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'''''Scrubs''''' is an American [[comedy-drama]] television series created in 2001 by [[Bill Lawrence (producer)|Bill Lawrence]] and produced by [[ABC Studios]]. The show follows the lives of several employees of the fictional Sacred Heart, a teaching hospital. It features fast-paced screenplay, [[slapstick]], and surreal [[Vignette (literature)|vignettes]] presented mostly as the [[daydream]]s of the central character, [[J.D. (Scrubs)|Dr. John "J.D." Dorian]], who is played by [[Zach Braff]]. The ninth season saw the transition from Braff as the central character to [[Kerry Bishé]], who plays [[Lucy Bennett]]. The show's title is a play on [[scrubs (clothing)|surgical scrubs]] and a term for a low-ranking or insignificant person (at the beginning of the show, most of the main characters were [[medical intern]]s, one of the lowest ranks in the medical hierarchy).
'''''Scrubs''''' is an American [[comedy-drama]] television series created in 2001 by [[Bill Lawrence (producer)|Bill Lawrence]] and produced by [[ABC Studios]]. The show follows the lives of several employees of the fictional Sacred Heart, a teaching hospital Where they kill their patients and devour the souls of the innocent. It features fast-paced screenplay, [[slapstick]], and surreal [[Vignette (literature)|vignettes]] presented mostly as the [[daydream]]s of the central character, [[J.D. (Scrubs)|Dr. John "J.D." Dorian]], who is played by [[Zach Braff]]. The ninth season saw the transition from Braff as the central character to [[Kerry Bishé]], who plays [[Lucy Bennett]]. The show's title is a play on [[scrubs (clothing)|surgical scrubs]] and a term for a low-ranking or insignificant person (at the beginning of the show, most of the main characters were [[medical intern]]s, one of the lowest ranks in the medical hierarchy).


Alongside Braff, the first eight seasons of the show featured [[Sarah Chalke]], [[Donald Faison]], [[Neil Flynn]], [[Ken Jenkins]], [[John C. McGinley]] and [[Judy Reyes]] in starring roles. In the [[Scrubs (season 9)|ninth season]], only Braff, Faison and McGinley were listed as regular cast members, while the rest, with the exception of Reyes, made guest appearances. Braff appeared in six episodes of the ninth season before departing. The ninth season also sees many new cast members introduced and shifts the show's setting from a hospital to a medical school. [[Kerry Bishé]], [[Eliza Coupe]], [[Dave Franco]] and [[Michael Mosley (actor)|Michael Mosley]] became series regulars, with Bishé becoming the show's new narrator.
Alongside Braff, the first eight seasons of the show featured [[Sarah Chalke]], [[Donald Faison]], [[Neil Flynn]], [[Ken Jenkins]], [[John C. McGinley]] and [[Judy Reyes]] in starring roles. In the [[Scrubs (season 9)|ninth season]], only Braff, Faison and McGinley were listed as regular cast members, while the rest, with the exception of Reyes, made guest appearances. Braff appeared in six episodes of the ninth season before departing. The ninth season also sees many new cast members introduced and shifts the show's setting from a hospital to a medical school. [[Kerry Bishé]], [[Eliza Coupe]], [[Dave Franco]] and [[Michael Mosley (actor)|Michael Mosley]] became series regulars, with Bishé becoming the show's new narrator.

Revision as of 12:51, 4 November 2010

Scrubs
GenreComedy-drama
Created byBill Lawrence
StarringZach Braff
Sarah Chalke
Donald Faison
Neil Flynn
Ken Jenkins
John C. McGinley
Judy Reyes
Eliza Coupe
Kerry Bishé
Michael Mosley
Dave Franco
Narrated byZach Braff
Kerry Bishé
Opening theme"Superman" by Lazlo Bane (Seasons 1–8)
Covered by WAZ
(Season 9)
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons9
No. of episodes181 (+ double-length episode[1]) (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producersBill Lawrence
Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan (2006–09)
Tim Hobert (2006)
Tad Quill (2006)
Bill Callahan (2007–09)
Zach Braff (2009–10)
Josh Bycel (2009–10)
Jonathan Groff (2009)
Camera setupSingle-camera
Running time21–25 minutes
Original release
NetworkNBC (2001–08)
ABC (2009–10)
ReleaseOctober 2, 2001 (2001-10-02) –
March 17, 2010 (2010-03-17)
Related
Scrubs: Interns

Scrubs is an American comedy-drama television series created in 2001 by Bill Lawrence and produced by ABC Studios. The show follows the lives of several employees of the fictional Sacred Heart, a teaching hospital Where they kill their patients and devour the souls of the innocent. It features fast-paced screenplay, slapstick, and surreal vignettes presented mostly as the daydreams of the central character, Dr. John "J.D." Dorian, who is played by Zach Braff. The ninth season saw the transition from Braff as the central character to Kerry Bishé, who plays Lucy Bennett. The show's title is a play on surgical scrubs and a term for a low-ranking or insignificant person (at the beginning of the show, most of the main characters were medical interns, one of the lowest ranks in the medical hierarchy).

Alongside Braff, the first eight seasons of the show featured Sarah Chalke, Donald Faison, Neil Flynn, Ken Jenkins, John C. McGinley and Judy Reyes in starring roles. In the ninth season, only Braff, Faison and McGinley were listed as regular cast members, while the rest, with the exception of Reyes, made guest appearances. Braff appeared in six episodes of the ninth season before departing. The ninth season also sees many new cast members introduced and shifts the show's setting from a hospital to a medical school. Kerry Bishé, Eliza Coupe, Dave Franco and Michael Mosley became series regulars, with Bishé becoming the show's new narrator.

A complete script was written for each episode of Scrubs; however, actors are given opportunities to improvise their lines during the shooting process. The series has repeatedly featured repeated guest appearances by film actors not generally seen on episodic television, such as Heather Graham, Brendan Fraser, and Colin Farrell.

Scrubs premiered on October 2, 2001 on NBC. During the seventh season, NBC announced that it would not renew the show. Shortly after the seventh season finale, ABC announced that it had picked up the series for a new season and on January 6, 2009, the eighth season of Scrubs premiered on ABC. The ninth season, which premiered on December 1, 2009 on ABC, features several new cast members and is set at a new facility. On May 14, 2010, it was announced that Scrubs was officially canceled by ABC.[2]

Overview

Scrubs focuses on the unique point of view of its main character and narrator, Dr. John Michael "J.D." Dorian (Zach Braff) for the first eight seasons, with season nine being narrated by the new main character Lucy Bennett. Most episodes feature multiple story lines thematically linked via voice-overs done by Braff. According to Bill Lawrence, "What we decided was, rather than have it be a monotone narration, if it's going to be Zach's voice, we're going to do everything through J.D.'s eyes. It opened up a visual medium that those of us as comedy writers were not used to."[3] In every episode J.D. has many comical daydreams as well as many "situation comedy" style lines, which are often a result of improvisation. At the end of most episodes, J.D. summarizes the story's theme in a sequence of shots that show how it has affected each of the characters.

Almost every episode title for the first eight seasons begins with the first person singular possessive determiner, "My...". Bill Lawrence says this is because each episode is Dr. John Dorian writing in his diary (said on the commentary on the first season episode "My Hero"). Apart from a brief period of narration from J.D. at the beginning and end, these episodes primarily contain internal narration from other characters besides J.D. The transfer of the narration duties usually occurs at a moment of physical contact between two characters. Starting with season nine, the episode titles start with "Our..." as the focus has shifted from the perspective of J.D. to a new group of medical students, with Lucy Bennett narrating. The webisodes that accompanied season eight, Scrubs: Interns, also were named "Our...".

Cast and characters

See also: List of characters on Scrubs
Scrubs's original cast, Seasons 1–8.
From left to right: John C. McGinley, Neil Flynn, Sarah Chalke, Zach Braff, Donald Faison, Ken Jenkins and Judy Reyes.
File:Scrubscast.jpg
Scrubs's Season 9 cast. Top row (from left to right): Eliza Coupe, John C. McGinley, Donald Faison, 2nd row: Michael Mosley, Zach Braff, Dave Franco, bottom: Kerry Bishé.

For the first eight seasons, the series featured seven main cast members, with numerous other characters recurring throughout the course of the series. Starting with the ninth season, much of the original cast left as regular characters, while four new additions were made to the cast.

  • Zach Braff portrays John Michael "J.D." Dorian (Seasons 1–9), the show's protagonist and narrator. J.D. is a young attending physician, who begins the series as a staff intern. His voice-over to the series comes from his internal thoughts and often features surreal fantasies.
  • Sarah Chalke portrays Elliot Reid (Seasons 1–8, recurring season 9), another intern and later private practice physician. Her relationship with J.D. becomes romantic on several occasions throughout the series. As the series progresses, despite an initial dislike of each other, she and Carla become good, close friends. Elliot is driven by a neurotic desire to prove her abilities to her family (in which all of the males are doctors), her peers, and herself. In season nine, she is seen pregnant.
  • Donald Faison portrays Christopher Turk (Seasons 1–9), J.D.'s best friend and surgical Chief Surgeon. Turk and J.D. were roommates when they attended the College of William and Mary as well as in medical school, and the two have an extremely close relationship often called a "bro-mance". During the course of the series Turk forms a relationship with Carla; they start dating early in the series, later getting married, and starting a family together.
  • Neil Flynn portrays the "Janitor" (Seasons 1–8, guest star season 9), the hospital's custodian. An incident in the pilot episode establishes an adversarial relationship between him and J.D., which persists throughout the series. This tends to take the form of the Janitor pulling mean-spirited pranks on J.D., although he has shown, several times through out the series, that he has a good side. In the season eight finale, "'the Janitor"' admits his name to J.D. as "Glenn Matthews". However, shortly after he acknowledges another member of hospital staff, who calls him by a different name, making it unclear whether or not "Glenn Matthews" really is his name.
  • Ken Jenkins portrays Bob Kelso (Seasons 1–8, recurring season 9), who used to be Sacred Heart's Chief of Medicine. Kelso is cold, heartless and cruel, driven primarily by the hospital's bottom line rather than the well-being of patients. It is occasionally suggested that he has a softer side, and that his cruelty is a means of coping with the years of hard decisions. He has been forced to make hard decisions from the beginning, stating that when he became Chief of Medicine, he thought he'd be "the man". Instead he very quickly realized that the harsh decisions made him unpopular, but he had to continue his "evil" facade to keep the hospital running smoothly. He retired in Season 7, after which his relationship with staff at the hospital improves. He is unhappily married and embarrassed by his homosexual son's activities. After retiring, he just sits around the hospital using his 'free muffins for life' to stuff his face, avoid his wife, and talk to old colleagues.
  • John C. McGinley portrays Perry Cox (Seasons 1–9), who becomes the new Chief of Medicine at Sacred Heart in Season 8. J.D. considers Cox his mentor despite the fact that Cox routinely criticizes him, belittles him, and calls him random female names. Cox frequently suggests that this harsh treatment is intended as conditioning for the rigors of hospital life. On rare occasions, he expresses grudging approval and even pride at J.D.'s accomplishments. Dr. Cox is dedicated to the welfare of his patients, leading to frequent clashes with Bob Kelso.
  • Judy Reyes portrays Carla Espinosa (Seasons 1–8), the hospital's head nurse, who acts like a mother figure to interns, often hiding their mistakes from their attending doctor.[4] During the course of the series Turk forms a relationship with Carla; they start dating early in the series, later getting married, and starting a family together. She is very close to J.D., affectionately calling him "Bambi", and despite initially disliking each other at first, she and Elliot also become close friends.
  • Eliza Coupe portrays Denise Mahoney (recurring Season 8, regular Season 9), an intern at Sacred Heart Hospital in Season 8. In Season 9, she is a Resident at the new Sacred Heart Hospital as well as a student advisor and teacher's assistant at Winston University.
  • Kerry Bishé portrays Lucy Bennett (Season 9), who is a medical student at Winston University and the show's new narrator.
  • Michael Mosley portrays Drew Suffin (Season 9), who is a medical student at Winston University giving it a second go after some wrong turns in his personal life.
  • Dave Franco portrays Cole Aaronson (Season 9), who is a medical student at Winston University. His family donated a large amount of money to get the new Sacred Heart Hospital built and as such, believes that he can do whatever he wants and is untouchable.

Season synopses

Main article: List of Scrubs episodes

The first season introduces J.D. and his best friend Turk in their first year out of medical school as interns at Sacred Heart Hospital. J.D. quickly meets his reluctant mentor, Dr. Perry Cox; an attractive young woman (and fellow intern) named Elliot, on whom J.D. quickly develops a crush; the hospital's janitor, who goes out of his way to make J.D.'s life miserable; the Chief of Medicine, Dr. Bob Kelso, who appears to be more concerned about the budget than the patients; and Carla Espinosa, the head nurse and soon Turk's new girlfriend, who puts Turk through the trials and tribulations of being in a serious relationship. The characters face romances and relationship issues, family obligations, overwhelming paperwork and a tremendous number of patients.

The second season focuses on J.D.'s second year practicing medicine at Sacred Heart, where he is now a resident. As the season develops, J.D.'s older brother Dan (Tom Cavanagh) comes to visit; money issues affect J.D., Elliot, and Turk; Turk proposes to Carla; and Elliot finds a new boyfriend, a nurse named Paul Flowers (Rick Schroder). Dr. Cox resumes a sexual relationship with his ex-wife Jordan, with quite unexpected results.

As the third season opens, Elliot decides to change her image, with some help from the Janitor. J.D.'s undeniable crush on Elliot emerges again, but J.D. instead begins a relationship with Jordan's sister Danni (Tara Reid), who is also dealing with feelings for her ex. Turk and Carla are engaged and planning their wedding. Turk, along with the Todd and the other surgical residents, deal with new attending surgeon Dr. Grace Miller (Bellamy Young), who dislikes Turk and considers him sexist. Dr. Cox and Jordan are doing well with their relationship and their son Jack, although Dr. Cox develops a schoolboy crush on Dr. Miller. He also struggles with the death of his best friend. Elliot gets into a serious relationship with Sean Kelly (Scott Foley) and tries to maintain a long-distance relationship while he's in New Zealand for six months. J.D. eventually convinces Elliot to break up with Sean to date him, only to realize, once he has her, that he doesn't actually love her. Their relationship lasts three days. The season ends with Turk and Carla's wedding, which Turk misses due to surgery and a church mix-up.

In season four, J.D. finishes his residency and becomes a full-blown colleague of Dr. Cox, although their dynamic does not change much. As the season opens, Turk arrives from his honeymoon with Carla, but they soon start having issues when Carla tries to change many things about her new husband. Their marriage and Turk's friendship with J.D. experience friction when J.D. and Carla share a drunken kiss. Dr. Cox and Jordan learn that their divorce was not final, but this isn't necessarily all good news. Elliot is still angry with J.D. for breaking her heart, and the situation becomes more uncomfortable still when she dates J.D.'s brother. J.D. has a new love interest of his own when a new and very attractive psychiatrist, Dr. Molly Clock (Heather Graham), arrives at Sacred Heart. Molly also serves as Elliot's mentor during her time at the hospital.

Season five starts with J.D. living in a hotel, sorting out apartment issues. Elliot has taken a new fellowship in another hospital. Turk and Carla are trying to have a baby, despite Turk still having doubts. Finally, some new interns have arrived to Sacred Heart, chief among them being Keith Dudemeister (Travis Schuldt) who soon becomes Elliot's new boyfriend, much to J.D.'s dissatisfaction. J.D. is cast in the role of expecting father, discovering at the very end of the season that his girlfriend, Dr. Kim Briggs (Elizabeth Banks), is pregnant with his child.

The sixth season sees J.D. and the other characters mature to fill the different roles required of them. Turk and Carla become parents when Carla gives birth to their daughter Isabella. Elliot plans her wedding to Keith, although she and J.D. still harbor feelings for each other. Dr. Cox, as father of two children with Jordan, struggles to prevent his foul disposition from affecting his parenting.

In season seven, J.D. and Elliot struggle once again to deny their feelings for each other, despite Elliot soon to be marrying Keith and J.D. to have his first son with Kim, whilst the Janitor may have a new girlfriend. Bob Kelso's job is also put on the line as he approaches the age of 65. J.D.'s brother Dan also returns to town.

The eighth season sees Dr. Kelso's replacement, Dr. Taylor Maddox (Courteney Cox-Arquette), arrive; she quickly makes a lot of changes, affecting the way doctors treat patients. Elliot and J.D. finally discuss their true feelings for each other and again become a couple. Janitor and Lady (Kit Pongetti) marry, while Dr. Cox is promoted to chief of medicine to replace the dismissed Dr. Maddox. J.D. prepares to leave Sacred Heart to move closer to his son, along with Elliot. Turk is also promoted to chief of surgery at Sacred Heart.

Coinciding with season eight, Scrubs: Interns was also launched, focusing around the eighth season's medical interns, Sonja "Sunny" Dey (Sonal Shah), Denise (Eliza Coupe), Katie (Betsy Beutler), and Howie (Todd Bosley). The interns learn from various characters of the show about life in the hospital.

The ninth season takes place over a year after season eight's finale. The old Sacred Heart hospital has been torn down and rebuilt and Doctors Cox, Dorian and Turk are now Winston University medical school professors whose students occasionally rotate through the new Sacred Heart. Between the end of season eight and the beginning of season nine, the Janitor has left the hospital after being told that J.D. was not returning, and Elliot and J.D. have married and are expecting their first child. J.D.'s stay at the university is short and he leaves the series after several episodes.

Production

The origin for the show is loosely based on Dr. Jonathan Doris' experiences as a resident in internal medicine at Brown Medical School, which served as inspiration for college friend and show creator Bill Lawrence.[5]

Scrubs is produced by ABC, through its production division, even though it was aired by rival broadcaster NBC.[6] According to show runner Lawrence, the arrangement is unusual, at least for 2007: "The show is a dinosaur, on one network and completely owned by another" and, since it is now in syndication, making a "ton of money for Touchstone."[7] Both he and Braff confirmed ABC would have broadcast the seventh season had NBC refused to do so.[7][8]

Since Scrubs is aired around the world in many different languages, instances of foreign languages on the show have to be changed for the international versions. Carla's Spanish is changed to Italian in the Spanish language version of the show, and Elliot's German is changed to Danish (or, in at least one fourth-season episode German with a Swiss accent) in the German version of the show.[citation needed]

Title sequence

The chest X-ray featured at the end of the title sequence was hung backwards for most of the first five seasons. Bill Lawrence has stated that having the X-ray backwards was intentional as it signified that the new interns were inexperienced.[9] During Zach Braff's audio commentary on "My Last Chance", he states that the error was actually unintentional. The error became somewhat infamous and was even parodied in "My Cabbage".

An attempt was made to fix the error in the extended title sequence that was used at the beginning of season 2 that included Neil Flynn, but the extended sequence (including corrected X-ray) were soon scrapped at fan and network request. Finally, in "My Urologist", Dr. Kim Briggs steps into the credits and switches the X-ray around, saying, "That's backwards; it's been bugging me for years". At the beginning of season 8, when the series switched to ABC, the chest X-ray was once again backwards.

The ninth season features a new title sequence with a new version of the theme song "Superman." The new title sequences features the four new characters–Denise, Lucy, Drew and Cole, as well as Dr. Cox and Turk, while J.D. is seen at the end placing the chest X-ray. In all season 9 episodes that do not feature J.D., he is absent from the title sequence and Lucy is the one placing the X-ray. The X-ray at the end of the sequence is also not backwards and the subtitle Med School appears at the end of the sequence.

Main crew

The show's creator, executive producer, and head writer is Bill Lawrence. He has written 14 episodes and directed 17. He is also the show runner and does many uncredited re-writes for episodes. Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan co-wrote 13 episodes during their 8-year run on the show, starting as co-producers on the show and working their way up to executive producers; they left the show after the eighth season.[10] Mike Schwartz, who also played Lloyd the Delivery Guy, wrote 13 episodes during the first eight seasons; he started out as a story editor and became co-executive producer in season 6. Janae Bakken and Debra Fordham were writers and producers during the first eight seasons, each writing 16 episodes. Other notable writers that started in the first season include Mark Stegemann, who wrote 14 episodes and directed 2 episodes during the first eight seasons; Gabrielle Allan, who wrote 11 episodes during the first four seasons and was co-executive producer; Eric Weinberg, who wrote 11 episodes during the first six seasons and was co-executive producer; Matt Tarses, who wrote 8 episodes during the first four seasons and was co-executive producer. Notable writers that joined in the second season include Tim Hobert, who wrote 11 episodes from season 2 to 6, and became executive producer in season 5. Angela Nissel wrote 10 episodes from season 2 to 8, starting out as a staff writer and became supervising producer in season 7. Bill Callahan joined the show in season 4, writing 8 episodes from season 4 to 8, he became executive producer in season 6.

Adam Bernstein, who directed the pilot episode, "My First Day", also directed 11 episodes up until season 7. Michael Spiller has directed the highest amount of episodes, directing 20 during the entire series run. Ken Whittingham and Chris Koch both directed 12 episodes from season 2 to 9. Comedian Michael McDonald, who also appeared on the show, directed 5 episodes. Show star Zach Braff directed 7 episodes of the show, including the landmark 100th episode "My Way Home", which won a Peabody Award in April 2007. In 2009 Josh Bycel, a writer and supervising producer for the animated comedy American Dad!, joined the crew as a new executive producer for the ninth season.[10]

Medical advisors

Scrubs writers work with several medical advisors, including doctors Jonathan Doris, Jon Turk, and Dolly Klock. Their names serve as the basis for the names of characters John Dorian, Chris Turk and Molly Clock (played by Braff, Faison, and Heather Graham, respectively). In the season eight finale "My Finale", the "real JD" Jonathan Doris made a cameo appearance as the doctor who said "adios" to JD.[citation needed]

Filming location and Sacred Heart Hospital

In the show, Sacred Heart is an inner city teaching hospital owned by a pharmaceutical company run by Whitaker Chambers. It is run by Chief of Medicine Dr. Robert "Bob" Kelso until his retirement towards the end of Season 7 and then by Dr. Percival "Perry" Cox. Board members and benefactors include Jordan Sullivan (former), Mr. Summers, Mr. Swatt, Ms. Slobin, Mr. Franks, Mrs. Warner, and Mr. Zerbo.

The first eight seasons of Scrubs were filmed on location at the North Hollywood Medical Center, a real decommissioned hospital located at 12629 Riverside Drive in North Hollywood, but the location of Sacred Heart Hospital within the fictional world of Scrubs is left ambiguous. Cast and crew on the show refer to the location as "San DiFrangeles"—a portmanteau of San Diego, San Francisco, and Los Angeles that is meant to encompass a large part of California.[11] For the ninth season the show moved to Culver Studios.[12]

WGA strike and network change

On November 5, 2007, the Writers Guild of America went on strike, which put the production of the show's seventh season on hold. When the strike started, only eleven of Scrubs' eighteen planned seventh season episodes had been completely written.[13] Lawrence refused to cross any WGA picket lines to serve any of his duties for the show, so ABC Studios had non-WGA members finish episode twelve, which the studio had unsuccessfully pressured Lawrence to rewrite as a series finale prior to the strike.[13]

During the strike, NBC announced that The Office and Scrubs would be replaced by Celebrity Apprentice. NBC later announced that they would leave Scrubs on hiatus for the time being and fill the 8–9 PM timeslot with various specials and repeats.[14]

Episode 11, "My Princess", was eventually filmed,[15] although Lawrence was absent. Filming of episode 11 was disrupted by picketers. It was believed that Lawrence had tipped the picketers off about the filming schedule, although these beliefs turned out to be false as Lawrence quickly drove to the set to "keep the peace."[15] After the strike ended, Lawrence announced that the final episodes of Scrubs would be produced although, at the time, he was unsure where or how they would be distributed.[16]

Switch to ABC

Amid strike-induced doubt involving the final episodes of Scrubs, on February 28, 2008, The Hollywood Reporter reported that ABC was in talks with corporate sibling ABC Studios with the aim of bringing Scrubs to ABC for an eighth season of 18 episodes,[17] despite both Lawrence's and Braff's protests that the seventh season would definitely be the last.[15] Just hours later Variety reported that NBC was lashing out and threatening legal action against ABC Studios.[18] McGinley confirmed that he had been told to report back to work on March 24, 2008 to begin production for another season.[19] On March 12, 2008, McGinley was also quoted as saying that the show's long-rumored move from NBC to ABC was a done deal,[20] and that Scrubs would air on ABC during the 2008–09 TV season as a midseason replacement.[19]

On March 19, 2008, Michael Ausiello of TV Guide reported that although nothing was "official", the Scrubs cast was to report back to work the following Wednesday for work on a season "unofficial" as yet.[21] Zach Braff posted in his blog on MySpace, on April 28, 2008, that an eighth season consisting of 18 episodes was under production but that he could not say where it will be aired.[22] He then stated, on May 7, 2008, that the May 8 episode would be the final NBC-aired episode of Scrubs,[23] which was followed by a bulletin on his MySpace, on May 12, confirming that Scrubs's eighth season would be moving to ABC.

Season eight

Main article: Scrubs (season 8)

On May 13, 2008, ABC announced that Scrubs would be a midseason replacement, airing Tuesday nights at 9PM EST.[24][25] Steve McPherson, ABC's President of Entertainment, also stated that additional seasons of Scrubs beyond the eighth could be produced if it performs well.[26] In late November, ABC announced Scrubs would resume with back-to-back episodes on January 6, 2009 at 9PM EST.[27]

Creator Bill Lawrence stated in a video interview that season 8 will be more like the first few seasons in tone, with more of a focus on more realistic and dramatic storylines and the introduction of new characters.[28] Courteney Cox joined the cast as the new Chief of Medicine, Dr. Maddox, for a three-episode arc.[29][30] The eighth season includes webisodes and is the first Scrubs season broadcast in high definition.[31]

Sarah Chalke was hoping that J.D. and Elliot would end up back together, comparing them to Friends characters Ross and Rachel, which has been addressed a few times on the show. In the early episodes of the season they did rekindle their relationship, and have continued dating through the end of the season. Several actors who guest starred as patients at Sacred Heart during the course of Scrubs returned for the finale.[32]

The double-length season eight finale, "My Finale", aired May 6, 2009, and was expected to be the series finale as well. However, it soon became clear that the show would return for a ninth season.

Season nine

Main article: Scrubs (season 9)

On April 16, 2009, Bill Lawrence wrote on the ABC.com message boards that a season 9 of Scrubs was still "50/50."[33] On April 28, 2009, it was announced that ABC was in talks to renew Scrubs for another year,[34] but if this were to happen, some of the cast may or may not be back [due to other commitments], or only back part time.

Bill Lawrence also stated that Scrubs as we know it is over, although there are possibilities for the show to move forward with a new cast in an ER type role on ABC, or take a new title completely. In response to criticisms that the change would tarnish Scrubs' legacy, Lawrence defended the decision, as it would allow the Scrubs crew to continue work through a recession: "'Legacy shmegacy.' I'm really proud of the show, I'll continue to be proud of the show, but I love all of those people..."[35]

On June 19, 2009, it was announced that the reformatted ninth season of Scrubs would "shift from the hospital to the classroom and make med-school professors of John C. McGinley's Dr. Cox and Donald Faison's Turk." According to Lawrence, the ninth season will "be a lot like Paper Chase as a comedy", with Cox and Turk's students occasionally rotating through the halls of Sacred Heart and encountering former series regulars. McGinley and Faison were joined by "a quartet of newbies (most of them playing students)" as full-time regulars, while one of the freshmen "will be fairly famous".[36]

The biggest change to the show for the ninth season is a major cast revamp. Of the seven actors who have appeared in the show since the pilot, only Donald Faison and John C. McGinley returned in regular roles. Zach Braff returned for six episodes and still received first star billing for the episodes he appeared in. Sarah Chalke returned for four episodes as a guest star; Ken Jenkins appeared in the majority of the season, appearing in nine of the thirteen episodes; Neil Flynn appeared in the season premiere in a brief cameo; and Judy Reyes did not appear at all, making her the only former star to not appear. The new main cast included Eliza Coupe[37] returning to the recurring role of Denise "Jo" Mahoney from season eight, Dave Franco as Cole, a charming, confidently stupid and incredibly entitled medical student whose family donated the money to build the school,[38] Kerry Bishé as Lucy, the new narrator for the show,[12][39] and Michael Mosley as Drew, a 30-year old med student on his last attempt at school.[39][40]

Another major change is the setting of the show and where it is filmed. For the first eight seasons, the show was filmed at the North Hollywood Medical Center but production for this season took place at Culver Studios. As a result, in the show, the existing Sacred Heart hospital was mentioned to have been torn down and re-built on the "Winston University" campus.

Cancellation

On May 14, 2010, it was announced the show was officially cancelled. The season nine finale, titled "Our Thanks", aired March 17, 2010. Five days later, on March 22, 2010, Zach Braff announced, via the Official Facebook Page, that the ninth season of Scrubs would be the last, commenting that; "Many of you have asked, so here it is: it appears that "New Scrubs", "Scrubs 2.0", "Scrubs with New Kids", "Scrubbier", "Scrubs without JD" is no more. It was worth a try, but alas... it didn't work."[2][41]

Cinematography and delivery format

The show is shot with a single- instead of multiple-camera setup more typical for situation comedies.[3] The season four episode "My Life in Four Cameras", has a brief multi-camera style, since it includes J.D.'s fantasies of life being more like a traditional sitcom.

John Inwood, the cinematographer of the series, shoots with his own Aaton XTR prod Super16 film camera. Despite that some networks like the BBC consider Super16 a "non-HD" format,[42] John Inwood believes that footage from his Super16 camera is not only sufficient to air in high definition, it "looks terrific."[43]

Except for the finale of season 5, "My Transition", which was broadcast in high-definition,[44] the first seven seasons of the show have been broadcast in standard-definition with 4:3 frame aspect ratio. After the show was moved from NBC to ABC, the broadcast format for new episodes changed to high-definition. John Inwood believes that older episodes will be re-released in HD as well. From the very beginning he filmed the show with widescreen delivery in mind so the whole series could be aired in high-definition when the market evolved.[43]

The first seven seasons and season nine have been released on DVD in 4:3 format. The eighth season was released on DVD in 4:3 format and on Blu-ray Disc in original widescreen format.

Music

Music plays a large role in Scrubs. A wide variety of rock, pop, and indie artists are featured, and almost every episode ends with a musical montage summing up the themes and plot lines of the episode, and the music for these montages is often picked even before the episodes are completely written.[45]

Members of the cast and crew are encouraged to contribute song suggestions, with many ideas coming from series creator Bill Lawrence, writer Neil Goldman, and actors Zach Braff (whose college friends Cary Brothers and Joshua Radin appear on the Scrubs soundtrack) and Christa Miller Lawrence (who selected Colin Hay and Tammany Hall NYC). According to Bill Lawrence, "Christa picks so much of the music for the show that a lot of the writers and actors don't even go to me anymore when they have a song. They hand it to her."[45]

In addition to music being featured as a soundtrack to the show, the cast themselves also sing on a frequent basis, such as in the episode "My Best Friend's Mistake" when the entire cast had the Erasure song "A Little Respect" stuck in their heads and would sing it repeatedly. Producers expanded Scrubs' musical emphasis with a musical episode early in the sixth season, called "My Musical". This episode aired on January 18, 2007.[46]

Theme song

The theme song of the series, performed by Lazlo Bane, is titled "Superman", and can be found on the album All the Time in the World, as well as on the first Scrubs soundtrack. Lawrence credits Braff for finding and suggesting "Superman" as the theme song.[9] The lyrics "I'm no Superman" relate to the show's theme of its characters' fallibility.

The Scrubs main title is performed at a faster tempo than the original recording of the song. The original, slower recording was used briefly at the beginning of season 2, played during an extended version of the title sequence (that included Flynn and full cast credits), as well as the opening for "My Urologist", and a special edit of the title sequence for resulting in roughly 1–2 seconds of music, followed by the line "I'm no Superman", accompanied by a quick flash of credits. The original intro from season 1 was used through most of season 3 (except the few episodes with the very short intro) and then used for seasons four through eight. Beginning with season nine, a new version of "Superman" is used which is performed by WAZ.[47]

Soundtracks

Main article: List of Scrubs soundtracks

Three official soundtracks have been released. The first soundtrack, Music From Scrubs, was released on CD on September 24, 2002.[48] The second soundtrack, Scrubs Original Soundtrack Vol. 2, was released exclusively on iTunes on May 9, 2006.[49] The third soundtrack, "My Musical" Soundtrack, featured the music composed and performed in musical episode "My Musical"; it was released on Amazon.com and iTunes on August 7, 2007.[50]

Colin Hay, the former frontman of Men at Work, has had music featured in at least seven episodes, and has appeared in the episode "My Overkill", performing the song "Overkill" as a street musician, and in the episode "My Hard Labor" performing "Down Under". Hay also sings "Where Everybody Knows Your Name", the theme from Cheers, in the episode "My Life in Four Cameras" and the episode "My Philosophy" features Hay's song "Waiting For My Real Life To Begin", sung by several members of the cast.

The music of Joshua Radin, who is a friend of Scrubs star Zach Braff,[51] has appeared in at least six episodes to date.

Music by Keren DeBerg has featured in 15 episodes, and she appeared in "My Musical" as an extra in the song "All Right".[52]

Clay Aiken has appeared in the episode "My Life in Four Cameras" and performed the song "Isn't She Lovely?" by Stevie Wonder.

The "Worthless Peons"

Main article: The Blanks

The Worthless Peons (also known as Ted's Band, The Blanks, or in the non-canon "My Way Home" Director's Cut as "Foghat") are an a cappella group made up of hospital employees from different departments. They are a cover band, and often sing songs from a specific genre (for example, cartoon theme songs or commercial jingles). They have appeared in several episodes.

The Worthless Peons are played by The Blanks, who are a real-life a cappella band made up of Sam Lloyd (who plays Ted), George Miserlis, Paul F. Perry, and Philip McNiven. The Blanks' album, Riding the Wave, features guest appearances from Lawrence and members of the Scrubs cast. This band was put on the show when Sam Lloyd brought his a cappella band to a rehearsal. Lloyd told Lawrence about his band, and Lawrence got the idea of putting them in the show.[citation needed]

The Worthless Peons also sing the theme song to the web series Scrubs: Interns, which features the new interns from season eight learning about the hospital in the same way that J.D. did in season one. Interns is aired on the ABC website.

Impact

Awards and nominations

Scrubs has received 17 Emmy nominations, in categories such as casting, cinematography, directing, editing, and writing. Its fourth season earned the series its first nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series. Zach Braff was also nominated that year for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. The series was nominated again the following year for Outstanding Comedy Series. At the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards, the episode "My Musical" was nominated for five awards in four categories: Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series (Will Mackenzie), Outstanding Music Direction (Jan Stevens) and Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics ("Everything Comes Down to Poo" and "Guy Love"); while sharing the award for Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series (Half-Hour) And Animation (Joe Foglia, Peter J. Nusbaum, and John W. Cook II) with Entourage.[53]

Braff was nominated for the Golden Globe award for Best Actor in a Television Series, Comedy or Musical in 2005, 2006 and 2007, but lost to Jason Bateman of Arrested Development in 2005, to Steve Carell of The Office in 2006, and to Alec Baldwin of 30 Rock in 2007.[54]

The show won the 2002, 2008, and 2009 Humanitas Prize in the 30-minute category for the episodes "My Old Lady", "My Long Goodbye" and "My Last Words" respectively.[55] While the episodes "My Screw Up", "My Way Home" and "My Fallen Idol" received nominations.

The fifth season episode "My Way Home" earned the show a Peabody Award.[56]

Ratings

The table below indicates the ratings of Scrubs in the US. "Rank" refers to how well Scrubs rated compared to other television series which aired during primetime hours of the corresponding television season. The television season tends to begin in September, and ends during the May of the following year, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps. "Viewers" refers to the average number of viewers for all original episodes, broadcast during the television season in the series' regular timeslot. "Rank" is shown in relation to the total number of series airing on the then-six major English-language networks in a given season. The "season premiere" is the date that the first episode of the season aired, and the "season finale" is the date that the final episode of the season aired.

Network Season Episodes Timeslot (ET) Original Airing Rank Viewers
(in millions)
Season Premiere Season Finale TV Season
NBC 1 24 Tuesday 9:30 PM October 2, 2001 May 21, 2002 2001–02 #38 11.20[57]
2 22 Thursday 8:30 PM September 26, 2002 April 17, 2003 2002–03 #14 15.94[58]
3 22 Thursday 8:30 PM
Tuesday 9:30 PM 		October 2, 2003 May 4, 2004 2003–04 #43 10.41[59]
4 25 Tuesday 9:30 PM
Tuesday 9:00 PM 		August 31, 2004 May 10, 2005 2004–05 #88 6.90[60]
5 24 Tuesday 9:00 PM
Tuesday 9:30 PM 		January 3, 2006 May 16, 2006 2005–06 #98 6.40[61]
6 22 Thursday 9:30 PM November 30, 2006 May 17, 2007 2006–07 #87 6.41[62]
7 11 Thursday 9:30 PM
Thursday 8:30 PM 		October 25, 2007 May 8, 2008 2007–08 #115 6.38[63]
ABC 8 18 Tuesday 9:00 PM
Tuesday 9:30 PM
Wednesday 8:00 PM 		January 6, 2009 May 6, 2009 2008–09 #123 5.61[64]
9 13 Tuesday 9:00 PM
Tuesday 9:30 PM
Friday 9:00 PM
Tuesday 8:00 PM
Wednesday 8:00 PM 		December 1, 2009 March 17, 2010 2009–10 #116 3.79[65]

References

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  2. ^ a b "ABC Cancels Scrubs, FlashForward, Romantically Challenged and Better Off Ted". TV Guide. May 14, 2010. Retrieved May 14, 2010.
  3. ^ a b Weisman, Jon (January 24, 2006). "Genre jumping pays off". Variety. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ "His Story IV". Scrubs. Season 6. Episode 07. February 1, 2007. NBC. {{cite episode}}: Check date values in: |airdate= (help); Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ Doris, Jonathan (May 31, 2004). "Jonathan Doris, M.D.: "My Residency Is A Rerun"". Brown University. Retrieved November 22, 2008.
  6. ^ Goldman, Eric (April 23, 2007). "Scrubs Season 7 Confirmed". IGN. Retrieved August 28, 2009.
  7. ^ a b Grossman, Ben (January 15, 2007). "Scrubs a Near Lock for Next Fall". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved August 28, 2009.
  8. ^ Braff, Zach (March 30, 2007). "Blog. Cog. Snog. Frog. Oh my Gog!". Zach Braff's blog. Retrieved August 28, 2009.
  9. ^ a b Bill Lawrence in the audio commentary for My First Day
  10. ^ a b "the futon's guide to who's in and who's out". The Futon Critic. Retrieved September 6, 2009.
  11. ^ Show creator Bill Lawrence during audio commentary on Disk Three of "The Complete Second Season [of] Scrubs" DVD set.
  12. ^ a b Sepinwall, Alan (August 13, 2009). "Scrubs creator previews next season". Retrieved August 28, 2009.
  13. ^ a b Welsh, James (November 12, 2007). "Scrubs creator: 12th ep will not end series". Digital Spy. Retrieved November 12, 2007.
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  23. ^ Braff, Zach (May 7, 2008). "Exclusive Clip from the Fairy Tale Episode". MySpace. Retrieved May 8, 2008.
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  25. ^ "Fall 2008 Guide". TheFutonCritic.com. Retrieved August 28, 2009.
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  27. ^ "Scrubs Scrubs in on Tuesdays, Mars Lands on Wednesday". TV Guide. November 20, 2008. Retrieved May 25, 2009.
  28. ^ "Scrubs Blog — My Welcome Back". Quick Stop Entertainment. May 4, 2008. Retrieved May 11, 2008.
  29. ^ "Cox joins Scrubs cast for three episode arc". Digitalspy. July 10, 2008. Retrieved July 10, 2008. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  30. ^ "Scrubs To Premiere January 6, 2009 On ABC". ABC Medianet. November 21, 2008. Retrieved November 22, 2008. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  31. ^ "Scrubs to debut webisodes; Lawrence talks network switch". The Live Feed. July 16, 2008. Retrieved November 1, 2009. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  32. ^ "Will J.D. And Elliot Reunite for Scrubs' Final Season?". TV Guide. December 10, 2008. Retrieved December 17, 2008. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  33. ^ "Bill Lawrence Answers Questions at abc.com". abc.com. April 16, 2009. Retrieved April 20, 2009.
  34. ^ Lyons, Margaret (April 28, 2009). "Scrubs, it's time to pull the plug". ew.com. Retrieved November 1, 2009.
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  37. ^ Ghosh, Korbi (July 14, 2009). "Scrubs: Eliza Coupe & her character officially promoted". zap2it. Retrieved November 1, 2009.
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  40. ^ Ausiello, Michael (July 27, 2009). "Armchair Casting Director: Scrubs". The Ausiello Files. Retrieved August 28, 2009.
  41. ^ "Scrubs Canceled – Zach Braff". Zach Braff. March 22, 2010. Retrieved March 22, 2010.
  42. ^ "TV Delivery for BBC Worldwide" (PDF). BBC Worldwide. section 1.5.2
  43. ^ a b "A new HD frontier for Scrubs" (PDF). Retrieved November 1, 2009. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  44. ^ Lawler, Richard (March 16, 2006). "HDTV Scrubs on NBC?". Engadget. Retrieved August 28, 2009. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  45. ^ a b Diane, Kristine (May 8, 2006). "Cultivating a Cult Audience: An Interview with Scrubs Creator Bill Lawrence". Blogcritics. Retrieved February 11, 2007. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  46. ^ Cohn, Angel (January 18, 2007). "Why You Must "Tune" In to Tonight's Scrubs Musical!". TV Guide. Retrieved February 11, 2007. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  47. ^ "WAZ — Music Lounge — ABC.com". Abc.go.com. Retrieved January 2, 2010.
  48. ^ "Scrubs Soundtrack". Amazon.com. Retrieved August 20, 2010.
  49. ^ "Scrubs, Vol. 2 (Original Soundtrack)". iTunes. Retrieved August 20, 2010.
  50. ^ "Scrubs "My Musical"". Amazon.com. Retrieved August 20, 2010.
  51. ^ Braff, Zach (February 19, 2006). "Joshua Radin=Good". Zach Braff's Garden State Blog. Retrieved November 1, 2009. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  52. ^ "Keren DeBerg's Biography". Last.fm. Retrieved August 13, 2009. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  53. ^ "59th Prime Time Emmy Nominations" (PDF). Retrieved November 1, 2009. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)[dead link]
  54. ^ "2007 Nominations". Academy of Television Arts & Scienes. Retrieved August 28, 2009. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  55. ^ "The Humanitas Prize". humanitasprize.org. November 1, 2009. Retrieved November 1, 2009. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)[dead link]
  56. ^ "Scrubs". Peabody Awards. Retrieved November 1, 2009. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  57. ^ "How did your favorite show rate?". May 28, 2002. Retrieved November 1, 2009. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |source= ignored (help)
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  59. ^ "I. T. R. S. Ranking Report 01 Thru 210 (Out Of 210 Programs) Daypart: Primetime Mon-Sun". June 2, 2004. Archived from the original on 2008-05-21. Retrieved November 1, 2009. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |source= ignored (help)
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  63. ^ "Season Program Rankings". ABC Television Network. May 28, 2008. Retrieved November 1, 2009.
  64. ^ "Season Program Rankings". ABC Television Network. May 27, 2009. Retrieved May 27, 2009.
  65. ^ Gorman, Bill (June 16, 2010). "Final 2009–10 Broadcast Primetime Show Average Viewership". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved June 19, 2010.
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