[Editor's note: The following contains spoilers for the premiere episode of Scrubs.]The ABC comedy series Scrubs ended its nine-season run in 2010, and in the time since, the cast moved on to other projects, the hospital they used to shoot in became condos, and no one was sure exactly what happened to Rowdy. But now, J.D. (Zach Braff), Turk (Donald Faison) and Elliot (Sarah Chalke) are back together at Sacred Heart Hospital (which is now located in Vancouver, Canada), with all the humor, friendships, dream sequences, musical moments, and heart that fans love. Only, they’re also a bit older, the relationships dynamics have changed, and there’s a new group of interns for them to mentor.

Collider recently got the opportunity to chat with show creator Bill Lawrence, who’s now an executive producer that helped conceive and develop the first episode back while Aseem Batra is the showrunner. During the interview, why he’d still love to have a Cougar Town resurgence, whether Rowdy the stuffed dog will reappear on Scrubs, the fun of getting to figure out where these characters would be, almost 20 years after we last saw them, how this revival ultimately came about, that he’d like to keep the show going while they’re all still having fun, and just how involved he is, now that he’s not the showrunner this time around.

Collider: My co-workers wanted me to start by asking you a very important question. Will Rowdy be returning to Scrubs?

BILL LAWRENCE: (Laughs) Rowdy will eventually make an appearance, I promise. We just had some trouble contractually. It’s so sad for Rowdy that he became so famous after he died. That makes me laugh. That’s the weirdest thing. As you reach a certain age, you look back at some of the decisions you made, and that’s just lifted straight from a goofy story from college when we saw a stuffed dog at a garage sale and had to buy it. I can’t believe that I put that on television. I think if I tried to do it now and said, “Oh, yeah, the two characters you’re supposed to have a dead stuffed dog in their house,” I think people would balk at it. It makes me smile.

Bill Lawrence Was Excited To Figure Out Where the ‘Scrubs’ Characters Would Be, Nearly 20 Years After the Series Ended

"I would kill for Cougar Town to have a resurgence."

Image via ABC

If you look at the current shows that you have right now, with Shrinking, Ted Lasso, and Scrubs, you wrapped up a three-season arc on Shrinking but got picked up for Season 4, Ted Lasso is back for a fourth season and shaking things up after we thought that show was done, and Scrubs is back after more than 15 years. Is it just that no TV show is ever really over? Are you planning on bringing anything else back?

LAWRENCE: First of all, I would kill for Cougar Town to have a resurgence because that show kicked it, and it never found the audience that I wish it had because I gave it a stupid name – me and (co-creator) Kevin Biegel. We didn’t find the show until later. But your question is really cool, and let me tell you the difference between these things. Ted Lasso and Shrinking are great examples of how, nowadays, when you pitch streaming, when we pitched Ted Lasso, we pitched a three-season story with a beginning, middle, and end. And then, when we pitched Shrinking, we pitched a three-season story with a beginning, middle, and end. You owe it to fans to do that. And so, I think anybody that watches this season of Shrinking will go, “Oh, there was the first season, the middle season, and this is the end.” If we’re lucky enough to [come back with] both those shows, then you have to come up with a completely new story. The funniest thing about Shrinking is that if the fourth season started and Jason Segel was like, “Hey, I’ve been thinking about it, and I’m still super sad about my wife,” everybody would be like, “What are you doing?” So, it will be a new story. That’s why I wanted to separate them.

Related

'Scrubs' Season 10 Review: An Imperfect Revival Still Wins With Zach Braff & Donald Faison Back in the Spotlight

The medical comedy doesn't hit with every joke, but the revival retains the heart of the original.

Posts 2

By  Greer Riddell

Scrubs is so interesting because people are like, “Hey, shouldn’t Shrinking be over?” I’m like, “We made 36 episodes of Shrinking. That was only a season and a half of Scrubs.” I think we made 1,100 episodes of Scrubs. So, the difference between this show and those is the massive time gap. I find myself excited, as a storyteller, getting to goof around with people and talk about where those characters might be living in the ever-changing world of medicine, almost 20 years later. Hopefully, people found it interesting, how we picked up. My favorite thing, just because it’s part of his real life, is that Donald Faison’s character surrounded by women gives me endless joy. Having three girls and two female interns just cracks me up.

Before the Revival Became Official, It Was the Fans That Kept ‘Scrubs’ Alive

"The interesting thing about Scrubs was that it wasn’t out of need for us."

When it comes to Scrubs, what took so long for it to come back? Was it a matter of scheduling? Was it a matter of getting the story right? Did you just have too many other TV shows happening at one time?

LAWRENCE: No. In a very cool way, fans kept Scrubs alive. I am lucky enough to find out that it’s still doing great when it’s on Hulu and people are still engaged in it. The worst part of my life, by the way, which will make you laugh, is that I’ve officially hired writers now that literally say things like, “Scrubs made me want to be a TV writer. I started watching it when I was nine.” I’m like, “Fuck you, to say that to my face.” The interesting thing about Scrubs was that it wasn’t out of need for us. John C. McGinley, Judy Reyes, Zach Braff, Donald Faison, and Sarah Chalke are all working constantly because they’re all super talented. It’s not like everybody was going, “Oh, my God, I hope I get a job again.” We just like being around each other, and we often spend time with each other anyway.

The biggest joke amongst the group, even though it’s not that true, is that Sarah was partially the ringleader because the show shot in Vancouver this [time] and it was five minutes from her house. She was like, “I brought everybody to Canada.” Really the only thing that took a long while was getting to a point where everybody’s lives worked out. I work for a different company, so Zach and Donald and John C. and Sarah and Judy came to me and said, “We want to do this again.” There are so many writers from the show in the past and directors and even secondary cast members, and everybody seemed up for it. It was a timing thing. It sounds trite, but it’s not. Everybody just thought it would be really fun. And long as we put our best into it, the success or failure didn’t really matter as much as getting to spend time together again.

Because you are working with actors who you mentioned are very busy, what is the plan for this series again now? Are you hoping to keep it going for as long as possible? Are you handling it season by season? How do you even approach it when you have a cast full of really busy actors?

LAWRENCE: We pitched another eight-year story, and then we’ll do another 15 years off, and then we’ll do another eight-year story after that. The interesting thing about being in the arts is that we’re all workers for hire. Everybody shooting this is a worker for hire. We’re all very lucky that we finally got to the point in our careers that we only have to do something because we want to. So, as long as we’re all having a good time and enjoying ourselves, and there’s people out there that are nice enough to let us make the show, we’ll probably keep doing it. It’s fun.

While Bill Lawrence Is No Longer the Showrunner on ‘Scrubs,’ the Series Is in Good Hands

"I get to look at all the outlines and work on all the cuts."

Image via ABC

How actively involved are you in story breaking and the day-to-day stuff, not being the showrunner anymore?

LAWRENCE: The coolest thing was the amount that everybody let me be involved. The greatest thing about this particular show is that there are plenty of old faces. Forget about in front of the camera, but on the writing staff, on the crew, and the directors. We got the band back together, but also with a huge influx of new voices and young talent, not only the young interns on the screen, who I think are great, but the young writers behind the scenes are all special and fun. They were nice enough to let me really conceive of the pilot and work on writing that with them. I would be lying if I didn’t say, just out of enjoyment, that I get to look at all the outlines and work on all the cuts and stuff. I don’t know if I’m making lateral moves and if I’m making it better, or if I’m just getting in there and getting to be part of it because of how excited I am, just to see these guys all doing it again.

It’s so fun to see the show come back. The hospital you used to film in was near my house.

LAWRENCE: Did it really? Did you live over there? By the way, it’s condos now.

Related

Zach Braff Says the 'Scrubs' Reboot Will Feature a "Beaten-Down" J.D.

"It’s very, very hard to be a doctor today."

Posts 3

By  Britta DeVore

It’s super weird to see how it’s all changed now because I remember the hospital and all the studio trucks that were always all around there.

LAWRENCE: People used to come in thinking it was a real hospital, early on, with actual cuts and stuff. Because we had ambulances going in and out, occasionally someone would come in, and the director would be like, “You look amazing. Do you want to be in a scene?” And they’d have real blood going down their faces. I don’t know if it’s still there, but so many of the writers used to go across the street at lunch to Naimie’s, that huge makeup store.

Yeah, I’ve been in there.

LAWRENCE: It was so weird, I’d be like, “Hey, where is everybody?” “They’re at Naimie’s.” I was like, “You can’t go makeup shopping during the workday.” It was very annoying.

8 10

Scrubs

Like

Follow

Followed

Comedy

Drama

Release Date

February 25, 2026

Network

ABC

Directors

Zach Braff

Writers

Aaron Lee, Amy Pocha, Aseem Batra, Mathew Harawitz, Michael Hobert, Seth Cohen, Tim Hobert

Cast

• 
  Donald Faison

  Christopher Turk
• 
  Zach Braff

  John 'J.D.' Dorian

Creator(s)

Bill Lawrence

Seasons

1

Executive Producer(s)

Aseem Batra, Bill Lawrence, Donald Faison, Jeff Ingold, John C. McGinley, Judy Reyes, Liza Katzer, Sarah Chalke, Tim Hobert, Zach Braff

Powered by

Expand Collapse

Scrubs airs on ABC and is available to stream on Hulu.