Trivia / Scrubs

• Actor-Inspired Element:
  • Zach Braff found the song "Superman" by Lazlo Bane and suggested using it as the show's theme. JD's lack of knowledge about sports came from Braff incorporating an aspect of his own personality into the character (despite JD having sports memorabilia in his room in early episodes).
  • Sarah Chalke's mother is German and she's fluent in the language, which is incorporated into Elliot's character in several episodes. Her knowledge of French has been used on occasion as well.
  • Brendan Fraser is a noted amateur photographer in real life; this was incorporated into his performance as Ben Sullivan, who frequently carries around a Polaroid camera and takes candid photos.
• Blooper: In Season 1's "My Last Day" when Elliott tries to confront Jordan about assisting the patient Mr. Bobert, who has no insurance, Todd appears in the elevator thinking Elliot and Jordan are about to kiss. The very next scene, where Turk and Carla are telling Dr. Wen that Bobert needs surgery, Todd can be seen in the OR in the midst of surgery. These two scenes are supposed to be happening concurrently, so Todd's presence in both scenes is odd.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Neil Flynn auditioned for Dr. Cox originally.
• The Cast Showoff: Several of the actors are actually good singers. Sam Lloyd (Ted) in particular was the leader of the a capella quartet The Blanks, and he and the other three members of the group regularly appeared on the show as Ted's own a capella group the Worthless Peons. A Musical Episode has most of the cast members sing as well.
• Channel Hop: Moved to ABC in the 8th Season. This was unusual as the show was ABC produced anyway but aired on NBC. A common practice was for networks to buy shows from each other's production companies (though usually only after the network that technically produced it passed, this is true in the case of Scrubs), because the only way to profit off a show was through the network charging for commercial time and an eventual syndication deal (both based on ratings and demographics) and sharing profits. By the mid-00's, broadcast ratings were down across the board (meaning networks couldn't charge as much for ads), but the DVD and online markets were rising and only production companies made money from the DVD and online download sales. This was the tipping point at which networks started to prefer airing their own shows, because a strong cult audience would buy the DVD's and the network would profit anyway. As NBC lost interest in Scrubs due to a Writers Strike in its intended Finale Season (shortening its episode count significantly), ABC gladly took over for a true Finale Season and, eventually, a Post-Script Season.
• The Character Died with Him: John Ritter played J.D.'s dad in season one and in a flashback in season two, while Ritter died during season three. Season four had the character die and a few episodes spent with J.D. dealing with the repercussions, the shows own way of respecting Ritter's memory.
• Corpsing:
  • In the beginning of "My Coffee", after J.D. covers his ears and says, "Oh, my God!" as a result of Elliot screaming "Stop finishing my awesome jokes", Zach Braff can be seen smiling for a second.
  • In "My Jiggly Ball", after Kelso hides from Dr. Cox and J.D when they want to talk with him by posing in front of a poster, Zach Braff can be seen smiling before leaving the scene.
• Creator Backlash: While being careful not to criticize those involved with the Med School season nine, most of the cast and crew affirm that season eight is the true Finale Season.
• Creator Couple: Series creator Bill Lawrence and actress Christa Miller (Jordan Sullivan); the wedding video Dr. Cox watches in My Bad (Jordan's first appearance) is actually Bill and Christa's, which is why only Christa can be seen.
• Directed by Cast Member:
  • Zach Braff directed seven episodes during the show's run, including the 100th episode. He also played a major role in the music used for the show which is one of the biggest strengths of Scrubs.
  • A lesser known example: Michael McDonald of MADtv (1995) fame guest starred as a patient in 3 episodes before directing 6 episodes in the later seasons, some of which he acted in. This eventually led to him being hired as a consulting producer, staff writer, frequent director and sometimes actor on Bill Lawrence's next comedy series.
  • "My Unicorn" was directed by Matthew Perry who also guest-starred in the episode.
• Executive Meddling:
  • After Masi Oka joined the cast of Heroes, and Scrubs moved to ABC, Oka was point-blank told by NBC execs that if he continued to make guest appearances on the show, he would be fired from Heroes. Despite the fact that they allowed many of their other actors to continue making guest appearances on other shows, even on other competing networks. Obviously, this was NBC just being petty over the show switching to ABC, despite NBC's own treatment of the series.
  • Elliot's makeover at the start of Season 3 was because the executives wanted a sexier female character to market to the male demographic.
  • Season 9 was originally supposed to be a spin-off series titled Med School, but ABC meddled enough to make it Season 9, which did not go down well with fans.
• Fake American: Sarah Chalke (Elliot) is Canadian, so is Tom Cavanagh (Dan Dorian).
• Friendship on the Set: Zach Braff and Donald Faison became best friends ever since they starred in the series. They even made a podcast entitled, "Fake Doctors, Real Friends With Zach and Donald"
• Harpo Does Something Funny: The Janitor's dialogue was sometimes left blank (or the script says something along the lines of "Whatever Neil Says") so that Neil Flynn can just improvise. Most of the outtake reel shows the other actors Corpsing at Flynn throwing out wildly different dialogue every take.
• Out of Order:
  • The Clip Show episode, "My Night to Remember" aired several weeks earlier than it was supposed to. This is notable as in this episode, Dr. Cox has a shaved head, but chronologically, he doesn't shave his head until "My Long Goobye", four episodes later. This is referenced in the show as part of a website reviewing hospitals and doctors, where the patients apparently complained of his changing hairstyle.
  • The Season 7 finale "My Princess" has Dr. Kelso still acting as the Chief of Medicine despite Kelso having retired two episodes ago in "My Dumb Luck". The 2007 writers strike cut the season in half, unknown if this continuity mistake would have been the same if production was more stable.
  • Shortly into production on the eighth season the decision was made to have Courtney Cox in the first three episodes as Dr. Maddox, the new Chief of Medicine replacing Dr. Kelso. This caused a bit of a hassle to keep continuity as "My ABC's," the fifth episode, was intended to be the season opener and was filmed first. As a result the first few episodes of the season feature elements that are recycled in "My ABC's" without comment or irony, such as the discovery that Katie is a manipulative twerp and J.D. giving Denise the nickname "Jo" for the first time, again. They did film a new scene for "My ABC's" where Elliot mentioned her and J.D. getting back together, as it now happened in the immediate previous episode "My Happy Place."
• Post-Script Season:
  • The sixth season built up to wrapping up the various plot-lines: Elliott was getting married to Keith; Turk and Carla were hitting their stride with their newborn daughter Izzy, and the same was true of Dr Cox and Jordan with their kids, Jack and Jennifer Dylan; JD was reconnecting with Kim after she lied to him about her miscarriage and Laverne had been Killed Off for Real. At the last minute, they got renewed for season seven. Suddenly in the last two episodes JD realizes he will never love Kim after what she did and Elliott's dysfunctions with Keith got turned to the extreme. Instead of a kind of depressing ending with a quick wrap up, we got a cliffhanger season ending with nothing resolved, with a season premiere established JD and Elliott as the endgame couple.
  • Season 7 was intended to be a Finale Season that has Dr. Kelso retiring, Dr. Cox step up as Chief of Medicine and rebuilding the Will They or Won't They? with JD and Elliot. The 2007-2008 writers' strike ended up slashing the season in half, preventing any conclusion to the story beats they were setting up. The last episode that season was in fact an Out of Order fantasy piece where Kelso was still Chief of Medicine. Because of this unsatisfactory ending, Bill Lawrence convinced ABC to pick up the show for a true final season. The eight season did a Channel Hop to ABC where it was clear things were wrapping as characters resolved romantic issues or got new jobs, along with highlighting a small cast of interns to reflect similar themes from the first season.
  • The show's Grand Finale wrapped up pretty much every main characters' arc at the end of its eighth season. It was then renewed for another season done by a different creative team, officially a ninth season but in practice something of a Spin-Off. It was retooled to focus on a group of med school students and the original Sacred Heart was demolished and rebuilt into a teaching hospital. In addition to the student characters, Turk and Dr. Cox returned as regular cast members with JD, Elliot and Dr. Kelso returning for a handful of episodes (Janitor and Jordan had brief reappearances, Carla was often mentioned but never seen).
• Production Posse: Most of the cast of Spin City showed up in this show at one point, which was Bill Lawrence's first show he created.
• Prop Recycling: Some special-made props that feature in J.D.'s fantasies are often brought into the regular world. The giant stethoscope for "Dr. Toilet" is later shown as a prop J.D. uses when entertaining kids in pediatrics. In the sitcom episode, the Janitor is shown in a light blue uniform. In a later episode he asked for a new uniform and got the same one, learning that it made him less intimidating.
• Real-Life Relative:
  • Jordan Sullivan is played by Christa Miller who is married to series creator Bill Lawrence.
  • Ted has a picture of his mother in his office. The picture is of Sam Lloyd's mother in real life.
  • "My Unicorn" features guest roles from Matthew Perry and his father John Bennett Perry as an estranged father and son.
• Real Life Writes the Hairstyle: Elliot Reid had dark blonde hair in the first two seasons, but the network then demanded a sexier female character to draw in male viewers. So the first episode of season three has Elliot giving herself a makeover involving a shorter platinum blonde haircut. While the makeover was toned down by the end of the season, Sarah Chalke remained that lighter shade of blonde for the rest of the series.
• Reality Subtext:
  • In the episode "My Catalyst", Michael J. Fox plays a doctor with OCD - a neurological disorder that all-but usurps control of the body from the active portions of the head - played by a man diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, which accomplishes the same thing in a vastly different way. In an interview after that episode aired, Fox stated that he allowed his frustration with Parkinson's to help inform the character of Dr. Casey.
  • The deep, deep friendship between J.D. and Turk ended up reflecting the real-life relationship between Zach Braff and Donald Faison, who met on the show but quickly became actual best friends and have remained so years after the show ended. They are hosting the Scrubs recap podcast "Fake Doctors, Real Friends", and serve as the spokespeople for T-Mobile.
  • Ted's band is in fact 'The Blanks', a group his actor Sam Lloyd formed with his friends in college.
  • Doug's final scene in "My Soul on Fire", only seconds long, is dripping with it. In it, Doug has a nurse put himself in one of the morgue's body drawers. In reality, Johnny Kastl was retiring from acting to become a lawyer and didn't have time to reprise Doug in a final drawn out story (he made no appearances in Season 8 except for this two parter where he was relegated to the D-Plot). As a result, Doug metaphorically puts himself on ice.
  • In one episode Dr. Cox meets an old friend and discovers his young child is autistic, and struggles to find a way to share that information with his friend. John C. McGinley has a son with Downs Syndrome and is active in charities for it and other special needs.
  • Zach Braff and Mandy Moore were dating in Real Life when Moore guest-starred in Season 5 as J.D.'s girlfriend Julie Quinn.
• Romance on the Set: The stunt actors for JD and Elliot met for the very first time filming the bungee jumping scene in the second season. They later got married. The cast and crew even helped with the proposal.
• Rule 34 – Creator Reactions: Zach Braff, who plays the protagonist J.D., was apparently very approving of Scrubs: A XXX parody, as he posted a link to the trailer on his facebook page and appeared in a selfie with the guy who played him.
• Separated-at-Birth Casting: Tom Cavanagh is virtually◊ identical◊ to Zach Braff, making their stint as brothers natural. John Ritter is similar as their dad.
• Short Run in Peru:"My Princess" was broadcast in Ireland a week before the United States.
• So My Kids Can Watch: The fantasy episode "My Princess" was made because Christa Miller asked Bill Lawrence to make an episode they could show their kids.
• Star-Making Role: For Zach Braff in particular. And while much of the cast has had some prior work, this series rose their standing significantly.
• Technical Advisor: The show had several consultants, their names in fact inspired several character names on the show, particularly Dr. Jonathan Doris for main character John Dorian, and was called "The Real JD" on set.
• Throw It In!:
  • After realising Neil Flynn was a great improv comedian, the writers began to write most of the Janitor scenes with the simple direction "Neil says something". The Outtakes definitely attest to the fact that often the crew had no idea what he was going to say in any given take.
  • Todd's last name. He once wore an ID tag that said Quinlan on it and fans theorized that was his last name. The show decided to roll with that theory.
  • Cox's habit of calling JD girls' names is something John C McGinley does to his friend John Cusack in real life.
  • John Ritter ad-libbed the line "I pooed a little" during the pull my finger scene. Zach Braff had to bite his tongue to stop Corpsing.
  • Characters like Snoop Dogg Intern, Dr Beardface and Colonel Doctor were just extras who were called that by cast and crew who didn't know their real names. They became literal Ascended Extras and given featured roles on the show.
  • In "My Coffee", after a Finish Dialogue in Unison, Elliott yells, "STOP FINISHING MY AWESOME JOKES!!!" and afterward, J.D. covers his ears and says, "Oh, my God!" This was not in the script, as the cast did not expect Chalke's voice to get that high when yelling. You can also tell it was thrown in because Zach Braff starts corpsing for the last second of the scene before the title sequence plays as it hits him how good the improvised moment was.
• Unfinished Episode: Production of the season 7 episode "My Commitment" was interrupted by the Writer's Strike and the Channel Hop from NBC to ABC. The footage that had been shot was recycled into season 8's "My Nah Nah Nah".
• What Could Have Been:
  • Had the series been cancelled at the end of Season 1, the Janitor was going to be revealed as a figment of JD's imagination. (This was foreshadowed by the Janitor only interacting directly with JD and being seen by him...barring a few rare moments.) This intention was continued early into Season 2, but Neil Flynn's insistence that he get to act with the other cast members (and consequentially be given more to do) reversed it.
  • It was stated that Cox and Jordan’s original reason for divorcing was because they had lost a child when it was still a baby. This was cut out due to disagreements with the network.
  • Neil Flynn was contracted to return in Season 9 as a cast member, but only if he didn't find a regular role somewhere else. Had The Middle not been picked up, Flynn would've been a regular in the final season.
  • During one of the later seasons, there were conversations had about bringing Arrested Development's Tobias Funke on as Sacred Heart's in-house shrink. It ended up being too complicated to work out a deal with all the parties involved.
  • Laverne was Killed Off for Real in Season 6 because the writers thought that would be the final season. Once it was renewed, they brought Aloma Wright back as Laverne's twin sister Shirley. Reports vary as to what the writers intended to do with the character, with some saying that she would have turned out to be the complete opposite of Laverne (i.e. an alcholic atheist), and others saying that the originally-intended Season 7 finale would have revealed that she didn't actually look much like Laverne at all, and that the main characters had just been wishfully thinking that she resembled her. Ultimately, Season 7 was cut short by a writers' strike, and Season 8 dropped Shirley and never mentioned her again.
  • Ed Dhandapani was written out halfway through Season 8, despite being prominently featured in the companion Scrubs: Interns series because Aziz Ansari was cast in NBC's Parks and Recreation, and was unable to play a role, even a recurring one, on a rival network. Had he remained, he likely would have seen more development similar to his fellow interns Denise and Katie.
  • Heather Graham, Masi Oka, and Sarah Lancaster were invited to reprise their roles as Dr. Molly Clock, Franklyn, and Gift Shop Girl respectively in "My Finale". However, Graham declined to return, while Oka and Lancaster were forbidden from appearing by NBC, as both had roles on NBC shows at the time.
• You Look Familiar:
  • Michael Hobert, who had a reocurring role as Lonnie the intern, originally played a patient getting a CAT scan by JD, in the pilot episode. The actor was one of the crew members.
  • The actress playing Lady appeared in a much earlier episode as a new doctor doing research at the hospital.
  • Geoff Stevenson played a patient of Dr. Townshend's before being cast as Dr Beardfacè

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