The long-rumored Scrubs reboot is getting closer to reality. The project is now officially in development at ABC from 20th Television after overcoming the main hurdle, securing the involvement of series creator/executive producer Bill Lawrence.
As Deadline has reported, an agreement had to be worked out with Warner Bros TV, where Lawrence is under an exclusive overall deal and has four series. After weeks of negotiations, the Scrubs reboot has been carved out of that pact, allowing Lawrence to develop the followup for Disney’s 20th TV and ABC. (He won’t serve as Scrubs showrunner though.)
With Lawrence on board, 20th TV is moving in to secure the main Scrubs original cast. I hear that includes star Zach Braff, who plays John “J.D.” Dorian, Sarah Chalke (Elliot Reid), Donald Faison (Christopher Turk) and John C. McGinley (Perry Cox). There have been question marks around original cast member Judy Reyes who left the medical comedy ahead of its final season. According to sources, her character, no-nonsense nurse Carla Espinosa, is factored into early plans for the reboot. The participation of Reyes, who is a series regular on ABC/20th TV breakout new drama series High Potential, remains uncertain though sources indicate she could potentially do both.
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“Big chunks of the creative team behind the camera, and most of it from in front of the camera, are all super invested and excited,” Lawrence told Deadline in October, indicating that he would bring back some of his creative collaborators for the Scrubs followup, which at the time he described as being “very close to being worked out.”
Lawrence told Deadline in the same interview that he envisions Scrubs 2.0 as a hybrid between a revival, revisiting original characters a decade and a half after the original series ended its run, and a reboot, revamping the original concept with new characters as the series is set to introduce new interns.
“We’ve been talking about a lot, and I think the only real reason to do it is a combo,” Lawrence said in October. “A: people wanting to see what the world of medicine was like for the people they love, which is part of any successful reboot. But B: I think that show always worked because you get to see young people dropped into the world of medicine, knowing young people that go there are super idealistic and are doing it because it’s a calling. There’s no cliché ‘rich doctors playing golf’ — that’s not what it is anymore. So I think that, no matter what it is, it would be a giant mistake not to do as a combo of those two things.”
Originally produced by ABC Studios, whose successor ABC Signature was recently folded into sibling 20th Television, Scrubs ran on NBC for seven seasons and then on ABC for two more. The series followed medical interns J.D. (Braff), Elliot (Chalke) and Turk (Faison) as well as other personnel at the Sacred Heart Hospital.
While getting the original series’ creator, executive producer and showrunner Lawrence (and his vision) on board was key for the Scrubs reboot to proceed with development and he will remain involved, Lawrence is not expected to serve as day-to-day showrunner if the followup goes forward per his WBTV carveout as that would interfere with his services to the studio where he has four series he has created/co-created and executive produces: Shrinking, which is currently airing its second season, and Bad Monkey, both on Apple TV+; the upcoming Steve Carell comedy series at HBO as well as global Apple hit Ted Lasso, which has been gearing up for a fourth season. Lawrence is repped by CAA and Yorn Levine Barnes.
The post ‘Scrubs’ Reboot Forges Ahead: Bill Lawrence Set, Talks With Cast Begin For Followup In Works At ABC appeared first on Deadline.
