The Comedy Vault – Scrubs.

Scrubs (NBC, 2001-2008, ABC, 2009-2010)

As I have said before on here, I’m not really that big a fan of many American sitcoms, but this is one that I have enjoyed. Scrubs is a sitcom that is set at the Sacred Heart Hospital, and the main character is Dr “JD” Dorian (played by Zach Braff, who would go on to direct some episodes), and most of the stories in the episodes are told from his perspective. We also hear most of his inner thoughts, and most of the episode titles begin with the word “my” (“My First Day”, “My Mentor”, and so on). 

Other members of the cast include JD’s fellow doctors Turk and Elliot, and they become good friends. There was also Carla the nurse, the rather short-tempered Dr Cox, and the veteran Dr Kelso who didn’t really enjoy his job and often has run-ins with the others. Also stealing many scenes was the rather mysterious janitor. As the episodes progress, we see the young doctors interact with a variety of patients and prove just how tough a job it can be. 

And yes, one of the things that attracted to me to Scrubs (and seemed to turn some people away from it) were the fantasy sequences, where JD’s imagination would go off on a rather odd tangent, which was soon making me say “that’s so funny!”. We also get to see some of what JD gets up to in his spare time, including a complicated love life. And I do try and avoid “do you remember the theme music?”-type comments on here, but “Superman” definitely stuck in my mind. 

I suppose that Scrubs can be compared with the British sitcom Green Wing that I reviewed on here recently. I remember saying that although I enjoyed that show, I never really felt that the cast great as they were came across as doctors, when compared to Dr Kelso for example who I felt did convincingly come across as a grumpy old doctor as well as a funny character. At least one thing that Green Wing didn’t do was have some rather sentimental moments which American sitcoms can be known for their fair share of. And well, JD definitely learned a lot of lessons about life that day. 

Scrubs was first shown in the UK on Sky One in 2002, before moving to Channel 4, and then it seemed to be shown on E4 endlessly for a while. Scrubs eventually ran for nine series and almost 200 episodes which have all been released on DVD (with plenty of enjoyable extras), but I don’t have the final one, as by that point most of the main cast had left and been replaced by newcomers, and some people including me felt by then it was a little past its best.