Scrubs Is Back!

 

 

During the 2000s I was starting to watch TV at a more regular clip but I still wasn't sure I was going to be a critic of it. I didn't write my first real professional column on the subject until at least 2011 on a site that no longer exists. That doesn't mean I didn't have opinions, particularly when it came to the Emmys.

There's healthy debate as to which of the great dramas of the 21^st century didn't get nearly enough recognition from the Emmys or other awards shows. The Wire and Battlestar Galactica are basically in a tie for lack of nominations altogether, and Deadwood and The Shield compared to their quality got a ridiculously little number of nominations if not awards. I can see the logic for that, and I could make arguments for shows like Alias if I wanted too. But when it comes to comedies that got lack of recognition by the Emmys and other awards shows, there's only one contender for the most overlooked comedy of all and that is Scrubs.

And compared to all the arguments for dramas Scrubs' track record  is the most inconceivable. It was a network comedy in the era when networks were still rivaling cable for comedy classics; it was an NBC comedy, during the more the three decades they basically owned the nominations, if not most wins in that category every year, and it was a workplace comedy, right about the time the world was about to fall in love with the model. And yet the show was only nominated for best comedy series once during its entire seven seasons on NBC and of the incredible ensemble only Zach Braff ever receiving an acting nomination.

If I had been asked what was the best comedy series of the 2000s at the end of that decade, I wouldn't have said The Office or Everybody Loves Raymond or Will & Grace, I would have said Scrubs and that's a hill I'm still willing to die on. It's not just because I really didn't like any of the other comedies; that's true of the lot of the shows during that period and still today. It's because I truly believe at its peak – which I'd say basically goes from its first season to its sixth – it was the most consistently humorous, wistful and enjoyable series I ever watched. The only contenders to the title in my opinion are Arrested Development and 30 Rock and while both of them are among the funniest shows I've ever watched, Scrubs works for me on a different level because it also has the greatest emotional resonance.

Looking back that maybe the reason the Emmys never knew what to do with it or why it was never as big a hit even when it aired after Friends during the 2002-2003 season is because Scrubs was also one of the darkest comedies of that period. I don't mean that there was any debate like the ones we have today with shows like The Bear whether it was a comedy; generally I laughed more hysterically in an episode watching the antics of JD than any show during that period. But this was also a show set at Sacred Heart, which was a hospital. And let's not kid ourselves: I don't think there was any network comedy during the decade that dealt with such grim subjects in such a humorous matter. I could make an argument that it was as close as the 21^st century ever got to MASH and I don't think there'd be much debate. This was a show where so many of the antics were happening while the staff was doing everything in its power to stop patients from dying and more often then not, they lost the battle more than won it.

This was also a show where we saw the characters suffer more than we wanted to. Consider Dr. Perry Cox, played by John C. McGinley in a performance that every year the Emmys seemed to go out of their way to shun. Every line out of McGinley's mouth was a blistering gem as he went out of his way to deride everyone around him as being an idiot or incompetent, whether it was 'Newbie', 'Doctor Barbie' or any one of the wonderful nicknames he could come up with at a moment's notice. But with each season the episode went out of its way to show that this was someone who was doing everything in his considerable power not to show he had a heart. We saw it in his real friendship with Carla (Judy Reyes); every interaction he had with his ex-wife and soul mate Jordan (the fact that Christa Miller has been sleeping with the showrunner for thirty years doesn't change the fact she's an extraordinary talent) and the way he took the deaths of so many patients badly. We all remember the heartbreaking episode he spent trying to deny the death of his brother-in-law Ben which still brings tears to your eyes nearly 20 years later. You got the feeling most of the time the characters were engaging in the hysterical antics so they didn't cry. That was a balance I don't think TV viewers were ready for in the 2000s, certainly on network TV.

There's also an argument that, for the first two decades of this century, TV has never known what to make of Bill Lawrence. During that period he was the most consistently brilliant maker of comedies, whether it was Scrubs, the awkwardly named but deeply funny Cougar Town and underrated gems like the canceled too soon Ground Floor. Everyone of his shows was a magical experience and they were also watched by too few people and given less recognition.

And then right at the time we needed it – the winter of 2020 – America suddenly realized just how brilliant Bill Lawrence was.  First we found it when the entire world fell in love with Ted Lasso, both the character and the entire show. For its first two seasons it won every award in sight for its actors, its writers and producers. It was as if the Emmys had suddenly realized what a genius it had overlooked and decided to make up for it all at once.

Unlike almost every creative force who derided streaming Lawrence has embraced it and openly spoken in favor of it. It doesn't hurt that his collaboration with Apple TV has been berry, berry good to him. While Ted Lasso was filming its third and what was meant to be its final season, he began working on his next collaboration with Brett Goldstein Shrinking. This series is much more keeping in the Lawrence mold; it’s a lot darker in its subject matter with its lead and the characters around it and has a similar mentor-protégé relationship between Jason Segel and Harrison Ford. Indeed its sometimes difficult for me not to be reminded of Perry Cox much of the time I see Ford's Paul on screen. Paul isn't as mean-spirited and he can be more openly compassionate (though he'll deny it) but he puts up a very gruff façade to those around him and its clearly cost him. And just as with McGinley every line out of Ford's mouth is a gem. (Unlike McGinley Harrison Ford has been nominated by the Emmys and other awards shows and it’s a matter of time before he wins.)

A show created by Lawrence has been nominated for Best Comedy every year since 2021 and its almost certainly going to happen again this year. (Shrinking is a frontrunner for Emmy nominations across the board for Season 3 and I will get to it eventually.) And just like with Ted Lasso  I think the decision to bring back Scrubs for what the show is officially calling a revival rather than reboot comes exactly when we all need it. That ABC rather than Hulu or Apple is doing is a sign of the network's confidence in the project. It may have a shakier foundation with ABC bringing it back then NBC would (it aired the final two very shaky seasons of the show after NBC dropped it in 2008) but having watched network TV in recent years this is absolutely the right call as it is ABC which currently is the unquestionable king of great network comedies during the decade. They brought us Abbott Elementary, the underappreciated Not Dead Yet and the reimagining of The Wonder Years. And having seen the first two episodes, it couldn't be in better hands.

It's clear from the opening that we're right back where we were as we open with a sequence where J.D. is in the middle of a thoracotomy and life-saving procedure that is clearly a John Wells' production. We know it’s a fantasy even before it becomes ridiculous because JD is now a concierge doctor.

He's still living less than an hour from Sacred Heart (and no we still don't know what city its in) when he shows up during a Code Black and Carla is taking charge. (Glad Carla Reyes had the time to show up for the premiere.) As is always with this beautiful relationship (I'm pretty sure 'bromance' has a picture of JD and Turk next to it) Turk senses JD is near and they immediately go into 'Eagle'. Except now their both nearly fifty and Turk's back goes out. And when JD tries to call time of death, he can't read his watch without his glasses.

The series makes it clear what it's going to be right away when Dr. Cox shows up after JD needs help with a patient. JD is dealing with something Scrubs never really had but absolutely needs, a villain: Dr. Park (a wonderful Joel Kim Booster). Its not clear what Cox's relationship is with Park but he immediately says he needs help with another problem: the new group of interns who are so clueless and sensitive they make JD look like Vic Mackey. (Though the show goes out of its way to prove that the only police he would part of is the 'Feelings Police').

Perry can't deal with it the way he used because the times have changed and they haven't so much left him behind as ridiculously overcorrected. The Kelso in this version is played by Vanessa Bayer who is the complete anti-version: Kelso famous had two thumbs and didn't give a damn, Bayer's character makes it ridiculously clear that everyone's feelings are valid, even if they get in the way of the medicine. I really hope that we get to see more of the two because it was just so much fun to see them interact. "Don't I get three strikes?" Cox asks. "You have 900," Bayer says back.

And sadly there are fewer happy endings then we think. JD and Eliot did end up getting married at the end of the original run – and they're divorced now. Honestly this shouldn't really come as a shock as the two of them always worked far better as friends (with or without benefits) then they ever did as boyfriend and girlfriend. I honestly thought when the show made them finally get together by the end of Season 8 (the series is, thankfully, denying that Season 9 ever happened) it was the kind of think a conventional comedy series did, which Scrubs never was. By having the two of them now having gone through a very rocky divorce, the show has restored the status quo – and let's not kid ourselves, that was always the fun.

The fun part of the revival of Scrubs is that the three major characters: JD, Eliot and Turk (the only official regulars in the cast) have grown older but not necessarily matured. JD is less emotionally needy but still incredibly sensitive, Eliot is more in charge but still a hot mess and Turk may be married with four kids but he still is capable of doing the robot dance when he needs to. And its clear that even though some of the regulars are gone, Sacred Heart is just as weird as ever.

But some of the familiar faces are still there, in spirit if not in body. Nurse Roberts has long since gone but now we have a group of African-American charge nurses going "Mm-hmm". Todd is still as much a handful as he was before even though he's trying to be better. "You should see me go deep," he says. But when every women looks at him he goes: "With consent five." And a lot of the older characters will be there and we've seen some of the older faces such as Hooch, who is still crazy.  (Sadly we won't be seeing Ted as Sam Lloyd passed away a few years ago.)

JD ends up coming back to be the Chief of Medicine, the job held by first Kelso and then Perry. And its watching him work particularly with the new breed of interns that you get the sense why we need Scrubs now more than ever. Nothing has changed about emergency medicine in the fifteen years since Scrubs went off the air and if anything its got even worse. Scrubs famously showed awareness of all of the problems and with far more humor and grace then any medical drama did years ago with the exception of ER (which was still on the air when Scrubs premiered). Now it makes it return just as the most critically acclaimed show and one of the most watched series on TV in any form is The Pitt, a series which looks at every possible crisis at every level over a single shift.

Scrubs is no different now then it was in the 2000s and does it with far more grace then those dramas did. We see it in the first episode of the revival when an aggressive intern tells a patient who he thinks has a stomachache to wait in the car or go to an ER, not even willing to leave the hospital. At the end of the season premiere, that patient has a heart attack and dies and the intern realizes in a way he hasn't how badly he's screwed up.  The show also has JD finally dealing with the kind of issues he never had to at any point on the show, budgeting and trying to instruct.  JD seems to have become more pragmatic at this point.

During the second episode when a patient is dealing with heart issues because he can't afford medicine one of his interns decides to argue with the insurance agent to get pills. This leads to trouble and JD tells him to see more patients. Eventually JD does make some deals and tries to get the guy the meds he needs. In the old show this would be seen as a victory and the episode would leave it be as a triumph. In the revival JD tells the intern that he's going to face hundreds of these cases every year and if he cares too much he's going to burn out quickly. JD lets the intern have his victory.

None of this makes the show any less funny or prone to the fantasies that made it wonderful. In dealing with his rivalry with Park JD frames himself in a James Bond story and makes Park the villain. ("So I'm the Asian villain who doesn't have any dialogue?" Park says before throwing a bowler hat to decapitate JD.) Later that episode JD realizes he's a villain to and throws his own bowler. "Want to hit the buffet?" he tells Park. And at the end of the episode we see JD spending the night he should be celebrating his return waiting on hold – and we see that play out as a fantasy too.

The only thing that I have doubts about after two episodes is the numerous group of interns that we've met in the first two episodes. This ended up weighing down much of Season 8 and when it came back trying to focus entirely on them in Season 9 (which did not happen!) it took a way a lot of goodwill fans had with the show.  The new writers are doing a better job then they did in the first couple of episodes they did in Season 8 but that's not a high bar to surpass.

That's a minor quibble. Scrubs was ahead of its time when it debuted during the 2000s and honestly on network TV in 2026, the rest of comedy TV still has to catch up with it. It does have the same nostalgia factor of every reboot and revival, much of which I have little use for in most cases but somehow doesn't apply here.  Like Zach Braff, Donald Faison and Sarah Chalke, I'm also twenty-five years older than I was when I first saw them as interns in Sacred Heart and while I've matured a lot in my viewing habits I still know a classic when I see one. And the message that's still in his opening lyric – "I can't do this all on my own" – could be a mission statement for every show he's done since.  I need the show just as much now as I did twenty five years ago and I think that could be said for all of us.

My score: 4.5 stars.