“The best thing about Hollywood, other than, obviously, award shows, is that all of us got in the door because someone believed in us,” said Bill Lawrence, accepting the WGA East Herb Sergeant Award in New York tonight, urging the assembled to “go out and find a young person to believe in.”
“Give an hour of your time to someone every month. In the worst case, you get to talk about yourself for an hour,” said the creator of Scrubs, which has a reboot in development, and Apple TV+ hit Ted Lasso, eyeing a fourth season. His long list of credits also includes Apple’s Shrinking and Bad Monkey, Spin City and Cougar Town. He was, however, quite serious, devoting his acceptance speech to helping the next generation of writers, especially in a new landscape of small writing staffs, and young writers jumping from show to show. It’s never been harder.
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“Ask the PA or the writers’ assistant if they want to walk to set with you, or grab lunch and talk. Yes, you need to be honest and occasionally rain on someone’s dreams. But it’s a small cost.” Because “being a mentor is never selfless … I am amassing a list of people who will give me my last job when I am un-hirable.”
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Lawrence, who said he was “not an engaged student,” credits his start to a high school English teacher named Bob Cox, who recently passed away. “He told me I was pretty decent at writing stories and dialogue” and opened his office to talking about movies and TV shows. “It was a gift.”
Dr. Perry Cox in Scrubs is his namesake.
The Sargent Award is presented to a writer “who embodies the spirit, commitment and comic genius of Sargent” — a writer-producer known for his work on Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show, who served as president of the WGAE for 14 years and was a dedicated mentor to new writers. Paul Simms, Judd Apatow, Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, Steve O’Donnell, Norman Stiles, Lorne Michaels, Paula Pell and James L. Brooks are previous winners.
The awards unspooled in tandem on both coasts, with the WGA West presenting in Los Angeles.