"Scrubs" - 8th Season, now on ABC.

Again, the reason for canceling shows like Pushing Daisies, Wonderfalls, Freaks and Geeks or Arrested Development: LOBIS.

Lack.
Of.
Butts.
In.
Seats.

You have to WATCH the show to determine if you like it, or at lease make a qualitiative judgment about it. Without that, neither the nets nor producers care whether it gets a decent burial or the ol' heave-ho. DVD sales are not likely to make up for lack of commercial revenue it takes to earn promotional time, salary perks or political power to tell the story you want to tell. Shows like Firefly or My So-Called Life are merely exceptions that underscore the general rule.

 

Like me. I only saw one episode, but I found it so affected and alienating in its desperate attempts to be "quirky!" that I wasn't interested in checking out any others. Canning it and bringing over Scrubs, which ABC has incentives to see succeed that NBC didn't, was a good move.

 

Here's a review of tonight's episodes:

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/tv/index.ssf/2009/01/sepinwall_on_tv_scrubs_on_abc.html

"Come on," Dr. John "JD" Dorian (Zach Braff) admonishes his colleagues late in tomorrow night's "Scrubs" season premiere, "I know it's tempting to just mail it in, but there's still a lot of people who rely on us week to week. I think we owe it to them to be as inspired as we were in our first few years."

"Scrubs" creator Bill Lawrence has said he wanted to tone down all the meta humor -- all the jokes that refer only to the show itself -- but this one gag is necessary. As "Scrubs" enters its first season on ABC (after years of NBC neglect), its last season with Braff and probably its last season, period, Lawrence and company have dialed back the wacky and increasingly strained gags that typified the show's last few years on NBC. The first two ABC episodes of "Scrubs," premiering back-to-back tomorrow night, more closely resemble the series in its marvelous early seasons, and suggest that Braff's victory lap will be a memorable one.

Because NBC changed the hospital dramedy's time slot more than a dozen times in seven seasons, it was easy to ignore the show's infectious joy and the way it so deftly combined anarchic fantasy with affecting pathos. It was equal parts "Arrested Development" and "Grey's Anatomy," to name just two of the shows that came after it and got more attention for doing some -- but never all -- of the same things that made "Scrubs" so special.

But in the later parts of the NBC run, the ratio of comedy-to-tragedy tilted out of control. JD's fantasy life spilled over into his real one, making the show too weird by half and ruining the character for those moments when we were supposed to take him seriously. And, as Lawrence confessed, too many of the gags were simply commenting on other gags, leading to diminishing returns even for the die-hards who stuck with the show through its many moves on NBC.

There's still a bit of the meta humor here -- the two episodes tomorrow night feature three different jokes, with diminishing returns, about how JD's psyche always forces him to imagine attractive women walking toward him in slow motion, with their hair blowing in the wind -- but for the most part, the season premiere is taking place in a saner world. There's still room for goofiness, like the introduction of a character nicknamed Jimmy the Overly Touchy Orderly (JD boasts that, thanks to him, Jimmy "only touches above the waist now") or JD's penchant for always saying the wrong thing to new chief of medicine, Taylor Maddox (Courteney Cox from "Friends"), but the characters seem like people again instead of cartoon props.

And that, in turn, allows the show to more easily shift between the silly and the serious, as it does brilliantly in tomorrow's second episode, "My Last Words," one of the best episodes in "Scrubs" history. The premise is simple: JD and best friend Turk (Donald Faison) spend a night talking to a terminal patient named George (guest star Glynn Turman) who likely won't be alive come morning. On other shows -- or even on "Scrubs" the last few years -- this could be uncomfortably maudlin, a blatant callback to the days when sitcoms regularly did Very Special Episodes. ("Tonight, on 'Blossom': Six gets tested for Hep-C!")

But because JD and Turk are in their eighth year as doctors, and because "Scrubs" has always had a solid grasp of how desensitized the job makes them, they treat the event as sad, but not a grand tragedy. They like George (played with both great passion and great humor by Turman, who recently won an Emmy for his amazing guest appearance on HBO's "In Treatment") and want to do what they can to comfort him in his final hours, but there's always a sense that this is another day at the office for them. (The episode makes a nice bookend to season one's memorable "My Old Lady," where a young JD was wrecked by the death of another charming patient.)

And because JD has been brought back down to earth, and because George is so richly drawn in such a short period, there's room for a lot of laughs before George's tears start coming. Despite the story and its obvious ending, "My Last Words" is actually the funnier of the two episodes, with a number of great jokes involving the peripheral characters (notably Sam Lloyd as depressed hospital lawyer Ted) that arrive to cut through the tension and the solemnity at just the right moment.

"My Last Words" also makes better use of JD's new interns, including the instantly popular Ed (Aziz Ansari from MTV's "Human Giant") and Denise (Eliza Coupe), who has the bedside manner of a DMV clerk. (When JD tells her to be more empathetic with patients, she yells to one, "Yo, Mr. Harris, sucks you'll never walk again!")

Coupe and Ansari are among the new people added to the cast as a kind of Zach Braff insurance. South Orange native Braff is definitely leaving the show after this year to focus on movies (including directing his first film since "Garden State"), and none of the other actors (including Braff's fellow Jersey guy, John C. McGinley, still hilariously sarcastic as Dr. Cox) are under contract past this season, but Lawrence has toyed with the idea of continuing the show with a new generation of interns if ABC is interested.

That's not very likely -- for one thing, Ansari is already committed to NBC's upcoming Amy Poehler sitcom. But after watching "Scrubs" primarily out of loyalty for a few years, the first two episodes suggest to me that the creative batteries may have been recharged enough to power the show, even without this cast.

And if not, at least "Scrubs" gets to sprint to the finish line instead of limping.

 

Which it appears, they have done.

P.S. Oddly enough, I just checked it and it was playing in SD. An episode ported over from the old production team?

P.P.S. Now it's back. I hate when my local affiliates switch back and forth. Not often enough to say it was common, but annoying nonetheless.

 

As far as I know, Scrubs has been broadcast in HD for years, and was posted in 1080 24p since the very beginning. I'm not sure where they do the film dailies, but all the online and color-correction is done over at Digital Film Tree in North Hollywood. They do nice work.

The show has always looked a little soft and grainy, but that's the price you pay for 16mm in HD. They light it very well, and the sound mix is particularly good for a half-hour show.

 

What'd you think? Looked good in HD.

Hopefully the janitor will find his way back into the show. I thought the second episode was good TV.

 

Both of those episodes were as good as anything from the early seasons. I had a few laughs and the end of the 2nd episode was good.

 

Where was The Todd?

 

so my review is that the first one was terrible ... TERRIBLE. they tried too hard to be goofy. I wonder if this was their choice or some executive decision?

the second episode, however, I truly enjoyed.

 

Let's see...NBC picked up Taxi for its last season way back when, so that leaves one more cancelled ABC show that the Peacock folks need to save in order to re-balance the scales.

How about Pushing Daisies?

 

I'm only at the start of season 5 (where J.D. has become a resident doctor), and I think the level is already very low compared to the first seasons. It's still worth watching (if your TV time is not too precious), but not memorable at all. It's déja-vu situations all the time.

 

Loved the first four seasons but lost interest when it started to become all about babies (or so it seemed).

 

I loved the 2 episodes last night. Way better than anything they did last season!

 

I thought the episodes were very solid. Loved the Nielsen bit at the end of the first ep. However, I wasn't wowed by the interns who would presumably comprise the bulk of the cast if the show continues next season. I know it's early and they haven't had time to do anything but broadly draw the characters, but I didn't see anything from the newbies that would make me watch them next year. Having said that, I have no idea if there may be more cast additions later this season.

 

I thought the first episode was just typical Scrubs - nothing surprising, but a fun episode. I was not impressed with the interns, however, and if they're planning on centering the show around them when Braff and creator Callahan leave, they've got a LOT of work cut out for them next year to make them watchable.

The second ep was VERY good - that's the quality I remember from the early seasons, where they could tone down the humor and go for the dramatic stuff without it being sappy. Very solid, emotional, quality stuff there.

 

I missed the second half of the second episode because my satellite dish got covered in snow and I lost reception. By the time I got the ladder and broom out and knocked the snow off the dish the show was over.

Anyway, it was good to see the characters again. I greatly preferred the original administrator to Courtney Cox. Nice to see him make a cameo - does anybody know why he didn't come back? I wasn't crazy about the lawyer in these episodes. He seemed a little too whiny. Other than that, I liked what I saw.

 

FYI, ABC is re-airing the two episodes tonight, an hour earlier than last night.

 

Oh, geez - first two-at-a-time just like NBC used to "burn 'em up"...now this?!

 

Thanks, I didn't know that! It warmed up today so the snow won't cause me any troubles tonight. That's a pleasant switch from NBC's hide and go seek scheduling of Scrubs.

 

Is this somehow bad? Seeing as this is coming in as a mid-season replacement I don't have any qualms about getting a stronger dose of the show, or if it's being used to fill a scheduling gap. It's better than NBC's random approach to scheduling.

 

What's the big deal? I like that ABC is treating the show well. If Scrubs had been promoted this well during its glory years, perhaps it would've moved beyond basically cult-show status. I suppose ABC itself is partly to blame by not picking up the show in the first place.

As for the two-fers, I think there's only two more weeks of them.

 

This!

 

Last night was actually the first time I watched any new episodes of Scrubs. I never could find it on nbc and I NEVER saw any commercials for it. I always caught the reruns on Comedy Central and some other channel.

 

If the thread starter, AKA, doesn't object, could a gort please alter the thread title to reflect that the eighth season is indeed on ABC. Or not. Just a thought...