The Scrubs cast and creator reflect on the beloved medical comedy's legacy of weirdness and warmth
Photo-Illustration: Vulture and Photo by Getty Images Until recently, the cast and creator of Scrubs hadn’t all been in a room together since the series wrapped in 2010. That changed at Vulture Festival in Los Angeles, where Scrubs creator and writer Bill Lawrence joined the principal cast for a reunion panel to talk about the legacy of the beloved medical comedy that aired for nine progressively weirder seasons on two different networks.
You know, I can’t tell you how many lines [of dialogue from the show] where people would come up to me and say, “I really loved that.” And I know one of [the Scrubs actors] made it up on their feet. And you know what I say? I just go, “Thank you.” Like that, because I’m modest. But I think that the show was able to evolve because we had a fan base that followed us from time slot to time slot and year to year.
Sarah Chalke: The fantasies were all of our favorite thing to do, like the Star Wars one where we were all the Star Wars cast. And I got to make out with the hot ladies, Judy Reyes, Mandy Moore. But there was one fantasy where Bill was like, “It’s too far.” It was the first fantasy I did. I was supposed to be a nerd in headgear and lots of zits, and we kind of just were having fun with it, and I came down and Bill was like, “What is on your lip?” I’m like, “It’s a corn flake.
Braff: “I’m a doctor, I can’t wear short shorts to work!” If you look at the gag reel, the bloopers, I think that’s the hardest I’ve ever laughed. Just Neil explaining to me that his wife, with her limited fingers …Braff: Using the scrubs material, she had made me short shorts, and it was an insult to not wear them. And my line was, “Look, I’m a doctor. I can’t wear short shorts to work.”
Flynn: “That’s Julian.” I believe that was scripted, though, that was not improvised. People will sometimes say to me, “Is it true that you made up all your lines?” Of course that’s not true, that would be chaos. There’s another person in the scene with a scripted line! So sometimes I was allowed to ad-lib. Often times with Zach, we would change the dialogue a little bit. But most of it was written.
But one thing I think that’s so unique about the show, and a credit to Bill and the other writers: I’ve never seen something that navigated in, without commercials, 22 minutes, from the broadest comedy you can think of, all the stuff we’re all laughing about, and then find a way to have a scene like the one with my character and Johnny C. [when Dr. Cox becomes depressed], and I played it completely straight.
.youtube[data-uri="www.vulture.com/_components/youtube/instances/cjp1p0aq900173h61xe1kic6y@published"].border-top:before { content: 'Watch'; } Jenkins: Yes, and good for the network for doing it. I confess, I don’t remember much of this, it’s sort of like a Chinese chopped salad blowing in the tornado. A little bit, “Oh, yeah, I was there. I was there.” And I love it, it’s a wonderful feeling, but I remember one of those turns.
Lawrence: But Ken Jenkins is one of my favorite experiences because — just so you all know, if you program his name onto your DVR, it’ll explode because he’s been in every movie ever since the dawn of time. And I used to come to Ken nervously when we started having you do really acerbic jokes. And I wasn’t sure if you always knew what I was going for, and I would fumfer around and then Ken would just interrupt me. He’s like, “Bill, I’m old, just tell me how to say it.
Faison: [Mimicking Chalke asking them not to make the sound.] “Don’t you, don’t you don’t you, God, motha …” Chalke: I would literally get to a point where I just turn away and turn back into frame and I just have to see someone’s face and I’d be like [breaks into laughter].Faison: Hmmmm. Lawrence: All jokes aside, I want to give a shout-out because one of the things that made this show work was that not everybody felt that their job, rightfully so, was the most important. And whether it’s Sam Lloyd playing Ted with my favorite a capella band of all time, or Rob Maschio playing the Todd, or Aloma Wright playing Nurse Roberts, just the people we brought into this world — I want to thank them and thank you guys for liking them so much.
She said, “Go to one of those booths.” And it was like the episode of Friends where Ross ends up like a nine. It’s really complicated! I mean, there’s this weird cream and there’s a mask and there’s all this stuff, and I had my dog with me. Anyways, I get to Scrubs and the tan increases over time.Lawrence: By the way, not to bring it back, she looked like Donald Trump. She was orange, she was literally a Cheeto.
McGinley: I’m just filled with self-loathing. So order to hate myself less, I had to do it. Otherwise, I would have to face the man in the mirror and just want to wrap my fist around my esophagus and kill myself.McGinley: I was so competitive with Billy, I was like, “Fuck you. I’ll learn this motherfucker.”
McGinley: And so it was late in … the sixth episode, year five or six or seven, and so I had gotten into this [place where I was] playing with this really weird cadence for Dr. Cox, this really strange sound. And I’m like, all right, well, I’m going to take this to its logical extreme and the logical extreme was, I was going to make it incoherent.
Lawrence: Here’s a good piece of trivia. You can see when John C. McGinley, as a performer, whether it’s because of the way it’s being shot or how the day is going, you can see when he’s actually angry. When you see this part of his jaw just start to twitch. Can you do it now? Can you flex that thing now? Thinking About a Scrubs Reboot So when we were talking on the phone about doing this, one thing you said, Bill, was, “Well, we’re not really reboot people.
Reyes: Definitely with a couple of kids. And we talked early in Scrubs about her aspiring to be a doctor, and I didn’t think … I liked her running the show as a nurse. Braff: Bill and Christa sent me a picture of them on vacation and I was like, “What are you doing?” And they were like, “We’re spending our Donald Fortnite money.”
Audience question: I am doctor myself, because of you guys. You kept the sense of humor alive and I wanted to know throughout your time filming, did you guys yourselves get to go to a hospital and really see how boring and lame it is on a daily basis? Lawrence: If you all watched the real finale of the show, this would mean a lot to me. The real finale of the show is when Zach …
Braff: And you know Bill [Lawrence] not only played the guy who married [Janitor and Lady Janitor], he also was the janitor at the very end of season eight that pulls down the sheet.
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