Bill Lawrence & Aseem Batra Share Details on Scrubs Revival

Scrubs is returning to the screen tomorrow after 15 years off the air, with Zach Braff, Donald Faison and Sarah Chalke reprising their roles as doctors at Sacred Heart Hospital.

Bill Lawrence, creator of the original series, says that the Scrubs fan base has continued to be passionate about the series and was constantly asking for the show to come back over the past 15 years. “I think people were looking for that humanity and that comedic connection to these people,” he says.

“I’m excited that it’s happening right now because when we started with these characters, they were at a point in their lives when they were asking the questions of: What is going to happen to me? What’s my life going to look like?” adds Aseem Batra, showrunner and executive producer of the revival. “Now, they’re at a point where they know a lot of those questions have been answered, but not everything you fantasize for your life turns out that way. So, you’re at this turning point again, where we have so many more stories to tell because we’re trying to find meaning in all of this and see what’s next for them.”

The original run of Scrubs was actually Batra’s first job as a writer. She was a staff writer for the original show and was an assistant at ABC and Disney. Similarly, Scrubs was Braff’s first major role in a TV show and marked the entrance for several actors into the mainstream. Now, the new season is offering a similar opportunity for younger cast members.

“The weirdness was the time warp of landing back on a set that looked exactly like the original set,” Lawrence says. “And Zach, Judy [Reyes], Donald and Sarah all looked the same. I really enjoyed watching the cyclical nature of not only our real lives but of Hollywood because those four playing the elder teachers that are going to help this new batch of young people was exactly what I watched happen the original time.”

He continues, “It was so fascinating to watch Zach as a caretaker of the young actors and actresses, the same way that when Zach started the job, he had been a waiter the week before. It was cool to see it all come full circle. It’s one of those things I love about Hollywood—seeing people get these chances to start their career in the arts.”

Among the new cast members playing young doctors in the series are David Gridley, Ava Bunn, Jacob Dudman, Amanda Morrow and Layla Mohammadi.

The creative team found the casting process exciting. “It’s such an exciting search to remember what Hollywood used to be, when television used to make stars,” Lawrence says. “With streaming, you get into this world of, what if every Oscar winner was in the same television show? [For Scrubs], I would be surprised if anybody recognized more than two of these young actors and actresses, even the biggest fans. And they’re all great, you know?”

“The cool part of the process of casting is sometimes you just know it right when it happens, and sometimes you have to see it again, and so there were people who we saw the first time and weren’t sure [about] and then the second time, we’re like, That’s the character,” Batra adds. “It was a very exciting process.”

Alongside the main characters, there are a host of new “side” characters as well. Vanessa Bayer plays a worker in the wellness HR department, something that didn’t exist in hospitals back when the show started in 2001. Also, X Mayo and Michael James Scott join as nurses.

“The greatest thing that [the creatives] carried on [from the original series] was that any character in the show is not just there to deliver exposition,” Lawrence says. “Bringing in those side characters for comedy really matters.”

The first two episodes of the revival are premiering back-to-back tomorrow at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC and will stream the next day on Hulu.