Freddie Highmore series The Good Doctor has been given the go ahead for a backdoor pilot spin-off entitled The Good Lawyer. As per Variety, the ABC show, which was first said to be in development last August, is now moving forward for a pilot, which will star Kennedy McMann and Felicity Huffman. If the pilot proves successful, the resulting series would put Huffman in her first major role since serving 11 days in prison for being involved in the 2019 college admission scandal.
The Good Doctor is currently airing its sixth season on ABC, and the episode on March 6 will feature the character of Joni DeGroot (McMann), a lawyer who has obsessive compulsive disorder, which will be one of her defining traits in the series. The official description of the episode reads, “Dr. Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) seeks legal representation to help him win a case and puts his faith in a promising, young lawyer who has obsessive compulsive disorder (McMann).”
According to the details released about McMann’s character, she is a “brilliant, funny and self-aware lawyer who is relatively new to her prestigious law firm when she takes Shaun’s case. Living with OCD, Joni has never wanted to be treated differently. While her symptoms take a toll on her personal and professional life, her attention to detail allows her to see cases through a different lens.”
Who Does Felicity Huffman Play in The Good Lawyer?
Felicity Huffman will also make her first appearance as new character Janet Stewart in the episode. As the second character being tried out for The Good Lawyer, Stewart is “a highly regarded attorney and partner at the law firm with a fierce intellect and dry wit. A seasoned veteran, Janet has represented Dr. Aaron Glassman (Richard Schiff) in several legal matters over the years, so he turns to her to represent his beloved protégé. But when Shaun declares that he wants Joni to represent him, Janet is forced to let Joni take lead on the case.”
Of course, Huffman was a regular on ABC when starring in its hit series Desperate Housewives for its eight-season run, picking up multiple Emmy and Golden Globe nominations in the process.
In 2019, Huffman was named as one of several high profile people implicated in “Operation Varsity Blues”, an FBI investigation that concluded that more than 30 parents of college-aged students had paid bribes in order get their children into a number of universities. The case, which saw Huffman spend 11 days of her 14 day sentence in jail for her part of the scandal, was later dramatized in Netflix’s Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal. As part of the punishment, Huffman was also instructed to 250 hours of community service and received a fine. The actress was previously announced as part of the pilot for a comedy series about a minor league baseball team with Zack Gottsagen, but there has been no confirmation of anything moving ahead with the show.
