Bill Lawrence on ‘Ted Lasso’ Season 4, ‘Scrubs’ Reboot Writers’ Room Coming Together ‘Very Soon’
By Jennifer Maas
Prolific comedy writer Bill Lawrence gave an update on where his reboot of “Scrubs” is in the development stage while speaking with Variety on the Writers Guild Awards red carpet Saturday in New York.
“Well first thing is, on an interview, asking my wife if she’ll do the show whenever she has time,” Lawrence said while standing next to his wife, “Scrubs” alum Christa Miller.
Lucky for Lawrence, Miller replied: “Of course.”
With that cleared up, the “Scrubs” creator went on to say: “We’re in the process of, the cool thing, putting the writers together. And it’s the best thing in the world to see that some of the most talented writers in the world wrote on that show and they’re all still friends, and my friends. And so [we] have a combination of the old and new. We’re just starting to build it right now. And I expect it to make an appearance very soon.”
“Scrubs” originally aired on NBC for its first seven seasons from 2001-2008, followed by two seasons on ABC from 2009-2010. The single-cam comedy took place at Sacred Heart Hospital and followed the interns, doctors, nurses and the Janitor through their day-to-day lives at the hospital. The cast included Zach Braff, Donald Faison, Sarah Chalke, Judy Reyes, Ken Jenkins, John C. McGinley and Neil Flynn, as well as Miller in the recurring role of Jordan Sullivan.
In December, Variety confirmed Lawrence was working on a new iteration of the series via 20th Television for ABC. The original series was produced by ABC Studios, which was recently absorbed into 20th TV as part of a restructuring undertaken by parent company Disney. (Lawrence remains under his overall deal at Warner Bros. Television, with that studio carving out room for Lawrence to work with his former studio partners on “Scrubs.”)
After years of fan demand and reunion teases, Lawrence explains why he finally decided now was the time to bring back the beloved medical comedy.
“I thought about it a lot, and I think the main impetus is selfish,” the writer said. “It’s that we’re all friends, and we enjoy spending time together, and you can’t meet a writer or an actor or actress on that show, a crew member, that didn’t count that as one of the highlights of their career. And so all of us were like, even if it’s just that, why not do it again? And that’s part of the fun.”
When accepting the Writers Guild of America East’s Herb Sargent Award for Comedy Excellence at the 77th annual WGA Awards Saturday, Lawrence was praised for his work on “Scrubs,” as well as “Ted Lasso,” “Shrinking,” “Bad Monkey, “Cougar Town” and “Spin City.”
Though he was able to give an update on the “Scrubs” reboot, he’s kicking all questions about “Ted Lasso” Season 4, which is reportedly eyeing a greenlight at Apple TV+, over to Ted Lasso himself, co-creator and star Jason Sudeikis.
“I leave all ‘Ted Lasso’ questions, as does everybody else, to our fearless leader, Jason Sudeikis,” Lawrence told Variety. “He’s around [in New York City] for the ‘SNL’ 50th [anniversary special] so I bet you he’s somewhere right now being asked that same question. And I bet you his answer is better than mine.”
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Scrubs season 10 has been confirmed to be on the way, and there are plenty of reasons to be excited about the sitcom’s return after more than 15 years away. The Scrubs revival has been teased for a while, but it only really started to pick up any real momentum in the last year or so. Now, it’s only a matter of time before the show is back on TV screens and every doctor from Scrubs comes back to continue the story.
All nine seasons of Scrubs aired between 2001 and 2010, although the ninth and final season – Scrubs: Med School – adopted a very different formula. The sitcom’s cancelation as a result of its overhaul could easily have meant Scrubs was done for good. For a long while, there was no reason to believe the cult classic would ever be revived. Thankfully, the decision has been made, and there is plenty to be excited about ahead of Scrubs’ return.
It’s already been announced that Bill Lawrence won’t be returning as the Scrubs showrunner for the sitcom’s upcoming era. However, that doesn’t mean he won’t have a big part to play in his creation’s comeback. A big reason for the delay in the Scrubs revival was that the project was waiting for Lawrence to work out a deal with Apple TV+, which would allow him towork with Disney to make more episodes of the medical sitcom.
Lawrence has enjoyed great success with Apple TV+, with his most notable triumph being Ted Lasso.
If Lawrence wasn’t going to be heavily involved, this wait wouldn’t have been necessary. Lawrence was instrumental in Scrubs’ original run. Not only did he create the show, but he also continually set the comedic and dramatic tones that Scrubs became so well-known for. So, it’s welcome news that he’ll contribute to Scrubs season 10 and possibly beyond. Presumably in an overseer role above the new showrunner, his return is very exciting.
Although characters like Zach Braff’s Dr. John “JD” Dorian were the focus of Scrubs (at least, in the first eight seasons), the show gradually introduced other figures who were far too young to be notable contributors to the story beyond just existing. Many of the core group of characters had kids by the end of the show, but only Jack Cox (Andrew Miller) had any real scenes, as he was a little older than his other younger co-stars. The Scrubs revival can finally give them all proper storylines.
The Scrubs revival has been confirmed as being a tribute to the past while also looking to the future, but it must make up for one big mistake.
One of the biggest advantages of Scrubs being off the air for so long is that every single one of the kids born or on the way by the end of Scrubs season 9 will now be teenagers. So, they’ll all be leading far more entertaining lives from an audience’s perspective. Not only will they be at school, but their future goals will start to take shape, and seeing whether they also want to go into medicine will be interesting.
Scrubs season 10 altering its formula once again after Med School’s failure could easily make fans nervous ahead of the sitcom’s revival. The most recent season was pretty much a disaster, but there were certain elements that worked. Lawrence has already confirmed the new Scrubs episodes will split their time between original cast members and new characters again, but he has surely learned his lesson from the last time he tried the same thing.
The only other avenues to explore, if not this one, are to try and recreate the original show beat-for-beat, or continue the same approach that Scrubs: Med School adopted.
The only other avenues to explore, if not this one, are to try and recreate the original show beat-for-beat, or continue the same approach that Scrubs: Med School adopted. Neither of these choices is ideal, as the former just wouldn’t work because of how much time has passed, and the latter sounds like a recipe for immediate cancelation. On the surface, this decision doesn’t seem like something to get too pumped up about, but it at least promises something different and original.
Sitcom revivals don’t always feature or even prioritize bringing the whole cast back together. For example, Frasier’s divisive comeback in 2023 brought back Kelsey Grammer in the show’s titular role but lacked his beloved scene partner, David Hyde Pierce. Thankfully, Scrubs fans don’t need to worry about holdouts or too many absences, as many members of the close-knit ensemble sound very eager to work together again.
Scrubs had a running gag during its original era that would have been easy to miss for many of its viewers, but the revival can do it again.
Sadly, the death of Sam Lloyd in 2020 means Ted can’t really be part of Scrubs season 10. Additionally, Ken Jenkins may not be interested in coming back as Dr. Bob Kelso, as he hasn’t acted in 2019. That being said, Kelso’s return hasn’t yet been ruled out. Other than those two figures, there’s no reason to believe that all the other main stars won’t be back for the sitcom’s revival. They’re all still working in the industry today, and they all seem genuinely excited about the project.
Members of the original cast have reunited in other shows incredibly rarely since Scrubs ended. Because of this, it can be difficult to tell if the magical chemistry that existed between them all is still going strong after such a long break. However, the official Scrubs rewatch podcast, Fake Doctors, Real Friends, is proof that they all still get along and bounce off one another as if the show had only ended yesterday.
Scrubs Top 10 Episodes On IMDb
Title
Season
Episode
IMDb Score
“My Screw Up”
3
14
9.7/10
“My Finale: Part 2”
8
19
9.7/10
“My Lunch”
5
20
9.6/10
“My Last Words”
8
2
9.3/10
“My Fallen Idol”
5
21
9.2/10
“My Old Lady”
1
4
9.1/10
“My Finale: Part One”
8
18
9.1/10
“My Way Home”
5
7
9.1/10
“My Occurrence”
1
22
9.0/10
“My Long Farewell”
6
15
9.0/10
Although the podcast has since moved on to other topics, co-hosts Zach Braff and Donald Faison’s original mission was to analyze every episode of Scrubs. This goal has now been achieved, and they did so by reaching out to their former Scrubs guest stars to get them all on the podcast to talk about the show and how it was made. All the guest appearances from the Scrubs cast are hilarious and informative in equal measure, which proves they can bring back that same energy to the revival.
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|
Scrubs Top 10 Episodes On IMDb |
|||
|
Title |
Season |
Episode |
IMDb Score |
|
“My Screw Up” |
3 |
14 |
9.7/10 |
|
“My Finale: Part 2” |
8 |
19 |
9.7/10 |
|
“My Lunch” |
5 |
20 |
9.6/10 |
|
“My Last Words” |
8 |
2 |
9.3/10 |
|
“My Fallen Idol” |
5 |
21 |
9.2/10 |
|
“My Old Lady” |
1 |
4 |
9.1/10 |
|
“My Finale: Part One” |
8 |
18 |
9.1/10 |
|
“My Way Home” |
5 |
7 |
9.1/10 |
|
“My Occurrence” |
1 |
22 |
9.0/10 |
|
“My Long Farewell” |
6 |
15 |
9.0/10 |
Scrubs Sequel Series “Putting The Writers Together”: Bill Lawrence
Posted in: Hulu, Peacock, TV | Tagged: Bill Lawrence, Scrubs
Bill Lawrence offered a promising update on where things stand with the follow-up series to Zach Braff and Donald Faison-starring Scrubs.
Thanks to this weekend’s Writers Guild Awards red carpet, we have an update on Bill Lawrence and 20th Television’s sequel series to the Zach Braff and Donald Faison-starring Scrubs to pass along – and it came directly from Lawrence. “We’re in the process of, the cool thing, putting the writers together. And it’s the best thing in the world to see that some of the most talented writers in the world wrote on that show and they’re all still friends, and my friends. And so [we] have a combination of the old and new. We’re just starting to build it right now. And I expect it to make an appearance very soon,” the series creator revealed. In terms of why now seems the right time to revisit the beloved series’ universe, Lawrence added, “I thought about it a lot, and I think the main impetus is selfish. It’s that we’re all friends, and we enjoy spending time together, and you can’t meet a writer or an actor or actress on that show, a crew member, that didn’t count that as one of the highlights of their career. And so all of us were like, even if it’s just that, why not do it again? And that’s part of the fun.”
Checking in with the Los Angeles Times at the end of 2024, Lawrence offered an update on where things stood while also further elaborating on some of the issues he’s previously tackled. Lawrence expected to begin writing the project in the new year and that a deal for a showrunner was “being made as we speak” and that “as soon as that’s done, we’ll start.” In terms of who it could be, Lawrence dropped an interesting tease. “We’ve already been shooting the s*** because we’re old friends, but we’ll start coming up with the idea of where the world starts and who’s doing what.” he added. “They’ve said it’s been so weird going back and watching every episode. My ultimate goal on the whole thing is just to get the music restored to the old episodes.”
“If I thought it was a bad idea, I wouldn’t do it. I’m not chasing commerce, and without being self-aggrandizing, I don’t need to. Creatively, if somebody said, ‘Do you want to pick ‘Scrubs’ up right back in the same hospital with the same people on a normal day, everything’s back to normal?’ No, that would be disingenuous to the story. Am I curious, and can I think of a bunch of stories about where some of these characters are years later, not being kid interns anymore and having new young people around them, with the way the medical world has changed — yeah, without a shadow of a doubt. That creative answer was easy. The complicated thing, and why I was always hesitant, was I don’t work for Disney anymore. I work here [Warner Bros.], and it’s not really, business-wise, a show I was allowed to go do. It’s not jerky for Warner Brothers to say, ‘We’re not employing you to go do a Disney show,'” Lawrence shared, making it clear that it was the creative opportunities to move the series forward that brought him back and not a desire to repeat what they’ve already done.
Lawrence continued, “The thing that changed is the cast are all tight in real life and as a lot of us do, at this point in our lives, covet that experience. So [there’s] the amount of friends that [say], ‘Man, it would be fun to have that experience again because we all really loved each other.’ And you connect that directly to a time in Hollywood that not only are we not making a ton of stuff, but people that I really care about and love, both in front of and behind the camera, they’re scrambling, hustling to find work. The best thing for the show is a sad state of affairs, which there are amazing writers that are available. It’s not going to be a mailed-in cash grab.”
To make that happen, Lawrence is moving forward with a team of veteran writers from the original series and new writers. “There will be a bunch of the original ‘Scrubs’ writers on the show; there will also be a bunch of new writers. Someone was like, ‘I hope this doesn’t happen.’ That made me incredulous. Like, why the f*** would you care if it happened? He’s like, ‘I just love the show so much, it would tarnish it.’ I don’t think that’s true. Shows that I care about have had reboots. This is my attitude: If it’s a show I love, I’m gonna watch it. If it’s great, I’m gonna be super happy. If it’s good, whatever, at least it didn’t offend me. And if it sucks, I’m gonna be super happy to badmouth how much it sucks to my friends. Not on the internet. But that’s how I watch TV. To me, that’s a no-lose. What’s the big deal?”
Lawrence also noted that as much as the fans and cast have been pushing for a return of some type, they’re not the only ones who have a vested interest in seeing what the future could hold for the gang. “Not to get way too deep on you, I’ve got my own stuff to work through. You hinted at it before, and I would probably, without telling anybody the reasons, just say: I’m doing this just because it’s something that’s important to me for my own stuff. I’ll live with the consequences,” he explained.
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