Bill Lawrence's Original Pitch For Shrinking Was Shut Down For Being Too 'Bleak'
Bill Lawrence's new comedy series "Shrinking," starring Jason Segel as a therapist who throws out the rule book after his wife dies, has been received fairly well so far. It helps that Harrison Ford's in it and seemingly having the time of his life, and that Lawrence has had plenty of experience writing shows that cover dark subject matter. His other ongoing show, "Ted Lasso," goes to some incredibly heartbreaking, depressing places; some characters have abusive fathers, some characters are dealing with the untimely death of a parent, and at one point Coach Beard looks like he's just a few seconds away from getting murdered. Despite that, "Lasso" maintains its reputation as an aggressively nice, heartwarming series.
Lawrence's original idea for "Shrinking," however, was even darker than the premise we have now, inspired by something that happened to his neighbor. As he explained to The Hollywood Reporter:
"My neighbor, who's this great dad, had been on vacation, and ... this is really bleak ... his parents, one of his children and his wife were in one car and he was in another car with his daughter, and there was an accident, and [those in the other car] passed away. He's remarried now and has a new kid, but I remember pitching this idea back then and it being received with, 'Dude, you're a comedy writer, you can't do s*** like this. This stuff's bleak.'"
Although this initial premise was shut down, the basic concept of an untimely tragedy still stuck around as the foundation for the show. You might think the higher ups at Apple TV+ would balk at such a bleak concept for a comedy series, but Lawrence has been balancing tragedy with comedy in his writing for decades now. I mean, just look at "Scrubs."
Remember how dark Scrubs got?
Over 20 years before "Shrinking" premiered, the first season of "Scrubs" hit the small screen, and Bill Lawrence proved that the line between tragedy and comedy was very thin, and remarkably easy for him to walk. The first episode featured JD (Zach Braff) dealing with the death of a patient, and things only got heavier from there. Basically every main character eventually had to deal with the death of a close friend, family member, or of a particularly-beloved patient, and all the relationship drama went way harder than the usual sitcom. When Turk (Donald Faison) and Carla (Judy Reyes) went through early marital struggles, at times it felt genuinely uncertain whether their marriage would survive.
And yet, it was also one of the funniest shows on TV, and sometimes the funniest episodes and the saddest episodes were one and the same. Season 6's "My Long Goodbye," which follows Carla as she struggles to cope with her good friend Laverne's untimely death, features some of the funniest jokes in the whole series, without ever undermining the tone. The fantasy sequences have always been used as a fun escape from reality, so they're especially welcome in the episodes where the reality of the situation is too much to bear.
Since "Scrubs" ended after eight (and only eight) seasons, the popularity of TV shows that thread the line between comedy and drama has only grown. The premise of "Shrinking" still feels like a risk, but with the popularity of shows like "Bojack Horseman," "The Bear," and "Barry" — all of which go to some bleak places despite being technically comedies — the so-far success of "Shrinking" makes perfect sense.
"Shrinking" is streaming on Apple TV+.