Fake Doctors, Real Friends with Zach and Donald - The Pilot/My First Day

Episode Date: March 31, 2020

Zach and Donald talk about filming in an abandoned hospital, discuss the audition process, and explain why they were so starstruck by Sarah Chalke, aka Dr. Eliot.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bring a little optimism into your life with The Bright Side, a new kind of daily podcast from Hello Sunshine, hosted by me, Danielle Robay, and me, Simone Boyce. Every weekday, we're bringing you conversations about culture, the latest trends, inspiration, and so much more. I am so excited about this podcast, The Bright Side. You guys are giving people a chance to shine a light on their lives, shine a light on a little advice that they want to share. Listen to The Bright Side on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search The Bright Side. All that sitting and swiping, our backs hurt, our eyeballs sting. That's our bodies adapting to our technology.

But we can do something about it. We saw amazing effects. I really felt like the cloud in my brain kind of dissipated. There's no turning back for me. Make 2024 the year you put your health before your inbox and take the Body Electric Challenge. Listen to Body Electric from NPR on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, this is Shannon Doherty, host of the new podcast, Let's Be Clear with Shannon Doherty. So in this podcast, I'm going to be talking about marriage, divorce, my family, 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. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, and I'm the host of the On Purpose podcast. And I had the opportunity to talk to one of Hollywood's major icons, Michael B. Jordan. In our conversation, Michael shares the highs, the lows, and everything in between, offering a genuine glimpse into his world.

The closest to getting what you want is always the hardest. People give up right before they get what they've always wanted to get. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Donald, if you're not recording, I am going to squeeze your balls. Well, I've been recording since for like three minutes and 17 seconds, so there will be no ball squeezing necessary. Hello, everyone.

You can't even get to me. Hello, everyone. Three, wait, three, two. Here's some stories about a show we made About a bunch of docs and nurses And a janitor who loved to hate I said he's got stories That we all should know

So gather round to hear our Gather round to hear our Scrubs Rewatch Show with Zach and Donald Hello everyone, my name is Zach Braff Hi, I'm Donald Faison. And I can't believe it, but guess what, guys? We're going to do a Scrubs rewatch podcast. Yeah, that's exactly what we're doing.

Dude, your voice changed completely all of a sudden. We were all talking normal, and then the podcast started, and you're like, hey, everyone, it is I. I got nervous, and I felt like I should sound like a radio broadcaster, but no, okay, I'm back to me. There we go. This is pretty exciting. I'm excited about this.

I got to tell you, I'm very excited. We've been talking about this for a long time. We've been trying to figure it out. I've been teasing social media, as have you been. Well, you've been teasing social media a little bit more than I have. I know because I wanted to get people titillated, Donald. I wanted to titillate the masses. Well, let's thank iHeartRadio, first of all, for helping us put this all together.

We had to figure out who to do it, and we found a perfect partner with iHeart, and we want to thank them. Because I just think it would be crazy for us not to start with saying we wouldn't be doing this if it weren't for the just incredibly loyal, amazing fan base we have around the earth. Right, Donald? Yes. Thank you very much. All of you who watch the show and who are listening to this podcast right now, wow, we appreciate you so much. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you. I mean, this has been so many years of love for this show.

And, you know, it's funny. I'm sure, Donald, you have this experience, too, where people come up to you in the street like, I'm sure this is so annoying, but I just want to of love for this show. And, you know, it's funny. I'm sure, Donald, you have this experience too where people come up to you in the street like, I'm sure this is so annoying, but I just want to say I love the show. And I'm like, I'm always like, it's not annoying. Are you kidding me? That's like the best compliment you can give us.

Well, it's annoying when you're eating food. When you're eating food and somebody comes up to you and they're like, sorry to bother you. You know, the first, why are you saying sorry to bother you? You're not sorry to bother me. You're meant to bother me at that moment. You know what I mean?

Yeah, well, just, guys, if you're going to see Donald in public, don't do it while he's eating. Or with my kids. I don't play that. Oh, yeah. All right, well, just wait outside the restaurant for him in a dark alley. That's how I prefer people to approach me, in a dark alley. My only request is not online at the pharmacy

because I'm usually sick and I don't want to... I once had a guy ask me to sign his box of condoms at a pharmacy and I just... Did you? No, I was like, dude, this is weird. I don't want to sign your condoms. Anyway, we've already digressed. We love our fans and we're so glad you're listening.

So the rough plan is that we're just going to talk through episodes of Scrubs. We're going to start with season one, obviously. Today, we're going to talk about the pilot, and we're going to just kind of tell stories and go through it scene by scene and just kind of tell anecdotes and stuff. And then eventually, we want to have guests on. Today, we're going to take a very first fan question, which is thrilling. Joelle figured out how to do that. She's amazing. We're really excited about this. We should start. Do you remember the name of the pilot, what the first episode was? No. Wait, I just want to tell them one more thing. So we were going to do this in person, but then of course, because of this COVID insanity, the good people of iHeart have figured out a way for Adal and us to do it remotely. So we're looking at each other over Zoom, and he's in his closet, which is frigging hilarious, because I guess that's the only place you could hide from your kids. Yeah, well, yeah, they're downstairs. We put on Captain Underpants so they'll be quiet for a bit,

but if you hear someone yelling or screaming, it's probably going to be my son Rocco or my daughter Wilder. I'm going to take a picture of this to post on the interwebs because it's very adorable. All right, well, let me get a fresh pose then. Oh, my God, you're so cute. All right, so Donald has children and a wife, and everyone's in quarantine, so he's in his closet recording. And we're looking at each other. So we're going to do it like this for the foreseeable future.

Every week we'll be coming to you talking about the next episode of the show and we'll hope that you'll watch it along with us because that's kind of the idea. If you watch that episode and then we'll shoot the shit about that episode. I just watched it. I got very nostalgic.

Did you feel nostalgia? Well, yeah. Just how young we were, first of all. I know. We were so young. You were so young. I didn't remember how young I was. I was 26 at the time, and I'm 45 turning 46 this year, and that was 20 years ago. So, you know, watching the pilot for the first time really felt like it was brand new. Like,

I remembered some things, but other things, I was like, I don't remember any of this. You know, I remember certain poses that John C. McGinley made, like when he put his hand on the back of his head and stuff like that. I remember being like, wow, that's interesting that he chose to do that right now. And as the show goes on, it became his Dr. Cox stuff. But while watching it for the first time, I was like, oh my God, this is where it all originated. This is where this came from.

There were so many moments I had while watching it too where I was like thinking, first of all, we can't start off even five minutes of this without talking about Bill Lawrence, who is the creator of the show, the reason we're all here talking. And I was just amazed watching it,

how much Bill got. It's like 23 minutes long and how much he was able, how much storytelling and character introduction. Pilots are always hard because the showrunner creator has such a hard job to introduce so many characters and do it in 23 minutes.

And it's just amazing how much, how many characters are introduced, how many storylines and like love interests are introduced, how much is packed into one episode. Yeah, that's some of those. I have questions for you as a matter of fact, just on, you know, how the whole pilot came together and everything.

Well, wait, let's start with that. Wait, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you, but let's start with Kat. I feel like we should tell our stories about auditioning because that's kind of a good way to begin. Well, yeah, that was my first question for you. So when we first started the pilot, I had already done quite a few things. Like I was in Clueless. I had done, remember, The Titans already, Wait and Exhale. I was guest starring on Felicity at the time. And this was a pilot that came up for me. And I was like, yeah, sure, I'll go out for it. I'd love to go out for it. Anybody wants to be on a show. And it wasn't until after I

auditioned for it and got it that everybody was like, all my, I remember all of my agents being like, this is like the number one pilot of the season. Everyone wanted to be a part of this. And you booked it. And I remember being like, holy cow. I was just looking at it as, let me get another job. Cause I got kids to feed. You know what I mean? You were completely different. You were like, I mean, I know you had been in some things and stuff like that, but you hadn't even really popped yet. Yeah. I'd done little things. I'd been in an indie. I was in a couple of indies, one called the Broken Hearts Club that went to Sundance, but I was still waiting tables. Who directed that, by the way?

A now superstar famous person named Greg Berlanti. It was his very first film. And he gave me one of my first early big breaks being in that movie. And I was a waiter at a French Vietnamese restaurant in Beverly Hills. That's an interesting combination. And people who, if you saw Garden State, my film, I'm kind of spoofing that in the beginning when I'm working with a tunic on and waiting on horrible people. But anyway, I was a waiter there and people would come from having... Broken Cards Club was in the theater. And people would come from the theater and they'd say for dessert to the restaurant. And they'd be like, we just saw your movie. And I'd be like, oh, cool. Thank you. Thank you for going. And they'd be like, you were great. And I go, oh, thank you. Thank you so much.

Let me tell you about our specials. And it was like, only in Hollywood can you go see a movie and then have the star of the movie wait on you for dessert. How did you feel about that? Were you ever embarrassed by it? Oh, I was so embarrassed. I remember I would go to a general meeting. In Hollywood, they have these things called general meetings where you kind of go and you're bragging that, my career is going so well and we should really work together. And you're just kind of schmoozing. And I remember I did one of those and it, it really went well. And I came out feeling so good. And then that night, I looked down at one of my tables and the guy was at the table.

Oh, that's awesome. And I didn't, I had left out the part how I was still, you know, hustling and waiting tables. But so, you know, I got the audition. I was waiting tables. I got the audition. Now that my story is a little funny because I went out first for it in New York. I was waiting tables. I got the audition. Now, my story is a little funny because I went out first for it in New York. I happened to be in New York and I didn't prepare. It went so poorly. I hadn't read the script. Not every audition do you go in killing it. I didn't do a good job. When I got back to LA, my agent said, look, they still can't find this guy for the show. It's really like you said, everyone's talking still can't find this guy, um, for the show. And it's really,

like you said, everyone's talking about it. This is like one of the hot new shows of the season. You, you, I think you could just go back in. Like they wouldn't even know like your audition. I don't even, they were like, I don't even know if your tape made it from New York. Like, cause no one was, no one, no one even responded to whatever the fuck you did. So I, I, this time I took it seriously. I memorized it. I worked on it. I practiced a lot. And then when I went in, I remember the cast director, Brett, right? That was his name? Yeah.

He looked up at me like, oh, okay, like with a smile. And then it was off to the races. Then I met Bill and I worked with Bill. And then I literally auditioned six times before I got it. And then finally, my final audition was for The Network, and it was down between four of us. And I read with Sarah. And I, you know, I had been in six times. I wore the exact same outfit every single time because I was so superstitious. I could really tell that Bill was rooting for me. He made it known to me that he wanted me to get it. But there were a lot of people that were more famous than me that were, I mean, that were famous, that were up for it.

So I couldn't believe I got it. But anyway, so tell me about your audition process. So I auditioned for it. The first time I auditioned for it, I don't know who was in the room, to be honest with you. I just auditioned, and they were like, they want to bring you back. And then I came back, and I auditioned again. And this Bill was there and I remember being like okay it you know at this point in my career it was like I'm just going to audition for things as many times as I can until they say yes you know what I mean or until they say no and I remember they were like all right look you're

going to test for this but they want you to go in for one more audition before that, just to run lines with Bill and work on the jokes and stuff. And I was like, yeah, absolutely. The one thing I remembered to this day, he's still like this. If Bill wants the joke to work, he'll laugh. Even if it fell flat, he'll still laugh to give you the confidence of, yo, dude, that's the joke. That's where the joke lands, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we went into the room, and we're working on it, and he's laughing at everything. And I'm like, oh, I'm crushing it.

And then after every take, he'd be like, all right, now let's work on this beat. And I remember it was him and Danny Rose at the time. Yeah. Danny Rose is another one of- At the time, he was Bill's assistant, but then he rose up in the ranks and became a producer on the show.

Right. And so we did it, and then he was like, all right, good luck tomorrow. And I was like, all right, bet. And so I went on the audition, and I saw a bunch of friends of mine auditioning, and Sarah was there. And, you know, we were there for about an hour and a half,

all of us testing in front of the network. And I remember at one point, we're all sitting out there for a while and they hadn't come out in a bit. And Bill comes out and he's like, Donald, I need to talk to you real quick. And I was like, oh, well, I guess I'm the first person to go home. And he says, so look, your audition, you probably could tell already, but you, you kind of fucked it up. Oh my God. You must have been dying.

And so, you know, I want to give you another shot because I, the things that I've seen you do, uh, you just didn't do that time in the room. And so if you could just bring it down a little bit and. Did you agree with him? Did you think, did you, did you agree with him and think like, oh shit, I was so nervous and he's right? No, I thought I was crushing it. I thought I was doing everything that we had done in the rehearsal. Right.

So finally I go in there and I remember toning everything down and him being like perfect. And then leaving and he sent everybody home except for Sarah, myself, and one other person. And that night, I found out I got the job. Wow. You know what I mean? And, you know, when I went in on the audition, I expected to see the guy that he had kept. You know, it was me, Sarah, and this one guy. And we were like, holy cow, I guess we got it.

Right. And I expected to see the guy at the table read, and you walked in. I was like, that's not the same dude. Wait, so I knew who you were, obviously, because I loved Clueless. I had not seen anything you were in, no. No, you wouldn't.

I didn't mean to say that you'd seen my two little indies. I just mean, like, I guess I don't know what my question is. I mean, like, have you even seen a picture of me? You didn't even know anything about me. I just mean like, I guess I don't know what my question is. I mean, have you even seen a picture of me? You didn't even know anything about me. I knew nothing about you. You knew an unknown guy got the part at least, right? I feel like I remember what you wore to the table read though. I feel like you wore corduroy brown pants.

I could be wrong. I can't believe that you would remember this. And a t-shirt. And we met at the bar while I was getting a drink. Yeah, I remember this. I was writing this down in my notes. First of all, it was at Krista Miller's and Bill's old house. And Charlotte Lawrence had just been born. Charlotte Lawrence was a baby.

And we walked into, I remember it was a sunken living room. And there was a bar in the corner. And then you turned around and gave me this big smile. And you were like yeah buddy like and i and i was like it literally was love at first sight right i i just felt i was so nervous you have to understand i mean i knew you were obviously i knew john mcginley was i had met sarah at my audition but like i was you can imagine i mean we're all nervous no matter who you are but i was because because also people do get fired after table reads so right you know you're like

you're like i I mostly have it, but I really got to make sure I keep it. And then I saw you and you were so warm. And I think we hugged. I think the first time. Yeah, no, we did hug. Yeah. The first time we met, we hugged.

Well, that was the craziest thing was, I remember not knowing who you were and being like, all right. And Bill was like, let's start the table read. And I remember being nervous for myself. And then you started reading and all of a sudden the jokes that I didn't see in the script when I read it, all of a sudden started to appear because you were knocking out, knocking it out of the park and everybody was laughing and really excited. So when it was my time to come in, I was like, yeah!

The energy was there. And you know what I mean? I just remember being like, holy cow, this kid is amazing. I remember being like, this could actually turn into something. This is at the table, Reed. I remember being like, this could be something special. My agents weren't lying when they told me this was the one. Yeah. Yeah, man. I remember that special feeling too. I also wanted

to say that when I drove home from my test, I had a StarTech. I had the Motorola StarTech. You remember that? Yeah. The two ways. No, no. The StarTech was the little flip phone, the little black flip phone back in the day. Oh, I don't know. Anyway, I had my little flip phone, and I put it on the passenger seat as I was driving home from the network test. And I was just waiting to see if it was going to ring. And like, is my life about to change substantially or not? And the phone rang. It was Bill. He told me I got the part.

And I was just flipping out. I mean, I had no money. I didn't have a dollar in my name. I was living- Oh, dude. Who are you telling, man? I had kids. I bought a house with all of this clueless money that I had. And you know what I mean? I thought I was going to be a baller. And I remember having to call home and beg my mom for money so I could get gas to go on these auditions. Oh, really?

You know what I mean? Because I was broke. My parents loaned me $5,000 to buy a car out in LA. So I bought a car. I bought a Nissan 240SX. I remember that. Which did me really, really well. And then I was just living off my waiter's salary. But I got the call from Bill.

I freak out. I call my mom. I call my dad. And then I call the manager of the restaurant, who was amazingly supportive of me. And she was an actress herself. And she was like, I'm so happy for you. Congratulations. And I was like, well, I quit. And she was like, wait, wait, wait. I'll never forget that. She was like, you have to work tonight. I was like, what now? She's like, you have to work tonight. And I was like, I do. She's like, babe, you can't leave me hanging like that. You got to work tonight. I was like, I was like, oh, I'll work tonight. And I just like, what now? She's like, you have to work tonight. And I was like, I do? She's like, babe, you can't leave me hanging like that. You got to work tonight. I was like, oh, I'll work tonight.

And I just got hammered. People were waiting on me. Because it was one of those restaurants where people were really douchey and like, sir. And I'd be like, just wait your turn. I was like, everybody calm down. All right? Your French Vietnamese food is coming. Right on.

I remember after we shot the pilot, just to jump ahead and having to wait for so long for the show to get picked up, right? And running into you at a club and you being out of your mind blitzed. Yeah. Yeah, that's probably what happened. I could never get into the club. Like, I went, like, in the classic thing with, like, the red velvet ropes and, like, I can even picture, like, me being online at the club being like, all right, I'm going out to a nightclub tonight because I got some money in my pocket. And, like, it's like I picture it. I see, like, Donald going in. Like, the guy's, like, the bouncer's, like, part the red velvet ropes is Donald and his posse gets led into the club.

And then I get in and I saw you. I remember the first night I saw you out in the real world. And I screamed because I was like, ah! Dude, you were so loud. And you were so drunk. It was so funny. Well, I had to fucking celebrate. So let's get back to the pilot.

Let's talk about the pilot. Now, the first thing I want to say about the pilot, the first thing I noticed is that that's not the hospital. Right. The pilot for Scrubs was filmed, we filmed technically in three spots. The pilot was filmed in a Burbank hospital. And this one that they show in the exterior

is actually not even that. It's just a different hospital. But then we shot the bulk of the series at a hospital in Valley Village, which is now apartments. And then season nine, which we'll have plenty of jokes about, was shot actually on a back lot on stages. But the bulk of the show, the one that you all know and love,

was shot all inside a real hospital. I'm sure not everybody knows that. It was a real hospital. I remember the sound man saying something about, you know, I think when we did the pilot i'm not sure if i'm not sure if it was the pilot or the actual series but i think it was the pilot saying you know what i'm gonna set up in this room because this is the room that my father died in or something really yeah that's so dark our dressing rooms you know you know you've seen a lot of times

on sets they people have trailers that are their dressing rooms. Well, our dressing rooms were hospital rooms. For eight and a half years that we worked at this hospital, we lived and did everything inside this hospital. I mean, our dressing rooms were in the hospital. The makeup rooms were in the hospital. The offices were in this hospital. The editing, the writer's room, everything, all the other sets, like, you know, whether it was the inside of a bar or our apartment, all those were built into this really disgusting, ancient hospital. Okay. So I want to talk about the first scene where you wake up and it's time to, that was that a reshoot?

No, it was not a reshoot. I think it was done like after the fact. I think it's probably one of the last things we did. I do remember thinking that I didn't think this was funny, this whole shaving cream thing. It turned out to be really funny. Well, Bill turned it into something. I remember thinking, like, what? Why would I be doing this?

Why would I, on my first day, so nervous, be making a shaving cream bra? Or being like a warrior. And then doing the scream. so nervous to be making a shaving cream bra. Or being like a... A warrior? A warrior. And then... And then doing the scream. Look how young I am. I'm just scrolling through because I like to just reference it.

But anyway, I didn't think it was funny at the time, but then I saw it and I remember thinking, yeah, that was clever. Okay, and then the scene where you walk into the hospital and the lady gives you all of this energy

about what's going to happen today, et cetera, et cetera. And then you not really knowing where to go. Yeah. I mean, this was one thing you'll hear me say over and over again was, and Bill always said this was like, there's no person better to play someone young and in over their head than me because here I was, I didn't know anything. I mean, it was all method acting. I didn't know anything about starring in a TV show. I didn't know anything about like, I mean, I knew I had some experience, but every time I was playing the wide eyed guy walking around, I was just being

me. Cause I couldn't believe that this was happening to me. You know, I, it was the exact same life that I was living. You know what? Speaking of wide eyed before we started the pilot, they wanted us to all go on rounds with doctors and stuff like that. Right, I did that. Right. I did not. I opted out. I was like, get the fuck out of here.

I'm not doing that shit. I don't want to see any of this. But meanwhile, I'm like the diligent student who's like, all right, send me out. Right. I remember getting on the phone with the young lady who was my contact that was going to take me around on rounds

and her being like, so you're coming down tonight? And being like yeah about that no i i don't see myself ever doing this uh if you could just tell me some anecdotes that'd be great but yeah i was the exact i was like the good student i was like did you see anything crazy no but i remember thinking it was really inappropriate uh actually um that she was having me like go around around to visit patients with her. She put a stethoscope around my neck so I would look legit. I know it's kind of fucked up in hindsight. I should not have been doing that.

Did she ever refer to you? No, because she was just treating me like I was a medical student. And she wasn't doing what she should have done, which is being like, hey, is it okay? There's someone who's an actor researching a part. She wasn't doing that. I have done, which is being like, hey, is it okay? There's someone who's an actor researching a part. She wasn't doing that.

I was just going in and being like, hey, how's the guys doing? And she'd kind of like, and the people would be like looking at her and then they'd like, they'd nod to me. And I'm like, I would just be nodding. I remember I was just, I was kind of had like a serious nod on my face. Like I was listening and understanding what's going on. Right on. face like I was listening and understanding what podcast, The Bright Side. You guys are giving people a chance to shine a light on their lives, shine a light on a little advice that they want to share.

Listen to The Bright Side on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search The Bright Side. All that sitting and swiping, our backs hurt, our eyeballs sting. That's our bodies adapting to our technology. But we can do something about it. We saw amazing effects. I really felt like the cloud in my brain kind of dissipated. There's no turning back for me. Make 2024 the year you put your health before your inbox and take the Body Electric Challenge.

Listen to Body Electric from NPR on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. If you've been following the news, you know that from health care access to safe schools, LGBTQ plus rights are under attack. And it's about time queer and trans youth get the microphone and tell their stories in their own words. I'm Raquel Willis. Join me on my new podcast, Queer Chronicles, a show where LGBTQ plus folks tell their own stories in their own words. This season, teens will share all about growing up in political battleground states.

I wish I could feel more comfortable in my own body here, but that's just not the case. And follow along as they discover what queer and trans liberation means to them. This isn't running away from yourself. It's running into who you want to grow into. Listen to Queer Chronicles on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your most fabulous shows.

Hey, everybody. Welcome to Across Generations, where the voices of Black women unite in powerful conversations. I'm your host, Tiffany Cross. Tiffany Cross. I want you all to join me and be a part of sisterhood, friendship, wisdom, and laughter. In every episode, we gather a seasoned elder. But even with a child, there's no such thing as the wrong thing if you love them. Myself, as the middle generation, I don't feel like I have to get married at this big age in life, but it is a desire I have and something that I've navigated in dating.

And a vibrant young soul for engaging intergenerational conversations. I'm very jealous of your generation that didn't have to deal with Instagram and Tinder. This is Across Generations, where Black women's voices unite and together, you know how we do, we create magic. Listen to Across Generations podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Scrubs Rewatch Show with Zach and Donald. I want to talk about the title sequence because that's the next thing that comes up.

I was going to ask you about that too, man. Dude, how much did you hate that until you saw it? That's one of those things where I was like, this sucks, man. It took, for those of you who don't know, it's a motion control camera. And it really took a long time to do that. And at the time, we didn't know how cool it would look. So it took like a full day to do it. And I remember we were all kind of really over it by the end.

Then it came out, and it was really fucking cool. And then we've heard this for many times, our whole Scrubs existence, but the x-ray at the end then it came out and it was really fucking cool and then uh we've heard this for many times uh our whole uh scrubs existence but the the x-ray at the end is backwards and every every doctor wanted to point that out and and we used to be like oh yeah yeah that's on purpose get it because they're like med students comedy right yeah and they're med students they don't fully get it but people were like no it wasn't the fucking prop guy fucked up the shit backwards we do and but we got lucky with that too because that kind of set the tone for this offbeat wacky so they don't fully get it. People were like, no, wasn't the fucking prop guy fucked up? This shit's backwards. We did. But we got lucky with that too because that kind of set the tone

for this offbeat, wacky show of ours. You know what I mean? I know, I know. But early on in commentary, I remember everyone being like, the x-ray's backwards. And we were like, yeah. We meant it to be.

We meant to do it. And to do it again. When we do it the next time. Do you remember when we, a few years in, they tried to redo this sequence with Neil Flynn? They wanted to add Neil. They wanted to add Neil.

Neil the janitor. Who played the janitor. Yeah. And then so they aired it a few times. And the fan base was like, what the fuck is that opening? Right. No, they weren't having it. They were not having it.

They were like, put it back. Sort of like season nine, how they weren't having season nine either. Right. But anyway, all right, we digress. We have 180 episodes to get to before that. We digress. We digress. And then I want to say that the song was a song I found

from a band called Laszlo Bain that I was friends with. Because originally we wanted Five for Fighting. For the theme song? Yeah, that was the original theme song. It was something like, I'm more than a bird. We can never use this. I'm more than a plane. I think you this i'm more than a plane i think you're allowed to sing a few lines i'm more than some superman beside a train however it goes anyway so um i

can't stand to fly my friend um i'm not that naive all right all right my friend chad fisher was in this band and i thought the lyrics were perfect because it's not only was it a great song, but it's like what the show's about, you know? I'm no Superman, Donald. Get it? Well, that's the same thing the Fight for Fighting song was about. You just found somebody who wrote something kind of similar to it. I can't do it all. Donald, I couldn't do it all on my own.

I needed my friend. I'm more than a bird. Oh, my God. You have such a pretty voice though i just remember how perfect the song was when they sang it and we didn't really necessarily know that it was going to be the theme song until i remember you playing it for me and being like dude and i'm being like oh yeah that's cool but i didn't realize it was going to really be the theme song until we had that first cookout before we started shooting the show and he sang it with yeah with the with the bullhorn and his boy playing the guitar next to

him being like oh that's really cool this is gonna work and then we made a music video if any of you never saw it it's kind of cool i um i shot a music video for the song and i shot all this kind of cool footage of us um i'm sure it's on YouTube. All right. Okay, so let's talk about the first scene with you and I. I'm gathering my notes because I did a lot of prep. I want the fans to know I did a lot of prep for this. Right on. So the first scene with you and I where we're talking and Ted, the lawyer, is explaining to us legal procedure in the hospital. Yeah.

I remember him making up the line and if your pay if your patient's dead and and you're sure and you're sure that's hilarious and uh i remember that was when i realized oh wow bill's gonna let us he's gonna let us improv a little bit yeah we're gonna have opportunities to be funny yeah i think that's one of the things that made scrubs really special is that bill really let everyone kind of make it their own i mean his running rule through through be funny. Yeah. I think that's one of the things that made Scrubs really special is that Bill really let everyone kind of make it their own. I mean, his running rule through the whole series was, you know, please get it the way that it's written first, make sure we've got it good. And then you guys can play around and improvise. And if you have some wacky idea, you can do it.

And that was from the get-go. And then he hired all these amazing people like Sam Lloyd, who plays the lawyer. Who played Ted the lawyer. And a little trivia, who's Christopher Lloyd's nephew. Just hilarious character actors like that, that would just bring all their own, no matter the size of the part. From our size part all the way down to people who would have one line in an episode, there was so much freedom to just kind of riff around and make it funny. Yeah. And we should give a shout out to Adam Bernstein, who directed the pilot. That was my next one.

Yeah, a pilot director, for those of you who don't know, really sets the look of the show and the style. You know, Scrubs has a very specific style with the whip pans and the flashing the flashbacks and and fantasies and even the color of the show to make how it looks so much like a hospital and isn't uh overly saturated like a lot of tv shows that deal with hospital life uh they you know they want their actors to pop on screen so the blues are bluer and the eyes and the you know what i mean scrubs it looked dingy and dirty in the hospital in that first episode i noticed a lot i noticed that it was clearly a thing i noticed they you know the whole idea was that it was a what it was a hospital with it was had very little money and i noticed there's a lot of stuff i i haven't watched this pilot in

how many years 20 years but um i remember uh i was looking at the ceiling tiles there's all these like missing ceiling tiles and it yeah and it Bill and Adam really made it feel like a dingy, you know, it was not supposed to be a nice hospital. Also the show was shot on film, which a lot of people probably don't know. This was the entire series was shot on 16 millimeter film. That's why there's no Blu-ray and there's no, if you look at it normally how it's meant to be seen, it's a square, because it was before high def video and 16 by 9 televisions. And no one ever like up res'd it. So this is all we got. I watched the iTunes version, which has the original music. Do you want to explain to them about the music thing? Hulu doesn't have the original music? Well, just because it's a question

we get from a lot of fans at times on social media, all this music that was put on Scrubs and a lot of people love was licensed before streaming. So these days, a lot of times, if you watch it on Hulu, where it's currently playing, or wherever you're watching it, it might have some of those songs that you love replaced because they weren't licensed for streaming rights. iTunes is the only place, or owning the DVDs, obviously, is the only place where all of the original music would be there. Let's talk about your teeth for a second,

because I don't think we can just let this go. Oh. I had baby teeth when we started shooting the show. I don't have baby teeth anymore. I spent a lot of money on new teeth. There it is. That's the story. If you freeze frame,

there was a saga of Donald's teeth, because he used to have, he had fake braces, famously, in Clueless. Yes, because they were trying to hide my small teeth. Go on. Oh, is that really why? Absolutely. Oh, we're getting an exclusive here. So you're saying you're famous.

They shaved my head in Clueless because my hairline was receding at 18. You know what I mean? By the time I was 21, I had this hairline right here that you, that I'm, well, you guys can't see it, but I had this, uh, I had the same hairline. By the way, I feel like we're breaking news that your famous braces were because- When I was a kid, they called me George Jefferson. Okay. Why?

Because of my hairline. Are you happy? Are you happy? But I never knew that the clueless braces were because of your fucked up chicklet teeth. Yes. And then the, and then the hats that I wore and clueless was because of my hairline.

Oh my God. Like I have a baby face. I have a baby face. It's a baby, right? Like I have a baby face, but I don't have a baby's hairline. Right.

I had baby teeth. I had baby teeth. Who called you George Jefferson? Your parents? No, some like dickhead that I grew up with my parents. You're an asshole. That'd be hilarious. George.

All right. Let's go forward with your chick teeth. Oh, and then, oh, and then, well, by the way, funny story. So then one season, Donald shows up. He decided on his own. We could talk about this some other time. We don't need to talk about this now. Well,

can I just tease it for later? It tracks. It'll track. All right. Donald showed up with braces on the inside of his teeth and had a lisp. And Bill was like, take your fucking braces off. What the hell are you doing?

All right, let's move on. But there's like six episodes where I'm talking like this, the whole. And Donald shows up and he's like, I know Bill. I don't think anyone's going to notice. And Bill's like,

no one's going to notice. What the fuck are you doing? What'd you do? And Donald's like, Bill, I don't think anyone's going to notice. And Bill's like, no one's going to notice? What the fuck are you doing? What did you do? And Donald's like, well, I just got braces. But you can't see them because they're on the insides of my mouth. Okay. All right. I don't even think that's a funny story, dude.

I think it's hilarious. All right. Let's talk about Sarah Chalk's entrance into the lounge room. Absolutely. Dun, dun, dun. The brilliant and beautiful sarah chalk so i remember at the audition seeing sarah and being like that's the girl from rosanne holy cow yeah second becky and thinking uh she's definitely gonna get this part because that was

the girl from rosanne you know what i mean yeah no I didn't know. I knew she was second Becky, as she jokingly called herself, and people called her, because she had replaced the original Becky. But it wasn't until I read with her in front of Bill, and then I read with her at my final studio network test, that I got to meet her. And I was just smitten. I just thought she was so funny and so beautiful. That was one of my notes, actually. You guys had such great chemistry in the pilot.

And it showed on screen that, you know, I think that worked for the remainder of the show because of, you know, it's hard to tell a will they, won't they early on in a pilot. You know what i mean like you can say one person has a crush but you both kind of had a chemistry for each other in the pilots and it was undeniable you know what i mean so like right away you knew that at some point you guys had to get together you know what i mean even if it didn't work you knew it you guys had to get together and then there was that scene where i'm in the staircase and i'm supposed to be looking at her butt going up uh and saying it looks i never understood why two pringles which is what i say her but your butt looks like two pringles hugging i never knew why that was a curve

because it's a little okay so a pringle isn't a i don't know if it's a compliment for a butt though is it my dude are you trying to tell me you don't appreciate a round booty? No, I love a round booty, but I just don't think- So then what the hell are you talking about? But bro, you think- I would say like, oh, it looks like a juicy peach. I wouldn't say it looks like two Pringles that are like sharp and breakable. Okay, let me ask you a question.

How would you describe a nice bottom like to a piece of food you would choose pringles well i mean i'm gonna okay do we need to get into this well you can we're gonna get into this you can say it in a nice um politically correct way so for a really long time yes people of caucasian colors colors didn't necessarily like to have big round booties. And so a Pringle being a tiny curved chip,

if you put them together, they look like a little tiny booty. I got it. So you're saying because she had a tiny white girl booty, it was Pringly. Right. Nowadays right because of certain uh actresses and uh instagram models or whatever influencers influencers yes everyone in a mama likes a round booty now a big round i see so is your theory so is you're starting to put

fake booties and they're starting to put fake stuff in the buttocks area to make the booty rounder. Now, I've heard this. Some women had really round booties already and decided, yo, you know what? It ain't round enough and took more to make it bigger. I have a question for you about this. Yes. Now, is your theory that certain famous influencers have influenced women to add, not just exercise- Not just women, men too.

Men too. Now, they exercise, and you can choose to exercise and build up your booty, but you're saying that people really do put fake implants into their bottoms. They not only put it into their bottoms, they put it into their chest area. They put it into their abs. They put it into their arms. There are so many people out there where you're like, wow, that dude works out. Or, wow, she must really work out.

And it's all enhancements. Do you think men get ass implants? Absolutely. Do you have a number for a doctor who does this? That's true because you got a little two by four behind. That's for sure. I know. It's small. It's very small because you got a little two by four behind, that's for sure. I know, it's small. It's very small.

I was thinking the other day. That was the other thing that I noticed about you when the first time I met you. I was like, wow, he had a really small booty. Oh, you noticed that at the table read?

Yeah, absolutely. When you walked away. Anyway, go on. I just wrote down because there's a shot of her butt which I thought looked beautiful, and then I kind of thought about the line Pringles

and I didn't fully understand it. All right, let's move on from Sarah and her glorious touch. Let's talk about John C. McGinley. Yes, let's. Dr. Cox. Wait, before we get to Cox, I want to talk about just, I think, Matt Winston is first. So Matt Winston is the guy who's saying, I'm a tool, I'm a tool, I'm a tool. And I always thought he was so friggin' funny. In fact, I put him in

my film Wish I Was Here, and a little bit of trivia for the trivia buffs out there, he's Stan Winston's son, the late, great Stan Winston. Did you know that, Donald? I did not know that. Yeah. Wow, huge fan of his dad. He wasn't used a ton. Bill sort of phased him out, although he did

have a hilarious line where he goes, it's like a baguette. Yeah, that's later on. I think when he was talking about kelso's penis all right so johnny c mcginley i mean where do we begin the legend the legend that i remember when we after the table read when i saw him at the table read i was like i'm gonna stay clear of that guy he's a little intimidating yeah he's a little scary and then we did the rehearsals at the hospital. And I remember watching him and I was like, I remember telling myself, focus on him right now because we're all, you know, kind of wide eyed and don't necessarily know what it is we want to do.

He came into the game already with Cox like, he was like, this is how I'm going to play him. This is how he's going to be. You know what I mean? He knew right away what he was doing. And I remember I was like, focus on that guy because he seems to be already out the gate. You know what I mean?

He seems to be running already. Where we're getting a slow start, he's already off and running. So focus on him and try and match that energy that he has. And nobody worked harder. I mean, Johnny, throughout the course of the season, had those endless, really hard toto-do monologues, and he would sometimes get them the night before.

And he would work so hard. I mean, this is not a guy who ever phoned in. I don't think Johnny ever flubbed a line in nine years. No, that's not true. He flubbed lines. Well, I'm saying most rare, the least often of any of us. And he was just so on it it and he so made it his. There's a thing in acting where you say like,

oh, I don't want to just do it a generic way that anyone would do it. I want to make it specific to me and make it mine. And a lot of actors, I think, force that. And so they put all this shit onto it. It isn't necessary. They're just trying to be different. Whereas some actors just do that and it's natural. It feels right.

And I think Johnny's the ultimate example of that. He's someone who all these characteristics and all the things, the gestures, the hands on the back of his head, the, the touch in his nose, like that's all just Johnny. That's all stuff.

That's so specifically him that he brought to that part. You know what I mean? Absolutely. And he stayed consistent with it the whole time. Everything he did, he was consistent. Like we all evolved into different characters as the show went on. If you watched the show, we're very, you know, you and I,

it's not as broad as the show goes on. Johnny stayed consistent from the beginning. He was the same level the whole time. Right. And you really see it in that first scene where he comes into the break room and is doing his thing you know what i mean it's really interesting you know to go back and watch now because when making it i'll you know i paid attention to him specifically because of who he was but to see how i evolved to see how you evolved to see how sarah evolved to see how you

know what i mean uh judy evolved yeah it really and all from this pilot you know what i mean it's like the pilot is a tame version of what scrubs became you know what i mean although there's things about it you know i i don't know if you noticed but there's things that are in the pilot that you can see both bill and adam bern, the director, are figuring out that we eventually phased out. Like all the whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. I mean, there's like whip noises when Johnny turns his head. And there's like way more sound effects early on, I think, in the show that they eventually toned down. But I mean, that's a digression from Johnny.

So Johnny's just amazing. And people always ask what he's like. And I say he literally is this intense, but he's just the most nice person you've ever met. It's just like, he's like, picture that intensity of a human being, but he's a super sweet, nice person. Nothing but love though.

That intensity with nothing but love. And when he shakes your hand, he puts out his hand and goes, there's five good ones for you. Meaning his fingers. Five good fingers. Yeah, there's five good ones for you. Meaning his fingers. Five good fingers. Yeah, there's five good ones for you. Grab it and squeeze. Yeah, he's got all sorts of sayings, but I'll never forget, there's five good ones for you.

Yeah, that one and there's some ammo in that. Oh, yeah. We'd finish a scene and one of our editors' names was Jean-Michel and he'd go, I think we gave Jean-Michel some ammo. All right, so let's go. The next thing I wrote down, I don't know if you have anything before this, but was the sitcom fantasy I have where I'm with Sarah on this.

You da man. You da man. So I don't even know what, this was a sitcom, must've been on NBC or something, or maybe ABC, but I don't remember. We borrowed some...

Actually, people out there who know the sitcom might recognize whose set it is. But we just went to an actual set and shot the scene there because we didn't... It was the pilot. Was it like Good Morning Miami or something like that? That could have been it. I don't know. It probably was a pilot of the same season or something. And I remember this was just surreal.

We were on a real sitcom stage. And granted, I have a huge crush on Sarah, and I'm doing my best to hold it together. And then all of a sudden, we're doing a scene where she rips off her top and mounts me, and we make out. Yeah, you know what? Back in the day, I was like, wow, she ripped off her top. That's cutting edge. Now I look at it, and I'm like, oh, well, did she have to rip off her top?

Well, I mean, I think the show, you have to look at it in the context of the year. I mean, everybody forgets now because we have all this, everything streaming and cable and everything's so much more risque and you go to, you seek out whatever you watch. I mean, from the show Girls, the crazy show they would do on there to everything and anything that's on Netflix now. But back in the day, I think Bill was trying to push the envelope. The show was on at 9 or 9.30. He was trying to push the envelope of what you could do on network television. So both with being politically incorrect at times, both with sex, with language. I mean, he was trying to say like, both with sex, with language.

I mean, he was trying to say like, hey, network, you can compete and be a little bit, you know. Risqué. Risqué. And so this for the time was pretty risqué. I mean. It was very risqué. There was a lot of sex in the show.

You know, it's funny. I'm sure you do. You have people who go, hey, I'm showing my kids scrubs and I can't even be in the same room. It's so awkward because there was a lot of sex in the show. No, I don't, you know, I don't let my kids watch Scrubs.

Well, your kids are too young, but I'm saying like- I got a six-year-old and a four-year-old. They ain't watching Scrubs anytime soon. No, I didn't mean your kids. I mean like Matt Tarsus, who was one of the writers, he told me that his son,

who was a teenager, was watching the show and he's like, I had to walk out of the room. I was like, watching like you and Sarah have these sex scenes, like that episode where we're eating pizza and we're, like, banging all over the place.

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you know how we do, we create magic. Listen to Across Generations podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You know, that is true. Sarah did have to take her top off, but I'm going to be honest with you.

I think the guys on the show were way more naked than the females were on the show. You know what I mean? Yeah, you were naked a lot. I was naked so much. Your body looks fierce. Thank you. Like Taye Diggs, baby.

Like Taye Diggs. Taye Diggs, baby. You know, funny bit of trivia. Rob Macchio, who was often only in his banana hammock and worked very hard to maintain that physique. He would do all sorts of push-ups and stuff. When the show moved from whatever season, from NBC to ABC, which is owned by Disney,

they made a rule that we could no longer film him from the waist down when he was in his banana hammock. Did you know that bit of trivia? I did know that bit of trivia. I also, I remember, and we'll discuss this later on, but there were times where we were actually really naked because it had to be that way for the camera. Wait, you didn't have like a sock on your penis? I did one time.

I did have a sock on my penis. And I remember having to walk in a parking lot with a bunch of people with a sock on my penis. Yeah, I remember having to walk in the parking lot with a bunch of people with a sock on my penis. Yeah, I remember that. Not only that, I had also a very big leaf. Very big leaf. It was a big leaf, first of all. A large, like an oak leaf.

It was like a maple leaf, like a huge maple leaf. It wasn't like one of those thin bamboo leaves. No, no, no. It wasn't like a eucalyptus leaf. It was like a maple leaf to cover my junk no one has ever bragged about their sexual prowess through leaf size so that's a first for our podcast i do want to say that um i once there's a scene where i was dancing in front of tara reed and i was supposed to be naked and they were shooting me from behind and so i just i packed everything i had into a

sock and i was doing the dance in front of Tara Reid remember that and then and then the sock came off and then I was like what a surreal experience here's Tara Reid just staring at my junk oh my gosh yeah oh I mean what am I gonna do I apologized and all right so we got a caller on wait why are you interrupting i want to i just want to say that it was a tube sock much like your leaf analogy it was not so it wasn't it wasn't a dress sock it was no you know those little those little socks people now where they're just like go for it wasn't an ankle sock it was a tube sock what do they call those things that just go ankle socks yeah it wasn't an ankle sock it was a tube sock it was a tube sock you say, we're basing your voice. It was a tube sock, man. A long one. So we got a caller.

It was a woman's thigh high. Okay. So I don't mean to interrupt you, Zach, but we got a caller on the line. This is exciting because I daydreamed when we said we were going to do this, that we should take fan questions from all around the world. And it's really happening. So go ahead, Donald. So I'd like to introduce Chris to the podcast. Chris, how are you? Hi, Chris. How's it going, guys? I'm doing well. Thank you for having me on.

Thank you for being on, man. You're our very first guest, so we really want to nail this. We want to give you the best answer to your question that's ever been given to any question throughout history. Okay, gotcha. Let's hear that. No pressure. Exactly. All right, I guess the question I'll ask you all, this one comes from a buddy of mine named Andrew. I have a question about the soundtrack. I think that's something that was such an iconic part of the show.

Just across all the seasons, you introduced so many people to so many awesome artists over the years was that something was there someone that spearheaded that did you guys just have great taste like how did you come up with this soundtrack it was all me it was all me donald had nothing to do with it let me just i literally had nothing to do with it yeah because at that time i was listening to nine years did you ever get a song on ever no because i was listening to songs like Jodeci. I was listening to songs by Wu-Tang Clan. You know what I mean? They weren't very scrubsy.

The show was great. Donald didn't pick the music. Matter of fact, a lot of the artists that were on the show, I was introduced to for the first time while watching the show. So who did we have on the show? Keen, all these people. I had no idea who they were. You know what I mean?

And some artists that were well-known. I just didn't listen to that type of music at the time. It wasn't until Scrubs that I all of a sudden started listening to Indian folk rock. You know what I mean? Yeah, I think that, you know, first of all, it was a lot of people. It was definitely Bill Lawrence, obviously, who created the show, and his wife, Krista Miller, who played Jordan, and myself. I think we were the three, probably the main people, but also a lot of the writers in the writer's room. A lot of times when it was their script, they'd go, it was a lot of people. And

of course, the editors who would, you know, the editors would get like 10 ideas, and they'd be the ones to try and shape it to see what would work the best. So there was a bunch of us, but Krista Miller definitely did a lot of, of, of song choosing. And I, I got a bunch on myself that I'm excited about.

Our best friend, got his, Joshua, Joshua Radin, got his start. Really? Before Scrubs, what was Josh doing?

He was sleeping on my couch. Was he really? Yeah. I mean, he didn't even have a job, and he had written the song Winter, which we played in the episode where Brendan Fraser's character dies. Spoiler. They killed Brendan Fraser?

Yeah. Winter was so popular that it launched a career for Josh. And everyone was like, what other songs do you have? And he's like, that's the only song I've ever written. And so he had to frantically make an album. I remember going to watch him

at two concerts with me, Zach, my girlfriend at the time, Zach's girlfriend at the time, and that was it. And now he sells out theaters. He does really, really well. So that's it. It was a lot of fun.

I think Bill was early on in putting music at the... you know, he does, he does really, really well. Um, so that's it. It was a lot of fun. You know, it, I think Bill was early on in, in putting music at the, you know, now it's become very popular and very common to sort of end your episode of TV with a, uh, an emotional piece of music and then cut around in a montage and, and watch how everyone, you know, what they learned from the episode. And, and I think Bill was at the forefront of doing that, definitely, because, you know, now it's pretty commonplace, but I think Scrubs was kind of one of the first shows to do that. You know, I like to think The Wonder Years was a early version of what single-camera comedy, I mean, MASH, obviously,

but The Wonder Years really took it's the, the time that it was in and use the music of that time to help tell the story. And scrubs, I feel like is the next thing to do that. And then, yeah. And now everybody does it.

Also, Ally McBeal. I think Bill would say that if member of the show, Ally McBeal, they would cut away, cut away to wacky shit. I mean, I think scrubs meets scrubs is sort of Ally McBeal, I think Bill would say that if remember the show, Ally McBeal, they would cut away to wacky shit. I mean, I think Scrubs meets Scrubs is sort of Ally McBeal meets MASH meets Wonder Years. Right.

All right. Do we answer your question? You did. That was awesome. Thank you so much. Do you have another one? We'll give you another one. Yeah, we'll give you another question.

All right. I've got a two part question. It's kind of common knowledge now that the janitor wasn't supposed to make it past season one. He was supposed to be a figment of JD's imagination. Yeah. So two-parter here. One, how was that supposed to be written in?

How was it going to come to be known that the janitor was just a figment of the imagination? And then the second part of that is, is there any plot line that didn't come to fruition that you really wish did? Yeah, I know that. But wait, I just want to say, we're going to have Bill on for everyone. wish did. Yeah, I know that. But wait, I just want to say, we're going to have Bill on for everyone. Bill will probably be our first guest because he can answer all sorts of questions about what his plan was for the writing and such. But I do remember that Neil Flynn, first of all, I was going to talk about this when we got to Neil in the pilot, but Neil was supposed to just have a small part. Bill wasn't even intending that he was going to be in the show beyond the pilot or

maybe a few episodes. But he was so hilarious that Bill just kept adding him and adding him and adding him. And to the point where he was one, became one of the stars of the show. And Neil is a hilarious improvisational actor. Um, and so a lot of times he would just make up his own line throughout the whole run of the show. And in fact, it got to a point where, and sometimes in a script, it would just say like, and then Neil makes up something funny. It wouldn't even have a line for him because Neil was just so gifted and hilarious.

Was that whole scene improbbed with you and him, with the penny in the door? No, the penny in the door was all written. But I'm saying, right off the bat, everybody could tell this guy, Neil Flynn, is really funny, and he's got to be more in the show. Bill would kind of try people out, and when they killed it, he'd keep using them, you know, just like you, like all the people that fans grew to love, like, you know, Phil Lewis,

Hooch, like we'd all thought he was so frigging hilarious. We just kept putting him in the show whenever we could. So anyway, long story short, if you, I think throughout season one, the janitor only addresses me, if I'm not mistaken. No, that's true. So Bill kind of had the idea like, oh my God, if this doesn't go too long, it might be funny to do a big reveal that the janitor is totally in JD's imagination.

But then how crazy would that have made JD though? You would have been like a freaking psycho, dude. You would have been- Look at nine years of wacky fantasies. Remember when you were a goat? Dude, but it was a fantasy. These were fantasies. Goat turds. If you actually had somebody that you, an

imaginary friend that you talked to and would talk back to you, and you're a doctor? I know. I think it could have been cool. But anyway, the point is that the show kept going, and Bill, I remember Bill, I heard Bill say, like, I had to have this guy interact with other people. And then it became, you know, I think fans also wanted to see the character of the janitor interact with people. Although you never knew his name, or did you? His name was Janitor. Or was it Glenn Matthews?

Did we answer the second part of the question? Oh, storylines um we did a we did a medicinal marijuana um long before its time uh we did a medicinal marijuana plot line and started shooting it and then the studio told bill to shut it down and we never had it yeah it's funny because of course now marijuana is legal in california and so many other places well it had just i remember it had just started becoming legal at the time when we were shooting. For medicinal.

Yeah. I do remember that because there were a lot of people that were smoking weed while making the show. Well, we probably shouldn't bring that up in the first episode of this. Let's get to how high everybody was in future episodes. We have to tease something. I'm just saying that was a tease. Okay.

In future episodes, Donald will out people for who was a tease. Okay. In future episodes, Donald will out people for who was baked when. All right. Thank you, Chris. Thank you, Chris. Thank you guys so much. Thank you, Chris. Thanks for being our first guest.

Bring a little optimism into your life with The Bright Side, a new kind of daily podcast from Hello Sunshine. Hosted by me, Danielle Robay. And me, Simone Boyce. Every weekday, we're bringing you conversations about culture, the latest trends, inspiration, and so much more. I am so excited about this podcast, The Bright Side.

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Across Generations, where Black women's voices unite, and together, you know how we do, we create magic. Listen to Across Generations podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. That would be so funny. That would be so funny if that's how we did it if in that scene he's high i think you need to come clean when we get to scenes where you were baked

that'll be like the whole series run okay great um how long into the series did you stop memorizing your lines? Rert? We'll talk about that in future episodes to come as well. Oh, I wanted to say the scene with Johnny in the lounge with the woman, that was my audition scene where Johnny comes in with the woman he says is dead and he's telling me to throw Tylenol at her face. That was one of the main, I think, one of the three scenes that I auditioned with. What was your audition scenes?

Do you remember? My audition scene was I'm really scared. I'm so happy that I get to wear a surgical mask, a mask because if I didn't have it on, my face would look like this, and then I make the scared face. Yeah. That was one of my audition scenes. And then I feel like- And did you improv I Love You, or was that in the script? No, we improvised that.

Bill came up to me and was like, tell him you love him at the end. That was funny. And I was like, what? He was like, just say it, and then laugh when you walk away. And then Lonnie, by the way, everyone, that's Lonnie. Lonnie, yeah. Lonnie's playing the pizza delivery guy.

I had no idea that was him until watching the pilot. So Lonnie exists as one of the few people that exists as two different characters in the Scrubs universe. I feel like it's three different characters, but yeah, okay. Why? There's Lonnie. There's pizza delivery guy. And who was Lonnie also the guy that played basketball? I don't remember.

Okay, anyway. Scrubs fans will answer for us. But yeah, that was very funny. I love that when you say I love you, we both look at you like, what? Now I say it to you all the time. In this scene also, the woman was supposed to be really dead.

And I remember the network pushed back against Bill and said, no, you can't have her really genuinely pushing around a dead woman. You have to have her at the end go, I'm not really dead. So that was a rewrite forced by the network because Bill thought it was funny if he really was just pushing around a corpse. Very funny too. I want to talk about Ken Jenkins for a second. Yes. Because I feel like he was the MVP of our show. You know what I mean?

Yeah. of our show you know what i mean yeah in so many ways like uh it's really difficult to be on a show with a such a huge ensemble cast where everyone is likable from the lead all the way down to the guest stars everyone's likable i think the hardest part the hardest person to play in all of that would be the bad guy you know what i mean and he made it so that the bad guy you didn't like him but you still loved him you know what i mean that's interesting way to put it and i felt like he was literally the mvp him and judy reyes actually were the mvps of the show because judy had to tackle all of the dramatic stuff you know what i mean her character felt everything she was the nurse she was the mother of the show because Judy had to tackle all of the dramatic stuff. You know what I mean? Her character felt everything.

She was the nurse. She was the mother of the hospital. And Ken Jenkins, his character was the evil dad or the, you know what I mean? The grandpa who was just over it all and was like, I just, you know, I want this hospital to make money. We're broke. And all that matters is if their insurance is going to pay for it. If they're not, get them out of here because we're broke.

We got no dough. And I thought to make that character lovable is a really, really, really hard thing to do. And he did it effortlessly, it seemed like in my eyes. And same thing with Judy. you know what i mean judy would played a role that uh was definitely needed in this band of misfits she played this character that was uh uh just motherly and uh took care of you know bambi came from that. That's that, that stuck throughout the whole show. You being called Bambi. Yeah. I noticed that her very first line that comes out of her

mouth is calling me Bambi. I didn't, I didn't know that it's, I didn't remember that, but that stuck for the whole run of the show. And of course people still call me that on the street when I'm past them. Um, but, uh, her very first line is calling me Bambi. Yeah. You know what I mean? And it was, it was just, we knew what we were there to do. We're here to be funny, and we're here to make everybody laugh. And at times, we're going to get dramatic and everything like that. But Judy and Ken had the tough roles, in my opinion. You knew Judy was supposed to make everybody feel safe.

Ken was supposed to make everybody feel anger. You know what I mean? In this, in this crazy world. And they did it so perfectly. And, and Ken had a lot of the, you know, social commentary that Bill was trying to get in there about how fucked up the healthcare system is and how, how, how fucked up it is that hospitals are like, no insurance, get them out of here. Like, you know, what do you like right away away in the pilot, of course, these issues are so relevant today more than ever, but right away in the pilot, you have them going, look, I don't care that you know nothing. Let me tell you a couple of things. If they don't have insurance, get them out of here. And Bill geniusly found a way to make that, and of course, Ken Jenkins is an actor.

Together, they found a way to make that character so lovable even though he was a he was the antagonist yeah I want to talk about 13 minutes and 38 seconds I'm looking at a still of you making out with Judy Reyes right on um and and Todd in the frame I have up Todd is watching because it's part of the fantasy who wants to high five you so what was it like you know I think people who aren't actors are always curious what it's like when you meet someone hey nice to meet you and then all of a sudden you have to just go do a fake makeout scene with them i feel like that was the first day i met judy too and really yeah i feel like that was our first scene together and i hadn't you know i remember me i don't remember neil at the table read i don't remember uh judy i don't remember ken at the table read i remember me

you johnny and sarah at the for some reason and so when we did the makeout scene i feel like that was my i know it's not the first day i met her but that's my first real memory of judy you know what i mean and i remember she smoked cigarettes right before the scene. And I was like, ah! That's a power move. That's a power move. That's how you do it. But I realized that's how you do it. If you're going to make out with somebody,

make it so they got to work. And not make it so it's them having a great time making out. No, this is a job, dude. This isn't you getting your rocks off while we're doing this scene. It's funny to think about someone smoking. I mean, I don't... It's rare to see anyone smoking cigarettes at all anymore. Oh, no.

There are a lot of people that still smoke cigarettes. Now that vaping has turned into the worst thing ever for your body. Vaping, of course, but the idea that Judy was, I guess, a smoker when we started, right? Is that what you're saying? i guess a smoker when we started right is that what you're saying i was a smoker when we started i smoked cigarettes when we started and neil was always a smoker yeah when we started doing the show i think a lot of us smoked cigarette i mean

in the cast maybe you sarah and johnny and ken didn't but everyone else did yeah i didn't remember that and then us doing the kissing stuff and then watching the episode and none of that made the show really all it is is me uh we're kind of cuddled up together we're kind of cuddled up together and uh and rob's over us watching but i remember doing the scene if feeling way more intimate than that you know what i mean way more you know what i mean and then watching it being like oh they didn't use any other other good stuff right well it's a really quick moment and i love that she's i love that you're naked and she's like all right thanks i'm out i thought that was a cool like introduction of her character she was like and i also and i also like that your

imagination was me scoring right in the real, what really happened was I got played and it got turned into, you know, I got, you know, I stripped down for someone. Right.

And she was like, she got, you know, she just wanted to make out with someone and be like later and she like, she was like,

she kind of like used you whereas in my imagination you were using her. Right. Yeah, that was clever. Yeah. I wanted to just quickly

talk about that, it's going backwards but that deer and headlight thing i i still have the foam antlers uh um i'm staring at them right now um from that fantasy where i'm imagine i'm a deer in headlights and and what we had to do was they backed the mac up the big semi right up to my face and the idea was for the that the truck would floor it in reverse and and then we'd play it would be scary and then we'd play it backwards right so it looked like it was hit and then of course it hit a mannequin too but for this one shot and i remember standing

there with my face against the grill of a mac truck and being like leaning out to the driver being like you're sure it's in reverse right like, there had to be some OSHA rule against that. But I was like standing there going, if this dude, like, I don't want to cause any waves or anything, but I just want to double check you're in reverse. We have me finally saving a life. Oh, we have a Loma. We should talk about a Loma Wright, the beautiful and talented Loma Wright who played Nurse Roberts. Nurse Roberts, whose introduction in the show is, you know, amazing. Can you just call him so I can go home, please? Yeah. Can you just call him so I can go home? She's so good. And Loma was one of the,

again, another example of someone who Bill just loved and thought was so talented. And she ended up being in the whole show until he eventually killed her off, felt bad, and brought her back as her twin sister, which we'll get to that in later episodes of this podcast. Laverne again. Laverne again. I'm going to call you Laverne again. So we were thinking of trying to summarize what the lesson of the episode was, but I mean, I think the lesson of the pilot was basically the theme song, which is I can't

do this all on my own, right? I mean, that's... Right. It's the introduction of how difficult it is to be a doctor in a hospital and how the medical staff at a hospital really depends on each other to work. Yeah. And I think, I mean, I don't think it's a big leap to say that a lot of people related to the show because they could see that in their own lives and how you turn to your friends and your family. I mean, I think the show can be, as we all know, can be very, very heartwarming. And that was what Bill did so geniusly was how it'd be so funny and crazy and silly and fantasies and everything. And then all of a sudden you can turn a corner and you're losing a patient like I did at the end or you uh or you see that our friendship is so is so pure

it's still solid also uh conquering fear you know what i mean uh jd was so afraid to do everything as a matter of fact him and elliot hide in a closet at one point and uh dr cox catches them doing it and understands why they're afraid but then then at the end of the show, still gives J.D. the confidence to perform whatever it is you did with the tube and the blood and all of that stuff. Something that, you know, J.D. was very afraid of and made him feel like he was going to be okay. And he had a support group around him. Yeah. And I think that's it. That's the pilot.

I think we just did it. We did our first podcast. I love you. I love you so much, man. Hey, listen, if you're a fan and you made it to the end, thank you. We're going to keep doing this. We want you to watch the show with us. We're going to do this every week.

And you can just join us. Tell your friends. And every week, we're going to go through another episode. And we're going to take a fan question. If you have a fan question, Donald, we have set up a Gmail account. The iHeart people have. Right. And that account is?

That account is scrubsiheart at gmail.com. So scrubs and then iheart at gmail.com. That's very well said. Thank you. We want you to submit questions, and then our beautiful producers here will work out all the logistics, and we'll have you on. We're going to take a question each podcast. We're going to have you on. We're going to take a question each

podcast. We're going to have guests on. We're going to start having fellow cast members. We're obviously going to have our creator of the show, Bill Lawrence, on. Who else are we going to have on, Donald? Some of the crew members? Oh my goodness. We're going after even some of the people that you remember but don't know like Snoop Dogg intern. We're going to reach out to him. We're reaching out to

Dr. Mickhead. He already slid into my DMs. Did he already? Snoop Dogg intern already slid into my DMS and I asked him. McHead already said he's down. We're going to even have the, we're going to have the stand-ins on the show who did a lot of the work that you see, uh, before we went in and did it,

uh, set up the shots. They, you know, so it's going to be a bunch of people, writers. We're going to have, uh,

directors, everything. Hopefully we could get some big names too i'm sure scott foley would come on and we could just say nobody cares sean over and over nobody cares sean nobody cares so um follow donald and i uh on instagram and uh and twitter and please tell your friends because uh we hope this is a is a big success because for us this was i don't know about you donald but this was a lot of fun. I kind of don't want to stop talking, but I feel like we should. Oh, absolutely. This was actually the, you know, I talk about Clueless as the jump off

point in my life where I was introduced to the industry and I learned a lot of things, but Scrubs was really like the, you know, that was the thing that took it over the top for me as an actor, where I had an actual job where I was able to, you know, pay my rent. And I built a family because I was able to be a part of this wonderful show. So, you know, I owe a lot to you, Zach. I owe a lot to Bill Lawrence. I owe a lot to the cast and the crew of this, of Scrubs. So I'm really excited to talk about it with fans who enjoyed the experiences

that we had. Yeah and as always I agree with everything you said and as always thank you for being our fans and thank you for supporting the show it was a joy to make it for you and Donald I hate this quarantining I just want to be with you all the time. I want to be with you

in that closet. There will be a day again. Hopefully there will be a day again where you and I can eagle. I can't wait to ride you. I can't. I feel like that's how we should end. Should we end with that? No, let's end with that. Don't speak. Don't speak. Let's just end

with that. Goodbye, everybody. Here's some stories about a show we made About a bunch of docs and nurses in a Canada who love to hate I said here's a story that we all should know So gather round to hear our Gather round to hear our Scrubs Rewatch show with Zach and Donald.

Bring a little optimism into your life with The Bright Side, a new kind of daily podcast from Hello Sunshine. Hosted by me, Danielle Robay. And me, Simone Boyce. Every weekday, we're bringing you conversations about culture, the latest trends, inspiration, and so much more. I am so excited about this podcast, The Bright Side. You guys are giving people a chance to shine a light on their lives, shine a light on a little advice that they want to share. Listen to The Bright Side on America's number one podcast network,

iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search The Bright Side. All that sitting and swiping, our backs hurt, our eyeballs sting. That's our bodies adapting to our technology. But we can do something about it. We saw amazing effects. I really felt like the cloud in my brain kind of dissipated. There's no turning back for me. Make 2024 the year you put your health before your inbox and take the Body Electric Challenge. Listen to Body Electric from NPR on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, this is Shannon Doherty, host of the new podcast, Let's Be Clear with Shannon Doherty.

So in this podcast, I'm going to be talking about marriage, divorce, my family, 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. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, and I'm the host of the On Purpose podcast. And I had the opportunity to talk to one of Hollywood's major icons Michael B Jordan. In our conversation Michael shares the highs the lows and everything in between offering a genuine glimpse into his world. The closest to getting

what you want is always the hardest. People give up right before they get what they always wanted to get. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.