How a scene from ‘Scrubs’ inspired the balance of grief and humor in ‘Shrinking’

By Alli Rosenbloom, CNN

(CNN) — When life gets tough, sometimes the best medicine is laughter.

At least that’s what “Shrinking” co-creator Bill Lawrence thinks about while working on the Apple TV+ comedy, which debuts its second season Wednesday.

The seasoned writer and showrunner behind “Scrubs,” “Ted Lasso,” and “Spin City,” among others, knows the formula for stories that may prompt viewers to ugly cry and laugh out loud at the same scene.

In “Shrinking,” which he co-created alongside “Ted Lasso” star Brett Goldstein and Jason Segel, Lawrence was once again met with the challenge of injecting levity into a series that, at its core, examines the very human experience of trying to navigate life while grieving the death of a loved one.

He didn’t really need to look further than his own previous work for inspiration on how to tonally achieve that in “Shrinking.”

In a recent interview with CNN, Lawrence recalled a scene in a 2004 episode of “Scrubs” being the moment he discovered out how to strike that emotional balance of a heavy heart with humor. The scene in the medical sitcom, he said, helped inform how he and his team of writers worked to “show the very humanity in laughing your way through tough moments.”

The episode, titled “My Cake” from Season 4 of “Scrubs” – which Lawrence told CNN he’s “working really hard” to reboot amid speculation that the show may return to the small screen – covered the death of Zach Braff’s character JD’s father, played by the late John Ritter.

This wasn’t the storyline they had expected to be writing at the time, said Lawrence. Ritter appeared in several episodes of “Scrubs” since its 2001 debut until he unexpectedly died in 2003 of a heart issue.

In the same episode, JD’s best friend Turk (Donald Faison) learns of his type 2 diabetes diagnosis, spurring the two to joke about their respective traumas overshadowing the others in a scene that has stuck with Lawrence ever since.

“I feel like your dad dying has stolen my diabetes thunder,” Turk candidly said to JD in the episode.

“Oh my god, just this second I was thinking your diabetes was going to get in the way of my dad dying,” JD retorted, with a laugh. “Isn’t that cool?”

The scene showcases JD and Turk finding ways to laugh while experiencing serious shifts in their lives, much like Segel’s “Shrinking” character Jimmy, a grieving widower, does with Paul (Harrison Ford), who is grappling with his Parkinson’s disease diagnosis.

“We have some really, really tender scenes of Paul coming to terms with the fact that he can’t do this much longer,” Segel told CNN in a recent interview, speaking about Season 2.

These scenes with Ford, said Segel, “feel really intimate and really tender and like I’m actually honored to be participating in somebody going through something on screen, which is what I think art is.”

“Shrinking” stars Segel, Jessica Williams and Ford. Goldstein, who serves as a co-creator and writer on “Shrinking,” will guest star this season, with Christa Miller, Luke Tennie, Michael Urie, Lukita Maxwell and Ted McGinley rounding out the cast.

Jimmy starts to use non-traditional methods in his therapy practice as he grieves the death of his wife. His decision to throw ethics and his training out the window results in big changes in both his clients lives and his own.

Top to bottom, Season 2 will explore the theme of forgiveness, according to both Segel and Lawrence, with each character facing it head on one way or another. The first episode picks up with the ensuing aftermath of Jimmy offering some very questionable advice to one of his clients.

“I find it really interesting and funny how clumsy and hard and complicated life is,” Segel said. “I think you feel some melancholy in the show and then there’s also joy, and there’s some camaraderie in how hard it all is.”

Like with JD and Turk on “Scrubs” or Jimmy and Paul on “Shrinking,” or however it may apply to your own life experiences, this is where your friends come in, Segel said.

“That’s actually kind of the beautiful thing about friendship, is that it’s sad and beautiful and filled with laughter and you lean on each other when it’s hard,” he said. “That’s a little bit what the show is supposed to feel like.”

Season 2 of “Shrinking” is now available to stream on AppleTV, with new episodes released weekly.

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