'' is an
American Sitcom that premiered on October 2, 2001, on
NBC . It was created by
Bill Lawrence , who also co-created ''
Spin City ''.
The show focuses on the professional and personal lives of several characters working at Sacred Heart, a fictional hospital in an unspecified city. Its use of first-person narration, unusually verbose characters, abrupt segues between subplots, breakneck pace, and
Surreal Escapism (usually presented as the thoughts and reveries of the main characters), counterpointed by poignant scenes where the characters address how doctors deal with death and issues in their personal lives distinguishes it from other series.
It also lacks a
Laugh Track , a traditional device in most sitcoms. Also, unlike most sitcoms, it uses a
Single Camera Setup (as opposed to a
Multicamera Setup ). The show is structured around various storylines, which are thematically linked via voice-overs, intended to deliver a small life-lesson, and often a joke. The series is also notable for numerous cameo appearances by well-known actors.
The
Theme Song of the series, performed by
Lazlo Bane , is entitled "Superman", and can be found on the album ''
All The Time In The World '', as well as on the first ''Scrubs''
Soundtrack . Bill Lawrence credits
Zach Braff for finding and suggesting "Superman" as the theme song. The lyrics "I'm no
Superman " relate to the show's theme of its characters' fallibility.
During season 2, NBC briefly used a lengthened credit sequence to include members of the extended cast such as
Neil Flynn , but returned to the original credit sequence due to a negative fan reaction.
See Also: List of minor characters of Scrubs
The cast and crew of the show have been vigilant about keeping the location of the fictionalized Sacred Heart hospital a secret, although many fans continue to speculate about where the show takes place. Much like Springfield on "
The Simpsons ", the Scrubs city is meant to remain anonymous to reinforce that the situations apply to all locations, according to staff. Based on current clues, the show seems to take place somewhere in the state of California, although the particular region is unclear. These clues include:
- Throughout season 3, Elliot took a commuter train to visit her then-boyfriend Sean (played by Scott Foley ), who worked as an animal trainer at a SeaWorld Theme Park . SeaWorld has locations in Orlando, Florida , San Antonio, Texas , and San Diego, California .
- During episodes that air during the winter months, characters are seen wearing winter clothing such as coats, gloves, and scarves, suggesting that the climate is a less temperate one than that found in Florida or Southern California.
- Exterior shots on the show reveal very flat land with palm trees and other features of hotter climates.
- In season 1 episode 4, Carla states that a third of the hospitals patients speak Spanish as a primary language, which may reflect upon the demographics of the location.
- During season 4 episode 9, Turk reveals his new cell phone number to be (916) CALL-TUR. The area code 916 corresponds to the metropolitan area of Sacramento , which contradicts other clues about the show's location. Many fans have pointed out, however, that the area code for cell phones can correspond to where the phone was purchased, implying that Turk may have bought his phone in the Sacramento area and brought it to Sacred Heart's home city.
- In season 4 episode 4, a conversation between Elliot and Dr. Molly Clock establishes that the time difference between the location of the hospital and Greenland is three hours, as Greenland is largely UTC-3 (though this varies from UTC to UTC-4 ), this places Sacred Heart in UTC-6 , or Central Standard Time .
- In season 4 episode 8, Molly is leaving in a taxi cab with a California license plate 2FAN321.
- In season 4 episode 14, Dr. Cox avoids telling Jordan about his vasectomy by making up a story about fishing in San Diego on a trip that only takes a few days.
- The opening theme song makes references to the 405 , which is a freeway situated in Southern California, Portland, OR, and Seattle, WA.
- In season 5 episode 4, J.D. mentions that he's swimming in the "Great Pacific " during a Triathlon .
- In season 5 episode 3, Dr. Cox suggests that Caltech is nearby, which also suggests that Sacred Heart is in Southern California.
- In season 4 episode 21, J.D. sets his clock back three hours to see what it would be like to live in Honolulu, which suggests that the location is either in Pacific Standard, or Mountain Standard time, depending on Daylight Savings.
In fact, the show is filmed in an abandoned hospital in Southern California, near
Sherman Oaks , on Riverside Drive. The hospital is clearly visible from the
U.S. Route 101 .
On '' in the 9:30 timeslot, new episodes of ''Scrubs'' continue to air at 9:00, with previous season 5 episodes rerunning in the 8:30 timeslot before.
- In July 2005, Comedy Central announced that it had acquired Syndication rights to the first five seasons of the show and will begin airing them in the fall of 2006.
- In Canada , ''Scrubs'' was formerly aired by the CTV network. Due to competition from other popular programs airing at the same time in the United States , CTV normally options to air '' The Amazing Race '', '' Medium '' or '' American Idol '' over new episodes of ''Scrubs'', and it is no longer seen regularly on this network, though they still do maintain the Canadian airing rights and occasionally rerun old episodes on weekend afternoons. However, the vast majority of Canadian s have access to NBC , the U.S. home of ''Scrubs'', and are able to watch it at the same time as the U.S. audience.
- In Croatia , ''Scrubs'' is aired on HTV2
- In France , ''Scrubs'' is aired on Paris Première.
- In India , ''Scrubs'' is aired on Star World.
- In Israel , season 4 of ''Scrubs'' is aired on channel 'yesSTARS' (of - Israel's satellite broadcasting provider) on Tuesdays, at 9:05pm.
- In Italy , ''Scrubs'' is aired on MTV (new episodes) and the Fox channel.
- In Lithuania , ''Scrubs'' is aired on TV3 as ''Daktariūkščiai''.
- In Malaysia , ''Scrubs'' season 1 was aired on TV3 before the latter seasons was picked up by the sister channel, 8TV. It's also being aired on the Pay-TV Astro.
- In Norway ''Scrubs'' is aired on TV3 (Viasat) and ZTV (Viasat) as ''Helt sykt ("Insane" or "absolutly crazy")'' but is currently off air.
- In New Zealand ''Scrubs'' airs on TV2, but is currently off air
- In Singapore , ''Scrubs'' is aired on Channel 5.
- In Slovenia , ''Scrubs'' is aired on A Kanal.
- In Sweden , ''Scrubs'' is aired on TV3 and ZTV . At first, the show was called ''Första hjälpen'' (First Aid), but the Swedish title was soon dropped.
- The official ''Scrubs'' Soundtrack was released on CD on September 24 , 2002 .
- A complete list of music used on the television program can be found at {Link without Title} .
- The Blanks, who performed such songs as the theme songs to '' Charles In Charge '', '' The Facts Of Life '', and '' Underdog '' as "The Worthless Peons" (Ted's band), have an official website {Link without Title} , at which one can listen to their album ''Riding the Wave''.
- A fan-made compilation of songs from the show has been made available via file-sharing networks. This compilation includes songs sung by characters on the show in addition to background music.
In its first three seasons, ''Scrubs'' received
Emmy nominations for
Casting ,
Editing , and
Writing of a comedy series. Following season 4, the show received additional nominations for Best Comedy Series, Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Braff), Best Editing for a Multi-Camera series (although the series is predominantly shot single-camera, season 4 episode 17 "My Life in Four Cameras", has a brief segment shot multi-camera, sitcom-style), and casting. The show also won the 2002
Humanitas Prize , 30-minute category, for season 1 episode 4 "My Old Lady".
Braff was nominated for the in 2005 and 2006, but lost to
Steve Carell of ''
The Office '' in 2006 and to
Jason Bateman for ''
Arrested Development '' in 2005.
- 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 the Janitor and used the unedited version of Lazlo Bane's "Superman" song, but the fans complained so they returned to the original. In occasional episodes, where they are running particularly short on time, only a brief title card saying "Scrubs" and "created by Bill Lawrence" appears. The chest , 2006 ), with Cabbage (an intern) attempting to read a chest X-ray backwards.
- Sam Lloyd formed a band in college with George Miserlis , Paul Perry , and Philip McNiven . In an episode of season 1, they guest starred appearing as Ted the lawyer's group of singers (named the Worthless Peons) who all work at the hospital, and multiple times in season 2. Their repertoire on the show included singing television themes (both old Cartoon s and Primetime shows), and singing telegrams that resemble Advertising Jingles . In an episode near the end of season 3, one of the band members quit, but by season 4 episode 13 "My Ocardial Infarction", the band was back together as they attempted to outperform the Janitor's band of hospital service staff (named "Hibbleton"). They also sang at Turk and Carla's wedding at the end of season 3. The real life name of the band is "The Blanks", who have an album ''Riding the Wave'' on release, featuring guest appearance from the ''Scrubs'' cast.
- The titles are also often riffs on Pop Culture (as, indeed, is the entire show); the best abuse of the rules is probably "My Ocardial Infarction", a twisted reference to the medical name for a Heart Attack .
- Most of the episodes are narrated by J.D., and the episode titles usually start with "My...". Originally the narrations were supposed to be J.D.'s journal entries; the idea was later nixed but the episode titles remain. As of April 2006, five episodes have been narrated by other characters: "His Story" (narrated by Dr. Cox), "His Story II" (Turk), "Her Story" (Elliot), "Her Story II" (Carla), and "His Story III" (Janitor).
- The last episode shot for each season features Bill Lawrence 's best friend as a good luck charm.
- As of 2006, all but two of the women J.D. has slept with since the start of the series have had Unisex Name s, the exceptions being Neena and Julie.
- Sarah Chalke always wears different colored bras during shirtless scenes. Although it's been mentioned in articles and on the web that she's never worn the same color twice, it's actually not true. Both red and cyan have been repeated more than once.
- Several ''Scrubs'' crew members have appeared in minor speaking roles, for example writers Gabrielle Allan and Mike Schwartz. Schwartz has a recurring role as a delivery man.
- In season 4 episode 9 "My Malpractical Decision", Turk changes his cellphone number to 1-916-CALL-TUR(K). Writer Bill Lawrence actually registered this number, and a few curious callers were surprised when cast or crew members answered the phone, which is placed on the set. The number usually takes you to a voice message which tells you the latest information regarding ''Scrubs''. (Note the number works when dialling without the "K" at the end.)
- Neil Flynn is an experienced Improv comedian and, as such, ad-libs many of his lines. The writers specify what outcome a scene with the Janitor should have, and Flynn fills in the dialogue.
- Former Men At Work frontman Colin Hay 's music has appeared in multiple episodes of Scrubs. Season 1 episode 24 featured the song "Beautiful World"; season 2 episode 1 had Hay himself playing his acoustic version of the Men at Work song "Overkill" while following J.D. around the hospital; season 2 episode 13 ended with the staff singing Hay's song "Waiting for My Real Life to Begin"; season 2 episode 22 ended with Hay's "My Brilliant Feat"; in season 3 episode 13, Braff sang part of the Men at Work hit " Down Under "; and the original airing of season 4 episode 17 included Hay singing the '' Cheers '' Theme Song , which has been removed from subsequent airings; this recording of the song is not commercially available.
- Dr. Cox's habit of referring to J.D. by girls' names was put in the show after the writers noticed John McGinley doing it to Zach Braff.
- ---Variations on the theme include Cox calling J.D. the names of female pop singers, an ethnic day and famous dogs following "bestiality rumours" when J.D. practiced kissing Rowdy at home after a long drought of no women in his life (in this last case, the first name Cox called him was Lassie, to "help" in the transition). According to McGinley, it is a thing that he does with all of his friends.
- Season 1 episode 23 "My Hero", features a shot of a whiteboard displaying the characters’ new rotations. In addition to recognizable character surnames, the board also features the names Spiller (surname of episode director Michael Spiller ) and Lawrence (a reference to series creator, executive producer and sometime director Bill Lawrence ). The board also includes "Moore, M", rumored to be a reference to Braff's real-life girlfriend Mandy Moore . This is unlikely however, as Braff and Moore were not romantically linked until the summer of 2004, two years after the original airing of this episode.
- In season 4 episode 25 "My Changing Ways", J.D. moves out of his and Turk's apartment, his new room number is 47 - often seen as the most reappearing random number in the universe, there are even special internet forums created just for discussing the phenomenon of Number 47 . This suggests that a Pomona College alum may have had a hand in the show's creation, as the Southern California liberal arts school has a special connection with the number 47 (former Sagehens have gone on to include the number in shows like Star Trek and Alias).
- Actresses Christa Miller Lawrence (as Jordan Sullivan) and Aloma Wright (as Nurse Laverne Roberts) have worked together previously in episode #4.24 of '' The Drew Carey Show '' (entitled "Good Vibrations"). Miller had a main role as the character Kate while Wright had a guest appearance as a security officer. Wright would appear once more in episode #7.21 ("Never Been to Spain") as Mrs. Taylor.
- Christa Miller Lawrence is married to Bill Lawrence. One episode features footage of character's Jordan Sullivan and Perry Cox's wedding. The footage is in fact of Miller and Lawrence's wedding (season 1 episode 6 "My Bad").
- The characters are often seen drinking Vitamin Water during lunch breaks in the cafeteria.
- In the pilot episode, Turk uses the electrical Defibrillation paddles to "shock" an apparently unconscious patient, who immediately wakes up screaming in pain, apparently not having been unconscious at all. That patient was played by Vinko Bogataj , the Slovenia n ski jumper whose disastrously unsuccessful ski jump attempt was made famous in the opening title sequence of ABC 's television sport news show ABC 's '' Wide World Of Sports ''.
- In season 5 episode 7 " My Way Home ", J.D. is called into work on his day off. He tries to leave as soon as he can, but circumstances prohibit his departure. In one instance, he says, "I'm not supposed to be here today". This is an apparent Spoof of Dante's predicaments in '' Clerks ''. The whole episode (which is the 100th episode) is an homage to '' The Wizard Of Oz (1939 Film) ''.
- In season 5 episode 8 "My Big Bird", J.D. and Turk visit a patient's house and encounters Ostrich es that attack them. This scene is a spoof of a scene in the film '' Dude, Where's My Car? ''.
- In season 2 episode 5 "My New Coat", an imaginary opera singer (played by Tenor Bruce Sledge ) steps onscreen and sings the word "Mistake!" whenever J.D. does something stupid. This is a joke borrowed from comedian Dana Gould 's Stand-up act; in the end credits, "Dana Gould" turns out to be the imaginary singer's name.
- In season 5 episode 1 "My Intern's Eyes", J.D fantasises about the doctors using shotguns to put down patients. When he walks up to the bed and reads the chart, he refers to the patient as "Mr. Larson". This scene is a spoof of Gary Larson 's comic strip '' The Far Side ''; one of the comics shows a horse hospital, where the doctors have shotguns.
- In season 4 episode 17 "My Life in Four Cameras", numerous jokes are made about '' Cheers '' and Multi-camera Laugh Track sitcoms. ''Scrubs'' is notable for using a Single Camera Setup , no laugh track, and not being filmed before a live audience. ''Cheers'' had all three, and a dream sequence in "My Life in Four Cameras" was shot with all three also. In addition, the main patient treated was fictional ''Cheers'' writer "Charles James," a mixture of ''Cheers'' three creators James Burrows , Glen Charles , and Les Charles . The episode makes repeated comments about these "traditional" sitcoms and ends with the opening bars of ''Cheers'' theme playing with the quote "Unfortunately, around here things don't always end as neat and tidy as they do in sitcoms."(2006) Scrubs - My Own Personal 'Net Thing. Script from the episode (February 16, 2005)(2006) TV Guide. Rough Dispatches (March 10, 2005)(2006) Chicago Tribune. Cheers to "Scrubs"
- In season 5 episode 16 "My Bright Idea", Dr. Cox's "conversation" with a red stapler is a reference to the movie '' Office Space '', in which John C. McGinley had a supporting role.
