Zach Braff Shares “Scrubs” Memories And Talks Reboot: “We Were Fried By Season 9”
By the time Scrubs wrapped up in 2010, Zach Braff and his castmates were ready to move on. The actor, who portrayed the quirky Dr. J.D. from 2001 to 2010, recently shared his thoughts on the show’s ending and the possibility of a reboot during a candid conversation on the Inside of You podcast with Michael Rosenbaum.
“I miss laughing every day. Belly laughing every day was – that was the job. And when that goes away, by the time nine years were over, we were sort of all exhausted by it,” the 49-year-old actor admitted.
He reminisced about the long hours and intense workdays that left little room for life outside the show. “We were starting to repeat jokes. Everyone’s pretty fried. We would do insane hours that people don’t even do anymore. We didn’t really have much of a life outside of it. So we were just kind of fried,” he recalled.
Zach is, however, open to the idea of bringing Scrubs back in some form. “But now looking back, and there’s talk of reboots, and that’s a conversation, I think, ‘Oh my gosh. Being able to laugh – belly laugh – with these people again, would be a lot of fun,'” he stated.
Despite the exhaustion, Braff looks back on his time at Sacred Heart Hospital with fondness, as he pointed out how the show changed his life.
It’s no wonder that talk of a Scrubs reboot has caught his attention.
However, the actor has some conditions if a reboot were to happen. Reflecting on the grueling contracts that came with the original show, he said, “When we signed up to do our show, they can put you under a pretty insane contract of, like, seven years and stuff, which was… which I wouldn’t do [again]. But some sort of a limited thing? You’re basically saying, ‘Do you wanna go get the gang back together and f—ing laugh your ass off with some of your best friends and be paid well?’ Yeah, that sounds amazing.”
The idea of a Scrubs reboot isn’t new. At the 2022 ATX TV Festival, series creator Bill Lawrence expressed interest in bringing the show back, stating, “We are going to do it — because we are lucky enough that people care.”
He emphasized that working with people you genuinely enjoy is a rare gift, and if given the opportunity, he would seize it.
Donald Faison, who played the lovable Dr. Chris Turk, echoed Zach’s enthusiasm but pointed out the challenges. While he revealed that they “all would love to work together again,” he added that “it can’t be a full season of a show. It would have to be a movie or something where you could only get a couple of months to it — because everyone else is doing something. [Lawrence] is never going to be free again.”
Braff also acknowledged the importance of Lawrence in making any reboot happen. “We can’t possibly do anything else without the Wonder Kid here,” he said, referring to Lawrence, who is currently tied up with the hit show Ted Lasso.
