How ‘Scrubs’ became TV’s funniest answer to shows like ‘The Pitt’

The Pitt might be the medical show everyone is talking about these days, but there’s been one medical show people have been talking about for the last 25 years: Scrubs. The sitcom premiered in 2001 and ran for nine seasons on two networks, first NBC and then ABC, only to be rebooted earlier this year. Now entering its second season of the reboot on ABC, the original stars of Scrubs are still surprised at the series’ longevity.

“I was terrified,” Zach Braff, who plays J.D. Dorian, tells Newsweek’s Parting Shot podcast of returning for the reboot. “We did it for the fans, and the fans are very passionate about the original show. People watched it at really important moments in their lives. We’ve all had people tell us ‘Scrubs got me through a hard time. Scrubs was my comfort show.’ So bringing it back, we were all nervous we wouldn’t stick the landing and find the tone again. I was terrified until we got the first ratings, and I was like, wait, we might be onto something.”

Joining Braff back at the fictional Sacred Heart Hospital is Sarah Chalke, who plays Elliot Reid, and Donald Faison, who plays Christopher Turk. The reboot picks up where the original series left off, ignoring some of the events of season nine, which found the hospital demolished. Part of what has always made Scrubs work is that it doesn’t take itself seriously. It’s just a funny medical comedy with a lot of heart without all the ickof seeing the real thing, like on The Pitt.

That heart, Chalke says, comes from a kind of safety the cast has built over decades of working together. “You can go and show up on a new job and hope you have chemistry and hope you get along, and you can even kind of fake it if you don’t,” she says. “But what you can’t replicate is 25 years of history. I think the safety that creates on a set is something I’ve never experienced. You feel completely safe and totally willing to mess up, and it doesn’t matter if you do. That’s when the magical things happen.”

Considering the graveyard of reboots that didn’t work, it wasn’t exactly a sure bet that Scrubs would work. Faison says the cast never wanted to simply repeat what worked before. “We also want to be The Empire Strikes Back after Star Wars,” he says. “We don’t want it to just be the same. We want to elevate it.”

Part of what makes this iteration work is that they’re not only doing it for the fans, but that the three of them are so committed to these characters, and each other. “I’ve never done a job where you show up every morning and you know that for most of the day you’re going to be laughing,” Braff says. “The crew is going to be laughing, too. Everyone’s got it. It’s like a club. It’s wonderful.”

And with other medical shows on TV leaning into the grittiness of the drama, Scrubs is a refreshing distraction from reality.

Season 2 of Scrubs premieres on ABC and Hulu on September 30.