Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence comments, “I really like Eliza. I think she’s a really interesting actress and we didn’t give her a full character [last season]. I think she’s hyper-talented.”

Eliza Coupe joins John C. McGinley’s return to the role of Dr. Cox, and Donald Faison’s return to the role of Dr. Turk, as well as a potential fourth main cast member. Rumor has it they’re looking for a headliner to join the cast. Someone that is potentially an A-list actor.

Related Posts

• June 23, 2009 -- Scrubs: Season 9 – Scrub School?
• May 16, 2009 -- Scrubs – Season 9! Now Officially Announced
• May 11, 2005 -- Another Scrubs Moment
• June 19, 2009 -- Scrubs – Season 9 Details: Hospital and Med School Settings
• May 7, 2009 -- Scrubs: Season 8 – The Final Season?

Producers are looking for a new title for the show, as the direction is moved from a teaching hospital to med school. Word is they’re looking to keep Scrubs as part of the title in some way, but we’ll keep our eyes open for that. One title that ran through my head that could achieve both familiarity as well as help to explain the new format of the show is “Scrub School.” But that’s my own idea and by no means official.

From Zap2it:

[...] It’ll no longer take place in the hospital, but in a medical school with professors Cox (John C. McGinley) and Turk (Donald Faison) instead.

Sacred Heart won’t disappear completely though. Dr. Cox and Dr. Turk’s students will end up seeing several familiar faces while doing rotations there every now and then… Braff, Sarah Chalke (Elliot), Judy Reyes (Carla) and Ken Jenkins (Dr. Kelso) have signed on to appear as guest stars throughout the season.

The med students will be comprised of actors new to the “Scrubs” family, though casting has not yet begun. Lawrence did, however, mention that ABC is encouraging them to hire one big name, someone recognizable.

Sources close to the series tell me “Gilmore Girls”‘ Lauren Graham is currently at the top of their wish list.

As for last season’s newbies, Eliza Coupe, Betsy Beutler, Sonal Shah and Todd Bosley, the interns who were once rumored to be “Scrubs” future, I’m told Coupe will likely be the only one considered to return in some regular capacity.

Neil Flynn (The Janitor) and Christa Miller (Jordan) have both landed series regular roles on new sitcoms. [...]

Eliza Coupe played “Denise” (AKA “Jo”) last season on Scrubs.

Related Posts

• May 16, 2009 -- Scrubs – Season 9! Now Officially Announced
• July 16, 2009 -- Scrubs – Season 9 – Intern becomes New Regular Cast Member
• June 19, 2009 -- Scrubs – Season 9 Details: Hospital and Med School Settings
• May 7, 2009 -- Scrubs: Season 8 – The Final Season?
• May 11, 2005 -- Another Scrubs Moment

This just seems like the right move for the show, and almost like a naturally planned transition for the cast of the show as well as the story. They’ve told the story of an intern rising through the ranks over eight years, and now it’s time for a new story.

When the show returns next winter, the action will shift from the hospital to the classroom and make med-school professors of John C. McGinley’s Dr. Cox and Donald Faison’s Turk.

“It’ll be a lot like Paper Chase as a comedy,” Lawrence tells me. “It’s going to be a different show. It’ll still be life-and-death stakes, but if the show is just Scrubs again in the hospital with a different person’s voiceover, it would be a disaster and people would be mad.”

Of course, Sacred Heart won’t go away altogether. Although J.D.’s old stomping ground no longer will serve as the show’s base of operations, the students will occasionally rotate through its halls — and bump into many of its familiar faces. In addition to McGinley and Faison, both of whom are expected to be full-time regulars alongside a quartet of newbies (most of them playing students), Scrubs vets Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke, Judy Reyes and Ken Jenkins have agreed to make guest appearances. (Neil Flynn has a costarring role as Patricia Heaton’s husband in the new ABC sitcom The Middle, so his name-challenged Janitor will be MIA.)

“Med students in their first three years have to spend anywhere from 10 to 50 percent of their time at a hospital,” Lawrence explains. “And that’s when you’ll see some of the [original cast members]. Continuity-wise, Sacred Heart will still exist with those people still working there.”

But Lawrence insists “half the cast, if not 60 percent of it,” will be comprised of freshmen, one of which will be more recognizable than the rest. “[ABC] is really after us to hire a big name,” he reveals. “So one of them will be fairly famous.”

-via Entertainment Weekly

Related Posts

• July 16, 2009 -- Scrubs – Season 9 – Intern becomes New Regular Cast Member
• June 23, 2009 -- Scrubs: Season 9 – Scrub School?
• May 16, 2009 -- Scrubs – Season 9! Now Officially Announced
• May 7, 2009 -- Scrubs: Season 8 – The Final Season?
• May 11, 2005 -- Another Scrubs Moment

The Hollywood Reporter has the details:

It seems Scrubs will indeed be back. The Hollywood Reporter says deals have now been signed with most of the key cast to return, at least in some capacity, for Season 9 of the series.

Zach Braff and Sarah Chalke have both agreed to return for six episodes next season. Donald Faison, Neil Flynn and John C. McGinley all are awaiting word on pilots they shot, but the Hollywood Reporter says that all three will return as regulars if their pilots are passed on. The Reporter says Judy Reyes has not been approached for a new deal, but may also appear in a guest capacity.

The intention is also to elevate the roles of some of the new intern characters – ABC has passed on No Heroics, the pilot starring Eliza Coupe (“Denise”, AKA “Jo”), making it more likely she will be a part of Scrubs: Season 9.

ABC will announce their full schedule for 2009-2010 this coming Tuesday, and presumably, Scrubs will be a part of it.

Related Posts

• June 23, 2009 -- Scrubs: Season 9 – Scrub School?
• July 16, 2009 -- Scrubs – Season 9 – Intern becomes New Regular Cast Member
• June 19, 2009 -- Scrubs – Season 9 Details: Hospital and Med School Settings
• April 11, 2005 -- Classic Scrubs
• May 7, 2009 -- Scrubs: Season 8 – The Final Season?

I started watching the show with the first episode of season 4. I had seen a few commercials for it, and it looked like something that at its’ worst would make me laugh a little bit. It became one of my favorite shows from the first few minutes of that episode. I started watching it weekly to see if it was consistent. I also started scouring the internet frantically looking for episodes from the first three seasons. It wasn’t available on DVD yet so, yes, I downloaded them. I now own every season on DVD and plan on purchasing season eight when it is available. I’ve been a big fan ever since.

I couldn’t have asked for a better season finale, nor a better season to end the show with. It was top notch for 18 straight episodes.

The question remains: will there be a season nine? After a finale like that, if it ends there, I’m satisfied with it. If it does go on, I do hope the writing team sticks with it, as they seem to be at the top of their game again. The seventh season, while a good season (there wasn’t a bad one, really), didn’t have the memorable episodes save for a few. The new interns are excellent, and if season nine does happen, I look forward to sharing in their adventures.

I would go on, but it’s nearly 2:30am and I need some sleep, so I’ll end this with the final words of the episode: Good night.

Scrubs, “My Finale”: Reviewing the series finale

by Alan Sepinwall/The Star-Ledger

Wednesday May 06, 2009, 9:00 PM

Spoilers for the “Scrubs” finale — be it season or series — coming up just as soon as I take the reins…

“I’m real sorry there, newbie. But this is not a special day for me. It’s just a day.” -Dr. Cox

“Endings are never easy. I always build them up so much in my head, they can’t possibly live up to my expectations, and I just end up disappointed. I’m not even sure why it matters to me so much how things end here. I guess it’s because that we all want to believe that what we do is very important: that people hang on to our every word, that people care what we think. The truth is, you should consider yourself lucky if you even occasionally get to make someone, anyone, feel a little better. After that, it’s all about the people you let into your life.” -J.D.

“My Finale” made me happy. And it made me sad. Seems about right for the ending of a show that so often expertly balanced comedy and tragedy.

For that matter, “My Finale” did a nice job of being both a definitive ending for J.D. (and for Kelso) and just another day in the life for Cox, Turk, Carla and all the others are staying behind. Whether or not the show continues with a reconfigured cast, I like endings that acknowledge that the characters’ lives continue, even though we won’t get to see any of it.

Written and directed, as it should have been, by Bill Lawrence, “My Finale” hit all the necessary points. It gave us all those flashbacks to J.D. in the pilot, to show how far he’s come — and, for that matter, to show how much the characters around him grew and changed with him. (He humanized Cox, and Cox in turn humanized Kelso, more than either man would like to admit.) It featured a bunch of “Scrubs” Greatest Hits, whether it was Cox reciting the final lines of his greatest rant ever, or Turk giving J.D. his biggest and best “EEEEEAGLE!” It gave us a payoff to the debate about whether J.D. put a penny in the door — and in doing so, brilliantly and permanently changed my impression of the J.D./Janitor rivalry — and it gave us The Janitor’s real name (Glenn Matthews), then immediately pulled the rug out from under the idea by having someone else walk by and call him “Tony.” (And in so doing, it gave fans everywhere license to keep calling the guy whatever they want. He could really be Glenn, or Tony, or Jan I. Tor, or Neil Flynn, or Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate. It’s all up to you to decide.)

It gave us that sweet J.D./Carla moment where they thought back on how he used to be “Bambi.” It gave us one Turk/J.D. hug after another (along with the guys’ delight at Carla and Elliot’s mock girl-on-girl hug). It gave us a reminder that J.D. and Jordan slept together once upon a time, and it gave us that wonderful line-up of guest stars and minor characters from over the years, including, but not limited to: J.D.’s brother Dan, The Todd, Tasty Coma Wife, crazy Jill, Laverne, Rex, Ted’s band, Dr. Wen, Colin Hay (who did appear on camera a few times), Lady, Keith Dudemeister, Dr. Mickhead, both the character Randall Winston (the little person custodian) and the producer Randall Winston (as the hook-handed security guard), the studly gynecologist, Mrs. Tanner (repeating the advice she gave J.D. at the end of “My Old Lady”), Colonel Doctor, Snoop Dogg Attending, and Hooch (now in a straightjacket, because Hooch is crazy!).

It was every bit the trip down memory lane I would have liked, without actually closing down the hospital or killing off anybody else major.

And then the show that always used music so brilliantly did it three more times at the end, first with Peter Gabriel’s “The Book of Love” playing over J.D.’s imagined home movies of life after Sacred Heart (and, as with Janitor’s name, it was presented in a way that allowed the audience to accept it as what would really happen, or not), followed by the guitar part of Lazlo Bane’s “Superman” over J.D. driving out of the parking lot one last time, followed with the closing credits behind-the-scenes reel being accompanied by The Blanks singing their own version of “Superman.”

Nice. Very, very nice. And that’s not even mentioning maybe the best, most serio-comic moment in the whole hour: Cox delivering a heartfelt speech to Sunny about how much J.D. really means to him, with J.D. sneaking up behind him halfway through. (Like The Janitor, he staged a little play to get what he wanted, and I loved Sunny’s horror at realizing the long-term implications of her involvement in it.)

I could go on for a while about the other moments in the finale (including Christa Millers’ hilarious delivery of “I want to touch it but I don’t!” as Jordan studied the blotch on Ted’s skin), but “My Finale” deliberately put me in such a nostalgic mood that what I’d really like to do is let you waste some of your evening the same way I wasted much of this afternoon: by looking back at some classic moments from the eight-season run of this wonderful series. The YouTube links below are by no means complete, both for time and because not everything I wanted was posted (copyright issues prevent the “I Will Follow You Into the Dark” sequence from “My Last Words” from playing with sound, for instance), but here’s some quality ones, and feel free to post more of your own in the comments:

- Ben’s funeral

- “Waiting For My Real Life to Begin” from “My Philosophy”

- JD tries to comfort Dr. Cox in “My Lunch”

- Turk dances to “Poison”

- Turk rewrites the “Sanford & Son” theme

- Dr. Cox’s back problem

- The best of Ted’s band

- Dr. Cox gets payback on JD

- The complete saga of “Dr. Acula”

And before I go, I want to post an excerpt from a column I wrote at the start of the show’s last season on NBC, when it looked like the show was limping to the finish line, instead of this wonderful, unexpected victory lap on ABC:

At a time when the traditional sitcom was beginning its death rattle, “Scrubs” proved that a little imagination and a lot of gusto could create a new kind of comedy that was funny without a laugh track. In the brilliant John C. McGinley’s Dr. Cox (a kind of proto-House — and, frankly, a more interesting dramatic character than House, though Hugh Laurie gets better jokes these days) and Ken Jennings’ venomous chief of medicine Dr. Kelso, the show gave us two hilarious updates to the old TV cliche of the crusty but benign boss.Before “The O.C.” and “Grey’s Anatomy” made it de riguer to close episodes with montages scored to cool indie rock songs, “Scrubs” was regularly making beautiful use of off-the-beaten-path music. The show also had a knack for doing its own ingenious musical numbers without making a big deal about it, like suicidal hospital lawyer Ted (Sam Lloyd) commenting on episodes with the help of his a cappella “band,” or Turk celebrating the chance to remove J.D.’s appendix with a funky song and dance called “I Get To Cut You Open.”

Because it debuted in the waning days of NBC’s comedy empire (even briefly airing after “Friends,” but so irregularly that it didn’t help build an audience), overlapped with several other laugh track-free comedies that got bigger ratings and/or more award show love (“Malcolm in the Middle,” “Arrested Development”), and comes to the end of its run with so many other shows having cribbed from it, “Scrubs” never got and probably never will get the credit it deserves. But at its best, it was as funny as any other comedy on television, as moving as any drama.

And with that, I bid farewell to “Scrubs” — at least to this version of it. Whether or not the show comes back next year, regardless of what it’s called, who’s in it, and whether it’s any good at all, we’ll always have these eight seasons, and they’ll always make me smile.

What did everybody else think?

Related Posts

• July 16, 2009 -- Scrubs – Season 9 – Intern becomes New Regular Cast Member
• June 23, 2009 -- Scrubs: Season 9 – Scrub School?
• June 19, 2009 -- Scrubs – Season 9 Details: Hospital and Med School Settings
• May 16, 2009 -- Scrubs – Season 9! Now Officially Announced
• May 11, 2005 -- Another Scrubs Moment

Dr. Cox walks through. He passes Turk, who is waiting for an elevator.

Dr. Cox: [whistles] Let’s go, field trip.

Turk: I got things to do, you know.

Still, he follows Dr. Cox.

Dr. Cox: Let me guess, you’re off to another funeral. I’ll make you a deal — you come with me right now, and if you’re still late for the graveyard, I will personally scour the obituaries with you this weekend and you can just go nuts!

Turk: Carla put you up to this?

Dr. Cox: No, it was my idea. I desperately want to be close with you, I just can’t figure out how to connect. Turn around.

Turk gives him a look.

Dr. Cox: [firm] Turn around.

Turk does turn around, and the two look into the observation window of a patient in the I.C.U.

The family is gathered around the bed as Dr. Wen speaks to them.

Dr. Cox: You see Dr. Wen in there? He’s explaining to that family that something went wrong and that the patient died. He’s gonna tell them what happened, he’s gonna say he’s sorry, and then he’s going back to work. You think anybody else in that room is going back to work today?

That is why we distance ourselves, that’s why we make jokes. We don’t do it because it’s fun — we do it so we can get by…and sometimes because it’s fun. But mostly it’s the getting by thing.

http://www.sweetpaul.com/scrubs_s2.php

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• July 16, 2009 -- Scrubs – Season 9 – Intern becomes New Regular Cast Member
• April 11, 2005 -- Classic Scrubs
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• June 23, 2009 -- Scrubs: Season 9 – Scrub School?
• June 19, 2009 -- Scrubs – Season 9 Details: Hospital and Med School Settings

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• June 23, 2009 -- Scrubs: Season 9 – Scrub School?

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King :: Best Picture of 2003 :: 11 Academy Awards

Movies:

Finding Neverland
Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban
The Incredibles
Napoleon Dynamite
Ocean’s 12
The Passion of the Christ
Spider-Man 2
The Village

TV:

Alias
Arrested Development
Extreme Makeover Home Edition
Lost
Scrubs
StarGate Atlantis
StarGate SG-1

I hadn’t seen a single episode of any of those shows before 2004. Now I’m a huge fan of all of them.

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[09:24] Malachi: Dr. Daman is going to take care of you
[09:24] ????
[09:24] * Malachi looks scared
[09:24] say “who’s Dr. Daman”
[09:27] who is Mr. Daman?
[09:27] without the Mr.
[09:28] who is Dr. Daman?
[09:28] without the Dr.
[09:28] who is Daman?
[09:28] I’m DA MAN!
[09:28] THAT WAS FUN!
[09:28] DOING THAT WITH YOU
[09:28] heh

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