Time to Scrub In with release of “Scrubs” DVD
Zach Braff‘s still a little bitter about how the whole season seven finale of Scrubs turned out.
Only 11 episodes aired because of the writers’ strike and NBC’s decision not to renew it. The DVD comes out on Nov. 11.
Scrubs — which is produced by ABC Disney — jumped back to the mothership for Season 8, which has already been produced and will air sometime next year. Instead of going with the planned season finale, NBC opted to air the fairy tale episode directed by Braff as the final, leading some viewers to believe that it was the final send-off episode.
The episode has Dr. Cox telling his son a medieval fairy tale that mirrors his day at work. J.D. becomes the village idiot, Elliot is a princess, Turk and Carla become a two-headed witch and Dr. Kelso is a demon. Since it was supposed to air before the episode in which Dr. Kelso is booted, he’s still seen as the head of the hospital.
“That was really frustrating. It was the hardest thing we’ve ever done, one of the most ambitious things we’ve ever done and then it was sort of got judged as the finale of Scrubs, which it was never meant to me,” Braff says. “NBC decided, because it was sort of a spectacle, to market it as a finale.”
Braff says that just angered the fans.
“The fans were like, ‘That’s the finale? What the hell does that have to do with anything?’ I was a little bummed out,” Braff says. “If it was just a regular, cool out-of-the-box sort of concept show within the season, I think it would have been received a little better than it was.”
Fans can be the judge of that, but right now we’d like to offer up our own top-10 favorite episodes from the past seven seasons.
10. My Night to Remember – In season six, Scrubs did a little clip show of six seasons that made us think of all the reasons why we love this series. The staff of Sacred Heart tries to get a patient to regain his memory, and takes a walk down their own memory lane.
9. My Long Goodbye – Nurse Roberts, who always stood on her faith, causes the staff to have a crisis of faith when she slips into a coma and no one knows whether she’ll wake up or not.
8. My Musical – Take a couple of guys like creator Bill Lawrence and star Zach Braff and give them an episode to share their love of musical theater, and this is what you get. It may have been little more than a stunt, but it was a great stunt.
7. My First Day – This nicely crafted episode introduced viewers to the quirky series, which was so well executed viewers accepted the wacky way Scrubs tells a story.
6. My Unicorn – Matthew Perry made his debut as a director in this touching story about a man who needs his son’s kidney to live – but son Murray is too bitter towards his father to donate the kidney. The dad is played by Perry’s real-life dad John Bennett Perry.
5. My Way Home – This was the 100th episode of Scrubs, and is known for all the Wizard of Oz references. It’s fun trip down the Yellow Brick Road.
4. My Half Acre – This could have been a typically good episode, with J.D. getting set up on a blind date and trying to make sure he avoids scaring her off. But it is Turk’s performance of Poison by Bell Biv DeVoe when he auditions for the hospital’s air band that puts this episode up with the best.
3. My Fallen Idol – Dr. Cox has always been a favorite no matter what the episode, but this one is the best as Dr. Cox struggles to deal with the death of three patients. He comes to work drunk and is placed on administrative leave.
2. My Old Lady – One in four patients die. That’s the statistic that begins this episode that deftly mixes humor and heartbreak. It’s Scrubs at its best, where it goes back to the best of the best, M*A*S*H to prove what a real dramedy is.
1. My Screw-up – Dr. Cox’s beloved brother-in-law Ben, played by Brendon Fraser, appeared in three episodes that could count as No. 1 material. But the final episode we have Dr. Cox talking to him through the entire episode and we don’t discover until the end that Ben is dead. The tip-off came early, however, when he says that his ubiquitous camera will be around his neck until the day he dies. And in a subsequent scene, he has no camera. A classic Scrubs.