And so because of that, yeah, I mean, that's my experience.

I'll go last, Anthony.

And I'm always tempted to have the real JD listen to this because he was my best buddy in college.

He was a screw up.

We drank beers together.

And when he decided to do this, He's a much better person than I am.

I'm not saying I'm a bad person, but like a lot of young men, I started pretty shallow.

exactly who you're talking

But the plan, it's interesting, because it sounds like the plan for Ted Lasso, like with shrinking apparently, was three and out, right? Well, here's what's

interesting, right? And I don't know how to, because I tried to explain this on social media recently with shrinking, and episode three season story and then I said no we're gonna keep doing it just with we're gonna do a new story now and so people said a new shrink story called shrinking with different actors and actresses I was like no the same cast but they'll be playing different characters and I'm like I'm gonna go to bed this isn't working no the way I like approaching streaming television is what I thought was so exciting, and maybe it's just my own personal response to this.

You guys don't understand, but when I, I'm a dinosaur.

When I did network television, it was not even unspoken, it was spoken.

Your job was to write a group of characters that never changes, that can be on for 150 episodes and be comfort food to people.

So much so that one of my favorite Zach Graff jokes I tell often is in the eighth year of Scrubs, someone asked him how much his character had changed and he said I think I have a beard now because he's like he's like I'm you know at that point he was like 33 and still going and having weird fantasies and stuff and so what really excited me about streaming is every time I pitched a streaming show I pitched the world the characters and because I want to tell the whole story I go here's the beginning middle and end Okay? And they say, but what if at the beginning and the middle of the end it happened and people still watch the show? And I'm like, well, if the characters are that good and rich, we'll come up with another story.

You know? And Shrinky Ted Lasso is a great example because Jason stayed very true.

I've

I know you can't say virtually anything about what's coming up, but I know it was a time jump of some sort.

Yeah.

You know, look, what I can really say, it's so interesting, man.

It's one of the things I've been trying to talk about is I love the narrative on, well, I just love the way that people on social media, if you find social media, that's not toxic, it's there.

I swear some of it's there.

But yeah, I would have been a sucker for it because people on there talk about TV, at least stuff that's not being crazy and looking for TV conspiracy theories.

A lot of people on there talk about TV the way I used to speak about TV with my friends.

What would you say is your definitive Hollywood story? And it could be either positive or negative.

But where are you finding talent right now to take bets on?

It's been kind of an interesting journey because all types of places, right? So I've been doing it long enough that I've had writer-performers cross my path a whole bunch of times, which has been really fun.

Brett Goldstein is a great example.

I will suck his blood until he's no longer able to work.

So definitely there, definitely in places that I didn't used to, you know, whether it be people on platforms like yours or, you know, the ability of young artists to not only put their own material but sketch and other stuff up where before it was just kind of You know, a million billion spec scripts has been kind of really, really cool and refreshing and I still I still chase IP.

The most interesting thing, and it's not fair, but I say Hollywood's changing is I think if you become a It sounds too self-aggrandizing, but if you become a brand as a writer, producer, often you don't have to seek it out and all these interesting things come your way.

You'll get calls from a company like OBB or Fanatics who are doing sports related content, or somebody will reach out from someone that when I got to the business, you didn't even know makes television.

It's

[laughs]

Um, and, uh, it's corny to say that I, I, I'm just always fascinated by the issue of nepotism on the whole out here in Hollywood.

And, uh, look, and it's in every industry.

And all I mean by that is if you have a person that you love or that you're friends with that you, that happens to be very, very talented, and you enjoy working with them and spending time with them, I personally think you're crazy not to hire them again and again.

And that doesn't just go for my spouse.

You know, some people, like, will notice across my shows over the years the same actors and actresses from Spin City, you know, are in Rooster.

Some of the people from Scrubs are in Shrinking.

For all of you, what's the hardest conversation you've ever had to have with an actor?

Bill?

Uh, hey, guys.

How you doing? Um, question number, Ken Jenkins in that gorilla suit, I seem to recall...

This is what I love about Ken, uh, you know, trying to be respectful of actors.

I was like, "Of course, Ken, if you wanna be the guy in the suit, you know, we w- " And I think he cut me off and said, "Bill, it's not gonna, you're not gonna see me.

I don't care if I'm ever in that gorilla suit." [laughs] So I do not think Ken Jenkins was ever in that thing.

I'm pretty sure.

Oh, hi.

What can I do for you, Greg?

I'm here to make sure that Katie's job is safe.

For co-creators Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarsis, the girl dad storyline hits close to home.

I'm not great at writing about things that I don't have a personal connection to.

And I am without a doubt in this show specifically writing about something, uh, that both Matt and I are experiencing personally.

Steve, Matt, and I all have daughters that have reached a level of adulthood that they no longer want us in their lives as much as we wanna be.

And we still wanna protect them and make sure everything works out and goes well.

But the truth is, if we had a gun to our head and we had to admit it, we're not doing it for them, we're doing it for ourselves.

So how did Paul Quinn come to us? I think he did a nice job, but, uh, what's the Paul Quinn story, Bill?

So this is how it works.

You all only call me when, um, Wiki guy or the Todd aren't available.

Your, your cooler, more, um, um, hip friends.

Fine.

I'll take it, but I don't like it.

I don't have to like it.

I know, I know your voice.

Golden Girls.

Yeah.

[laughs] All right.

Cougar Town is a show, and this might be...

All right, tell me if this would be your panic.

So, um, I created a show called Cougar Town with Kevin Beetle, and we weren't sure what the show was.

All we were sure about was it's very hard back then to sell things, get 'em made, put 'em on TV.

Bill, uh, Scrubs Bill, Bad Monkey Bill, if you, Bad Monkey Bill were to give Scrubs Bill advice, not about the show Scrubs, but, uh, about your, your specific process for writing, could, could you articulate that? And you can think about that for a second.

Yeah, yeah

... check it out.

It's pretty good.

Um, but, uh, they said they wanna do a sp- spinoff, and it was gonna be called Scrubs Med School, Scrubs Med.

And we cast new people.

Dave Franco, awesome.

Carrie Bishé, awesome.

There was a direct connection, right, between Scrubs and Cougar Town?

[laughs]

But yeah.

You know, I can't remember if anything was mine or not because it was a while ago, and that happened very quickly.

Like, I, I, I only had a little while to learn that, like 36 hours.

Mm-hmm.

Um, and that changes him a lot I think.

He's already had this amazing friend group, chosen family, a lot of therapists that have, like, been there for him, and he's been there for them.

And then he has this amazing husband, Charlie-

Hmm.

Just wanted to say.

Um, I, I see, um, uh, young people that live in this world.

My daughter lives in this world.

She's got a million Instagram followers.

It's part of her career.

She self-promotes her music, and, and I've, I've, I've witnessed things that are confusing to me.

So, I should hope that I'm more confident.