Star Zach Braff is moving on, but ‘Scrubs’ may not
On Tuesday night, Scrubs enters its final year ó at least in its current form.
For its eighth season, the modestly rated but critically praised hospital comedy gets new life on ABC (two episodes Tuesday, 9 ET/PT), which picked it up when it ended its NBC run in May.
With the impending departure of Zach Braff, who plays Dr. John “J.D.” Dorian, Scrubs is approaching this season as its last, resolving the characters’ stories and answering long-running questions along the way.
“The end of the show was always about J.D. moving on and whether you can hold on to your youthful relationships,” creator Bill Lawrence says. “We’ve had the finale outlined for four years.” However, he says, if the show performs well, the comedy could return, but in some altered form.
The move to ABC reinvigorated the writers, cast and crew of the show, which Lawrence says had gotten broader, sillier and further from its roots. “This show only works if it’s grounded enough that (it can) switch gears and be dramatic and really about something.”
When ABC program chief Stephen McPherson proposed the network switch, a rare move, “we said, ‘If we’re going to do this, we’re going to go back tonally to what the show was and Ö try to make it have emotional resonance,’ ” Lawrence says.
Scrubs is produced by ABC’s studio, which McPherson used to run, so the network has more to gain financially than NBC did. ABC has been more involved and provided more promotion, Lawrence says.
Although the tone will be less silly, Scrubs won’t lose its oddball moments and fantasies.
Tonight’s episodes feature Courteney Cox guest-starring as the new chief of medicine and the arrival of fresh interns.
If Scrubs were to return for a ninth season, the loss of J.D. would mean shifting the focus, possibly toward the interns. Lawrence, who would be involved to a lesser degree, hopes that it could be akin to Frasier growing out of Cheers and that at least some series regulars return.
For now, eight seasons is enough, says Braff, who had feared that the show might end with a fairy-tale episode on NBC that wasn’t intended to be the finale.
“It’s been almost the last season for us for so many years,” he says. “We’re all really grateful that we have a chance to end the show on our own terms.”
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