St Denis Medical: Josh Lawson on the delights of a procedural comedy and working with improv legends

Audiences love a hard-hitting, complex show with movie stars and big-name directors.

After a decade-long dominance, the prestigious miniseries has started to wane. Part of that is due to a contraction in the industry and part of that is a resurgence of the procedural format.

You know the one. They’re week-to-week with episodic plotlines and the drawcard that keeps you coming back for more is not the story so much as the characters.

“There is something comforting about having a procedural on in the house because you’re familiar with the characters, and just hearing that in the house can sometimes just make you feel a little less lonely perhaps,” actor Josh Lawson told The Nightly.

Lawson is one of the stars of St Denis Medical, an American hospital comedy that premiered in the US late last year and has already been rubber stamped for a second season.

The series comes from Justin Spitzer and Eric Ledgin and features an ensemble cast that also includes sitcom legends David Allen Grier and Wendi McLendon-Covey, as well as Allison Tolman, Mekki Leeper and Kaliko Kauahi.

Spitzer was the creator of Superstore and St Denis Medical shares a lot of that DNA — a workplace comedy with lovable kooks, hijinks and light-hearted conflict. It follows in the mockumentary tradition of The Office US, Parks and Recreation and Abbott Elementary.

Lawson had a recurring role on Superstore, while Kauahi and St Denis recurring star Nico Santos are also alumni, so it’s a world he understands well.

He gets that his character, a cocky doctor named Bruce, has to walk the fine line between arrogance and unlikability. It’s important he can switch from pranking one of his colleagues by buying up their favourite chocolate bar and then launch straight into a life-saving operation.

“The character is egotistical and arrogant, and it could very easily be an unlikeable character,” Lawson explained.

“But he should never be deliberately mean to anyone. It should be because he’s clueless. There were some times when the lines would come out and I’ll say, ‘Look, we can’t make Bruce unlikeable, he should definitely be stupid at times, clueless, socially dumb and focused on himself, but he should always intend to be good’.”

You have to want to keep watching him.

That’s the secret sauce in any procedural show, which used to be the lifeblood of American TV.

When Lawson moved to Los Angeles for the first time in 2008, the holy grail was to land a broadcast network TV show. They tend to run for 20 to 24 episodes over a year and they often went for five, six or seven seasons.

Not long after, streamers disrupted the market and everything changed.

“But I’ve got to say, I love being on a network show because it gives you the chance to build a friendship and a work family. In this industry, that doesn’t happen all the time. Often you do a job and then you never see them again.

“So, it’s great that I love everyone (at St Denis). The industry has had its ups and downs in the last few years with the strikes and stuff, so you really felt on this set how grateful everyone was to have a job.”

Working alongside the likes of Grier is a particular delight. “I was a big fan of In Living Colour when I was a kid, so I’ve been watching his stuff since I started watching television. To act alongside people like him, Wendi and Allison, they’re such generous people.

“You, pretty quickly, stop feeling like you’re acting with an icon because they just make you feel like you’re acting with a colleague.”

McLendon-Covey is one of the best improvisers Lawson has ever worked with. He said they’ll always do a version of what’s in the script but the filmmakers will let them play around and see if they can’t find some jokes on the day.

Lawson’s own improv background includes his stints on Thank God You’re Here but also time with American troupes The Groundlings and The Second City. Being able to stretch those muscles again is a great gift.

“When you’re improvising with expert improvisers, it’s something pretty special. You never feel like you’re going to fall on your face because a good improviser will always catch you, no matter how crazy or dumb my idea is. Somebody great will turn that into something amazing,” he said.

But more than comedy chops, what he’s taken from his co-stars is the importance of being a good colleague on set.

“The industry has in the past 10 years had a big spotlight on it for bad behaviour,” he explained. “I’m seeing a lot less, if any, of that diva behaviour because we realise now we can be easily replaced.

“Work is not guaranteed, so when you look at the top dogs on a set, I’m constantly seeing kindness, generosity and gratitude. The lesson from that is you can be extremely talented, you can be at the top of your game, and that doesn’t mean you don’t have to be nice to people.”

That only adds to the warm-and-fuzzy familiarity of a procedural, if you know that the work family on screen is also a work family behind-the-scenes.

St Denis is streaming on 7plus