'Ted Lasso' and 'Scrubs' Creator Bill Lawrence Is Having a Good Week

There are a number of prolific showrunners — Ryan Murphy, David E. Kelley, Shonda Rhimes — but I can’t think of any outside of Mike Schur who have been as consistently successful as Bill Lawrence, the man behind Scrubs, Cougar Town, Ted Lasso, and Shrinking (Whiskey Cavalier was a bit of a dud, but it was an amusing — and expensive — dud).

A few weeks ago, I bemoaned the lack of news about Bad Monkey, a Bill Lawrence creation starring Vince Vaughn that was shot a couple of years ago and seemed to have been forgotten by Apple TV+. They must have read my piece because less than two weeks later, they’ve finally put the series on their schedule. You’re welcome! Based on the Carl Hiaasen novel of the same name, Bad Monkey will premiere with two episodes on August 19th and run for 10 episodes.

In addition to Vaughn, the ensemble cast also includes Rob Delaney, Alex Moffat, Michelle Monaghan, Jodie Turner-Smith, and guest stars John Ortiz, Zach Braff, and Bill’s daughter, Charlotte Lawrence, in her television debut. Apple TV+ has even blessed us with a few images, including the header image above.

Meanwhile, while he’s launching one show (and hopefully, season 2 of Shrinking will be back soon), he’s also starting development on another, this one a single-camera half-hour comedy for HBO. This one stars Steve Carell, and is “set on a college campus, centering on an author’s complicated relationship with his daughter.”

To my knowledge, Lawrence’s daughter Charlotte has not been cast as the daughter, but don’t think it won’t happen as I suspect Lawrence’s “complicated relationship with his daughter” is very much inspired by his relationship with his own daughter, and Lawrence is not above putting family members in his shows (see, e.g., his wife). Carell also does great Dad, so I am excited about that.

The show also comes from Matt Tarses, with whom Lawrence worked on Scrubs. I hope it does well. Carell could use a hit.

Here’s Charlotte Lawrence’s most recent music video.