According to Zach Braff, the hospital-based sitcom, the talented cast were together for eight full seasons, before slowly breaking away for the not so memorable ninth season, which aired on ABC, the network the show moved to for its final two seasons.
Scrubs was often slotted in and around a 9 pm timeslot during the shows run on television, and this is was something that afforded the team behind the show a chance to push the envelope. Recently, Braff and Faison launched a podcast titled Fake Doctors, Real Friends with Zach and Donald, where the two watch the show and Lisa Kudrow to defend the show. Now, ten years since the series ended, Braff has even acknowledged there are a lot of politically incorrect moments in their sitcom.
In a recent interview with the BBC, where Braff and Faison were promoting their new podcast, the topic of how shows age came up, with the article highlighting the criticisms Friends has received. In regards to Scrubs, Braff said: “Some of it is way too un-PC, I’m sure, for now.” The star even mentions that “We often cringe and go okay, you definitely couldn’t do that joke today.” Also, in the interview, Braff states that “Sometimes even at the time things would get censored because the creators were trying to push things as far as they could on network television.”
Braff is correct when it comes to Scrubs having “un-PC” moments, as there are scenes such as one flashback where J.D. is in blackface and Turk is in whiteface while on their way to a party. That would probably not sit well with a lot of viewers today, as Jimmy Fallon has even apologized for an old SNL video, which shows him in blackface. As far as things getting censored, show creator Bill Lawrence once discussed a time when they wanted to include the use of medical marijuana for a story involving a patient suffering from cancer. However, that was during the time Scrubs was under the Disney owned ABC, which meant the network did not accept the idea.
In recent years, Braff has discussed wanting to bring back Scrubs, even pitching “a two-hour Scrubs movie” to Lawrence, which he hopes will come to fruition one day. Fans of the show would likely be up for one more outing with the Scrubs team to maybe end on a higher note than their lackluster season 9. If the Scrubs movie becomes a reality, the new podcast will likely help Braff and co. to see what type of jokes and ideas they should avoid including for today’s audience.
Source: BBC