As we’re all stuck at home, it’s the perfect time to binge-watch series you haven’t seen for a long time or finally watch.
One box set to watch is the medical comedy, Scrubs. It’s one of the best comedies ever created from the mind of Bill Lawrence and had an incredible cast from their main headline stars to top tier supporting characters.
If you grew up with this show, you already have some love for it as I do. It was the first time watching an American comedy or probably any show that I connected to a lead character like Zach Braff’s JD, while I love sport, I was able to see myself in him and especially as a teenager.
Even to this day, Scrubs has had a major impact on my life. I wrote a feature film and the friendship of my two leads steam from JD and Turk (played by Donald Faison, who I wanted to be friends with) brotherhood.
Also, it gave us one of the most iconic characters in TV sitcom history in John C. McGinley’s Dr Perry Cox.
Now I’m feeling lucky to return to Sacred Heart as Braff and Faison are back together for the wonderful rewatching podcast Real Friends, Fake Doctors. I can honestly say listening to these two (and guests) talk about the episodes and life on the show brings complete joy to my week.
It also has one of the best theme tunes ever. If they ever wanted to release a single to raise money for charities, then I’d buy it and listen to it on repeat on Spotify.
Because of the success of the podcast and love from the fans for the show, I think it’s time to return to see what JD, Turk, Judy Reyes’ Carla and Elliott, played by Sarah Chalke, have been up to 10 years on.
I’ve always felt that with talk plenty of shows getting a reboot, returning to Sacred Heart was possible but not in the hands of the Disney owned ABC Network who brought back for a ninth season that left a bad taste in the mouth.
I know it’s cliché now, but Netflix would be the ideal home for a show that was described as the most accurate portrayal of the medical profession. It doesn’t have to be a long series, six-eight half-hour episodes and see what the reaction is.
Netflix would have to give creator Lawrence free rein to make the show bringing it back to the hay day. This would mean completely retconning season nine, sorry Dave Franco nothing personal.
The only person I’d bring back from the later seasons would be Eliza Coupe’s Denise, who’s character was funny and likeable. She would return as Chief Resident.
As for the story, I feel like it writes itself with every character in major roles. JD is now Chief of Medicine, similar to the real JD after Lawrence revealed on the podcast, with Turk as Chief of Surgery.
We follow the events of a pandemic in Sacred Heart with Carla as Chief Nurse and Elliot running a major private practice. We see how it affects everyone, especially when one of the patients is Bob Kelso (Ken Jenkins).
We can see the struggles the pandemic is having on the healthcare service with trying to get the right equipment for staff and underline commentary on healthcare in the US, as the show has always done.
Furthermore, The show always had interns. We can see these fresh faces going into the war zone with one of the newbies being Jack Cox and having to work with his father, who came out of retirement to help.
One of the things Scrubs did wonderfully is balancing the comedy with heartfelt, emotional moments and this would be no different because, as well as Kelso, Carla contacts it and final few episodes we don’t know who’ll survive only revealed at the end as see Carla’s there for Kelso’s funeral.
It’d be a full character arc for Bob, and we see the virus taking away one of our beloved characters. Meanwhile, highlighting where the fab four ended up in their careers and character progression in a child we saw grow up in the original series.
Then if the series does well, Lawrence has 10 years of material to mine out of the real JD.
The Bear Cave 