Scrubs
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- This article is about the television series Scrubs. Scrubs are also the shirts and pants worn by doctors, nurses, and others when "scrubbing in" for surgery. The wearing of scrubs has been extended outside of surgery in some hospitals.
Scrubs is an American sitcom on NBC created by Bill Lawrence, who also co-created Spin City.
The show, which premiered in 2001, focuses on the professional and personal lives of several characters working at Sacred Heart, a hospital in an unspecified city, and is currently in its fourth season.
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Overview
The show premiered on October 2, 2001. What distinguishes it from other sitcoms are its use of narration, unusually verbose characters, abrupt segues between subplots, scenes of surreal escapism (usually presented as the thoughts of the main character), and poignant scenes where the characters address how doctors deal with death, the delivery of dire diagnoses, and other hospital-related issues. It also lacks a laugh track, a typical device in most sitcoms.
Cast
Main cast
- Zach Braff as Dr. John 'J.D.' Dorian, the affably nerdish narrator and main character - initially an intern - who provides the narration most of the time. He is afraid of snakes, has a strange thing about pennies and collects scarves.
- Sarah Chalke as Dr. Elliot Reid, a close friend of J.D., although the boundaries between friendship and relationship have often been crossed. It is a running joke in the show that she and J.D. slept together every season, although creater Bill Lawrence has hinted that this may cease in order to avoid cliché storylines. She votes Republican.
- Donald Faison as Dr. Christopher Duncan Turk, called 'Turk' (or occasionally called 'Turkleton' by Dr Kelso), J.D.'s best friend, a surgeon, and married to Carla.
- Neil Flynn as the unnamed janitor, who has made it his business to terrorize J.D. We know a few facts about his personal life: he is married and has a son, and his hobbies include taxidermy.
- Ken Jenkins as Dr. Robert 'Bob' Kelso, the truculent chief of medicine for the hospital. He appears to be more interested in profit and staying out of legal trouble than helping patients. He and the Janitor are the only major characters whose personal lives we do not see in detail.
- John C. McGinley as Dr. Perry Cox, J.D.'s sarcastic, bitter mentor, who routinely belittles him. When in a good mood, he addresses J.D. as "Newbie", and when in a bad mood, he addresses J.D. using traditionally feminine names, or occasionally, classic dog names. He also usually calls Turk "Ghandi" and calls Elliot "Barbie". Unlike Dr. Kelso, Cox is shown to have a soft side, and to have a strong sense of medical ethics.
- Judy Reyes as Nurse Carla Espinosa, a strong-willed nurse who is married to Turk. She often refers to J.D. as "Bambi".
Recurring cast
These cast members have appeared in numerous episodes since the show's incipience but remain credited as guest stars.
- Johnny Kastl as Doug, the nervous colleague of J.D. and Elliot. He transferred from medicine to the morgue in Season 4, where his extensive personal knowledge of botched medical procedures makes him an expert coroner.
- Sam Lloyd as Ted, the hospital lawyer whose desire to kill Dr. Kelso is surpassed only by his unfortunate inability to have an opinion; he is part of a band with three other administration workers from around the hospital called The Worthless Peons (although one of them quit near the end of season 3).
- Robert Maschio as Todd, the jockish surgeon who is friends with Turk, and who attempts to turn every sentence into a double entendre.
- Christa Miller as Jordan, Dr. Cox's ex-wife, who is his only rival for sheer sarcasm. She slept with J.D. before he realised that she was Dr. Cox's ex-wife.
- Aloma Wright as Nurse Laverne Roberts, who spends her days at the hospital watching soap operas and keeping up with inter-office gossip.
Major guest cast
Important roles have been played by:
- Tom Cavanagh, as J.D.'s older brother Dan
- Scott Foley, as Elliot's on-again off-again love interest Sean
- Michael J. Fox, as Dr. Kevin Casey, a medical attending with obsessive-compulsive disorder
- Brendan Fraser, as Jordan's brother Ben (character died during the 3rd season)
- Heather Locklear, as Julie, a representative of a pharmaceutical company, lusted after by the men of the hospital
- Tara Reid, as J.D.'s unfaithful ex-girlfriend Danni and Jordan's sister
- Freddy Rodríguez, as Carla's brother and Turk's nemesis Marco
- Amy Smart, as J.D.'s one-time love interest, and wife of a comatose car crash victim, Jamie Moyer or Tasty Coma Wife (TCW)
- Heather Graham as attending psychiatrist Dr. Molly Clock, who J.D. had a crush on
- Rick Schroder as Nurse Paul Flowers, whom Elliot dated during the 2nd season
Sean Hayes, D.L. Hughley, Julianna Margulies Christopher Meloni, Jay Mohr, Matthew Perry, Ryan Reynolds, John Ritter, Alan Ruck (who previously worked with Bill Lawrence on "Spin City"), Nicole Sullivan, Dick Van Dyke, Jimmie Walker, Kelli Williams and Hattie Winston have also guest-starred.
Trivia
The show is filmed in an actual abandoned hospital, with most of the props and items on the show having been supplied by the cast and crew. This allows for the crew to film exteriors at the same site as interiors.
Although initially only a recurring guest character, Neil Flynn was promoted to a main character in season 2. If the show was cancelled in its first season, it would have been revealed that the Janitor was simply a figment of JD's imagination.
Although we hear much about Dr. Kelso's wife Enid (nicknamed Bunny), she remains an unseen character.
The title sequence is quick and does not even feature credits (they roll after the sequence), but merely fast-moving pictures of the cast at work in the hospital. At the start of season 2, a longer opening credits sequence was added which featured recurring characters and credits, but was deemed to be too long by NBC who wanted to use more time for the episodes, so the sequence was quickly deleted. In occasional episodes, where they are running particularly short on time, only a brief title card saying 'Scrubs' and 'created by Bill Lawrence' appears.
Sam Lloyd formed a band in college with George Miserlis, Paul Perry and Philip McNiven. In an episode of season one, they guest starred appearing as Ted the lawyer's group of singers (named the Worthless Peons) who all work at the hospital, and appeared twice in season two. Their repertoire on the show included singing television themes (both old tv shows and primetime ones), and singing telegrams that resemble advertising jingles. In an episode near the end of season three, one of the band members quit.
Most of the episodes are narrated by J.D., and the episode titles usually start with "My...". As of October 2004 three episodes have been narrated by other characters : "His Story" (narrated by Dr. Cox); "His Story II" (Turk) and "Her Story" (Elliott).
Tom Cavanagh was especially hired to play J.D.'s brother because of his uncanny physical resemblance to Zach Braff.
A 2002 episode "My Old Lady" won a Humanitas Prize in the 30 Minute Category. Also in 2002, it won an Artios award for Best Casting for TV, Comedy Pilot from the Casting Society of America. In 2003, it won the BMI TV Music Award. It has been nominated for three Emmys, and numerous other awards.
As of 2004, all but one of the women J.D. has slept with since the start of the series have had unisex names.
External links
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