Fake Doctors, Real Friends with Zach and Donald - 102 My Mentor

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

This week, JD tries to help a patient stop smoking, while Turk works up the nerve to ask Carla out. In reality, Zach and Donald continue their binge, sing the song that made Leroy famous, and share some never before told stories of what happened at the 2001 upfront Scrubs' party. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hello, I'm Jorge Ramos. This week, on the moment, we take a look at Venezuela's uncertain future in a conversation with two people who have directly advised U.S. presidents. Juan Gonzalez, during the Obama and Biden administrations, we're really good at invading countries. We're very bad at nation building.

In Carlos Dyerrosillo, we're in Trump's, two terms. I can guarantee you that nobody in the Trump administration likes Delsi-Rodriguez. Listen to the moment with Jorge Ramos. San Paola Ramos on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcast, or whatever you get your podcast. Hi, I'm Dr. Priyankawali. And I'm Hurricane DeBolu. It's a new year. And on the podcast, Health Stuff, we're resetting the way we talk about our health.

Which means being honest about what we know, what we don't know, and how messy it can all be. I like to sleep in late and sleep early. Is there a chronotype for that or am I just depressed? Health stuff is about learning, laughing, and feeling a little less alone. Listen on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A new year doesn't ask us to become someone new. It invites us back home to ourselves. I'm Mike Delo Rocha, a host of Sacred Lessons, a space for men to pause, reflect, and heal.

This year, we're talking honestly about mental health, relationships, and the patterns we're ready to release. If you're looking for clarity, connection, and healthier ways to show up in your life, sacred lessons is here for you. Listen to Sacred Lessons with Mike Deller Roach on the IHartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Are you desperately hoping for change in 2026, but feeling stuck? I'm Dr. Lari Santos, and in a new year series of my show, The Happiness Lab, I'm going to look at the science of getting, well, unstuck at work, unstuck in your relationships, and even unstuck inside your mind.

I am the absolute worst culprit when it comes to getting into these ruminative loops and just driving myself crazy. Listen to the Happiness Lab on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your shows. And I remember being like, that is the most effed up thing that I've ever heard in my life where it's like we're looking for a Donald Phazon type. I'll go in on the audition and they're like,

well, we're looking for a Donald Phazon type, but a better version of Donald Faison. Donald Faison is, but not full phazon. Right. Don't go full phazon. You went full phazon. You Donald Faison went. too far in the phazon direction

Here's some stories About show we made About a bunch of dogs and nurses And a Canada who love to hate I said he's got stories That we all should know Yeah the rewatch show Welcome back everybody

Welcome back to the rewatch show With Zach and Donald One-O-2 And now Donald you pointed out something very wise And that is that You know when you do a pilot you shoot the pilot and then you have no idea if the show is going to get picked up. And there's often a lot of time between when you shot the pilot and then let's say the network

says, okay, we're going to make it a series. And then you go and you go to a thing called the Upfronts, which is when your show is selected, you go to a huge party in New York City where they announce where the network is going to announce all of the new shows. And this is a very thrilling thing for a young actor. Absolutely. And also, when Scrubs got picked up, it was considered one of the better pilots of that time. And so when we went to UpFronts, I remember all of the heat that we had behind us at UpFronts.

Like even the party for all of the Upfront shows was kind of themed towards us. You know what I mean? And, you know, you get there and you meet a bunch of executives for the first time. and you don't really know who they are because nobody really knows executives until you're on the network and somebody tells you, okay, that's my boss

and that's his boss and etc. That reminds me of a wonderful story about you because we were, we were, so first we go to the party and it's this amazing party and it's, you know, we were just wide out. We couldn't believe we were here.

I mean, I was waiting tables a few months ago and here we are in New York at this giant party and you have to, you take pictures with a lot of people and, you know, you're getting treated like a celebrity and you're not, no one even knows who you are really yet, at least especially in my case.

And then we go to this party and there were celebrities at the party. I remember Kevin Neeland, who I was a huge fan of from SNL as an example. He was, I think literally might have been one of the first celebrities I ever met was Kevin Neelan at this party. And I remember thinking like, oh my God, we're hanging out with celebrities.

Like, we've made it. Yeah, you know, Sean Hayes was another person who was a big champion. champion. Like, he loved the show. And it was really awesome to have the dude from Will & Grace, who at this point was really famous on television. Yeah, that show was huge. And do you remember any other stars that were at that party? I just remember because I was such an S&L fan as a kid that I was so geeked out that Kevin Neal was there. I think there may have been some other older SNL faces, but it was all the ABC, it was like NBC rich. Like anyone who was on NBC at that time was at the party.

Now, we proceeded understandably to get quite intoxicated at this party. Oh, my gosh. I remember Bill Lawrence saying, like, all right, guys, just so you know, like, don't like, you know, there's been a lot of executives at this party. Like, I understand in New York, your lives just changed. But, like, don't get shit-faced. Right. All of us.

All of us. All of us. Shitty. Sarah Chalk's famous line, have you guys ever heard of a cosmopolitan? Yeah. They're great. Sarah stumbled up to us sideways.

And she's like, have you guys ever heard of a cosmopolitan? They're great. And then I remember Judy, for some reason at this bar, wasn't there like a... A trapeze, like a trapeze. Not a trapeze. What do you call that thing where you swing on? A trapeze. You swing on a trapeze.

It feels way too dangerous to have been a real trapeze. But was there? It was something like that. It was a bar in the middle. It was like a bar. In the middle of the bar. It was in the Meatpack District. I think it was called Park.

something anyway. And she was on, I remember her being on the bar and flipping over and just showing everybody, you know, what she had on underneath that dress she wore that day. Because she was, and I remember her husband at the time being like, that's it, we're going home. Time to go home. Now, my favorite part of the night is Donald was giving everyone Nugis. And, um, all right, let's, let me tell the story. And then you can clarify. Let me tell the story. Let's start from the beginning now. Let's start from the very beginning. Okay. So Scott Sasseh was the dude that I thought was in charge of all of NBC at the time. I think he was higher up than Jeff Zucker, who we're going to talk about.

Jeff Zucker was the, I believe, the president of NBC, who's now actually now the president of CNN. But at the time, he was the president of NBC. He had just come from whatever, the Today Show at the time. And then he'd gone on to be the head of NBC. and I didn't know this. So Donald didn't know who he was. You're going to ruin my story. Donald didn't know who he was.

I thought he was Scott Sasson's assistant. And Donald was going around giving everyone nuggies. And I look over and Donald has Jeff Zucker, the president of the network, in a full headlock. And he's giving him a drunken nuggie on his bald head. And I hear Jeff Zucker go, please, Donald, no. That's, yeah. For our entire friendship, whenever Donald tells me a cringy story that makes me want to run away, I just tell him about please Donald, no, Jeff Zucker.

You know, at this point, I'm giving everybody love because I'm so excited that we're on the network. It's going down. And I look over and I see Jeff Zucker, in my mind, Scott Sasse's assistant, standing over by the bar, you know, by himself or he might even have been with somebody. And I'm like, hey, you, come over here. I got Nuggies to give out. And he's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And I point at him again, and I'm like, and I get a little bit more, you know, agro about it.

And I'm like, no, no, no, no. And he's like, no, no, no, no, no. And so I march over to him drunk as can be. Oh, my God, I've seen you march. When Donald marches, his arm's swing. And I walk up to him and I grab him and I put him in the headlock and I'm like, don't you ever tell me no. And I'm grabbing him and I'm giving Jeff Zerner.

and Nugger a Nuggy. And I remember Bill Lawrence, like a few days later being like, dude, Donald, I just have to ask you if this actually happened. But did you give Jeff Zucker a Noggi? I was like, I gave so many people Nugis. I gave so many Nuggies. I can't recall who the recipients of my Nuggies. And he was like, well, apparently you gave the head of NBC a Noggy. And he's not really happy about it. Oh, he wasn't genuinely pissed off, was he? No, I don't think he was genuinely pissed off, but he stayed away from me through a really long time. I remember he did come to visit the set, the hospital, and he kind of stayed away from you because he was afraid of... He was very, very afraid of me. Yeah. That's very funny.

Well, what else do you... So then I remember that night ended where we were in... I wasn't there. You were... This was you and Neeland. I wasn't there. Oh, really? No, I wasn't there.

Almost everybody ended up back in Bill and Krista's... hotel room and we, it's kind of, it's sweet slash embarrassing. We were so geeked out. We were like, let's watch our pilot. So we were like, it was like a whole bunch of people and Kevin Neeland, who I was a super fan of. And we just were watching the show. And I don't know, it was a sweet moment. I remember being like, I just thinking like, I can't believe this is happening. But then the funny thing is you have a long time before you start shooting. So we made the show. It got picked up. My mom freaked out that I was like, that I quit my waiting tables job. She was like, but what?

It's so long. What are you going to do? And I was like, I, mom, I can live off this pilot money for a long. I was living so frugally with no money that I was like, I can live off this pilot money for a long time. So I'm going to write. And that's in that time is when I really finally sat down and put Garden State together. And at my dining room table, I kind of was like, this is a sign. I need to, I have this time that the universe gave me and I don't need to wait tables.

And I'm going to sit down and, like, put this script together. That's awesome. Yeah, I went away. I think I did a movie that year. I know I did something in between, but I remember also calling Danny Rose, who was Bill's assistant at the time every day. Like, so when do we start, man? Like, you know, he's like, and we're going to start probably around June or July. I was like, dude, come on, man.

Like it was up to Danny. I love you. You're like, come on, man, we got to start. We got to start soon, man. I had a baby mama at the time, and we had two kids and one on the way. and it was like, I remember being like, I got to get out of here, man. I got to do something. Yeah, well, you wanted to be working. You wanted to be like doing it.

Well, yeah. And also, we had this show that was picked up, but we weren't going to work from, you know, from May until July or, you know, was that what it was? How many, I remember, I couldn't figure out. Was it like four months where we waited and waited? We went back to work probably in the beginning of July like most shows do, something like that. Yeah, I just remember being at like four months or something. But anyway, it was so exciting to finally start.

And so this episode that we're going to talk about today, 102, by the way, just a little bit of oddness. They label TV shows in the hundreds so you can keep track of what season you're on. So a pilot would be 101, right? And then episode two would be 102. And then when you start season two, it's 201, 202. So that way you know, anyway, just a little bit of trivia for you. So this is 102 we're going to be talking about. And it's called My Mentor.

Okay, so the show starts off, and I remember singing this song for such a long time. Yeah. But it's by Rolla. It's called Good Time by Leroy, if you guys want to remind yourselves of the song. And it was the first. You can sing it. Go ahead. I'm sure Leroy would be very happy.

Holy Rolla. I got shot down in Southern California. I remember being like, That's a dope song. And this is, you know, for me, Scrubs was a brand new experience when it came to music because I didn't listen to music like this. I listened to other types of music.

And so this was one of the first examples of me hearing this and being like, wow, we. And also seeing it for the first time, too, and it being like a music video. It was like, wow, we're making music videos and also making a story about how, look, in the beginning of the show, the hospital's in sync because of,

this song that you're listening to in your ear. We're on point. Everybody is doing their job. And I also noticed that we cut ahead a little bit also. So you're no longer, it's not the very next day. You're now. It's a few days in. I've gotten, but I just want to say, like, I was watching this.

And granted, I haven't watched this in 20 years. Most of these episodes, I don't know about you, but one of the things that's fun about doing this podcast is, with very few exceptions, maybe the musical episode or ones I directed. I directed seven or eight of them, I think. I only saw them once. So I haven't seen this in 20 years. And it's so cool to look back.

And Adam Bernstein directed this episode. That was the same director who directed our pilot. And I just remember thinking, like you just said, that this was so exciting. We were like, the show was opening. Like, this was stuff I hadn't really seen before in a show. It just showed the creativity of Bill and Adam Bernstein. And the fact that the show was opening with this music video of how life in the hospital when it's grooving is like a well-oiled machine.

I just thought it was so clever. Yeah. I took notice of that because, you know, watching this again, it all seems a little brand new to me. And I don't mean to, we were a part of the show. And so it was just an amazing moment for me. I'm going to sound like, you know, I'm cocky and arrogant. But, you know, watching it, I was like, wow, this is a really, really genius way of showing how awesome or how in sync this hospital is. And for that, I was like, I love the show even more now.

You know, now that it's 20 years later, I'm like, wow, we really were innovative. really were different for prime time television. You know, regardless of how many people watched the show at the time, you know, it really still does hold up. Yeah, I have to say, and you can be, that's not you being arrogant because we weren't the genius people behind writing it, although we were- Yeah, but we were a part of it. I know what I mean? And you had a really big part about it. You know, you did, you told the story. I know, but I'm just saying like this, I think, you know, as credit to Bill and all the writers, this was just so original and different and exciting. By the way, how funny is it that I have a Walkman?

It must be 2001. I guess there were still cassette Walkmans. I would have thought it would have been a disc, but I guess JD had a mix on a cassette. Dude, you know, speaking of Walkmans, well, we can talk about it after season one. But I just remember you walking the streets of New York City with your yellow Walkman, listening to Michelle Branch. Yeah, you're everywhere to me. When I close my eyes, it's you. I see, that was my jam.

I am not assured about loving Michelle Branch. I remember you walking out the house. Did I have a yellow Walkman? It was a yellow Walkman, the Sony Walkman. The dope Sony Walkman said everybody, if you had the yellow Sony Walkman, you had the dope, you know, everything else was all right,

but that was the one, right? And I remember you being like, well, I'm out. I'm going to rehearsal. And that was when we were both in New York living together and you were doing Shakespeare in the Park. That's a whole episode is Donald and I living together in Manhattan.

We rented a loft together. He was doing a movie, and I was doing Shakespeare in the park, and I would go out and bop my head with my yellow Walkman cranking, you're everywhere to me. When I close my eyes, it's you, I see. I'm not alone. Dude, I think it's very much JD that you had a Walkman with a cassette tape in it.

Yeah. I noticed that the first exterior shot is still not our hospital. At two minutes in, they cut to, which was an establishing shot from the pilot, of me coming to work for the first day. I think that's the very, that's the same shot, exact same shot they used in the pilot of me showing up to work for the first day. Do you remember going to that hospital and us shooting a bunch of entrances like me and you walking in, you walking in, you and Sarah walking in? Do you remember all of that? Yeah, yeah, but yeah, but that was, that was for the pilot, right?

No, that was for the show itself. We did a bunch of, we did a bunch of versions of us walking into this hospital. And some of it never got used. But at a certain point, at a certain point, they just stopped using this exterior because it was not our exterior at all. I don't know where the hell that was. I noticed that this episode has a lot to do with relationships, you know what I mean, and how we all started off kind of on rocky ground. You and I had the same relationship, and you and the janitor have the same relationship all the way through.

But everyone else, no matter how it's connected, has a different relationship in this episode. At this point, you don't mind being in the friend zone with Elliot. And as a matter of fact, he thinks it's kind of cool that, you know, he has a colleague from work that wants to hang out with him and Turk. Turk and Carla aren't together yet. You know what I mean? They're just starting their courtship. You and Dr. Cox, even though he's still giving you advice and stuff like that, I also noticed that this is the first time he calls you a woman's name in the show. Yeah, I noticed that too.

I think it's right around where he catches them smoking, right? Yeah, he calls you Susan. But this is, you know, you guys weren't in sync yet. So you don't really know this guy. And you're trying to get to know him, or J.D.'s trying to get to know him, but they don't really know each other that well yet. And I'm jumping ahead, but that stuff in his apartment is phenomenal. Going back and looking at it, I was like, I had no idea. One, that it was this funny.

And two, that it was this important. You know what I mean? Like, I had no clue. Watching it back then, it kind of seems like a blur. And, you know, to be honest with you, most of this episode, I don't remember. Yeah, there's things. There's things I don't remember. I don't remember my, it's funny, I don't remember my head exploding.

Really? No, I don't. I mean, I don't remember doing that gag. A lot of the stunts and stuff, I remember. I remember falling over when he closes the door on my leg and stuff, but the head exploding, I don't remember shooting that. But I want to just pick up what you said. I agree, a lot of it is about establishing these relationships that we're going to follow

ultimately for nine seasons. And also, Judy really comes through in this episode. Judy Reyes says Carla. Amazing. She does some awesome work. And it's establishing a really important theme that I think comes across throughout the whole series is that we young doctors are learning the importance of nurses. Because we come out of medical school and we're super cocky and we think we're going to be badasses. But we learn right off the bat, you know, not to be cheesy and say the theme song, but we can't do this all on our own.

We need the help of the nurses. And every doctor we ever talked to in doing research would say, yeah. I mean, the nurses run the show. You know, if you're a layman and you don't know, you have no idea how much work and pressure and stress the nurses are all constantly under. And I was thinking about that now, especially with the corona crisis going on and watching all the news. And I was really, I don't know, extra moved by it in this episode, seeing like that those

nurses are just working their asses off. And Sarah's character in particular needs to learn that like, no, no, we're a team. And you need to like check your arrogance at the door. And this is really about like, we're going to do. do this together and you need the nurses to be on your side. Absolutely. Absolutely with that. I agree with you 100%. It's true. Nurses are the heart and soul of the hospital. Just to piggyback on what you said about Sarah, though, a perfect example of someone who's not sincere about their apology is when they apologize to you and then it's followed with, but just to be clear, you know what I mean?

And she totally does that in this episode. And everything that happens to her after this is because of how she just consistently put her foot in her mouth throughout this episode. I don't remember if it carries on through this season, but through the career of the show, through the show, her character always had the worst luck. Yeah, well, again, that comes from her life, too.

I mean, Sarah is a klutzy gal. She'll be the first to admit when she comes on our show. And Sarah would come in from the weekend every single time, without fail, every single Monday morning. and be like, you guys are not going to believe what happened to me this weekend. And she would go on to tell the craziest story that you would be like a once in a two-year period to a normal person. Something like this would happen to you.

And it would happen to Sarah every weekend. And we'd be like, Sarah, you're putting us on. It can't, that can't have happened to you this weekend. And she was, you're not going to believe it. And then on top of that, da-da-da-da-da-da. And then my keys fell and then my wedding ring got lost. And then-da-da-da-da-da. I remember one story was like a car lost.

control and started barreling down a hill. And her fiance at the time had to jump in the car or grabbed a kid out of the way or something like that. I remember being like, oh, shit. Then her wedding ring fell down a gutter. And every weekend, it was like, here we go. And Sarah would have a half hour story like, you guys. And she was always breathless.

She'd be like, you're not going to believe what. Do you know, Donald, at 254, one of the most important characters in Scrubs history. is introduced a character very near and dear to our hearts named Rowdy. Yes, absolutely. I made that note also. Holy cow, Rowdy. That joke, when we were filming it, I was like, this is the oddest thing I've ever done in my life.

This is a stuffed dog. Right. And we're going to pretend like it's our pet. I think Bill, we'll have to ask him. Let's make a note to ask him when he comes on. But I think that the idea was that some doctor had told him that they never had time to have a pet, especially when they were. just starting out because their hours were so insane. And so he thought it would be funny if

we got a taxidermy pet. I mean, that's the oddest thing I've ever heard of in my life. I know. Just, I mean... Where did they find that thing? Exactly. Who in their right mind was like, you know what? I'm this buster? No, I think people do. I'm going to stuff him. I do think it's a thing. I mean, I do think I'm sure out there are fans, if you're listening, you can write it and tell us, but I do think there are people that taxidermy their pet. Okay. I don't understand. Joelle?

Have you ever heard of this? Joel's nodding. She has heard of this. Barbara Streisand, I believe, has taxidermied and cloned her dogs. She clones her dog because she loves it so much. I think she's on like volume five. We have the technology to clone animals. Yeah, you can clone your dog.

You didn't know that? I did not know that. Yeah, you can clone your dog. It all started with Dolly the Sheep. Remember, they cloned the sheep, Dolly? I thought that was like only a couple of years ago. That was many years ago. And then since now, if you're Barbara Streisand,

I'm sure it's very expensive, you can clone your dog. So Rowdy was taxidermy. Now, I tried to get Rowdy when the show was over. And listen, we did nine years. I said to Bill, the only thing I want from everything is Rowdy. I think it would be a wonderful souvenir for me to have. And he said, sure. And then the people at Disney, who owned the show, said,

no, you can't have Rowdy. He belongs to Disney. And I pictured like, you remember at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, how they put the Ark of the Covenant way in the back? I pictured Rowdy going into like an endless infinite, you know, warehouse. Warehouse in the back. And like the forklift is going by like other taxidermy dogs. And he's going like way, way, way in the back. Right. The dog from Frazier is taxiderminated. Exactly. Exactly. And I was just so bummed. So, when I made my film wish I was here that you were in, very, very funnily, as the Ashton Martin dealer, I said to Disney,

hey, for the Scrubs fans, I thought it'd be funny if I put Rowdy like in the back of a scene, like an Easter egg for them to find. And I said, can I borrow the dog just a little Easter egg for everybody? They said, we will, but we're going to send him with a bodyguard. Wow. Because we're worried that you're going to try and steal him once he's delivered. So they sent Rowdy with a,

handler. They sent the taxidermine dog with a handler. I feel like that's understandable, though, because I feel like if they didn't send the dog with the handler, somewhere along the way, the dog would have got lost. I wasn't going to steal the dog. I was going to be on my best behavior. Listen. He didn't look good, though, by the way. He looked, he looked, he did not look as good as he looked thin. I remember, I know it makes no sense, but I remember when he showed up on set with his bodyguard thinking like he doesn't look good. He's not being taken care of it. Right. He's not being taken care of at all. Like one of his paws was all. janky and like I had to like glue it.

Hello, I'm Jorge Ramos. This week on the moment, we take a look at Venezuela's on certain future in a conversation with two people who have directly advised U.S. presidents. Juan Gonzalez, during the Obama and Biden administrations, we're really good at invading countries. We're very bad at nation building. In Carlos de Riosillo, during Trump's, two terms.

I can guarantee you that nobody in the Trump administration likes Del Ced Rodriguez. Listen to the moment with Jorge Ramos and Paola Ramos from the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcast, or whatever you get your podcasts. A new year doesn't mean erasing who you were. It means honoring what you've survived and choosing how you want to grow.

It means giving ourselves permission to feel what we've been holding and knowing that it's okay to ask for help. I'm Mike Dolorotcha, host of sacred lessons. This podcast is a space for men to talk openly about mental health, grief, relationships, and the patterns we inherit, but don't have to repeat. Here, we slow down.

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Scrubs, we watch your with Zach and Dog. Do you remember the prop master who hid Rowdy? I don't know if this is Scrubs Urban Legend or not, but go ahead. You tell it. Well, I just know that we had a prop master who didn't work out. Yes, he was let go. Right. And to get back at production, he decided that he was going to hide Rowdy in the ceiling.

Is that where he hit it? Well, as the Scrubs urban legend goes, he was let go and he was angry about being let go. And then, you know, we were in the hospital that had all those, you know, lowered, tiled ceilings that you see in hospitals. And apparently he hid Rowdy up in the ceiling tiles above the proper room. That's when, by the way, that's when everyone started to be like, oh, shit, if we, lose rowdy, this is bad, we need a backup, and that's when they got Stephen. Right, but they had like three or four different rowdies, though. So I'm saying.

No, there was just two. There was Routy and there was Stephen. Do you remember? Because there was a whole episode where Judy, which, where, uh, and then I feel their balls. And then I feel their balls. And I'm like, nope, that's Stephen. So in the world of scrubs, J.D. had memorized the two different dog taxidermy dogs ball sacks.

Nope, that's Stephen. So let's talk about our apartment set, because this is the first time you're seeing our apartment. This was built into the hospital. You know, normally you'd have a set like this on a soundstage, but in order for us to do the whole show at this abandoned hospital, Cabot McMullen, our genius production designer, found a way to build all of this into, I don't know, what it was. It was like the urgent care wing or something. No, this wasn't in the urgent care wing. This was actually in the basement of the hospital. urgent care turned out to be

The bar The bar and all of that stuff Right But this was actually Right by the children's ward In the hospital Right They knocked out some walls

And so this was This was in You know This looks like pretty damn good apartment But it was in the hospital Yeah It was also the loading area also So when they would cut

And at night When they wanted to bring things Into the hospital On the other side of the wall There was this big garage door That you could open up and load all the equipment. I remember it was always incredibly hot, right?

Because there was no, it wasn't meant to be a soundstage with lights and everything. The whole hospital was on fire because, you know, you couldn't run the air condition when we're running. Like we used to have the tubes. Remember we would have the tubes? Oh, my God. They'd have a tube wrangler. Even in our dressing rooms, they gave us, like, halfway through season one, they gave us our own little air conditioning units to keep us cool because the hospital got so hot in the summer.

Right. But I remember, so there was an air conditioning in the hospital, and so they had these exterior units, and they had these tubes. I'm sure you've seen them. They were like, I don't know, two feet in diameter. They'd be running everywhere to try and make this comfortable, but it was someone's full-time job to try and wrangle the tubes. Yeah. So what I noticed about this episode, I kept waiting for one line that made it into the promo for the first episode, but wasn't in the first episode. and that's when Elliot says to me,

hey, when did you meet Morgan Freeman? I laughed out loud when that line came up. I mean, I knew it was coming, and, you know, there's some jokes in this that even though you know them, I just laughed out loud when I heard that. It's just, that was so frigging funny. Yeah, I laughed my ass off.

And you know it's really funny about... That's my mom. But that's not even the funny part. The funny part is she goes, she has lovely freckles. I love her freckles. I love her freckles. Okay, so the next thing I wrote down was Todd, the introduction of Rob Machio.

And Rob kind of is this guy, right? I mean, not that he was like, I mean, not that he was a womanizer like this, but he was kind of like a funny, funny, jocky kind of guy. Right, absolutely. He was very well, he was a pretty good athlete, you know what I mean? Took really good care of his body and stuff like that. I remember he told me he ate a pint of Ben and Jerry's every day, which I always found amazing because he would have to work out.

like that much extra to work off a pineapple and Jerry Sedan. So he must have worked out a ton to have his Todd body. And he was a lot older than us at the time too. I think he's 75 in this episode. No, he does look good. I remember he wasn't like that old,

but I remember he was older than us. He was a lot older. He was like in his, I'm going to say 30 something. We were 20 something and he was like 35, 36 at the time. Rob's going to come on the podcast. And I really enjoyed the fact that, You know, you do projects and sometimes they don't really put the effort in to develop, you know, these romantic relationships with the characters. And I really enjoyed the effort put into Carla and Turk's courtship and how, you know what I mean?

And how it became a storyline in the show. And it wasn't just something that from the beginning they had chemistry and now they're dating. You know, Turk had to work for it. Carla had to work for it. And then, and the ultimate thing was at the end, they, you know, they're married with kids and stuff like that. I love that we see their growth from the pilot to this episode. And then as the show goes along. You guys were such a good yin-yang for each other, too.

I mean, you're, you know, the sort of silly jockey surgeon. And she's just, like, so smart and clever and kind of running the entire hospital. And I just thought the way that they wrote your flirtation and your, And your chemistry was really, and you guys performed it really, really well. Can I tell them the story about what Casey first said when I tried to set you up? Absolutely. We were in a nightclub, Donald and I, and I see Casey Cobb, the beautiful Casey Cobb across the club. And she was with Jessica Simpson because she is.

Her assistant. She was her assistant. And now they're like best friends. And I knew them just as acquaintances. And Donald had such a crush on Casey. He was just staring at her, like, just like, doe-eyed. like couldn't, couldn't even think about other stuff. Wouldn't even, wouldn't, just like lost.

But finally, I got the courage to go up to Casey and I'm like, hey, so trying to be the best wingman in the world. I'm like, hey, so. Dude, I appreciate you 100% for this. I was like, hey, my buddy really likes you. He really thinks you're really beautiful. She goes, who? And I point over, like, nod over to Donald.

And she goes, doesn't he have like nine kids? And I always thought that was so funny. Cut to them getting. married in my backyard. At the time, I didn't have nine kids. I only had four. I had four. But it was a funny, sassy line from her. Yeah. And your charms obviously worked because however many years later, they were married in my backyard. Yeah. Thanks to you being a great wingman. It all started with a wingman line. I remember me being like, yeah, will you go over there and talk to her for me? And you're being like, are you fucking kidding me? Go over yourself. I'm like, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And you're like,

oh, no, no. No, I think I got the courage. I got the courage. No. You did. You did. You did get the courage, but you went over there, and then you came back, and I'm like, well, what did she say? Did I tell you, or did I lie to you? You told me right away. You were like, no, no, no, you told me right away. You were like, dude, she was like, doesn't he have like nine kids? And I remember being like, oh, no, because I was like, that's what the ladies in California think. That's what Hollywood thinks about me.

I'm the dude with all the kids. Well, it's funny that, it's funny that, like, she wasn't like, oh, no, he's not cute, or, oh, no, he's not funny, or, oh, no, I don't think he's. he's funny on TV and movies. She was just like, doesn't he have like nine kids with her son's accent? Anyway, this should be an inspiration to you men and women out there who think you can't possibly get that person you have a crush on. And they might

even open with a line equivalent to doesn't he have like nine kids. But if you just are persistent like Donald was, you could one day get married in my backyard. All right, should we move on? Oh, are we talking about Rob running line? Because I always thought that was funny. So Rob, as a testament to Rob Maschio, who played Todd, he would take it so seriously. And I'm not making fun of Rob because I get it. He didn't have a lot to do in every episode and he would always make sure he was doing

the best he could. But sometimes we'd look over and he would just be running his one line over and over and over and over again. Air five. Air five. Yeah. Air five. Yeah. We just see him in the corner. I'd be like Donald. Air five. Rob's over there running line. Air five. Yeah.

High five. High five. High five. Air five. And they really did hurt those friggin Rob high fives for what it's worth. I was about to say, it seemed like you got used to it after a while. No, they really hurt. And the whoop-posh noise was added. But, man, they really hurt.

Sarah digging the grave at around eight minutes and 46 seconds, that's become like a popular meme. I always see, like, you know, when fans send us gifts and memes and I see them on the internet on the interwebs, that's one I always see is, it's funny watching it when you go, oh, that's that meme I've seen before. But that Sarah digging is one people use when, like, they're putting their foot in their mouth digging the grave. I forgot.

I totally forgot about that. And so when I saw it, it was really referring. It was funny, huh? Yeah, it was very funny. And then they throw dirt on her, too, at her rose. That's a great joke. The next thing I wrote down was, oh, would you like to play a game thing

with the robot voice? Do you remember what movie that's from? Of course. War games. Yes, one of my favorite movies. And then the other one was from Buck Rogers. B-D-B-D-B-D-B-D-B-D-D-B-D. Hey, Buck.

I didn't know that one. That's Buck Rogers. But War Games, would you? How about a thermonuclear war? Remember that movie? How about, yeah, it was Matthew Broder. Rick and Ali Sheedy. Of course I remember that movie. You're listening to this podcast and you haven't seen War Games. I need you to put it on after this podcast is over because it is such a good movie.

Yeah, I mean, you don't have to put it on after the podcast. No, I think, yeah. Well, not during. Right. I remember being a kid and thinking, well, everything Matthew Broderick did when I was a kid, I just thought it was incredible. I just wanted to be Matthew Broderick. Especially in War Games. In War Games and in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Yes, of course. I mean... He's kind of the same character. Well, kind of sort. In War Games, he was like a kid that didn't have a lot of friends. And Ferris Bueller, he was the king of the school. He's such a good actor, though, in War Games, you know?

By the way, a little trivia, they made a sequel to War Games that the writer-director had nothing to do with. What was it called? I don't know. Joelle will insert that here later in her voice. War Games, the Dead Code, which came out in 2008, directed by Stuart Gillard. Yeah, but neither of the two stars.

or Matthew Brodick were in it, right? No. The sequel is not, the sequel is not Zach and Donald approved, but the first movie is. Oh, I just, 1133, I just wanted to point out that's the very first time we saw the lounge,

our doctor's lounge, where so many, much of the show ends up taking place and the introduction of Doug. I didn't realize Doug got introduced so early. Neither did I. I didn't realize that either. I also remember that Pac-Man machine and how when we were working,

that was an actual real working Pac-Man game. And I would get kicked off a set. I remember Franklin got better and Scott Harris kicking me up. These were the first ADs on Scrubs. Assistant directors, yeah. I remember them kicking me off set because I kept trying to get the high score on Pac-Man. I remember that Pac-Man game. And I remember when they finally made it so the Pac-Man game didn't work and I was so pissed off.

At a certain point, they made it so it wouldn't function, even if you plugged it in. They got wise. I loved that. I thought that was the coolest set piece ever in the history of set piece. because he's very funny. And I remember in the Wizard of Ab episode, which I directed one of the funniest lines he ever said, which was,

dead people should be dead. Do you remember when I come back to life? I do remember. Why are you hitting me? I thought you were dead. Why are you hitting me? Because dead people should be dead. I would have done the same thing.

Okay. I thought at 1350, there's a cool moment where just stylistically, Adam Bernstein, again, just sort of setting up the style of the show where everyone's looking into the lens talking to me. And then it comes to Judy and she does it And then she looks down and the camera pulls back

And I'm next to her And then she looks at you Yeah stylistically that was really kind of a cool thing That was pretty cool Adam sort of set the bar early on As the director of episode one and two That the camera was going to be a character

In the show and every director that came on after Would add their own little bit of style to it Especially in this first season You know figuring out innovative ways To move the camera And to do kind of camera shots and trick shots Adam really, he did us a great service, him and Bill, by giving us something. In hospital shows, it's really about the doctors and the nurses and everything like that.

Adam and Bill found a way to make the hospital a character in the show. And they found a way to do that early on. You know what I mean? So when you're there, it's never the same. It doesn't feel like, you know, I'm watching a hospital procedural or I'm watching. It's something wacky about it. There's something different about it. And I think that really helped with telling the story, you know, of JD and his group of friends in this hospital.

Yeah. And Adam, I think Adam really set the tone for that. And I remember him. And of course, the next few that come up, you know, all the directors in this first batch, I think Mark Buckland's another one coming up that really helps set the style and the look. Some things were phased out, as I said, the whip noises. Like, when you go, when you're moving your hands, yeah. So there was a lot of sound effects. obviously, but that whip thing is like one thing they toned down.

This high school fantasy that starts at 15 minutes or so is so funny. So well done, don't you think? Hilarious, dude. The fact that they put the pimples on her and the braces and put her in band stuff. And then all of us being like the cool kids and stuff like that. Yeah. You know, Aloma is, I guess, really the only nurse from the pilot that made it all the way through because there's people that surrounded Judy's where I'm like, I don't recognize any of these

I recognize a few. I recognize a couple of the women. By the way, none of the people who became like major background people that we focused on are in any of these episodes. It'd be interesting when we, as we go to watch, it'll be interesting to see when we see their first appearances. Yeah, I saw one dude who was this bald guy and he kind of looks like Colonel Doctor, but he's a bald-headed guy. And he shows up in so many scenes like back to back to back to back to back. Yeah. Let's talk about how in Cox's apartment. That looks like a set, dude. No, it's so bad. First of all, it looked like a set, dude. Not to diss a cabot, because I'm sure that at this time, they were already out of money.

But this is the only set so far that looks like they just put a couch into a hospital room. Into an hospital room. Like there's so many things on the walls that are like, why is there a speaker on the side of his wall at his house? Not only that, why is that big window there that goes nowhere? I know. It's so funny. And then we justify it by making a joke about like, oh, your apartment is so cold. but I was like, wow, man, I think this is a, there was the first moment like, where is he, where does he live?

But does he live in the hospital? Crazy. Yeah, I love this scene between me and Johnny, and this is one of the funniest lines of scrubs. I remember, do you want to be the big spoon or the little spoon? I had no idea what spooning was. I knew that you could spoon like, I know what spooning was, but I didn't know that you could be, there was a big spoon and a little spoon. I had no idea that that existed.

And that kind of was like, ooh, a little spoon. That whole scene is hilarious. You know what I mean? Even when he kicks you out and he gives you the lesson and he's like, now come here, let me give you a hug. And you're like, get the fuck out of here. He's like, come on, come on, come on, come on, give me a hug. And he's like, come on, come on, give me a hug.

And you go up for the hug. He's like, very funny, very funny. He's so good. And I really just so good. I really just like that scene between the two of us. It really kind of showed the dance with Johnny C where it was going to be like, you know, fuck with me a ton and really, but then eventually there'd always be a lesson underneath it. And he'd always drop in and be a good.

mentor. I mean, that's when this is called my mentor. So he doesn't want to be a mentor, doesn't be a mentor. And in the end, he finally drops some knowledge. Like, you can't save these people. All you can do is do your best. You're not responsible for changing people's habits. You can't make someone who's going to smoke, not smoke. And I know that this is something that doctors must deal with all the time. They wish they could make their patients stop eating that fast food. They wish they could make their patients stop smoking, whatever it is. Johnny's trying to teach JD early on, like, you don't have control over that. You can only do what you can do. I had made a note on that also when doctors come into the hospital for

the first few months, maybe even more than that, they take everything so personal. And that's great to have that type of attitude. But if you continue that type of attitude, it's going to be really hard for you to make it as a doctor. You know what I mean? And that's what J.D. had to experience. You know what I mean? J.D. cared so much about Will and, you know, and Will quitting his cigarette addiction. And he thought that that was a bonding experience between him and Dr. Cox. You know, dude, I know you're thinking about it. And let's talk it over so we can come back in tomorrow with a game plan and stop this dude from smoking cigarettes. And at the end of the day, that wasn't your job. Your job is to test and treat. You know,

You know what I mean? That was JD's job. Let's test him and see what ailments he has. And any ailment we find, we're going to treat and try and save him from. All of this extracurricular activity of you giving a crap about, you know, how he got here, that's not in the cards. Because at the end of the day, if this person does pass away, how do you develop the strength to get up again if you were so, so invested in this person's... well-being. And as much as that sucks to hear, that's how doctors have to be. That's how nurses have to be. They're going to deal with death. They're going to deal with life. They're going to deal with disease. They're going to deal with all of these things. And how do you put up a shield so at the end of the

day, if you do lose somebody, you can come back the next day and do your job. You know what I mean? Yeah, well said. And that was what Cox was trying to prepare JD for. Yeah, early on, early on in the show, because he's like, you need to get used to this. This is not, you're not going to be able to save every single person and change all their habits. By the way, I'm looking at the credits, and I see that John Ducey, who was the guest star as Will, his character's name, Will Forte.

And was there some connection to Will Forte? Did someone, you know, wasn't there someone, one of our writers was partnered with Will Forte? I do believe you're right. Was it Schwartz? Schwartz. I think we're Schwartz, yeah. Speaking of Mike Schwartz, Zach,

the show that I'm, that I shot all last year, Emergence, which is on ABC, which is another Disney show. The creators of that show wrote on Ed back in the day with a young Mike Schwartz. Oh, really? That must be where Bill found him. Maybe. Oh, yeah, Ed came first because I remember when the show Ed was on and Tom Kavanaugh's picture went up on billboards and I still didn't have a job. My mom would call me and be like, there is a show where this guy looks exactly like you. And he's on Billboard. boards everywhere. And I remember thinking like, great. Yeah. That's not me, mom. It's kind of, it's kind of crazy how he came on to be a brother later on. I know. I know. I wish they,

I wish they would have had, I wish you would have had two brothers. I wish it would have been him and then Dax Shepard as your other brother. I know. I get this thing. I don't know what it is about my face, but people tell me I look like so many different people. Obviously, Dak Shepard's the most common these days. But I used to get Tom Cavanaugh and, uh, Ray Romano. Yeah, I remember Ray Romano, yeah. Yeah, I finally, early on when our show launched, everyone was saying that I was like young Ray Romano. And I remember Ray Romano, like on a press line somewhere. And he looked at me and he was like, oh, it's like looking in a mirror. I couldn't remember if he was finding the comparison of funny.

This week, on the moment, we take a look at Venezuela's uncertain future in a conversation with two people who have directly advised U.S. presidents. Juan Gonzalez, during the Obama and Biden administrations. We're really good at invading countries. We're very bad at nation building. In Carlos de Rosillo, during Trump's, two terms. I can guarantee you that nobody in the Trump administration likes Delci Rodriguez. Listen to the moment with Jorge Ramos and Paola Ramos

on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or whatever you get your podcast. Every January, we're encouraged to start over. But what if this year is about slowing down? and learning how to understand ourselves more deeply. What if this year is about giving ourselves permission to feel what we've been holding and knowing that it's okay to ask for help? I'm Mike Delocho, host of Sacred Lessons. This is a podcast for men navigating stress, emotional health, fatherhood, identity,

and the unspoken pressures were taught to carry alone. We talk honestly about mental health, about healing generational women, and about learning how to show up with more presence and care. If you want a healthier relationship with yourself and the people you love, then Sacred Lessons is the podcast for you. Listen to Sacred Lessons with Mike Dolorotcha on America's number one podcast network, IHeart. Follow Sacred Lessons with Mike DeLocha and start listening on the free IHeart Radio app today.

I'm Ed Zittron of the Better Offline podcast, and I want you to join me at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, starting January 6th through January 10th, 2026. We're doing 10 radio-style podcast episodes about the world's biggest tech conference, and we're going to dig into the latest and weirdest gadgets, gizmos and horrible AI gear that the tech industry is desperate to sell you, all while covering the biggest stories in Silicon Valley as the AI bubble threatens to burst. I'll be joined by David Roth, Chloe Radcliffe, Adam Conover, Corey Doctoro, Edon Gweso, Robert Evans, and an incredible cast of the greatest talent in the tech media. With over 18 hours of interviews,

commentary and bizarre stories, all told from the Better Offline pop-up studio connected to its own open bar. Today I did five hours of back-to-back panels on artificial intelligence. It included a number of great moments, including an entire room full of people, laughing about people losing their jobs due to artificial intelligence. Will we make it out alive? There's only one way to find out. Tune in starting January 6th through January 10th, 2026, and listen to the literal best tech podcast ever recorded. Listen to Better Offline on the iHot Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you happen to your podcasts. Hi, I'm Dr. Priyanko Wali.

And I'm Hurricane Dabolu. It's a new year. And on the podcast's health stuff, we're resetting the way we talk about our health. Which means being honest about what we know, what we don't know, and how messy it can all be. I like to sleep in late and sleep early. Is there a chronotype for that or am I just depressed? We talk to experts who share real experiences and insight. You just really need to find where it is that you can have an impact.

in your own life and to start doing that. We break down the topics you want to know more about. Sleep, stress, mental health, and how the world around us affects our overall health. We talk about all the ways to keep your body in mind, inside and out, healthy. We human beings, all we want is connection. We just want to connect with each other. Health stuff is about learning, laughing, and feeling a little less alone. Listen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Can you tell the story about how when we went to Vegas and I was in the bathroom and I was washing my hands and I left and the guy goes, oh, you know who that was, right? Do you remember the story? Unfortunately, I remember the story, but I forgot the punchline, so you're going to have to tell it. So we're in Vegas and we're hanging out. It's us, Josh Radin, our buddy Carrie Brothers and Michael Weston, who also at some point was on the show. Yeah, came on the show as private dancer. Right. Right. But Carrie and Josh both had music on the show, if I remember correctly, right? Yes. Right. So we're all in Vegas.

We go to Vegas. It's our first time going to Vegas as a group and we're, you know, we're very young and we've got a little bit of money at this point to spend in Vegas. We had a really good time. We stayed at the MGM Grand. They hooked it up for us. The story, as I even remember correct, is I was in the bathroom, Donna was the bathroom and Donald washed his hands and he left. And he left. and the person that was in there said to his friend, you know who that was? And in my mind, I'm thinking like, oh, Donald's getting recognized.

And the guy goes, who? And he goes, that was Urkel. That was fucking Urkel, dude. And they were, like, freaking out that Urkel had been in the bathroom with them. I love that. What about how you... To this day, you know, to this day, anytime I could be mentioned in the same story as Jaliel White,

Tay Diggs, all these people who are like, you know, iconic for being really good at playing a character or, you know, Jaliyah went on to do Stefan Urkel, which was really freaking awesome. And it showed his range as an actor and everything like that. Anytime I could be mentioned in the same story, like one time Quest Love hit me up. It was like, yo, somebody said I look like you. And I was like, that's the best day ever, dude. I remember when we first became friends and we'd go out and about, no one knew who I was at all.

But some people would know Donald's name, but a lot of people would just be like, Yo, yo, clueless! Clueless! They would just yell clueless at you, right? Yeah. All the time. Yo, clueless! Looless!

Yo, clueless! And then they'd point to you and be like, yo, clueless bought his friend, yo. Clueless bought his friend. Look at Clueless's friend. That's clueless and clueless his friend. That story has a horrible ending, though, man. It has a horrible...

Well, the ending is, you know, you did Garden State, and all of a sudden you became Zach Braff, and people were like, oh, shit, Zach Braff! And look who he's hanging out with. He's got clueless with him. That's not what happened. That is what happened. That's funny.

I just remember, you know, it's funny, the things that people yell at you on the street, like you don't get clueless anymore, I'm sure. No, but I get a lot of black scrub. Thanks to family guy, I get a lot of black scrubs and it scrubs and, you know. Yeah, I get, where's Turk all the time? Sometimes people will know my name and they just talk to me right away. And I can't figure out if I know them in real life or they just know me as an actor. and especially when I'm in New York

because I live there part of the year and people just walk down the street just start talking to you. I don't want to be rude at all, but I'm trying to think of like, do I know this person or do they just know my name? One time I was parallel parking in Manhattan and it was going horribly.

And some guy walks by, he's like, you're killing it, brough. And I just couldn't remember. I just was like, do I know that person? I don't think I know that person. They're just getting me shit. That happened to me recently. recently at Starbucks, before this whole quarantine thing happened, I was at Starbucks, and a guy

comes up to me, he goes, Donald, how you been, man? I'm like, hey, man, how's it going? He's like, you know, I'm good. And then I realized, oh, I don't know this guy. I was like, wait, how do we know each other? And he says, oh, dude, I'm just such a huge fan of yours. And I remember thinking, holy cow, that's how you get caught out there, dude? From here on out, if somebody says to me, Donald, how's it going? And I don't know who they are, I'm not going to be embarrassed anymore. Because there's that moment of embarrassment where you're like, wait, I should know. You don't want to. You don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. Oh, I thought of another person that I used to really get a lot before was Anne Hathaway's

boyfriend that went to jail. Do you remember that guy? I don't. He was involved in some, I think it was business or money crime, something. But he went to jail and I walk in, this is years ago, I walk into a coffee bean and I walk in and I see Arsenio Hall and he's looking right at me. And I don't think, I don't ever met Arsenio Hall, but I was kind of geeked out because I loved Arsenio Hall. And he kind of smiled at me. He brought me over to the end of the counter where they deliver the coffees. And there, you can hear the music. Oh, is Eddie Murphy standing there. And I'm like

having one of the greatest moments of my life. And now when I meet famous people, I can normally hold it together. Yeah, I'm going to keep it one. I remember saying to you one time, dude, how do you do this, man. Like, that's freaking Benjamin Brat right there. And you're not even geeking out, really. You're just like, it's not even a, and you're like, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I can hold it together sometimes. But when I met Eddie Murphy, I mean, I just started gushing. I was like, Eddie, I'm so sorry, but I just want to say that, like, you were like such an inspiration to me. And, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, I, I got to tell you, it's, I use it as an example all the time, because, like, the bad guys were, like,

legitimately scary, but he goes, he goes, who? That bad guys weren't scary? Who? Victor Maitland? And I was like, oh my God, Eddie Murphy just said Victor Maitland to me in a coffee shop. My life has peaked right now. He's like, Victor Maitland. And I'm like, no, not like Victor Maitland. Like, well, I was like the henchman. He goes, yeah, well, the henchman was scary. And then he interrupts me and he goes, anybody ever tell you look like Ann Hathaway's boyfriend and went to jail? And I said, what? He goes, yeah, because I was watching the news. And I was like, that looks like the dude from Scrubs. And I thought this is the most

surreal moment of my entire life. Eddie Murphy is telling, recognize. A, he knows who I am because he knows what Scrubs is. And B, he's trying to figure out if I've been told before that I looked like Anne Hathaway's boyfriend. That is hilarious. By the way, the last part of that story, I got to tell you, because it's so funny, I go to the Laman's Robb premiere,

the movie premiere, because I love Laman's Rob, as you know. And drink with me, today's gone by. All right. So, by the way, we'll do a special episode of this podcast where we just sing show tunes. Anyway, I'm walking and I know Anne Hathaway as an acquaintance, and this was right around when all that shit went down with her boyfriend. And I'm walking towards her to say congratulations.

And her father stands up and, like, gives me this look like, I'm going to kill this motherfucker. He's got the balls to crash my daughter's premier. I'm gonna strangle him. And I got within 10 feet of the dude, and then his face just fucking broke, and he went like side of breath relief and realized that it was me, not the ex-boyfriend.

Oh man, now you know what black people go through all the time. All right, I think we have a caller, right, Joel? We do. Welcome, Kayla. Thanks for being here. What's up, Kayla? Hi, Kayla. Hello.

Hi. How are you? I'm good. They're crazy, but good. I hear you. We hear you. It's crazy times. Thank you so much for being our second ever caller. We're very, very excited to have you. We can answer any question you have about anything. Well, almost any question, but go ahead. Mostly scrubs related. That's about it. That's fair. Okay, I guess like my first question would be a lot of shows that premiered at that time had that awkward first season. But for whatever reason, for me, as a viewer. Scrobs didn't have that. Was that something that you guys all felt as a cast?

Speaking for my, I was just happy to be on television. When I look back at it now, absolutely, you're absolutely right. Scrubs started off at a high point and it just kept going up from there as far as storytelling goes. And that's really, you know, you got to give props to Bill Lawrence and his team of writers. Also, you know, the crew and, you know, how they were in line and just ready to go once we started. With so many shows, I agree, Kayla, you go, you can't help but go, especially with pilots. I'm always saying to friends and, you know, when you recommend a show, you're like, give it like three episodes because, you know, the pilot's good and everything, but, you know,

because the pilots are so hard. You have to introduce so much, so many characters and the tone and the style and the, it's so hard to do a pilot and have it worked. So I guess you guys have said this to people too. You're always like, just give it a couple episodes. Whereas I agree. Build it's such an amazing job with the pilot. in the first few episodes that he was able to, in 23 minutes an episode, be able to just launch it.

I'm just looking at my screen. This one was like 21 minutes or so. It's just amazing how much got crammed in and beautifully woven together. You know, being on the show, I hate to brag about the show, but I think that's what made the show so great. You know what I mean? It's like, you know, you didn't have to say give it two or three episodes. By the third episode, though, we were really on fire. You know, we were really telling great stories.

but we were telling great stories before that. It just elevated even higher after episode three because we found our groove. I love that because I remember my mom asked me a couple weeks ago. She's like, I need to start something. And I said, you should start scrub from the beginning because I know you came in and bits and pieces. She's like, so you don't have an episode for me to start on. I said, no, you start from episode one.

I love that. That's so awesome. That's great, Kayla. Do you have another question just because we're all in isolation and have nothing to do but to talk to you? Sure. So I guess what's so great, which is funny you say episode three, episode two is probably my favorite, because so many of the show's major relationships are established in that episode. So was that chemistry instantaneous or did that come from filming episodes over the coming week? You know what's crazy is that that's how we opened the show today pretty much.

We talked about how episode two, it really sets off the journey that a lot of these characters are going to have together. Carla and Turk, Carla and Elliot, everybody in the hospital and Dr. Kelso, J.D. and Cox, all of these stories are really starting to bubble at this point, you know what I mean? Or starting to, you know, Gurgle. Yeah, Gurgle, whatever it is. GERGELW. Sure. I don't know if we should use Gurgle. No, like, you know when like a boiling water starts to come to a gurgle? Isn't that the word? No, it's not, that's not what gurgle means. You're thinking of gargle. Not gurgle. Gargle and gurgle are different.

I just like saying gurgle. Another big thing was that we all genuinely got along. Like, you know, a lot of shows, you're meeting all these new people, just like any job. There's going to be people you don't like. There's going to be people that you do like. We all really clicked. Like, you know, and I'm sure Donald and I have both been on project since then where the magic wasn't there. This was a project where like all those people, we were and the writers and Bill and the directors, the crew,

we were all friends and we were all hanging out. we would all go out together. We just really genuinely loved each other. And a testament to the seven main characters in the show, we all, you know, over nine years, we had our moments. Of course, just like a family,

you'd get in arguments over things. But for 99% of the time, we all got along really, really, really, really well. And I think that that shows in the relationships in the show. Because we loved each other. We rooted for each other.

If Donald had a moment where he was killing it, like we weren't trying to upstage each other. We were like, go, man, go. You're killing it right now. We were rooting each other on, you know? Yeah, we definitely were each other's biggest fans at the time, for sure. Well, thank you, Kayla. Thank you for calling in, and thank you for being our second ever caller.

Yay, thank you, thank you guys so much for having me. Thank you. Stay safe out there. Where are you calling from? Are you in California or you're in Atlanta? I'm in Atlanta. Yeah, so we're on lockdown. Yeah, so are we.

Well, stay safe, Kayla. Stay safe. Stay healthy. Yeah. I would thank you. You guys will be welcome. And I want to say, if you want to call in to our podcast here, you're going to send an email to Scrubs Eyeheart at gmail.com. Is that right, Joelle? Okay. Scrubsiheart at gmail.com. And we're going to take a caller every week. I just want to thank everybody for listening. Please hit us up on our social media. We're both on Instagram and Twitter. And you can ask us questions. Tell us what you like. want you want more of.

We want you to have audience participation. So tell us, like, things that you want to, constructive criticism, right, Donald? Yeah, you don't necessarily have to criticize us. Well, constructive criticism. You could be like, I'd like to hear more about this or I'd like to hear more about that, but don't all of a sudden get on there and be like just hating. Well, people are going to do that anyway, Donald, it's the inner webs. Nobody likes a hater.

I'm just going to keep it real with your. What did you say? Oh, Haterade. Don't drink Haterade. That's what you used to say. Would it Taylor Swift say? Because the hater's going to hate, hate, hate, hate, hate. Don't be that.

You know what I like the Taylor Swift lyric? And I'm just like, damn, it's 7 a. Yam when she's talking about getting trolled early in the morning. I like, got a long list of ex-lovers. That's my favorite. That's my favorite. That's not that has anything to do with this show, but that might be my favorite song. All right, listen, you know what?

My favorite song is Donald? That she sings. That she sings. You know what my favorite song is Donald? And I think we should go into it right now. It's our theme song that we should say, we want to thank you to Charlie Puth who wrote the music and Donald and I wrote the lyrics and I think now is a better time than ever to start singing it. So thank you for listening. Thank you to all the medical person

out there, out there who are on the front lines. Thank you so much. And we're watching you and we see you and we celebrate you. And this was a show that was always trying and aspired to be a love letter to medical workers. And now more than ever, we want to say thank you so much for being the heroes of today. Thank you so much. And now let's sing, Donald. Here's some stories about show we made. About a bunch of dogs and nurses and a janitor who love me.

I said, here's our stories. Never all should know. So gather around you. I'm Jorge Ramos. This week, on the moment, we take a look at Venezuela's uncertain future in a conversation with two people who have directly advised U.S. presidents. Juan Gonzalez, during the Obama and Biden administrations. We're really good at invading countries.

We're very bad at nation building. In Carlos D.Rosillo, we're in Trump's two terms. I can guarantee you that nobody in the Trump administration likes Delsi Rodriguez. Listen to the moment with Jorge Ramos and Paola Ramos on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcast, or whatever you get your podcast. Hi, I'm Dr. Priyanko Wally. And I'm Hurricane DeBolu. It's a new year. And on the podcast's health stuff, we're resetting the way we talk about our health.

which means being honest about what we know, what we don't know, and how messy it can all be. I like to sleep in late and sleep early. Is there a chronotype for that or am I just depressed? Health stuff is about learning, laughing, and feeling a little less alone. Listen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A new year doesn't ask us to become someone new. It invites us back home to ourselves.

I'm Mike Delarocha, a host of Sacred Lessons, a space for men to pause, reflect, and heal. This year we're talking honestly about mental health, relationships, and the patterns we're ready to release. If you're looking for clarity, connection, and healthier ways to show up in your life, Sacred Lessons is here for you. Listen to Sacred Lessons with Mike Deloach

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and just driving myself crazy. Listen to the Happiness Lab on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your shows. This is an IHeart podcast, guaranteed human. Thank you.