Resuscitation: A Q&A with the Creator of Scrubs

Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images On the eve of Scrubs’ final season, creator Bill Lawrence talks to The Daily Beast about not giving in to happy endings, the medical community’s strange love for the show, and why he’s headed to Cougar Town with Courteney Cox.

Despite the fact that Scrubs, the quirky, cultish half-hour medical comedy hit, has always been owned and produced by ABC Studios, it spent its first seven years on NBC, where it was treated like a leper. So it came as little surprise last season, when after the writer’s strike (and years of shifting the show’s timeslot), NBC decided it had had enough, choosing to air a midseason, fantasy-based episode and billing it as the series finale. Thankfully, ABC Network President Steve McPherson stepped in to save the day, and Scrubs got a new home and a final, eighth, season. The Daily Beast talked to series creator Bill Lawrence about bringing the show back from death—and life after Scrubs.

The first two episodes of season eight are much sweeter and realistic than the silliness of previous seasons. Why the shift in tone?

Tonally those two episodes remind me of the early episodes of the show. I think after this much time you’ve earned getting to tell character jokes and characters' stories. The last season really focuses on the main relationships of the show. There’s a result for everybody.

Courteney Cox joins Sacred Heart this season as the beautiful and highly unethical Dr. Maddox. Why the stunt-casting?

Two reasons. One Scrubs-related, which is that ABC actually supports and wants to get behind the show, and the networks, whether they’re right or wrong, still believe in stunt-casting. Second, Courteney hasn’t done a comedy in forever, and she was looking to get back into it again. I knew her and worked with her on Friends, and we had started to talk about doing a new sitcom together, which we’re doing now. So it made ABC happy, which is cool, and Courteney and I got to work together and see if we enjoyed working together enough to make sure we’d never kill each other.

Speaking of stunt-casting, you bring back almost every major guest star this season.

The guest stars of this show, 99 percent of them are called friends of the family, because they’re buddies of the writers and cast. That’s why you see all the Spin City actors on here, like Michael J. Fox, and Matthew Perry, who I used to work with on Friends. Brendan Fraser’s an old family friend, too. Unfortunately, we killed most of the guest stars on the show, but most were all friends of ours, so we were able to call them all up anyway and they reunited for the season finale.

Didn’t NBC forbid their talent from coming back?

Yeah, NBC didn’t want Masi Oka [Heroes] or Sarah Lancaster [Chuck] to come by for their little five-second scene. Seems a little petty, but I get it, they’re still arguing back and forth about who owes who money, whatever. I’m past the point that I find the stuff like that surprising, no matter how ridiculous it is.

Finally moving to ABC must have been a relief.

You know, there's a freedom when you’re on a network that’s promoting you and being supportive, and you know you’re going to get to end the show the way you want to. We didn’t have to jump through hoops. I mean, have you ever seen a Scrubs commercial before?