According to Deadline, ABC has commissioned The Good Lawyer, a spinoff of The Good Doctor set in the legal field and starring women. David Shore and Liz Friedman, who were instrumental in the making of The Good Doctor, will be joining the new programme as producers. This announcement follows the recent announcement of a spin-off of another successful ABC series, The Rookie. Freddie Highmore plays Dr Shaun Murphy, a surgical resident with autism and savant talents, on the HBO series The Good Doctor.
After some convincing, he takes Dr Aaron Glassman up on his offer to train at New York City’s prestigious St. Bonaventure Hospital. The young surgeon faces challenges in establishing rapport with his coworkers and winning over the rest of the surgical team to his belief in his abilities because of their doubts. The effects of living with an invisible impairment on one’s career and personal life are examined in the episode. In The Good Lawyer, Joni, a new attorney at the firm that represents Drs. Glassman and Murphy will play a role with some parallels to the protagonist.
Because of her obsessive-compulsive disorder, Joni, a young, ambitious lawyer, is subject to discrimination at work and must work hard to keep her job. Janet, her cynical supervisor and a seasoned lawyer, is wary of her because of her condition. Although superficially similar, the interplay between Joni and Janet is expected to be much different from that of Murphy and Glassman in The Good Doctor, leading to a completely different perspective on the topic of disability in the workplace.
Almost a year has passed since the previous head of Sony TV Studios Jeff Frost said “it was always a possibility” and that the company would “love to see happen” that The Good Doctor would get a spinoff. He went on to say that he didn’t want to make something that would “affect the mothership,” but admitted that a spinoff was possible. Since the original Korean series on which The Good Doctor is based did not have a spinoff, the idea for the sequel is entirely new. Friedman will join Shore and Eric Gunn as executive producers for Shore Z Prods. Along with Shore Z, Sony Pictures Television will produce the show.