[This story contains spoilers for the first two episodes of the Scrubs revival on ABC.]
It’s been almost 25 years since Scrubs aired its first episode, and the revival of the hospital comedy that premiered on ABC Wednesday is upfront about acknowledging the passage of that much time. JD (Zach Braff), Turk (Donald Faison) and Elliot (Sarah Chalke) are all older and more experienced, and their relationships have changed — fractured, in some cases.
Where they were interns when the show began, the returning characters are now teachers. Turk is chief of surgery at Sacred Heart Hospital, and JD returns as chief of medicine in Wednesday’s premiere. Elliot also has a senior position at the hospital.
But it’s still Scrubs, which means the show still features JD’s voice-over narration and cuts to his daydreams, and Turk still dances down the hallway, and Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley) delivers a series of rapid-fire putdowns aimed at an intern. Oh, and JD and Turk, upon seeing one another again, still do their “Eagle” bit — only to have it collapse because Turk’s sciatica is acting up. Again, time has passed.
“When we were discussing what the initial thing would be, you could still have that silliness, because that’s real and true to life for Donald and I,” Braff told The Hollywood Reporter. “But then, if we’re keeping it grounded in reality, how do we show that these men are the chief of surgery and the chief of medicine at a teaching hospital where they need to be incredible teachers? I was interested in that — the mix of being funny with your friend but also being able to pivot to being a wonderful teacher.”
One other possibly sobering fact: JD and Elliot, who ended the show’s eighth season as a couple after years of an on-and-off relationship (the new show more or less skips the med school-focused, semi-spinoff ninth season of the original series), are now divorces. Showrunner Aseem Batra said that idea became fodder for several “fun debates” in the writers room — including convincing series creator Bill Lawrence that it was the right move.
“He did not like that initially. He was like, ‘But it’s JD and Elliot,’” Batra said of Lawrence’s initial reaction. “But after thinking about it for a beat, he’s like, ‘Yeah, you’re right. We were going to get a lot more story out of them not being together.’ It also tracks with how we saw them in the first iteration of Scrubs, where they were kind of all over the place with each other. It also tracks just with the authenticity of life and how things turn out.”
Braff and Chalke were on board with the idea as well, noting that the conflict in their relationship throughout the show’s original run brought out some of their best work. “We didn’t want to lose that, because Sarah and I love playing off of each other,” Braff said. “[JD and Elliot] just being fine, I think would be boring.”
“Totally,” Chalke added. “And then it gives the opportunity for them to [explore] what is that like for them to co-parent, and what is it like for them to end up working together in the same hospital again, and what about when they start dating? How does the other person feel about that? It was way more fun.”
Donald Faison, Sarah Chalke and Judy Reyes in ‘Scrubs’
Jeff Weddell/Disney
Love is not totally dead at Sacred Heart, however: Turk and nurse Carla Espinosa (Judy Reyes) are still married and have four daughters together. Reyes, who’s a regular on another ABC series, High Potential, has a recurring role on Scrubs and will in a handful of the season’s episodes. The show’s other returning core cast member, McGinley, may not, as Dr. Cox tells JD he’s retiring and passes the chief of medicine job onto him (to the great dismay of Joel Kim Booster’s Dr. Eric Park, who seemed to be in line for the position).
Scrubs filmed its first eight seasons at a decommissioned hospital in the San Fernando Valley. That building was torn down in 2011, and the new season was filmed on soundstages in Vancouver — but with precise re-creations of the old sets.
“[Production designer] Cabot McMullen took all his blueprints and shipped them up to Vancouver, and on a 20,000-square-foot stage, which is very large, they reconstructed it down to the texture of the paint and the tile, the feel and look of the hospital,” said McGinley. “It was remarkable.”
Reyes said it was almost “eerie” how well new the new sets matched the former ones, to the point where she would get lost on the sets thinking they were laid out similarly to the original setup. “It was eerie once you’re in the space, but it puts everything in context for you.”
Lawrence is an executive producer of the revival, but he wasn’t the showrunner due to contractual matters: He has an overall deal with Warner Bros. TV — and several other ongoing series, including Apple TV’s Shrinking and Ted Lasso and HBO’s upcoming Rooster — and Scrubs is produced by Disney’s 20th Television.
“I’m not a huge therapy guy, but I talked to a therapist [about] how it’s making me crazy that I can’t micromanage and control every aspect of it,” Lawrence told THR. “But that’s not what this is. There are original writers [working on this version] who knew me when I was a kid and doing that, so I feel safe. But they’re also nice enough to let me participate. I really worked hard on the pilot, and I’ve been working with Zach on a lot of the cuts, and it makes me very joyful to see what this stuff has become.”
Still, Lawrence jokes that “If I didn’t have other shows going on, I’m quite sure I would have been wearing a Mission: Impossible mask and trying to work on the show without getting caught.”
Batra’s first job as a TV writer was on Scrubs (she also played an intern in a few episodes), and she said it’s “surreal” to return as showrunner on the revival. “If I thought about it too hard, I would probably have a panic attack and not be able to do it. So we just launched into it,” she told THR. “And you realize that all those hours of TV make a difference, and then when you step into it, you’re ready to go. That doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges, but I think there’s a readiness. I’m glad that we’re doing this now and not like five years ago. Every year I had working helped me be ready for this.”
