So 8 years later, it looks like (but not for sure) Scrubs will be coming to an end on Wednesday night. The only reason I made this was for this specific post so I could say what I have and haven’t liked about the show over the years. Scrubs is my second favorite TV show of all time (behind Arrested Development and ahead of Psych), and its coming to an end is pretty significant to me. The first episode I saw was “My New Coat” (5th episode of season 2, 29th overall) in October of 2002. Since then, there have only been a small handful of episodes I didn’t see in their first airing. While (especially recently) there have been episodes I’ve not liked, I had a very difficult time narrowing my list of my favorite ten of all time. I lumped 2-parters together to showcase more episodes and didn’t include season 8, which I’ve only seen the episodes once.
10: “My Own Personal Jesus” (season one) The first Christmas episode, and I think one of the funniest of the series. It’s hard to resist a Christmas episode ending with JD’s terrible attempt to quote Tiny Tim after an eventful Christmas Eve.
9: “My Best Friend’s Wedding” (season three) Turk ruins his own wedding by being late and going to the wrong church, Ted’s band never gets singing right at the wedding, The Todd has a removable sleeves on his tux, and the first reference to Turk claiming he saw a mermaid once.
8: “My Old Lady” (season one) The first “serious” episode, resulting in all three new doctors losing patients they had grown close to. Not much to say about it besides it was a good way to show that not only the characters lives, but the show itself wasn’t going to be all fun and games.
7: “My Big Brother” (season two) I like most of the episodes with JD’s brother, Dan, and this is in my opinion the funniest (although Captain Bubble Beard in “My Cake” makes a good case). I love Dr. Kelso dressing up as a gorilla on Halloween to mess with employees, and how JD thinks it is the Janitor, an accusation that backfires right away.
6: “My Way Home” (season five) The 100th episode and first directed by Zach Braff. The extended version of it is longer and funnier, but the aired one is still very funny. The episode does a perfect job of paralleling “The Wizard of Oz”, from The Janitor saying “oil can”, to JD carrying Toto on his iPod, to the overall stories of who was looking for what to help them. Also the Todd saying how at the zoo he say “Lions and tigers and bears”, adding “oh my” as he sees a hot girl in the hospital.
5: “My Occurrence/My Hero” (season one) The first episodes that feature Jordan’s brother, Ben, played by Brendan Frasier. The first part is not only funny, but very very sad, and still chokes me up every time I watch it. I like how you are hit with a powerful bombshell of reality at the end, leading to the second part which shows Dr. Cox as very vulnerable when dealing with death on a personal level
4: “His Story II” (season three) The episode narrated by Turk, and I think by far of the My/Their Story episodes. Turk is hilarious as the narrator, commenting on Elliot’s ass and his new boss’ feet. The episode starts out great with Carla in his head not making him his grilled cheese sandwich and ends better with JD and Elliot hooking up (until stupid Shawn comes and ruins everything again).
3: “My Lunch/My Fallen Idol” (season five) Both episodes do a great job of showcasing how Dr. Cox can go from high to low instantaneously. His freak out to the Fray’s “Save a Life” at the end of the first part is one of my favorite moments ever on the show, and the second part does a great job of showing the mutual respect JD and Dr. Cox have for each other, even if they don’t necessarily show it.
2: “My Catalyst/My Porcelain God” (season three) These two feature Michael J. Fox, who I feel was the best guest star on the show. I like how his greatness rips JD, Turk and Dr. Cox to their core as they lose all their confidence, only to feel bad when they see Dr. Casey lose it himself. The second part features the roof toilet (“I’m sorry, you say that as if it is a normal thing”), one of the funniest/most genius jokes in the series.
1: “My Screw Up” (season three) Brendan Frasier returns as Ben in what is to me, by far the best episode in the shows history. I used to watch it over and over again to try to pick up when in it Ben dies (its after Dr. Cox leaves early one if you didn’t know), and every time they reveal that they are at his funeral I get choked up. The first time I watched his one on DVD was about a year and a half after it aired, and I was completely caught off guard when the reveal happened because I had forgotten completely. And, while incredibly emotional, the episode is still very funny. I always love JD’s shower shorts (with complimentary shower wallet), Turk being called a Butt-Face with his upcoming mole removal, and Ted dealing with a potential loss of member of the Worthless Peons
To contrast, here are some things about the show that I really didn’t like
· The Janitor’s name handling: I LOVE how we don’t know his name, but I really wish they had stuck with the first season and a half mentality that only JD didn’t know his name. I don’t like how it is constantly referenced by everyone (Dr. Cox, Turk, Carla, Courtney Cox’s character) they no one knows his name, and I wish they had basically kept it as everyone except JD knew it (but still without revealing it) so JD would feel left out but not bring it up out of shame
· The Janitor after season four: along with the show, the joke went downhill. I really liked it when he harassed primarily JD, and after season four a lot of his antics (pretending to the chief of medicine with everyone’s approval) became just stupid. I would have liked it if he was still seen as the bottom of the barrel and not respected (but feared) by others.
· Admissions by Kelso, Dr. Beardface, and Snoop Dogg Attending that they had slept with nurse Roberts: Lavern was very religious and married, so having these jokes (that just weren’t funny but stupid) kind of ruined one of her strong suits even after she died.
And I’ll finally end this with some quotes from the show that I’ve particularly enjoyed:
· JD: have you been drinking.
Janitor: I’m not drunk
· Janitor: it’s funny I want to go down there and crack him over the head but I’m so drunk right now I know if I move an inch I’ll pass out
· JD [after examining janitors penis]: it looks benign
Janitor: ehh, ‘bout 9, 9 and a half
· Todd: well if your expectations are low, we should have sex
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