Fake Doctors, Real Friends with Zach and Donald - 107: My Super Ego with John C. McGinley
Episode Date: April 28, 2020On this week's episode of Scrubs, there's a new hot shot intern at Sacred Heart. JD's place at the top of his class may be in jeopardy. Meanwhile, in the real world, John C. McGinley join Zach and Don...ald as they remember 9/11. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Bye. my career. I'm also going to be talking a lot about cancer, the ups and the downs,
everything that I've learned from it. It's going to be a wild ride. So listen to Let's Be Clear
with Shannon Doherty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
What are you drinking today? That liquor cabinet's getting empty. What do we got today?
Managed Shabbats and lemonade. I hear the liquor store is not the place to go. I went. When'd you go? I gloved up, I masked up,
I haz matted up, and I went in and filled a freaking basket. Yeah, you know what's crazy?
They're talking about opening it back up. Well, not California. Texas is talking about opening
back up next week. Yeah, well, that's not going to work out for anybody. That's just the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life.
That's not going to work out for anyone.
Good thing we have Governor Newsom, who I think is doing a fantastic job.
And Garcetti, man.
Thank goodness for Garcetti, too, man.
Both doing well.
Let's give them both a shout out.
Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on.
Let's sing.
Here's some stories about a show we made
About a bunch of doctors and nurses and a janitor who loved to
hate i said here's our stories that we all should know so gather round to hear our
gather round to hear our scrub to rewatch show with zach and donald
donald fazon um it's a very, very exciting day today on this podcast.
Do you know why?
We're getting epic today.
I know.
We're going uber epic today.
Yeah, I mean, don't get me wrong.
The creator of the show, that's fancy.
America's favorite Canadian, Sarah Chalk, that's fancy.
But nothing is as fancy as someone who we love as much as this man, who I can say I learned a lot as an actor from and is just a really fucking talented and hilarious human being.
Stand by, Dan, with the thunderous applause cue.
Johnny C. McGinley.
Yeah.
Yeah, boy.
The legend.
The legend that is John C. McGinley.
Hello, Donald.
Hello, Zachy.
How are you?
I'm firmer.
Yeah, you are.
Always.
Always.
Always.
Johnny, how's your, how's the, you know, you were saying just before we started recording
that, you know, that you had been homeschooling your kids.
So this isn't as odd of a switch for you.
Tell everybody a little bit about that.
We've been homeschooling forever.
Billy is 12, Kate's almost 10,
and we've been homeschooling
all the way through elementary school here.
One thing they miss is their friends, obviously,
and we've been taking this thing super seriously,
and we're totally locked down
because we got Nicole, my wife's father here,
who has some pre-existing challenges
and pre-existing conditions.
And so we've been taking this thing by the letter.
And so, look, we're lucky enough to live in this place.
I mean, I built a baseball field during the writer's strike on Scrubs,
and so there's a baseball field right behind me.
And so we use that almost as a playground.
And, you know, there's stuff.
This is a kid compound, so they can run around here.
But they don't get to see their friends.
They don't go to do dance and aerial and pottery and all the stuff you do
when you're not homeschooling or go down
to the beach. Do you have friends? Do you have friends? Like I was just thinking about Donald
who, who are homeschooling for the first time, who are calling you and be like, got any advice
or anything? Because I'm watching Donald do it. And he's like hiding out in his closet.
I've run from my kids. This is how bad people don't call the, this department for that. They
call, they call upstairs to the Nicole department.
Oh, Nicole, you're in your way.
Well, then she and I need to get on the phone because I am failing miserably.
My wife is a champion.
She runs the household.
But I feel like I'm starting to slack so much that she's like, when this is over, I'm leaving you.
I think if you could compartmentalize and play to your strengths, Donald, you'd be better off.
I don't have many strengths, Johnny.
Yeah, you do.
You've got sports.
Johnny said he's doing PE.
You could be in charge of PE.
I have a competitive spirit in me that won't allow my kids to beat me.
I have problems, guys.
I have problems.
My son screams at me because I never let him win.
He finally started beating me at this.
We have this thing called Papa Shot.
And it's like, you know how you go to the carnival.
Of course.
And you get to shoot as many jump shots as you can.
And you burst somebody.
We have that.
He destroys me in that.
So much so that I don't want to play the game anymore, man.
Well, I'm stoked for you guys doing this podcast.
I've listened to, this is either the fourth or fifth one.
I've listened to everything, and I listen to it while I'm working out because it's about an hour and a half or so.
And I put it on, and I go in the garage, and it just makes me happy.
Does it get – when the theme song comes on, does that get you pumped?
I liked it.
Well, you guys are so goddamn talented.
Johnny, we wrote that.
It's our first
time as lyricists. Donald, I don't know if you've been a lyricist before, but it's my first time
as a lyricist. I put a lyric or two to songs in song form. I've done it. Yes. Well, it's my first
time. You're very good at it. That's not your first time dude we used to listen guys you don't remember the songs that we had baby keep it real baby let's chill i'm tired of you all up in my crew
see donald's so goddamn talented he could sing all these songs and remember his lines i could
only do one thing, remember my lines.
Well, I want to talk about that for a second, Johnny, because Donald, as far as I see it in the world of Scrubs, there were two extremes.
There was you knowing every fucking piece of syllable and punctuation mark and Donald being like, am I in this scene?
being like, am I in this scene?
Yeah, but Donald's so goddamn talented that even if it took him three or four takes,
the fourth take was heaven.
I mean, in this episode,
we'll talk about it in a second,
but there's a scene where he dances
to a Michael Jackson knockoff,
and Billy had to be just, it's like
a fair catch in football. He just, that was manna from heaven that an actor would bust that out.
That's not on the page. No, that wasn't on the page. I think that's also the beginning of,
of Turk dancing in damn near every episode. It's unbelievable. It's a gift. Yeah. Yeah.
Johnny, what was, talk a little bit about how you did those.
Because sometimes, just for people that are listening, Johnny would sometimes get those speeches the night before.
Sometimes the day before, hours before.
Absolutely.
Yeah, and for those of you who don't memorize for a living, it can be very hard.
But doing what Johnny had to do on the spot is sometimes close to impossible.
So I remember you having a bit of a system.
Will you talk about that for people?
Well, I keep these composition books.
You know, the composition books you have in high school, those black and white things.
The first thing I do is I write out the text in my own hand.
And then in the margins, I put the verbs of what I'm doing.
And so that just by virtue of writing it out starts to get it in your skull. And then by assigning verbs to every action that you're doing, that's the second stage.
And then if I had time, I keep a rehearsal space here. I would go down and there's a whole kind of
little film studio downstairs and I would get in front of that. But a lot of times that was
out the window because Billy would hand it to you on your way into the hospital and i'm not being method hospital it we did in fact work in a in a defunct hospital
sometimes i'll say that to different people like oh you're so method i'm like no i'm not
fucking method it was a hospital so shut the fuck up and so i i got when i got to the hospital and
they would hand me new lines every year disney would give us – I'll make it up.
You guys remember.
But $1,500 to improve our dressing rooms since our dressing rooms were hospital rooms where people had died and where people had been saved.
And what I did with my $1,500 is I doubled down and I hired an acoustic firm, and they came in and soundproofed my dressing room so I wouldn't
have to hear you idiots in the hallway and all the dogs for some reason because one or two of you
brought your dogs the whole crew decided well if Zach and Donald can do it uh the guy in sound and
the guy the production design he can do it so all of a sudden there was a pack of about 17 dogs. And as karma would have it, and I like dogs.
I hate most people's dogs.
I like dogs, but I don't like them at work.
I remember that.
I remember all you would hear was, get out!
I'm trying to remember two pages, single space.
Do you remember in the Christmas story how he's always fighting
the dogs next door? That was like Johnny C on our floor. Because Johnny C was like, oh,
someone shut the dogs up. The dogs all wanted to be with Johnny C in a round. Absolutely.
And so much so that I don't know what you guys remember. I don't know what season, but
I wrote a letter to our bosses at disney to the hr department
human resources and then i did what you're supposed to do with an angry letter i according
my grandfather i put it in the drawer for two nights you're supposed to take angry letters you
don't press this was not when you press send right i wrote it and i put it in the drawer for two
nights and in the intervening time someone got nipped by a dog on our roar and disney found
out about it not because of me and they were like what there are 17 dogs pissing and shitting
on the third floor and i took that letter and i put it right over in the shredder because
i thought you were gonna i thought you were gonna give us a big reveal that you had written the HR letter, but you're saying you never sent it.
I did not.
I kept it in the drawer, and then I was let off the hook because if you're the guy who made it so that people couldn't bring their goddamn dogs to work, then you're that guy.
Look, the fact of the matter is that you asked how do you memorize those things.
Fear is a really good thing.
And I was just afraid to disappoint Billy, and I wanted him to write those things for me.
And so I figured out a way to get them into my skull.
You were so good at it, John.
And those rants.
I was looking on YouTube just as we were gearing up for this episode, and just like people have like top five Dr. Cox rants. Like it's like a
thing. People love to just listen back to those. And, and, uh, and just some of them are just so
epic and hilarious where they get hard is when Billy started. And I don't know whether it was
season four or five, six, um, it's a good problem. Uh, when he just started writing lists that had
nothing to do with the item that came before it. And he'd just write two pages of lists, reasons why I don't care about you becoming a doctor
or something like that.
And they're just this random list.
Those were hard.
Memorizing a story is a piece of cake.
But these lists, two pages, single space of lists.
On the other side, we were talking about how
Donald would show up and be like, oh
shit, I got a monologue today.
I know when you say that.
That was a time in my life.
I don't know.
I don't know what was the
matter with me. I smoked
a lot of marijuana back then too.
Not that I don't now but i smoked a
tremendous amount back then i don't think this was the beginning of the run that i did this i think
as i got comfortable things changed and as the show got successful things changed and i slacked
and i remember somebody asking me like dude what do you do when you go home and i was like i live
my life they were like and they were like but what about
your job i was like it's getting done like i was so i think you just got comfortable that you knew
that you'd get it and you knew that it would be cut together and it'd be funny so you're just like
fuck it well i don't know if i was yeah you know i don't know what it was. Since then, I have, you know, I've tried to make sure that if I ever ran into anyone else,
if I ran into people on other jobs that worked with me on Scrubs and remembered how I was on Scrubs,
I wanted them to have a completely different opinion of me after we finished working.
And so it's, if anything, all of the you know all of the you
know me being unprepared and stuff like that prepared me for later on because now forget
about it i you know i'm like you johnny if i mess up a line i'm putting a hole through a wall or
something like that you know what i mean how are you get it done in three or four takes i want us
to get out of here i want to get it if i'm not done if I can't do it in three takes then forget about it man like then I've wasted I
feel like I've wasted everybody's time well I feel that more especially now when it's not your own
show when I'm going to do a supporting part on something and I fuck up a line I just I get so
mad at myself yeah you know we it's funny you know after doing the show for nine years we were so
comfortable and And that
comfortableness led to a lot of amazing stuff because there was no wrong answer. And we were
so silly with each other and we could riff. But now I find when I go do roles where I'm not the
lead or I'm supporting or I'm in any, whatever I'm doing, I really get mad at myself if I fuck
up a line. I really put more effort into it than I ever have. I was about to say, because
Zach, I remember a night where you put
the sides,
people out there who don't know what sides are, they're the piece
of paper where the line, where they write the,
where they miniaturize the script
into these tiny pages. It's just the tiny, each day
we get a tiny version of the script, it's probably,
I don't know, what is it, like eight inches
by four inches. Something like that.
I remember one night where you taped those sides to my forehead on off-camera.
Yeah.
But I would like everyone to Google Marlon Brando in The Godfather,
and you'll see, and you can just put in like Marlon Brando Godfather line memorization,
and you'll see a picture with Jamesames khan with a huge poster board
taped to his chest now i'm not saying yeah is this real yeah i'll send you guys the picture
i'm not saying i'm i'm uh i'm marlon brando but i am saying you're james khan and i uh
yeah listen there's times where you go i'm fucked i do not know this donald would you
mind taping this to your forehead? No, you didn't
say, Donald, would you mind? You were like, come here.
No. And I was like, motherfucker.
I remember taking it off and being like, you mother...
No, what we used to do is, like, whenever there was a
place to hide them out of camera, we'd tape them
to the desk, we'd tape them to whatever.
Sometimes we'd tape them to the front of the camera.
But I remember that one time when I couldn't get it
down and it was like, the time was running out
and I was like, Donald, I'm so sorry.
But I need – my character needs to be looking at your face.
Johnny, you never did that.
Donald and I would hide our sides all over the place.
I don't have any memory of you ever doing that.
Johnny, you used to have like little notes here and there in your hand.
No, but not – he wouldn't hide them and reference them during the scene like you and I would.
Oh, no, no, no.
No, but not he wouldn't hide them and reference them during the scene like you.
No, no, no, no. No, I just if I was struggling with Latin, which all medical terms are Latin based.
If I was struggling with something in Latin that I hadn't been on the phone with real J.D. for an hour the night before, I would I would phonetically put it on those clipboards that we carried.
And at the last second, I'd take a look.
Now, I remember the hardest one ever
was uh broken heart syndrome was tokusubo cardiomyopathy and that's about this long
and i still freaking remember it tokusubo cardiomyopathy now legend has it that some of
the best uh home tests for movies or television shows have happened at your house.
Is it true that you once dug a hole in your backyard for a part?
No.
That's not true.
No.
What are you talking about?
Why would he dig a hole in his backyard?
I thought he was self-taping and was digging a hole for the self-tape.
Oh, he's saying that you got all into your self-tapes and would dig holes?
What would that be for Platoon? Like he's audition yeah like something like that no no i met with
oliver five times for platoon no no but you did but you did used to self-tape at home a lot though
at some point right well when that came into vogue sure now you can do it on this thing but
for a little while you know there's a camera on a tripod down there was down in the rehearsal space and yeah for a little while that that's what auditions came to be yeah donnie that's a good
segue into uh into your auditioning for this we donald and i and we asked sarah to talk a little
bit about our experiences sarah's thing was a riot hilarious right i listened to all of it
yesterday it was genius so tell us about yours because we don't,
and you heard Bill's telling of yours,
but I think our fans are interested
in how it all came to be.
Do you remember like your very first time reading
and all that?
Yeah, because you had already been
in so many other things before this.
I know you were coming to it from a very different space
because you'd been in such amazing movies.
And I just wondered, you know, Donald had done some work.
I had done virtually nothing.
So how is it different for you?
I was coming from, because I heard, Jackie, I heard yours,
that you were a waiter at the La Coloniale.
La Coloniale, yeah.
Yeah, you were a waiter over there.
And I know Donald had done Denzel's movie and done stuff.
But I was on a track and how how to take something off of this so it doesn't sound arrogant.
But I was on about I was on a track of doing about four films a year.
And in my brain, it was that if you ever I said yes to everything.
So I did plenty of stinkers. But I just always felt like that more film begat more film.
So I was just always around the world doing whatever you offered me.
And I wasn't going to come off the film train.
And so then they sent me Scrubs.
And there was, as Billy told you, there was a John McGinley part.
In parentheses, it said a John McGinley part in parentheses.
It said a John McGinley type for Dr. Cox.
And I'm like, well, just make the offer.
I'm here.
Hey.
You mean like this?
Yeah.
So I went in to meet Billy over at Disney, and that was great.
He was one of the great guys on the planet.
And then by the time, actors do this weird thing
when they get a little too comfortable is they subvert themselves.
And I felt like I did that because there were tiers of different hierarchy
that you had to go through on this thing.
There was the casting people, which I got to skip.
There was Billy.
Then you had to audition at Disney. Then you had to audition at NBC. And so I tanked the one at
Disney. And I don't know why. I was either lazy or presumptuous, but I sucked.
Did you know when you, Johnny, did you feel that in the room?
I always know. Yeah. And so I said, Billy, just let me go to the
next level and I'll blow the back of the room out. Just just don't don't. I just fouled a few off at
at Disney. And when I went to NBC, as you guys have have have sorted it out with Billy and Sarah,
there's a room not much bigger than the one I'm sitting in, maybe 16 by 20.
And it's the casting guy's room. And there's people on the ventilator, on the on the fence.
There's people everywhere sitting on the ceiling, sitting on the ground all over.
It's like a bad Thanksgiving talent show production with your aunts and uncles.
And so I didn't recognize there were four or five other Dr. Cox's there.
I didn't recognize any of them.
And I was just like, it didn't really matter
because I already did.
Just for actors, you can get good at auditioning.
And I got really good at it
because I used the rehearsal space as a spot
to get this four minute compressed little impression you make
discipline down. I got really good at it. The fact that I tanked at Disney didn't matter. I was doing
some other bullshit. But when I went into that room, I was just going to fucking kill it. And I
did. And when I shut the door and at the time I had this Jersey muscle car I had a Mustang 5.0 black convertible and I started driving home on the 101 and I was like I
Put Bruce on and it was blaring and I'm like, I definitely got that and if I didn't the show sucks
Bill told you your bills story where he said Johnny, how do you feel it?
You said like cash money or something like that. I said it was money. I said money.
He said, do you want to do it again?
And I'm like, for what?
I hate when directors say, do you want to do it again?
Because if you got it, you got it.
Because all I do, when I do things again, when you ask me, I'm going to start changing things.
And I hate rewriting.
Everybody thinks I like to rewrite shit.
I don't like to rewrite anything.
I like it on the page. I like to crush it. And I like rewriting. Everybody thinks I like to rewrite shit. I don't like to rewrite anything. I like it on the page.
I like to crush it, and I like to leave.
And then if you ask me to keep doing it again and again,
I'm going to get bored because I know you have it in the can,
and I'm going to start changing things.
And what I did with Dr. Cox over the years is I changed his syncopation.
I turned into this kind of Martin Scorsese on LSD thing where I did these long pauses and because I was
getting bored and yeah like walking like you sometimes you'd walking out and do some like
like crazy pause I was I and I would stretch these words and I just people love that when you go
he he he I was. I wanted more challenges.
And so that's the actor's brains.
If it's really firing like our brains were on that thing.
Remember, people don't understand.
We were there 16 hours a day, five days a week.
We spent much more time with each other than we did any semblance of family because there's a finite amount of hours in a week.
And for nine years, pretty much, we were together for 14 to,
by the end of the week, 16 hours.
And that was it.
In an abandoned hospital.
In an abandoned hospital.
In an abandoned hospital.
And it's almost like Donald will understand when you're practicing free throws,
if you do nothing but practice free throws, you will get good at it.
You just will.
And by virtue of beat just scrub saturation
people got really good at their jobs yeah yeah i agree that was the other thing i remember times
where we'd you'd have like long long monologues there were times where you didn't get it in one
take but then there were times where you would get it in one take and i remember directors being
like should we go again and you being like we got it let's go and you're like we only got one take
john and he's like i don't move it on let's go there's so many donald let's go through some of
our favorite johnny isms uh one that just came to my mind was moving on there's five good ones for
you there's five good ones for you was when he would shake your hand how are you better now
yeah better now and then he'd go,
when we were done with, John Michelle
was the name of one of our editors, and when
we were done with the scene, he'd go,
I think we gave John Michelle some ammo.
Cut to a couple
days later, I'm down in the editing suite,
just micromanaging everything John Michelle
was doing. I know.
You were always – that's where you – that was your go-to.
That was like your – that was your escape from hanging out on the third floor.
From the dogs.
From the dogs.
You just run down to editing and be like, show me what you got.
But I also had a post-production company in New York for – when I lived in New York up in the Brill Building for 15 years.
And so post is a very comfortable place for me.
Right on.
Yeah.
You like that stuff.
Yeah.
And I just remember you being – Donald and I were always trying to sneak in there as well.
And you'd be like – I have great memories of you being like, come in here.
You've got to see this.
You've got to see this.
People have to understand it was a very insular place.
There was no place to go. It was Scrubs University in this five-story abandoned hospital. But people have to understand it was a very insular place.
There was no place to go.
It was Scrubs University in this five-story abandoned hospital, and you had to be there.
You couldn't really go off campus.
You'd get in trouble because invariably we'd skip a scene and we'd say, where's John?
And he went down to do something.
He said, you can't go down to do anything.
Yeah. It's interesting.
When you're on a back lot,
you can saunter around and you can talk to other shows and you can talk to
people that have nothing to do with your show.
But there was something I think,
uh,
great that happened on our,
on our show in that we were so insular,
like Johnny said,
in that hospital that it made us
extra close because we never went anywhere. It wasn't like we just all were always together.
And I think that made us close. Something Billy didn't share, which I've brought to different
films and TV shows I've produced since, is Billy introduced the first or second day of shooting
in the cafeteria, which is the largest space that 120-person crew could all congregate.
He got everybody together, and he told them that he was going to put a no-asshole policy in place.
And everybody laughed and, you know, sounded kind of stupid.
Billy's the least confrontational person on the planet.
And what he meant was that if you come to work,
you've got to bring at least a modicum of respect with you. Otherwise, don't come. And everybody
knows just all the way back to the schoolyard how to be nice to each other and how to be respectful.
And a couple of people subsequently got fired for the no asshole policy. It didn't mean you had to
come to work and walk on pins and needles, mean you had to come to work and walk on pins and
needles but you had to come to work and be respectful and i thought that was great and i do
it on my sets now too and if people don't like it they can get the fuck out yeah that that's that's
real talk uh you know since scrubs i've been a part of uh cast where you know everybody's been
chill and lovely and everything like that, but there's
that one time where you have that one person
where you're like, oh my god, I wish
I was still on Scrubs right now so I could
freaking sit in the background
and watch you get fired for being such
a fucking asshole right now. You know what I mean?
It's not that complicated.
It really isn't. It's really easy to be a good
person. We were really lucky, I think, though.
There's so many casts that when you hear about a show that you know there's there's a finite number
of shows that go this long and we genuinely all really liked each other i mean i always say that
when i'm due press or someone asked me about the show and you know what was the secret to the magic
and one of them is that we genuinely all liked each other we genuinely all rooted for each other
when we would see each other at the bar after we rapped,
we were just as excited to see Johnny walk in the door.
And that didn't wear off.
I mean, we genuinely all loved each other's company for nine years.
Yeah, you know that's actually very true.
We partied so hard after 16 hours of hanging out with each other a day we would still be like yo
fox and a hound still has about two more hours until it closes and we'd all congregate at fox
and a hound after spending the whole day and some of the night together, man.
I would go back to my hospital room and go to sleep for the night because I couldn't drive out to Malibu.
And so after having a couple of beers, I went back to the hospital and went to sleep.
Wow.
And then just woke up the next morning.
And Johnny, tell them about how sometimes you'd come in to beat traffic at like four
in the morning.
I had this thing where I can't be late.
I just can't. I can't be late. I just can't.
I can't organize being late.
And so my window was I could leave at a normal time
if I had a call time at six or at 10.
But if my call time was anywhere between six and 10,
I would take a six o'clock call time
and just drive in at five,
go to sleep for a couple hours, memorize all that shit that Billy was writing, and then be fresh and ready to go.
And plus there was a shower.
There was a communal shower at the end of our hallway, and I used that thing all the time.
I've never – I think I used it.
You never showered there, Donald?
I think maybe once or twice.
Oh, God. I was in there every day.
Was it a good shower?
It was hot water.
I didn't care.
That's what's up.
All right, we're going to go to a break, and we'll be right back.
Jon Stewart is back in the host chair at The Daily Show,
which means he's also back in our ears on The Daily Show Ears Edition podcast.
The Daily Show podcast has everything you need to stay on top of today's news and pop
culture.
You get hilarious satirical takes on entertainment, politics, sports, and more from John and the
team of correspondents and contributors.
The podcast also has content you can't get anywhere else, like extended interviews and
a roundup of the
weekly headlines. Listen to The Daily Show, ears edition on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts. back with a new season of my podcast. This season will be even more revealing and more personal
with more entrepreneurs, more trailblazers, more live events, more Martha, and more questions from
you. I'm talking to my cosmetic dermatologist, Dr. Dan Belkin, about the secrets behind my skincare.
the secrets behind my skincare. Walter Isaacson about the geniuses who change the world. Encore Jane about creating a billion-dollar startup. Dr. Elisa Pressman about the five basic strategies
to help parents raise good humans. Florence Fabrikant about the authenticity in the world
of food writing. Be sure to tune in to season two of the Martha Stewart podcast.
Listen and subscribe to the Martha Stewart podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I used to have so many men.
How this beguiling woman in her 50s.
She looked like a million bucks.
With zero qualifications.
She had a Harvard plaque.
Tricks her way past a wall of lawyers and agents.
She's got all of these Maseratis and Bentleys all in the driveway.
Is it like a mansion?
Yes, it's a mansion.
That this queen of the con uses to scam some of the biggest names in professional sports out of untold fortunes.
About six million.
Approximately 11 million dollars.
Nearly 10 million dollars was all gone.
Employing whatever means necessary to bleed her victims dry.
She would probably have sex with one of her clients.
Hide your money in your old rich man
because she is on the prowl. Listen to Queen of the Con, season five, The Athlete Whisperer,
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Truck stop brothels run by a web of ex-cons. A Commonwealth attorney wasted on whiskey and power.
Protection exchanged for cash and flesh.
This is Hooker Game.
Criminals and libertines in the South.
And I am your host, Dr. Lindsay Byron.
Three years ago, I came across a goldmine of news clippings
detailing a scandal that rocked my small southern hometown.
As I flipped through each page, this forgotten story came back to life.
I was told that it was just supposed to be a massage parlor.
The big shot in there was Barker.
He beats me continuously.
If you print anything that you hear in the grand jury,
you will be put in jail.
I never gave any massages.
Listen to Hooker Gay,
Criminals and Libertines in the South
on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
And we're back.
And we're back. And we're back.
We are back.
Donald, whenever he does these.
We're here with John C. McGinley.
Whenever Donald does these ins and outs of a commercial, he turns into Oprah.
We're back.
I heard him do that with Sarah, and I was listening to it on the deck, and I was dying.
I could have given you, I could have totally given you an Oprah introduction.
John C. McGinney!
I was thinking about the 107,
which is interesting that we would be doing 107,
which when I looked in my composition book,
it was actually 106, and it got shifted
because of 9-11.
Yes.
But before we get into the 9-11 of it all, which has a profound impact on this episode,
I when I was looking through my composition book down in the rehearsal space last night, when I was looking forward to talking to you guys, I noticed that I always in the first,
if you're lucky enough to have to write a lot of different composition books like we were on Scrubs,
if you're lucky enough to have to write a lot of different composition books like we were on Scrubs,
I always put a mission statement on the first page of what I, John, not I, Dr. Cox, want to do with this thing.
And I saw that the mission statement on on Scrubs was to find a place underneath the text for with every episode where you can say I love you to Max. And I took that seriously because my
son Max had been born a year or two earlier when we started in
2001. And Max was born with
challenges. Max was born with Down syndrome. He's doing great now. But I decided
that Cox underneath it all so that it never became
too drippy. Just underneath it all so that we never became too, too drippy just underneath it. Every episode,
there had to be one spot where I got to say, I, John, not Dr. Cox, got to say, I love you to Max.
And in this episode, it's it's right where when I'm talking to Judy and I say, just because a guy
has problems, it doesn't mean he doesn't need. And then there's this long pause.
And it's because I kept getting an apple in my throat.
And then he says, you.
And I was from I reminded me that I took the thing so goddamn seriously, this mission statement that I wrote to Max.
And it informs everything that Cox does, because I was I think Zachy knows this.
I always consider the camera an x-ray machine that
it can see through all the actors bullshit. And we all try to bring
a walk and a lisp or some eccentricity. And
unless that's distilled down to a real pure
instinct, the camera's just like bullshit. That's
bullshit. And you can see it's night and day.
And so that when an actor actually brings a mission statement that demands that he finds a place somewhere in the text, underneath it, not just underneath the text, to say I love you to a kid who was just born with challenges, that pops.
That, the camera goes, oh, that's his truth. He's telling the truth.
And that's what pops. I love that you said that, Johnny, because I think one of the
magical things that you did with Dr. Cox was find a guy who's so tough and find a way in every
episode to show that he was doing everything he can to protect everyone, protect his heart,
and from people seeing the amount of love he actually had.
He had this super, super tough cement exterior
because he was alpha and he was a badass doctor
and he didn't want people to know.
But then you would just, it was like,
it was leaking out of him.
You couldn't help it.
And you would see these little moments where it's like,
this guy has the biggest heart.
He's just keeping it all under wraps.
That's perfect for this episode that we're talking about right now, 107.
Carla is the only person in the hospital who's known you long enough at this point to be able to see through that bullshit.
Okay, you're being tough on all of these people, but you care.
You're in it just like, you know what I mean?
You're not scared, but you care.
And I think that's what started you, what started Cox,
correct me if I'm wrong, to have feelings for her.
Like, okay, well, if everybody's afraid of me
and there's this one person in the hospital
who's willing to stand up to me,
not even stand up, but to call me on
my bullshit, there's a special place in my heart for that.
And I honestly thought that Carla was going to choose, you know, when we were making the
show, I thought she was going to choose Cox over Turk.
I was kind of hoping at that when I was younger that she would choose Cox over Turk so that
I'd have more love interests on the show. Oh my God. I can't wait to talk about that with Judy when
she comes on the show. You know, the writers, as Donald was suggesting, out of that writer's room
came different nuanced flirtations between Cox and Carla. I never noticed that this one is obviously really prevalent.
And I hadn't,
I hadn't seen this in 20 years,
but I was like,
there's a vibe between those two.
It lasts for the next like five,
six episodes.
And absolutely.
Yeah.
It's,
and then,
and then Cox and Turk have it out.
And then Cox,
do you remember thinking Donald,
do you remember thinking like,
cause you,
we didn't know what the fuck the writers were going to do.
Do you remember thinking like, Oh shit is Judy is, are they going to write her to go off with him?
Yeah, I remember thinking that because they had history.
That's the one thing that the two of them out of everyone in the show and also Ken's character, Kelso, the three of them all have history.
But Cox and Carla have history.
Like, I imagine Carla Carla Cox was a very
young doctor when Carla came in you know what I mean
like you know what I mean she had been there
Carla had been there for
a while and so they knew each other
they may have hooked up
that's what I thought I thought there was that one time
when I was watching today I was like
these two fucked it looks like
these two characters have history
yeah absolutely that we're gonna take it to our Today I was like, these two fucked. It looks like these two characters have history. Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, and that we're going to take it to our grave and never speak about this history.
Right.
And I, like Donald and like you, Zachy, I unabashedly love Judy.
Yeah.
And so that was an easy thing to groove into.
You guys had great chemistry.
And I was really noticing that uh again
we're watching all these with fresh eyes after so many years and i was watching this one i was
really i don't know i just was reminded how good those scenes are when it was you two you guys had
amazing chemistry together absolutely i don't think there's any acting going on like i say
the camera is an x-ray machine yeah and, it is. And it can see through bullshit.
And it could see that I love Judy Reyes.
Undabashedly.
Absolutely.
And I always have.
Well, let's get into the elephant in the room because I was actually really nervous to watch this episode.
It's the first one that I was like – I had a pit in my stomach because as Johnny touched on, this was the episode we were shooting when 9-11 occurred.
9-11 happened on a Tuesday.
Well, we had shot Monday and then 9-11 occurred.
And we should all tell our stories of that day, I think.
I remember I woke up to Howard Stern.
You know when you're half awake and you're listening and Howard Stern was talking about it. And it got to a point where I went, wait, what? And I left up
out of bed and I went and turned on the TV. And I remember thinking as we all did, holy shit,
this is what the fuck's happening in the world. But also as a young actor who just got on job,
I was like, what are we supposed to do here? Do do we go to work today like how and i remember i still was like i i think i'm supposed to still go to work so i
i went in and i remember sean hayes who was our guest star was there and and he and i sat in my
dressing room and watched it happen and and shortly that thereafter the the day was was
canceled uh do you guys want to tell what what your memory of that yeah i remember getting a And shortly thereafter, the day was canceled.
Do you guys want to tell what your memory of that day is? Yeah.
I remember getting a phone call, and it was like 5 o'clock in the morning.
I remember picking up the phone and recognizing the number and cursing the person out.
What the fuck is your problem?
I got work in a couple of hours.
Why are you calling me this early?
You know what I mean? And she said, and she over the phone goes, I'm sorry. Shit. Sorry.
I just wanted to tell you that a plane crashed into the world trade center. And I was like,
oh shit. I'm sorry. Whoa. What, what, wait, what, what? And I ran to the television and I turned it
on. And like everybody else in America, I was stuck watching television for,
and then Randall finally called and was like, we're not coming into work, you know, but today,
the day is canceled. You don't have to come in. But I remember just sitting in front of the
television, very much like I am right now. You know what I mean? I feel like I wake up every
morning and the minute I wake up, I turn on the news to check to see how many people have COVID-19, how many people we lost because of COVID-19, and what the plan is to figure out how we're going to get rid of COVID-19.
You know what I mean? And for the next week, I remember that was all that I did was I just watched the news to see what the heck is America going to do next.
How about you, Johnny? Were you called in that day?
Yeah, I went back and looked it up last night.
So the North Tower got hit at 545 a.m.
And I would have left about 10 minutes after that to get there.
And so I saw the first.
Well, they didn't really show the first, but it looked
like a plane went into the first building and then I had to go. And so the South Tower got hit
about 22 minutes later at 6.03 our time, 9.03 New York time. And so I would have been listening to
it on the news. But all of this to me, there's something called a mental model and it's how you
perceive things. In my mental model, it was like the plane that hit the Empire State Building before we were born.
There was a prop plane that went into the Empire State Building, and nothing really happened.
Not nothing.
I'm sure some people died, and it was horrible, but it just sounded like that.
And so that's how I was driving into Burbank, and when I got there, that clearly wasn't the case. And then
my brother worked on the 62nd floor of the South Tower. And so I kept trying to call him. And so
pretty early on, it became clear that nobody was going to get through on any lines, on cell lines
or landlines, because everything disconnected on those towers. And so I couldn't get through on any lines, on cell lines or land lines because everything
disconnected on those towers.
And so I couldn't get through to my brother and this is when an actor's imagination is
a curse, not a blessing.
You only imagine horrible things.
And it turns out in those 18, 20 minutes, those intervening times between the North
Tower getting hit and the South Tower getting hit, on Mark's trading desk, they all had been there when the shake from Newark, New Jersey,
had set off that bomb in the van in the basement 10 years earlier.
So everyone on Mark's trading desk got up when the first building got hit,
and they started to make their way down the stairs.
But it was such a clusterfuck going down the stairs and those 18 minutes from the 60 second floor down they only made it about
20 stories everybody from like 72 up died and so mark got a concussion going down the stairs i
don't know how he got really disoriented and by the time he got out of the building, he wandered up the FDR drive to East Harlem.
And so he was missing for about 12 hours.
And so he made it all the way to Harlem.
Yes.
Holy cow.
Was he just in shock, Johnny?
And he walked that far?
Yes.
Wow.
And so I sat in the hospital for all that time.
And then I tried his wife who lived out in Short Hills, New Jersey at the time.
She only had an outgoing message on her machine saying, Mark, I know you're OK.
I've gone over to the Smith's house and we're waiting for your call there.
Well, no calls came for about 12 hours.
And so I sat in the dressing room thinking horrible things.
And then obviously the buildings came down shortly after that. And what? Almost 4000 Americans died.
And so that was a that's the backdrop for us shooting this episode.
Yeah, it's kind of miraculous that the episode even makes any sense because of what some people were carrying into the frame.
I agree.
I think it's a weird episode.
I do too.
I don't know if I'm bringing my own anxiety of the time to it as I watch it now, but I'm also going, we were all not present for these however many days.
100%.
Right, absolutely.
All not present for these however many days.
100%. Right, absolutely.
And I felt like, especially when you look at the first episode chunk that we've just watched, which are like, holy shit, look at this show.
Look at their fire in all cylinders.
This is the first one where I go, oh, we all, and understandably, obviously, we all look a little spaced out to me.
When I watched it last night, I mean, there's obviously a lot of funny stuff in it that I wrote down that made me laugh.
But and again, like you, Zach, I can't tell if it's me imposing my John McGinley on to what Billy Lawrence created for those 21 minutes.
But if you just said disconnected, it it seemed a little disconnected to me.
This one. yes, absolutely.
But how could it not be?
Right, yeah.
If McGinley's brother just got out of the South Tower and was missing for a day, what are you, Superman?
Of course you're going to carry that in front of the lens.
Now, do you guys remember we took that Tuesday off.
Did we work the next day or take that day off as well no i think we took wednesday off and we worked thursday
yeah now i do remember this i remember the very first thing we came back believe it or not was
that fucking dog show fantasy so i remember feeling horribly guilty that we should a should
we even be working but i'm under a contract and i'm an
actor and i'm not gonna ruffle anybody's feathers but it should be we'd be working but then like
yes everyone's back to work here we go and i was like okay what are we shooting i can do this uh
we're gonna do a fantasy where you're a dog at a dog show and johnny c is gonna feel your balls
and i that was like the first thing up johnny do you remember that it was the first
thing up it must have been thursday morning was me i do remember now that i watch it i remember it
oh my god i just remember that i wrote down i wrote down that during the dog show flashback
i had decided to make you both really uncomfortable and i think it was because i was really uncomfortable
so i i love actors and i would never do anything to ever, ever hurt an actor, especially when it comes to physical contact.
And I think I was just I was not appropriately gentle with you guys.
I like took your ears, Zach.
And you can see and I took your fucking mouth and I opened it up and I took I took Sean's ear.
And I was I was uncharacteristically for me as an actor, not Cox, but I love actors so much I would never, ever do anything to hurt them.
And I would think I was not appropriate with you two guys in that.
I was very rough.
I remember being manhandled.
Thank you for pantomiming the testicle part, though, because I think that would have been a little too rough on me.
I'm sure at some point
I put my fist up your rectum.
I don't think so.
At least not in this episode.
That may have been in later.
I think you did wear me like a hand puppet
but it was in episode four.
I think during the dog show thing
I may have engaged you.
Well, we were joking with Bill
about how the crazy sound effects
were slowly phased out. I don't know, maybe because we were joking with Bill about how the crazy sound effects were slowly phased out.
I don't know, maybe because we were all off in this episode, but this episode has so many ridiculous sound effects.
So many sound effects.
So many.
And there's like a Santa's sleigh jingle bell noise when you grab my balls.
That's like the choice that was made.
somewhere in the in sound effects editing they were like um okay what's the noise for uh johnny grabbing jd's balls guys how about a santa sleigh bell jingle bell jingle bell sleigh bell you know
what i you know what i thought was really funny zacky when you and kenny are up on the roof
um and he goes to he does kind of a fake attacking you up on the roof. Yeah, yeah.
And whether or not you're just a great actor or if it was really weird, it looked really weird.
It's a weird scene, by the way.
Can I just – It's a weird scene.
I don't understand.
He calls you a pansy.
He goes, you know what your problem is?
Yeah.
Is that you're a pansy.
Like just straight up.
It's a weird scene.
And I was waiting for something to happen.
I remember there was a fantasy where I fell off a roof,
and there was a stuntman who did a big jump.
And I thought, oh, is that this?
But it doesn't really go anywhere.
And Ken's just up there smoking a pipe.
He calls me a pansy, and then almost throws me off the roof, like legit.
And then, like, that's the scene.
That's it.
legit and then like that's the scene that's it and and a couple scenes before that at 9 44 when when he goes keep shooting you the um he he gums over and gives you a hug and then kenny wraps
his leg around i think that's a fantasy johnny i i i didn't know what the fuck was happening there
either and then there's a white flash out of it i think that's jd's fantasy because why even in the fantasy but why would kessel his leg around you he mounted me
made me laugh well i i just want to say i think that's i wrote down that i think that's the only
time in nine years that ken jenkins ever mounted me can we talk can we talk about jerking off
real quick yeah a big part as a part of the show or just in your own life?
Yeah, we can talk about both.
Let's talk about both.
How about that?
Okay, good.
Okay, so here's the one thing.
I get that, first of all, we have two callbacks to MASH.
We have you as a kid playing MASH with your brother.
Oh, that's right.
And this scene, the whole jerk off scene, is actually a scene from MASH.
That's right. It's a movie, if I'm correct, where they trick somebody to go into the bathroom and jerk off.
Yeah, hot lips take a shower.
My question is, when did jerking off become a bad thing that you got to be embarrassed about?
Well, at work.
No, but you're not supposed to jerk off at work, Donald.
Write that down.
It's sound apart.
As a surgeon.
Got it.
So, wait, hold on.
Okay, so we're clear.
It's okay to masturbate, but once you do it at work, you've crossed the line.
Yes, I think this could be a public service announcement.
This could be a public service announcement for people all over the world.
Don't masturbate at work.
It's crossing the line.
The more you know.
Dan, you can put in a little more you know sound effect there.
I saw something when Donald and I get to do the scene
that comes before this when we're in the cafeteria
and I tell you to go to go in, what's the town I tell you to go to?
Like Spanktown or something like that. Oh, I forgot what i what i did palmville palmdale palmdale and i have a pet peeve with
actors um who wait until they swallow their food to say a line and if you notice in that thing i
always take the soup to here it doesn't't go in. No, it never does.
Don't.
I hate when actors.
I never eat, by the way.
It's disgusting.
No, whenever there's.
You will.
If you ever see me eating in anything I've ever done, it's rare.
My character is always done because I don't want to deal with all the continuity and eating for three hours.
Okay.
People are starting to notice that actors aren't eating on television shows
or in movies now.
Before people
didn't necessarily notice, that's
something that I think people are starting to notice
now. Other than Brad Pitt,
no one eats. No one.
Whenever I see someone legit eating,
like whenever I see someone, I watch a scene
and someone's like eating, I'm like, oh my god, they
ate like that for probably four hours.
Not correct.
My character is always done.
Always.
But also if it gets in the way of, of the actor saying the line and we have to wait
for those of us in a big family, nobody waits to talk until they swallow.
They, there's food in their mouth.
They just segregated over into kind of a chip on, and then they just fire out the words.
Otherwise, you'll lose the floor at the dinner table.
Did you guys have go-to meals that – there were lots of scenes where we were supposed to have food in front of us.
Did you guys have a go-to thing you would ask to be in front of you?
Steak.
Always steak.
Me, soup because you never have to eat it.
Yeah.
I'm going to steal that, Johnny, because I always have a plate of – I would always tell them, can you make it look like I'm done? And like, you know, and, but no,
because with soup, you can just, the spoon, the prop of the spoon is it's indefatigable. It's
perfect. It can, you can, and plus you can throw it at somebody. You can, it's the prop of the
spoon. You use the spoon. I always went for steak because i could eat steak forever
i could eat steak like nobody's business so you were eating you were you were an eater
no but if i did have like there was that one episode where i did have to eat uh and because
turk gets a really bad heartburn and it's when uh heather locklear was on the show and
john c myself and heather Locklear are at some benefit.
And Carla's supposed to meet us there, and she never shows up.
And I wind up eating a bunch of steak and end up in the hospital with really bad heartburn.
So I always went for steak because I could eat it.
It tastes good. It's easy to season. Throw some salt on it you know what i mean it's it's good to go i thought there were a
couple different times in this episode where despite everything um the the ensemble worked
and one where you is where you pass the torch to sean and sean just fits right into the style of
the piece like he just takes the torch.
We, we pan with you out of frame. We come back, Sean's put the torch down and you guys just keep
doing your thing. That was clever. Uh, I was cleverly directed and I, and I want to say it's
a rare moment where that's obviously a fantasy and there was no flash in, out of it. I was
clocking that because, you know, Bill always delineated a fantasy with a
little white flash and that noise. And this is one of those rare times where the torch is a character,
a prop character in the piece. And there's no, it's both times it comes in, it's just handed
off and not really discussed. I mean, what's also, what's also interesting with Sean is Sean's
introduction, which would become a classic Scrubs introduction, especially with beautiful females with wind and slow-mo entrances as they walk down a hall.
Sean gets to come in on top of a gurney saving someone's life, and it's just glorious.
Dude, I wrote that down.
Johnny, I'm glad you brought that up because I wrote that down.
I think that might be the best entrance other than Dick Van Dyke.
Dick Van Dyke's entrance is pretty amazing too.
But that might be one of the best entrances for a male in Scrubs history.
Yeah.
All right, Joel, do we need to go on break or do we go to these lovely people?
All right.
We're going to go take another break, and when we come back,
we have questions from some fans that are calling in,
and they're going to have an amazing question, I'm sure,
probably for the legendary Johnny C. McGinley.
I'll give you a hint.
Her name's Ashley!
Jon Stewart is back in the host chair at The Daily Show,
which means he's also back in our ears on The Daily Show Ears Edition podcast.
The Daily Show podcast has everything you need to stay on top of today's news and pop culture.
You get hilarious satirical takes on entertainment, politics, sports, and more
from Jon and the team of correspondents and contributors.
The podcast also has content you can't get anywhere else,
like extended interviews
and a roundup of the weekly headlines. Listen to The Daily Show, ears edition on
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hi, I'm Martha Stewart, and we're back with a new season of my podcast.
This season will be even more revealing and more personal,
with more entrepreneurs, more trailblazers, more live events,
more Martha, and more questions from you.
I'm talking to my cosmetic dermatologist, Dr. Dan Belkin,
about the secrets behind my skincare.
Walter Isaacson, about the geniuses who change the world.
Encore Jane about creating a billion dollar startup.
Dr. Elisa Pressman about the five basic strategies to help parents raise good humans.
Florence Fabricant about the authenticity in the world of food writing.
Be sure to tune in to season two of the Martha Stewart podcast.
Listen and subscribe to the Martha Stewart podcast on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
iHeart podcast update this week on your free iHeartRadio app.
In retrospect, revisit pop culture moments from the 80s and 90s
and try to understand what it taught us about the world and a woman's place in it.
Crying in public.
Two 20-something college women living in NYC dive into growing up at a time
when there was no distinction between what's public and what's private.
Best of both worlds.
A discussion on work-life balance, career development, parenting, time management,
productivity, and making time for fun.
Hear these podcasts and more on your free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
This second season of El Flow is here.
Available como a ti te guste in both English and Spanish.
This season, we dive deeper into the vibrant world of reggaeton,
featuring interviews with both reggaeton legends
and exciting new talents.
He's the undisputed king of reggaeton, no doubt.
And he's been cited as an inspiration
by multiple Latin stars,
including J Balvin, Bad Bunny, Osuna, Antti Natasha.
Explore the evolution of this dynamic genre
and what makes it resonate globally.
How you consume reggaeton, how you share and distribute reggaeton,
those are all an important part of the story.
It's the way that the people are experiencing reggaeton along with the musicians.
Listen to El Flow as part of the My Cultura podcast network,
available on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts,
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We have a caller.
Ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to the show,
Ashley Cooper Horowitz!
And friend!
Do you know how much money it cost us to get Oprah to do all these introductions of our guests?
It's a fortune.
Hi, guys.
Why did Joelle imply that there was something unique and special about you guys?
So I wrote in earlier this week.
I was looking if I could figure out a way for you two to do like a birthday shout out.
This is my husband, Alexander.
Hi, Alexander.
Husband Alexander.
Oh, my God.
He is our physician and absolutely loves your show.
What's up, man?
How's it going?
Real deal.
Oh, now Donald changed.
Now Donald changed.
Now Donald changed.
Donald changed to a respectful voice.
Let me show that respect.
What is good?
Not too bad.
I'm doing this right before work. I'm about to head out of here in about an hour.
Oh, man.
Wow, you're the real deal, man.
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much for calling in.
Who's going to ask the question?
He is.
This is my birthday gift.
Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday.
We called it.
Jamie Park calls that.
It's Alexander's birthday.
He's a grown man, as you know.
He works in a hospital.
Not like us.
We were fake doctors on a TV show.
Yes.
Bring it home.
Yes.
So wait, did you not know about this?
Is this a surprise?
I found out.
I kept it a surprise for maybe 45 seconds.
You should have kept it a surprise until you guys zoomed in how cool would that been but then you never know he would have been like
who are these guys who are these guys right who are these guys all right go ahead guys go ahead
sure so I guess the biggest question is I guess what it came down to is I watched a lot of the
different types of medical shows and I found that throughout my training so far and I was intending so far that the show of Scrubs actually portrays how hospital
life really works the most accurate of all the medical shows despite it being primarily a comedy
was that something that Bill purposely did was that something that the staff tried to incorporate
because I was I mean I listened to the first one and felt like Donald really did the rounds
at the hospital.
No, I was, you're absolutely right.
I was so afraid to go into the hospital.
At that point, listen, since then, I've developed a, listen, if something's wrong or if I feel
like something's wrong, I'm going right to my primary and we're going to talk about it.
Before that, though, I was just like every other person, you know, in the African-American community.
We have a stigma when it comes to doctors.
We're very afraid of the bad news.
And you think I'm joking, but this is the honest to goodness truth. I've done PSA after PSA about talking about going and getting your numbers known, get your cholesterol, get your BMI, your blood pressure, your blood sugar.
I love that you're trying to list them into an ER doc.
I'm just trying – listen.
He was like, glue close.
You're like, no, no, no.
There's four.
There's –
Anyway. He was like, he was like glue close. You're like, no, no, no. There's four. There's a anyway, but Johnny, Johnny,
why don't you answer because you're the special guest about, about his question.
I had spent the first three weeks of my son's life a couple of years earlier in
the neonatal intensive care unit. And I carried most of that was,
that functioned largely as all the homework I ever needed for medical, trying to do medical stuff.
And Max had different challenges, born with Down syndrome, and he had microscopic holes in his heart.
Also, we had infantile seizures.
We had all sorts of different challenges.
But if you spend, the acronym for it is the NICU if you spend three or four weeks in the
NICU you should get enough of that on you to be able to tell the truth in front of the lens and
so that that's largely what I was trying to honor when we were doing that medical on scrubs okay I
think relationship stuff I think Bill also has said um you know we knew we were going to be silly
and we knew we were going to have these crazy fantasies and we knew in a lot of ways it was going to be a comedy.
So he wanted the baseline. He wanted to drop in for all the medicine to be as accurate as possible.
And that was also something that John Doris wanted to get the real J.D. one.
He was like, listen, you can make fun of all of the things we did
that I did in college and stuff like that,
but it has to be grounded at the end of the day.
Don't make a fool of us.
You know what I mean?
Make sure that there's truth behind everything as well.
Yeah, I think that that's one of the reasons it works.
I think the American Medical Association has said,
which we always thought was bizarre,
but that they said that this was the most medically accurate of all the medical shows.
So we always took that as a badge of honor.
And I think Bill was really, really, really proud of that.
He said we can be as silly as we want to be, but when we get into the medicine, it's all going to be real.
And also, once you get that tag where someone says to you, you guys are the most medically accurate, you don't ever want to fall off that bandwagon.
You want to stay on that.
You want to make sure that every story, at least in the first eight seasons, I don't know about season nine, but in the first eight seasons, we made sure to stick to the actual script.
To keep it real real as they say.
Oh, is that an expression?
I hear the kids say that nowadays.
Do you have another question?
Yeah, go ahead.
So that'll be, I guess, the more difficult question.
The easier one is, what keepsakes did you guys get?
So Rowdy didn't get taken with you guys,
but what about the tiki necklaces or anything like that i'm not a i'm not a souvenir guy so i
don't ever i shouldn't take in stuff from a lot of different sets but it's not i always thought
it was bad luck i never took like you don't know any scrubs whatsoever i don't have any scrubs in
my house i think it's a i think it's a jinx. What about the sneakers? What about the kicks?
Cause Nike sent us a bunch of kicks when we were making that show.
That's different.
Nike's sending you swag.
Swags are different than props and memorabilia.
I'm not a big props and memorabilia guy.
Yeah.
I don't have any,
I have the,
I have the slates from episodes I directed,
you know,
the thing we clap in front of the lens.
You were directing them. Yeah. And then I have the, I have the antlers from episodes I directed, the thing we clap in front of the lens. You were directing them.
Yeah, and then I have the antlers from when we did the pilot,
when I was a deer in headlights.
Donald is showing you his sneakers.
I have my scrub sneakers, my 100th episode sneakers.
Look how worn and ruined they are.
I've rocked these for like a year.
I put mine on a shelf and saved them, and they're mint,
and Donald's are all fucked up.
I'm so proud of these.
And look,
that's the best rewraps on the planet for Christmas.
You guys want one thing that's funny about this podcast on the zoom call is
that whenever Don wants to reference a piece of clothing,
he doesn't have to move from his seat.
He just reaches out a frame and pulls it in.
Or the prop guy just handing him stuff.
Well,
we are in my closet.
No, it's just funny. Like you've done that a few times a few times now you know it's not even like you have to stand you just reach out a frame
and pull out well i'm on my side i mean i'm in like i'm in like i'm on my side so like all of
this is me this is my wife's stuff so if i read i'm never i was you know what i was thinking about
doing was turning it all around and doing it from a different angle but i think i just confuse
everyone no i love this i will forever remember this time of doing this podcast and staring at
you like it looks like you're sitting on the ground in your closet john stewart is back in
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In retrospect, revisit pop culture moments
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or wherever you get your podcasts.
You know, it's not every day that we have a real live doctor on the show.
Right. And so this is a pretty special thing.
If you have any other questions, feel free to ask us.
Well, Donald's giving you the rare third question.
You can have as many as you can have.
That has never been bestowed.
It's because you're a real doctor.
It's never been bestowed upon anyone.
In all seven episodes of Fake Doctors, Real Friends.
All right.
What was the most emotionally difficult episode that you guys did?
Yes!
Good question.
Johnny, what's up?
I thought this one would have to be right up there.
Just getting through this one and trying trying to to hew to the
style of the piece and and not fall too deep deep into the 11 of it all it was it was impossible
but johnny we have to give a nod to one of the best episodes ever where you were just incredibly
good in that brendan frazier uh dying episode Yeah, but that we got to act.
That was acting.
This was real life, just killed 4,000 people.
And I thought it was almost impossible to get through this episode.
And when I watched it, and it actually just made sense.
Just that it made sense is good.
Not great, it's just good.
Yeah, but I was going to gonna say it still has some really genuinely
funny parts and the emotion that uh sean has at the end of the episode and even the and the
emotion that you have with carla at the end of the episode you talked about that earlier in the
podcast about how it gave you a lump in your throat and everything like that because you
were speaking your truth uh at that moment uh but i was hanging on to stuff right right absolutely i i think stuff
like potassium and asium and tiktok clarice those things caught me off guard last night when i was
watching it i also i'm sorry to be i'm sorry to be the guy who laughs at a fart joke but i
legit laughed so hard when when todd goes the wording of this line is so funny.
Sir, I farted.
Long pause.
That smell is from the fart that I made.
You know he rehearsed that line every which way.
But the wording of that,
the wording of that,
I think that's the funniest thing in the whole episode,
to be honest.
And I'm sorry to be so,
so simple that I love a fart joke that much,
but I just thought the wording of that,
that smell pause is from the fart that I made.
Meanwhile,
the surgeon,
what's his name?
Is in there like,
what's,
what's that smell from?
What the hell happened?
Did you nick the colon?
Did you nick the colon? Did you nick the colon?
What's going on?
Who was that actor?
That actor did a good job.
Charles.
Kind of a thankless role.
Yeah.
You know, he's been in a lot of movies, actually.
He was in Dumb and Dumber.
He's the guy.
Dry and right down the middle.
Yeah.
Charles was great, man.
He stuck around for damn near the whole show.
You know what's interesting?
I didn't realize Johnny Castle was in the show that much.
Me neither.
He's in like every episode, even starting Doug.
Doug, I really don't remember that Doug had this bigger role in the show,
but Doug's got a lot of stuff going on.
Yeah.
Thank you guys so much for your questions.
And, of course, be safe on the front lines out there, my friend.
We totally appreciate you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so, so much.
Thank you, guys.
And thank you, Ashley, for calling in with your husband on so we could have the honor of having someone.
Husband or boyfriend?
That's her husband.
Okay, good.
I thought you might have been proposing for him. You just got to...
No, if you get a surgeon, man or woman, you marry that person.
Yeah.
Lock it down.
Lock it down.
You're a guy who got a female surgeon.
You marry that.
Yeah.
Be well.
Take care, guys.
See you, guys.
All right.
I thought Sarah had a really nice beat when Sarah's being overwhelmed for a
moment where we're in the closet. She, she's so good at turning stuff.
She just, she's really upset. And then she turns it.
She puts on that brave face and it's great. It's this little gem.
And I have no idea of nine 11 imprinted on her in some way for that,
but she just turns it. And it's, it's, she's so nimble. And I have no idea if 9-11 imprinted on her in some way for that,
but she just turns it.
And she's so nimble.
I forgot how facile she is emotionally.
One of my favorite lines in the show is when she goes,
I'd let him drool on me.
And then the way she looks at Zach after she says it,
she meant that shit.
That's funny.
Donald, do you have any memory of the fantasy at 1047,
which is that post-apocalyptic, like, you're standing by a fire?
I have no memory of doing that at all. I remember after I saw it, I remembered us doing that scene.
But I was like, where is this going?
I didn't even know where it was.
Was it the basement?
It was the basement.
It was the basement.
You know what's interesting?
Even though this took place during 9-11, there are a lot of moments in the show where I was like, well, I don't remember.
I don't remember this.
I don't, you know.
There's certain things that I did remember.
I remembered Sean Hayes the him getting choked i definitely remembered the last scene with uh with johnny and
uh and judy where he kind of slips and professes his love for her i remembered all of that because
that tracked with my story but other than that that, man, you know, I say this every week.
Every week.
Watching this show is,
it's so much fun for me
because I don't remember
any of it.
It's like I'm watching it
with fresh eyes.
If you weren't in a scene,
or let me say this about me,
if I wasn't in a scene,
I wasn't leaving my dressing room
to go watch stuff.
Right, but even when the show
came on television.
So it was all new to me.
Right. This is all brand new to me. Right.
This is all brand new for me.
But also, Johnny, you weren't smoking bong hits,
so you probably have
some of your brain left.
Okay, so... Donald was like,
I didn't even know the show was about doctors.
I was very young.
I smoked a lot of marijuana when I was a kid.
So was that your first... correct me if I'm wrong,
was that your guy's first scene together that you telling him to beat off?
Yeah.
It certainly seems like it in the context, I don't know,
but it seems like it in the context of the writing.
Yeah.
After that, you and I had so many scenes.
All of a sudden I became Gandhi.
I don't even know how that came.
Was that an improv from you?
Did you make up Gandhi?
Okay.
That's Billy.
Okay.
But, yeah, this is the beginning of the Cox and Turk.
Yeah, your very first encounter.
Because we were the two athletes in the hospital.
You know what I mean?
And so now it was like, oh, okay.
So it was like, you know, Michael Jordan versus Kobe Bryant. You know what I mean and so now it was like oh okay so it was like you know
michael jordan versus kobe bryant you know what i mean that's what also and also he really didn't
you know the whole point was he didn't like you fucking with carla in the beginning in the
beginning of course in the beginning but as time goes on the beef that cox and turk have is strictly
it's all yo you know, we have this competitive fire,
you know what I mean? And it needs to be, and it needs to be, you know, uh, way we need to fan that
bad boy so that, you know, we can live. And so I think Cox and Turk really enjoyed trying to one
up each other. I do too, but I thought it was a little manufactured because again, if the camera is an x-ray machine and you can see how it was a little
man,
it always felt a little manufactured to me.
What do you mean?
I didn't believe that I had that big of a problem with you.
Okay.
I always looked at it as he didn't like that.
I was with Carla and because I won and got that one up,
he was always trying to get a one up on Turk.
That's how I always looked at it.
I guess.
I mean, even in the basketball, even when we played basketball and you hurt your back in that episode that we do that, even that, you know what I mean?
But hey, yeah, you know.
I think also the love that we have for each other.
I remember my first time being like, Johnny, please don't intimidate me.
And you're like, shut the fuck up. Nobody's intimidating you. You remember my first time being like, Johnny, please don't intimidate me. And you were like,
shut the fuck up.
Nobody's intimidating you.
You're right.
You're right.
You're right.
You were always so generous though,
Johnny,
with us because,
you know,
we,
we,
we,
we knew who you were.
We both loved your work.
And I think both,
I can think I can speak for both of us when we were like nervous,
I was nervous to,
to work with you.
And I just want to thank you,
you know,
for those of you who aren't actors, it's it, the, it's the person who's got more of a resume and is the bigger star.
The onus is always on them to make everyone else feel comfortable around them. And I thought you always were so generous and never made us feel intimidated at all, unless it was obviously in the scene.
But as a person, you never did. I felt like we were going to, that this truly was,
even though Jackie all respect was number one on the call sheet,
I felt like this thing was the truest form of an ensemble.
And that was never lost on me. And if that a rising tide,
there's a saying a rising tide floats all boats.
And I thought we had to do this together or sink either,
either rise or sink together with Billy at the helm.
There was no confusion about that.
One time Billy wrote a scene where I had to kiss his wife who played my wife,
my ex-wife on the show, Krista Miller, who is a very dear friend of mine.
And so I kissed her and in the middle of kissing her,
she stuck her tongue in my mouth. And I was just, I was like, oh, I'm not okay with this.
And so I go upstairs to the third floor where our dressing rooms are, where Billy's office was.
And I knock on his door and I go, Billy, can I talk to you a second?
And he goes, yeah, come on and sit down.
I go, I got to get something off my chest here.
I was just, in the scene that you wrote uh i was just having a kiss uh krista and uh she she stuck her tongue
in my mouth and he he's such a ball buster he gives it a pause and he goes did you like it
they did it to get me yeah by the way johnny this dovetails into something i said
this dovetails into something I said.
This dovetails with something I said earlier.
I think Billy has a little bit of a thing for that.
It was horrifying.
Not being kissed by Chris was horrifying,
but the boss's beautiful wife.
It makes me nervous even telling the story.
That's so funny.
I think Billy has a little bit of a special place in his heart for
men he likes kissing
his wife. I have a question for you guys.
When you watch the show now,
do you feel like we foreshadowed so
much in every episode? Like we foreshadowed a lot
in every episode? Like even
when watching this episode, it's pretty clear
that Sean Hayes' character,
he doesn't have it all together, even though he seems like it. Hey, he has it together.
And maybe because we watched the whole episode now, but every time Nurse Roberts came in to
address him, he always said, no problem, no problem. And I feel like that was foreshadowing.
Obviously, it was a problem. And this was going to be the issue that broke him. I feel like that was foreshadowing. Obviously, it was a problem.
And this was going to be the issue that broke him.
I feel like if you watch Scrubs, what we did very well,
we presented the problem to you early on and disguised it and disguised it
or hit it with comedy and other things.
But then at the end of the episode, we always hit you with the drama to make you feel it.
But if you watched all the way through,
we would leave crumbs and hints that this was coming.
Yeah.
I think yes,
yes to that.
And I think,
and it reminded me,
I'm reminded of it in the first flashback where Zachy is with his brother and the tag
out is, we don't even talk that much or he doesn't talk that much to me.
And then there's this long, I don't know, we'll make it up, 20-year disconnect.
And when Tommy Cavanaugh shows up at the hospital, all that stuff that Zach had, that Billy had
insinuated in that scene yields dividends
because they have lost contact.
They're completely disconnected.
And the disconnect is profound when they're person to person.
So when Tommy comes in and Jackie and him don't connect on any level, even the John
Ritter of Jackie's father, they don't connect at all.
And that's all in that first flashback.
Yeah.
But not just that.
Even you missing Jordan the first time we meet Jordan.
At the end of it, you're reminiscing about the wedding and all of that stuff.
It tracks later on because you guys get back together and you do still love her.
Even though in between all of that, you guys are warring and you date someone
else and you know what i mean billy's very good at his job johnny did you like this did you will
you come back again onto the podcast yeah it seems it seems impossible to to unload the number of
stories uh and this was a particularly hard episode when I was watching it. It was just a hard episode to a lot of stuff from nine 11 came back to me,
which I don't know if a lot of people,
it's a heavy handed way of approaching something, but people,
actors are human beings. And I was,
I was really impacted by nine 11 in a,
in a immediate family way and to have gotten through this episode, in retrospect, seems impossible to me.
And that it's a coherent, well-told tale that goes for 21 minutes is good.
That's good enough.
Yeah, yeah.
There are levels of good, better, best, excellent episodes episodes and this one just goes in under the
category of executed we execute it yeah there's some funny stuff in it and that's good enough
i totally agree i i i this is the first one you know i donald and i joked when we started doing
this like you know there's gonna be ones that we don't like and we're like oh that feels this is
the first one that it's not that we don't like. It's just that it's like we all have this Pavlovian response
to watching it going, oh, this just feels wrong and weird,
and we remember what was going on.
Yeah.
And I'm not discounting all the great work that everybody did.
I was about to say,
I feel like everybody did their job so well, though.
You know what I mean?
At the end of the day,
regardless of what we were going through at the time,
if you
didn't know that that was the 9-11 episode you're not going to be able to tell you know what i mean
we know i don't know i don't know that's probably there's there's so many great jokes and we just
talked about including that smell moments that smell was the fart that i made right
but hey wait keep her there keep her here have. Have her do the 5, 6, 7, 8.
Okay, baby, baby, baby.
Wilder, come here.
Come here.
We want to thank Johnny C. McGinley, the legend.
And Johnny, we really want you to come back
because we're just sitting around doing this, man.
We got nothing to do.
We're sitting around watching episodes and laughing.
Yeah, please come back.
The answer is a thousand times yes.
And now Donald has a very special visitor
who's going to count us into the theme song.
Donald.
Wilder.
My daughter Wilder's here.
Say a five, six, seven, eight.
Okay, she said no.
A five, six, seven, eight.
I said stories about a show we made.
About a bunch of docs and nurses in a Canada 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.
Mm-hmm.
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I am so excited about this podcast, The Bright Side.
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Listen to Queer Chronicles on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your most fabulous shows.
Beauty Translated Season 3 is coming soon with what?
A second host?
I'm Carmen Laurent, and this season I am joined full-time by world-renowned Janie Danger.
Janie, what are we talking about in Season 3?
We're talking about life, Carmen.
Beauty Translated is about the many fragmented lives spreading across this rich tapestry of the trans
experience. And the all new Beauty Translated Loveline at 678-561-2785. Listen to Beauty
Translated Season 3 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Bye. Bye. I'm also going to be talking a lot about cancer, the ups and the downs, everything that I've learned from it.
It's going to be a wild ride.
So listen to Let's Be Clear with Shannon Doherty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.