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." Michael Dorian, however, it was expanded to the daydreams of other characters (first in special one-off episodes and then integrated alongside J.D.'s own daydreams, but still keeping the occasional special episode) as the series progressed. The seventh season of Scrubs premiered on October 25, 2007. The last new episode aired on December 6, 2007, due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. It is set to return with the next new episode on April 10, 2008.
Actor Michael Muhney was initially up for the role of JD, but was told he wasn't quirky enough for the role.
Sacred Heart Hospital is named after the school which Christa Miller, (wife of writer Bill Lawrence (III)) attended.
The teasers for the 2001 season finale parodied the teasers for the show "24" (2001) which had the same time slot as "Scrubs" (2001).
As an experiment, the Season 5 finale episode "My Transition" (#5.24) was finished and aired in High Definition. Scrubs is the first network show to complete an on-line edit in Final Cut Pro SD, and with this episode becomes the first network show to on-line in HD in Final Cut Pro. However the show continues to be produced in Standard Definition. According to the producer, Randall Winston: "After a lot of teasing, yes, the HD was an experiment, for everyone really. We will not be doing any more HD - there is a cost that no one is interested in covering and there is debate, not among us here at the show, about how the quality stands up. I don't think that we can get the look that the show is designed around [by using] tape."
The network leased and refurbished a closed hospital (North Hollywood Medical Center in the San Fernando Valley in California) for the program. The lower and upper floors of the hospital are used as other sets and production offices.
At the beginning of the second season, a longer intro was introduced that included all of the characters in the show, and not just the doctors. It was quickly scuttled when NBC decided to extend the length of the episodes in an attempt to win more viewers.
In the Spanish dubbed version of the show, the nurse Carla Espinosa speaks with her mother in Italian. In the original English version, they speak Spanish.
Ted's "Band" is in fact, "The Blanks" a group the actor formed with his friends at college.
In episode #309, "My Friend the Doctor", it is revealed that the Janitor played a part in The Fugitive. Neil Flynn, who plays the Janitor, played a cop in Fugitive, The (1993).
It was Zach Braff's idea to have John Ritter play JD's father.
Scrubs was originally going to air on ABC but then ABC turned it down and NBC picked up the show.
Most of the lead cast (and many of the recurring characters) are also supporting/ lead or guest voices on "Clone High" (2002). Both are executive produced by Bill Lawrence (III).
Former members of "Spin City" (1996) often appear as guest stars. Cast members have included Michael J. Fox (I), Heather Locklear, Barry Bostwick, Richard Kind, Alan Ruck, Alexander Chaplin, and Michael Boatman. "Scrubs" (2001) creator Bill Lawrence (III) was also the creator of Spin City, and producer Randall Winston was also an associate producer for Spin City.
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", and "His Story III". These episodes each contained internal narration from a character other than JD. (Dr. Cox, Turk, Elliot, Carla, and The Janitor respectively.) There is also "Their Story" in which we hear the thoughts of all the main and several of the supporting characters.
In the first episode of season four, "My Old Friend's New Friend", J.D. writes the name "Al Coholic" as a joke on the white board used to assign shifts for nurses, then he turns to talk to Elliot. Seconds later, in the next shot, the white board can still can briefly seen behind J.D. as he leaves the room, but the name has now changed to "Dr. Ass Face".
Dr. Cox's first name is Percival, but he goes by Perry.
The show has many connections to the acronym TCW. Donald Faison starred in Remember The Titans whose high school was TCW. JD later dates a girl whose is called TCW (Tasty Coma Wife) and then is shown in the episode My No Good Reason as being from a school with the initials TCW.
Dr. Cox's son, Jack, was born March 21, 2003.
Producer Bill Lawrence once said that if the Janitor's real name was ever revealed, it would be in the last ever episode. Fan speculation points to his name being either real life Neil Flynn or Dr Jan Ítor.
Producer and director names often make cameos in the show. In episode 4.3, there was a guest character named after producer Randall Winston. In episode 4.7, the two plaques behind Heather Graham (I) when she is leaving for the airport say "Sherman Winston" and "Sydney Pedreira," were named for the deceased dogs of Winston and assistant director Paul B. Pedreira. All the plaques on that wall are for the pets of the cast & crew of "Scrubs" (2001).
In the Season 4 episode "My Malpractical Decision" (409) Dr. Chris Turk, played by Donald Faison, changes his cellphone number to 1-916-Call-Turk. Unlike other shows and movies, this number is actually a valid number that most of the times will take your to a voice message telling you the latest info about "Scrubs" (2001). However, as the phone is placed on the set where Scrubs is being filmed, every now and then, people from the cast or crew answers the phone to have a word with whoever is calling.
Through the first season, the cast and crew, especially writer/creator Bill Lawrence (III), 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 he gets punched on the balls by a little girl and in episode 15 the janitor teases the nurse with the vacuum cleaner)
Bill Lawrence (III) and a few of the writers jokingly claim that Neil Flynn (The Janitor) has never actually spoken a line from any script. A fourth season script reportedly even contained "(Whatever Neil says)". While Lawrence's comment is certainly an exaggeration, it illustrates how much of his performance is spontaneous.
JD's father's (John Ritter) final line when he asks JD to pull his finger and then says, "I pooed a little," was totally improvised and Zach Braff had to bite the insides of his cheeks to stop himself laughing.
Ted has a picture of his mother in his office. The woman portrayed is, in fact, the real-life mother of actor Sam Lloyd.
The couple that makes the bungee jump for Zach Braff and Sarah Chalke in the second season met on the set for the first day. They married soon after.
In episode #2.20 ("My Interpretation"), Sarah Chalke's German is actually much better than that of the two actors playing the Germans. The translations of the German sentences is pretty much accurate; Sarah Chalke's two untranslated lines are as follows: the milkmaid line is, "Good morning, would you like to milk the cows?" and the hausfrau line is, "Eat your schnitzel, or you won't get a dessert!" In the German dubbed version, the Muellers are called Olsen, they're from Denmark and speak Danish.
Creator Bill Lawrence has said in interviews that he wanted "Scrubs" to be almost like a live-action "Simpsons," not only in the style of humor but also with the numerous high-profile guests and a fairly large cast of recurring characters. In a 2006 episode, J.D. commented that "Grey's Anatomy" was so realistic that "it's almost like someone was watching our lives and put it on television," a joke borrowed from an early '90s Simpsons episode saying the same of "Dinosaurs."
The show's medical advisors (in the credits) include Dr. Jonathan Doris, Dr. Jon Turk, and Dr. Dolly Klock, obviously serving as the basis for the names of Zach Braff, Donald Faison and Heather Graham (I)'s characters.
The third floor of the hospital where scrubs is shot has been renovated to be offices for the crew and producers, and dressing rooms for the cast. The show's staff and cast are allowed to bring their dogs to work, and they all stay on the third floor. Donald Faison who plays Turk on the show was not a fan of the dogs, and was seemingly left quite a few presents by the dogs right in front of his door. But the truth that he still may not know is it is really fellow cast member, Rob Maschio ("The Todd"), who collects the dog "two-sies" he runs into through out the day and places them in front of Donald Faison's dressing room door. Maschio revealed this for the first time while doing video for the DVD release of the show; it was put on the third season DVD special features. During Fasion's interview he was still unaware it was Maschio and not the dogs leaving him the presents.
Each episode contains some form of the phrase "And there it is" in its dialogue, usually when the moral or theme of that episode is revealed. Usually J.D. delivers this line, but sometimes other characters are given this responsibility.
Several characters, including Colonel Doctor, Snoop Dogg Intern, and Dr. Beardface started as extras and were referred to by these names by the cast and crew who did not know their real names, but were later written into episodes with speaking roles.
Dr. Cox's trademark nose rub before crossing his arms is a reference to Robert Redford in "The Sting." Redford used it as a sign for "It's OK" or "Go Ahead." John C. McGinley added it himself as a tribute to the film.
J.D.'s social security number is 987-65-4320, and his P.I.N is 3674.
The yellow and blue wristband Dr Cox wears, is in support of the National Down Syndrome Society's "Buddy Walk".
The only girls names Dr. Cox has used more than once are Lily, Ginger, Gidget, Marcia, Gloria, Janice, Betsy, Carol, Toto, and Nancy.
Dr. Cox's (John C. McGinley) trademark of calling J.D. by girl's names is what McGinley does in real life (jokingly) to his good friend and neighbor John Cusack.
The set used for Sacred Heart Hospital was used in Crossroads (2000/I).
