Scrubs is one of my favorite comedy TV shows, and I know I’m not alone in considering it one of the best sitcoms of all time. Unfortunately, following the amazing way Season 8 was originally supposed to end the series, Season 9 was ordered and it ended up an underwhelming affair. As such, I’ve been one of the many people hoping that Scrubs would get the revival/reboot treatment someday, and not only has creator Bill Lawrence shared that the project “very close” to happening, he’s also shared the concept he’s envisioned for it, and I like the way he thinks.
In an interview with Deadline, which also included him talking about his latest Apple TV+ subscription-exclusive series, Bad Monkey, and the possibility of Ted Lasso Season 4 happening, Lawrence opened up about the status of the Scrubs reboot. The main obstacle at this point is that the creator has an exclusive agreement set up at Warner Bros. Television, whereas Scrubs is produced by Disney’s 20th Century Television. Fortunately, Lawrence said that the reboot/revival is “really close to being figured out, and that “big chunks of the creative team behind the camera, and most of it from in front of the camera, are all super invested and excited.”
However, if Scrubs 2.0, as we can informally call it for now, were to move forward, don’t expect it to just be the old show taking place in the present day. As Bill Lawrence laid out:
We’ve been talking about a lot, and I think the only real reason to do it is a combo. A: people wanting to see what the world of medicine was like for the people they love, which is part of any successful reboot. But B: I think that show always worked because you get to see young people dropped into the world of medicine, knowing young people that go there are super idealistic and are doing it because it’s a calling. There’s no cliché ‘rich doctors playing golf’ — that’s not what it is anymore. So I think that, no matter what it is, it would be a giant mistake not to do as a combo of those two things.
Remember, Scrubs premiered on NBC in 2001 and finished airing on ABC in 2010, so that the world of medicine looks a lot different from when Zach Braff’s JD was working at Sacred Heart Hospital. So while Bill Lawrence is obviously eager to bring back him and the other important characters from the original Scrubs for Scrubs 2.0, he also knows that the core premise of following young people in getting their start in medicine needs to remain intact. So while I’m obviously itching to see JD, Turk, Carla, Elliot, Cox, Kelso, The Janitor and any other familiar faces from the old days, I also understand the need to spotlight new characters to maintain the Scrubs spirit.
That said, I really hope handling the reboot in this way turns out better than Scrubs Season 9, which took the same approach with Lucy, Drew and Cole, frankly would have been better served as a spinoff rather than a continuation of the original show. Still, it’s nice to hear that Scrubs 2.0 is no longer just a pipe dream, but stands a strong chance of being made. Obviously we’ll let you know if/when it’s officially announced to be a go.
If you’d like to stream the original Scrubs, all you’ll need is a Hulu subscription. Otherwise, head over to Apple TV+ for Bill Lawrence’s more recent TV offerings, including Shrinking, which premieres its second season October 16 on the 2024 TV schedule.