The Hollywood Reporter published another article raising questions that have circulated for weeks, is Scrubs back to film its final episodes for NBC, or are they actually working on Season 8 for ABC?  Back on February 29th, they reported that NBC and ABC were in a struggle for the show, and by what was revealed in the most recent article, it’s still going on.   

I’m personally rooting for ABC on this one.  Scrubs was supposed to end this season and go out the way that creator Bill Lawrence envisioned when he convinced NBC to give the show one more season last year.  The writer’s strike ruined that planned and well deserved ending and NBC instead opted to cut the episode order down from eighteen to twelve.  Considering eleven episodes had been filmed before the strike, that left only one episode to shoot and wrap up the entire series.  The producers decided to film more episodes without an order from NBC, and likely send those straight to DVD.  Then ABC came along.   

I’ll admit, Scrubs is an acquired taste.  The jokes aren’t in your face all the time, and the humor is brought out through the witty dialogue, eccentricities of the characters, and a cast that gels together extremely well to deliver perfect timing.  That’s a hard concept to sell to mass audiences.  Just ask Arrested Development.  Still, this show has done very well despite the circumstances.  It’s managed to find an audience even though NBC  constantly changing its timeslot, cut back season episode orders for the last two seasons, and premiered the show at odd points throughout the season.  The viewers are that dedicated.   

Scrubs has been successful in syndication, currently airing daily on Comedy Central as well as many local TV affiliates.  It works because it manages to cleverly to balance the real life drama of a hospital, quirky hijinks from the staff, and meaningful dialogue between the characters all with perfect pacing that never makes an episode boring. These are serious doctors, and they’ve also formed deep friendships, they rely on each other to get through the hard parts, but find there’s always time for play.  Amongst all the absurdity (the JD daydreams, the bets, the constant provoking by the Janitor, the standoffs between Drs. Cox and Kelso, Dr. Cox and his ex-wife, Dr. Cox and Elliott… okay Dr. Cox and everyone ), the staff face situations that audiences can relate to.   Eventually reality does set in, and sometimes it’s not pretty.  It’s not supposed to be.  The themes and emotions are more real with Scrubs than many dramas today, and that’s what makes this show extraordinary.  We laugh and cry along with the characters even though we’re watching a comedy.