Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers for the Season 1 (or Season 10? Season 9?) premiere of “Scrubs” (2026), which premiered Wednesday night on ABC.
When the cast and producers of the early 2000s hit comedy “Scrubs” reunited for a panel discussion at the 2022 ATX TV Festival, questions naturally turned to the revival of the series. Most of the cast liked the idea but considered it a non-starter. Star Donald Faison (Turkish) said, “We can’t make the whole season into a show,” and suggested a TV movie instead. “Everyone is doing something.”
But creator Bill Lawrence, although pretty busy at the moment (The Shrinking, Rooster, Bad Monkey), was still keen to get the gang back together. “I knew it would happen,” he says. “I get asked a lot, ‘Why are we rebooting this?’ If you love spending time with people you know and working with them, I think you’re crazy not to take a shot. Even if the worst happens, you get to spend time with the people you love again. Even though we were at a point in our lives where we couldn’t spend as much time with each other because everyone was successful and doing their own thing. Eventually, everyone would be open to giving it another try and seeing if it’s fun again.”
Star Zach Braff (JD) credited the Scrubs rewatch podcast he and Faison hosted during the pandemic, “Fake Doctors, Real Friends,” with helping generate interest in the revival. And in the T-Mobile ad, Braff and Faison play themselves, reminding viewers of their “Scrubs” character chemistry. “I think it kicked it up another gear,” he says. “I think that’s when Bill really started thinking about how to make it work.”
Lawrence is obligated to produce other shows, and while “Scrubs” is produced by Disney, he is under contract with Warner Bros. TV, so he tapped “Scrubs” alum Asem Batra to run the revival. “I feel this show in my heart,” she says. “A balance of heart and fun. Bill has given us a lot of freedom in what this is going to be. It feels like we’ve been talking about it for years, so we’re excited to finally make it happen.”
Now that the “Scrubs” revival has officially premiered on ABC (and the next day on Hulu), here are some things you need to know about the show’s return.
The new “Scrubs” opens with a bit of homage to “The Pitt” and reveals that it’s all a fantasy of J.D., who actually works as a successful but boring concierge doctor.
“I’m going to tell you right now that my favorite medical show on TV is ‘The Pit,'” Lawrence says. “Scrubs is a close second, but I’m obsessed with it. It seems to represent that world of what it means to be thrown into a place that you know on some level by the very simple act of being there. It’s because you want to be of use, you want to do something important to the world. Hey, it’s the kind of story setting that always gets me hooked.”
But when JD visited Sacred Heart, he realized he was missing out on his mission to be in the middle of the action. When Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley) offers him the job of succeeding him as medical director, he accepts.
Braff says: “That’s in him, that passion, that makes Cox say, ‘What are you doing?'” He has an attitude that says, “I’ve trained you to be so much more than what you’re doing, and you’re so much more than just a concierge doctor.” You should come back and make a change. ‘I think that really applies to JD, especially when you see how much change he can make in himself. The two days he spent in the hospital gave him a glimpse of what it’s like to be a knowledge-sharing teacher. It’s like coming back into his system. I was like, “This reminds me of something.” This may be quite difficult and the funding may not be as good, but I want to make a difference again. ”
Dr. Cox’s decision to retire was inevitable — McGinley was busy filming Lawrence’s new HBO Max series, “Rooster.” However, Dr. Cox and JD’s relationship is still at the heart of the first episode. “We always had that dynamic where Cox didn’t let him in, and now he’s letting him in a little bit more,” Aseem says.
When “Scrubs” returns after a 15-year hiatus, its characters are now veteran doctors mentoring a whole new generation of “newbies.”
New cast members include Joel Kim Booster as Dr. Eric Park, J.D.’s new rival (who was meant to replace Dr. Cox in charge), and Vanessa Bayer as Sibby, the hospital’s human resources director. Eva Bang, Jacob Dudman, David Gridley, Leila Mohammadi and Amanda Morrow play the new generation of interns.
“It’s 21 minutes and 30 seconds long, so it feels like we’re doing two shows,” Batra says. “You’re doing a show with our traditional cast and you’re doing a show with a new cast. So, it’s difficult, but I hope there’s enough there for old fans and new fans to fall in love with this production.”
Among the themes of the returning “Scrubs” characters is what it means to grow older.
“In the medical field, we deal with humans a lot every day. Some parts of the human population are aging and aging. What does that mean emotionally, mentally and physically?” Batra says. “It’s almost natural to see our cast go through these issues in a hospital setting. We’re actually having head-on conversations about, ‘What does it feel like to get older?’ And then there will be an episode about it.
Fans soon learn that J.D. and Elliot (Sarah Chalke) have divorced.
“Elliott and JD’s relationship has always been difficult because people are rooting for them so much,” says Batra. “But if you go back to the first season and look at their dynamic, it was a terrible mess. We felt like we could get something out of them not being together, more complex and overlapping than if everything had worked out. It felt like Turk and Kara were always the core, a solid couple. We were actually excited to do this. Elliot and J. Even though they broke up because of D, it didn’t mean they didn’t love each other. And we could have an arc about how they get back together, so even if it wasn’t a romantic thing, we don’t know, but seeing them rebuild something together gives us a lot of things to do.”
Chalke said, “I thought it was a really smart move for Elliot and J.D. to figure out who they were going to be with each other in this new version. I thought it left a lot of room for storylines and conflict and interest. It’s such a unique experience to be able to come back and play a character that I spent eight years playing. It’s unique to be able to play once, but then to be able to play again, I feel really lucky.”
Batra and Braff, who directed the pilot, said they wanted the return of “Scrubs” to be more down-to-earth, rather than the flight of fancy that the show’s latter half became famous for.
“I think what we both understood and agreed upon was that it had to be sonically grounded,” Batra says. “We couldn’t start with a goofy story in Scrubs 10. We had to give people a way to engage them emotionally. We know it’s going to be pushed further in the direction of comedy, but we really wanted to connect with our audience, so we decided to keep it more grounded for now.”
Braff says: “Away from fantasy, we really wanted to take the show back to what it was in Season 1 of the original show. We’ve become more and more wide-ranging and cartoonish in spots over the years, and we want it to be authentic. When I was directing, I grabbed myself and the rest of the cast and said, ‘It’s like an enhanced version of it. How would we say it in the real world?’ And I just kept trying to ground it. ”
It’s not like there’s no fan service. The eccentric surgeon Hooch (Phil Lewis), who was apparently fired in season 8, returns, as does his brother doctor Todd (Robert Maschio).
“Todd was difficult because we were like, ‘Well, Todd in this era is very problematic,'” Batra says. “So with Todd’s spin, he thinks he understands what’s going on and he’s like, ‘I have consent.’ So he’s not a bad person. He’s just a guy on a date who’s trying too hard to understand the rules and maybe getting them wrong. So we decided to talk to Todd in this era.”
Judy Reyes as Carla, Christa Miller as Jordan, and Neil Flynn as the Janitor will also return. “It’s hard to thread the needle of giving the fans everything they want, just in terms of availability and being able to introduce new cast members, rather than focusing on the old cast,” Batra says. “After the pilot, we’ve had eight episodes, and I think that’s also determined what we can do. Hopefully, season two is successful and we can bring back more fan favorites and work on some things. Sam Lloyd (who played Sacred Heart lawyer Ted) passed away, so we wanted to memorialize him. We might see something like that next season, because we really feel his absence on the show.”
And yes, Turk and JD bring back the “Eagle” lift in the season opener, but quickly realize their bodies aren’t cut out for it anymore.
“We didn’t want it to just be a greatest hits nostalgia session,” Braff says. “There are characters that people like, and of course in the pilot I’m 50 years old and I’m playing probably the first and last ‘Eagle,’ but I think it’s mainly about wanting to introduce new viewers to this world who don’t know ‘Scrubs,’ and to be able to start the show afresh without knowing anything about ‘Scrubs.'” In that case, it’s about a doctor who comes back to work at a hospital after being away for years. ”
ABC has named it “Scrubs” season 1, even though it’s technically season 10, but Lawrence prefers to call it season 9.
“This is the ninth season of ‘Scrubs,’ and I think it’s exactly 20 years in the future,” Lawrence says. That’s because the previous final season of “Scrubs” was actually a slightly different show, as the spotlight was on new characters played by Eliza Coupe, Kelly Bishé, Michael Mosley, and Dave Franco.
“Season 9 of ‘Scrubs’ wasn’t supposed to be ‘Scrubs,'” Lawrence says. “It was called ‘Scrubs Med,’ and it was supposed to be a fun spinoff. And as a spinoff, I don’t have any regrets at all. I think a lot of the actors and actresses, like Mike Mosley and Eliza Coupe and Kelly Bouche and Dave Franco, were doing really interesting and cool things. And it would have been interesting to see where that went. But for me, the show ‘Scrubs’ is in its eighth year. It’s kind of a choice.” That will happen in 20 years. ”
Braff added. “If you go back to Bill Lawrence’s vision of ‘Scrubs,’ that’s Season 1 through Season 8. And when you look at the way eight ends, when all the images are projected onto that sheet, that’s exactly what J.D. wants. That’s what he’s daydreaming about. That’s not necessarily saying those things actually happened.”
This means that some of what happened in Season 9 will no longer be canon, and instead a new version of “Scrubs” will take place after the events of Season 8.
“It’s not that I don’t respect Season 9, but I feel like Season 9 was more of a spin-off,” Batra says. “So we really decided to continue after Season 8. We knew that would annoy some people, die-hards about all of that, but we decided it was the right thing for us sonically and everything else.”
Mr Faison added: “Geeks, look at Season 9 as a ‘what if’.”
The cast and producers are working together to continue the revival of ‘Scrubs.’
“We definitely want to continue moving forward and tell more ‘Scrubs’ stories,” Braff says. “This is kind of an audition, so to speak, to see if people like it. And if people like it, I think we and ABC will want to do more.”
