This Is How the Writers’ Strike Changed the Way ‘The Good Doctor’ Ended
The series finale for ABC’s The Good Doctor aired, and it was revealed that adjustments were made during production, especially since the show was affected by the 2023 Writers’ Strikes. In an interview with Variety, the show’s executive producer, Liz Friedman, shared how the number of episodes in season 7 constantly changed and how it affected the final story.
Despite the ongoing strikes, one of Friedman’s main concerns was the number of episodes The Good Doctor’s final season would have. Originally, the medical drama was slated for a 15-episode release but was eventually downsized to 10. This led to the production team scrambling on how to make the story work due to the reduced number of episodes:
“No, that was not in the planning. I mean, part of going through the writers’ strike was a repeated calculation of how many episodes we could do if it ended next week. And it was hard, honestly, because even when we came back, we had the ability to do 15 [episodes]. ABC initially said, no, we only want 13 and then that number got reduced to 10. But we figured it out, and downsized our story to make it work for that many episodes.”
The final season of The Good Doctorwas announced in April 2023 and finished production nearly a year later. According to the show’s creator, David Shore, it was his and ABC’s decision to close the book of this popular medical drama. While the story was cut short due to a variety of reasons, Friedman said that she rewatched the pilot episode in preparation for the series finale:
“There are definitely moments that refer back to [the pilot]. Honestly, it was a bit of an accident, but we came up with the story, and then I took a look at the Season 1 finale, which was really about Shaun learning that Glassman had cancer. And those two stories speak to each other quite a bit in a way that really pleases me. It really gives a very good measure of Shaun’s progress over the course of these seven years.”
What Is ‘The Good Doctor’ About?
The Good Doctor is an ABC medical drama that first aired in 2017 and stars Freddie Highmore as Shaun Murphy, a gifted autistic surgical resident in San Jose St. Bonaventure Hospital. As the show progressed, viewers got to see Shaun go through numerous challenges, personal, work-related, and sometimes both, and how his colleagues slowly came to accept him as a professional doctor. The medical drama also featured notable guest stars, such as Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender’s Daniel Dae Kim, Diary of a Wimpy Kid’s Zachary Gordon, and House’s, Beau Garrett
