Posted in: ABC, TV | Tagged: Scrubs

Scrubs Showrunner on Renewal Hopes, Season 2 OG Cast Wish List & More

Scrubs showrunner Aseem Batra discusses how the show has been received, her Season 2 wish lists for guest stars and storylines, and more.

Scrubs showrunner Aseem Batra was tasked not only with bringing the series back to the prominence of seasons eight and beyond, but also with balancing fans' nostalgia and letting the new crew shine in the process. When the Bill Lawrence show was announced for a revival, she was originally joined by fellow series veteran Tim Hobert to co-showrun before he departed due to creative differences, but the ship steadied thanks to Lawrence and original stars Zach Braff, Donald Faison, and Sarah Chalke, who became equally invested as now, executive producers. One thing going against them was trying to present their best foot forward in less than half the output of what they've been typically used to, of a 20+episode season, but in eight. With the season finale airing on April 15th, Batra spoke to Deadline about hearing about the revival's reception secondhand, what she looks to bring back more of the original series fan favorites and concepts should ABC renew, featuring more of existing originals like Carla (Judy Reyes) and Cox (John C. McGinley) despite juggling their other commitments, and more. The following contains spoilers.

Scrubs Showrunner Aseem Batra on Season 2 Goals If ABC Renews

When it comes to Scrubs positive reception, "What I hear from other people is really lovely and encouraging, because the most important thing for me, and I think also Bill, was coming back and having people feel that they're watching a continuation of Scrubs and the tone that they remember, the people they remember, the feeling that they remember," Batra said. As far as any discussion about the series' future, "Yes, we always start this conversation because it is the world of television where unless you're out of the gate hit, you don't know what's going to happen, so we always start the conversations early, whether we have a pickup or not, everyone's feeling optimistic, so we're talking in that direction of like, what do we want this to look like? What changes do we want to make? That started already."

One of the things Batra wants to bring back for season two, "I think something that Bill nailed so well was doing musical bits," she said. "I don't necessarily mean like singing to camera, but using music to tell a story. That is something that takes a lot of work and planning, but now that we know the Vancouver of it all and how much time it takes to coordinate, getting something like that in Season 2 is a personal goal of mine, because as a fan, when I would watch that show early on, before I was on it, I was just so taken — as many fans are — by how he used music in that."

As far as fan favorites, we didn't see for the revival season was original Chief of Medicine at Sacred Heart, Dr. Bob Kelso, played by Ken Jenkins, who retired in favor of Dr. Perry Cox (McGinley), who in turn, retired in favor of JD (Braff) in the revival season's premiere. Lawrence promised Jenkins, who has been retired from the screen since 2019, will be involved in season two should ABC renew. "Absolutely," Batra said. "We will be rolling out characters that we didn't get to see last season for sure. We, too, were figuring out how to do all of this. We're in Vancouver, and we're in LA, and we have nine episodes, really eight, because once you do the pilot and establish everything, then you have eight more to go and introduce new people. So we have plans for all of that, we're very excited to see folks that we miss from the old Scrubs."

Among other favorites Batra would love to see back is Johnny Kastl's Dr. Doug Murphy, who had a recurring role during Scrubs original run in the first eight seasons. Like Robert Maschio, who was happy to leave for a life of Real Estate after the NBC/ABC series' original run (but returned for the revival to reprise Dr. Todd Quinlan), Kastl left acting behind in favor of becoming a lawyer. The showrunner would also like to see Scott Foley's Sean Kelly back, who was a former love interest for Elliot (Chalke). A sentiment echoed by Braff, who created a catchphrase against JD's former romantic rival, "Nobody cares, Sean." Sean worked at an aquarium and helped train dolphins. The Will Trent star appeared in seasons one, three, and eight, and also worked with Lawrence again on his ABC sitcom Cougar Town for four episodes.

The season finale saw returns of two fan favorites in Christa Miller's Jordan Sullivan, who was trying to help her ex, Perry deal with his ongoing treatment and Neil Flynn's Janitor, who's revealed to now be Chief Custodian of the Joint Committee at Sacred Heart, getting back on JD's nerves inspecting the hospital and returning to his familiar antics before it's revealed the existing "Maintenence Guy" (Darcy Michael) is his son. For more on how JD is getting more involved with Perry and Jordan's life and dealing with Perry's ongoing treatment, how Perry will factor in going forward, how Batra will try to get McGinley and Reyes more involved in Scrubs given their respective existing commitments to Rooster and High Potential, and if she has plans for JD's ex and mother of his first son, Kim (Elizabeth Banks), you can check out the full interview. Scrubs, which also stars Vanessa Bayer, Joel Kim Booster, Ava Bunn, Jacob Dudman, David Gridley, Amanda Morrow, Layla Mohammadi, X Mayo, Michael James Scott, and Eddie Leavy, is available on Hulu.

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