Scrubs ranks as one of the best sitcoms of all time, so there’s no shortage of people, myself include, who are excited about the revival airing on ABC next year. Series creator Bill Lawrence signed on to develop Scrubs 2.0 (not the official title) last December, and less than a week ago, he shared that filming will begin in October. Ahead of that production start date, there’a a new update that I’m pleased about, yet it also leads me to wonder about what’s happening with two of the original show’s leading characters.
There’s A Photo From The First Scrubs Revival Table Read
After it was announced that Zach Braff would reprise JD in the Scrubs revival, we learned that Donald Faison, Sarah Chalke, Judy Reyes and John C. McGinley will also be back to respectively play Turk, Elliot and Dr. Cox. Now we have these five, along with Bill Lawrence, back together in a photograph taken from the first Scrubs 2.0 table read:
It does my heart good to see these familiar faces that entertained viewers on NBC for the first seven seasons of Scrubs, then on ABC for the final two seasons. Braff, Faison and Chalke will be series regulars, and Reyes and McGinley will be recurring guest stars. The photo was accompanied by the previously-released synopsis:
JD and Turk scrub in together for the first time in a long time: Medicine has changed; interns have changed; but their bromance has stood the test of time. Characters new and old navigate the waters of Sacred Heart with laughter, heart and some surprises along the way.
This ties nicely back to Bill Lawrence’s previous comments about how Scrubs 2.0 will explore what it’s like to be an older doctor and that this revival can’t just be a repeat of the original show. Lawrence won’t be as hands-on with the new Scrubs given his busy schedule handling Warner Bros.Televsion-produced shows that can be streamed with an Apple TV+ subscription, like Ted Lasso, Shrinking and Bad Monkey. Instead fellow executive producers Tim Hobert and Aseem Batra are the showrunners. Jeff Ingold and Lisa Katzer from Lawrence’s production company Doozer Productions are also executive producing.
What’s The Status Of Kelso And The Janitor In The Scrubs Revival?
I’m glad that this photo was shared today and look forward to seeing official production images. However, there are two familiar faces from the original Scrubs main cast missing: Ken Jenkins and Neil Flynn, who played Dr. Kelso and The Janitor, respectively. I’ve been wondering about their involvement in the Scrubs revival, and their absence in this photo has me even more curious.
At this point, I wasn’t expecting either of those two actors to be series regulars on Scrubs 2.0, especially Jenkins, who’s 85 years old. Still, it would feel weird for him and Flynn to not show up on the revival, even if it’s only for one episode. Also, since that table read is almost certainly for the first episode, perhaps Kelso and Janitor won’t appear until later in the season. That would be fine with me, I just hope we get to check in on these two at least once, as it’d be nice to learn what they’ve been up to in the last decade and a half.
Keep your eyes peeled on CinemaBlend for more updates on how the Scrubs revival is coming along. Stream the original show with either your Hulu subscription or Peacock subscription.