Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence opened up about the beloved television show’s upcoming reboot.
We learned that the series, which premiered on NBC in 2001 and concluded on ABC in 2010, would be returning earlier this month. The news came following reports that ABC had hit a snag in negotiations to work with Bill on the new episodes.
In an interview, Bill explained why he was initially hesitant to return to the Scrubs universe and what changed to make it possible.
He also hinted at a timeline for when the cast and crew would get to work!
Keep reading to find out more…
“It’s so interesting because you can’t give an answer that makes everybody happy. I’ll start with, if I thought it was a bad idea, I wouldn’t do it,” Bill told the Los Angeles Times when asked what inspired him to work on the show again.
He continued, saying, “I’m not chasing commerce and without being self-aggrandizing, I don’t need to. Creatively, if somebody said, ‘Do you want to pick Scrubs up right back in the same hospital with the same people on a normal day, everything’s back to normal?’ No, that would be disingenuous to the story. Am I curious and can I think of a bunch of stories about where some of these characters are years later, not being kid interns anymore, and having new young people around them, with the way the medical world has changed — yeah, without a shadow of a doubt.”
“That creative answer was easy. The complicated thing, and why I was always hesitant, was I don’t work for Disney anymore. I work here [Warner Bros.], and it’s not really, business-wise, a show I was allowed to go do. It’s not jerky for Warner Brothers to say, ‘We’re not employing you to go do a Disney show.’”
If you were unaware, Bill has a deal with Warner Bros., and ABC is owned by Disney. As a result of his deal, he will not work as a showrunner for the series this time. However, he’ll be an executive producer.
“It’s not going to be a mailed-in cash grab. There will be a bunch of the original Scrubs writers on the show; there will also be a bunch of new writers,” he said. “Someone was like, ‘I hope this doesn’t happen.’ That made me incredulous. Like, why the f— would you care if it happened? He’s like, ‘I just love the show so much, it would tarnish it.’ I don’t think that’s true. Shows that I care about have had reboots. This is my attitude: If it’s a show I love, I’m gonna watch it. If it’s great, I’m gonna be super happy. If it’s good, whatever, at least it didn’t offend me. And if it sucks, I’m gonna be super happy to badmouth how much it sucks to my friends. Not on the internet. But that’s how I watch TV. To me, that’s a no-lose. What’s the big deal?”
When will the team start working on the new episodes?
“In the new year. I can’t say who they are because the showrunner deal is being made as we speak, but as soon as that’s done, we’ll start,” Bill said. “We’ve already been shooting the s— because we’re old friends, but we’ll start coming up with the idea of where the world starts and who’s doing what. They’ve said it’s been so weird going back and watching every episode. My ultimate goal on the whole thing is just to get the music restored to the old episodes.”
