‘Scrubs’ Creator Bill Lawrence Calls Reboot A “No-Lose” Situation And Explains Initial Hesitancy

Despite pushback from some Scrubs fans, Bill Lawrence is ready to return to Sacred Heart Hospital for a long-gestating reboot.

After Deadline reported that the project is in development at ABC with 20th Television, the creator and executive producer explained why he “was always hesitant” to revisit the medical sitcom but is confident in the upcoming reboot.

“If I thought it was a bad idea, I wouldn’t do it. I’m not chasing commerce and without being self-aggrandizing, I don’t need to,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “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.’

“The thing that changed is the cast are all tight in real life and as a lot of us do, at this point in our lives, covet that experience. So [there’s] the amount of friends that [say], ‘Man, it would be fun to have that experience again because we all really loved each other.’ And you connect that directly to a time in Hollywood that not only are we not making a ton of stuff, but people that I really care about and love, both in front of and behind the camera, they’re scrambling, hustling to find work. The best thing for the show is a sad state of affairs, which there are amazing writers that are available. 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. 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?”

Lawrence added, “Not to get way too deep on you, I’ve got my own stuff to work through. You hinted at it before and I would probably, without telling anybody the reasons, just say: I’m doing this just because it’s something that’s important to me for my own stuff. I’ll live with the consequences.”

The 2x Emmy winner expects to begin writing the reboot in the new year, noting that a deal with a showrunner “is being made as we speak, but as soon as that’s done, we’ll start.”

Although he wouldn’t name the candidate, Lawrence noted, “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.”

With Lawrence on board, 20th TV is moving in to secure the main Scrubs original cast — Zach Braff, who plays John ‘J.D.’ Dorian, Sarah Chalke (Elliot Reid), Donald Faison (Christopher Turk) and John C. McGinley (Perry Cox). It’s unclear if Judy Reyes will return as no-nonsense nurse Carla Espinosa, who left the medical comedy ahead of its final season. According to sources, her character is factored into early plans for the reboot.

“Big chunks of the creative team behind the camera, and most of it from in front of the camera, are all super invested and excited,” Lawrence told Deadline in October, indicating that he would bring back some of his creative collaborators for the Scrubs followup, which at the time he described as being “very close to being worked out.”