Scrubs Creator Has a Very Peculiar Opinion on Reboot (And It’s Not a Nice One)
There are people in Hollywood that just know television.
Bill Lawrence has always seemed to be one of those people. The 54-year-old got his start writing on highly successful shows like The Nanny and Friends before converting his own ideas into smash sensations. Lawrence has adapted Cougar Town and Shrinking, yet his most prominent accomplishment is creating Scrubs.
The medical comedy has withstood the test of time and has always been a cult favorite. Consequently, fans have been itching for a reboot for years. And, according to Lawrence, even the thought of it is a “bummer”.
Lawrence recently sat down with The Hollywood Reporter and had several interesting things to say about the show. The TV producer has been relishing in the success of Ted Lasso yet confirmed that he is frequently pursued about rebooting Scrubs. Unfortunately, Lawrence is not interested in a new project even if fans are desperate for a reboot.
“Nostalgically, it’d be fun to revisit [Scrubs],” Lawrence responded when questioned about a reboot. However, the nostalgia was short-lived as he added, “But the idea of doing [more episodes] is a bit of a bummer to me.”
Why? The executive producer of Ted Lasso has been busy enough with the highly acclaimed AppleTV+ show that he’s not ready to ditch it anytime soon for another rendezvous with J.D., Turk, Elliot, and Cox. Thus, while Lawrence admits that he would love nothing more than a reunion with the cast members, he also got burnt out working on the production. As a result, the thought of revisiting Scrubs does not invite pleasant memories.
Lawrence recalled that while working on the sixth season, it became apparent that it was time to give it up. Scrubs had continued to garner strong viewership, yet Lawrence was mentally drained. He revealed that some of the characters became too predictable, like the expectation that Cox would always go on a tirade at some point during the episode.
For Lawrence, the creative pressure became exhausting. “I breached a [breaking] point on that show,” he added.
Thus, Lawrence is not ready to reboot Scrubs and arguably may never seriously consider it. Be that as it may, Lawrence did affirm that he’ll never say never. While most of the cast remains busy with other projects, there could come a day when the cast decides to reunite.
As a result, Lawrence hasn’t dismissed the idea altogether. “Everybody on [the cast] is killing it today. So, I think we’d all do [a remake] to have the excuse to spend time with each other.”