He Spins, He Scrubs: Profile on Showrunner Bill Lawrence

HE SPINS, HE SCRUBS

It's the Hollywood Dream Come True

A young man heads West and strikes gold. For Bill Lawrence, 33, creator and executive producer of Scrubs (NBC, Tuesdays, 9:30 P.M./ET), gold took the form of TV writing—and his own leading lady. "I really hadn't been west of the Mississippi," says the Connecticut native, who, at 21, "bounced around" among TV series before landing work on an untried show called Friends. "[I've] been unbelievably lucky," he says.

Before Lawrence knew it, former Family Ties producer Gary David Goldberg—whom he'd worked with on Friends—enlisted the young writer's help in staging a TV comeback for Michael J. Fox. The result: Spin City. And because of that show, Lawrence met his wife, Christa Miller, the costar of another ABC series, The Drew Carey Show. ("We kept seeing each other at the same functions.") Now, they have a daughter, Charlotte, 1, and Miller has a recurring role on Scrubs—all of which Lawrence attributes to his lucky streak. "Did you see my wife?" he says. "I mean, you've got to be kidding. I mean, wow!"