This is the end........

So tonight is the possible end of a great classic comedy, Scrubs. It is being advertised as the season finale, but 90% chance that it is the Series finale. JD wants to leave the show and do movies. Carla has said she wants to move on to something else. Dr. Cox wants to do more shitty movies as well. Only Eliot and Turk have expressed interest in returning. I say all this because I hope it is the end. The show next year would be terrible without Dr. Cox, Carla, and JD. Not because those characters are great, but because they show would lose what it is all about. It was always about JD and Turk being best friends in love, Carla and Turk being married, JD trying to get Dr. Cox to appreciate him, and JD and Eliot chasing each other. I would have a hard time believing the show next year if it were just Turk with no Carla, and no JD and Dr. Cox playing off each other. Who would the janitor torture.

So it was a great show, and I will miss it. But go out the way Brett Favre should have. Many great years at the beginning, then a few so-so seasons (Seasons 6 and 7 for Scrubs), then one last good season (this year for Scrubs and Favre's last year with the Packers). Don't come back for me and make us regret all those years of greatness just because one or two people can't let go.

That being said, here are my comments about their final episode

• We willl find out that the Janitor's name is Neil Flynn (the name of the actor who plays him) of Jan Itor (his German alter-ego on the show).
• JD will move away (they hinted at this in the last episode) but will remain close to Turk (they also hinted that Turk and JD weren't going to be friends. There is no way they will take a plot line that lasted 8 years and throw it away in the last episode.)
• Kelso comes back to work as some capicity.
• Cox finally hugs JD and tells him he respects him.
• Eliot and JD decide to finally move on.

Now, how I would end it is. The last episode is 4-5 years in the future. Turk is chief of surgery and JD is chief of medicine (Cox's old position) and Cox is the head of the place (like Kelso). Dr. Kelso is coming into the hospital because he had a heart attack. Eliot and JD are married (no kids) and the Turks have 3 kids. The Janitor is still there, and so is Ted. It is kind of a coming full circle approach to the show that started with everyone on their first day. (I personally don't like the plot twist with JD moving away).

That's it?

This past Thursday NBC ran what is called the Scrubs "Finale." This was planned on being the last year of Scrubs. It lasted 7 years despite mild ratings and constantly being switched on the schedule. Due to the writer's strike the season was limited to like 10-12 episodes. After the strike ended Scrubs was willing to come back and make 4-5 more and end the show appropriately, but NBC turned them down and said they would end it with what they had filmed already. Apparently they can't wait to put the premier of So You Think You Can Dance and Milf Island on the air.

The last episode was just a random episode with a random story, and actually was not even in order. It should have aired 3 weeks ago. Two weeks ago featured an episode in which Dr. Kelso retired from the hospital and reminisced and figured he would actually miss the place, he even told everyone, including his whipping boy lawyer this information. This would have been a much better end episode, not a perfect one yet though. Then 2 weeks ago was an okay episode with Dr. Cox as the stand-in Chief of Medicine. Then this week was a random episode and Dr. Kelso was once again the Chief of Medicine and had not retired yet. NBC must take us for idiots for putting these episodes in this order.

This is a sad ending for one of the last real sitcoms left on TV. (all that is left is the hilarious Office and the fading fast 30 Rock). Sitcoms are one step closer to death on TV. There is nothing left. Look at the current state of sindicated shows on weekend evenings and the only decent ones are Scrubs and Seinfeld. In a few years all we will have is shows like Cavemen and other stupid shows that make no sense and aren't funny.

PS: NBC is on notice and if it were not for The Office and Heroes, it would be dead to me.
TBS is off the hook for now.






PPS: I read a blog that said that ABC unofficially picked up Scrubs for 18 episodes so they can end it correctly. In a weird situation ABC actually owns Scrubs, it just ran on NBC. Bill Lawrence started Spin City and then Scrubs put then ABC passed on Scrubs and sold it to NBC but still owns its rights. Blah, Blah, blah, some lawyer crap.

TV Rantings Part One

I was just sitting around this Memorial Day watching a hand-picked Scrubs marathon with my DVDs and was wondering to myself about the state of sitcoms on television. These days networks are giving up on sitcoms and switching over to high-concept hour long dramas. I believe that witty sitcoms have become to difficult to write and studios are taking the easy way out by creating high-concept dramas that are awful. So many of these dramas last a year or less and go by the wayside.

Looking at the proposed fall schedule for the networks breaks down like this: NBC has 4 sitcoms, ABC has 2 (one is the terrible Geico cavemen), CBS has 4, Fox has 6 (4 are animated), and the CW has 2. Every year 5 shows are nominated for best comedy. That means 1/3 of these shows will be nominated. The rest of the channels' lineup is filled with terrible dramas. Here's a run down of some of the dramas they tried out last year, some of them are sadly still on, but most were canceled.

1. A show about a guy who keeps repeating the same day until he corrected some mistake he made (the show never finished so viewers never learned what this was all about)
2. A show about a town after a nuclear explosion
3. A show about a detective who sees dead people who try to help him solve crimes
4. A incredibly racist show about the Irish mob
5. A show about survivors of a bank robbery and hostage situation
6. A show about people "forced" into this country wide race for some unknown prize

Whatever happened to the simple comedy. One where we can sit down for 30 minutes and laugh and not have to wonder what the hell is going on and have to wait week after week for answers. I found this clip of a Scrubs musical that show the simplicity of a simple comedy, just jokes.



Its so sad. Growing up every night every channel had 2 hours of sitcoms, and then just one drama from 9-10 (for your parents). The only way to watch quality sitcoms is on TBS, Comedy Central, or your local syndicated channels form 5-7 pm. I believe the fall started after Einfeld and Friends and no one was able to write simple sitcoms that could be viewed by all and respected in many different ways. Seinfeld is simple, and simple people can laugh at it. Seinfeld is also sophisticated and smart, adn sophistyicated and smart people can watch it. The final death blow to sitcoms was when Fox canceled Arrested Development for War at Home. Arrested Development was by far the funniest and smartest sitcom since Seinfeld, but some many people "didn't get it." To quote Elaine from Seinfeld, "Smart people get it Jerry." (when talking about her political cartoon for the New Yorker). Week after week Arrested Development made off the cuff and very dry jokes, but they didn't pause and wait for the audience to catch them, they kept on going. War at Home is the exact opposite. They race through episodes and when they think something funny is happening or being said they pause and make sure everyone at home got it.

Sometimes I just want to escape for a half hour and laugh, not think. I spend most of everyday sitting around thinking, trying to "figure things out," its nice to be able to turn that off every once in a while. The way studios are programming television now, any year now there will be no more sitcoms. Just high-concept dramas that make no sense and ridiculous reality shows that no one with half a brain would watch.