Electric Guitar Shop

The origin for the show is loosely based on Dr. Jonathan Doris’ experiences as a resident in internal medicine at Brown Medical School, which served as inspiration for college friend and show creator Bill Lawrence.

Scrubs is produced by ABC, through its production division, even though it was aired by rival broadcaster NBC. According to show runner Lawrence, the arrangement is unusual, at least for 2007: “The show is a dinosaur, on one network and completely owned by another” and, since it is now in syndication, making a “ton of money for Touchstone.” Both he and Braff confirmed ABC would have broadcast the seventh season had NBC refused to do so.

Since Scrubs is aired around the world in many different languages, instances of foreign languages on the show have to be changed for the international versions. Carla’s Spanish is changed to Italian in the Spanish language version of the show, and Elliot’s German is changed to Danish (or, in at least one fourth-season episode German with a Swiss accent) in the German version of the show.

The chest X-ray featured at the end of the title sequence was hung backwards for most of the first five seasons. Bill Lawrence has stated that having the X-ray backwards was intentional as it signified that the new interns were inexperienced. However during Zach Braff’s audio commentary on “My Last Chance”, he states that the error was actually unintentional. The error became somewhat infamous and was even parodied in “My Cabbage”.

An attempt was made to fix the error in the extended title sequence that was used at the beginning of season 2, but the extended sequence (including corrected X-ray) were soon scrapped at fan and network request. Finally, in “My Urologist”, Dr. Kim Briggs steps into the credits and switches the X-ray around, saying, “That’s backwards; it’s been bugging me for years”. At the beginning of season 8, when the series switched to ABC, the chest x-ray was once again backwards.
Main crew

The show’s creator, executive producer, and head writer is Bill Lawrence. He has written many episodes and has directed 17. He is also the show runner and does many uncredited re-writes for episodes. Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan have produced and written a number of episodes together, starting as writers and co-producers on the show and working their way up to executive producers; they left the show after the eighth season.[13] Bill Callahan is an executive producer and writer who started on the show in season 4 as co-executive producer and has since written 8 episodes. Angela Nissel joined the crew in season 2 as a staff writer, and became supervising producer in 2007, she has written 10 episodes. In her second book, Bill Lawrence is quoted on the back cover and references to Scrubs are present throughout the final chapter. Mike Schwartz is co-executive producer, he started out as a story editor in 2006. He has written 13 episodes and also has a recurring role in the show as Lloyd the Delivery Guy. Michael Spiller has directed 17 episodes from 2002-09. The pilot episode of the show, “My First Day” was directed by Adam Bernstein, who has since directed 11 other episodes. Star of the show Zach Braff has directed 7 episodes of the show, including the landmark 100th episode “My Way Home”, which won a George Foster Peabody Award in April 2007. In 2009 Josh Bycel, a writer and supervising producer for the cartoon American Dad!, joined the crew as a new executive producer for the 9th season.
Medical advisors

Scrubs writers work with several medical advisors, including doctors Jonathan Doris, Jon Turk, and Dolly Klock. Their names serve as the basis for the names of characters John Dorian, Chris Turk and Molly Clock (played by Braff, Faison, and Heather Graham, respectively).In the season eight finale “My Finale”, the “real JD” Jonathan Doris made a cameo appearance as the doctor who said “adios” to JD.
Filming location
Main article: Sacred Heart Hospital

Scrubs is filmed on location at the North Hollywood Medical Center, a real decommissioned hospital located at 12629 Riverside Drive in the North Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, however, the location of Sacred Heart Hospital within the fictional world of Scrubs is left ambiguous. Cast and crew on the show refer to the location as “San DiFrangeles”—a portmanteau of San Diego, San Francisco, and Los Angeles that is meant to encompass a large part of California. For the ninth season of Scrubs, the show will be filmed at Culver Studios.
Writers strike and network change

On November 5, 2007, the Writers Guild of America went on strike, which put the production of the show’s seventh season on hold. When the strike started, only eleven of Scrubs’ eighteen planned seventh season episodes had been completely written. Lawrence refused to cross any WGA picket lines to serve any of his duties for the show, so ABC Studios had non-WGA members finish episode twelve, which the studio had unsuccessfully pressured Lawrence to rewrite as a series finale prior to the strike.

During the strike, NBC announced that The Office and Scrubs would be replaced by Celebrity Apprentice. NBC later announced Klock Werks Slicer Tire Hugger Series Front Fender for 21 in. Wheels 140102… that they would leave Scrubs on hiatus for the time being and fill the 8-9 PM timeslot with various specials and repeats.

Episode 11, “My Princess”, was eventually filmed,[18] although Lawrence was absent. Filming of episode 11 was disrupted by picketers. It was believed that Lawrence had tipped the picketers off about the filming schedule, although these beliefs turned out to be false as Lawrence quickly drove to the set to “keep the peace.”[18] After the strike ended, Lawrence announced that the final episodes of Scrubs would be produced although, at the time, he was unsure where or how they would be distributed.[19]
Season eight on ABC

Amid strike-induced doubt involving the final episodes of Scrubs, on February 28, 2008, The Hollywood Reporter reported that ABC was in talks with corporate sibling ABC Studios with the aim of bringing Scrubs to ABC for an eighth season of 18 episodes,[20] despite both Lawrence’s and Braff’s protests that the seventh season would definitely be the last.[18] Just hours later Variety reported that NBC was lashing out and threatening legal action against ABC Studios. However, McGinley confirmed that he had been told to report back to work on March 24, 2008 to begin production for another season. On March 12, 2008, McGinley was also quoted as saying that the show’s long-rumored move from NBC to ABC was a done deal,and that Scrubs would air on ABC during the 2008-09 TV season as a midseason replacement.

On March 19, 2008, Michael Ausiello of TV Guide reported that although nothing was “official”, the Scrubs cast was to report back to work the following Wednesday for work on a season “unofficial” as yet. Zach Braff posted in his blog on MySpace, on April 28, 2008, that an eighth season consisting of 18 episodes was under production but that he could not say where it will be aired. He then stated, on May 7, 2008, that the May 8 episode would be the final NBC-aired episode of Scrubs, which was followed by a bulletin on his MySpace, on May 12, confirming that Scrubs’ eighth season will be moving to ABC.

On May 13, ABC announced that Scrubs would be a midseason replacement, airing Tuesday nights at 9PM EST. Steve McPherson, ABC’s President of Entertainment, also stated that additional seasons of Scrubs beyond the eighth could be produced if it performs well. In late November, ABC announced Scrubs would resume with back-to-back episodes on January 6, 2009 at 9PM EST.

Creator Bill Lawrence stated in a video interview that season 8 will be more like the first few seasons in tone, with more of a focus on more realistic and dramatic storylines and the introduction of new characters. Courteney Cox joined the cast as the new Chief of Medicine, Dr. Maddox, for a three-episode arc. The eighth season includes webisodes and is the first Scrubs season broadcast in high definition.

Sarah Chalke was hoping that J.D. and Elliot would end up back together, comparing them to Friends characters Ross and Rachel, which has been addressed a few times on the show. In the early episodes of the season they did rekindle their relationship, and have continued dating through the end of the season. Several actors who guest starred as patients at Sacred Heart during the course of Scrubs returned for the finale.
Cinematography

The show is shot with a single-camera setup instead of a multiple-camera setup more typical for situation comedies. Episode 4.17 “My Life in Four Cameras”, has a brief multi-camera style, since it includes J.D.’s fantasies of life being more like a traditional sitcom.

John Inwood, the cinematographer of the series, shoots with his own Aaton XTR prod Super16 film camera. Except for the finale of season 5, “My Transition”, which was broadcast in high definition,the first seven seasons of the show have been broadcast in standard definition with 4:3 frame aspect ratio.

After the show was moved from NBC to ABC, the broadcast format for new episodes changed to high definition. John Inwood believes that older episodes will be re-released in HD as well. He protected for 16:9 aspect ratio from the very beginning so episodes could be aired in HD format when the market evolved. In his opinion, footage from the Super16 camera was not only sufficient to air in HD format, it looked terrific.
Music

Music plays a large role in Scrubs. A wide variety of rock, pop, and indie artists are featured, and almost every episode ends with a musical montage summing up the themes and plot lines of the episode, and the music for these montages is often picked even before the episodes are completely written.

Members of the cast and crew are encouraged to contribute song suggestions, with many ideas coming from series creator Bill Lawrence, writer Neil Goldman, and actors Zach Braff (whose college friends Cary Brothers and Joshua Radin appear on the Scrubs soundtrack) and Christa Miller Lawrence (who selected Colin Hay and Tammany Hall NYC). According to Bill Lawrence, “Christa picks so much of the music for the show that a lot of the writers and actors don’t even go to me anymore when they have a song. They hand it to her.”

In addition to music being featured as a soundtrack to the show, the cast themselves also sing on a frequent basis, such as in the episode “My Best Friend’s Mistake” when the entire cast had the Erasure song “A Little Respect” stuck in their heads and would sing it repeatedly. Producers expanded Scrubs’ musical emphasis with a musical episode early in the sixth season, called “My Musical”. This episode aired on January 18, 2007.
Theme song

The theme song of the series, performed by Lazlo Bane, is titled “Superman”, and can be found on the album All the Time in the World, as well as on the first Scrubs soundtrack. Lawrence credits Braff for finding and suggesting “Superman” as the theme song. The lyrics “I’m no Superman” relate to the show’s theme of its characters’ fallibility.

The Scrubs main title is performed at a faster tempo than the original recording of the song. The original, slower recording was used briefly at the beginning of season 2, played during an extended version of the title sequence (that included Flynn and full cast credits), as well as the opening for “My Urologist”, and a special edit of the title sequence for resulting in roughly 1–2 seconds of music, followed by the line “I’m no Superman”, accompanied by a quick flash of credits. The original intro from season 1 was used through most of season 3 (except the few episodes with the very short intro) and then used for seasons four through eight.[citation needed]
[edit] Soundtracks
Main article: Scrubs (Soundtrack)

Three official soundtracks have been released. The first was released on CD on September 24, 2002, and a second an iTunes exclusive was released in mid-2006. An iMix on iTunes of the music used through the first five seasons has also been released.[citation needed]
[edit] Featured musical contributors

Colin Hay, the former frontman of Men at Work, has had music featured in at least seven episodes, and has appeared in the episode “My Overkill”, performing the song “Overkill” as a street musician, and in the episode “My Hard Labor” performing “Down Under”. Hay also sings “Where Everybody Knows Your Name”, the theme from Cheers, in the episode “My Life in Four Cameras” and the episode “My Philosophy” features Hay’s song “Waiting For My Real Life To Begin”, sung by several members of the cast.

The music of Joshua Radin, who is a friend of Scrubs star Zach Braff,[40] has appeared in at least six episodes to date.

Music by Keren DeBerg has featured in 15 episodes, and she appeared in “My Musical” as an extra in the song “All Right”.
[edit] The “Worthless Peons”
Main article: The Blanks

The Worthless Peons (also known as Ted’s Band, The Blanks, or in the non-canon “My Way Home” Director’s Cut as “Foghat”) are an a cappella group made up of hospital employees from different departments. They are a cover band, and often sing songs from a specific genre (for example, cartoon theme songs or commercial jingles). They have appeared in several episodes.

The Worthless Peons are played by The Blanks, who are a real-life a cappella band made up of Sam Lloyd (who plays Ted), George Miserlis, Paul F. Perry, and Philip McNiven. The Blanks’ album, Riding the Wave, features guest appearances from Lawrence and members of the Scrubs cast. This band was put on the show when Sam Lloyd brought his friends/capella band to a rehearsal. Lloyd told Lawrence about his band, and Lawrence got the idea of putting them in the show.
The Worthless Peons also sing the theme song to the web series Scrubs: Interns, which features the new interns from season eight learning about the hospital in the same way that J.D. did in season one. Interns is aired on the ABC website.

In its first three seasons, Scrubs received Emmy nominations for casting, editing, and writing of a comedy. Following Season 4, the show received additional nominations for Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Braff), Best Editing for a Multi-camera series (although the series is predominantly shot single-camera, Episode 4.17 “My Life in Four Cameras”, has a brief multi-camera style), and casting. The show also won the 2002 and the 2008 Humanitas Prize in the 30-minute category.

Braff was nominated for the Golden Globe award for Best Actor in a Television Series, Comedy or Musical in 2005, 2006 and 2007, but lost to Jason Bateman for Arrested Development in 2005, to Steve Carell of The Office in 2006, and to Alec Baldwin of 30 Rock in 2007.

Scrubs won a George Foster Peabody Award for its 2006 season, specifically citing the Wizard of Oz homage in “My Way Home”.

At the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards, which aired in September 2007, the episode “My Musical” was nominated for five awards in four categories: Outstanding Directing For A Comedy Series (Will Mackenzie), Outstanding Original Music And Lyrics (“Everything Comes Down to Poo” and “Guy Love”), Outstanding Music Direction (Jan Stevens), and Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (half-hour) And Animation (Joe Foglia, Peter J. Nusbaum, and John W. Cook II). It went on to a joint win along with the Entourage episode “One Day in the Valley” in the latter of these categories.