Sometimes the best ideas come from meeting in the middle.
Bill Lawrence, the creator of Scrubs and co-creator of Ted Lasso, finally put pen to paper on a long-gestating idea for his upcoming series Shrinking, premiering Jan. 27 on Apple TV+.
"I always had, in the back of my head," Bill explained in an exclusive E! News video, "writing a show about a physician or a therapist that was kind of dealing with grief."
As it turns out, Ted Lasso star and writer Brett Goldstein had been playing around with something similar.
"I had an idea that was the very, very dark version of what this show is," Brett revealed. "[Bill] said, ‘Why don't we put these together?'"
And thus, Shrinking was born!
We'd tell you about the show ourselves, but we'll let Jason Segel fill you in on the story about his therapist character Jimmy Laird.
"You meet Jimmy, truly, at rock bottom grieving the loss of his wife," Jason said. "Things reach a boiling point and he decides to start telling patients exactly what he thinks."
As seen in the video, a couple of Jimmy's patients are played by Saturday Night Live's Heidi Gardner and Deadly Class star Luke Tennie. In the case of Luke, who plays Sean, Jimmy inspires him to take a boxing class to work out some of his frustration.
Hey, whatever helps!
Jimmy's journey is certainly not without its road bumps, as Jason explained, "We watch Jimmy, clumsily, figure out how to rebuild."
Ultimately, though, the team behind Shrinking hopes Jimmy's story can be a source of inspiration. "By helping others," Jason said about the character's path of reconstruction, "we can somehow heal ourselves."
The series also stars Harrison Ford—in just his second regular TV role ever after the Yellowstone prequel series 1923—Jessica Williams, Michael Urie, Lukita Maxwell and Bill Lawrence's wife Christa Miller.
Shrinking premieres Jan. 27 on Apple TV+.