Fake Doctors, Real Friends with Zach and Donald - 103: My Best Friend's Mistake w/ Bill Lawrence

Episode Date: April 14, 2020

The will they/ won't they that is JD and Elliot begins to simmer in episode three as Scrubs tackles "the friend zone." In the real world, Zach and Donald talk to show creator Bill Lawrence about the first days of the series. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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and this was the idea I set out to explore in my podcast, Minnie Questions. This year, we bring a whole new group of guests to answer the same seven questions, including Courtney Cox, Rob Delaney, Liz Phair, and many, many more. group of guests to answer the same seven questions including courtney cox rob delaney liz fair and many many more join me on season three of many questions on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your favorite podcasts seven questions limitless answers donald countesson Donald, count us in. One, two, one, two, three. Donald, go down.

Donald, go down. That's not what I meant. Three, two. Well, then you got to say, you said count us in. I thought you were like doing a- Donald, count us down. There we go. Because counting us in is, you know, like the songs about- Five, six, seven, eight.

Right, exactly. Okay, here we go. Ready? Count us into our song, Donald. I really don't want to anymore. Five, six, seven, eight. You want fame? Well, fame costs. And right here's where you start paying

in sweat. Debbie Allen, Fame, the TV show. Thank you. Here's some stories about a show we made about a bunch of docs and nurses and a janitor who loved to hate. I said here's the stories that we all should know.

So gather round to hear our, gather round to hear our Scrubs Rewatch Show with Zach and Donald. All right, listen, we have Donald, we have our first real guest. Yes, we do, and I'm really excited about this. I don't think there could be a more appropriate guest because he's the reason that we're here. He's the reason we're friends. He's the reason that this show happened,

that so many people across the world love, and it all came from his brain. He's the reason why I have a closet that I can stay in right now and do this show. He's the reason I have a desk. He's the reason I have this water bottle. I always say that to our next guest, jokingly, but also seriously.

Whenever I buy myself, occasionally I buy him dinner, and he's so grateful, and I say, are you kidding? I can only buy you this dinner because of you. Ladies and gentlemen, the creator of Scrubs, Mr. Bill Lawrence. Yeah!

I pretended to not even be in the frame even though this is not a video thing I wish we were recording so people could see that I want people at home to know that even though we're not recording the video Bill hid on the Zoom app and made an appearance Hey, that was too nice

of an introduction because you guys would have both done fine without me. I like that I can claim credit for your success and well-being, but you would have found your way regardless. Well, that's nice of you to say, but you definitely changed both of our lives a lot. In a big way. And also made something that very rarely happens, I'm finding, as I attempt to make TV shows and produce them. that very rarely happens, I'm finding as I attempt to make TV shows and produce them, and something that went nine years and something that is a global success. And I guess the first logical question I wrote down in my notes is how did, because if I was listening to this,

I'd want to know how you came up with the idea. How did it, how did the seed come to you in the first place? You guys both know there was a medical advisor on the show named uh jd and he's the real jd and uh he's my best friend in college he was a fuck up and uh are we allowed to curse on your podcast curse away we're explicit bill go nuts let loose he was he was a screw up i went the other way um and uh uh I used to joke with him because he was such a bad student that he went back to college to go to med school a second time. I mean, to pre-med a second time. So he'd get into a med school. I said, my biggest nightmare would be waking up in an emergency room and having you standing over me and going, hey, you're going to be fine.

And I just thought that would be a good TV show because we used to drink beers and he used to talk about how all these stories, especially the early ones are ones straight from his life, you know, worrying that his friends sewed a piece of gauze up into somebody falling in love with a different girl in his residency program who he's now married to. Uh, he's a real guy. It's more relevant than ever because he has become the Kelso at a Kaiser hospital in Los Feliz. And he's there running their COVID virus command center today as we speak. Yeah. I saw that you tweeted something about that. So tell us like, cause you're, you must be, you're still best friends. So you must be in contact with him as he's dealing with all this COVID insanity, right? Yeah. He's super pals. He he's a heart surgeon and a cardiologist. He, he still does speaking engagement sometimes the real JD, but he goes by

John. So P you know, he, he put out a tweet the other day saying, hey, to all the doctors and nurses, you know, that work with me, I'm really proud. And I said, hey, is the real JD. He married the real Elliot and he's out there fighting the fight. And it became viral and a news story and stuff. In our basketball game that Donald has played in before, and in this episode, you can see that Donald can play ball. JD played in that game and he tore his rotator cuff, so he can't be a heart surgeon as much because it aggravates his injury. So he took the Kelso job the same way Dr. Cox took the Kelso job late in life

and he runs the whole hospital in Los Feliz. That said game you speak of is probably the roughest game I've ever played in in my life. Jaws being broke, noses broke, ankles twisted. It's a bunch of dumb comedy writers too, man. Oh my gosh, it's violent. It's serious. It's so violent. It's violent, dude.

It's violent. It's a lot older now, Donald. We're all, I mean, we're the old guys now and there's a wave of young guys. My son plays Will and I sent Zach a video of Will dunking the other day and I was so excited about it. Yeah, Bill sent me a video of will dunking the other day and i was so excited about yeah bill sent me a video will dunk he's like you have no idea how proud this makes me donald donald zach doesn't understand as you know this is like to see somebody dunk

i didn't even get a response so zach's like oh yeah he's throwing that round ball into the hoop if you if you had sent me that kid singing bring Him Home from Les Mis, I would have cried. You would have lost your mind. You would have lost your mind. Oh, my God. Yeah, by the way. Zach would have been, I am so proud of Will. Oh, my God.

I would have had it on repeat. I literally would have just been playing Will singing Bring Him Home. Bill, when you were younger, could you dunk? I could not. You could not dunk. Can you dunk, Donald? When I was younger, I could,? I could not. You could not dunk. Can you dunk, Donald? When I was younger, I could, but when I was a lot younger. Yeah.

A lot younger. Donald, Will does it now aggressively. It's pretty cool. That's awesome. Like on the spin move, on the break. He can do it off the dribble, and he can do it off an alley-oop. He has trouble still gripping it. Why are you guys speaking Latin right now?

I have no idea. He tries. He tries. He tries. I wanted to go back to JD, the real JD, for a second, because I remember back when we first started, he had a pager, and they would literally, he'd be at the hospital advising us. So just for those of you who don't know,

a medical advisor on the show is obviously showing us, everyone, the extras, Donald and I, all the doctors, how to look like we know what we're doing, and this is how you do this, and this is what you'd be doing in this particular situation. And this was still in the era of the fax machine. And I remember JD would, he'd be talking to us and saying, yeah, hold it like that, do that. And then he'd get a page, and then he'd go receive a fax, and he'd look down at the fax of someone's EKG, and he'd be like, uh, I should probably get going. Yeah.

You know, he used to joke about that, that he liked the gig with us so much more than his real gig, you know, because he was a grunt, you know, he was still, I mean, it was out of residency, but you know, he was a slave in a way back then trying to pay off med school loans and kind of being around Hollywood. He loved it. You know, his wife would also, uh, when he was when he couldn't be there. She'd come by and, you know, we'd run things by her. Speaking of this episode, it starts off in the OR.

And I remember thinking, oh, this is going to be awesome. I get to show my dramatic face in the middle of surgery. It'll be just like all the doctor shows that are on right now. You know what I mean? And then we get there and you're like, no, put the mask on. I'm like, wait, what? What do you mean put the mask on? You're like, no, you guys, we have to wear the masks.

And I was like, wait, but we're supposed to be acting. This is nearly. And you were like, no, no, no, no, no, no. Put the mask on. Put the mask on. Do it with your eyes. Right. Do it with your eyes. And I remember being like, okay, this could, this, no, no, no, no. Put the mask on. Put the mask on. Do it with your eyes. Right. And do it with your eyes.

And I remember being like, okay, this could, this is going to be, this, okay. Looking back at it now, we were, other than MASH, I think the first shows really to do that. All of these other shows were doing surgery without the masks on. And Donald, it's a great point. Cause you know, JD is most proud of, even though we took so many liberties and were goofy and stuff, it's been often said that this, for at least medical professionals, that this was the most realistic medical show, you know, just on what it was like. I get that all the time, Bill, and people on my social media and everything will say, and even I think the American Medical Association said that.

that. So, so tell us about that. When you, when you started, did you, I've always said, and correct me if I'm wrong, that you, because the show is going to be silly and go off in crazy tangents, that you said to your writers and obviously a mantra to yourself that, no, I want the medicine to always be as accurate as possible. We had to, they, you know, they initially, even before I cast you guys, talked to them about making that show on a soundstage. And I'm like, man, this show's going to be so silly in so many ways. If it's not in a real hospital, people are going to tell it's fake. And so we used to have this board of, you know, we'd do all the funny fantasies and jokes and silly shit. And then we had this board of ways to make it real, you know.

And one of them, Donald was talking about one of them, the masks, but you guys needing to look competent, people needing to dye, the rooms to be grungy and to not have as saturated a look color-wise. We thought we made everything that wasn't funny real

that maybe it would work going back and forth between serious and goofy tone. I heard Donald talk about that in your other episode, about how the colors didn't pop and everything looked kind of dank and disgusting intentionally. When you came up, you were coming off of Spin City, for those of you who don't know. Right, I was going to ask, should we go through,

I mean, not that you want to sit here and discuss your resume or anything like that. Yeah, he would. He'd love to. We gave a little story about what we were doing before Scrubs and how our life changed before Scrubs. I imagine your life changed. I remember the table read. I'm just saying, I would love to hear your- Yeah, we've never heard how-

I mean, you were already successful. You're coming off Spin City, but how- Donald and I went on and on about how it was such a shock to our lives. I mean, this was your first hit show on your own. I mean, was that a big change in your life? Yeah, you know, Donald and I went on and on about how it was such a shock to our lives. I mean, this was your first hit show on your own. I mean, was that a big change in your life? Yeah. You know what? I had had such a weird experience on Spin City that I was partnered up with an iconic

star from my generation. You know, I, you guys were so kind to Mike Fox when he came and guested on the show, but that was such a surreal experience for me writing for for mike you know it's like the back to the guy that i grew up with this particular experience um even before i met you guys i was like all right you can't have any expectations there's no huge movie star doing this you guys have probably heard me say before i decided to treat this whole thing like all right i wrote the script no one's ever going to make it uh They're going to let me shoot the pilot. It'll never be on. The show's going to be on. It'll never last a whole season. So I'll make the janitor an imaginary character. You know what I mean? Oh,

it lasts a whole season. It'll never be on a season two. And so to me, that kind of protected me. You know, I thought that I was making something like freaks and geeks you know that would be people go hey that was really good and it got canceled after four episodes and it was surreal to me that it kept working that makes sense to you guys so i was really into the art of it all like at the table read i remember just being so happy that everyone top to bottom was so good, you know? And from what I had done, not necessarily popping, you know, jokes in a sitcom style and playing it real. And I'm like, oh, this is a show that I'd watch even though no one else will.

So, yeah, I was resigned very early to the show not being successful. It was very weird. I never asked you this question, but coming off of Spin City, and this was kind of the beginning of a big single-camera comedy craze. For those of you who don't know, the difference being sitcom, traditionally a set in front of a live audience, and then a single camera, and we shoot it like a movie. Was there any pressure on you to make this idea you had a sitcom, and did you have to fight for it? Yeah, the best thing that Spin City bought me was the financial and professional security. What happens in television often is you'll create a show.

Hey, I'm going to do a show about a young married couple and what it's really like, and I'm not going to compromise it at all. And then you'll go sell it to a network, and when you come out, you're like, all right, it's the same show. I mean, we have a kid that's six that speaks like a 30 year old and i do have superpowers now but otherwise otherwise it's like the exact same right and so with this show when i said i was i was so convinced it would be a failure because like early on abc were like hey that show's interesting what maybe the dr cox character should be married and we'll just it's a sitcom. We see him at home. We see him at work. I'm like, yeah, I'm not going to do that.

And it was never really an issue for me because I was so convinced that this would never work anyways. I just wanted to stick with what I thought would be cool and would work. So there was a lot of pressure. The only thing – this episode resonates in a huge way because the president of nbc at the time was convinced that single camera comedy shows weren't funny um and uh so i'm like i'm gonna keep this show on by decorating it with every bell and whistle i can so this is one of the last i think there's only a couple more episodes after this that still have sound effects yeah that's something i wanted to talk about as we start when we start going through the show,

just so we're clear though, who was the president of the network? Zucker was the president. What was Sasa? What was Sasa? Scott Sasa was very Sasa fine. All right. So this is the bill,

bill in an episode that will have aired by the time this airs. Cause in episode two, we talk about the infamous time that Donald gave a noogie to Jeff Zucker and he said, please, Donald, no. And Donald- But I always thought at the time, I thought that Jeff Zucker was Scott Sasse's assistant. Nope, he was Scott Sasse.

Scott Sasse got shuffled out right as Jeff Zucker came in. Jeff Zucker now runs CNN. He's one of the most powerful guys in the news world. Scott Sassa is claimed to fame with me because there's always a disconnect with executives that really didn't know how this worked. And what's really interesting is if you look at the credits of Scrubs, the only title in the writers that has writer next to it is staff writer, which is the lowest rank on the totem pole. And then the other writers on the show are story editor, co-producer, things that don't necessarily say writer. And when I handed in the first three scripts, you know, showrunner always rewrites everything on any show. We had a great writing staff, but I was still

doing that. And Scott Sassa called me up. He he's like i read the first three scripts and i gotta say those three staff writers you hired because he thought that was the whole writing staff was three people those three staff writers you hired really nailed it and really captured your voice from the pilot i wanted to be like well first of all they didn't because i wrote these and secondly, those three staff writers are all like 21 and have never worked on a show before. So crazy, man. And then he shockingly got fired, and Jeff Zucker replaced him right before Donald kissed his head.

Kissed and nugget, Bill. Kissed and nugget his head, yes. By the way, you know what? We missed a good bit of Scrubs trivia. I've got to say it because I forget it. Do you guys remember real JD's wife's name she's elliot in real life do you know her last name her maiden last name her no her maiden last name was is dolly clock i'm horrible at naming characters do you remember a character on our show named molly clock that was heather graham

yes wow so you that's very good yeah by the way a lot of our fans bill on uh when we on our show named Molly Clock? That was Heather Graham. Yes. Wow. That's very good. I would have never got that. By the way, a lot of our fans, Bill, when we put the first episode out, we asked a question. I asked a random question saying,

I don't even know what sitcom set that was. And my whole Twitter feed was like, answering that it was the Damon Wayans show. My Wife and Kids. My Wife and Kids. There you go. So everyone probably answered your Molly Clock trivia question before. They knew it right away. You know what?

My favorite part of this show, and it's not even the A storyline in this episode, is the clock, the countdown. You could have made the whole show about that. That could have been the whole show. I love that. That's a good writer trick. You put an imaginary ticking clock on something

and everybody invests in it. Yeah, that was clever. Wait, before we get to the show, I just want to ask another trivia thing of Bill. I got so geeked out. I really did my homework this week. And like, sure. Before you go, I want to tell Donald because he can look him up. There's a picture of Donald and the surgeon he was based on. Donald would be named John Turk because that's the surgeon's name, but J.D. was already John so he became Chris Turk. There's a picture of you with your arm around John Turk when he visited set once and I'm not even sure if you knew

who he was. I remember when he came and visited, he was like, I'm Turk. And I remember him being white and me being like, oh, snap. What a rewrite. But you're white. Donald was like, no, you're not. I'm turd. I want to just do one other bit of trivia. That is

that ABC passed on the show. Yeah. So for those of you who don't know, the show was produced by ABC Studios and ABC, the network, gets first crack at things if the studio produces it. And our show ended up on NBC. So tell us how that happened.

The dude is a true story, and I'm not even going to out him because he's a nice man. When I pitched this show to the people that ran the ABC network, one of the dudes had a chair that, you know, kind of blocked. You could lean back into that blocked the view of his head. And about midway through the pitch, I heard – Like a bad guy in a movie? Like a bad guy. And midway through the pitch, we all heard audible snoring. He had had a rough night I think the night before.

Hee-bee-bee-bee-bee-bee-bee-bee-bee-bee. And I was literally like, I don't think this pitch is going that well, guys. and i was literally like i don't think this pitch is going that well guys like i'm not sure this is what you would call a sale in the room because that the dude that the dude that buys is snoozing so they didn't buy it and uh the guy that ran abc studios said you got to wait five months but then since they hated it, I'll say, hey, can I have permission to go sell this somewhere else? And they'll think it'll never sell. So they'll say, OK. And then I went and sold 10BC. But it was why the life of our show was so weird. We were one of the only shows on NBC completely owned by ABC, which is why

Time Slot with me moved around and not always protected and stuff. So it was a, it was a weird business arrangement. I always wonder how that goes in the TV landscape when like, you know, you hear these stories of, Oh, every, like everybody passed on breaking bad, you know, and the guy at ABC who passed on scrubs. Like, I just wonder if they, if they fuck with each other in the hallways, like good job, Tim. You know, the cool moment I had, there a great guy at abc who ran it for a while and is now a producer named stew bloomberg and he ran into me after our first year and he goes you know i didn't he he heard that pitch he was there he's like i heard that pitch and i didn't

get it now i get it i feel like an idiot and i thought oh that's really cool so it was he was very nice about it at least he was mentioned he was not the one that fell asleep yeah will you tell us about casting turk and um wow you're just gonna get right into it well i literally have like hours of questions for bill but i i know we want to also do the episode but tell tell us about just you know about we obviously want to know from your experience because we shared our experience in the in the first episode but your experience of of finding donald uh i was a don fan already. I'd seen Clueless, you know, and just thought he was really funny. And he killed all his auditions.

And in the test part of it, you know, it's really interesting because I feel like I both hurt and then saved Donald in a way to make myself look like a hero. I feel pretty cool about it, which is, you know, the one thing I tell people that don't understand what network tests used to be, it literally used to be that you would come as an actor and actress and stand in the head of casting's office while 20 people were in the back sitting or, you know, leaning against the window judging you. And you'd have one chance. If you're actually shooting the show, you'd have 20 chances. You'd have one chance to do it, not mess up, you know, and and also somehow make a room of people that all feel weird to be standing in someone's office anyways, so i used to tell everybody you know the the

biggest curse in the world is low energy you know i mean because if you come into those low energy everybody's going to be like oh this is horrible um and the one mistake i made with donald is if you tell donald why don't you dial up that energy to 11 i know where this is going. Why don't you make sure you dial that energy up to 11, everybody. Donald, I mean, Donald's like, hello, Los Angeles. And he came in and he did his audition. And the truth is he did crush all the comedy. But when he left, they they're like that guy's energy was fantastic and he's really funny but he very obviously can't do any of the sincere

dramatic moments because he's an insane person and uh and i'm like no no no you can't that's me that's me and they never do this but i'd luckily been through the process before in a different show and so i went out to donald and tried to make it very grave because i wanted him to come in then and just play the drama of everything you know because i'm like i told all them i'm like look that's my note and if he comes back and does it the other way you'll see you can do whatever we want it's a single camera show you know and uh i went back to donald and i'm like i think i said something like all right they thought you suck shit yeah dude it was one of those things i thought you would come to tell me all right you got the part you were like so i'm walking i remember skipping into the room like here we go here we fucking go and you were like so that really was

horrible for them for them that was too much. I think much is the word. But then we talked for a while, and I'm just like, just dial it down and now play it like it's not a comedy and play the drama of it. Donald came back in, and this is a compliment to his acting ability. He came back in, and then he did it as if he wasn't looking for any laughs or energy. And he walked out, I i'm sure shook by doing it again and the second he walked out the head of nbc casting guy named mark hirschfeld was like oh i see it totally he's got it yeah thank you well thank you well first of all thank you very much

for being a hero and and step i'm not a hero i don't have the best bedside manner you guys know that yeah but it doesn't matter though man, man. You got the point across. And look, dude, 20-something years later, I owe you a lot, bro. I owe you a lot. Well, I remember it's so intimidating. I think that may have been the first time I ever made it to a network test. And it was down to four of us. And literally, there must have been 30 people crammed into a small office. It was the most awkward environment to ever try and do

a good job. What was this for? This was for Scrubs. Really? It was that guy, Mark, wasn't it Bill, Mark Hirschfeld? Mark Hirschfeld. Yeah. Everyone was crammed into his office and I was very nervous and Sarah was there to read with me for her scenes. But I remember feeling my adrenaline come up. Like I was almost going to have a panic attack and i was like not today well you know you know i cheated everybody cheats i cheated for the people i wanted to get the part so you guys both had extra lines and jokes and moments um that we had all come up with and found together that other actors weren't doing right and then when i at the beginning when I go in and talk to everybody, I'm like, hey, I'm really into everybody bringing their own flavor.

And so some of these actors and actresses have stuff that they brought on their own and I let them do it. But it's not true. You know what I mean? It's just you two and Sarah had stuff that you brought on your own that we let you do. Wow. I remember at the time thinking, that's so awesome.

He feels like he's rooting for me. But is he doing that with everyone? Like I didn't, you know. Nah, I cheated. No, I knew since then you've told me that. But at the time I was thinking like, I think I might be his favorite. Like I'm getting extra jokes. You know, the only one, it's great trivia.

The only one that we didn't know what was going to happen and we shifted gears a little bit uh of like what are we going to do if this doesn't happen it's fascinating and i'll when you have them on the guest as a guest i'll tell you i wrote in the script like we were looking for a john c mcginley type for dr cox and john came in and read it and was fucking he was amazing and then at the studio he did something completely different and high energy, John. And his intensity dial had been dialed up like 10 notches. And the reaction of the studio was like, whoa, that is way too.

And unlike with you guys, I wasn't even confident enough to bring John back in and go, hey, you did that wrong. Because I feel like what would follow would be a hard blow to the face. You know? Fuck you, hey, you did that wrong, because I feel like what would follow would be a hard blow to the face. Fuck you! Oh my God! Get off my neck! Get off my neck! And so we had this giant level,

me and the casting directors, Brett and Debbie, were like, oh man, who's it going to be? Because for us it was John McGinley. And we went into the network and just said just cross your fingers and he came into the network and did it completely different without anybody having spoken to him and this the johnny c dialed down 10 notches and literally walked out of there as if he with the thought he almost said i got this as he left

you know i mean it was just so john C. He was like, he did it. And then I'm like, you feel good? He's like, Cash, see ya. So that was the only nerve-wracking one. Johnny C. had so many expressions that he would always say. We were talking about five good ones and Cash and how he'd say. Better now. How you doing?

Better now. Better now. How you doing? Here's five good ones for you. How you doing? Better now. Better now. How you doing? Here's five good ones for you. How you doing? Better now. And then how he'd say to the editor, we'd finish a scene,

and our editor's name was Jean-Michel, and he'd go, well, we gave Jean-Michel some ammo. Some ammo. I love that dude, man. That's funny. Speaking that you went out for like a Johnny C type and everything like that, I find it so funny that that's almost like a gift and a curse. When they, when they say that we talked about this in the last podcast,

you know what I mean? When they say we're looking for a Zach Braff type, they're not looking for Zach Braff though. No, they're looking for a Zach Braff. They want, they want Zach Braff ish. You know,

it helped though. I think I thought it's different if like, and this is a compliment. Like, right now, both you guys, you say Zach Bradford, Donald Faison, they're going TV star. When I said John C. McGinley type, at the time, it just meant a character actor, you know, with kind of an intensity thing. It wasn't like he was a household name.

You know what I mean? So I don't think it cursed him as much because it's no insult to him. Seven out of ten people that read the script are like, no, no, no, cool. Who's John C. McGinley? You know what I mean? But the second they saw his picture, they knew who he was. Yes. Oh, you mean the dude from Platoon?

The Platoon guy. Why did you say Platoon guy? You mean office space? But that's a different guy. No, it's the same guy. No, that's not the same guy. So now if you say John C. McGinley type, people are like, oh yeah, arms crossed, super intense.

You know, but in that case, it didn't mean that. Scary, intimidating. Oh, scary. You know what I mean? And then we were afraid of Bill in the beginning, but then when we got like more friendly. I never said that. Well, you know what?

I did say one thing. I did say one thing. And because of it because of it it stuck with me for the rest of the fucking show what was that one time i was like you know bill said to everybody he was like look i'm gonna write for all of you whatever you do just don't come in my fucking office and say how come i'm not in the show this week and so as a joke i went into his office i was like dude i I'm not in the show this week? And so as a joke, I went into his office. I was like, dude, I'm fucking barely in the show this week. And he was like, oh, yeah, you got Faison'd. And that fucking stuck with me.

I forgot about that. Do you remember Faison'd, dude? Oh, my goodness. I totally forgot about that. So Donald did that. And then for the rest of the show, when you were light, when you barely had anything to do in the episode, like oh man i got phase on i got phase on i remember the only two things i remember like that i remember phase on and i remember even saying to

guest actors um see if you guys remember this a guest actor would be like i still don't think i nailed that line i'm like dude i don't have time for you to Sarah one more Z because there's a song. One more Z Sarah, one more Z. She wants one more when she's had five because Sarah, no matter how many takes she did, like she'd be like, the director would always be like, okay, Sarah, are you good? Can we move on? One more, one more. And we'd all be like, something's so good about a confused guest actor's face when i'm like dude i don't have time to sarah one more

z right now i thought i was speaking like klingon it's gibberish that song had like a nice hook to it she wants one more when she's had five so hey you know what's interesting i i can uh uh i remember something donald about someone choosing a take in this episode. I wish I could remember who said it. It might have been Neil Goldman because he was up on set, but it's in the cut, and I didn't have it in the initial cut. And he said there's one take where Donald comes in and says, has anybody seen my keys? How about my wallet? And he says, how about my wallet like Chris Rock?

He's like, you've got to put that one in. How about my wallet? How about my wallet? He says, how about my wallet, like Chris Rock? He's like, you've got to put that one in. How about my wallet? I literally went back to the cut and watched that master and you're like, how about my wallet? Donald, was that Chris Rock inspired? I wanted to ask you.

No, it was probably Eddie Murphy inspired. But it was funny as sin, man. How about... There's that one, and the one that we used to laugh at all the time from this episode is, I tried to discover a little something to make me sweeter. I remember we laughed for days about that. You're really funny in this episode, I wanted to say. Yes, you are.

Bring a little optimism into your life with The Bright Side, a new kind of daily podcast from Hello Sunshine. Hosted by me, Danielle Robay. And me, Simone Boyce. Every weekday, we're bringing you conversations about culture, the latest trends, inspiration, and so much more. I am so excited about this podcast, The Bright Side. You guys are giving people a chance to shine a light on their lives,

shine a light on a little advice that they want to share. Listen to The Bright Side on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search The Bright Side. All that sitting and swiping, our backs hurt, our eyeballs sting. That's our bodies adapting to our technology. But we can do something about it. We saw amazing effects. I really felt like the cloud in my brain kind of dissipated.

There's no turning back for me. Make 2024 the year you put your health before your inbox and take the Body Electric Challenge. Listen to Body Electric from NPR on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. If you've been following the news, you know that from health care access to safe schools, LGBTQ plus rights are under attack. And it's about time queer and trans youth get the microphone and tell their stories in their own words. get the microphone and tell their stories in their own words. I'm Raquel Willis. Join me on my new podcast, Queer Chronicles,

a show where LGBTQ plus folks tell their own stories in their own words. This season, teens will share all about growing up in political battleground states. I wish I could feel more comfortable in my own body here, but that's just not the case. And follow along as they discover what queer and trans liberation means to them. This isn't running away from yourself. It's running into who you want to grow into. Listen to Queer Chronicles on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your most fabulous shows. Hey, everybody, welcome to Across Generations, where the voices of Black women unite in powerful conversations. I'm your host, Tiffany Cross. Tiffany Cross. I want you all to join me and be a part of sisterhood, friendship, wisdom, and laughter. In every episode, we gather a seasoned elder. But even with a child, there's no such thing as the wrong thing if you love them. Myself, as the middle generation. I don't feel like I have to get married at this big age in life, but it is a desire I have and something that I've navigated in dating.

And a vibrant young soul for engaging intergenerational conversations. I'm very jealous of your generation that didn't have to deal with Instagram and Tinder. This is across generations where black women's voices unite and together, you know how we do. We create magic. Listen to a cross generations podcast on the I heart radio, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Now that we're talking about the episode, I was going to say that.

We can segue to the episode. This is episode three, My Best Friend's Mistake. And first of all, as a show, caught our stride, I feel like, in this episode. Now, the next episode that's after this is My Old Lady. And I think that's the third episode we shot. But this episode aired before My Old Lady, if I'm correct. Bill, why were Donald and I, you'll have the answer to this, both Donald and I forever have always said,

oh, 103 was the episode where we lose three patients and it was kind of like a good hitting our stride moment. And then both of us this morning went to go rewatch the show and we're like, oh, 103 is not that. Did they switch around? I'm almost positive, but I got to go look. The pilot and the next one or two were directed by Adam Bernstein. Yeah, I can help you out because Joelle, our amazing producer, made a note here that she said,

I read this was originally supposed to be episode two, this one. It wasn't that as much as, because we fixed that in scripting stage. They wanted me to re-pilot, and I wrote episode two that you guys talked about. And then Adam didn't want to go away for a week and come back. wrote episode two that you guys talked about and then adam didn't want to go away for a week and come back so he was directing two episodes in a row i think we cross-boarded even a little bit i can't remember off to check and then mark buckland directed the mild lady uh after this even though it was the third episode we were going to split them okay because adam was it coming from new york and even though we were going to go you're going to direct the first episode and the third episode,

he's like, yeah, I'm not flying home and coming back. I'll do all the prep before I do him, you know, because he's a quirky character. Yeah, he doesn't like to leave New York, Adam Bernstein. And still to this day, I've tried to get him to come do other things in the years since, and he's like, I don't really like to leave New York. Donald's smart because we did catch our stride with two things. And I'll see if you guys,

we used to have this big wall of things that we were trying to establish as motifs for the show. And this one was, we had a super long discussion. The reason we did that runner about how important music was going to be in this show. And so we're like, we're even going to make a song travel around the show like a virus and you know that'll be the start of how queuing people in that music isn't just background on this show it has huge importance yeah you know uh the song that we chose i'm so in

love with you you know just give me what it was it was specifically about what was going on in those scenes it wasn't just a viral song. And we were trying to train people to go, oh, I'm supposed to listen to the words of the song too because they're about what we're actually doing. And the second thing, which is why it was important that Bernstein was there, was when we first discussed that the camera is a character. And it's the first time we did a cowboy switch when Zach's running to meet Elliot that a stuntman dives and takes a face plant. And the camera doesn't just cut. It goes around looking for him like it's an actual character. Where'd he go? And then Zach gets up like this.

Yeah, so there was a thought bubble. You could have almost looped in the camera going, where'd he go? in the camera going, where'd he go? And, uh, uh, yeah. And so those two things kind of set a creative course for the show in ways that, you know, we kind of ran with after this. Yeah. I didn't remember this one so much. And then as I was watching it, I was going, wow, there was, there's a lot in this episode that are little moments that stuck with me forever. Like the friend zone and, and the timer, the creative timer clock thing every time I see Sarah and Donald. There's a lot of things that were used throughout the show too

that are established here. Like it's the first time we see Donald playing basketball and you look very good, Donald. You look very fit. I wish I could get back into that shape again. You can, Donald. You just eat too much shit. Well, 26 years old body compared to a 46-year-old body is a big, big, big, big difference, man.

Well, I took notice that you looked fire. I'm going to accept and receive that. And so did Rob Macchio. Rob Macchio had some abs. Oh, Rob can't watch. And he had black hair that was undyed. Black hair. Rob actually had some abs. Oh, Rob can't watch.

And he had black hair that was undyed. Black hair. I've got to tell you, man, so this is one of the things I get mocked for, why this episode's stuck in my head, was we all have those things. Remember when you share something with friends that you wish you hadn't or you're drunk and you say something stupid? It's a shiver story. When you think back, you're like, oh.

Yeah, like Donald giving a noogie to Jeff Zucker. Yes. something it's a shiver story when you think back you're like oh yeah like donald giving a noogie to jeff zucker yes so one of mine and in writers rooms you tell personal stories was in a fraternity really i was in a fraternity yeah no i was and uh uh you were in a fraternity yeah no i swear the uh in college we were all drinking and hanging out and and I was a little buzzy, and I had a hometown girlfriend. And you really think you can go and you care that much about her? And I said, and it haunted me for the rest of the year. They tortured me. I said, dude, I miss her so much it hurts sometimes. And that became one of the memes from this show you know because the mental the

i gotta tell you of all the memes and and anything i i get gifts i get sent um i miss you so much it hurts sometimes it's one of the most common and it's so relatable and that's so relatable it's also by the way the core of how to use – I said, look, voiceover can be a crutch comedically because it's so easy. And when I teach at the Writers Guild, they're like, what do you mean? How? I'm like, well, the easiest way is to state a premise in your voiceover and then do the opposite. An example is just tell Turk how you feel without sounding like, you know, a girl for once. I miss you so much it hurts sometimes.

Another one was when Elliot had the voiceover, or when Kelso spilled stuff on his face, whatever you do, do not say the word splotchy. And I think, J.D., I think you said, good splotchy, Dr. Splotchy. Instead of, why would you even say good splotchy? That's not even a word. Good splotchy, Dr. Splotchy. Instead of good. Why would you even say good splotchy? That's not even a word. Good splotchy, Dr. Splotchy.

Anyways. All right. So I wanted to say at 49 seconds in is my first Muppet exit that I ever did in the show Scrubs, which I always thought of as when I would just turn my head. I always laughed at how Kermit the Frog and all the Muppets with Sesame Street characters would always turn and then walk out. Turn and then hop out. Yeah.

So when I leave the viewing room here, I sort of do a side turn and I just kind of laughed. I think that was the first time I tried out my successful Muppet exit. You used that forever. Yeah, it became, well, it was a go-to. Bill, at 1.11, there's an exterior shot of the hospital that is never, ever seen again, I don't think. And I noticed that it says something about women's on the top of it.

Yeah, I didn't paint it out. We didn't have the budget at the time to be painting things out. But it's funny watching the early episodes. It looks like someone was like, do we have an exterior shot of the hospital? Nah, how about that one? All right. Well, we went and shot a bunch of stuff

that we used in the pilot. And then once we ran out of that stuff, we just started shooting it at our own building. Right on. But this one was, this was not, because it says women's something at the top. Yeah, no, it was particularly bad. There's a lot of bad stuff in here, guys.

I always get shit for that because I'm always like you guys remember my favorite thing to say when we're so busy is uh i'll take all i'll take all the mail on that okay so someone like an editor would come up and go that says women's in the hot i'm like when the letters come and there are thousands of them are going to come dear scrubs used to be a huge fan but that hospital exterior said women's on it you can send all those letters to me i'll take all the mail and it was such an arrogant dicky thing to say but i i just never got caught up no but it's true because if they're looking at stuff like that they're not really watching the show you know what i mean yeah bill would always say that when we were like when we were all holding up for something like you're in the

wrong you're wearing the wrong watch bill would be like guys i'll take all the mail on the wrong watch let's go that and then the meanest thing that you could say is to say to john inwood all the time was he would make you guys wait while he went and fixed a light you know way in the background take 10 minutes and when he finally got back to camera i'd always go show saver yeah you know we were in real trouble and you fixed it with that light that's a hundred yards in the background. Yeah. Well, the man was passionate. He wanted to get it just perfect. Zach, that was also, the episode was also not only your first Muppet exit.

I wish I had a wider frame, but the first time that when you got up from falling that you shook out your shoulders. Oh, really? Yeah, that became a thing. bawling that you shook out your shoulders oh really yeah that became a thing i'm frozen at a frame here at two minutes of me in a threesome fantasy with sarah chalk and another beautiful model and we're all sweaty and the first thing that came to my head was could you even do that today on a half hour single camera network comedy not that um because it was pretty uh suggestive and graphic risque Risqué, sure. That was so awesome, by the way.

Yeah. Like, holy cow. I couldn't believe it was my job. Right, right. Well, first of all, it was so awesome because that's everybody's fantasy. To get married and for your wife to be like, yeah, we could do this. It's also one of the best outtakes ever. You remember that one outtake where Zach was like, yeah, keep kissing, don't stop? Do you remember that?

I remember something being like, I think I was like, keep rolling. Yeah. Look, I've had this discussion a lot. There's tons of things on our show you couldn't do now correctly or incorrectly. Like the Todd is an interesting one. And we used to say, like the Todd started in a way,

I don't know if you remember, he was always in a banana hammock because I said, if we're going to do a young man's fantasies and see women scantily clad, I think we have to see as much, if not more ridiculous male nudity. Right.

And so Todd would just always be in a banana hammock. And he was representative of somebody intentionally so crass or so ludicrous that he's to be laughed at and not with but unfortunately i think he was laughed with a lot um uh so i don't know if you could do him now. The one things I always get busted on are two storylines. One is when the janitor turned JD into a racist. And one is when I put Donald's picture on the cover of his college magazine twice. Do you remember when I said like your college was so happy to have an accomplished, great black guy that, you know, in their lily white school that on their brochure your your pictures there twice right i'm one end and the other end yeah they photoshopped you in twice just to look like a pc college you know well i noticed that i noticed that there are a lot of things and this is just how how time has gone first of all the show's about sexual harassment

which is very uh this episode is. Which is very dominant right now. One of Hollywood's biggest movie makers is now in jail for doing horrible, horrible, horrible things, right? But we're touching things like that are kind of untouched, like you can't touch these things now. These things that we

were doing in the show back in the day, some of these things, networks would be like, no, no, no, no, let's stay away from that. Let's stay away from that. Oh, they'd be so careful. I think as Bill said, for some, for better, we've evolved and we probably wouldn't make some of those jokes today.

And in some, I wonder, in this example, with the sort of sexual, sweaty threesome fantasy, I'm just surprised, Bill, that you got it. I mean, I knew you wanted to push the envelope of what the show could be. I just wondered, like like even now in 2020 if in a primetime network comedy if you could do a sweaty sex threesome joke no look uh I want to answer two things because what Donald was saying you know was interesting we talked about it a lot because I don't know if you remember

in this episode the resolve is that would have been a completely different story if Dr. Cox or a younger male was calling Sarah sweetheart and the boys sport. But we were kind of anticipating something. We talked about it. Kelso was of a different generation. He was older than all you guys. He called, he was definitely an old school dude. You can never say these things are innocuous, but it was a time in which at the end, John C. McGinley talks to Sarah and goes, if you're going to get mad about some quasi term of endearment, you know, from an old out of touch dude, you know, your life here is going to be a lot more complicated than it has to be.

And she took the lesson of picking my battles. So to Donald's answer, I think it's a story you can maybe still do if you're talking, although we've now moved 20 years away from that. At that time, we were going like, hey, here's a guy in his mid to late 60s that is without a doubt of a generation. I got in so much trouble when he, Kelso said to a male nurse, you know, oh, you're

wondering why you don't get respected? It's because you're doing a woman's job. And our intent was that Kelso is so out of touch that he would say that, you know what I mean? And then the complaints I got from nurses association association got letters and stuff true uh were how could you have a character saying that when it's such a problem that characters that people out there especially from that generation believe that and say that i'm like right it's real he's the bad guy on this and there's a nursing shortage so like don't discourage people yeah he's the bad guy on the show he has those thoughts and in a good way i think kelso evolved um and uh into zach's question it comes all under the heading and it's not just with those two girls which was a joke and obviously a joke about some you know

young male fantasy um but this is for both of you and for sarah and for judy when i said the show has to be real beyond the goofiness, what we thought about more than jokes was about when we would have sex scenes, you know? And it was really important to me, not in a lascivious way, that they didn't seem like a TV sitcom kiss where everybody goes, whoo!

And some of the romance scenes between Zach and Sarah and Donald and Judy and even Johnny seeing my wife, which still turns my stomach a little bit because I had to see it. You did it. You did it. I had to kiss Krista so early. And I was still in the terrified of Bill phase. And it was an early episode. I don't know what show.

It was probably five or something. And I had to make out with Krista. And I remember being like, this is the craziest job. I'm about to make out with my boss's wife for him. I still have that on a loop at my house. It's awesome. Oh, horrible. No, yeah.

I mean, it's super sexy. I'm really grateful for that. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. No, but my point is, didn't you guys think you were doing fairly racy sex scenes? Yes. Oh, absolutely.

Absolutely. Throughout the whole show. I mean, that big famous one that Sarah and I did with the pizza, I remember that being like, I can't believe they're going to put this on TV. This is going to be censored. And all my stuff with Amy Smart, I remember being like, they're going to air this on TV. This is going to be censored. And all my stuff with Amy smart. I remember being like, they're going to air this.

Yeah. I was really excited about, not in that way, but like when Judy and I would do scenes together, it, I was, it really felt like we were a couple when watch, when I watched it,

you know what I mean? Cause that's how, I don't know that there was just something that was really, uh, uh, uh, we, she and I had great chemistry, I feel like. And because of that and because of that, I, you know, when I watched her stuff, that's that's what everybody hopes for when they do romantic stuff, that the audience believes it. And if the audience doesn't believe it, well, hopefully I believe it. You know what I mean?

And if the audience doesn't believe it, well, hopefully I believe it. You know what I mean? I like you guys. I like you guys. There's no offense because I love Zach and Sarah, but my favorite couple on the show, Donald and Judy. What the fuck? Because as a writer's room, I know, blasphemy. Don't be mad. The writer's room, one of the things we put on those boards in the first couple weeks was we're going to get Turk and Carla together and never break them up and never threaten them.

And, you know, because we're going to do will they or won't they with the other characters. And how cool is it to see a couple that finds each other and works? Right away. And the only reason we ever even had you guys have a little dip here or there as a couple was because we never expected the show to last nine years.

And we had to be like, we should probably throw a couple curveballs their way, man. Yeah, we need them to fight. Looking back at it now, it's perfect. As a young man doing, you know, who's on a television show, like, I used to be like, are we going to have Holly Berry on the show as my love interest? And those things would never, ever happen. Were you bummed out?

Not that it was Judy, because she's a knockout, but were you like, where's all my love? Dude, she's a knockout. I know, but were you like, where are all my love interests? Yeah, absolutely, man. But when you look back at the storytelling, when you look back at the relationship that those two have, like, I can't post pictures of my wife and I, because people are like, that's not Carla. Yeah. Oh, I get hit, by the way.

I can't post pictures of me hugging anyone, because they're like, why aren't you hugging Turk? Right. That's the other one that comes up. I'll be like, here's a lovely picture of me and my family. And they'll be like, that's not, where's JD? Where's Zach Braff? People hit me all the time, too, with how, and we tried to do it. You and Judy reacted, you know, TV is a world in which a wife has her hands on her hips and is frustrated with her husband or the husband is like, you're crazy.

And even when we sent you guys in crazy stories, one of my favorite scenes was – this is in a later episode. But when you guys find out Judy is pregnant before she does and you're going to tell her and everybody knows but her and you know the cool thing about your characters is that um you when when it comes to a comedic peak and we did this a lot you admit fault and then um she instead of punishing you for it says ah who gives a shit we're having a baby you know i mean and that's not often how real couples work so it was a couple to aspire to right i thought looking back at it now i love it like just the even the courtship even how the show starts and how these guys start off you know they're not together but if you didn't watch the show from the beginning you would imagine that when the show was introduced these characters started off to you you know what I mean? Like you watch family guy and you,

and you say, okay, so Peter's married to, and this is his family. And this is, and you accept that the whole way through, there's no need for an origin story or anything like that. And that's how I feel it is with Carla and Turk.

There's no need for an origin story. They're just a TV couple that works. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. I was, look, I was thinking about

this because uh get taking it back to the episode like the way zach was doing cool things in freezing frames i was trying to remember minutiae for you guys and the only the turk and carl minutiae i remember was the scene in which you two are going to hang out and watch fletch and then Donald leaves. It was very subtle. It's one of those discussions you have in the writer's room. It's like Donald's psyched to watch Fletch and Carla says, do you want to go hang out in your room?

We don't want just Carla to go, do you want to go fuck? Because that makes her seem like a bimbo. And we don't want Turk to just, you know, be like, I'll drop JD in an instant. So like the dumb things you argue about in writer's room, you won't even notice unless you watch it again. Did you see that Carl was holding two beers? So like when she goes to you,

go look at that again. She goes, you're watching Fletch, you know, and it's funny when we do all the lines, she goes, Hey, you want to go hang out in your room? And she's got,

so it's not, we, the women in the writing staff are right. We wanted to make it, oh, we're not just going to go fuck. I mean, we will eventually. But she's got two beers, so it's like, do you want to go out in your room? We both have a beer, we'll shoot the shit, and then we'll hook up. And that fine line, I think people, this is me being a nerd, I think people, even if they don't notice that, it's subtext.

If you do a ton of it, they gradually notice that it's more than just physical. That scene also, Zach had a, and you you can then i'll hand it back to you but you had one of our other first arguments was we constantly fought in the writer's room and i made huge mistakes as we went along about things that should be a fantasy and shouldn't and uh this was one of the first arguments because when Carlos says, do you want to go hang out in my room? We look to you and when we look back, the remote control is still hovering in the air.

Yeah. And it drops and it's very Bugs Bunny and it was not done as a fantasy. You know what I mean? Did you always this early have the sort of white flash to a fantasy always? I forgot. Yeah, we were making the rules still,

but we hadn't done the sound effects because we were just starting to obsess about the difference between fantasies and flashbacks. Well, you know, one of the funniest things I think in throughout nine years of Scrubs is that Bill was always dancing around what is so broad that it's a fantasy or what could exist in this world. And there's two that come to mind as my favorites that he put in the real world but were probably supposed to be fantasies one is when when donald packs me into the bag it was literally it was literally the size of a fucking bowling bag yeah he put you in a backpack it was a sorry it was a backpack

and i was like and if you remember, my arm and leg were sticking up. Like my body would never bend. I had a fake foot by your head. And then so when he scratched your nose, your foot went, oh. That was real in the real world. And the other one is that the janitor builds a full-size house out of sand in the parking lot. And that was in the real world. All right.

The sandcastle is not my fault because the sand castle the gag you know it was written like it was real in the script and we thought it would be a sand castle like the size of like you ever see a kid's playhouse like outside yeah something you could actually build right and our uh when i showed up i drove i tried to drive to my parking spot that morning and the parking lot was closed I remember going uh oh and then I rounded the corner and there was no it's like Spinal Tap

the opposite way there was a sandcastle as big as my home I'm like oh no we can't say it's a fantasy because I think he lived there for most of the episode he kept yelling at people. Bring a little optimism into your life with The Bright Side, a new kind of daily podcast from Hello Sunshine. Hosted by me, Danielle Robay.

And me, Simone Boyce. Every weekday, we're bringing you conversations about culture, the latest trends, inspiration and so much more. I am so excited about this podcast, The Bright Side. You guys are giving people a chance to shine a light on their lives, shine a light on a little advice that they want to share. Listen to The Bright Side on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search The Bright Side. All that sitting and swiping, our backs hurt, our eyeballs sting. That's our bodies adapting to our technology.

But we can do something about it. We saw amazing effects. I really felt like the cloud in my brain kind of dissipated. There's no turning back for me. Make 2024 the year you put your health before your inbox. And take the Body Electric Challenge. Listen to Body Electric from NPR on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. If you've been following the news, you know that from health care access to safe schools, LGBTQ plus rights are under attack.

And it's about time queer and trans youth get the microphone and tell their stories in their own words. I'm Raquel Willis. Join me on my new podcast, Queer Chronicles, a show where LGBTQ plus folks tell their own stories in their own words. This season, teens will share all about growing up in political battleground states. I wish I could feel more comfortable in my own body here, but that's just not the case. And follow along as they discover what queer and trans liberation means to them. This isn't running away from yourself. It's running into who you want to grow into. Listen to Queer Chronicles on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your most fabulous shows. Hey, everybody. Welcome to Across Generations, where the voices of Black women unite in powerful conversations.

I'm your host, Tiffany Cross. Tiffany Cross. I want you all to join me and be a part of sisterhood, friendship, wisdom, and laughter. In every episode, we gather a seasoned elder. But even with a child, there's no such thing as the wrong thing if you love them. Myself, as the middle generation. I don't feel like I have to get married

at this big age in life, but it is a desire I have and something that I've navigated in dating. And a vibrant young soul for engaging intergenerational conversations. I'm very jealous of your generation that didn't have to deal with Instagram and Tinder. This is Across Generations, where Black women's voices unite and together, you know how we do, we create magic. Listen to Across Generations podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Those are the two that always stuck out in my mind as one, and I'm sure as we go through the series, we'll find other ones. But I remember thinking like, oh my God, that one in the bag was in the sandcastle. Yeah, there were mistakes.

So listen, 225, we were talking about how you phased out the whole, in this episode, you went nuts with sound effects and there's literally a horn noise when Johnny sings. Yeah, rat, rat, rat, rat, for fucking. When you and JD eventually do, yeah i mean this episode is this this might have been your peak sound effects moment as you're figuring out oh no there's another one coming i know there's another one coming but this one has the this one has the ear flick noise and also pretty much like any time johnny c. You guys did the trivia question of Jeff's, you know, the powers that be. And, you know, it's hard to screen rough cuts of single camera shows because they wouldn't hear the laughs of all their friends and Will and Grace.

Is this funny? And I thought it was funny. I hated those sound effects so much. Did you guys do the trivia question of the one sound effect that stayed all nine years? It's got to be the wish to go away into the fantasies yeah no wish to fantasies though is not a sign effect with an actor there's an actor oh oh todd high five whoops there you go todd's high five being amplified times nine thousand i think it's i think that's the sound of like a rubber mat being slapped on the ground, you know, and we kept that one forever.

That's funny. They really hurt by the way. I mean, I'm not being a wimp. They genuinely hurt. No one's calling you a wimp, but come on. He still passes out fives, you know, online to people. I know you can, you can go on cameo by the way, we'll give Rob a shout out. You can go on cameo and Rob Mascio'll give rob a shout out you can go on cameo and rob machio will send you a message and high five you virtually and uh go go hire uh rob to give your friends a virtual high five on cam i kind of want to get one for donald i'll accept and receive it thank you very

much uh 326 the janitor says one of my favorite lines of the first season. You seem unhappy. I like that. I had forgotten that he locked you outside. Talk about Neil for a second, Bill, because we shared with the listeners the story about how he wasn't intended to be, in your mind, as big a role as he was. And, and of course everyone always discusses that he may have been a figment of my imagination if if the show only went one season but just talk about neil and how you kept expanding his part because he was just so freaking funny i have a question did he have to audition also that's the other question he did not have here's what here's here's what happened is neil does a stand-up bit when he's interviewed because he's a really good actor i

don't know if you guys have ever seen him any of his dramatic stuff of course he stepped in the middle he was so good and he's so good yeah and he came in and read for john mc for dr cox and um he was really good but literally there because we were old buddies i'm like you're gonna be the janitor and uh and so when he talks about it he's like so i really prepared and i came in and then bill said i'm gonna be the janitor and when neil does the bit neil's like, so I really prepared, and I came in, and then Bill said I'm going to be the janitor, and when Neil does the bit, Neil's like, well, I still carry around like a clipboard and a step, mop, carry around a mop. He goes, well, I get to wear one of those cool lab jumpsuit, gray jumpsuit. Well, he would get so mad, Neil would, that it wasn't a jumpsuit. He goes, it's a gray shirt and pants.

It's not a jumpsuit. I'm sorry. I always thought that his character was like the worst janitor in the world. But when you watch the show, he's always working and he's always doing his job. He was never lazy. You know what I mean? He was drunk most of the time. That was one of my favorite lines ever.

Have you been drinking? I'm not drunk. No. So look, J.D., the real J.D., told me often when he was talking about it that there would always be somebody, as there is in any group dynamic, when he was a resident, would just plague him. It wasn't always a janitor or whatever. So I wanted to come up with that character for you,

and I thought it would be a line here or there. But Neil was so funny, man, and such a gift just to have around. And he's, you know, me, whenever I think someone's funny and they're a buddy, I put him or her in as much as I possibly can. more and more of a character in ways I never thought. And part of the joy for me of going back and look at these episodes, not only seeing moments like that, Zach, but I know Neil made up, you know, like even in this episode, you're screaming and the line in the script is, la, la, la, I can't hear you. But then I kept it in because like,

that's one of the first times that I looked in editing and then there was Neil going, what? You love who? You know what I mean? Just playing around with you. You know what I mean? I remember the scenes with Neil would always be so fun because, you know, we'd all riff around, but Neil was the best at it. And you just never knew what he was going to say. And I just remember, I always knew I was going to laugh extra hard because he would just come up with the craziest shit ever.

I was randomly down the wormhole of getting ready to talk to you two guys. By the way, the end of my other sentence was one of the gifts for me as I watched the show go on and evolve. Some stuff got worse as a writer. You know, like when you say I torture myself when I got too broad and stuff like that. But then some stuff got better. Characters got richer.

And last night, randomly, was watching neil interact with donald do you know i mean i don't know if you remember when he had a sock puppet he's like he pretended to hit you with a piece and you your dynamic with him was so funny as well you know it was uh uh cool to see him start to interact with other characters but the the the wormhole i ended up putting last night and everybody should go look for it. There's a scene with Sam Lloyd, who plays Ted, and Zach and Neil. And you guys are trying to help Neil with a girlfriend. You know, he's trying to, the girl that played the ukulele, Kate Micucci.

Gooch. Gooch. You're trying to get him to go for it with her. And I told Neil, I'm like, you got to make up something of what you did with your girlfriend. And Neil, Zach, we used your real reactions. He made up a monologue about killing a duck for her. It's not in the script. And I watched it last night. He starts and he goes, look, you should give her a present. Something personal, something you made. Like when I first started dating Lady, I gave her a duck that i killed already already a weird premise right and then he said uh i know

what you're asking wouldn't it have been more personal to kill her in front of her and yes it would have which is also made up and then he goes but the duck and i were driving over and uh and he goes he goes maybe i was having a bad day maybe he was i don't know but next thing you know we're pulled over on the side of the road shirts off which meant the duck was wearing a shirt he goes next thing you know we're pulled over on the side of the road shirts off you know seeing what's what so neil described a scene that he beat a duck to death on the side of the freeway yes and i'm like that's why that guy's in the show so much man i said hey come up with something that you did for your girlfriend and he's like what he's probably looking for is that i uh beat a duck to death for her and then brought it over so she could cook it so weird he would also just

come up with the craziest shit. And to the point where in later episodes, in later seasons, Bill, sometimes it would just say in the script, and then Neil makes up something. Yeah. Neil, please say something funny. It's late.

I used to have one script. I guess it was late night in the writer's room, Bill, and you were like, we're not going to do that. Just put Neil says something funny. Yeah, dude, I wrote that in the script the first time. I'm like, neil it's two in the morning just say something funny and uh the next day he did of course you know i liked it the most when i got to see him with you guys or with sarah actually having a real moment you know because it was so cool that he could actually deliver you know absolutely that's the interesting thing as we you know as the goes on, you start to see people's first one-on-one scenes together. And so in this episode, John C. McGinley and Sarah have their first real one-on-one scene where she's asking him for advice.

as an audience member we think that J.D. and John C. McGinley are the only ones that you know that's the only dad son relationship but he was actually a dad to all of us in the show as far as you know what I mean and this was the first episode where we see Sarah and him and actually him

mess with Sarah in a way that could have gotten her fired in the shit yeah you know what I mean I just thought that was very interesting because eventually you have to introduce everybody Sarah in a way that could have gotten her fired in the shit. Yeah. You know what I mean? I just thought that I thought that was very interesting because eventually you have to introduce everybody, even though it took, you know, a whole season for everybody to meet the janitor for the janitor to do other scenes with for Neil to do other scenes with everyone other than Zach. It was just it's just interesting because when the show starts off, it seems like the

bubble is so small. You know what I mean? And it starts with JD's relationship with everybody. But then as it goes on, the bubble just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. It's a great metaphor. And by the end of it, we're all in the same universe together. And this is also the first episode where the hospital gets really wacky. You know what I mean?

We weren't wacky before that. Before this, we were, you know, even though it's episode three, we started, this is where we're starting to do things that later on. I think, you know,

I love it when you jump from episode one or two and you jump all the way to episode, you know, season three, episode five, because the growth of the show is so different. You know what I mean? I think about it in terms of characters.

Like what's one of the things that's hard for me to watch about the early episodes is Ken Jenkins is such a good actor and he was the bad guy on this show. And I had not yet realized how deliciously silly and funny that guy could be. You know, that guy is a comedy assassin, but he was so good at being a guy that you just hated. You know what I mean? And we leaned into that, and he didn't have any other levels,

so it's so cool when he expands, you know what I mean, to see that he's silly and funny, that Johnny C. can be kind here or there, that Donald and the janitor can go back and forth at each other but be on different playing fields because Donald's not threatened. I mean, it's weird to see you guys all at the beginning because I did like the rich characters

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your most fabulous shows. Hey, everybody. Welcome to Across Generations, where the voices of Black women unite in powerful conversations. I'm your host, Tiffany Cross. Tiffany Cross. I want you all to join me and be a part of sisterhood, friendship, wisdom, and laughter.

In every episode, we gather a seasoned elder. But even with a child, there's no such thing as the wrong thing if you love them. Myself as the middle generation. I don't feel like I have to get married at this big age in life, but it is a desire I have and something that I've navigated in dating. And a vibrant young soul for engaging intergenerational conversations. I'm very jealous of your generation that didn't have to deal with Instagram and Tinder. This is Across Generations where Black women's voices unite and together, you know how we do, we create magic.

Listen to Across Generations podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Bill, we take a caller here on our show, and it looks like... By the way, I just thought it was a supervillain, because it is a gentleman that has got a cat on his lap. For you guys listening at home, his picture came up on Zoom and he's petting a cat like the evil genius. Like Dr. Evil. You all are enjoying talking about your show.

Well, I have bad news. That's funny. All right, Joelle, go ahead and introduce him. Yes. Hi, Mark. Thanks so much for joining us. Hi, everyone. How are you?

Can you hear me? Yes, we can. We hear you just fine, Martin. This is my first ever Zoom meeting. I've never done this. I'm glad it's working. I'm glad you're here. Well, Mark, you picked a good episode to be on because you have the curator of the whole show, Bill Lawrence. So if you have a question for any of us, go ahead. Oh, well, hello, Bill Lawrence. And hello, all of you. That's awesome. I'm so glad to be here. Where do you live, by the way?

I live in Chicago. I'm on the northwest side of Chicago, up in Avondale, old urban park area. Chi-Town, stand up! We were just talking about Neil Flynn. That's the area of the world that he is from, my friend. Really? Oh, I didn't know that. But not your specific area, but he's from Chicago.

He's not, like, downstairs right now. No, no, no, no. I mean, he could be. All right, but he was like downstairs right now. Right now. No, no, no, no. I mean, he could be. All right. Go ahead, Mark. All right. Even from the earliest episodes, Scrubs wasn't afraid to raise social issues and took a clear stance that I thought prioritized like well-being of people over the economics and insurance

bureaucracy. I felt like this helped a lot of young people, myself included, start thinking about the human side of healthcare and healthcare, like as a human right for the first time and sort of some of those more serious issues. So I was just wondering if you guys recalled any specific moments from production episodes or moments on set that might've changed or influenced the way you guys view the sort of work done by your characters or just sort

of the healthcare system as a whole. Wow. I'll let Donald and Zach answer this for the show. I will tell you, I've been thinking about this a lot lately, Mark, because the real JD and my pal, we were both kind of screw ups with a lot, with very little direction as young guys. And I remember asking him what the hell he was doing,

going back to pre-med and he talked about wanting to be of service, you know, and his viewpoint right now, you know, not to make this too poignant. I FaceTime with him every night when he gets off work, because he's running the COVID command center. He's running the whole ICU for this hospital, as we spoke about, and it helps him decompress and not take that stuff into his family. And he, as a caregiver, cares so much more about the humanistic side than any of this other bullshit. And he instilled that upon me. And he said we could steal all of his stories, but we could never have a callousness. He said he was only interested in me stealing his stories and his life and his name if the undercurrent of the show was that it was about a bunch of people, flaws and all, that cared most about helping and taking care of other people. So that was part of the series, and I'll leave the rest to Donald and Zach.

But that's cool that you asked that because I think about him every day. He's out there doing stuff much more important than this. day he's out there doing stuff much more important. Of course. And it's the perfect question for this era, Mark, because these medical professionals and everyone who's working in the industry, whether you're a doctor, a nurse, or a janitor, a medic, everyone who's in this environment, the world is finally seeing in the spotlight how heroic these people are. And I think I always felt when we were making the show that Bill was really shining a light on how dedicated these folks were and how they had to deal with life and death every single day. One thing that really stood out for me

when you asked your question was that I remember learning that the nurses really run the show. I hadn't spent much time in a hospital when we started making Scrubs. And I learned that the doctors can't do it without the nurses. And the nurses are the ones who are on the front lines. And the doctors have to be rotating. And they can't do anything without the help of amazing nurses. It wasn't until I spent more time in hospitals with both my father and my sister getting sick that I really, and this was after Scrubs, but I remember being like, wow, this is, everything we were doing is so real. I'm witnessing it on the front lines that we see that doctor

like every now and then, but man, these nurses, and when we have a good one, it is such a difference and puts a smile on my sick father's face. And when we have one that's a little bit aloof, it just drives you crazy. And I just really, it really came home to me, everything we had been doing on the show, how crucial and how important the people on the front lines, particularly in this anecdote I'm telling, the nursing staff of hospitals were to me. The one thing that really sticks out for me

is to piggyback on what Bill said, is, you know, for some hospitals, if you don't have insurance, you can't get treated. And the one thing that Scrubs did, which I thought was amazing, was we had a bunch of the doctors on the show were a bunch of rule breakers, benders, especially when it came to something like that. You know what I mean? That was always special for me because, you know, a lot of people don't have great insurance, especially right now a lot of people don't have it. Or any insurance at all. And tests, any insurance at all.

Thank you, Zach. And tests cost a lot of money. You know what I mean? And if there are rule breakers and rule benders out there that can save lives in that way, I'm all for that. And I love that we had people on the show like Dr. Cox when Kelso's trying to get this person out of the hospital. Cox comes up with so many different ways to get this guy a bed. And I thought that was just amazing.

Hey, Mark, we obsess so much about your question, all in terms of the character, Dr. Kelso. There's an episode that you guys might remember. I remember the song and the scenes that because the real J.D., he runs a hospital now and he's like, and you're forced to punt a guy, you know, from treatment. They don't have insurance, don't have money in an effort to still build other stuff and to have money to save other people. And we made this joke about how every time Dr. Kelso's foot hits the bottom of the stairs when he leaves the hospital, he starts whistling as if the day doesn't even affect him. And at the end of that episode, even he, because he knew he was directly responsible for his guy not getting care, his foot hits and he has a moment. You can see it's really hard for him to start whistling again. There's a Citizen Cope song called Sideways playing. And so we just wanted to make sure that the people weren't the villains and that the system was.

So, yeah, I'm really grateful that you noticed that and asked about it. Awesome. Thank you guys for giving such detailed, great responses. Sure. I think it just speaks to how much you guys feel for this show and put into this show. It really comes across. And I think that's why I've been such a big fan for so long.

Thank you. Thank you, Mark. Thanks so much for asking your question. Do you want to ask another question? Oh, sure. All right. You get one more. All right.

So this episode, episode three, and the show as a whole, I think, has a lot of moments that exemplify really healthy, often sensitive male relationships. Both your guys' Turk and J.D. and J.D. and Dr. Cox

and other ones. And I was just wondering if you guys could maybe talk a little bit about what was important to you guys to have positive sort of emotional moments between bros and how that might have affected your real life. I think that's a great question. I'm glad you asked it with Bill on the show, because for me, I really felt in a positive way. Granted, we joked about it a lot, but I thought in a positive way, we were showing, you know, when we were growing up, I mean, when Donald, Bill's a smidgen older than us, but when Donald and I were growing up,

you know, anything you did that was emotive towards a guy, you were called gay and it was derogatory and it was negative. And it was just an adjective in high school and junior high and middle school and everything was, and I always, as someone who was, it's no surprise, I'm similar in a lot of ways to JD. I always felt like, but this is who I am. I am a guy who is a hugger and who's emotional and wears his heart on his sleeve and loves musicals, who happens to be a heterosexual. And I felt like Bill wrote a character, a friendship that was like, well, we're going to show that that's okay to men in a way, because I I've noticed it in my life. You know, the fact that Donald and I would hug and stuff,

you know, I did a Broadway show and, and scrubs fans would come to the, to the stage door and they'd be like, JD, can I have a hug? And I would always kind of laugh. It was almost like the show was giving a certain community of men telling them that it was okay to, you're not going to, no matter what your sexuality is, who cares? It's not going to be threatened by being like JD, just being who you truly are. And I always thought that that was a really positive thing that Bill put out there. Yeah. I love the fact that the two of them were so comfortable around each other that they could be like brothers and lie in the same bed in their underwear and it not be a thing for them you know what i mean i i

like that and i think that storyline definitely transferred into my real life with zach you know what i mean like i feel like my comfortability about being around other men uh and and not being afraid to be who i am and accept who they are is all because of scrubs you know what i mean i i've played best friends in uh other projects and you know you play the tough guy etc etc but with these guys none of that stuff mattered what mattered was that they loved each other at the end of the day and i i cherish the tough guy, et cetera, et cetera. But with these guys, none of that stuff mattered. What mattered was that they loved each other at the end of the day. And I cherish the fact that I can have friendships with men and I can say to them, I love you and it not be looked at as a bad thing. It's a weird topic for me because, you know, JD was based on real JD. Donald was based on doctor.

The truth is with these two characters anyways, I always joked.D. was based on real J.D. Donald was based on Doctor. But the truth is, with these two characters anyways, I always joked around that I was kind of wrestling with both sides of myself because I played sports and was the high school jockey-type guy that was afraid of this stuff. And on the other side, I do, Zach and I share a love of Broadway musicals. Bill can sing les mises robin french go bill qui est moi pour je condamne cet homme pour servitude all right

whatever and uh the whole show you take the watch they may was that who am i light donald that's a digression we'll sing les mises in later episodes okay yeah uh so i was always wrestling as a young man with, you know, which which lane I fit in and wishing that it would be easier just to not have to pick a lane. And then these guys, look, the truth is, whenever you create a relationship as a writer, it's yours for a second. And then the actors, if they're great, they wrestle ownership from you. And then the actors, if they're great, they wrestle ownership from you. And what starts out as 80, 20 years, you know, quickly in this show became 50, 50, mine and theirs. And then became all theirs in a way that I would write moments that weren't supposed to be bromance moments. You know, like whether it was them wanting to hug each other, you know, at the end. And then when I look in the dailies, they're rubbing their faces and heads against each other.

Like, ooh, ooh. That's my favorite meme ever. My favorite gif is the one of me and Dom rubbing our heads. I use it all the time. That's the best one ever. People are always like, you're using gifs of yourself? I'm like, yeah, that one I do. Because it really looks like we're trying to smell each other, dude.

It really looks like it. By the way, I think one of you ad-libbed in that. You smell like an athlete in a way that you're just so happy. So my point is I was doing it as an intellectual exercise, and these guys made it something more, and it's all about their – you get lucky on a TV show when what you're watching feels even more real because the undercurrent of it, their intense friendship is real.

I also like that when we meet people nowadays, they're so eager to talk about their best friend and how much they love their best friend. You know what I mean? That makes me feel great. He's the brown bear to my vanilla bear. You know what I mean? I honestly think it

gave us a certain community of men who watched the show and were open to it uh sort of permission to to to be more true to who they were as mark if you want to if you want to indulge my version of googling my own name is i'll occasionally go looking at all these wedding videos where the best man sings guy love to the the groom They're fantastic. There's like a thousand of them out there. And it always starts with a fake setup. He's like, you know, I was trying to think of what to toast and what to blah, blah, blah.

Then I thought it's probably better to do in song than taste the facts. And then the groom always stands up with a microphone too because they've rehearsed it 20 times and I'm at home by myself just going like this. Lauding. I love it. All right, Mark. Thank you for two awesome questions. Yes. Thanks for having me. That was great. All right. Stay safe. Nice meeting you, Mark. Hey, stay safe, buddy. Be healthy. Bill, why does Nurse Roberts have so many bowling shoes for sale?

Look, one of the things that we embraced on scrubs early on was surreal jokes just for us okay and we were trying to think i remember this and we wanted this to be a runner and we dropped it we shouldn't have dropped it but you know you get too busy when you were fantasizing about talking to turk we started going down a path of, what he doesn't realize is he's in a topic with Nurse Roberts and she's got a side hustle. And we were like, what's your side hustle? It's selling her dead husband's bowling shoes. But he didn't even bowl.

She's just got like 20 pairs of bowling shoes that she tries to unload to people. I thought that was so funny. And I forgot that joke. And then when Donald showed up wearing them, I just laughed out loud. I thought that was so funny. And I forgot that joke. And then when Donald showed up wearing them, I just laughed out loud. I thought that was so funny. Chickadees from Nurse Roberts. And then I thought, I got to ask Bill just the logic behind it.

Why is Nurse Roberts side hustle selling her husband's bowling shoes? She's just always looking to get a step ahead man the uh um i just love that joke because the same way i told you that neil's joke meant that he and the duck were both wearing shirts even though that wasn't said aloud that joke means that while you were fantasizing about turk apropos of nothing nurse robert said hey is there any chance you ever be interested in buying some used bowling shoes? Is that something that you would want? Because then you snap out of it.

You're like, I do. I would really want that. When I come out of the fantasy, she said something like, so the check's in your locker or something? No, because I got them in my locker. Oh, yeah. You want to write me a check? You want to write me a check? Because I got them in my locker. So I picture her locker is just

stacked. Stacked bowling shoes. Every couple of days she sells someone a pair of bowling shoes. It's just a little side hustle. Bill touched on this at 1937. There's the very first thing we did a lot with stunts on Scrubs called the Cowboy Switch.

And just if you go back and watch it, what happens is the camera never cuts, but I'm running down the hall. And then the camera without cutting goes behind a cart, which switches to the stuntman who then goes and does a really hard fall on the ground. The camera can't find me and comes back. And like a magic trick, I've switched back to where I was. This is a really clever thing that we used to do a bunch of times on the show in order to do a really harder fall that needed to be a stuntman. And I wonder, Bill, is that something Adam brought or something a stuntman brought or you knew about? How did those start coming into the show? Adam pitched very hard. The thing we already spoke about is on this show, the camera is a character because it's almost an extension of JD's head. You know, he's narrating for this camera that doesn't exist.

So that was Adam. It's why he directed it. I remember him even saying, just so you know, I think he shot one without it, but he's like, just so you know, when we do the cowboy switch to buy time, the camera is going to look around for JD. And I remember going like, what? He's like, it's going to go like that. It's going to try and find its owner. It going like what he's like it's gonna go like that it's gonna try and find it's gonna try and find its owner it's like a dog when you disappear you

know what i mean and uh so that was adam and that dude noon was all about the cowboy switches because he and ernie the two stuntmen always by the way it's our favorite joke zach ernie uh great stuntman but it's like always be wary of a stuntman who no longer has any of his own teeth or hair um he had a big set he had a big set of great white teeth i'm like what happened to your real teeth so yeah the end is they said uh uh the stunts on this show you want this stuff to all look real and not silly let's have our thespians and you guys both did some do them as much as we can whether it's driving a scooter into the water or sliding under the cart or cowboy switches,

and it helped sell the reality of that clumsiness. I thought it was awesome. And when we get to the Wizard of Oz episode, there's the most epic cowboy switch that we'll talk about where the scooter goes into the puddle. But stay tuned for that. The friend zone, Bill, that is one of the funniest articulations of the friend zone.

I noticed this time that everybody's dressed in beige. That's my first favorite. That's my first favorite and one of my all-time favorite fantasies ever. It's such a smart way to describe the Friendzone. I would have done that fantasy in a world of streaming where you don't have time limits for 10 minutes. I would have wanted to hear where everybody crossed paths with her. I loved – my favorite wasn't even Becky being in there.

My favorite was the guy going, we work together at Penguins. Because in my head, I'm like, that guy and Elliot barely had shifts together. They just occasionally overlapped at Penguins yogurt, and he was just like, yeah, I'll cover your shifts. I just love the cleverness of, in Elliot's mind, none of those people stood out. So everybody's dressed in a shade of beige. Yeah, they're all blending in.

They're all just people that drifted through her life, you know? The last thing, I don't know, Donald, if you have anything else, but the last thing from the show that I wrote down that I thought was really funny, I don't know, Donald, do you have anything else? But the last thing from the show that I wrote down that I thought was really funny, I don't know if we ever did it again, is that you're using Rowdy's mouth to open up the beers. That was the last thing I had too. I was going to ask you.

I thought Rowdy should have always, it should have always been a bottle opener. But I think that's the first time we introduced your dead dog without, I don't think we had any lines referencing it, did we? No, no, no. We had zero lines referencing it. No, no.

Oh, you mean – Was he in episode two? Yeah, he's in episode two. He is in episode two, but that's when we introduce him. That's when we introduce Rowdy. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. I loved how Rowdy is.

That's, I think, something more than – shockingly, more than anything that people would go now. Is there a dead dog that's a character in this show a real stuff dead dog that would be a huge issue bill i don't know if the urban legend is true and i really don't want you to correct it if it's not but donald and i were discussing in an earlier uh episode of the podcast that when the one of the prop men was let go he hid rowdy in the ceiling tiles of the prop room that's true that's true that is true I told you. I told you. It's true. We had to let someone go for different reasons and he

knew that that was a prop that he had that was a character on the show. So he tried to get us back by hiding it above the tiles. He locked himself in there and hid that poor dead dog above the tiles. And by the way, we found it right away. So when we got an extra one

we were only getting an extra one in case something ever happened to the real one but part of the lore became that we got an extra dead dog to you know replace the one that was lost but it's not it's just to generate it's just in a weird way that's what generated that story of what would we do and then bill that gave birth to a beautiful, very moving storyline of introducing Stephen, the other. I was already laughing with Donald. Who got Stephen in the end? Did you get Rowdy or did you get Stephen?

I got nothing. I told you this story. No, I don't mean that. I mean, when we break, so we don't live together anymore at one point. Who gets who? Oh, I forgot who got Rowdy and who got Steven. I don't remember.

But, Bill, I was laughing with Donald about how someone can't tell the difference. And I feel where their old taxidermy balls are. And I go, nope, that's Steven. You knew one of them was fixed. This is so. Rowdy hit that. I think that's Donald's line to open season two. Yeah, Rowdy hit that. I think that's Donald's line to open season two. Yeah, Rowdy hit that.

Yeah, Rowdy hit that. Yeah, Rowdy hit that. See, I don't know if today you could do taxidermy dead dogs humping someone's leg. Yeah, I don't know. It's a whole new level of bestiality. A whole new level. Everybody, not to make this an end line, but this was such a fun exercise for me because everybody always asks me what my favorite episode of Scrubs is. And I don't know how you guys feel.

I always say the pilot because it reminds me of first meeting you all and of the experience and the people so much more than any specific episodes. When I watched these, like the first one, two or three episodes, that's what I remember is seeing you two idiots become friends and having to deal with the pluses and minuses of that when you came in crazy hungover to work. But also when I would see your friendship on screen, you know, and seeing how people were afraid of Johnny C and how that translated and seeing Donald's chemistry with Judy and Zach and Sarah's puppy dog love for each other.

I mean, it was fantastic. So that's what this stuff takes me back to, you know, is how cool it is that not only that you two are still friends, but that we all still spend time together and talk, you know? I say I love a lot, I've noticed, but I truly do love that about what we've done together. You know, we didn't just build a television show together. You know, it wasn't just, you know, you created a show, we acted in it, see you later. We've become like a family. And when we see each other, it's so amazing. And, you know, I don't see everybody as much as I see the two of you, but it's always, it's always dope. You know what I mean? I, I, I enjoy, I know I'm going to laugh. I know I'm going to, you know what I mean? I know I'm going to feel good.

It's always great to be around y'all. It makes me happy. Thank you so much, Bill, for coming on. And I hope that you'll do this. I mean, it makes sense of all people for you to come on a bunch to this. Cause I hope, I hope you will, because you know, people are seem to be really liking it, which makes us smile, and it makes so much sense to have you on whenever you're willing to come on. You know what I thought you could do? You can either use this, cut it,

or take this pitch and do it from now on. On any podcast that I'm not on, if you guys run into a question with the guest or with each other, why did this happen? Or is this true? You can fire it off to me. I will voice memo, record a one line response that you can edit in. Oh, that's great. That's very smart. We could be like, all right, Joel, we need a bill voice note answer on this question. And then we'll just cut it in when we do the podcast editing. I love that. Yeah. As if I'm hovering there all the time, which I will not be.

This is great what you guys are doing. I love you both. I miss you both. I miss you. And we love you and thank you. And we ended the last episode by giving a shout out to the medical community. And I think it's right to do it since we were a show about a hospital, just to give all our love to anybody who's listening to this, who has anyone fighting on the front lines of this insanity. Thank you so much for your courage and for being there for all of us. And yeah, there's a thousand things you can do to be of service. You can write a check or

you can call your friend that's working at a hospital and talk to him or her every night just to see how they're doing. But spend a few minutes and do it thank you so much and on that note donald will you lead us in song yeah five six five six here's some stories about a show we made about a bunch of docs and nurses in a canada who love me i said he's got stories that we all should know. So gather round to hear our, gather round to hear our Scrubs Rewatch Show with Zach and Donald. Bring a little optimism into your life with The Bright Side, a new kind of daily podcast from Hello Sunshine. Hosted by me, Danielle Robay. And me, Simone Boyce.

Every weekday, we're bringing you conversations about culture, the latest trends, inspiration, and so much more. I am so excited about this podcast, The Bright Side. You guys are giving people a chance to shine a light on their lives, shine a light on a little advice that they want to share. Listen to The Bright Side on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search The Bright Side. All that sitting and swiping, our backs hurt, our eyeballs sting. That's our bodies adapting to our technology. But we can do something about it. We saw amazing effects. I really felt like

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In our conversation, Michael shares the highs, the lows, and everything in between, offering a genuine glimpse into his world. The closest to getting what you want is always the hardest. People give up right before they get what they've always wanted to get. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine you ask two people the same seven questions. I'm Minnie Driver, and this was the idea I set out to explore in my podcast,

Minnie Questions. This year, we bring a whole new group of guests to answer the same seven questions, including Courtney Cox, Rob Delaney, Liz Fair, and many, many more. Join me on season three of Many Questions on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Seven questions, limitless answers.