My Closing Heart

The third, and hopefully, final show that I watch aired its final episode this week. The doctors and nurses of Sacred Heart aired what could have been the series finale for Scrubs on Wednesday. I have been a fan of Scrubs for many seasons. Like most shows I watch over multiple years I was able to see the show start out young, and fresh, and then slowly evolve over time.

Whatever road it went down Scrubs still remained one of my favorite shows to watch. The comical timings were excellent, the dream sequences were outrageous (Turk and JD walking into Sacred Heart as pimps, Luftballons) and had some remarkable jokes (Pancake Drawer, Warrior, Safety Dance, Toto, Moment Killer). I think I reference Scrubs in my day to day conversations more than I realize. Scrubs also had a direct impact on “Pioneer on the Internet” as I adopted the “My” naming convention for posts back in November 2005.

Scrubs is one of the only shows where I have spent hours going through uploaded clips and remembering the good times. Even while finding clips for this post I spent another hour going from one to another, trying to find specific moments or just see what people had thought was worthy of uploading.

Still, for all of the good times there were some low points with the Scrubs franchise. Most fans of the show will agree that the first few seasons were amazing and the quality started to go down around the later seasons. To add insult to injury the show suffered neglect by NBC and was not given proper treatment in its seventh season. The future of Scrubs was in jeopardy and Bill Lawrence (creator) was able to negotiate a move for the show over to ABC and give it the proper ending he felt it deserved.

The season on ABC had a definite change in production, writing and feel. The show returned to a darker lighting, with less focus on trying to outdo past stunt and more on the people and relationships. It was a season that fans could be proud of and remember Scrubs the way it used to be.

Now, the future of an ninth season is to be determined but Zach Braff has decided to leave the show and Bill Lawrence is unsure of his involvement for another season. I have read discussions that the show would continue and focus on the new interns, with some remaining cast to help out. I can see it working, but for me, at least emotionally, Scrubs ended on Wednesday night.

The final episode, appropriately titled “My Finale”, was an emotional and fitting end for the show. Many things were not addressed but it was great closure on several items. The fifty plus guest appearances was a fantastic touch at the end, especially Mrs. Tanner from the epic season one episode My Old Lady.

This series had a healthy mix of relationships, medical drama and comedy. Occasionally the balance would shift but at the core of it all was a fantastic show that is worthy of multiple re-watches or watching for the first time.

Finale five!