Zach Braff remembers the moment that the original run of “Scrubs” might have veered too far in its flights of fancy. “There’s an episode where JD and Turk are pushed into a tree by ostriches who are guarding Jason Bateman’s house,” Braff recalls. “He has an ostrich farm and he makes belts out of their necks. One of the ostriches steals Turk’s Kangol hat and puts it on. It all sounds funny — if it were a fantasy. But it was in the reality of the show!”
To be fair, back in the day the “Scrubs” writers had 22 episodes to fill each season, and toward the end of the series’ 2001-2010 run, things got a little nutty. So when the time finally came to revive “Scrubs,” Braff and everyone involved agreed to bring the show back to a bit more grounding.
“Launching the show and trying to thread the needle for what the show would be in 2026 was really complicated,” he tells Variety‘s Awards Circuit Podcast. “If you look at the eight and a half years of ‘Scrubs,’ it got quite broad, and every year it became more and more silly. We wanted to bring it back and reground it as it was in sort of the first third of its run, if you will. There were a lot of chefs in the kitchen, and we wanted to please Hulu, we wanted to please ABC/Disney, we wanted to please ourselves, we wanted to please the fans.
“In writing and directing that pilot, there was a lot of consternation in getting the tone right, because the tone of ‘Scrubs’ is so specific, and the fans love it so much,” he adds. “You cannot believe, if you’re not close to it like I am, how important this show is to people. So, there was a lot of pressure to get that tone right in a way that also felt 2026.”
On this episode of the Awards Circuit Podcast, “Scrubs” star Zach Braff discusses how the return of the beloved sitcom resonated with fans. Also, Braff recounts his first time in Variety and takes the 10 Questions quiz. But first on the Roundtable, we recount the “Survivor” 50 finale (including Jeff Probst’s big live TV flub) and we lament the end of ‘The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.’
Listen below!
If it seems like you’re seeing Braff’s name everywhere, it may be because you watch TV. Besides his ubiquitous T-Mobile ads with “Scrubs” co-star Donald Faison, Braff regularly directs episodic TV — especially in the Bill Lawrence universe. On Lawrence’s latest HBO Max series “Rooster,” there was even a Braff Easter egg: The college student nicknamed “Pig Tits” also has a familiar name: J.D. “I don’t
know why Bill did that,” Braff says. “It is funny that he chose, of all names, to name a character ‘J.D.’ whose nickname is ‘Pig Tits’!”
In directing episodes of “Rooster,” it also meant working with his longtime “Scrubs” co-star and pal John C. McGinley. “Johnny is an intimidating guy to a lot of people. He’s a big softy, but I think he presents as a very alpha male, tough, intimidating fellow,” Braff says. “So, one thing I have as a leg up on other directors directing him is we just have such a friendship. We’re so close that I can kind of cut past all that bravado and really get him to give a performance that he’ll allow me to help him sculpt. Not that he needs my help, he’s brilliant, but I feel like everybody really wants to be directed.”
The first season of the “Scrubs” revival ends with a bit of a role reversal between J.D. and McGinley’s Dr. Cox, who must lean on J.D. — whom he once tortured as an intern — after a tough medical diagnosis. That mentor/mentee relationship between J.D. and Cox during the original “Scrubs” run mirrored the relationship between Braff and McGinley.
“He was a very accomplished actor, and he was someone I looked up to,” Braff says. “I was definitely intimidated by him, as was JD. And then all these years later, in the intervening years, we’ve become closer friends. That very special Episode 8 of the revival of Scrubs, it was so moving. The relationship between J.D. and Dr. Cox, and the relationship between Zach and Johnny C. were all mixed up into one. So when he was coming to me, tears welling in his eyes, and talking about how much time he could possibly have left, it really hit me a lot harder than I ever could have imagined when I read it.”
Braff also credits Lawrence for his role as a mentor, and how the original “Scrubs” run gave him the opportunity to learn how to direct. “Bill taught me everything about writing, and on my own projects he’s given me notes,” he says. “Bill’s also brilliant in the editing room. He just has a natural instinct in so many areas.”
As for Braff’s first time in Variety, it was on Monday, Feb. 1, 1999, when he was mentioned in the review for the film “Getting to Know You,” which also starred Heather Matarazzo, Bebe Neuwirth, Mary McCormack and others.
“That’s a deep cut,” Braff says. “That was my very first meaningful part in a movie. The only other part in a movie I’d ever had [before that] was in ‘Manhattan Murder Mystery,’ in which I’m in one scene, not, I guess, worthy of being mentioned in Variety. I probably didn’t quite make the credits there.”
10 QUESTIONS WITH ZACH BRAFF:
1. Childhood nickname: “’Biz.’ Which is my initials backwards. A school bus driver started calling me that, and and then my family sort of adopted it. Some of my nieces and nephews still call me ‘Uncle Bizzy.’”
2. Something you loved as a kid but can’t believe you were into it now: “Gilligan’s Island.” “It holds up, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not necessarily meant for adults. Before I could tell time, my mom would tell me how much longer the car ride would be by saying increments of ‘Gilligan’s Island.’ She would say, ‘it’s about two and a half more Gilligan’s Islands!’
3. Go-to Karaoke or sing-in-the-shower song: “I just saw ‘The Last Five Years,’ the musical at the Hollywood Bowl with Rachel Zegler and Ben Platt, which was incredible. They just put out the soundtrack, so if you know what I’m talking about, listen to it. I’ve been singing some of that in the shower lately.”
4. Give me an alternate title for your show: “Scrubs: Older, Not Necessarily Wiser”
5. What’s your secret talent?: “That I can sing a little bit. I love to sing. I did a Broadway musical, ‘Bullets Over Broadway.’ It wasn’t a huge runaway success, but it was one of the most fun things I’ve ever done. So, I’d love to do another musical myself. And of course, we sing in the ‘Scrubs’ musical.”
6. Favorite ice cream flavor: Peanut butter chocolate.
7. The one item you couldn’t live without: “Coffee. All I do is just drink coffee all day long until I’m until I can’t think.”
8. What TV show in all of history do you wish you were a cast member of?: “‘Six Feet Under.’ One of my favorite dramas of all time, and I think it’s safe to say might be the best finale of any TV show of all time.”
9. Fictional character you most admire: “Ferris Bueller. I want to be Ferris Beuller my whole life.”
10. Your hot take: “My hot take is that LA is a beautiful place to live, even though a lot of people say that it’s shite.”
Variety’s “Awards Circuit” podcast, hosted by Clayton Davis, Jazz Tangcay, Emily Longeretta and Michael Schneider, who also produces, is your one-stop source for lively conversations about the best in film and television. Each episode, “Awards Circuit” features interviews with top film and TV talent and creatives, discussions and debates about awards races and industry headlines, and much more. Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or anywhere you download podcasts.
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