Scrubs: The Complete Eighth Season (2009, Buena Vista)
purchase from Amazon: DVD

The hospital sitcom Scrubs pulled off something rare in the television industry last year: It jumped networks, from NBC to ABC, and it revived itself after a couple years in which its comedy had become kind of stagnant and repetitive. Oh, the show had still been funny, in a slapstick, cartoony way, but gone was so much of the heart that had made Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence’s sitcom so unique and special in its early seasons. As the show entered it eighth season, the thought was that this would be its final bow. Lawrence was very vocal about the show coming to a close as star Zach Braff was ready to go into feature films full-time and Lawrence wanted to explore new ground in the television landscape. ABC is owned by Disney, the company that actually produces Scrubs. ABC was looking for a quick hit, drawing Scrubs’ loyal audience, and Lawrence seemed more than willing to prove to his old bosses at NBC, whom, he felt gave him a raw deal, in proving that Scrubs still had some life and deserved the respect to say goodbye to longtime fans properly.

Then something interesting and wonderful happened: the show not only returned to its dramedy roots, but it also became a better show than it had been in the past three or four seasons.

As the newly released DVD collection of Scrubs’ eighth eason reveals, the focus of the series once again became about the characters as opposed to the crazy scenarios the hospital staff got into. Although Lawrence and his wonderful group of writers were allotted a smaller budget than they had become accustomed to, he was able to work out deals with his stars to appear in fewer episodes, including Braff, always the central character on Scrubs. What did Lawrence do? He did what was natural to any hospital television series by introducing a cast of new interns who could pick up the slack when Braff and his co-stars weren’t around. The plan worked marvelously as we watched these interns take on many of the same roles we loved so much in the original characters. (more…)