johncmcginley

(S08E04) This was the better of the two episodes tonight, for a couple of reasons. One, we figured out why Kelso continues to hang out at Sacred Heart, and it's not for the free muffins at Coffee Bucks. But mostly, it's because we had a J.D. / Elliot relationship episode that was actually treated with subtlety and maturity.

This is a relationship that's been as maddening as any that's been on TV, mainly because of all the artificial blockades Bill Lawrence and his writers kept throwing in their way. Lawrence himself told me and others that he never wanted the relationship to become a focal point of the show. But by constantly trying to get away from it they did the exact opposite, giving the 'shippers as much to talk about as those that just liked the comedy and the stories about the hospital.

What I'm saying is: if J.D. and Elliot had the conversation they had tonight sometime during season three, all of that crap would have been avoided.

(S08E03) Since there are two episodes again tonight, I'll keep things brief.

I gotta say, I'm not sure why they brought Courteney Cox in for this arc. In her three episodes we didn't see much of her, and what we did see was at best a one-dimensional caricature. Other multi-episode guests have shown more depth; heck, Michael J. Fox did twice as much with one less episode when he was on the show in season three. She wasn't even the centerpiece of her final episode. Everyone else was, from Kelso and Dr. Cox, to Janitor and Ted. As last week, the second episode was better than this one. But this one wasn't bad.

(S08E01) It's interesting how much attention Scrubs gets from us TV-loving types, considering how little attention it gets from everyone else. Why is it?

Well, partially it's because of Bill Lawrence and the cast, who have been entertaining to cover and very press-friendly. But mostly, it's because of the comedic potential the program showed over it's first couple of years, which included the ability to go from comedy to high drama in an instant and make it look easy.

The eighth(and final?) season premiere was more comedic than dramatic (the second episode of the night, "My Last Words," demonstrates this balance quite well), but it showed that Lawrence was serious when he told critics that he was going to dial down the silly and get back to what made people like the show to begin with.

By far, the funniest panel of ABC's first day at the press tour -- one that had Jimmy Kimmel question the network president and had Ashton Kutcher and his fellow producers bring up critics to play a miniature version of Opportunity Knocks -- was the one for Scrubs, which will air its eighth season on the network.

A panel with Zach Braff, Donald Faison, Sarah Chalke, and John C. McGinley couldn't help but be funny, right? But if you've ever read interviews from the show, you'd know that creator Bill Lawrence is usually the one who steals the show. This time around, though, he had an assist from Neil Flynn, who had a few good zingers thrown in for good measure. One of them came when someone asked him if he knows the name of his character, which for seven years has always been known as "The Janitor."

More after the jump, including an episode spoiler...

(S07E09) Last week, one of our commenters, perhaps inspired by Shakespeare, left the following comment on my generally positive review of "My Manhood" (spelling and capitalization have not been touched):

what are you doing reviewing a show you obvioulsy disdain? you suck.

While I generally don't respond to witty comments like these, it gives me a good opportunity to remind folks that, yes, I do like Scrubs. In fact, it's one of my all-time favorite shows; I laugh my butt off at the reruns, even if I've seen them a hundred times. When I don't like an episode, it's usually because I'm disappointed. I know the show can do so much better, and with limited episodes left, it disheartens me when I come across a dud. It disheartens me even more when there's a string of a few duds in a row.

This episode, though, was not a dud. In fact, it was pretty funny, and it felt like one of the show's original writers penned it. I'll talk more about that later, but I first want to ask one important question...

(S07E07) God, what a snoozer this episode was. And you can't really blame it on the writers being rusty after the strike; this is the first of the last five episodes made before the strike, which NBC held until it could pair it with new episodes of the rest of the Thursday lineup. In fact, as we found out, this is the first of the five final NBC episodes, as the show wasn't picked up by the Peacock. We'll likely see an eighth season on ABC, but nothing has been set yet.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, the boringness of this episode. There were two decent laughs in this one: "brinner" and... you know what? I can't think of the other. There was some story advancement in this episode, but overall it was so unmemorable that I'm just going to pretend that next week's episode is the first Scrubs since the strike. Yeah, that'll work.

John C. McGinley plays Dr. Cox, the mean doctor with a heart of gold, on Scrubs. Ahead of tonight's season finale, he took a few minutes to speak to me about the roller-coaster ride Scrubs had this season, his favorite episodes, Office Space, and why Dr. Cox hates Hugh Jackman. Plus, we also find out which famous actor McGinley calls girl names in real life. (Oh- and the 'C' in his name stands for 'Christopher').

AJ: NBC announced its fall schedule this (Monday) morning.

McGINLEY: Yeah, it looks like we're picked up and we're going to be back on in January again.

AJ: How do you feel about that?

McGINLEY: Great. It worked this year so... the tricky thing was having football on for four hours on Sunday nights. I guess that shuffled the deck for them. It worked great for us this year. Everybody seemed to respond to an hour. It's pretty phenomenal to be an hour comedy on Tuesday nights. I'm electing to go glass is half-full on this one.