get to go again. Because Lawrence tends to have locked down contracts with networks (meaning he doesn't get paid pr. script written,) Lawrence is also known to keep his name off scripts he collaborates with others on, seeing as that would half his co-writers profit, and all Lawrence would get in return would be credit. Whereas other writers (Lawrence's preferred example would be Aaron Sorkin,) accept this arrangement, Lawrence is known to take a more generous approach. In the Writer's Guild's Showrunner's Training Program showrunner John Welles, the man behind ER (a show that is often brought up alongside Scrubs as one of the most medically accurate around) teaches a class on organized show-running. Lawrence on the other hand, (occasionally) teaches a class on unorganized chaos. Lawrence usually dedicates the first couple of weeks in a writer's room to establishing characters and their trajectories, basically spitballing to nail down each character. In the writer's room for Ted Lasso, several writers struggled with getting used to being 4 weeks in and not talking story yet.
Lawrence acknowledges the importance of mentors in his life and career, mainly Bob Cox and Gary David Goldberg, and at the very start of Ted Lasso's production he and Jason Sudeikis went around to all of the writers and asked them who their mentors were. They ended up hearing a lot of beautiful stories.
Future Prospects
In 2022, Lawrence renewed his contract with Warner Bros. Television for another 5 years, starting in 2023, in exchange for an undisclosed, 9-figure, sum. A bump up from his 2018, 8-figure, deal, owing to the massive success of Ted Lasso.
Lawrence currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife, and their two sons. Their first child, Charlotte Sarah, has a successful music-career, and Bill attends every concert he can, dressed in full merch. Every Tuesday at 8.p.m. Lawrence hosts a privately held indoors basketball-game, originally started by Gary David Goldberg in the 1990s. Through this game, Lawrence gets to show off his "underrated" passes, while also getting to kid around in a safe environment, like he is back in high school with Rick Street by his side. Only difference being: now, he contains it to the game. Positivity, on the other hand, is something he spreads out generously.
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Awards[]
| Year | Ceremony | Award | Result | For | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | GLAAD Media Awards | GLAAD Media Award | Winner | Outstanding Television Comedy Series - Spin City | |||||
| Satelitte Awards | Satellite Award | Nominated | Best Television Series, Musical or Comedy - Spin City | ||||||
| GLAAD Media Awards | GLAAD Media Award | Nominated | Outstanding Television Comedy Series - Spin City | ||||||
| Satelitte Awards | Satelitte Award | Nominated | Best Television Series, Musical or Comedy - Spin City | ||||||
| 1998 | Golden Globe Awards | Golden Globe | Nominated | Best Television Series, Musical or Comedy - Spin City | |||||
| GLAAD Media Awards | GLAAD Media Award | Nominated | Outstanding Television Comedy Series - Spin City | ||||||
| Satelitte Awards | Satelitte Award | Nominated | Best Television Series, Musical or Comedy - Spin City | ||||||
| 1999 | Golden Globe Awards | Golden Globe | Nominated | Best Television Series, Musical or Comedy - Spin City | |||||
| GLAAD Media Awards | GLAAD Media Award | Nominated | Outstanding Television Comedy Series - Spin City | ||||||
| 2000 | Golden Globe Awards | Golden Globe | Nominated | Best Television Series, Musical or Comedy - Spin City | |||||
| 2001 | Writer's Guild of America | WGA Award | Nominated | Episodic Comedy - My First Day | |||||
| 2002 | Television Critics Association Awards | TCA Award | Nominated | Outstanding Achievement in Comedy - Scrubs | |||||
| Online Film & Television Association | OFTA Television Award | Winner | Best New Comedy Series - Scrubs | ||||||
| TV Land Awards | Future Classic Award | Winner | Future Classic - Scrubs | ||||||
| Online Film & Television Association | OFTA Television Award | Nominated | Best Comedy Series - Scrubs | ||||||
| Online Film & Television Association | OFTA Television Award | Nominated | Best Episode of A Comedy Series - My First Day | ||||||
| Teen's Choice Awards | Teen's Choice Award | Nominated | TV Choice Breakout Show - Scrubs | ||||||
| Teen's Choice Awards | Teen's Choice Award | Nominated | Choice TV Show: Comedy - Scrubs | ||||||
| 2003 | Writers Guild of America | WGA Award (TV) | Nominated | Episodic Comedy - Scrubs | |||||
| Golden Satellite | Golden Satellite Award | Nominated | Best Television Series, Comedy or Musical | ||||||
| Teen's Choice Awards | Teen's Choice Award | Nominated | Choice TV Show: Comedy - Scrubs | ||||||
| Online Film & Television Association | OFTA Television Award | Nominated | Best Comedy Series - Scrubs | ||||||
| 2004 | PGA Awards | Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Comedy | Nominated | Comedy - Scrubs | |||||
| Teen's Choice Awards | Teen's Choice Award | Nominated | Choice TV Show: Comedy - Scrubs | ||||||
| Online Film & Television Association | OFTA Television Award | Nominated | Best Writing in A Comedy Series - Scrubs | ||||||
| Online Film & Television Association | OFTA Television Award | Nominated | Best Comedy Series - Scrubs | ||||||
| 2005 | Emmy Awards | Emmy | Nominated | Outstanding Comedy Series - Scrubs | |||||
| PGA Awards | Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Comedy | Nominated | Comedy - Scrubs | ||||||
| Golden Derby | Golden Derby TV Award | Nominated | Comedy Series - Scrubs | ||||||
| Golden Satellite | Golden Satellite Award | Nominated | Best Television Series, Comedy or Musical | ||||||
| Teen's Choice Awards | Teen's Choice Award | Nominated | Choice TV Show: Comedy - Scrubs | ||||||
| People's Choice Awards | People's Choice Award | Nominated | Favorite Television Comedy - Scrubs | ||||||
| Online Film & Television Association | OFTA Television Award | Nominated | Best Writing in A Comedy Series - Scrubs | ||||||
| Online Film & Television Association | OFTA Television Award | Nominated | Best Comedy Series - Scrubs | ||||||
| 2006 | PGA Awards | Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Comedy | Nominated | Comedy - Scrubs | |||||
| Emmy Awards | Emmy | Nominated | Outstanding Comedy Series - Scrubs | ||||||
| Peabody Award | Peabody Award | Winner | Entertainment - Scrubs | ||||||
| Golden Derby | Golden Derby TV Award | Nominated | Comedy Series - Scrubs | ||||||
| Television Critics Association Awards | TCA Award | Nominated | Outstanding Achievement in Comedy - Scrubs | ||||||
| Online Film & Television Association | OFTA Television Award | Nominated | Best Writing in A Comedy Series - Scrubs | ||||||
| Online Film & Television Association | OFTA Television Award | Nominated | Best Comedy Series - Scrubs | ||||||
| 2007 | Online Film & Television Association | OFTA Television Award | Nominated | Best Writing in A Comedy Series - Scrubs | |||||
| Online Film & Television Association | OFTA Television Award | Nominated | Best Comedy Series - Scrubs | ||||||
| Golden Derby | Golden Derby TV Award | Nominated | Comedy Series - Scrubs | ||||||
| 2008 | Imagen | Imagen Award | Nominated | Best Primetime Series - Scrubs | |||||
| 2020 | Online Film & Television Association | OFTA Hall of Fame Award | Winner | OFTA TV Hall of Fame - Scrubs | |||||
| 2021 | Emmy Awards | Emmy | Winner | Outstanding Comedy Series - Ted Lasso | |||||
| PGA Awards | Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Comedy | Nominated | Comedy - Ted Lasso | ||||||
| Emmy Awards | Emmy | Nominated | Outstanding Writing For A Comedy Series - Ted Lasso | ||||||
| 2022 | Emmy Awards | Emmy | Winner | Outstanding Comedy Series - Ted Lasso | |||||
| PGA Awards | Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Comedy | Winner | Comedy - Ted Lasso | ||||||
| 2023 | Emmy Awards | Emmy | Nominated | Outstanding Comedy Series - Ted Lasso | |||||
| 2024 | PGA Awards | Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Comedy | Nominated | Comedy - Ted Lasso |
Episodes Written[]
- Season One:
- Season Two:
- "My Overkill"
- "My Philosophy" (story)
- "My T.C.W."
- Season Three:
- Season Four:
- Season Five:
- Season Eight:
- Season Nine:
Episode Directed[]
Episodes Appeared in[]
- Season Four
- "My New Game" (During the divorce ceremony)
- Season Five
- "My Missed Perception" (In the group photo)
- Season Six
- "My Best Friend's Baby's Baby and My Baby's Baby" (In the waiting room)
- "Their Story" (At Coffee Bucks)
- "My Point of No Return" (Running away with everyone with a teddy bear in his hands)
- Season Seven
- "My Identity Crisis" (During Dr. Cox's celebratory Mexican Wave)
- Season Eight
- "My Soul on Fire, Part 2" (Van)
- "My Finale" (Janitor)
| CREW | ||
|---|---|---|
|
All Crew Members • Writers • Directors • Producers • Editors • Other |
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| SCRUBS PRODUCTION | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Creator: Bill Lawrence Production Companies: ABC Studios • Doozer Networks: ABC • NBC |
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