The show focuses on the professional and personal lives of several characters working at Sacred Heart Hospital, a fictional teaching hospital. It uses first-person narration, verbose characters, segues between subplots, fast pace, and surreal escapism (presented as the thoughts and reveries of the main characters), counterpointed by poignant scenes where the characters address how doctors deal with real issues relating to the practice of medicine. The combination of these diverse elements distinguishes it from other series. Scrubs has been advertised as "half as long as ER and twice as funny."
Unlike many situation comedies, Scrubs uses a single camera setup (as opposed to a multiple-camera setup). The show is structured around multiple storylines thematically linked via voiceovers by protagonist and narrator Dr. John "J.D." Dorian played by Zach Braff. During many of the 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. The series is also notable for numerous guest appearances by major movie actors not generally seen on episodic television.
The cover art for the second, iTunes-exclusive Scrubs soundtrack
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.[1] 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 Scrubssoundtracks) and Christa Miller Lawrence (who selected Colin Hay and Tammany Hall NYC). According to Bill Lawrence, "She [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."[1] Producers expanded Scrubs' musical emphasis with a musical episode early in the sixth season, called My Musical. This episode aired on January 18, 2007.[2] 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). However, fans and the studio complained about the new titles, and the original title sequence was restored to provide more running time for the length of the episodes. During Season 3, the intro was cut even shorter for a few episodes, 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 one 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.[3]
The Worthless Peons are played by The Blanks, 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 Bill Lawrence and members of the Scrubs cast.
The Scrubs cast and guest star Jill Tracy sing Colin Hay's "Waiting for My Real Life to Begin" in Episode 2.13, My Philosophy
Colin Hay
Colin Hay, who is the former frontman of Men at Work, has been featured in Episode 1.24, My Last Day ("Beautiful World"); Episode 2.01, "My Overkill" (Men at Work's "Overkill," performed by Hay, who follows J.D. around the hospital); Episode 2.13, "My Philosophy" ("Waiting for My Real Life to Begin," performed by the entire cast at the end of the episode); Episode 2.22, "My Dream Job" ("My Brilliant Feat"); Episode 3.13, "My Porcelain God", (Men at Work's "Down Under," performed by J.D.); and Episode 4.17, My Life In Four Cameras (the Cheerstheme song, "Where Everybody Knows Your Name", written by Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo and performed by Hay).
The friendship between Radin and Braff has been quite productive. Braff directed the music video for Radin's song "Closer" and is credited as playing the triangle on the song "Today" from Radin's debut album First Between 3rd and 4th. Radin also had a small cameo in Braff's film Garden State, playing a partygoer in one scene. The version of Radin's "Winter" that aired during My Screw Up was a demo version of the song sent to Braff by Radin for use in the episode. Due to the popularity of the as-yet unreleased song, it was made available for download at Joshua Radin's official site for a time, though it was removed when a studio version of the single became available.
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 on Riverside Drive in North Hollywood. However, the location of Sacred Heart Hospital within the fictional world of Scrubs is not stated. The Scrubs city is meant to remain anonymous to reinforce that the situations apply to all locations, according to staff. Cast and crew on the show refer to the location as "San DiFrangeles" — a portmanteau of San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles that is meant to encompass a large part of California. Most clues and observations point to the location being somewhere in California.
Bonus features include 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.
Audio commentaries, One-On-One with John C. McGinley, Music Stylings — Featurette on Music's role in the show, Scrubbed Out — Exclusive Deleted Scenes, Practice, Practice, Malpractice — Outtakes.
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
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)
Extended cut of the 100th episode (My Way Home), Special look back at five seasons of Scrubs, Deleted scenes.
The Regions 2 and 4 releases of Season 3 did not have as many special features as the Region 1 equivalent. This was due to the earlier release dates of the DVD in those regions.
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".
Scrubs won a George Foster Peabody award for it's 2006 season; the press release specifically noted the Wizard of Oz parody episode "My Way Home", directed by series star Zach Braff.
Broadcast history
Season 5
Though a full season of 24 episodes was produced for the fifth season, NBC decided against airing them during the 2005–2006 fall schedule. On December 1, 2005, NBC announced the return of Scrubs for mid-season. At first, two new episodes were aired back-to-back every Tuesday at 9:00 p.m. ET. The first twelve episodes of the season aired in this fashion, then NBC returned to airing one new episode every week (still at 9:00 p.m. ET), followed by a Scrubs rerun. For the first three weeks of this, the old episode was a cast favorite episode, with available audio commentary tracks on NBC's website to accompany the episodes. After this, with the premiere of Teachers in the 9:30 p.m. time slot, Scrubs continued to air new episodes at 9:00 p.m., with previous season five episodes airing in the 8:30 p.m. time slot before. When Teachers ended, Scrubs reruns returned to 9:30 p.m.. Season 5 began on E4 in the UK on July 13, 2006.[4]
Season 6
On 15 May2006, NBC announced that Scrubs had been renewed for a full season (2006–2007). Although it was originally supposed to air midseason, NBC announced on October 25 that the show would air Thursdays at 9 p.m. starting November 30.[5] The first episode was a continuation of Season 5's finale ("My Transition"), titled "My Mirror Image." Producer Bill Lawrence has previously indicated that Season 6 would most likely be the final season of Scrubs,[6] but more recent interviews with Zach Braff have indicated that they intend to go on into Season 7, regardless of whether Zach Braff leaves.[7] However, Braff has insisted that his departure is nothing more than rumor, re-iterated by his blog and interviews; and on an Episode of BITE Radio[8], during an interview with Rob Maschio, he said that he thinks that Scrubs will be coming back for another season.
Season 7
Bill Lawrence told Mike Ausiello at TVGuide.com that Scrubs will return for a "seventh and final season, either on NBC or ABC." He also told Ausiello that if Zach Braff is not interested in doing a seventh and final season, there simply will not be a seventh season. He does however feel Braff will likely stay for a final season.[9] On Jan. 17, 2007, Zach Braff posted on his blog that he would be willing to return to Scrubs for a seventh season if "all the right pieces fall into place" including "Bill Lawrence staying on as creator/head writer" and "some scheduling tweaks."[10] On March 7, 2007 there were reports that if Braff signed on for another season, he would receive $350,000 an episode, making him one of the highest-paid male TV personalities. [11], although Braff claims these reports "have not been very accurate". [12] On March 31, 2007, Braff announced via his blog that he has signed up to a Seventh season of Scrubs, if NBC decide to renew it for another season (although Braff has stated that ABC are willing to pick series seven up if NBC decline).[12]
In Canada, Scrubs airs irregularly on CTV. However, many Canadians have access to NBC via cable, and are able to watch Scrubs at the same time as the American audience.
In Estonia, Scrubs airs on TV3 as Kollanokad (The Newbies).
In Finland, Scrubs airs on Nelonen as Tuho-osasto (Disaster Ward). The name is a subtle dig at Teho-osasto (Intensive Care, the oddly mis-translated Finnish name for ER).
In Sri Lanka, Scrubs is set to be aired on ARTv soon.
In Sweden, Scrubs airs on TV6 and TV3. At first, the show was called Första hjälpen (First Aid) on TV3, but Scrubs on ZTV (predecessor of the TV6); the Swedish title was soon dropped.
In Switzerland, Scrubs airs on SF2 (in German and English) and TSR1 (in French).
In the United States, Scrubs airs on NBC, as well as being in syndication on Comedy Central, Superstation WGN, and several local channels. According to Comedy Central's head of programming David Bernath, "We're thrilled to have Scrubs join the network. It is a very funny show with a great cast. Not many off-network sitcoms fit our brand, and this one fits perfectly."[13]
The series is coming to TV Land in October 2008. [14]
In Venezuela, Scrubs airs on Televen as Médicos Sin Remedio (Doctors Without Cure).
This article contains a trivia section. Content in this section should be integrated into peoples pants like a nooblet other appropriate areas of the article or removed, and the trivia section removed.
Many episodes of Scrubs pay homage to episodes of M*A*S*H, the 1970s television sitcom/drama based in a Korean surgical hospital during the 1950s conflict. Plot elements which carry over between the series include Scrubs episode 318 "His Story II" and M*A*S*H episode "Morale Victory" in which both Chris Turk and Charles Winchester respectively discover that their patients, who have received nerve damage in their hands, are concert pianists, and that both graduated from Juilliard.
Scrubs was offered to ABC, who turned it down before NBC picked up the show.
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 (who have also starred in MADtv). Several of the Clone High characters played by Scrubs actors mirror their Scrubs counterparts. Braff, Chalke, and Faison appear as a trio; McGinley appears as a wise, slightly creepy mentor to one of the Clone High characters; and Flynn appears as a janitor who wears the exact same outfit as Janitor does on Scrubs.
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.[15] 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, "It's been bugging me for years."
Each season finale features a shot of Bill Lawrence's best friend as a good luck charm.[16]
Several Scrubs crew members have appeared in minor speaking roles, such as writer/producer Mike Schwartz having a recurring role as Lloyd a delivery man, and producer Randal Winston as the security guard Leonard.
Dr. Cox's habit of referring to J.D. by girls' names was John C. McGinley's idea. He does the same thing in real life with his friend, actor John Cusack.[17]
Christa Miller Lawrence is married to series creator Bill Lawrence. In the episode My Bad, the footage of Jordan and Dr. Cox's wedding is actually footage of Miller and Lawrence's wedding.[18]
Early in the series there was a musical cue that was used at the ends of sad or wistful scenes. By Season 4, it had become so noticeable that, in the eyes of the show's producers, it had become a cliché. Further, according to Bill Lawrence in Series 1 DVD commentary, its use had caused it to start coming into the heads of cast and crewmembers whenever something sad happened to them in real life. For this reason it was decided to retire the cue by making it a part of J.D.'s imagination. As a send-off, in the episode "My Old Friend's New Friend", J.D. asks Dr. Cox for help, and says "Come on, one more time for nostalgia's sake. You come see my patient, you teach me a lesson, and then the music plays. In my head, it sounds like this." He then imitates the cue. Since then, the cue has been used several times as a joke when characters are pretending to be sad.
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 either Danish or German with a Swiss accent (the latter in Episode 4.17, "My Life in Four Cameras") in the German version of the show. However, this only applies to the airings in countries which dub the voices of the actors, and not to the airings in countries which use subtitles as the way to translate the characters speech.
Every episode title begins with the word "My..." with notable exceptions of the episodes entitled "His Story", "His Story II", "Her Story", "Her Story II", "His Story III", "His Story IV", and "Their Story". In addition to a bit of narration from J.D. at the very beginning and end of the episode, these episodes primarily contained internal narration from another character besides J.D. (Dr. Cox, Turk, Elliot, Carla, The Janitor, Dr. Kelso, and 'The B Team' respectively). In these episodes, internal narration duty switches from J.D. to the "guest narrator" at the very beginning and then back to J.D. at the very end at a moment of physical contact between the two characters (usually bumping into each other in passing).
The cast of Scrubs made an episode called "My Charlie Brown Christmas" where they made a voice over of the Christmas episode of Charlie Brown. It was created by Daniel Russ and Ryan Levin for a Scrubs cast party and can be found here
In episode 1.11, JD incorrectly states to the Janitor that he had been working at Sacred Heart Hospital for three months, when in fact he had been working at Sacred Heart for five months at that point. He began his internship on July 1st, as the pilot episode stated, and the episode took place some time around Christmas, in December. For him to be working at Sacred Heart for three months, at that point in that episode, he would have had to have begun working at Sacred Heart some time in September.
On the cover of the complete second season, J.D.'s nametag is incorrectly labeled as PGY-1, when he was really in his second year (PGY-2).
Markie Post who play's Dr Reid's mother in Scrubs also played her mother in the film I've Been Waiting For You.
Through the first season, the cast and crew, especially writer/creator Bill Lawrence, were so sure that the series would be canceled by the end of the season, that a plot twist was created for use when they'd have a forced series finale. This plot twist noted the fact that the Janitor, Neil Flynn's character, never directly spoke nor was spoken to by any other character than JD, Zach Braff's character. Therefore, the Janitor would be a complete figment of JD's imagination. This idea was kept up into the second season, still in fear of cancellation, until Flynn asked Lawrence to be able to finally interact with another actor on the series. (Although Elliot actually throws a cup at him in the 6th episode and sarcastically says "SORRY!", in episode 11 a little girl punches him in the groin and in episode 15 the janitor teases the nurse with the vacuum cleaner)
In nearly every episode, the phrase (or close version of the phrase) "And there it is" is spoken by a character. Usually by J.D. or Dr. Cox.
Sacred Heart Hospital is named after the school which Christa Miller, (wife of writer Bill Lawrence) attended.
The show's medical advisors include Dr. Jonathan Doris, Dr. Jon Turk, and Dr. Dolly Klock, and serve as the basis for the names of Zach Braff, Donald Faison and Heather Graham's characters.
Flynn's character was once accused by Braff's character to be the transit cop from the movie The Fugitive when in actuality, Neil Flynn did play the transit cop killed in "The Fugitive".
