Scrubs Creator Bill Lawrence Runs The Show On ‘Fake Doctors, Real Friends’

On this episode of Fake Doctors, Real Friends, Zach Braff and Donald Faison bring back Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence to talk about season 1, episode 10, “My Nickname,” answer listener questions, reminisce about their favorite one-line characters, relive the times they were simultaneously recording episodes of the animated series Clone High during shoot days, and joke about how Bill wanted to get basketball player Darryl “Chocolate Thunder” Dawkins to play Nurse Roberts’ ex-husband. They also talk extensively about what it’s like to be a showrunner for a television sitcom. “I think being a showrunner is the toughest job there is,” Zach says, and “it dovetails with this episode because it’s about taking on too much work, being overwhelmed.”

Bill says that “one of the first things you learn about Hollywood” is that movies are a director’s medium – “it’s a Martin Scorsese movie or a Steven Spielberg movie, no matter who wrote it” – but in television, directors change from week to week. So many of the best writers in the business will stay with television because “you get to run the whole shebang,” writing, directing, casting, and having final say on the edits. “The hard part of the job is to let go of control and cede some decisions to talented people,” he says. “The people that drown try to do everything.” 

They welcome a medical student named Steph onto the show, who tells them she got into medicine partly because of Scrubs. Her mother is a breast cancer surgeon, and “I was like that’s disgusting, how do you look at boobs all day?” she laughs. “It’s easier when you’re not a medical professional!” Bill jokes. But Scrubs made the job look like fun, so she went for it. She asks if the actors playing the characters began to inform the writing once the show was on for a few episodes, and Bill says definitely; when you first write the pilot, “the characters belong to you...but then for the show to work...ownership has to go to the actors and actresses playing the parts.” Donald says this is definitely true in his case. “Medical jargon wasn’t my strength,” he laughs. “Once you realized that...it freed me!” Zach agrees: “Sometimes I’d look at the script and say, ‘Oh no, Donald has a big medical monologue...lunch is gonna be late today!’” 

Hear more great behind-the-scenes memories of Scrubs, including several drinking game ideas, what it was like to come on right after Friends at the height of its popularity, and wonder right along with them why the janitor would mop a carpeted room or what J.D. is doing when he has his long fantasies, on this episode of Fake Doctors, Real Friends.

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