The New SCRUBS Has its Medical and Comedic Eyes Laser-Focused on 2026, Says Sarah Chalke

By BILL HARRIS Special to the Lede   In one of the early episodes of the newly rebooted SCRUBS, it is revealed that Dr. Elliot Reid, played by Sarah Chalke, has a particular bathroom dilemma. You know those paper-towel dispensers that operate on sensors? Well, they never work for Elliot. She waves, and waves, and waves her hands … nothing ever happens. Dr. J.D. Dorian, played by Zach Braff, has a theory, of course. He believes the problem is that Elliot has “cold pasty death mitts.” That’s quite a harsh diagnosis for Elliot, or the many others in this world who are regularly thwarted by those frustrating devices. “That’s a good point, I hadn’t thought about it that way,” Chalke said. “All the people who are watching this might be going, ‘wait … do I have that?’” Cold pasty death mitts aside, the new SCRUBS – which premieres Wednesday, Feb. 25 with two episodes on CTV, and streaming the next day on Crave – is hoping for a warm and welcoming round of applause. The original SCRUBS, created by Bill Lawrence, tickled funnybones from 2001 to 2010, and all nine of those seasons are also dropping on Crave on Wednesday, Feb. 25. So, the most logical question for Chalke is, why now? Why not have a revival five years ago, or five years further down the line? “I think it was the right amount of time away,” said Chalke, who was born in Ottawa, and grew up in North Vancouver, B.C. “You sometimes see revivals and reboots that happen just a couple of years after the original show ends. But I think this gave everybody time to grow up, and it provides us the opportunity to tell a different story.” Chalke continued, “I think the cool part is where we find Elliott, and J.D., and Turk (played by Donald Faison). All of them have become really good doctors, and leaders, and teachers in their own way. Stuff is going on in other areas of their lives, but in their jobs they’re really good. And that frees up space for a whole new group of interns.” There was also a very practical factor when it came to “why now?” “We could all do it,” Chalke said. “It was really important to all of us that if we were going to come back and do it, that everyone could be involved. It was just kind of magical timing that it worked out.” It’s certainly a different world for doctors and hospitals now than it was in 2001 when the original SCRUBS premiered, or even in 2010 when it ended its first run. Many people who arrive in emergency rooms these days have already done some sort of online investigation of their symptoms, and have very strong opinions about what the problem might be. And doctors and hospitals are wide open to receiving nasty online reviews if a patient is not satisfied with the speed or the quality of care that has been provided. “Totally, and one of our biggest priorities in the original run, and in this one, is having it be accurate for doctors,” Chalke said. “I remember the American Medical Association, I think, said at the time that SCRUBS, even though it was a comedy, was actually the most medically accurate show. For this new version, Bill (Lawrence) and the writers went to great lengths to interview doctors and find out, how has it changed? What’s different? For example, you can’t talk to young doctors the same way that Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley) did 25 years ago. How do we address that? Doctors have to take breaks now, and there’s a mental wellness aspect to it. There’s an actual person working at the hospital who’s in charge of that, played by the incredible Vanessa Bayer.” So the goal for the new SCRUBS was to have the returning characters and the setting be familiar for loyal fans, but to firmly plant the show in 2026. “We really wanted to figure out how to thread that needle,” Chalke said. “Because obviously the original SCRUBS got broader over the seasons that we did it. The comedy got very broad. But now in 2026 it’s much more of a grounded, real comedy. We wanted to find a way to give people SCRUBS, but also have these characters be grounded in reality, and grown up, and then use the opportunity for some fantasy sequences to kind of escape from that.” All things considered, slipping back into Elliot’s hospital attire felt very natural for Chalke, despite all the time that has passed. “You know, I started this job when I was 24, and did it for the rest of my 20s, so to step into the character 25 years later, it felt so seamless and natural,” she said. “I learned everything about comedy from Bill (Lawrence) in that first run. He would come to set every rehearsal and give us notes and say, ‘try this joke, say it like this, let’s drop that line.’ Just to watch somebody with that kind of comedic brain was certainly my training ground. And to work with people who were as talented as that cast felt like a once-in-a-lifetime job. So to do it again? It’s super lucky.” billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv