104: My Old Lady with Sarah Chalke

In episode 104, Turk, JD, and Elliot try to save their dying patient. Hospital statistics predict at least one will die. In the real world, Zach and Donald are joined by Sarah Chalke, as she shares her early experience with the show, watching her baby sister grow into a real doctor, and explains her harrowing trips to the grocery store.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Donald. I'm very excited today. I'm very excited today to
listen man hold on before we get it started and
before we get into this. I'm so happy with all
of the press that we're getting and all of the
people that are listening to us and stuff. Thank you
for fans of tuning in. This is really amazing. We
certainly weren't expecting it. We just did press to Australia.
I I we certainly weren't expecting this kind of reaction,

(00:21):
not at all. And I did some press for Emergence
today and they wanted to talk about the podcast and
it was overseas those like in the UK and stuff.
I guess we're are we playing in the UK? Is
this true? All over the globe? You can listen to
this and Stodd you can listen? Can you really listen
to it? And Stod yes, you know. If you have
a computer, you can listen to us right as long

(00:42):
as you have I Heart. Wherever you get your podcasts,
you can hear us. But we're a sponsor our plug
is I heart so big? Shout out to my heart.
I don't have it. We don't have a sponsor yet
really yet we will, I guess, but I just want
to say that, Red Bull, if you want to sponsor us,
you should, because I just drank a full one and
I am so hyped up right now. I'm so thrilled
about our guest, so am I. I'm very excited about

(01:05):
who we have on the show. At first, we should sing, Donald,
let's get into it. Seven stories about show we made,
about a bunch of docs and nurses and jan stories
around here are around here, all right now. You might

(01:34):
know her as America's favorite Canadian. You might know her
as uh second Becky. You might know her as the
beautiful blonde that starred on the show Scrubs for many years.
Go ahead, Donald, you do the intro. Ladies and gentlemen,
boys and girls, cats, dogs, whatever you may be. Please

(01:54):
welcome to the show. The one and only Sarah Chaws
s Hi, Sara. Don't worry, we'll add thunderous applause. It
don't sound like you walked into a stadium. Yeah, Dan,
can can you add the thunderous applause? Thank you? All right,
here's Sarah Chalk Hi, Sarah. I even didn't know whether
to talk because I didn't hear the thunder supplause. I

(02:16):
thought maybe I was just getting a glitch in these
fancy headphones. Can I see you guys? Like right now,
I'm staring at the garage band screen? Can I make
it small so I can see you guys? You gotta
click on zom so, so Dan, can I make Can
I hit the yellow button and make garage bands small?
I'm just gonna put it out there. You ruined our introduction.

(02:39):
I don't want to edit it out. Dan, listen, now
that Sarah has ruined the mag you want the fans
to know that we've been on We've been on zoom
for a half hour. Well, Sarah was getting technical support
from Sarah literally had a Sarah had a technical intervention
with our She was like, how do you start your laptop?
And yet I've still felt I've never felt more proud

(03:02):
are you than I do in this moment, Because okay,
I just want to successfully. Jean Michelle is going to
edit this out. Just give me one second. I'm gonna
hit the yellow button in the corner, Dan and minimize
garage bend so I can see Zack and Donald. Do it.
Just do it. You don't even have to ask. I'm
worried that Sarah is gonna call Dan for other technical
help in her life. She's gonna be like, hey Dan,
I'm signal, I have Dan email. How are you? I'm good, guys.

(03:34):
I miss you. I miss you, and now seeing you
on this zoom is making me miss you more. Where
are you quarantining in Canada? I imagine, so I'm quarantining.
I'm quarantining Canada. My sister and I have decided to
quarantine our families together. So we have communally six children,
three dogs, and a cat. Wow. How are you doing school?

(03:55):
How school going? School's interesting? School is um Basicly, we
have children between the ages of three and sixteen, so
we'd only have so many screens and so much bandwidth
to attend different online classes. So we've been kind of
doing some of that and then some group classes. I
my sister is a lawyer, so she's teaching law, so

(04:15):
like really right things like you know, UM, lessons on
the Rights of the Child, the United Nations Convention on
the Rights of the Child. Next week's the Constitution, and
I do equally important things like give them cartoons sides
and they audition for cartoons. M you could give them
a scene from Rick and Morty, and you guys could
all play parts we have actually we've done We've done

(04:37):
some some cartoons. We haven't reached Rick and Wardy yet
because that's not appropriate for the four year old, and
as it's sort of you know, tight quarters, we haven't
gotten there yet. But yet, um it's pretty nuts. I mean,
I were all quarantined together. I'm the designated grocery shopper,
probably because of all my O C D tendencies. So

(04:57):
I feel like, um, that's the most harrowing experience in
my life right now, which is, uh, you know, I
go to the grocery store. I have my own version
of Ppe, which is like rating the drama eight prop spin.
So I have like a tuk and sunglasses and I,
you know, just put my hottie up and gloves on.

(05:20):
Is a hat? It has a hat? Yes, I'm gonna say,
I what is it? To Sarah? Sarah, if you wouldn't
mind translating your canadianisms as we go through the podcast.
There are some non Canadians listening listen. Yes, the main
the main ones really are two Garberrator Parcade and Seawall.
What what's Garber? The garbage dipposal the garbage disposal? Got it? Yeah?

(05:45):
Which happened to be the first thing that broke when
I went when I came to Los Angeles and the
landlord did not understand me. A parkade, a parking parking structure.
Your Canadians doing very well, you've been studying. I'm just guessing.
I'm playing a game called guests. The Canadian expression, are
there any any parcade? Um? Seawall? What's a sea wall?

(06:07):
The obvious? And then you have that thing with the
gravy and fries. What's that called? But that's okay, I
know about Putin's so good. Yeah, it's the gravy and
the cheese kords on top of a of the fries.
It's fries, but they take great pride in it in Canada.

(06:30):
How's your guys quarantine going? Oh, it's amazing. How much
time do you spend? Donald in that closet? Sara Donald
tells his family that he's recording the podcast. Donald's family
thinks he records the podcast every day and he's in
the closet. But meanwhile, we do it a week. My

(06:51):
wife keeps asking, like, Yo, how come when is the
next episode coming out? You record so many of them,
you're banking him him soon? Okay, see things that Donald records,
like four podcasts a day in there. Well, I definitely
do a lot of press. I'll be like, I'm doing
so much press right now. You can set up you
should set up your your your PlayStation in there. Donald.

(07:12):
I just don't know how I get the TV in here.
That's the problem. D damn Dans he knows, Dan, do
it Dan really quickly. It says, Zoom would like to
record this computer screen. Grant access to this application in
security privacy preferences. Deny, no, no, no, no no, you
don't want to record this, Sarah. Dan is out, He's

(07:32):
not He's not there for your technical needs. Okay, so
let's get into it. Let's get into Wait, before we
get into the episode, Sarah, Donald and I have done
this a few episodes now, and now that we have you,
we wanted to ask you tell us about your casting
process because as I remember, you were coming off of Roseanne,

(07:54):
you were doing that particularly unique thing where you had
replaced the Becky that was used before. Wasn't Yeah it was.
I was like when that happened, so four years before
and uh, and by the way, I was thinking as
well as I was preparing for this because Sarah. I
do a lot of research. I get really into this now.
By the way, I found for you Scrubs fans out
there and for us, I found a website called scrubs

(08:15):
Wicky w I k I where it has like everything
you ever want to know about Scrubs. Like I'm like, literally,
whoever made that? It doesn't have everything. It doesn't have us, No,
it doesn't have us, but it has a lot of
It has a lot of insightful information. And um, I
feel like I feel like they should not go to
wiki scrubs Wicky. Yeah, but it has like it literally
has like these are the fantasies in the episode. These
are the girls name j D was called. These are

(08:35):
It's like all break broken battles. Someone put a lot
of work into it. Don get him a shout out.
Shout out to you for putting all that work in.
But we got it from here. Oh my god, Donald's jealous,
all right, listen, um Donald that as you guys before,
I was thinking about Sarah, and I was thinking, is
there another example other than Rosanne? Where and they just
replaced the actress and had them play the same character

(08:58):
and witched and was he still was he just a
different Darren. Yeah, I think they just flipped him out,
clipped him. Tell just briefly about that, because I find
it's it's a very unique thing, and you've told me
and Donald and I just wanted if you could just
talk about what that was like really quickly because I
think it's so interesting. Yeah. I mean I was sixteen
when I auditioned, and uh it was Glenn Quinn, the

(09:21):
guy who played my husband Mark. The audition was with
him and he just made out with seven girls consect.
We were all dressed exactly the same and matching pink shirts,
and the whole scene was this like makeout scene where
he's like baby baby camera and I'm like, get a
job at the gas station, get a job at the
gas stations, like baby baby, mimir And it was literally
like every other actress that was auditioning was like twenty
two living in Los Angeles. I flew in, they flew

(09:43):
me in for the night to go and read, and uh,
I just remember I was sixteen, he was twenty four
and just thinking he is so handsome. How am I
going to remember one line? And they said, we'll let
you know in in a couple of days, and then
they called back and they're like, Okay, come back tomorrow
and read with Roseanne. Then I did, And then Tom
Arnold called me at home a few days later, and

(10:05):
he was trying to feel out whether I was going
to leave the show to go to college, because I
was younger then and still you know, at an age
where I would do that. And Sarah go Good at
the time had left to go to Gail and she
was flying back to do episodes, and Lacy had left
to go to Vassar, and so I knew right away
that that's what he was asked. I could tell that's
what he was getting at. I was like, he was

(10:25):
probably not allowed to do that, right, So he was
sort of tiptoeing around, baby, why don't you call what happened?
Probably yes? So then I said I was like, no, no, college, gross,
absolutely not. And I knew I would go to college,
but it was the Rose Angel was a big opportunity
for me, and I knew that. You knew you were
going to lose the job over it. So you're like college, college, vomit,

(10:46):
and I I just did it on the side, And
so so I got the job. At the craziest part
of the story that I actually hadn't remember and we
were talking about recently was they called me and told
me I had the job, and I went to a
party that night. So I'm into this like little high
school in Canada, and I get this phone call that
I was going to replace Becky, and I told a

(11:07):
couple of people and it's spread around our high school
pretty fast. It sounded like a lie. I mean, it
doesn't like I'm going to replace Becky on the Rosann Show.
The Rosantio was the number one show at the time.
It sounded fake. And then I get a call the
following week and it was the Rosanteo saying, we're getting
cold feet about recasting Becky, so we don't know if
we're gonna do it. So we're gonna hold you for

(11:27):
four months. We're gonna give you ten grand to hold you. So,
first of all, I've never heard of money like ten
tho dollars. I thought to do nothing, like just to
sit here for four months while you make a decision.
And then the other half of me thought, like my
ass is grass and school, like they're gonna tell me
in four months if we're actually going to do this.
So I had to kind of wait brought that money,

(11:47):
so you should have brought that money to school. And
just for those of you who don't know, this is
called a holding deal holding fee. Excuse me what I
fanned my face with my holding view and then uh,

(12:09):
and then I know, and by the time you converted
to Canadian dollars, it was obviously a whole different situation.
So so yeah, it was a crazy It was a
crazy experience. I was a baby and I had no
idea what I was doing, and I just watched like
Roseanne and Laurie Metcalf and Sandra Bernhardt and sad Or
Gilbert and John Goodman and Johnny Galecki and this like
ridiculous list of comedians and um, it was kind of

(12:32):
in awe and a little bit terrified. And then after
two seasons, they you know, gave everybody hugs by, like
I'll see you guys after hiatus, which is the break
that you take between seasons for anyone listening, it's that
weird term. And uh, then I get a phone call
saying Lucy's coming back to play Becky and apparently I
said I want to talk to Roseanne for closure. I

(12:55):
don't remember doing that, but apparently what I said, and
so I did, and then UM and then they called
me like six episodes into the following season and said,
come back this week. Darlene is getting married in an
episode and can you come down and be Becky? And
I was like it went and they said tomorrow. So
Lacy had just Leazi had just changed her mind and

(13:16):
she left. They didn't tell me, they just said can
you come back tomorrow? And I said, well, I'm going
to college up here now and uh, and I'm doing
this UM movie of the week where John Ritter, interestingly enough,
who played obviously your dad on Scrubs, I was doing
a TV movie with him up here, and I said,
so I can come on. I can come on Friday

(13:36):
night for tape night. So it was the craziest day.
I remember. I wrote an ocean off the exam at
like six thirty in the morning, went straight into the
scene with this pregnancy belly. I just remember ripping the
pregnancy belly off on the way to the airport and
got to l A and they had a car waiting
for me with hair and makeup in the car. Did
my hair and makeup on the way to the live taping,
and the taping had already started and I hadn't seen
anyone since I'd been fired, and they were like, hold

(13:59):
these flowers, say this, stand here, do this. You got
to you know, the point where Roseann would take questions
from the audience, and that somebody said, why do you
keep switching Becky's back and forth? And she was like, well,
it's gonna be Chalky from now on, And that's how
I found out I had the job back for the
last year and a half of the show. Wow, that's insane.
I really think, Sarah, that is a that is a
story that I never heard of another actor having. That

(14:20):
is just if you're if you're I mean, when do
you ever see or hear something like that happening to
an actor. That's just insane. Well, we as we all know,
Sarah has the craziest luck in the history of like
just everything happens to Sarah. We touched on that a
bit in an earlier episode, how you would come in
on Monday morning and you would have a story that
was like nothing else we had ever heard, and it

(14:43):
happened every week. Honestly, I still feel like sometimes I
need to call you guys, because I'm like you you
would not believe what just happened to me. Lately, it's
mostly at the grocery store. I mostly want to call
you after I leave the grocery store and be like,
take a deep breath and be like, Okay, do I
get there the produce box bottom self and all the
products drops in the main aisle where everybody's standing. That's

(15:05):
the wound behind me, costs little in front of me.
I mean that is every day. You just couldn't believe that.
Every Monday morning, you would be like, you are not
going to believe what happened to me this weekend? And
then and then we'd be like, yeah, right, and then
it would she would go into a story that was
like that's the most insane thing I've ever heard. That's
just this weekend, right, And also it would be so

(15:26):
crazy that I'd be like, there's no way she can
make this up. I mean, it is incredible how similar
I am with Elliott. Okay, well, let's talk about the
audition process. Talk about That's a good segue into talking
about getting scrubs now, because what was what was the
auditioning process? When I read finally came around to getting callbacks?

(15:48):
I was I was reading with you. So you were
were you the first person cast? Doll and I were
cast together. My audition process, I had just moved back,
like after the Rosanto, I moved back to Canada for
four years and then my best friend had finished film
school and she wanted to produce and I wanted to act,
and there's you know, there was just at the time

(16:09):
not as much filming in Canada as does now, and
I um creatively was like, Okay, I'll go back and
give Ellie another try. We had a we got a
six month sublet and we moved down. We didn't know anyone,
and we never had any plans. And so this one
night we had plans. We were going to a show
and I get this. I had two auditions and my
you know for the next day. And normally, so type

(16:30):
A I would have canceled my plans and spend every
second that existed between getting the sides until going into
the audition working on it. And I was like, you
know what, funk it, I'm not canceling, you know, on Jen,
We're going to go to the show. And I got
home and it was midnight and my audition was at
nine am, and the other audition was at noon. My
Scrubs audition was at nine am, and I I opened

(16:52):
the script and I started reading it, and I swore
every page. I was like, fuck, gosh, oh my god,
this is so good. And every page I was like,
oh shit, this is like the thing I've ever read.
Oh funk. I want this job so badly. I want
this part of it. And so by thirty I like
sitting there with having read the script and with these sides,
and I love the show. I love the writing. I
love the part so much. So I thought, okay, I'll

(17:15):
skip the other audition. I won't read that one. Whatever
that is goes in the garbage. And I read with
dead b and Brett the Cash instructors at nine o'clock
on a Friday morning, and they said, okay, can you
come back at three to read with Bill's sign. And
then one of our one of Jen's and my very
very good friends husbands was in town for work and

(17:37):
he had come over to visit us, and so him
and Jen, Aaron Brindle and Jen read the read the
sides with me, and so we just kept like running
them and then I went and and audition with Phil
at three. Auditions were like ten days later because they
were still casting other people to go to studio and network.
So then we did studio and then network. So there's

(17:58):
four auditions and I were the same thing. I remember
that about Sarah because the last two auditions we were
there together. I remember that, and you wore the same
jeans with the big gass belt and it had a
big belt buckle. Am I right, Okay, I know the
belt you're talking about. I went through a very big

(18:19):
belt buckle collecting phase, so I had this old vintage
leather belt and then I would switch out like a
like an old Coca Cola belt buckle or like so
I did wear not a lot, but in my memory,
I don't know we could both either. I have no
idea which one of us is right. But in my
memory what I wore was I wore black boots that
the heel, black pants and a tight black tank top.

(18:40):
Because when I first moved to l A and I
would go on these auditions, I remember I went out
for an air and spelling during these like plaid funky
bell bottoms that I thought really cool in this like
vintage T shirt. I thought that I like super excited
about the South, and I walked in and there were
ten girls and they were all wearing tight black tank
tops and tight black pants, and I thought, Okay, so

(19:01):
that's how you do it. Here, got it. I remember
the jeans being blue. I do remember them being I
thought they were tight as fun too. I remember being like,
damn Jesus tight. I was the same. I was the
same way, not with the tight jeans, but I the
second I started getting callbacks, I was like, I'm not
I'm not washing this. I want my pheromones. I want

(19:22):
my pheromones on it. I'm I'm not jinxing this thing.
And I would get like another callback and be like
not changing not I mean, I was just so towards
the end, I remember I was like doing the same thing.
I did that. When I would get up, I would
sit in the chair, have a coffee. I would go
to the treadmill do thirty minute. Like I had a
whole regiment. I would listen to the same few songs
before I went to the audition. I had a ritual.

(19:43):
Do you remember what they were? Uh? Definitely Madonna. One
of mine was changed by blind Melon. I love it?
How does it? How is a melon? Blind? It will
make no sense? Donald is the name of a very
popular band. You might like their music. Let's circle back
to se our audition process. I feel like probably, I'm

(20:04):
guessing that Babies Got Back was another one of the songs. Wow,
that really got you. Do you want to tell them
your Baby Got backstory? Yeah? I was very impressed that
you knew. I didn't know that song as well as
you knew that song. For grad parent event, we had
to do talent for the parents, and kids got up
and played the violin and the piano, and ten of
my girlfriends and I got up and danced and we

(20:24):
had a whole routine. It was a bit sexual. I
think that was kind of odd for the talent show.
I think all of our parents were probably, like I
asked them, I should like, what did you think when
your child was up there at grad parent event? It
seems like a very odd How old were you guys?
We were in grade twelve, which is Canadian, right, so
you're about to graduate. We were in grade twelve, which

(20:46):
is Canadian for twelve grade. Yeah, So any who uh
listened to my songs the hold BC lot and in
the quarant clean up, I did find my sides from
the Idit Little Visitors pass up save both of those.
But I remember being in the parking lot and just
like seat back in the car and lying there, and

(21:08):
someone told me to do this. I've never told anyone this,
but um two, visualize yourself walking into the audition, visualize
the whole thing playing out, and visualize yourself walking out
and it going really well. And um so I remember
sitting in my car NBC parking lot, closed my eyes
visualizing the whole thing. And then um and then Donald

(21:29):
and I were in there together with some other Turks
and some other Elliotts and some other j d s
and and we basically all took turks going in and
then they came back out. And then you go back
in with this person and read together. And then they
pair you up and you read together. And it was yeah,
pretty nerve cracking. Let me ask you a question. Did
you know any of the young ladies that were auditioning
for your role? I knew both of the guys that

(21:52):
were auditioning for Turk. I knew And not only did
I know them, I knew them well too, Like I
hung out with one of them, uh and we used
to play a lot of basketball together. And then the
other one we did a bunch of movies together, or
we did a movie together, but I would see him
out at the club all the time. Was it Denzel?
I wish it was Denzel. I wish I could be
like Deel, I got it, you Dzel, Denzel, this one's mine.

(22:18):
I'm sorry, Sorry, buddy, You'll bounce back. Don't worry about it.
So was that weird to sit there with kind of
buddies or yeah, you know, it was very it was
very weird, and it was It's also one of those
things where it was like, you know, if one of
these guys get it, I'm gonna freaking I'm gonna lose
my ship, you know what I mean. Like as much
as I love you guys, and as much as you

(22:38):
know I have root for you guys, I want this
so bad. I want this so bad I could I
could taste it. Both very successful have gone on to
do other things. I just really wanted Chris Turk bed Yeah,
well you got it. I mean, so when you're sitting
in that for people that are listening, when you're sitting
in that position and you're going to suit, you're going
to network, you don't have the part yet, and you
sign a six year contract. They call it five plus one,

(23:01):
and I was like, well, but isn't that six years?
That's that's that's a contract lingo for. Don't tell them
it's six years. We're gonna call it five plus one. Yeah,
five plus one. So you signed five plus one. And
I feel like that's always such a feeling of I mean,
you're twenty four and you're thinking, wow, until I'm thirty,
and in any other scenario that would kind of take
your breath away. In this case, I was just like, yes,

(23:23):
for the love of God, please a hundred years of
doing this, Like there was no there was no two
seconds of thinking about it. Was like I'm desperate and wow,
if it could ever go, I would be grateful for
as many years as it would go for. And that
feeling of just complete signing that and so hopefully that happened. Anyways.
Then Bill called me, uh the few ardly that day

(23:45):
or it was the next day, it was very soon
after the audition was either later that day or the
next day, and I couldn't believe it. I think we
all probably after reading that script, kind of felt like
it was really something special and had the possibility of
I mean, you obviously you never know, but the chance
to go for a chime. As you know, Sarah, I
did not read the script before we shot the pilot.

(24:07):
I didn't read the script until the table read, and
I was like, oh, that's what happens, dude. I didn't
know it was a freaking dope pilot until my agent
was like, dude, this is like a really big pilot.
I never I never knew the trivia that you didn't
read the script until the table read. I did not
know that. Remember the Titans, I didn't know what happened
in the script until the table read. I remember we

(24:29):
did the dude, I just listen. I just knew only
my stuff this. I was a kid, I was young. Listen.
There would be times when we be shooting scrubs where
you know, the whole script wasn't out yet, and you know,
because the writers were behind, so we would we'd get scenes,
but Bill would sort of explain what was going on,
and you know, you shoot out of order. So we'd
be like Monday morning, you know, time to rehearse, and

(24:50):
Donald and I are like standing on a table and
he whispered my amber, like, yo, yo, why are we
standing on a table? He had no idea what was
happening in the script. All right, we're gonna take a
quick break, be right back with the legendary Sarah Chuk

(25:13):
and we're back, and we're back. Sarah, tell us about it,
just really quickly, really quickly. Before I tell you, I
need to tell you. My favorite example of Donald not
having read the c was during the auditions in the
show when you're like, I can't remember what but we're
supposed to be auditioning, and Neil and Sam Lloyd are

(25:35):
auditioning you, and like, I remember you walked in and
you you know, We're like, oh, yeah, I think I
could you read the actual script? You're like, I think
I can you know, come up with a dance for that?
And you know how to come up with a dance,
and you just came up with on the spot, and
you're such a fucking good dancer. You came up with
this unbelievable dance to poison. And then like, my kids
are all obsessed with the fact that it's the Fortnite

(25:56):
dance now and they watch the Fortnite character do it. Besides,
and they've all tried to learn it. We've tried to
learn it. I can't learn it. I don't think I
could even do it again. Listen, so that I just
want to say the billing off what Sarah said. That's
a perfect example. Sorry Sarah, that is the best example.
Donald hadn't read the script and everyone loves that dance.
People talk about it. It's the Fortnite dances everywhere. Donald

(26:18):
literally showed up and was like, you want me to
do what now? And he had to and he totally
improvised that dance on the spot. Well, there was a
lot of years of you know, I was a huge
new edition fan, a huge Bell Bib Devot fan. I
still am a huge new addition in Bell Bib Devot
fan uh and Bobby Brown and Ralph Tresvant, all of them. Anyway,

(26:38):
I had been dancing like that my whole life, pretty
much since I was like and since ninety two, I
was doing dances like that. And so when they were
like we want you to dance to poison, in my mind,
I was like, yeah, I know, I know some steps
that I could do to that to everybody else, because
I remember I was late that day. Everybody packed the
room that day, and I know the pressure was on me,

(26:59):
but I was like this is this is something that
I do all the time. Now, there are other times
where I didn't prepare when we were doing the show,
and it cost us like hours of filming Donald. Remember
I was I was directing once and Donald had a
paragraph of medical jargon, like a really hard a paragraph
you would anyone would have to practice a lot because

(27:20):
it was like fast medical jargon and like five sentences.
And I was directing and just Donald could not get
it because he hadn't even looked at it. It's not
something you could do on the spot. And I remember,
you know, when you're directing a scene, you normally start
with the widest shots and then you start moving into
closer and closer angles. And I was like, Donald, we
gotta move on, dude, I don't worry. We'll cut it together.

(27:41):
We cut it together. By the time we got to
like an extreme close up of Donald's face, like eyebrowed
a chin, he finally got it. And if you watched
that episode, like Donald does the whole monologue and a
shot that's like this type, because that was finally the
only time you ever got it. Those days are over,
by the way. Just anybody who's looking to hire me
for any thing. Yeah, I am not like that anymore.

(28:02):
I don't worry. I'm sure no. No casting directors are
directors are listening to our podcast. But what Zach was
saying about, you know, getting the script sometimes, you know,
as the season would get towards the end, and the
writers were so taxed trying to crank out these scripts
that were so funny. I remember one morning we got

(28:23):
to work on a Monday morning and it was the
week that my character had the voice over, because each
of our characters had a voice over for one time,
and they didn't have the script out yet, but we
had to start shooting something, and so they said, we're
just going to do a long kind of steady cam
shot following you through the hallways, and I just want
you to change your face around to go with different

(28:44):
emotions and things you're going to write. So just you know,
you're walking and you're thinking, like a little bit happy
and you're a little bit sad, and then you're thinking
about something not for two hours, just me and a
steady camp like that's funny that they probably had to
eventually write to your expressions because they were changing, because
then they didn't and the camera didn't want to cut away,
so it's like, okay, wait, she's about it. Got a

(29:04):
second of seriousness and then a smile, so like we
needed one second sentence and then it's something to smile about,
and then looking a little nostalgic and all right, should
we go into this episode? This is one of my
favorite episodes. This is one of my favorite episodes of
the whole nine years. It really is special and I
want you to know I haven't seen it in in

(29:25):
twenty years, and I got goose bumps multiple times watching it.
That's how it really does hold up. I was about,
there's some really great moments in this show, in particular
with you, Sarah. This this you know, I I looked
at this show when I first when we first did
this show, I was like, oh wow, we all get
a chance to shine here. But this was a moment
I feel like for you and for Judy as well,

(29:47):
where you guys. You guys really crushed this episode. Like
it's really fucking good, Like you two alone, you you
and Judy alone, Like really, I don't know what it is,
but you guys start off on a you know, as adversaries,
and by the end of it, your friends and that's
for half an hour. To be able to tell a
story like that's very difficult to to to start two

(30:08):
people off his enemies, especially when the narrative so far
in the show has been you guys not getting along.
And so, you know, it really is a testament to
how good you are as an actress that you guys
were able to not only bring the funny, but bring
the drama and then also bring the connection so that
the story tracks all the way through. And I just

(30:28):
wanted to give you props on that straight up, right out,
you know the bat. And also it was so early
on in the show too, it was episode four, and
so for us to be able to jump in and
tell such a good story, it's really a testament to
how good First of all, Matt Tarsa is Holy ship,
what a good writer. Matt Sarsas wrote it. And we
should also say that this was the first episode not
directed by Adam Bernstein, and it was the first episode

(30:51):
directed by Mark Buckland, who really added a lot of
cool style. You know, we've spoken about how Adam Bernstein
really developed the language of how the camera moves and
scrubs and how you could do some trick shots and
how there was a lot of creativity. The camera was
a character in the show, and Mark Buckling, I think
with this episode, really took that and ran with it
and added a lot of a new language to to

(31:12):
the way the show was shot. And Bernstein, Um, it
should be said, directed the Baby's Got Back video in
case anyone out there does not know that that that is.
That is beautiful trivia there for you Scrubs fans. Sarah
can do the full dance and knows all the lyrics
the Babies Got Back And coincidentally, was it sir mix
a lot? Yes, it is sir mix a lot. Music
video was directed by Adam Bernstein. There you go. That's
not on your scrubs Wicky, Right, thank you told you, wicky, Wicky,

(31:36):
we got it from here. Well, first of all, Donald,
thank you for saying all those nice things. I felt
the same way about you guys. Like I was like going, like, wow,
Donald's ack fucking nail in this episode and it's like
we just started, like we were a few weeks in.
It was that fourth episode, but was the third one
that we shot in that chunk you know, separated out
from the pilot, and like I feel like Bill had
told us a long time ago that he didn't he

(31:58):
say to the network, We're gonna set it up one
out of every three patients die here and you're kind
of waiting the whole episode to find out who it's
going to be, and then they all die. I feel
like he said that in the network and they said, no,
you can only have one patient die, and he said, no,
it's going to be all three. But we have to
do that. We're coming out of the gate right now.
We're gonna show the audience that this is what the
show is. And all those years on Scrubs, this one,

(32:21):
for me absolutely is the one that stands out whenever
I think of the show as being the one that
really shows the responsibility that's put on these young, young,
young doctors. I mean, my little sister isn't her first
year right now of being a real doctor. What a
crazy time in the world to be doing that. Um,
and I can't believe her stories. I can't believe what

(32:44):
level of responsibility that they're given right out of the gate.
I mean, you know, I'll be at work on set
and I'm on lunch, and I come back from lunch
and she's like, you know, she's just been doing CPR
on someone for thirty minutes, trying to save them, and
I'm like, well, I was just in here and makeup
touch ups and they took the same curl and recurled
it again to make it curly like it just it's

(33:06):
such as it takes your breath away. Really, what the
decisions young doctors have to make? It? Do you think
your sister was inspired by you? And it's interesting, you
know a lot of younger sisters might be inspired to
that their older sister was a real doctor, But because
she grew up with you playing this character, do you
did she think that that inspired her at all? Oh?
I tried to get my Remember, I'd say to my

(33:28):
family like, hey, guys, like, did you see you know
I was so excited about the show. I've like you've seen.
They were like, well, we t voted because it's on
the same time as twenty four But that Jack Bauer,
Like what he did? You know? They I feel like,
you know, she's thirteen years younger than me, and I
would like to think that I had that kind of influence,

(33:48):
But really she came out of the womb a doctor.
I mean she the stories are crazy and yeah, she
she was just so interested in medicine from such a
young age and really so calm under pressure, like I remember,
just just responsible. I mean I remember we went on
a road trip and she'd had her license for maybe
two weeks, and my dad was like, so she's gonna drive, right,

(34:09):
And I was like, Dad, I've been I've been driving
for thirteen and a years. He's like, yeah, yeah, so
so she's gonna drive right. Like she just is just
a much more responsible human. But it definitely has been
interesting just rewatching a couple, Like just last night, we're
watching a couple of early episodes and thinking them, thinking
about them just in the context of of her and

(34:30):
and this one in particular, because it's pretty it's pretty unbelievable,
as you know, you see j D and Elliott and
Turk and the pressure that is on them and just
all of all of it, like trying to figure out,
you know, what, what calls they can make on their
own and when to go for help. Here's a little
bit more Scrubs trivia. Your a little sister taught my

(34:52):
eighteen year old, when he was probably nine to ten
months at this time, how to walk. That's right on
the third floor of the hospital right in between our
dressing rooms. That's so crazy. And now she's an adult
and she's taking care of patients. Wow, is she on

(35:12):
the front line right now? She is. I think about
her mostly every minute. We can pots and pans every night,
all of us, and my three year old is broken
a couple of measuring cups because she gets so into it.
That's very what you do. It as like an honor
to the healthcare workers. Yeah, so it's it's really cool. Actually, everybody,

(35:36):
everybody goes out on there on the everybody goes outside
at like seven o'clock and just eggs the pots and
pans and screams and cheers. Oh. I like that. I
want my neighborhood. I want my neighborhood to do that.
I I we need a primal scream started. It's so cool. Yeah,
just seguing back to the show, I want to just
say that, Um, you'll hear us at a minute seconds
there's there's really cool steadicamp shot that really kind of

(35:59):
sets up the tone of the show. You'll hear us
talk about the word stead came a lot on on
this and if you don't know what it is, it's
a it's like it's a way of mounting the camera
on a on an operator's body so that the operator
can move around and the camera just feels like it's
floating around. And it's something that was used extensively on
the Scrubs set as we traveled on the hallways. But

(36:19):
I pointed out, as I was talking about Mark Buckling
and director's style, how I like this sort of way
he's introducing that this episode is going to be about
the three of us, where the camera starts on me
and then it and then it goes to Sarah and
it never it never cuts, and then it goes by
the children, then it comes up to Donald as he
comes into the room, and and uh, I just thought
that was kind of an early example of something that

(36:40):
we did ended up doing a lot of of of
sort of moving around the hallways without cutting a lot. Yeah. Also,
if I don't know if you guys noticed about the
hospital is really dark in this episode. Yeah, the lights
aren't on really everything's you know, it's very very dark
in this episode. Not only that, here's another thing it's
jumping ahead, but is one of the first times where

(37:01):
Kelso isn't the bad guy on the show. Also, what
I've noticed is that when we're dealing with something like
that's as powerful or as strong as death, it's us
versus the hospital. If you've noticed that, you know what
I mean, it's the it's the cast verse versus death.
And in this one, Kelso gives is a mentor in

(37:23):
this one. He gives really good advice in this one
to j D. And he's not the obstacle. He's the
one that's actually trying to help solve the problems in
this Now, if you watch other episodes, he's never really
liked that, you know what I mean. He's always he's
always the bad guy. This was the first episode, well

(37:44):
obviously the first episode in the run, but this is
the first episode that I can remember where I was like, Wow,
Kelso was on board with us this whole time. I
like what you pointed out to about the lighting because
traditionally in in half hour TV comedy everything so he's bright,
there's like this unwritten rule that for it to be funny,
it's out of you bright. And and again just challenging
some of the conventions. In this episode, both John and Wood,

(38:06):
the cinematographer, and Mark Buckland did things like have have
it been in dark rooms, you know, having some of
the dramatic moments like an I see you later happened
in in you know, at at night or or or
at sundown, which I thought, was I agree, that was
something I hadn't I had noticed that was this is
the first time they did that. Yeah, it carries on
throughout the series two Yeah, at two six we meet

(38:29):
Katherine Juston playing Mrs Tanner. Now she is such an
was she has since passed away, but it was such
an extraordinary actress. And I remember she had just done
a very high profile run on the West Wing where
that character had passed away as well, and I remember thinking, well,
is that going to be odd that she's coming onto
our I mean, I'm glad she's coming on because she's

(38:50):
a wonderful actress, but having just played someone else who
who died. I think. I just remember that being in
my head, like she had just done such a hope,
high profile moment on on West Wing. Um. But then
the second I started working with her, I I just
felt in awe of her, of her talent. That was
the furthest thing from my mind. One of my favorite
moments in the episode when she says, are you a

(39:11):
good doctor, and you say it's probably too soon to tell, Like,
I do you feel like it's such a such an
example of how the show walked that line of like
you're just on the edge of your seat and you're
crying and then you're laughing. And there's a few moments. Oh,
there's a couple of moments that I laughed my ass.
When j D goes to the park to meet up
with her and he's like, you gotta get your ass

(39:34):
back to the hospital, and then he's like, is that
some moores? And then they cut away and then they
cut back and he's still chastising her, but now he's
got chocolate all on his lips. Yeah, j D was
not going to pass up a s'mores moment. Are you
kidding me? Do you think he could have felt a
big cake? J D was not. J D was trying.
It's perfect j D thing to be like really trying

(39:55):
to be taken seriously with s'more's chocolate over Alliver's lips
and they're One of my favorite laughout low moments is
when Donald is doing the workout video, which is foreshadowing
the Poison Dance a little bit, because you're dancing in
the very same room and and a little bit and
some and some sweet moves that I guarantee you we're

(40:15):
not in the eighties workout video, but like she had
such energy and work. Dude. The Women League of Women
Voters called and they want to know where to send
your membership. Sarah tell us about I'm a tell us
about I'm a Chunky Monkey from Funkytown because I remember that,
and I just was like, who wrote that? That is
the most random thing in the world. I guess Matt

(40:37):
Tarsis or who knows. But was the idea that you
were just testing out? Elliott was just testing out that
she could say anything in front of a woman. Yes, yes,
I think so, Yes, obviously to Carla's there's a lot
of there's a lot of trivia in this episode because
we we introduced characters that from that moment on weren't

(41:00):
on the show anymore. Like I remember Layla Lee, she
plays the surgeon in the room with Dr Wynn and Turk.
She was really good. I had the same reaction. I
was like, what happened her? She was, yeah, So I
do know the story. I remember we were filming and
it was a couple of episodes in and she was
gonna come back as my nemesis. And she was saying

(41:22):
how she had just got this part on a television
show that was gonna take her out of California, or
not out of California, but out of the Los Angeles area,
and she was gonna go do that instead. And I
remember being like, but what about us? What about what
about what we've got going? This is so funny, And
she was like, you know, I'm a guest star on
this show, but on the other show I would be

(41:42):
a lead. And so she went and took the other job.
To be honest with you, remember what the show was.
It was Tremors. It was a syndicated version of Tremors,
and I remember it ran for a while and I
and the dad from Family Ties, I think is on it.
I'm not sure. I just remember watching that scene which
will get too later in the episode, and and you
guys had such a funny banter that that's spoofing of

(42:05):
of a couple driving together. And then I had the
same thought. I go, oh that that that young woman
was so funny. What happened to her? And I guess
she got her own show at the time. She got
well Yeah, she got a job and went on to
do other things to other people of Scrub's lore who
were introduced in this episode UM seven fifty nine very quickly.
If you watched Danny Rose killed assistant, that obviously became

(42:27):
pretty sure on the show. He walks by in the
park and he has tankers and tankers was what a
big bulldog that he? Yeah, and I just we have
to talk about the legendary Mike Schwartz, who plays his
very first appearance, very first appearance. A lot of times
we're watching these episodes and I forget that some of
these people were introduced so early. So Mike Schwartz was

(42:48):
one of the writers on the show, very funny comedy writer,
and he plays the delivery guy, the ups guy if
you will that uh is first they established him giving
something to Kelso and then later he comes and delivers
the ton of bricks to me. He is he We
had so many laughs with that guy. Huh oh my god.
He's constantly doing bits and making us all laugh. Like
he walked by him in the hallway and he'd be like,
what's that, let's Jay crew. He would do this. He

(43:11):
would do this bit that I don't know why it
was so funny. But he would go he would pretend
to call off to someone that wasn't there, and he
would and he would do a bit where he was
pretending that they were asking him who made his shirt,
and so he'd be reaching for the tag he be what,
oh hold on, let me Oh yeah, it's Jay Crew
And it was so stupid, but he was talking to

(43:32):
no one and you would laugh every single time, every
time in the world where you tap him on the
shoulder and be like, We ended up putting that in
the show. Definitely. He went on to be the was
he the drummer for the for the air band that
same episode that we were talking about. He liked his
character like a later episodes we learned that his character

(43:53):
like speed metal right and and and that his character
was a big time like drug addict and everything like
then was always I and he was very lonely. But
that that bit about that was his bit where you
if he no one touched him, so if you ever
did graze his shoulder, he would cad coddle his own
shoulder because he was so low. He was so lonely
and lacking of touch, lonely, this guy in the world

(44:15):
and then Randall Winston is introduced as Death. Randall Winston
was our line producer on the show. And uh, for
those who don't know, a line producer is the producer
that really is handling the sort of the daily money
of things, really like the guy with the spreadsheet being
like we can afford that, we can't afford that. And
he was a very he was he is a very

(44:36):
tall man. How how tall would you say? He is?
Six seven or six six? Yeah, and so he he
was established early on as as death and death throughout
the whole run. Yes, And some of you are too
young to know that what this joke is about. Connect four,
but Connect four was was a game from but I'm

(44:57):
saying they didn't have the cheesy ad. She's the add
in the eighties was a brother and sister playing and
the sister wins and the brother goes pretty sneaky sis.
Remember that, you guys can look it up on YouTube.
And so that's why we were spoofing that old eighties
ad where I go pretty sneaky Death. But you gotta

(45:19):
do the lead up to it is I win where
I don't see it right here diagonally, pretty sneaky sis,
Pretty sneaky Sis and Randall is. His main belief was
that it's not a party unless both hands are in
the air. So we had the most incredible rap parties

(45:40):
and shows. We had great parties man and Randall and
Randall is like some of the highlights of every part,
like the some of the best party highlights that I've
ever experienced involved Randall. Fortunately for us, the guys ending
the money for the party really loved the party. Yeah,

(46:03):
we had some good parties. I'm sure there's episodes where
they were like, you don't need that set, we're throwing
a party. Why Johnny sees um home space looked very
sparse because we needed to go to us Why God,
we were just talking about that. How Johnny see. They
didn't get around to Johnny sees a building, Johnny Sea's apartment.

(46:24):
It was just a hospital set. But I think Randall spearheaded.
I'm sure that like we got to we got to
go on a that crazy, amazing trip everybody to Vegas.
We had to do like they were able to kind
of combine a press event with the Scrubs wrap party,
and so they organized it so like our whole cap
went to Vegas altogether. Because that will never happen ever.

(46:45):
In Never Again, I doubt any show is taking their
whole company to Vegas to throw a batch. Those those
of the old days. Yeah, when we got to shoot
a whole season in the Bahamas with the whole critize episode,
Sarah may have stayed and shot a season. What is
the season? Donald? I want to know the sports question,

(47:06):
and I want you to be honest. Yes, did you
know what the quote unquote catch was? Absolutely about it.
It's a famous thing that sports people know about. Absolutely
so Joe Montana. It looked like he couldn't throw it
to anyone in this game. Now, granted I don't know
who who uh they were playing, so when we're talking

(47:27):
about it in the show, I didn't know who they
were playing. But he found Dwight Clark in the end
zone and it was you know, it's one of the
biggest catches in history. As a matter of fact, it's
a part of a commercial, like a Gatorade commercial or
something like that. And that's how I first heard about
it because I wasn't a big football fan growing up.
I didn't I didn't become a football fan until later

(47:47):
on in life. But yes, I didn't know when we
did the when when they referenced the catch, I knew
exactly what it was, Okay, good because I didn't know
because I I don't know anything about sports. If like
everyone who's into sports knows, oh, the catch, it's called
the catch. Well, I mean at that time it was
called the catch. I'm sure since then they're like Eli
Manning and Mario Manningham they have uh, you know how

(48:10):
he found him on the you know, running down this
it's it's I didn't know when or where the catch was,
but I had heard of the reference before Donald tell
us about the bowling thing, because I was laughing at this, going,
what are those what are those pins? Like? What is
that supposed to be in the hospital? Those scie things.
First of all, this this is a testament for how
immature Christopher Turk was. So the kid says to him, hey,

(48:32):
it's the catch. Turk turns around, goes, yeah, I'll watched
the catch with you, and within fifteen minutes he's bowling
a kid down the hospital hall. Like, how did this
kid convince Like, that's how weak willed Chris Turk is.
How in the hell did this kid convince him to
put him in a wheelchair and push him down the
hall into a bunch of I guess they were recycling bins.

(48:55):
Is that what they were supposed to be? I think so,
because to me they looked like cardboard tubes. That someone right,
I'm hoping that it was a recycling but but like,
how did this kid convince him and the rest of
the floor, Like Chris Turk walked out the room and
was like, Yo, this is what we're going to all right,
I'm gonna put him in a wheel chair. I know,
I know, I just started. I know, I just started

(49:16):
as a doctor here, but I'm gonna roll a patient
in a wheelchair down the hall. If you're a new doctor,
don't try that at work, please. Well, that that was
and that was the great thing about the show. Also
is that he was held accountable for it, you know,
uh Kelseo right away. And this is where Kelseo mentors
kind of also like, we're not here to make friends,

(49:36):
We're here to treat these patients. Dude, be a doctor.
I wanted to talk about the park Sarahy reference that already,
but I remember feeling really bad at nine minutes and
thirty seconds slamming that little girl's face into the cake.
That was hilarious. I wish I could do that to
my kids sometimes. It was funny. I mean it was
funny on paper. When we got there and she has
that cute little face, and I was like, so, you

(49:57):
guys really want me to jam this girl's face into
a cake. And they're like, yeah, you gotta do it.
You can't just like fake it. You gotta do it.
And I was like, and I talked to her. I
was like, sweetie, are you okay with this? And she's like, yeah, sure,
it's gonna be funny. And I was like, all right,
here we going. I just jammed her head and it
felt really nice. Yeah, Sarah can attest to this. She
has children. As much as we love our children, sometimes

(50:18):
you want to just send their face into a cake,
especially going to be quarantining for the near multiple multiple
days months. If I had the opportunity and I knew
my wife wouldn't be piste off at me for doing it,
Rocco's face would have been slammed into a couple of
its birthday cake, into many a cake. I'm just gonna

(50:41):
put that out there right now, and might need to
go bake a couple of cakes. Were break and we
come back. We have a caller. All right, we're getting
good at that whole break thing. Joel Um. We're very
lucky here on this show, Sarah Chalk that we get
to take a call or once an episode. And here

(51:02):
she is. What's your? What's your? Alexis Torres? Donald just
gave you an Oprah intro election. I was looking for
your name. And the good thing about zoom is it
just says it right there, Alexis Torres, plumbly right there
on the bottom. Don't ruin the woman's hearing she's in quarantine.

(51:26):
I'm actually in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania right now in the house.
My family has a steakhouse nearby called the Glass Lounge. Oh.
I haven't gone there yet, but it's awesome. When you
go there, I I want you to tell them I
sent you. If you're in there, if you're in that area,

(51:46):
go to the good It's gonna be a wild buddy,
It's gonna be wild. Oh yeah, not now, obviously, but
you know when when this nightmare is over, go check
out the Glass Lounge. Yeah. I will definitely go for
Thank you for coming on. And do you have a question.
It doesn't have to be Sarah Chalk focused. It doesn't
just because she's want to understand human and she probably

(52:10):
knows the best person to talk to it. I mean, well,
we'll see. Not just kidding, UM, I have actually technically
question for all of you guys, Um, if you could
switch roles with anyone in the series, any character, who
would it be and how would you play their character?
Would it be different than how it was originally played?
Or that's a very good question. Go first. I mean,

(52:33):
if it meant that I could have Donald's dancing skills?
Was the fantasy? Was that fantasy that Sarah and I
were making out and I was making out with you
because she was you? My god, I can start off
where you guys are making out and then she's like
you fantasize about kissing Turkis now, didn't you? And then
I made up with Mandy Moore as myself. You were
Mandy was dressed up as herself. Many was just herself

(52:55):
and you were dressed up as me. I think, right,
I think that was a really beautiful moment and television
history right there. To make out to make out with
Judy in the pilot. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, we just
watched that where you made out with the model girl.
Is that the pilot or is that the second episode?
Was the second episode? But so you'd like to be
Donald if you could be anybody else, is what you're saying. Well,
if I can do that fucking poison dance or rowdy,

(53:18):
that would be pretty low about It's a very good question.
I guess, um Ill it's funny because you don't want
to pick. You want to have some screen time, right,
you want to pick one of the seven, so you're
gonna have some good screen time. I think I would
choose Johnny c just because, um he had such amazing

(53:40):
and they just knew how to write for him so
amazing well, and he he was just uh, I don't know.
I think that I just love the all the material
they gave Johnny. So I think that would be a
really challenging fun part to even attempt to do walking
around in banana hammock. That's who I was going to pick.
If I could pick anybody, I guess it would be
Mashi uh because if I could get but like we

(54:03):
we teased, we used to make fun of mash you
about running line and everything like that. But I had
such a hard time learning my lines back then that
I probably it probably would have suited me to play
mash to. You know, the first thing, like the first
step to a solving memorizing your line style is to
actually just do it, or to read the script, actually
read the script. I love how you're always like, I

(54:24):
just have such a hard time and rossing lines. I'm like, dude,
you've been playing PlayStation in your pressing room. That's all
I looked looked at it. Yeah, okay, right, do you
have another question? Another question? We're gonna answer a better one. Yeah,
your question sucked. That's what I just said. You like creative,
it was, it was thoughtful. I think you're spectacular and

(54:46):
I love Harrisburg, but I think you got a better
question than you. No, I don't know. No, Now you
gotta ask, um, what was something that you were super
proud of back then that you did. Maybe it was
a scene or a specific joke or anything like that.
But then now since you guys are doing the rewatch
and you've seen it, now you're kind of like, oh,
that wasn't as good as I remember a question. As guests,

(55:10):
you have to go first. Jesus. The pressure, I feel like,
interestingly enough, like you're like, I feel like interesting enough.
I was just freaking amazing. I mean, I mean, I
thought you were amazing. Like the early stuff a little
bit hard, harder to watch. I feel like I learned
so much on the show. I feel like I learned
so much from Bail, I learned so much from the
rest of the cast. And I feel like it's so

(55:32):
different watching those earlier episodes and eight years later, certainly
with Elliott to the character changed a lot. Like in
the pilot, we even did reshoots, she was much harder
and much you know, there was she was a bit
more of a beach in the in the in the beginning,
and then and then we actually did a couple of
reshoots so soften her. And then I think, you know,

(55:52):
the line between me and her started to blur. It's
the first part of your question, what were you the
most proud of? Certainly, interestingly enough, it's this is definitely
one of those episodes like when I think back on
the eight years, this is the first one to pop
into my mind about just the kind of show that
that Scrubs was, and and um, and then in terms

(56:13):
of things to do differently, well, that's just I mean Sarah,
I don't think you could have done everything differently. I
wish that I could go back and um and have
a chin, because this episode starts with the least flattering
view of my non existent chin, and and in later
episodes I would I would look at the director and
be like, bro, don't shoot me like that. I mean,

(56:34):
I'm doing I'm doing the best I can with what
I have, but that's not the angle I want for myself.
And and Bill, I don't know how many listeners know this,
but Bill would like to add things that were actual,
real physical attributes and write them into the show. So
characters would be named by their physical attributes. So like
the guy with the beard is beard for say, because
you know, and uh, and so so for me, my character,

(56:57):
you know, you had to say lines like short hair
gives me pig face, which is not untrue, um and
uh and or there was one where I had my
characters like, yeah, chin hairs back because I have this
mole where three hairs grow out of it. And so
that was actually written into the show. By the way,
my son said to me a few years ago, completely seriously.

(57:19):
He's like, Mama, I have terrible news. And I said
what and he goes, you're growing a beard. So so
there were definitely moments of the show where he just
had to go okay, all in the name of comedy
and so air out my biggest insecurities. And you know,
in terms of how it worked too, like Bill would

(57:40):
come up and he would watch us, and this is
not common for every you know, creator of a show
to come up for every single rehearsal. He would come
up from you know, to the to the set from
the writer's room. In the writer's room was in another
wing of the hospital. He would tweak a lot of stuff.
He would say, I actually don't love this blocking. I
think how I had it in my head was X
Y or Z and um. And he would he would

(58:01):
he would tweak our performance and our jokes to to
the point where, like a lot of times I think
actors like don't like a line read. And I just
had so much respect for him. I'd be like, yeah,
just if you've got some way in your head, just
you know, tell us we'll do it right. Yeah, all right, Well,
thank you for coming on, Alexis. Are you gonna give her?
Are you gonna give you the Oprah? Goodbye? Send off?

(58:22):
As well done. Let's say goodbye to Alexis Torres plan.
You get a car, You get a car, You get
a car, Alexis, we cannot give you a car. I
know it's okay. I can't go anywhere anyway, anywhere, Yes, yes,
going state. When this is all said and done at
the Glass Lounge, all right, thank you so much, Alexis. Alexis,

(58:44):
you guys. One of my biggest regrets in the history
of Scrubs is that I flinch right before those bricks
fall on me. And I remember Bill being so disappointed
in me because there were like four takes of it
and I flinched every time. But it's pretty tricky to
not flinch when you know a bunch of I know
that they're not real bricks, but it still was noticeably uncomfortable.

(59:06):
I mean it would be pretty hard not to, especially,
I feel like all that ship like, even if it
was like a major prop fall or something, once you've
done it once, I feel like our best chance out
of the gate is on your first take, because the
second you've done it, once you know what's going to happen,
you know the feeling of it. Maybe you like tweak
something a little bit in your shoulder and then it's
kind of it's around. But this was early on in
the show and I and I and I was I

(59:26):
was really loving doing physical comedy, and I always love
physical comedy, referenced John Ridder. I mean when I grew
up on Threes Company, and I just thought that John
Ridder was the funniest person I've ever seen, and I
wanted to be like him. And Bill was giving me
lots of love for my physical comedy. And this was
the first moment where he like called me in the
editors and he's like, dude, you flinched on every take.

(59:46):
And I was like, no, you blew it. And I
was like, I let Daddy down, fucking blew it. The
first time I was called up by by Bill after
he left the editing room was you guys will remember
the ah we had been so lucky to get nominated
for an Emmy and we were going and we were
excited and I got to borrow this fancy dress and

(01:00:09):
the stylist I've never had a stylist before, and she said,
so you need to go get it and I said, no,
I'm not going to do that. I'm not gonna go
get a tan and she said, okay, go get a
spray tan, and so I said, okay. So I think
the Emmys were like on the Sunday and so on
the friday of work. It might have been well before that.

(01:00:30):
It might have been well before that. It might have
been like maybe five days before or something like that,
because because we did the whole okay, okay, So I
get to uh, I get to the tanning booth and
it's like that fucking episode of Friends where Ross becomes
a nine instead of for three because it keeps spraying
stuff at him. He doesn't turn around and sprays again

(01:00:52):
and spray to get So I get in there and
you watch this little video and you put this cream
on your hands and you got to spin around and
do these weird poses. And I had like negative five
minut to get this done before going to set. And
I put a hairnet over my face so that I
wouldn't tan my face, and then I ripped that off
and then then keep spraying. And so I get to said,
and I'm tanned, and then you were you were full.

(01:01:17):
Oh no, not yet, not yet, because what happens with
this spray tan is it develops over time. And so
I was in the makeup chair and then my makeup
and we're doing these scenes and then as the day
goes on, I'm just getting like more and more and
more tanned, and instead of actually tanned, it was just
more and more and more orange. And so Bill comes
harder than any special effect we've ever done on the show,

(01:01:39):
Harder than the Exacts head explode um in the fantasy
sequence is going to be making you look less like
a new bloompa. You were like, we're trying to float
filters in front of your face because we can't color
time it and just jack out, like we can't just
wind the knob and take out some the color because
we keep doing it. You're in a scene with Donald
and then McDonald white. Dude, I'm gonna say something right now.

(01:02:02):
I remember, I remember when it happened. I remember you
being on set, and I remember saying to you, did
you change something? Did you do your hair is different
or something like that. What's so definitely I remember, just
like kids in a in a family, the three of us,
whenever one of us was in trouble, I was always
so happy when it wasn't me, and you just be
like you just be on set, just kind of bouncing
around like somebody's in trouble and it's not me, and

(01:02:25):
Sarah is freaking orange. It was so embarrassing. It's like,
were laughing the time I got the braces on the
inside of my mouth. We're laughing about that. When Donald
showed up with braces and he would like so Bill
and nobody couldn't even notice exact same thing. Oh God,

(01:02:47):
did you just have to go get him taken out? Yeah?
Right off? Yeah, dude, Yeah, he made me get him
taken out. I got busil line in like season two.
Everybody made so much fun of me, but I had to.
I would like, I had to take him out like
right before take but you're supposed to wear likeween like.
It was just a disaster. I just remember Donald. It
was so funny watching him try to sell the bill
that the braces. Nobody was going to notice those braces

(01:03:07):
on the inside of his teeth. It's gonna be great.
Everybody's gonna love this. Nobody's even going to notice. And
I think it's gonna be great for my It's gonna
be great for my teeth. I remember I went I
went home that night after the spray tan and I
had to scrub every ounce of my body. I just
my face and my body. I just was like taking
spolt to it. And then I did a movie in
Hawaii last year and the person wanted us to do

(01:03:29):
a spray tans So Lauren Lapkiss, who plays the lead
in the movie, and I was supposed to spray tans
I said, I I've actually had a couple of really
bad experiences with spray tans. I don't recommend it. I
think it's just reacts with me the bad orangey way.
And they're like, no, no, no, we have like the
best people in Hawaiiy're gonna come. They're gonna do it.
You're gonna love it. So I come down the next morning.

(01:03:50):
The woman comes to rough tell him like four sprays
you down. I come down the hair and makeup trailer
and they are freaking out there, like your legs are waring.
And then Lauren last hasn't seen any of this preamble
two balks, and she's like, who loves the sprint? And
they're like, Sarah, quickly go back at Joe, tell take
some salt, scrub, scrub it all off, get it all
off quick. I'm like, okay, I'll be right back, So, Sarah,

(01:04:13):
I don't think sprays hands are for you. Do you
burn when you get into the sun? Uh, she's very pale.
Look at her like, how bail she is? That was
the other joke on this movie. The reason why I
would literally, in between in between scenes, I would be,
you know, completely covered up to the point where we
would go out at night. No, everyone else would be like, chalk,

(01:04:37):
do you have your sun screened on? Like I just
I mean, let's talk about the scene. But the dramatic scenes, Sarah,
I think you're acting is really good. Here at three
there's this awesome scene where you and Judy where Judy
comes to get you and you're at the soda machine.
I think this is a really really good acting on
your part. Was this your Was this the first big
monologue for you on the show? I thought you were

(01:04:58):
going to say. Was this the first time that you
put in your iPod and listen to Josh Raden? Oh?
Is that what you did? You're giving Josh Rayden? Or
was it? What was it? I will remember well, don't
don't take away her, don't take away her, Josh Raiden,
plug Donald, Josh Raiden has gotten enough plugs on this
show is that is that? Is that who you used
to get to make your eyes to make yourself emotional

(01:05:21):
in eyes tier up? Well, I was still young, I
mean at that point. Now you know, as you grow
older you have many more experiences you're from. But I
used to use an iPod and I would play sad
music and kind of get into the mode. I don't
not then that scene was kind of it was very
early on. It was enough. I mean I remember just
shooting it and it was was it. Babies got back.

(01:05:42):
I mean, there's something about the lyrics. You you can
see if you look very closely, if you stop freeze
the frame, you can see my hips just kind of
booty is shaken a little bit. Yeah, I know. Josh Raiden,
let's give a plug man. He obviously was a soundtrack
to many things. I delivered my children to Josh raid
If you're gonna, if you're gonna deliver your children and

(01:06:03):
that's coming up, we recommend you use the musical stylings
of Joshua Raydon. Josh Rayden sang the song at my wedding.
Their first dance was and he fucked up the song tremendously,
he did, But I love him Oh my god, he
didn't even remember the song. I got the video, which
got which which song of it was? It was? It

(01:06:25):
was which song of him? No, it was moon Pours
through the Ceiling tonight embraises us with line and it
was perfect for the uh, for the moment, the rest
of my life, cake this night. Whoa yeah, and only
the heartaches have given me side they bring me to you. Right,

(01:06:49):
fucked it up the he fucked up the whole song. Dude,
I wish I could could say opposite of a plug. No,
it was due. He didn't listen. It's not every day
you get somebody like like him to one perform at
your wedding, also to do it for free, so that
he also performed at Ellen's wedding. I'm sure, I'm sure.
I'm sure they paid him. I didn't have to pay him.

(01:07:11):
And for that alone, And thank you, Josh Rading. You
are one of my heroes. Kevilie Donald didn't ask me
to sing at his wedding. By the way, has the
worst voice in the world. America. Let me tell you something,
America and all other nations listening, don't ever let Sarah sing.
Windows break photographs. These are what this what's happening in

(01:07:33):
my house? The windows going? I was conspicuously absent in
the musical episode. And also remember when when the when
when Daryl Hannah and Splash says her name, That's what
happens when Sarah say, I guess we haven't covered that
yet that you guys didn't ask me to help you
record the opening song? Can you imagine? Do you like

(01:07:54):
our song? I love her song? Yeah, Charlie Pooth wrote
the music and Donald and I were for the Donald
and I were the lyricist. What We wrote the melody too,
and then sent it to him, Well, the melody is
right kind of credit for melody. Melody was us Charlie
Pouth's producer and and and music writer, and you and
hired the lyricists. But we could also we also need

(01:08:14):
to give a little shout out to sitcom shows from
back in a day, like the Jefferson Someone said on Twitter,
I thought it was it was right. It said it's
a mix between the Brady Bunch theme and the Jefferson's theme. Yea, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
that's exactly what it is. I thought that was really perfect. Sorry,
do you find yourself singing our theme song? When you're

(01:08:35):
in your house and quarantine. It's it's you know, I
I've actually learned that. I I've got learning the guitar
of the ukulele actually, and I'll send you guys a
clip of me singing, and you know, I'll leave it
in your hands. Put on my show. My girlfriend caught
me on the treadmill listening to our theme song and
laughed at me, not with me, at me. You're proud

(01:08:56):
of it. You're proud of it. Things I noticed about
the show, about this show ahead, I had no idea
that I bopped that hard in the hallway. And when
I say bob, I mean like I had the straight up.
My walk is legendary. Strut. Is it like a stress?
It's like a but it's like so over the top, dude,
it's so over the top. It's like George Jefferson when

(01:09:17):
he was This is exactly like George Jefferson. It's like
so heavy. It's like, yo, dude, why are you going
so hard with that? And your inspiration? Do you remember
who your inspiration was? It's always Sherman Hemsley. Sherman Hemsley
always I wanted to say something about the scene in
nineteen O seven, There's the I had this dramatic scene

(01:09:38):
with Katherine Juston and it was the first time I
ever had the balls to go to Bill because I
thought I did a good job. And then he showed
me an edit of it and he had taken out
some of my dramatic pauses. And it was one of
the first times in my acting career where I was like,
I was like, I gotta go talk to him, because
he's making me look like a bad actor. He's he's

(01:09:58):
taking out the pauses like you because you know, the
show had to be cut down to twenty two minutes
or something, and I remember Bill going like, dude, there's
no time. It's twenty two minutes. There's no time for pauses.
There's no time for dramatic pauses, and um. And I
think in the end he put he put a little
bit back, but it was like it was when she goes,
are you okay? And then I go, I'm scared and
and and then when I saw it edited together for

(01:10:19):
the first time, I was like, are you okay? I'm scared?
And I was like, oh, that makes me look really bad.
And this is a thing that actors, I'm sure I
know as a director feel all the time sometimes when
you look and go, why did you cut me like that?
Like on the day, I thought I was doing a
much better job. But if you take out that pause
and cut to me like like that, I don't look
as good as I want to be. You know, I'm

(01:10:39):
sure you guys had that feeling throughout the show sometimes.
Well yeah, you know, you we we would tell jokes
sometimes and jokes wouldn't make the show, and you know,
we'd have moments where we thought, you know, we were
crushing it and then only to see you know, the
editors and Bill decided to use the reaction shot instead
of your actual you know, instead of your before right,

(01:11:01):
or the joke's just completely gone right. I love that.
I love that scene that you're talking about, Zack. It
was one of my favorite ones in the in the
episode when you know, she tells you to go and
live your life and you're like, you know, uh huh,
I'm just starting on a few things and you go
up to the thing and you're kind of pretending it
I don't want to go, and and then it's always
you know, my father, who passed away recently, always always

(01:11:22):
would reference this moment in scrubs that he thought it
was so incredibly moving, the idea of a of an
older woman comforting a young doctor about death. And and
he said, I just he you know, he was, He's like,
I've never seen anything like that before. And and and
when I'm just watching it this time, I just remember
how much he would always reference that because it was

(01:11:43):
so so beautiful, that the sentiment that the j D
doesn't know how to deal with death yet, but here's
this older woman who's ready to go and she's the
one comforting him about it. I just thought that was
beautifully written somehow managed to also be funny in parts.
That was what I couldn't believe, Like when she's just
like everybody dies, No they don't, right, No, they don't,
right the Schifel to the Miifel Tower, um the Miiful Tower.

(01:12:06):
That that being said, that whole, the whole list thing,
especially with the way things are right now, that whole
list thing got me to thinking, you know what I mean,
I don't have any regrets in my life or anything
like that, but there are certain things that I still
want to do, you know what I mean. And uh,
you know, we're in quarantine and it doesn't seem like,

(01:12:27):
you know, it doesn't feel like we're gonna get out
of this anytime soon, you know what I mean. Not
to sound more bid or dark or anything like that,
but when j D brings up the list and she's like,
I've done all of those things already, it really made
me think, like, well, you know, when this is over,
I'm gonna make sure that I get out and I
live a lot more than I did before, you know

(01:12:48):
what I mean. And that's interesting. I mean, this quarantine thing,
I agree. I think it gives you perspective and and
and I've just been feeling focusing on gratitude a lot
because I just think that, like when all this is
so insane, and it makes you focus on how lucky
we are and what we want to appreciate in life.
You know, they just the simple things like being able

(01:13:10):
to go to a restaurant with friends and laugh and
have a drink. And I don't know, it's interesting you
say that, So have you made a list? Don't are
you making lists of things you want to I'm gonna
start a list. I know. A lot of it has
to do with my kids and making sure that they
get to experience a lot of the things that I
didn't experience when I was a kid, when I was young,
you know what I mean. Uh, I try to do
that now, but I feel like maybe I need to

(01:13:32):
go a little bit overboard, and then you know, I
have my wife tell me we need to dial it
back a little bit. We're going too far, you know
what I mean. Like, Uh, there're certain things that my
kids have never done that and that's because I don't
do it, you know what I mean, And I don't
want to. I don't want to do that to them.
I want them to have that experience in that adventure.

(01:13:53):
I feel like I feel like it's it's also because
we don't know when this is over. We don't know
how long we're gonna be doing for, and it doesn't
seem to be short. Obviously. It sounds like tend a vaccine.
Who knows, Who knows how long this chunk of our
lives is and what it looks like and whether it
opens back up. I feel like it's impossible. It is.
It is and has trite as It's like trying to
be in the moment and trying to figure out what

(01:14:15):
like the rare times with them that I have now
that are so hard to get in the like in
the every day you think about how much time you
spend in the car driving them to activities, doing whatever,
and when work takes over and that becomes though all consuming,
and I feel like as much of it is that
that we can squeeze out just here, like just sitting
with them. Like I was reading something the other day saying,

(01:14:37):
you know, people are worried about their kids getting behind
an education. What if they actually came out ahead? And
I thought that was such a cool way to look
at it, Like, kids, this is going to form who
they are and who they become. And what if they
what if they actually start to appreciate the small things
that we're starting to appreciate right now instead of just
the grind of everyday life. And what if they actually
learned to do meaningful chores at home and learn the

(01:15:00):
value in that and learn how to you know, actually be.
You know, the only thing I worry about with all
of that is their social skills when this is all
said and done, you know what I mean, That's the
only thing I worry about. But yeah, you know, we
got this kid reading, you know, she's on site words,
and we're trying to get her to read and stuff
like that, and we're working with matth and all of

(01:15:21):
that stuff. But at the end of the day, it's like,
you know, there's something special about being around other children
their age to interact with, you know what I mean.
It's so true. I know my heartbreaks for only kids.
Who are you know, having to go through this right
now with no no kids to play with. It's really hard.
The show ends with Hallelujah by John Klee, which has

(01:15:42):
been covered by lots of folks. Um. I thought this
was a particularly beautiful rendition and uh again, I think
it was the first real time I noticed the show
ending with a with a sweet, somber, uplifting song in
a beautiful way, cutting to the montage and I got
road Town. I got goose bumps when we when we

(01:16:03):
all three whip our heads around, Um, yeah, revealing that
we've all it's not one in three in this case,
the odds of have fallen, so we've lost three of three.
I got goose bumps up and down my arms at
that moment. I thought that was really beautifully done. Absolutely
so shocking when that happens, right like, as a viewer,
I think you're not expecting that you're kind of waiting
for that statistic that they set up at the beginning,

(01:16:25):
and then we end the show and this is and
this is what I was saying a few episodes before, Sarah,
you weren't here for this, but it's really important for
doctors to be able to pick themselves back up after
something like this happens. And you know, it's also very
important that this happens to these young doctors at an
early time, so they do know how to set up

(01:16:45):
boundaries and do know how to set up walls to
help them be professional. It's tragic that it has to
be death that does it, but yeah, you know, to
lose someone you care about and then show up the
next day at that job, it's it's very difficult. I
can't I can't imagine it. I find it difficult to watch,
and it's very difficult to experience, I would imagine. And

(01:17:06):
that was that, and that piece of it so cool
that the show kind of owes that right after, with
you know, Churk going back and introducing himself to the patient,
Jad taking the time to go beyond the grass, Elliott
kind of figuring out how to take charge, and that
was kind of cool too, Johnny, these conversation with Elliott
when he says you made the right call, you did,
and she says, I know, and I don't. I didn't

(01:17:27):
remember that. And when I saw that, you know, just
sort of having her take that confident position. Yeah, that
was really powerful. I was really powerful. I thought, Okay,
um listen, guys, we did it. We did I'm so
glad Sarah we had you because we wanted to have
you on this one. Because we all keep saying, this
was a very special episode for all of us, and
thank you for for coming on. And I hope you

(01:17:48):
know we're having fun doing this. I hope that Donald
and I both hope that you'll come as as as
many times as you're willing to and and rewatch the
show with us. I loved it. It was so fun,
so fun to do. Um, so is that a yes?
Was that a yes? That was a very non chemical,
very odd that is that is? I'm in you? Just
you can know where I am. Guys not doing anything?
How do you say good how do you say goodbye?
And Canadians? Sh I think it's goodbye bye? Wait? Is

(01:18:13):
it something like that's French? That's well, you know, there's
a lot of them speak friendship that Donald. That's some
Bilingo country here, guys, is it? Yes? On that note, Donald,
if you'll lead us in song? Uh? Why Donald? Why
I can't I lead us in song? Sorry? You can
lead us in song? Um we will now, Donald Connaisson,
please one two. I prefer it when you count down

(01:18:36):
like Debbie. Okay, you got big dreams, you want you
take the monologue. This time of fame costs, and right
here's where you start paying. Stories about show we made nurses,

(01:19:00):
the stories netball should go. So gather around you here,
I'll gather around you here. I'll just excretch for you,
watch your wis and then d M h.