Medical sitcom Scrubs is set to be rebooted, creator Bill Lawrence is onboard and the majority of the original cast are in talks to return.
Bill Lawrence is one of the busiest men in television. Shrinking has been a huge hit on Apple TV and has been renewed for a third season. Ted Lasso, which he created with Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt, is edging ever closer to a fourth season. His other Apple TV show, Bad Monkey starring Vince Vaughn, has also been renewed for a second series,
On top of all that, according to Deadline a reboot of his hit medical comedy Scrubs, which ran for nine seasons between 2001 and 2010, is in development at ABC in America.
Scrubs followed the misadventures of a group of doctors at Sacred Heart Hospital, beginning with them as interns in season one and following them through their development into fully fledged doctors by the end of the series.
The show starred Zach Braff as John ‘JD’ Dorian, Donald Faison as Christopher Turk, Sarah Chalke as Elliot Reid, John C McGinley as the acerbic Perry Cox, Ken Jenkins as misanthropic Chief of Medicine Bob Kelso, Judy Reyes as Carla Espinosa, Neil Flynn as The Janitor, Sam Lloyd as Ted, Robert Maschio as The Todd and Christa Miller as Jordan Sullivan.
The show was hugely popular during it’s original run, attracting guest stars like Michael J Fox (who starred in Lawrence’s previous sitcom Spin City), Courtney Cox (who went on to star in his next sitcom, the underrated Cougar Town), Brendan Fraser – one of the episodes he appears in, My Screw Up, is arguably one of the best episodes of the entire show – Colin Farrell, Jason Bateman, Ryan Reynolds, John Ritter, Elizabeth Banks and Heather Graham across its run.
Braff and Faison have spent the last few years making a podcast called Fake Doctors, Real Friends, in which they rewatch the entire show from beginning to end and interview cast and crew. The genuine warmth and friendship between them shines, and every since the show ended they have all been positive about a reboot, with their busy schedules preventing it until now.
The main stumbling block was Lawrence, who was tied up in a contract with Disney. However, that finally appears to have been sorted, and he is officially signed onto the reboot, although he won’t serve as showrunner. Braff, Chalke, Faison and McGinley are all in talks to return. Reyes is busy working on another ABC series, High Potential, but current plans for the series do include Carla.
Lawrence will also bring back many of the writers from the original show. He said during an interview “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”.
You can stream all nine seasons of Scrubs on Disney+.
