Scrubs (TV series)

Scrubs
Scrubs title card
Created by	Bill Lawrence
Starring	Zach Braff Sarah Chalke Donald Faison Neil Flynn Ken Jenkins John C. McGinley Judy Reyes
Narrated by	Zach Braff as J.D.
Opening theme	"Superman" by Lazlo Bane
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	7
No. of episodes	145 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Bill Lawrence Goldman and Donovan (2006-Present) Bill Callahan (2007-Present)
Producer	ABC Studios
Camera setup	Single camera
Running time	approx. 22 minutes
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	October 2, 2001 – present

Scrubs is an Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning American situation comedy/comedy-drama that premiered on October 2, 2001 on NBC. It was created by Bill Lawrence and is produced by Touchstone Television. The show focuses on the professional and personal lives of several characters working at Sacred Heart, a teaching hospital. It features verbose characters, slapstick, fast-paced dialogue, and surreal vignettes which are presented as the daydreams of the main characters. This latter feature was originally focused entirely on the central character, Dr. John "J.D." Dorian, however, it was expanded to the daydreams of other characters as the series progressed. The seventh and final season of Scrubs premiered on October 25, 2007.

Synopsis

The show is structured around multiple storylines thematically linked via voiceovers by protagonist and narrator Dr. John "J.D." Dorian, played by Zach Braff. According to Lawrence, "What we decided was, rather than have it be a monotone narration, if it's going to be told through 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." The show is also notable for its use of a single-camera setup for filming as opposed to a multiple-camera setup, which is more traditional for situation comedies.

The broad comedy is often counterpointed by more serious scenes, as Lawrence notes: "One of the things we thought early on was [if] we occasionally showed actual patients and actual people dying and things with emotional stakes, working in single camera, that it might be enough to combine with broad comedy."

At the end of most episodes, J.D. summarizes the story's moral or theme in a sequence of shots that show how it has affected each of the characters. Scrubs has been advertised as "half as long as ER and twice as funny". The series often features guest appearances by major movie actors not generally seen on episodic television, such as Colin Farrell, Heather Graham and Brendan Fraser.

Cast

Main characters

The majority of the main characters in Scrubs are medical professionals. The show's narrator and main character is J.D. (Zach Braff), a young attending physician and staff internist who is sensitive, good-natured, and talented. He develops a close friendship with fellow intern and attending physician Elliot Reid (Sarah Chalke); their relationship becomes romantic on several occasions. Dr. Reid is driven by a neurotic desire to prove her abilities to her parents, her peers, and herself. J.D.'s best friend is Dr. Christopher Duncan Turk (Donald Faison) who is a talented Surgical attending physician. Turk roomed with J.D. at college and medical school, and the two have an extremely close relationship. Dr. Turk eventually marries Carla Espinosa (Judy Reyes), the hospital's head nurse. Carla is prone to over-reaction, and compulsively tells her friends how to go about their lives. Carla is also jealous of Turk and J.D's relationship, saying that she sometimes has nightmares about the two of them running away together.

Two other characters play senior roles in the hospital. Dr. Percival "Perry" Cox (John C. McGinley) is the senior attending physician at Sacred Heart and the hospital's Residency Director. J.D. considers Cox his mentor despite the fact that Dr. Cox routinely criticizes and belittles him. Cox frequently suggests that this rough treatment is intended as conditioning for the rigors of hospital life, but it is also an outlet for Cox's frustrations with his own life. Cox is actually proud of J.D., believing that he has the potential to become a great doctor. Ken Jenkins plays Dr. Robert "Bob" Kelso, Sacred Heart's Chief of Medicine. Dr. Kelso is portrayed as a cold, heartless individual, driven primarily by the hospital's bottom line rather than the well-being of patients. However, it is occasionally suggested that he has a softer side, and that his cruelty is a means of coping with the hard decisions he is often forced to make.

The only lead character who is not a medical professional is a hospital custodian known only as "Janitor". Played by Neil Flynn, Janitor has appeared in every episode, except My Lucky Day. An incident in the pilot episode establishes an adversarial relationship between J.D. and him, which persists throughout the series. This tends to take the form of the Janitor pulling mean-hearted pranks on J.D., though sometimes the reverse happens.

Supporting cast

Main article: List of minor characters of Scrubs

• Robert Maschio as Dr. Todd "The Todd" Quinlan—Cosmetic Surgery Fellow/Surgical Attending (100 episodes)
• Aloma Wright as Nurse Laverne Roberts/Nurse Shirley —Nurse (86 episodes)
• Sam Lloyd as Theodore "Ted" Buckland—Hospital Attorney (75 episodes)
• Christa Miller as Jordan Sullivan—Administrative Worker, Hospital Board Member and Perry Cox's ex-wife (70 episodes)
• Johnny Kastl as Dr. Doug Murphy—Pathology MD (46 episodes)
• Travis Schuldt as Dr. Keith Dudemeister—MD Resident (31 episodes)
• Charles Chun as Dr. Wen—Surgical Attending (20 episodes)
• Mike Schwartz as Lloyd the Delivery Guy—Delivery Guy (16 episodes)
• Michael Hobert as Lonnie—MD Resident (15 episodes)
• Elizabeth Banks as Dr. Kim Briggs—Urologist (13 episodes)
• Scott Foley as Sean Kelly—Elliot Reid's two-time boyfriend (11 episodes)
• Tara Reid as Danni Sullivan—J.D.'s two-time girlfriend (11 episodes)
• Heather Graham as Dr. Molly Clock—Attending Psychiatrist (9 episodes)

Cameo appearances

Main article: List of stars that have had cameo appearances on Scrubs

• Each season premiere and finale features a shot of Bill Lawrence's best friend as a good luck charm.
• Several cast members from Spin City, another show created by Bill Lawrence, have made guest appearances on the show. These include Michael J. Fox, Barry Bostwick, Alan Ruck, Richard Kind, Michael Boatman, Alexander Chaplin, and Heather Locklear.
• Similarly, many cast members from Scrubs have lent voices to Clone High, another show created by Lawrence. They include Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke, Donald Faison, Neil Flynn, John C. McGinley, Christa Miller Lawrence, and Scrubs recurring actors Michael McDonald and Nicole Sullivan.
• Cast members Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke, Judy Reyes, John C. McGinley, Neil Flynn, and director/producer Bill Lawrence all made cameo appearances in a scene in the 2002 TV Muppets movie, however Donald Faison did not appear. It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie that shows Miss Piggy playing an extra in Scrubs but trying to improvise and give herself a bigger role.
• Several Scrubs crew members have appeared in minor speaking roles, such as writer/producer Mike Schwartz having a recurring role as Lloyd the Delivery Man, producer Randal Winston as the security guard Leonard, and writer Gabrielle Allan as a nurse.

My Charlie Brown Christmas

"My Charlie Brown Christmas" is a re-cut and re-dub of A Charlie Brown Christmas, starring the cast of Scrubs. It was created by Daniel Russ and Ryan Levin for the show's 2003 Christmas party.

In it, J.D. (Charlie Brown) is feeling depressed at Christmas, Carla (Lucy) is mad at Turk (Schroeder) for not buying her a Christmas present, and Elliot (Sally) is drunk off egg nog. In the end, Dr. Cox (Linus) teaches everyone that "Christmas is about love."

Episodes

Main article: List of Scrubs episodes

Season	Episodes	Premiere	Season finale	U.S. ratings
Season 1	24	October 2, 2001	May 21, 2002	11.2 million (40th place)
Season 2	22	September 26, 2002	April 17, 2003	15.9 million (15th place)
Season 3	22	October 2, 2003	May 4, 2004	10.4 million (43rd place)
Season 4	25	August 31, 2004	May 10, 2005	6.9 million (88th place)
Season 5	24	January 3, 2006	May 16, 2006	6.4 million (98th place)
Season 6	22	November 30, 2006	May 17, 2007	6.4 million (87th place)
Season 7	18 (Or 12)	October 25, 2007	TBA

DVD releases

DVD Name	# of Eps	Release dates			Bonus Features
		Region 1	Region 2	Region 4
The Complete First Season	24	May 17 2005	June 27 2005	June 29 2005	Newbies — a documentary that examines the actors before they were cast, Deleted Scenes, Outtakes, The Doctor Is In — one on one with Zach Braff, Alternate Lines: A Second Opinion — shows the cast's unique ability to improvise, Not Just Another Medical Show — a look at how the show is filmed, from using a single camera setup to actually shooting in a closed down hospital, Favorite Moments — cast and crew reflections on their favorite episodes, Audio Commentaries with creator and cast, 'Superman' Music Video.
The Complete Second Season	22	November 15 2005	September 12 2005	September 19 2005	Audio commentaries, One-On-One with John C. McGinley, Secrets and lies, A rare condition, JD's Mojo, Music Stylings — Featurette on Music's role in the show, Scrubbed Out — Exclusive Deleted Scenes, Practice, Practice, Malpractice — Outtakes
The Complete Third Season	22	May 9 2006	February 13 2006	February 22 2006	Audio commentaries with cast members, show creator and writer, Gag reel, Deleted scenes, Alternate lines, "Twist and Shoot" featurette on first-time directors, Stunts featurette, Guest-star featurette, Dogs of the cast and crew featurette, Behind-the-scenes game of "Dare" featurette, Extended cast interview, Elliot's character featurette, J.D. and Elliot love saga featurette. One-On-One with Robert Maschio
The Complete Fourth Season	25	October 10 2006	September 18 2006	September 27 2006	Will You Ever Be My Mentor? — A hilarious look at J.D.'s never-ending quest for Dr. Cox's approval, The Sweethearts Of Sacred Heart — In-depth interviews about the romantic entanglements and flirtations of the Scrubs characters, Secondary Characters — Get to know the "secondary" cast members and their roles, Who's That Man? — A look at the mysterious character "The Janitor.", Deleted Scenes, Audio Commentary. (Additional features as printed on R4 cover - 'The Weapons Chest', 'Donald Keeps Talking', Music video - 'Half' music video performed to G Tom Mac)
The Complete Fifth Season	24	May 22 2007	June 18 2007	June 6 2007	Extended cut of the 100th episode ("My Way Home") with commentary by director Zach Braff, My Big Bird - Audio Commentary by Neil Flynn and Randall Winston, My Lunch - Audio Commentary by John C. McGinley and director John Michel, My 117 Episodes: A retrospective look back at the past five seasons, Deleted scenes from 7 episodes, Alternate lines.
The Complete Sixth Season	22	October 30 2007	January 14 2008	December 5 2007	Audio Commentaries on all 22 episodes, The Making of "My Musical", Judy Keeps Talking, The Debra & Stephanie Show, The "Third Tier", 12 Deleted Scenes, Alternate Lines & an Easter Egg

Season 7 and the WGA Writers Strike

On November 5, 2007 the Writers Guild of America went on strike. This strike made it impossible for WGA members, including Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence, to write for television or film. As of November 5th, only eleven of Scrubs' eighteen episode seventh season had been completely written. 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 prior to the strike Lawrence was pressured by ABC Studios to retool as a series finalé, which he refused to do. Since the production of episode twelve, the production of Scrubs has been on an indefinite hiatus along with nearly every television program written by Writers Guild of America members. This hiatus has hampered the possibility of a legitimate series finale episode.

Due to the possibility of no final episode of Scrubs being produced Bill Lawrence has assured The Scrubs Fan base that he will use all his leverage to end the show properly. He has suggested various solutions including a straight-to-DVD release of the final episode and asking NBC to extend Scrubs into the 2008-2009 television season effectively creating an 8th season. At a farewell panel session at the Paley Center for Media, Lawrence said he will definitely not leave any loose ends and he will make sure the episodes are produced, most probably for DVD.

On November 19, 2007, NBC announced that The Office and Scrubs (the 9:00PM hour) will be replaced by Celebrity Apprentice on January 3, 2008 (Originally January 3 then moved the January 10 then moved back again to January 3). In spite of this, Scrubs will be relocated to the 8:30PM timeslot. Repeats of The Office and My Name Is Earl will serve as a lead-in.

NBC has also revealed that only 10 of the 12 written episodes will be aired. Episodes 11 and 12 may not have been filmed.

Awards

In its first three seasons, Scrubs received Emmy nominations for casting, editing, and writing of a comedy series. Following Season 4, the show received additional nominations for Best Comedy Series, Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Braff), Best Editing for a Multi-Camera series (although the series is predominantly shot single-camera, Episode 4.17 "My Life in Four Cameras", has a brief segment shot multi-camera, sitcom-style), and casting. The show also won the 2002 Humanitas Prize, 30-minute category, for season 1 episode 4 "My Old Lady".

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 for Arrested Development in 2005, to Steve Carell of The Office in 2006, and to Alec Baldwin of 30 Rock in 2007.

Scrubs won a George Foster Peabody Award for its 2006 season; the press release specifically noted the Wizard of Oz homage episode "My Way Home".

At the 2007 Primetime Emmy Awards, which aired in September, the episode "My Musical" was nominated for five awards in four categories: Outstanding Directing For A Comedy Series (Will Mackenzie), Outstanding Original Music And Lyrics ("Everything Comes Down to Poo" and "Guy Love"), Outstanding Music Direction (Jan Stevens), and Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (half-hour) And Animation (Joe Foglia, Peter J. Nusbaum, and John W. Cook II). It went on to a joint win along with the Entourage episode "One Day in the Valley" in the latter of these categories.

Music

Music plays a large role on Scrubs. A wide variety of rock, pop, and indie artists are featured. 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. 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." Producers expanded Scrubs' musical emphasis with a musical episode early in the sixth season, called "My Musical". This episode aired on January 18, 2007. A complete list of music used on the show can be found here.

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. Bill Lawrence credits Zach Braff for finding and suggesting "Superman" as the theme song. The lyrics "I'm no Superman" relate to the show's theme of its characters' fallibility. The Scrubs version of the song is normally played at a faster speed than the original recording of the song. To be specific, the part used in the titles is one second shorter than the original 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 Neil 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 4, 5 and 6.

Soundtracks

Two official soundtracks have been released. The first was released on CD on September 24, 2002, and a second — an iTunes exclusive — was released in mid-2006. An iMix on iTunes of the music used through the first five seasons has also been released.

Featured musical contributors

Colin Hay, who is the former front-man 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", and in the episode "My Hard Labor" performing "Down Under".

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

Music by Keren DeBerg has featured in 15 Scrubs episodes, and she appeared in "My Musical" as an extra in the song "Are You Okay?"

The Worthless Peons

Main article: The Blanks (band)

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. In the extended cut of the 100th episode, found on the Season 5 DVD, Ted tells J.D. that they are being forced to change their names after a lawsuit. Their new name becomes Foghat, but this is most likely not canon.

The Worthless Peons are played by The Blanks, who are a real-life a Capella 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 Bill Lawrence and members of the Scrubs cast.

Production details

Scrubs is produced by ABC, through its production division, even though it is aired by rival broadcaster NBC. 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." Both he and Braff confirmed ABC would have broadcast the seventh season had NBC refused to do so.

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. However 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, 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."

Every episode title begins with a possessive pronoun, usually the word "My..." with notable exceptions in the episodes entitled "His Story", "His Story II", "Her Story", "Her Story II", "His Story III", "His Story IV", and "Their Story". Apart from a brief period of narration from J.D. at the beginning and end, these episodes primarily contained internal narration from another character besides J.D. The only exception to this rule is "Their Story", where the narration instead switches to a whole crowd of supporting cast members. The transfer usually occurs at a moment of physical contact between the two characters.

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.

Crew

• Bill Lawrence is the show's creator, executive producer, and head writer; he has written many episodes, and has directed nine. He is also the show runner and does many uncredited re-writes for episodes.
• Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan have produced and written a number of episodes together. They started as writers/co-producers on the show, and worked their way up to executive producers.
• Bill Callahan is executive producer (2007-Present). He started on the show in season 4 as co-executive producer and has since written six episodes.
• Mike Schwartz is co-executive producer (2006-Present) who started as a story editor. He has written 11 episodes and also has a recurring role in the show as Lloyd the Delivery Guy.
• Michael Spiller has directed 15 episodes between 2002-2006, the most of any director to date.
• Adam Bernstein directed the pilot episode of the show, My First Day (11 episodes, 2001-2006)
• Zach Braff has directed five episodes of the show, including the landmark 100th episode "My Way Home", which won a George Foster Peabody Award in April 2007.

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).

Sacred Heart Hospital

Main article: Sacred Heart Hospital

Scrubs is filmed on location at the North Hollywood Medical Center (34°9′28.86″N 118°24′31.22″W), a real decommissioned hospital located at 12629 Riverside Drive in the North Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California.

However, 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.

Name

In the pilot episode, a comment from Dr. Kelso alludes to one meaning behind the show's name: "Dr. Dorian, Do you not realize that you're nothing more than a large pair of scrubs to me? For God's sake, the only reason I carry this chart around is so I can pretend to remember your damn names." Bill Lawrence has stated that he has two main reasons for calling it Scrubs: The obvious being the attire worn by doctors, and the other being the fact that most of the main characters are fresh out of medical school, new, and inexperienced (known in the medical field as "scrubs").

External links

• Scrubs at NBC
• Scrubs at Buena Vista (Syndication)
• Scrubs video blog at IGN (#1 to #54)
• Scrubs video blog at Quick Stop Entertainment (#1 to present)
• Scrubs at Channel 4
• Scrubs Wiki
• Scrubs at the Global Episode Opinion Survey
• Scrubs at IMDB