Posted in: ABC, TV | Tagged: Scrubs

Scrubs: John C. McGinley on Limited Season 1 Role, Big Season 2 Hopes

Scrubs star John C. McGinley explains how Rooster limited his availability and how he expects there to be more Dr. Cox if Season 2 happens.

John C. McGinley understands how much fans missed Dr. Perry Cox in the Scrubs revival, but he had to make do with what was available to him, appearing in three of the eight episodes. The HBO's Rooster star insists there's a good reason why, but it's a matter of timing – and should ABC renew the series for season two, we should be seeing a lot more of the tough love mentor. Speaking with TV Insider, McGinley discussed Cox's latest predicament and the juicier side of being the patient rather than the doctor. The following contains spoilers.

Scrubs Star John C. McGinley on Juggling ABC's Medical Sitcom and HBO's Rooster

In the season premiere of the Scrubs revival "My Return," we find JD (Zach Braff) returning to his old stomping grounds at his original teaching hospital, Sacred Heart, after spending nearly two decades as a concierge doctor. As one of his patients is admitted, Cox draws out the process to let the nostalgia return to his former protégé and the prospect of working at the hospital again by giving him a job offer, initially being vague on the details, before he reveals he's offering him his own job as Chief of Medicine, before accepting. As JD acclimates himself to the type of boss he wants to be, he reconnects with his ex-wife, Elliot (Sarah Chalke), learning to become friends again, and his burned-out best friend, surgeon Turk (Donald Faison), who tries to get him out of his loneliness and get him back into the dating scene.

When we reach the penultimate episode, "My Odds," that sees Cox observing JD's handiwork with the latest crop of interns, and as he's about to speak about the results, he collapses, before it's revealed that he has a treatable autoimmune disorder, but potentially fatal. After Cox reluctantly agrees to let his former protégé treat him, it goes into the finale, "My Celebration" that suggests there's more to Cox's treatment than meets the eye, as the initial round isn't yielding its expected results, but the battle is still going as his ex-wife Jordan (Christa Miller) has taken a more vested interest into his care.

As far as how McGinley's limited availability worked to Scrubs advantage, "I think because of scheduling last year, because we were shooting Rooster on the Warner [Bros.] lot, and Scrubs was up in Vancouver, I was handcuffed a little bit in the most glorious way, of being able to get up to Vancouver as much as we would have liked to," he said. Bill Lawrence created both Scrubs and Rooster, in which McGinley stars opposite Steve Carell.

Just as McGinley's Cox spent the better part of nine seasons keeping the interns on their toes with his various insults and rants, the shoe is on the other foot in this role reversal. "I think that will be different this year, but what's really interesting about Cox migrating from mentor to patient, that's a whole different vibe, and so to bring him back in the hospital as a guy who was the teacher and is now being taken care of by the caregivers? That's so delicious, and writers can write that, that's a nuanced conflict, and I think that's what we're in the position to do," McGinley teases adding should ABC order season two, "I think Cox will… my hope is, and I've been told, Cox will be much more in Season 2, but he'll be in it as a patient." All 10 seasons of Scrubs are available to stream on Hulu.

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