Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (sometimes) - Zach Braff

Episode Date: March 11, 2026

Despite both of them being in hit sitcoms, Zach Braff and Ted Danson have somehow never met until now! Zach talks to Ted about creative lessons learned from making Garden State, navigating early fame, the story behind the revival of Scrubs on ABC/Hulu, his relationship with the show’s creator Bill Lawrence, his passion for aviation, and more.    Like watching your podcasts?  Visit http://youtube.com/teamcoco to see full episodes.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jesus, if this guy has one more diploma, it's going to have to go on the ceiling. And I just kind of giggled to myself and wrote that down, diploma on the ceiling because he's out of space. Welcome back to where everybody knows your name. I am thrilled to welcome Zach Brath today. He is so creative as a director, writer, actor, I really can't wait to talk to him. You know him from his many projects, from his hit sitcom scrubs to his directorial efforts like Guard State. Scrubs is back on ABC now and is available to stream on Hulu. So here we go. Let's talk to Zach Graff. I too find it weird that we haven't met. We've never met. And the first story I have to tell you right

at the bat because I was thinking about you so much on the way over here. And I said, when I was probably 13 or so, my parents wouldn't let me have a TV in my room. Not that I would have an elaborate TV, but I thought I could get like a little color. And they were like, no, no, no, no. And I eventually found one of these like black and white portable TVs that, you know, I imagine people who watch baseball on if they're, you know, out in the park or something. And I showed it to my mom. I said, this isn't a real TV. It's portable. Like it's like I can put it on my bedside table.

It doesn't count. And she rolled her eyes and she said, fine. As long as you go to bed at like 10 or something. Well, I knew that Cheers was on reruns in Jersey on, I think it was Picks, Channel. 11 and it was on, I think 11, 1130, maybe both. And every single night, I would go to sleep watching Cheers. It was my comfort. You know, people always talk about their comfort shows. And so I grew up what, that was my go-to comfort show, was one of the, my favorite sitcoms, definitely instrumental in me wanting to do this, to be funny and to do what you were doing.

And I just had to have that be the first thing I say to you. Thank you so much. That's so cool. It's a joke around here, how much, how well I respond to people complimenting me, almost like I finally settle down. It is strange that, and here's a confession on my part, but it's a happy one. The ending is happy. I've done the same thing to John Krasinski, my dear friend. I heard that the office from my wife, Mary, was fantastic. Funny. You will not believe how funny it is. And I stayed away from it, and I didn't watch it until way later. And we became great friends.

But I, and I did this exact same thing to scrubs. I heard how amazing it was that it was a game changer. And I went, and is it jealous? Probably. something horrible like that, but I have been binging you. Oh, thank you. Garden State. Can we start there? Yeah, anything you want.

Astounding. Thank you. Astounding. And this is me watching it this morning. I could find it in the morning. Wow. That's a hard way to start your day. No, no. It was fucking brilliant. And Mary watched it with me. And she had seen it. But just astounding on all levels.

So let's, why I want to start there is because of the director stuff. You're an amazing actor, and we can go back and talk about that later. Thank you. But I do not have a director's bone in my body or a writing bone. I am an actor. I'm a daydreamer, and I still daydream, and I show up like the groom, you know, on a wedding going, wow, look at this. That's me.

Yeah. You're the exact opposite. Yes, I'm the guy. I'm the wedding planner. You are. You're the wedding planner. Every detail. Yes, I really love that.

I always did as a kid. My father did community theater. He was a lawyer, was a trial attorney, but he enjoyed doing community theater and we lived in Jersey 45 minutes outside of the city. He lived in South Orange,

right outside Newark. Plainfield, New Jersey. Oh, really? Yeah, anyway. It's a bizarre how many actors are from New Jersey. I'm not. My first wife was. Oh, your first wife was.

Yeah. So anyway, theater was in my life. And right off the bat, I wasn't so interested in the acting part. I was a little bit of a nerdy kid, and I was fascinated by the tech theater, the lighting board. How old are you at this point? Like eight. Oh, wow.

And if you recall, like in the old lighting boards in high schools and in theaters, there were huge crank things. And I just, as an eight-year-old, I just thought that's the coolest thing in our world. You pushed that lever and the lights come on. And I loved magic. And the set would, the curtain would, even at a low-budget community, this curtain would close in when it opened again there was a new set and there were trapped doors and I was really taken with all of that and so I would kind of I was kind of like the tech behind the scenes cruise mascot and I would just hang around the community theater and little by little that that began

to morph into he got me a super eight camera and I would make movies with my brothers and then it became a VHS camera and so I was kind of interested in all aspects of it I was I was I was auditioning. I went to a theater camp where I could do both tech theater stuff and this is I went to two different ones. I think the first time was 10. God, this is really early. Really young. I just knew. I was like, I can't believe. I had no interest in sports. Absolutely no interest in sports. And my parents, thank goodness, were, were so supportive. They thank God they loved it too. So they were they never had any judgment about it. They were the dream parents in a sense of my brother. I love the baseball. Okay, you do baseball. Zach loves theater. We're going to find a theater camp.

And so that's really how it developed very early was it wasn't just loving, making people laugh, which I got the, of course, got the addiction to. But just a fascination with cameras and the technical stuff, lighting and tech theater, all of it interested me. And then as I grew up, that became morphed into filmmaking. Right. First acting, though, right. I got a pilot for CBS when I was 14. And I didn't know that pilots didn't get picked up. So I didn't really, I got a gift basket saying, welcome to the CBS family. I was like, what do you mean it didn't get picked up? I have a gift basket. I've been welcome to the CBS family.

Here's the card. Those gift baskets in the beginning. Oh, Lord. Well, back in the day, now I think they've cut budgets. But in the back in the day, when CBS sent you a gift basket, it was a thing. No, and it was amazing. It was Gwyneth Paltrow's. Do you remember Bruce Paltrow?

Yes. So St. Elsewhere. I say yes, because I know of him. I never met him, but yes. So St. Elsewhere was one of the biggest shows of the time. Huge. And Bruce Paltrow was the showrunner and a very, very respected writer. His 17-year-old daughter got her first part in the same pilot that he created as the pretty cheerleader.

and that was Gwyneth's first part, and I was 14, and I could barely even talk around her, because I was just like... And your characters were connected by... I was good method acting, because I was sort of the nerdy freshman, and she was the very beautiful cheerleader. And you were smitten.

I was absolutely smitten. In real life and in the show. And Biden, you know, so we shot it, and it was great, and it was a wonderful experience. Craig Ferguson was in it. He played the cool teacher. And then it didn't get picked up. And I was, I think it was a good thing.

My father always said it was the best thing that could have happened to you because it didn't pull me out of school and make me too soon. Or this is how life is. Right. I think it was great that I went and got my education and went to school instead of. Education and what? Sorry. Just high school, going to normal public high school and not becoming a,

I think starting that early it can be really detrimental to people's lives and of course I would have done it if it happened but I think it was a blessing in disguise that that show didn't become a hugely it was the same year 902 and O came out 902 and0 was sort of the posh

Beverly Hills version this was about a high school and Bruce Paltrow show was trying to be the antithesis it was an urban Jersey high school very very risque for CBS even now, I don't even think it would get picked up.

He was really trying to push the envelope of what you could do being on broadcast at the time. So then I wanted to make movies. I wanted to learn how to make movies. I applied to film schools, several different film schools. And I got in Northwestern in Evanston, Illinois. And then right before I was supposed to leave, I got cast in Manhattan Murder Mystery. This was my first feature film and my scene partners in my very first feature film for Woody Allen, Diane Keaton and Angelica Houston. In the scene you were in.

Yeah, that's my scene partners playing Woody Allen and Diane Keaton's son. And so that was sort of life-changing. It was, you know, with a thing like that, you're like, well, what do we, do I, you know, ride this momentum? I mean, it was very good credit to try and try stay in Manhattan. should I not go off to school? And I just made the decision that I wanted to go to school. So I went off to Northwestern for four years to study film. I guess I kept going back and wanted to hear the progression a little bit because the self-confidence of everything about Garden State.

The directing, obviously, but the casting. I mean, I assume you literally went out. Catherine got the people you wanted, which were magnificent. Natalie appointment, Peter. Absolutely. I was my first hiatus from, when I got scrubs, all I could think of was like, oh, my gosh, this is going to help me get my movie made. That was my first thought. Wow.

I was waiting tables and I got cast in scrubs and I can fill in the intermediate for you. But in this story, I was waiting tables. I cast in scrubs. I was so thrilled. I only, again, I had the experience. I know not all pilots get picked up. But I knew that because I was living so frugally as a waiter, there was a Ralph at La Brea and third, I believe, and I would buy the $5 footlong sub, and I would have lunch and dinner from that sub. I had it dialed, how to live frugally.

So then when I got the pilot, I knew, okay, I can live off this for a long time. I need to focus and really lock in on this screenplay idea I have because this could be my ticket to get it made. Then Scrubs popped and was really popular. And my first hiatus, I, my first hiatus, another dream in mine had always been to do Shakespeare in the park at the Delacourt in Central Park. So my first hiatus, I cast in a production of 12th night there. And I knew this is just me being clever producer. I knew that Natalie Portman had done The Seagull there with, I think with Merrill Streep. And I said, oh, this is a good angle.

I'll write it from the dressing room, the Delacourt. You know, that's a good way in. Because I never met her. I just loved her as an actress. And so I wrote her this impassioned letter from the dressing rooms of the Delacorte Theater. You know, you often get rained out when you're there. And so we had been rained out.

And, you know, it's just something if you've been there, you know the experience. And I thought, this is a really good angle. And Natalie loved the script and loved my letter and met me and then said yes. The script had been, when did you? You wrote the script during the hiatus? I added in lots of pieces, but when I got scrubs and then could quit waiting tables and we weren't shooting, you know, we were waiting for a pickup. I had no, I really gave myself a pepsox and you have out of excuses to not sit at your dining room table and really put this all together. I had it, you know, the way I kind of write is there's like little thoughts and pieces and they don't all connect like a puzzle until I sit down and actually put the work in and then I kind of weave them together.

How did you have, see, this just boggles my mind because my brain is not like your total respect. And I'm fine with my brain. Your brain's pretty good. Kind of. But how did you have the confidence to sit down with a blank page and start writing and think that you could write a screenplay? I don't know. Or not challenge yourself or doubt yourself. The best answer I can say is when you're young, you just don't know what you don't know.

Now I'm way more intimidated by it because I'm 50 years old and I've had so many ups and downs in my career. And I've seen, I've had the things I was so impassioned about not do as well as I hope they would, things that I was about to do that fall apart at the last second. So now I see all the pitfalls and all the Mishigas. I think at 24 years old, I was just really wide-eyed. I was really driven. And I also thought I had a good story in me. I had no idea. This is not false humility.

I had no idea that it would resonate, especially because everybody passed on it. I mean, when I made the rounds with the script, nobody was willing to finance it. So it's amazing that I had the confidence that I had. But then I certainly never imagined it would go on to live the life that it's led. Did you have somebody you handed your little pages to

or the entire script to before trying to market it that gave you feedback. Bill Lawrence was not... Bill Lawrence didn't really give me feedback until Bill Lawrence, the creator of Scrubs, didn't... He, he, he, I think he was, um, I don't know what his deal was in the beginning. He was a, I think he was probably skeptical. I just had so much chutzpah. I like gave him a spec script of scrubs early on and I think he was like, oh my God, this is like an showrunner's nightmare. But that's the kind of huevos I had.

I was just like literally at home not having any problems saying I'm going to give the showrunner a spec script of scrubs because I want to write on scrubs. So I think he was a little like, uh-oh, I hope I don't have a monster on my hands.

But then when I finally had a cut of Garden State, he was the first person to come over my house and gave me really, really helpful notes. Great. Okay, back in up a little bit. did how did you get the funding so everybody passed there's not a person in town all the big studios back then studios they used to call the mini majors they used to i mean this was a different era this was this was 2002-ish um there were a lot of places you could go right um there's fewer now but um they all everybody said no you know the script was a little uh it was different it didn't follow a traditional

three-act structure. It told a love story, but it was about depression, but it was funny. Where the third act should go, all of a sudden they go on a quest for a piece of jewelry that we haven't even ever heard about. I mean, I didn't, I did the opposite of those people who read a book and say, this should happen on this page. Right. And if you're someone who reads scripts and goes, why isn't this happening on page 30, this I'm sure just got tossed in the pile. What happened was Pam Abdi, who was a young executive, who's now the president of Warner Brothers. She had a good eye back in the day. She was a Jersey girl.

She was working at Jersey Films, which is Danny DeVito, his company. And a very powerful agent at CIA did believe in me. His name is Kevin Yvain. And he, yeah, you know. Also done well in life. Yeah, he's one of those people powerful agents in the world. He did like it and he did believe me. And I think he, I believe he represented Natalie, or maybe his partner did it.

I forgot that part. But anyway, he said, you know who should produce this is Pam Abdi. And she was a young executive at Danny's company. He was right that she loved it. But even with Jersey films attached, we went all around. Everybody said no. Everybody said no. And then a funny thing happened.

I was introduced to a guy named Gary Gilbert who, with his mom, brother, Dan Gilbert, had created a mortgage company. And they had done very, very well, and they sold it to Quicken Loans. And Dan Gilbert has gone on. He's one of the richest men in the world, and he owns a basketball team that I forgot, which one, somebody should tell me. Cleveland. Cavaliers.

Cavaliers. And the stadium and everything. He's a very nice man. His brother, though, wanted to get out of the business, and he wanted to produce Hollywood films. He was interested in Hollywood and producing. Someone made an introduction, and he came to a meeting with one of these mini-major people. And they were sort of saying, hey, maybe we'll make it for $5 or $6 million. I will split it.

So in this scenario, they would put up half of it, and he would, put up, what they call it equity, you know, put up equity. But it was really interesting because he was coming at it from, I don't know anything about Hollywood, but let me just go to this meeting. And we went in the parking lot after here and he goes, look, I don't know anything about this business at all, but I really like your script. That deal sounds horrible to me. Like, I split it with them, but they recouped their money first and they have final cut. And he goes, I just don't understand. Is there any way you can make this movie for like half of that? I'll just pay for the whole thing myself.

So Pam and I and the other producers went back to the drawing board and rethought it as a $2.5 million movie. Which meant taking out locations or storylines or... Cutting, how do you shoot it in 25 days? Pam literally slept on her parents' couch, remove rental cars, remove anyone, you know, everyone's staying.

at motels, remove some set pieces. Just like how can you, you know, obviously just the most scrappy way, well, not the most scrappy way, but a much scrappier way to make the movie. Which does lead many times, I think, to way more creativity out of how do we make this work

where we can't pour money into it. We have to pour creativity. Right. You can't rely on a set piece or something. I made another movie called A Good Person, and I really wanted, the movie revolved around a car crash. I really wanted to show, I thought it would be powerful to show how devastating the car crash was.

And the producer said, we're going to put it at the end of the schedule. And if we happen to have money, a leftover, we'll shoot it. And if not, we won't. And we didn't have money. And I just said to myself, you know what? The audience is imagination for what that car crash has an infinite budget.

That's correct. And it worked. We didn't need to show it. They filled in in their minds how bad it must have been to have yielded what happened. Okay. So that's... Sorry, I'm jumping all over the place. No, no, this is good because you're making your movie now.

And I'm beginning to understand your self-confidence or huge desire to do it, whether it was self-confidence or not. But just, yeah, drive, yeah. Drive. You have your cast. Yeah. Was Peter? Peter's stars. He loved the script and he said yes and he was just incredible.

And Ian Holmes said yes. And I got to work with him once, one of my highlights. Lovely man. How did you get it to him? Was he in this country? Through the agents, you know, you make a list when you're directing a movie and you say, It's usually like the way I do it is like you draw the actor that's sort of the archetype and then you draw a line and you go, who are other people that you think are in the spirit of this

person that might be right. And my archetypes were literally Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, Ian Holm. And when this happened, when I got them all, Pam Abdi said to me, I just want you to know that this never happens and will probably never happen to you again. And she's right. It never happened like that. Yeah. It's funny how when you are in a a movie that is totally purposeful and intentional and well thought out. And usually coming from one person's brain, all the accidents make it better. There's just everything funnels into, nope, this is the way it was supposed to be. Absolutely.

Sometimes you find gold where you never would have been if you hadn't had whatever reason. Okay. So now the shots, I have this one where you're talking to Natalie. and the side car motorcycle sidecar thing and these kids walk by and this scene continues you know I just thought that it was a brilliant shot yeah so how how do you're a sense of camera your sense of setting up the visuals where did that come from I loved cameras my whole life I had a great photography teacher in high school who I learned to shoot and develop and and process film film. That was one of the best classes I ever took in my childhood. I loved, I just loved gadgets. I loved cameras. And I really loved movies. So I was very interested in cinematography. And in the case of the children, it was just kind of, the way I write is I'll write little snippets on a piece of paper. Like, that's something you would see in the suburban Jersey, would be a train of children holding hands. And so that might, I mean, I'm guessing. I don't remember. But it may have been like something I jotted down in a job.

journal. Or I actually went to a neurologist because I was having these really horrible headaches, the same kind of the character. And I looked at his wall when I was waiting for him. And I said, Jesus, if this guy has one more diploma, it's going to have to go on the ceiling. And I just kind of giggled to myself and wrote that down, diploma on the ceiling because he's out of space. So stuff like that, we're just sort of collections of ideas that I would, that I then folded in. Because one thing I tell younger filmmakers who ask me for advice occasionally, as I say, the things that are most specific to you are what will make your film.

The universal things, love and loss and heartbreak, everyone will relate to that. Every human being can hold their heart and relate to that. But what makes your storytelling different is your specific experience. So the little details of the diploma on the ceiling or my mother had a necklace like that that had a little game in it

where you try to put the balls in the indentations. All those little small. specific things will be what makes your story unique. And audiences relate to what is the noun for being genuine? You know, if you are genuine. Authenticity. Authenticity. As opposed to, oh, this will be funny.

And it's a manufactured slightly out of left field to be funny. Yeah. It's way different than somebody going, that has that has to be it feels so real which gives you a much better laugh a much gentler laugh almost all the anecdotes and little pieces in the script were were either things that had I had seen in my life or exaggerations of things I'd seen in my life but it you know that's how it came to being so that was pretty much if you took your script your shooting script and sat in front of the movie could you pretty much direct it

from the page, what you had on the page was there. Was that scene written down about the kids? Yeah, everything. I'd even written down, I would copy it a filmmaker at the time. He was doing something I can't take credit for, but I instantly stole it in that he, when he gave out his script, it came with a CD with all the tracks that were in the movie. That's brilliant. And you had that? I did that. So when I gave prospective producers or financiers the script, they also got a CD. And if you were playing along, it would say like play track six.

Oh, Zach. Yeah, again, I saw someone else to it and I copied them. Good. Good. And how wonderful for the actors, too. Absolutely, because it really, music really gives you tone. And when you read a script, as you

know as an actor, sometimes you're like, okay, but I don't really get what the tone is. That music all set the tone for what the tone of the movie is going to be. And is that soundtrack you gave them as you gave them? No, no, I mean, the same genre of music, the same vibe. But by the time we, you know, you cut it together and you go, okay, that song's great, but it doesn't work.

And let's try for this song. But that was huge. That went, that was insane what happened with the soundtrack. I didn't. You got a Grammy. I want a Grammy. Yeah, it's pretty funny. I want a Grammy for a mixtape.

But that's amazing. I didn't know they gave out Grammy. No, I did. I beat out Quentin Tarantino, which is even more hilarious. And the only thing he's ever said to me in my whole life was, you stole my Grammy, man. I was hoping one day he'd say,

you're hired. But instead, all he has said thus far is, you stole my Grammy, man. That's funny. I did a film with Isabella Rossellini called Cousins, and it was the French film, Cousan Cuisine. And we had our theme song

written by the time we started shooting. And my character actually kind of hammered it out on the piano. But it was so wonderful to set the move. Oh, yeah. I do it on set sometimes. I'll play if I have a

not necessarily the song, but if I have something that's in the spirit of, I'll play it. I did that on Garden State too. I would play music, you know, when there wasn't dialogue, I would just play the music of the scene. So let's say we're doing, at the end of the movie,

there's a big Dolly pullback at the airport. I would play, I played, even for just for the Dolly group, who's pulling the Dolly so he can feel the energy of what I want it to be.

That's spectacular. Yeah. The only other person that Larry Kasden on Body Heat, you could take that script and conduct it. Maybe not the music, but everything that,

the dancing on the pier or the this or that, Every little moment that was written in the script is on the screen. There were things I had to cut out, of course, because the assembly was very long, and I had to cut some storylines. And I changed the ending a bit with Bill's help, who gave me some helpful thoughts on that. And things that added, like, you know, in rehearsals, Natalie at one point did, like, a cute tap dance.

And I was like, that is so adorable. Let's put that in the movie. She's like, I'm not tap dancing in the movie. I'm like, yes, you are. You shouldn't have shown me that. And so I rewrote that fireplace moments that she tap dances. That's a great thing to do. And be really nimble when your actors show you something.

Oh, you know, I just did that on Scrubs. So I was hanging out with one of the young kids playing one of the interns. He's not a young kid. He's 35. But he was playing. I saw him dance. And all of a sudden I saw he was really good dancer. So I told the writers and they wrote in a moment where he could dance.

That's fun to like. you know, mine that stuff. Yeah. Wow. Okay. So it came out. It was huge. Yeah.

Cultural kind of moment. Did it come out after two years of scrubs or? It came out in 2004. So that sounds like probably three, three or four years of scrubs. I forgot. Okay. And by then the Scrubs is. Scrubs is doing really well.

Yeah. Doing really well. How are you doing with the impact of that on you? Because that's a lot of, energy. Yeah. I don't know. Probably drinking too much.

I enjoyed it, but I think I didn't really know what to do with all the attention. And I don't know. I wish I'd, instead of going out and partying, I wish I'd sat down and written more screenplays. But I was really exhausted. I was doing scrubs. Because, you know what it's like as an actor when you have momentum. You've been waiting for this momentum your whole life. So I just kept saying yes to doing more films, acting in them.

And they were okay, and one or two of them I like. But I think if I could go back and give myself advice, it would be, okay, slow down, take a breath. make while. I was just so geeked that anyone was hiring me. But that impossible not to be exactly what you were.

Right. Impossible. I did the best I could as a 26-year-old. Yeah. There's not a, I mean, all of the traps,

all of the ego traps, all of the acting traps, all of the bad acting traps. Did you find that when Cheers blew up and you were so popular? Yeah. Sorry to not know this,

but was Cheers your big break? Yeah. Okay. So, I've done a couple of movies that were respected that I was part of an ensemble, but yes, cheers. And then, you know, the difference between being in a hit movie and being in a hit TV show is, unless it's Star Wars or something. The TV show will out to the number of people who see you. Well, in the era of cheers, I mean, the amount of people watching a live broadcast. Yeah.

one thing saved me, although not completely saved me. I was still, you know, smoking joints with joints. That's how old am. Smoking dope with Woody, you know, after everything, drinking, carrying on, not too much drinking, but smoking dope a lot, getting pulled over by police because Woody and I were talking in separate cars on a car phone. with each other having this unbelievable stoner conversation. And we got pulled over for going 12 miles an hour on sunset.

You know, so yeah, no, total asshole, total rock and roll. Yeah. I mean, the amount of people that would watch a popular show in that era is so insane compared to now. It's interesting going back to broadcast television with this revival of Scrubs. I've just been looking at the numbers of how many people watch a live broadcast of a show. I mean, the first broad airing of a show. And, you know, obviously, as we all know, ABC's partnered with the Hulu, so most people will stream it over the course of the next week. But when Cheers was on and when Scrubs was on, there was none of that.

So you watched it. You made dates to watch. Yeah, yeah. Which brought you in the short term more people. watch that night than I think they do now. Oh, yeah. And streaming is huge in the long run. What does it call Scrubs?

Bubb or does Scrubs? It's just Scrubs. It's a revival. I mean, we are starting with the same original cast, but now we're older. And whereas we were the young interns, now we're the teachers of a new crop of young interns. And there's a whole storyline. You might not know this bit of tribute, but so we did eight seasons of scrubs. And then Bill Lawrence created a ninth season, but he has said many times,

he wished he'd called it a spinoff because it was a whole new writing staff. It was a whole new location. Half the cast was staying, half was leaving. I was handing off the voiceover to a young woman. And this was the consecutive years, that ninth was. this was the ninth. The hospital that we were, we shot scrubs in a real abandoned hospital for eight years. And then it got torn and then it was sold to be condos. So in attempting to do a ninth season spinoff, basically, he had to rethink, okay, it doesn't take place there anymore. It takes place

here. And I really wanted to sort of segue off and do other things. So I kind of helped launch it and doing a few episodes in that I left, handed off the voiceover to a young person. And some people do really love the ninth season. Some people don't. It's in the Scrubs fandom. It's a thing people debate about. But our intention was to go back and say, okay, we're going to treat that like it was a spinoff.

And we're going to pick up the story of Scrubs after season 8, 17 years later from where that thing was ending. And then in doing so, we decided to do what we wanted to do. We would have to fully recreate this hospital. that didn't exist anymore on stage. So we built 30,000 square feet. It's in Vancouver, and it's you get lost in it. You cannot believe.

It's unbelievable. That was something that was part of the challenge. Who came up with this? Let's do it. And everybody showed up, right? Yeah. Well, we always talked about it. We're all friends.

I don't know. It seems like you're all, you're still friends with all. Cheers castmates, I assume. A little more spread out because of, I don't know, kids, family, the amount of years. But you stay in touch? Yes. We're the same way. We're all spread out too, but we have a chain and we talk and we joke and we meet up now and then get dinners together.

And Donald, in particular, Phazon is one, is truly my best friend and I'm godfathered to his kids. You guys are great. We really just clicked. Yeah. We met at the table read. And we're just inseparable ever since. Yeah. You're really great together.

Thank you. Actually, what happened was, you know, we've always talked about it. Bill has always, you know, every time Bill's on a panel, he says, oh, one day we're going to get everyone back together. Because he's had such an insane, you know, Bill started with Spin City. Then he created Scrubs. He created Spin City when he was like 26 years old. Michael J. Fox. Yes.

A pre-Michael? No, it was. Gary Goldberg and Bill created it together. Right. And then Gary left and Bill took over. And he was 26 years old running Spin City in Manhattan. Talk about a guy who, talk about letting a kid loose in the city. He was 26 years old running a hit show in Manhattan.

And so then he made, created scrubs. And then he created a bunch of other shows. Including Ted Lassau. Well, my point is a bunch of other shows that did okay but weren't, global phenomenon. Right. Phenomena. And then he with Jason Stakesh creates Ted Lasso.

He asked me to come direct the second episode. So I go over there. I don't follow sports, but I was like, okay, it's funny. It's Bill. Jason's hilarious. Yeah, I'd be honored. It'd be fun. I was dating an English gal at the time, and it all worked out perfectly.

I remember shooting it being like, this is really cute. I bet people that love soccer. going to love this. And then left and like went on, went on about my life. Won an award, but go on. No, but my point is, is that it then during COVID became this global phenomenon. And that was not something that was expected, even by Bill, you know. Because again, another story of, I think, if I don't have the wrong, almost everybody passing except Apple.

And so then huge, huge, huge hit. And then Bill, since then, just took off like a rocket and created shrinking and created this new show with Steve Correll that's coming on HBO called Rooster. Wow. And Bad Monkey, which is Carl Heison. We're going to come back to that a minute. I know. I'm just jumping on. No, no, no, no.

But my point is that so he always does a lot. of press because he's got so much going on. He's, you know, the biggest comedy writer in town. And he always has said, yeah, we're going to get the whole Scrubs team back together. He's got to figure out to do it. Just got to figure out to do it. It's a little tricky because he has a big deal with Warner Brothers and the show is a Disney property. So there was some, you know, contractual stuff to work out. But eventually, Donald and I started doing a rewatch podcast. That's when I was joking about the lighting of how beautiful the stage is. We would do it over Zoom. We started during COVID. We weren't watched the shows live. We'd watch. We'd watch the show's

an episode and we'd sit around and joke about it after. And we just thought, you know, some hardcore fans will listen, maybe our parents, but we didn't think it would do, we didn't know. And then it really did well. All over the world, it became a very popular thing. And then that led eventually to us doing these T-Mobile ads, which again became very, very popular. And I think the sort of snowballing effect of the podcast and then the T-Mobile ads made made someone at ABC Disney be like, wait, we should really do this. So that's kind of how, that was the genesis of bringing up. And no hesitancy on your part.

No way. I mean, Bill and Donald and Johnny C. McGinley and Sarah Chalk and Judy Rayne's, all these people I love so much. Krista Miller, it was, you know, get the gang back together and laugh. I didn't hesitate for a second. There was talk a long time ago about, is there going to be a Cheers reboot or can you work, Frasier went off, and maybe you could put the two back together and somehow... Did you ever consider it?

I did, I played Sam alone on a Frasier about three years afterwards, after Chir. And I, to be honest, there's that part of me that as Cheers ended, part of me went, oh, I'm going to make some movies now. So I did not come back on my shining white horse and, you know, gallop in the movie star. So part of me was off balance about being on playing Sam Malone in a different set, different writers, mostly. Yeah. And no Jimmy Burroughs.

Yeah, and he was the magic, huh? For me. Yeah. Just for me. On shoot nights, I was always, I mean, the writing was astounding, obviously, but I was performing for Jimmy. Literally, you know. And when he wasn't there, because he couldn't, and, you know, he did all but about 10 or 15 episodes. I would be semi-lost.

It's so strange. I love that, by the way, that he was, in the way that Bill was for me, he must have been quite a mentor for you. No, he's my show business daddy. I say because of our age, Bill is my big brother. He taught me everything I know. And it's so valuable. And that has inspired me now to mentor people because I want to pass down what I've learned in the 25 years of doing this because he taught me so much. Has all of the writer, director, acting, or are you mentoring?

Anything. You know, I met with a young woman who's a comedic actress who I thought was talented. And I just said, asked me, anything you want to ask me. And when you have a script, I said, A, write for yourself first and foremost. And when you have a script that you're confident, I'll read it and give you thoughts. But just like, here's my number. If any questions you want to navigate it, I'll weigh in, which is what I did with Bill. I would go to him and be like, what do I do about this?

This executive gave me the most insane note. How do I handle this? I don't want to do that note. Say yes and then don't. He used to do so many funny tricks that I learned. we laugh about him now but he had these tricks with actors where he would go and the actor's just not saying the line

right and he was like you know for those of you listening who don't know you're not supposed to tell the actor to say it like this it's called giving them a line reading and it's it's very hard especially if you're an actor director or if you're performing to be like oh my God just say it like this

but you we want to do that so badly but it's very frowned upon and a lot of actors don't like it. I personally I'm like, I don't understand. Just fucking say it how you want me to say. I'm an understudied heart. Just tell me. But Bill does this very funny thing.

I'm going to out him now, so he's not going to be able to do it anymore. Well, he'll go, there was a way you did it at the table. And the actor was like, really? And he'd be like, yeah, at the table read, you were like, we got to get out of here right now. And could you do one like you did at the table read just for me? Because I love that. Meanwhile, they had never fucking done it like that at the table read. Another thing he does, it's so funny in the same spirit is he's just rationalized in his head that if he doesn't make sensible words, it doesn't count.

So he'd be like, could you do one? It's like, nah, nah, nah. That's not a line, really? Not that long. My learning. Didn't say any words. I love that. But whether it's something small like that or something huge, like here's the best way to,

to handle a note that you feel is very wrong and, you know, it's been, and all the time. I mean, now more than ever because we're, you know, I direct all his shows, lasso shrinking and Rooster, the new one. And Scrubs directed the pilot episode of the new Scrubs. So now more than ever, we're in constant collaboration. That's lovely. I think Jimmy Burroughs is retired, I'm not sure. He came to visit Scrubs one.

once. I think the context was his kids were fans and he came and gave them a tour of the set. But I had never got a chance to work with them because I never did a multi-cam. I'm just sorry, flash too. I didn't watch

friends right away. Your show, Scrubs, they didn't watch the office. I'm a petty, petty actor. You think it was pettiness or just like you I didn't watch the office when it was live. I recently in the last couple of years watched it straight through.

I knew I was going to work with Steve. And I, again, I knew I would love it. And I just really, really, really enjoy it. I think I didn't want to go, oh, I wish. It wasn't jealousy or envy, but, oh, I wish I had something like that for myself, whatever the time was. Right. And maybe I didn't, you know. I don't know.

Do you? it's weird do you miss the the high of of doing the in front of a live audience the laughter I should

I don't really because I loved it yeah and you were so timing no I loved it it was they would sometimes

shoot because the energy you get from the audience is something you can't duplicate when they're gone because sometimes they would

have to reshoot something because they needed a camera in where they couldn't put it right and they I rarely used it because the energy drop was different.

Yeah. So, yes, I do. I understand that I should miss that. At this point, my adrenal system is quite happy. Not to step in front of a live water. I've guessed it on a multi-camp, but I've gone to see them. And to me, it just looks like so much fun. Like, what a high, especially with the writing's good.

And we've all seen ones where the writing is good. And we've all seen ones where the writing's not good, but the Cheers writing was so incredible. And would it be like that at the table read and then only get better? Yeah. Crazy. They had this. I'm sure they're not the only ones who did this, but you would have a guy who for the table read had not read it. Who was it for us?

Oh, we have that still. And it's just so that they can go, hear the story for the first time ago. Oh, ours is just actors that are lazy and don't you? No, that was later on. Reading it for the first time. We can tell you're reading it for the first time. That's not how you say that sentence.

We would have so many ADs and, you know, production assistants reading during rehearsals because the actor, Woody Harrison, would have called from, yeah, the sometimes really is. is really appropriate. That's funny. He would be in Berlin because the wall was coming down

and he didn't want to miss it. And he'd let people know the morning off. Wow. You know, anyway. You would have writers who would, you have a room full of writers and working on the scripts. Then they would have a writer come

who hadn't read it, didn't know it. So they could go, this story point didn't like, I don't quite understand. that and so it was a story rewrite that's amazing then the second day of rehearsal they would have somebody who was just killer at jokes every joke ever written he knew so it would get punched up with humor and then it would settle down and just got rewritten i love that i love that that's so fun uh we have that in a sense on scrubs in that there's always a particularly funny writer on set with us yeah

Because you're a single camera, obviously. We're a single camera and we can do lots of volts. So we'll just tee up the person for their punchline and you can do five volts and see which one's funniest in the edit room. Yeah. Which we do a lot of. Okay. And this happens on a week or two, right? The 25th?

It airs on the 25th of February on ABC at 8 o'clock and then Hulu the next day. That's pretty cool. It's exciting. Good for you. Will you come up and be on it, please? I think I would. Oh, this is interesting. But maybe it's a body.

You're not going to play a corpse. Can you imagine we tell ABC we got Ted Nansen, and his only caveat is that he wants to be a corpse? I did CSI for years. Corpses get a lot of play. What did you think about? Hardest thing I've ever done. Yeah, because you don't have the adrenaline or the, or the, or the humor.

Yeah, I'm saying you don't get this, the spike, the endorphin spike of the laugh. Yeah, you're not, it's, it is. I'm trying to make the Dolly, we don't have an audience. I'm trying to make the grip slash. Yes. I'm trying to make the cameraman, when I see the operator, look away from the eyepiece and go, yes. That's what I want.

Yes. Which is why I can never understand actors who are dicks and are rude to crew members. It's your fucking lifeline. We don't allow that. We don't allow that. No. Yes, please, ask me. We could negotiate right now actually on the price.

It's a sag, whatever the sag. Sag minimum is all we have. It's a first season. Is there a sag maximum? It's a first. Yeah, I think there's a sag, like, standard rate. Yeah. But I have a feeling you'll get a huge star bump.

Are you piloting planes still? I'd like to. I got my pilot's license. I got very into it. I loved it. And of course, if you're not doing it every weekend, you become unsafe, in my opinion. So my life became busy, and I owned a small single engine four-seater. And my life was getting busy. And I wasn't flying in enough. And it was obviously a very expensive hobby. And so I sold the plane and kind of got out. out of it for now. But I'm very interested in aviation and I aspire to to fly again when my, one of my, when time allows. You talk about being OCD or whatever in the past or whatever it is. That must be great for being a pilot. Well, one thing that's bizarre. Your eye for detail. Yes. And also, bizarrely, I know this might sound crazy to some people, but it quiets your mind. You have so much you need to be focusing on between flying the airplane, communicating on the radios, navigating. There's no room for you to be

off in your head. You have to be present. And it's beautiful. You know, you see the country in a way. You've never, whatever. You know, when you fly commercially, they zip right up to 30,000 feet and above, when you're flying general aviation, you're seeing the country, you know, you could be between, you know, 3 and 18,000 feet. And it's magical. It's something that most people never get to experience. And I really just got intoxicated with that. How far would you fly on the day? I would fly. Well, I... Instrument rating?

I didn't get my instrument rating. I was on that on, I would, that's what I would do next. But I did a lot of... So what I did was I would do long cross-country. trips with my teacher. And it would be, I would fly a lot of instrument, um, level flying, you know, with my teacher by my side. So I got a lot of experience and we would, you know, sometimes I would have to be in New York. So I would, we would fly from Van Nuys to the Marstown airport in New Jersey. Well, you know, it, my plane would take a couple days. Um, but it was, that must have been fantastic. Oh, are you kidding me? You have the security and safety of, of a pro next to you who's teaching you.

And you're just taking in the whole country at an altitude that you've never seen the country before. Most people never get to see the country because you're all the way so high up. I had this little dog I'd bring. And the only problem was the plane's not pressurized. So at a certain altitude, you have to put on a nasal cannula. If you fly really high, you have to put on a mask. But I had the dog, and I couldn't put a nasal cannula on the dog. So we had to fly pretty low sometimes.

And we'd be in just the worst turbulence. Yeah. Turbulency, we definitely want to try and climb over, but we had the dog. Because maybe someone invented a mask for dogs since, I don't know, I should look into it, but we would just be like. And the instructor's looking at me like, this fucking dog is the reason. We used to fly pipe week. My father's an archaeologist. And there'd be lots of times we were out in the middle of someplace.

And a Piper Cub would come in to land in some muddy field and then take off again. But Arizona, the heat, if you're flying in the, you know, the worst heat of the day, you're just bumping all over the place. I don't know why. Now I'm at the point where, you know, on YouTube, there's these guys who just, they fly the plane that I flew. And this is how I know I'm gearing up to get back into it. because, you know, it was my hobby. I'm not into, you know, golf, for example.

You know, the golf people are sitting there watching people play golf on the, or watching some guy, you know, give a golf lesson. I'm watching these guys who, you know, their shtick is that they fly and sort of teach you and they take trips and they bring their family. And I'm definitely the audience for that, which makes me realize that I'm sort of longing to get back into it. I was always fascinated. I knew I would never.

I mean, people don't let me. I've never been able to ride a motorcycle because everyone knew all my friends that I would just daydream myself into a tree. Bicycles, almost the same. But I loved the idea of flying. So I got on my iPad this pretty close to a simulator, not really, but it was close to flying.

And we're going from L.A. to New York, and I just played the thing the whole time. And the guy behind me got up saying, I had been a nervous fucking wreck watching you, crash all the way across the United States over and over again. It's so funny. You know, you could take a lesson, just even if you're, even if you're not going to go into it, just for the life experience.

You'll be flying the plane, you know, the teacher will bring you up nice and high, and then he'll give you the yoke. And just to have the experience, it's really a cool thing to experience. It's magical. And then what happens, you know, you'll, again, things you never experienced on a commercial airplane, but you'll fly up through a cloud layer and then you'll be between cloud layers. So you're surfing just above this cloud layer

and you're kind of like sandwich between these two clouds. And it's just really good. I mean, it's something you'll never forget. Or dodging the thunderheads because you have to, because you can too. I've learned to say we can cut this. We don't have to talk about it. It doesn't have to be political,

how's your heart doing nowadays with all the anger, sadness, violence going on in this country? How do you... I think I feel, definitely feel the melancholia of the people around me and both people I know and be like, I feel like there's a melancholia in the air. I think I'm aware of that. I'm a very, very sensitive person, overly sensitive. sensitive. So I can feel that sort of resigned, I feel sort of a resigned sadness that's in the air. One of the things that's fun about doing a silly comedy is that not only are you

laughing with your friends all day, but you think, okay, maybe this is actually useful. Maybe maybe some funny, silly nostalgia could be helpful to people. I think I'd feel differently if I was working, you know, when I make my films, they're often very sad. My last one was quite sad. I don't know that that's to be the right thing to be putting into the ether right now. So I do feel in making the Scrubs revival that there were a few times, and people have said this overtly. Gosh, we need, you know, if you look at the comment, we released the trailer the other day. And there's so many lovely comments and support.

But a theme in the comments was, oh, gosh, we need this. Thank you. We need this right. Oh, this was my childhood. Man, I could use a hug. This reminds me. And I, I'm very aware of that. I'm very, I'm aware that's. It is 100% absurd. Oh, my God, if there was a cheers reboot, I would be quelling. I would just be like, oh, thank you, universe. And here's what it would look like. What? What did he say? A horse walked into a car? What is funny about that? Yeah, I would be seated. I would be seated, as the kids say, for the Cheers reboot. Ten years from now, Magic Juan, anything you would like to be doing that you're not necessarily doing right now? I would like to work with more...

I'd like to do more dramatic roles with really talented filmmakers. That's not something I get a chance to do a lot. I did it. Indy, I'm really proud of. That was dramatic. Oh, yeah, sorry. I'm going to interrupt you right now. It's your podcast. Bad monkey, bad monkey.

Bad monkey. Oh, would you like bad monkey? Fuck. But you, I mean, I've loved you, I love you being funny. I love you being sweet, sensitive. I love you, everything. That was Zach, full on Zach, who made this one wrong turn

and is now living out this, this nightmare. It's still Zach. But it was amazing work. Thank you. Really good. I got to tell you, it's a bizarre thing, the bad monkey thing. Again, Bill, my biggest champion, said, hey, I'm going to make this show. Vince Vaugh.

Wait, sorry, that was Bill, too? That's Bill too. Fuck. Give me my name. Just mention my name. I shouldn't be giving my agents 10%. I should be giving Bill 10%. No, forget that.

Just give him my name. I'll tell him. Float my name. Listen, that works with him. Flattery works with him. Oh, I will say Ted Danson loves you. and you'll be in. Yeah.

You know, it's funny. Well, that's a side story. He said, come down. I love Vince Vaughn. And he said, do you want to come do a small thing on the show? And before I even read it, I said, of course, I love you. I love Vince Vaughn and Miami for a couple weeks. That'll be fun.

We'll do it. And then I read it, and I was like, oh, my gosh, he's finally giving me a part no one cast me as. You know, because I'm sure you can relate. You're known as a, of, a, of, a, of, a, a comic actor. People want you to come be funny. It's not complaining. That's a very blessed place to be, but you don't often get sent the dramatic turn. And I did it and it was cool and had a great experience. And the response I had to doing that part from doing two episodes,

from actors, I really respect, including you now, was so wonderful. It really actually inspired me and gave me the confidence to want to pursue more dramatic roles. And, and, you know, and And in fact, the indie I went and did in Atlanta for a month was that. It was a part I probably wouldn't have had the courage to play. But with my peers saying, hey, that was really good on Bad Monkey. It made me go, okay, I'm going to go for it. Because like all nice people, there's a dick in there somewhere. There's some dark in you somewhere.

And it's fun to utilize that. Oh, yeah. And it's fun to, I think comedians make wonderful traumatic actors. Sad, angry people sometimes. Yes. And it's in there. And it's also very interesting. I remember Albert Brooks being, was it drive where he was the villain?

Yeah. That was just like, to me, that was like the ultimate example. It was like Albert Brooks playing like a mob villain. It was brilliant. It was like, yeah, that's interesting to me. Yeah, me too. So back to the magic wand. So it's work-oriented?

Yeah, I'd love to, I'm not married. I think I would be, I would love to meet my special person and be married to somebody. Is that easy for you or the thought or does it look like, do you have confidence that that's in you? Yeah, my life's pretty great. So it has to, it has to be a good mesh. I mean, I'm very happy with my life. I have a rescue pit bull that I'm obsessed with. And I love my work and I have great friends.

And, you know, I think there's something, when you make it to 50 and you've kind of gotten used to your life and I feel very blessed, I'd have to find someone that would dovetail with that. Of course. And I'm sorry, it sounded like, well, there's this hole in you or something. I don't mean that at all. I am the, a little bit, as we've established, kind of the opposite of you. in many ways, but one of my ways is I see life. My eyes see life when I'm next to. And, you know, Mary has opened up so many doors for me, and I think relationship is how I grow.

Well, I would love to find that. No, I would love to find that. I just, I've had some wonderful romances in my life, and I, I felt so lucky, but I would, I have, I had. I have, haven't met my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my sister. She does. Who's got her guy. Sorry. So that's out. But do you do understand that I didn't mean like you need to or should or you're asking. I'm answering honestly, you said magic wand next 10 years. It would be great to, to find my, my, my person. It would be great to do some more dramatic acting with some filmmakers that I, I look up to. How about your moral compass? Where do you get that? Where is. Where is. you're kind of who do you or what do you check in with is it a spirituality is it a i just try and be

kind i i i guess i'm not religious i think it's just the the golden rule of doing to others yes um i uh i think of very much what you you get you get what you put out how you be is how people are back to you. I'm very, I'm going to see that over and over again. And so I think that's, I'm not, I've never been a spiritual or religious person. I just, I remember when my mother passed away and I was, the last two or three days, when she wasn't really present anymore, but her body was still going. I had the night shift.

My sister who lived next door would come over during the day and I'd sleep and vice versa. and I remember looking at her and going, wow, I had all these philosophical, religious teachings or thoughts, and they all went flying out the window. And I realized, I don't know. I have no idea. She may be, knows or is about to. I have no idea.

And kind of from that moment on, I realized it's pretty simple, and it was the same thing. try to be a little better every day, try to be kind. I believe in kindness. It's huge. Yeah, treat people. Literally what you just said is almost enough for me to wake up every morning and have that be enough.

I'm a guy. Yeah, and also just be aware of how hard it is for people right now. I'm very aware of every night when I go to bed as I'm falling asleep, someone taught me this. I focus on two things. What are the good things that happen today? And what am I grateful for just in my life? I'm very aware of how many people are struggling at all levels.

You know, L.A. has the housing crisis and you drive around the city, and it's very, very sad how many people are. are living on the street and on drugs or experiencing mental health crises. And it isn't hard to look around and go, oh, my gosh, I'm so grateful for having a roof over my head and being able to work and being able to do what I love to do. And, you know, a lot of people are in industry or not working. This town is having a huge crew crisis. Yeah.

So I'm just feel very aware about being kind because people are having a hard time. Well, I am so... We have to end on a more hilarious note than that. No, no, no, no, but no, I want to end on how much I respect you and how glad I am that I got to sit on and talk to you. And how glad I am that I've binged your work that for some reason I haven't seen for a while. and what you put out into the world is so beautiful and loving and kind and funny and thoughtful that, you know.

I'd like you to check out this movie I made called A Good Person. It's with Morgan Freeman and Florence Pugh and Molly Shannon. I will. It has some humor in it, but it's also about grief. But I love you to see it. I will. I will.

and I will let you know. All right. Well, now we have to stay in touch and be best friends. No, I'll be the corpse. And then you'll just lean over. Listen, if I'm going to be plugging you to Bill Lawrence, you're going to have to give me your number, Teddancing.

Thank you. Then I'm going to watch Cheers and be like, remember in episode three when you? Well, that was great. Thank you, Zach. Scrubs is back now on ABC and Hulu. That's it for this week. Special thanks to Team Coco.

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Visit YouTube.com slash Team Coco. See you next time. Where Everybody knows your name. You've been listening to Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson sometimes. The show is produced by me, Nick Leow, our executive producers are Adam Sacks, Jeff Ross, and myself. Sarah Federovich is our supervising producer, engineering remixing by Joanna Samuel with support

from Eduardo Perez. Research by Alyssa Graal. Talent booking by Paula Davis and Gina Batista. Our theme music is by Woody Harrelson, Anthony Yen, Mary Steenbergin, and John Osborne.