Seriously, Big D, if I fail out here,
I've got to go to Med school in the Caribbean.
Dude, I don't speak Caribbean.
So tell us what to do.
This is how far Scrubs fell.
Jokes like this which aren't really funny.
This is the material that made up Scrubs' worst season.
Scrubs is one of the most critically acclaimed sitcoms
produced in North America.
The exciting mix of quirky characters, funny dialogue,
and hilarious visual comedy propelled the show
to heights no one could have anticipated.
And, yet, the lasting cultural memory of the show
is, yeah, but that last season though.
Before we get too deep, please subscribe
to the Nerdstalgic channel in order
to keep up with all of our videos.
Created by Bill Lawrence, it lasted a total of 182 episodes
and was a mainstay of network comedy
for close to the entire run of the show with one
major exception, season nine, Med school.
The ninth season of Scrubs was originally
intended to be a soft jump starting of a spin-off series.
Lawrence had originally intended the season eight finale
titled, My Finale, to be the last time we would
see JD, Turk, Elliot, Dr. Cox, and all
of our favorite regular cast members.
However, the network had other plans.
The boost in ratings that the impeccably well-crafted season
eight thought caused ABC to ask for one more season.
Initially resistant to the idea, Lawrence and the few remaining
writers put their heads together.
Eventually Lawrence, who was already busy
with a new project for ABC, Cougar Town,
proposed a spin-off series that he
could Godfather while still dedicating
most of his creative energy to his new project.
ABC wasn't excited about this idea.
They wanted Scrubs season 9.
And come hell or high water, they were going to get it.
So then the idea of merging the two paths forward
was pitched by Lawrence.
Do season nine, but with a new subtitle.
Have the returning characters pop in for cameos or maybe
mentor roles and start the show off
on a new trajectory with a fresh faced crew
of new would-be doctors entering Med school.
ABC liked the idea, but they didn't
want the subtitle change.
They wanted the show to be Scrubs season
nine, which ultimately, would be its downfall.
And the key reason behind why the Scrubs
legacy was tarnished.
Cole, I need the retractor.
I'm using it right now.
Seriously?
Yeah, I don't like touching bread.
Creeps me out.
The battle over the title of this new incarnation
of the show was evidenced by the fact
that on all season nine episodes under Bill Lawrence's creator
credit, there's a mini subtitle, Med School.
Med School introduces us to four new primary characters,
Eliza Coupe's, Dr. Denise Mahoney, Michael Mosley's,
Drew Suffin, and Dave Franco's, Cole Aaronson.
We are also treated to four Scrubs stalwarts
returning in Zach Braff, Donald Faison, Sarah Chalke, and John
C. McGinley.
And, finally, the final new addition, Kerry Bishe,
is our new lead as Lucy Bennett.
Kerry Bishe is a supremely talented performer.
There's only one problem though.
Lucy Bennett, her character, is just Zach Braff's JD.
She's quirky, kind of an outsider,
and even has literal daydreams about fantastically comedic
escapades.
She might as well jump on Turk and yell, eagle.
Eagle!
Oh, hey, Perry.
I'm really looking forward to teaching with you.
JD is supposed to be a unique and kind
of out to lunch character.
He's the lens we view the entire world from.
He's the driver of every episode.
And the comedy, both literally and figuratively,
flows from him.
And by swapping him out for another character that
ostensibly does the exact same thing,
it just makes everything feel cheap.
And that's kind of the problem with this whole season.
It's not terrible, it's just the same,
but not as good with characters that aren't as thought out
or developed all going through the same joke structures
we've seen before.
He's here!
Turk!
JD!
Turk!
Up here!
Dude!
What the hell are you doing?
The first episode of the season, titled "Our First Day
of School" opens with so many ham-fisted visual metaphors
of the passing of the torch that you practically expect someone
to literally pass the torch.
Oh, wait, they do a literal voiceover handoff.
I hope I can find a way to make this all feel new.
Oh my God, the first day of med school.
Everything is so new.
The idea of scrubs originally was
that it was going to be the anti-sitcom.
It was going to zig when everyone else zapped.
And it was going to take the highly commercial
medical procedural genre and turn it on its head.
Its title has a double meaning.
Yes, scrubs is the literal uniform of medical staffers.
But also scrubs as in the slang for slackers
and good for nothing idiots.
And did the show always live up to its ideals?
No.
Definitely not.
They strung out the Elliot and JD thing for way too long.
And also having Elliot date JD's brother?
Really weird.
But ultimately, they reeled it in,
and season eight was a great sendoff for these characters
and the world.
And season nine just feels wrong in every way.
The unique voiceover, the at the time unexpected visual comedy
of JD's inner world, and the idiosyncratic characters
all now just feel forced and weird,
because they're attempting to remake the narrative wheel.
Most of the primary cast members from Scrubs
appear in season nine.
Some of them in cameos, some of them
in smaller supporting roles.
However, it's the new cast of characters that received
the short end of the stick.
Both Dave Franco and Eliza Coupe are exciting talents
who have great comedic timing in other projects.
But in this season of Scrubs, it feels like they're
performing in quicksand.
Michael Mosley's Drew Suffin also has loads of potential.
His character is initially positioned
as this older student who's giving med school a second go
and who's been in trouble with the law.
Seriously, how was prison?
It was cold.
But his character is quickly just reduced to a punch line.
There's a running bit where Dr. Cox takes a liking to Drew
and pins a number one sign to his chest
and then eventually gives them a shirt
that just says number one.
This gag is played for laughs because we
the audience know how hard JD has worked for Cox's approval.
But drew achieved it frustratingly quick.
This idea is emblematic of the writing
issues with this season.
This choice doesn't develop Drew at all.
It uses him as a fulcrum for stories around the older
characters, and quite frankly, long resolved ideas.
We got JD thinks of Cox as a father figure
and he wants his approval.
And in the finale of season eight,
it appeared like he came to peace with that
and was moving into a new phase of life himself.
He's starting a family with Elliot,
and yet, here we are, treading the same narrative
ground again.
All of the new cast members have issues
that are similar to this.
They're just not developed.
And whenever the older cast are in the room,
it's so much more entertaining, you kind of just
want to watch them.
Then you remember that most of their stories
were wrapped up last season, and you find yourself thinking,
does Zach Braff really need more money?
No!
Dr. Cox.
Poof!
Ultimately, if Scrubs season nine had actually
been positioned to the viewers as Scrubs Med School
and done away with a few of the legacy characters,
added some new students that were completely new archetypes,
it might have worked.
Sure, they just have to find a new way of keeping
the visual comedy that wasn't just literally let's clone JD
But it's not an undoable task.
However, when you set yourself up
as a continuation of a much beloved
and long running sitcom that just had a near-perfect ending,
it just was asking for trouble.
So many shows try and fail.
Even the great talents of Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David
couldn't quite pull it off.
And yet, here's the scrubs crew doing the impossible.
Creating a near-perfect finale to a show
that didn't really do big moments very often.
And then to ask those same people to find a path forward
without undoing the nearly impossible task
they had just successfully completed.
It's no wonder we got what we got.
This is Ben's heart we're talking about.
It's where he stores his feelings and memories.
Ladies and gentlemen.
Apparently, the heart stores memories.
Future doctors.
[DESCENDING WHISTLE]
If Scrubs Med School had actually been a spinoff,
we'd be having a much different conversation.
It's reasonable that the show would
have been met with a "oh, they're still figuring it out,
it's a spinoff" mindset, and ratings would have been better.
Look at what Frasier did.
Can you imagine if Cheers had just
tried to go into a tenth season but with Frasier
as the protagonist?
It would have been a disaster.
Spinoffs allow you to recalibrate
the audience's expectations.
It also wouldn't have tarnished the legacy of the show,
because now, the first thing someone
says when they're talking about Scrubs wouldn't it be
"but the last season was garbage."
Let this be a lesson to us all.
When you're running a highly successful multimillion dollar
enterprise, maybe find a way to get off
the stage while the audience is still laughing.
And that's all we have for this week.
What do you think?
Is season nine actually good?
Should they try to do a new Scrubs spinoff?
Let us know in the comments below, and as always,
please subscribe to the Nerdstalgic channel
in order to stay up to date with everything happening
with the Nerdstalgic channel.