Speaker 1: Dude, how is that beast I'm great, what's that Beastie
Speaker 1: Boys song? It's like, um, Intergalactica. Now, someone told yeah,
Speaker 1: and someone told me that if you listen closely, you
Speaker 1: can hear Intergalactic Kill the children, Kill the children and
Speaker 1: galactic And I'm telling you, once you hear that, you
Speaker 1: will forever hear it. When you listen to that song
Speaker 1: I want you for this podcast, you will hear when
Speaker 1: some young children, you know, when someone points something out
Speaker 1: to you, and then you can never not hear it
Speaker 1: that way. It's like, it's like listening to that song
Speaker 1: so sad do she such so sa stuff they put
Speaker 1: on the interweb on like memes and stuff they give
Speaker 1: you fake lyrics, and it really sounds like these people
Speaker 1: are saying that Bill Lawrence arrived in the zoom call
Speaker 1: everybody Intergalactic, kill the children, Kill the children. That. I
Speaker 1: don't like it either, But the Beastie Boys did it Donald.
Speaker 1: They did not do that. I'm not one of the
Speaker 1: Beastie Boys, but I'm a huge fan of the Best Boys,
Speaker 1: and I refused to believe that they killed children, or
Speaker 1: that they want you to kill children in an intergalactic
Speaker 1: planetary way. Intergalactic Kill the Children, Kill the Children, And
Speaker 1: here's Bill Lawrence. Everybody, do you, guys, uh watch the
Speaker 1: Best Boys documentary? Not yet? I really want to watch it,
Speaker 1: though it's on my to do list. I'm stuck on
Speaker 1: the right now. I'm watching a lot the documentary and
Speaker 1: two of those dudes on stage being like, and then
Speaker 1: we did this great thing. Bill. I imagine you as
Speaker 1: a sports fan. You're watching the the that's the one.
Speaker 1: I'm stuck on the bulls. Yes, oh my gosh. This
Speaker 1: But Bill, doesn't this remind you of why you love
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan's so much when you were younger? Like, this
Speaker 1: makes me realize why he was one of my idols
Speaker 1: growing up. Even I had the poster. Guys, I want
Speaker 1: you to know that I had a poster of him
Speaker 1: in my room because I wanted to be cool too.
Speaker 1: Every every kid that age, our age at that time
Speaker 1: had the Michael Jordan poster. And even though I didn't
Speaker 1: watch any of it, I was like, well, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: need one of those. There is nothing funnier than you
Speaker 1: with the Michael Jordan's poster. It was right next to
Speaker 1: a Fantom of the Opera Beach towel. My father bought
Speaker 1: me a Fantom of the Opera beach towel, and you
Speaker 1: were supposed to use it at the beach. And I
Speaker 1: was like, this is art. I will hang this on
Speaker 1: my wall. And and I took thumb tacks and hung
Speaker 1: it like a tapestry, like a like a really precious,
Speaker 1: rare tapestry. It was a Fan of the Opera beach towel.
Speaker 1: And right next to that was Michael Jordan dunking with
Speaker 1: his tongue out. So there you go. I should I
Speaker 1: start to voice my momo now, guys, all right, well
Speaker 1: you should have a yeah. Zach forgot the the other day.
Speaker 1: Oh I funked up. I hear that I was the
Speaker 1: only one I ever heard. I've heard Judy's yet because
Speaker 1: I fell asleep less night. It's so good. Judy was amazing, man,
Speaker 1: she was great. Wait, we forgot to sing. We forgot
Speaker 1: to sing? Bill say five six, seven, eight, Oh, I've
Speaker 1: always wanted to do this. Is it gonna be at
Speaker 1: the end or the audience wait in bill if. Thousands
Speaker 1: of people did an online Twitter poll and decided that
Speaker 1: the stays all right, well I'm gonna do oh yeah,
Speaker 1: because that's what it is in my head six seven
Speaker 1: eight about show we made about a bunch of docs
Speaker 1: and nurses, and so get around here, yea around here?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Bill, you're the very first for the obvious reasons,
Speaker 1: you're the very first asked we've invited back. He's a reoccurring. Yes,
Speaker 1: you're recording. Just how you had the power to make
Speaker 1: characters on Scrubs reoccurring. We bond to Donald and I
Speaker 1: have have the power to make you the creator of
Speaker 1: the show recurring, and we've chosen you. I like that.
Speaker 1: It makes me feel like it's tenuous, like I could
Speaker 1: lose this at any second. Yeah, but you could funk
Speaker 1: up and be cut any time, you know what? Speaking
Speaker 1: of reoccurring, Uh, it's not. It has a lot to
Speaker 1: do with the episode. But you know, how where did you?
Speaker 1: Where did you find Rob? How did that happen? What's
Speaker 1: the Rob story? Bill? Because how did you find Rob?
Speaker 1: Who plays the todd Everyone all my lapt out loud
Speaker 1: moments in this episode where Rob and I'm embarrassed to
Speaker 1: say that because they're the dumbest fucking sex jokes. But
Speaker 1: every time I always write down L O L just
Speaker 1: so I can mark when I actually laughed out loud
Speaker 1: and they were all robbed them. Rob was an actor
Speaker 1: that got cast in a play that I wrote, and
Speaker 1: so I got to know him, and he was a
Speaker 1: stand up comic and his performance was always better than
Speaker 1: his material because he was just you know, had crazy
Speaker 1: amounts of confidence. And I just got to be buddies
Speaker 1: with him, playing basketball and hanging out. And uh, my
Speaker 1: wife always says that, um, I ruined his life because
Speaker 1: Rob went to Columbia and I think he was thinking
Speaker 1: about doing other things besides acting, and um, um right
Speaker 1: then I said, Uh, I'm doing the Scrubs pilot. You
Speaker 1: want to be the jockey, um surgeon? He might have
Speaker 1: a line here and there. I think line had. Rob
Speaker 1: had one line in every episode for nine years and then, um,
Speaker 1: you know, and after that, I think, you know, he
Speaker 1: was a guy that had been doing it so long
Speaker 1: it was too late to reinvent himself and to start
Speaker 1: over as anything other than an actor. But this has
Speaker 1: a very good ending because he's a hugely he's still
Speaker 1: the Todd and he has a hugely successful real estate
Speaker 1: business in Venice, California and is killing it out there.
Speaker 1: And he's still occasionally though, dyes his hair black, puts
Speaker 1: the fake tattoo on, and goes to like European comic
Speaker 1: cons as the Todd and and he's got to people
Speaker 1: pay him for high fives, and he's got his cameo business,
Speaker 1: which you can get him to cameo all your friends
Speaker 1: if you go. And if I were hiring Rob to
Speaker 1: do a Todd appearance, he'd have to be in the
Speaker 1: banana hammock like I'd be like, and you have to
Speaker 1: probably cost extra Donald. That probably costs extra. I would
Speaker 1: probably cost ever extra. And now he probably needs about
Speaker 1: a six month lead time on that to start starving himself.
Speaker 1: By the way, if you need a real estate, if
Speaker 1: you need a real estate broker in southern California, especially
Speaker 1: down at the beach, higher Rob Maschio, because I'm sure
Speaker 1: he'd be willing to give you a high five while
Speaker 1: he shows you places in Venice. There is, without a doubt,
Speaker 1: way to buy a house from me. High five out
Speaker 1: there for someone. You could buy a house then get
Speaker 1: a high five from Robin Carrol's throw it in. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't even think you have to pay extra for that.
Speaker 1: But he couldn't be It couldn't be a nicer guy.
Speaker 1: I loved the show. I used to love how passionate
Speaker 1: he was about it. And you guys made the joke
Speaker 1: because he would have one line and he would be
Speaker 1: running it over and over, and that it's still one
Speaker 1: of my favorite jokes. Rob's over there running line running.
Speaker 1: He would take it. He would take it so seriously,
Speaker 1: and we were laughing with him because he would laugh
Speaker 1: at it with us. But he would be like over
Speaker 1: there in the corner being like high five, high five,
Speaker 1: Hi five, high five, working it out. But I mean,
Speaker 1: come on, always delivered. He's so fucking funny man. It's
Speaker 1: it's always the same joke. But that's another testament to Rob.
Speaker 1: It's like it's always an innuendo joke, always the same,
Speaker 1: it's the same joke, and it's always in a sexual
Speaker 1: innuendo joke. But I but a testament to you and him.
Speaker 1: I laugh every time. Um you by the way, you
Speaker 1: you just nailed. I believe it might be you know,
Speaker 1: old war in history. But my favorite Todd joke I
Speaker 1: think came from a one. I think it was Neil
Speaker 1: Goldman that I hate giving him a name check because
Speaker 1: he wants them so bad. Neil Goldman wrote on Twitter.
Speaker 1: He's like, there's been six episodes. I've been mentioned once.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but the I think it. I think
Speaker 1: it was him. I think someone in the writers from
Speaker 1: said is every time the Todd talks just gonna be
Speaker 1: sexual innuendo. And I think he's the one that said
Speaker 1: in your end, up in your endo. He has the
Speaker 1: best line. He has the best line in this episode.
Speaker 1: It made me laugh so hard when he says, yeah,
Speaker 1: I bet you it is. When he goes, you know what,
Speaker 1: no one else uh remember, I think it's I'm not sure, Todd,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna guess it's your penis. Todd, I'm not sure,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna guess it's your penis. And it was
Speaker 1: now now Bill, Bill in your mind? Is he a
Speaker 1: good surgeon? Yeah, I don't know if you remember, if
Speaker 1: you guys have gotten there yet, no, we're only on
Speaker 1: this one. One of my favorite moments that UH the
Speaker 1: writer's room all loved was because we had read something
Speaker 1: about how UH surgeons are just cutters, you know, a
Speaker 1: medical guys called them hammers and the patient and nail,
Speaker 1: and if they get too caught up in their head,
Speaker 1: they sometimes aren't as good and that gave us the
Speaker 1: idea for Turk's character. Asked Dr When who the best
Speaker 1: surgeon is, thinking it would be that young girl Bonnie
Speaker 1: or whatever her name is. And Dr Wenn says, you
Speaker 1: really want to know who it is and he points
Speaker 1: at the Todd and uh, you say no way, and
Speaker 1: then uh, Dr Went says, you're all caught up in
Speaker 1: your brain thinking about all these problems. You know what
Speaker 1: Todd's doing, and they cut to Todd and surgery. We
Speaker 1: actually paid for the Bonanza theme because he's just he's
Speaker 1: just looking at all his instruments. He's going Don Lund Lund,
Speaker 1: Tiny Scalpel. It was like Dunderlanderland Decisive. So he's still president.
Speaker 1: He's still present in the moment because his mind isn't
Speaker 1: getting distracted. He's just like, yeah, he's got nothing to
Speaker 1: distract it. It's like somebody. It's like it's like how
Speaker 1: somebody that's not that bright could be great at the
Speaker 1: video game. That's Todd. Um. Let's talk about Bonnie because
Speaker 1: we mentioned it earlier that she was supposed to be
Speaker 1: my nemesis at one point, right like that wasps we
Speaker 1: uh we she got another gig. She was good. She
Speaker 1: would have stayed around the same way Doug did in
Speaker 1: the same way other you know, JD had Doug on
Speaker 1: the medical side, she would have been the person that
Speaker 1: stayed around on the surgical side. But she got another gig.
Speaker 1: You know. That's why, uh we we sent her off
Speaker 1: on that trip um and came up with that story
Speaker 1: only because we knew she was uh not going to
Speaker 1: be around to work for a while. That's always tough, man,
Speaker 1: That has to be difficult. Like when we talk about
Speaker 1: the people that have him through the show, and you know,
Speaker 1: like a Zas and all of these other people, it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, if they weren't bubbling and doing the thing
Speaker 1: at the time, they would have been staples on the
Speaker 1: show for years to doubt. Man, Even Charles Chung disappeared
Speaker 1: for a second because he got some pilot or movie
Speaker 1: and stuff. And we loved having that dude around. He's
Speaker 1: just a really kind of you know meeting Potata's good actor,
Speaker 1: you know, and uh and he was a good straight
Speaker 1: man too for Donald's because he was just so good
Speaker 1: at dead pan, you know, and Donald could be like
Speaker 1: wacky Turk and he was just perfect, Like we had
Speaker 1: you could keep listening, remember Neil and Garrett called them
Speaker 1: our weapons chest. And those were one line characters that
Speaker 1: we thought were so very funny that not just Ted
Speaker 1: the Lawyer and Alma, you know, Nurse Roberts, but like
Speaker 1: doctor Zeltzer, you know, and Bob godde out to Bob Clinton,
Speaker 1: who's yet to make an appearance. I don't know if
Speaker 1: he arrives in season one or not, but you introduced
Speaker 1: me to Bob Clindent and on the show, and he
Speaker 1: played Seltzer, and I just thought that is one of
Speaker 1: the funniest character actors I've ever met. I put him in,
Speaker 1: I put him in a bunch of stuff since because
Speaker 1: I just love that guy. He's he's amazing, you know
Speaker 1: him and Sam Lloyd and uh, Krista and um Aloma.
Speaker 1: I mean, they could all be regulars on any show.
Speaker 1: And so it was Krista show. Ye fine line though
Speaker 1: of like you'd have like your guest star level like Krista,
Speaker 1: and then you'd have like the Aloma level who were
Speaker 1: like and then you'd have people used to call your
Speaker 1: assassins who would just come by once in a while
Speaker 1: and they do like a drive by one liner and
Speaker 1: just kill it, like and and Bob Clintenton was one
Speaker 1: of those. He was an episodes, will there will there
Speaker 1: be prostitutes? He would just invest My favorite part of
Speaker 1: that joke, you love that. My favorite was dr Cox
Speaker 1: go and no and Bob's read a pop good so no,
Speaker 1: oh good good. He was not worried about it at all.
Speaker 1: He was hopeful. Hey Bill, I thought we could start
Speaker 1: off since we have you, and I was thinking today
Speaker 1: because I didn't because you're here and I put on
Speaker 1: a nice shirt. I was telling before you got on
Speaker 1: that because we had you put on a nice shirt.
Speaker 1: And I actually did a lot of preparation for this episode.
Speaker 1: And watch the last night too. I'm ready. It's very first.
Speaker 1: Such a great episode, Dude, Judy fucking we gotta do
Speaker 1: you guys gotta carry one torch for me beforehand. The
Speaker 1: only thing that really bummed me out about this episode
Speaker 1: and all my experiences is when I catch up with
Speaker 1: you guys, unless I want to pop a DVD and
Speaker 1: I watch on Hulu. And the song that Chris picked
Speaker 1: at the end of this episode was so good and
Speaker 1: it was it's not you know, the original music is
Speaker 1: not on these episodes and streaming, and it bums me
Speaker 1: out and I heard you. We keep telling the audience that,
Speaker 1: And just to reiterate if you're just hearing this, not
Speaker 1: that we don't love Hulu, but we do love WHU.
Speaker 1: But we love you Hulu. But because of streaming rights
Speaker 1: and contracts and such, you're not going to get all
Speaker 1: of the original songs that that Bill and Krista and
Speaker 1: others placed in ZAC And the ending song of this
Speaker 1: in the rain was a song by a band called
Speaker 1: Sebadoh and it was so good, uh and so pointed
Speaker 1: in the real production of it. Speaking of music, we
Speaker 1: used it so much blah blah blah blah blah blah
Speaker 1: that's in this episode. Definitely in this episode, and it's
Speaker 1: kind of new in the scrubs. It's like the second
Speaker 1: time we've used it. Buah blah blah blah blah blah
Speaker 1: blah blah. But when it came on, it pissed me
Speaker 1: off so much. It was like, oh, you're ruined it
Speaker 1: with what's funny. What's funny is like back when they
Speaker 1: back when they introduced that sad cue. This was like,
Speaker 1: you know, this was like, you know, a tenth episode
Speaker 1: of season one. It was genuinely like Swede and heartfelt
Speaker 1: now that we did nine seasons and then started to
Speaker 1: make fun of it now when it's like in a
Speaker 1: pointing moment, you're like, oh, not that this is the
Speaker 1: second time. The second was the second time. I remember
Speaker 1: when it finally caught my attention, I was like, how
Speaker 1: come they keeps going up? Because at first I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: such a beautiful moment for so long, for so long,
Speaker 1: and then somebody was like, dude, the sad song, we
Speaker 1: gotta figure that out. I think was you Bill that
Speaker 1: said that it's gotta go in our head. All those
Speaker 1: cues were the stuff that's happening in Zach's head, Xac's
Speaker 1: character's head while he's roaming around, you know. So then
Speaker 1: you ended up doing um a moment where in one
Speaker 1: of the episodes where I actually referenced the quell you
Speaker 1: see what do you mean that now is when you
Speaker 1: say something point it makes me think about it, And
Speaker 1: then the sad music place, and then you hear me,
Speaker 1: you hear me in the voice over and go and
Speaker 1: then I think, and then and then eugeniously fucking then
Speaker 1: used the queue out of that scene now and so fun. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he walks away and says you're an idiot, and it
Speaker 1: goes the real cue goes my mom and then and
Speaker 1: you whip sync the last one you go. I thought
Speaker 1: that that guy's name is Jan Stevens, and I think
Speaker 1: you want a bunch of score awards for our show.
Speaker 1: I don't think he was happy when you were like,
Speaker 1: I don't like the bulah bah bah anymore. I want
Speaker 1: to he understood. Got that guy got it. He was
Speaker 1: that he got the right by the way, just very hard,
Speaker 1: very hard assignment, just like you guys are joking about yourself,
Speaker 1: as with anybody that was a dude. The um worked
Speaker 1: his butt off god here for years and then when
Speaker 1: you get later in it, you'd be like, hey, we
Speaker 1: need a queue for and your in box. Well how
Speaker 1: about this one? Just be literally he was like one
Speaker 1: hand on his keyboard when you said I need a
Speaker 1: que just going bum bum bum bum bum. There you
Speaker 1: go done, I'm gonna head out to the park. What's
Speaker 1: funny was that? There? You know when there are these
Speaker 1: things called stings, which are really quick little moments either
Speaker 1: all over scrubs and and uh and funny way yeah,
Speaker 1: Jan wind right one like, hey, we need some stings
Speaker 1: for the end of the scene and you get one
Speaker 1: to be like bound and like bound, but we'd use them.
Speaker 1: It was like a big scrub scene and bound bound
Speaker 1: I thought, I thought, because um, we have you here
Speaker 1: and and um, and we're really we're really not We're
Speaker 1: not only entertaining the audience, but we want to provide
Speaker 1: a service that you could explain a little bit about
Speaker 1: what a showrunner does, because I was thinking as we
Speaker 1: were having you on today that I honestly think I've
Speaker 1: done a bunch of different jobs in my career. I
Speaker 1: think a showrunner is the hardest job there is. Um.
Speaker 1: And it's dovetails with this episode, because this is about
Speaker 1: taking on too much workload and being stressed and being overwhelmed,
Speaker 1: particularly for for the character of Joe Tracy and Sarah Chalk,
Speaker 1: And I just I thought you could explain to people
Speaker 1: that aren't in the business, uh, what a what a
Speaker 1: show runner is, what a show runner does, and why
Speaker 1: it's such a fucking, I possibly hard job. It's just
Speaker 1: it's interesting, man, Hollywood. The first thing that you know,
Speaker 1: even when you're a kid, if you like movies and
Speaker 1: TV and stuff like that, is that you know that
Speaker 1: feature films are director's industry, we have all gone like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's a Martin Scorsese movie, it's a Steven Spielberg movie,
Speaker 1: no matter who wrote it, you know, And the directors
Speaker 1: get to do what they want the script and they
Speaker 1: cast it, they argue for final cut. And what's really
Speaker 1: interesting is in TV, um directors come and go week
Speaker 1: to week, and so the person that creates the show,
Speaker 1: the head writer, often becomes the advent of the term
Speaker 1: for it, the show runner. And it's why I think,
Speaker 1: and I'm not being self aggrandizing, I'm talking about other people,
Speaker 1: not myself, some of the best writers in entertainment stay
Speaker 1: in television because in WEST you're the movie director. In
Speaker 1: movies they're you're like, hey, you give us the script
Speaker 1: and then we'll do whatever we want to it. And
Speaker 1: in TV they go, all right, if we decided to
Speaker 1: do your TV show, um, you get to cast it. Um,
Speaker 1: you get to write it, you get final cut, you
Speaker 1: the music. You're in charge of the director so that
Speaker 1: you can come down and say, no, I don't like
Speaker 1: the way this scene is blocked. It's gonna be funnier
Speaker 1: if you do it this way, um, and you get
Speaker 1: to run the whole shebang. Right, and so that's really appealing.
Speaker 1: The danger of the job is since they said essentially,
Speaker 1: if you're the showrunner, you can do everything. The people
Speaker 1: whose brains explode are the ones that go, all right,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do all those things, but I'm also gonna
Speaker 1: do wardrobe, and I'm also gonna stand on set and
Speaker 1: make sure no one changes and to also and I'm
Speaker 1: also going to do props, and I'm gonna do you know.
Speaker 1: And those are the people that sometimes they melt. Sometimes
Speaker 1: they're viewed as kind of tyrants, you know, like you
Speaker 1: know Aaron Sark and I think would be one of
Speaker 1: the first people to tell you that he's hard to
Speaker 1: work with and for because you know, every last detail,
Speaker 1: you know, um drives him banana pants and the job.
Speaker 1: The hard part of the job become whether or not
Speaker 1: you can go of control and seed some things two
Speaker 1: talented people. And I was lucky enough that we had
Speaker 1: so many talented people there, like Carrie Bennett, the head
Speaker 1: of wardrobe. She's done a lot of shows for me
Speaker 1: after that. If I was somebody that needed to look
Speaker 1: at every T shirt, every outfit, I think I would have,
Speaker 1: you know, not made it. I would have burned out quicker.
Speaker 1: But I was lucky and said, hey, you do this
Speaker 1: and I'll only say a word if I think it's wrong,
Speaker 1: And then I never had to say anything, so to me, yes,
Speaker 1: that's what the gig is great. Uh. It forces you
Speaker 1: to pick the things that you prioritize the most personally
Speaker 1: and not get lost in the things you don't care about.
Speaker 1: And the people that drowned try to do everything. But
Speaker 1: even in not micromanaging Bill, in a typical hour, you
Speaker 1: are leading a writer's room, then being called to set
Speaker 1: to watch a rehearsal for the scene being shot, then
Speaker 1: needing to go to editorial to look at a cut
Speaker 1: that has to go out to the network doing rewrites
Speaker 1: if jokes don't work right. I mean, I just remember
Speaker 1: watching you and thinking, God, I mean, and it takes
Speaker 1: a person who can multitask without going fucking nuts, because
Speaker 1: it's just a lot of pressure. The hard believe it
Speaker 1: or not. The hardest part for me and I had
Speaker 1: a little of it with YouTube, but more with the
Speaker 1: writers is you also become, if not a big brother,
Speaker 1: you know, a parent and a psychiatrist to people. And
Speaker 1: the joke was, you know a lot of the writers
Speaker 1: stayed for five, six, seven, even eight years on Scrubs,
Speaker 1: which is unheard of show. I didn't know the good Yeah,
Speaker 1: I didn't know. You take off, but if you're on
Speaker 1: a hit show, you stay and your salary goes up
Speaker 1: every year. And uh, the joke was that by the end,
Speaker 1: every single writer had been in my office emotional crying
Speaker 1: about something, you know what I mean. And Zack and Donald,
Speaker 1: you guys can't see them, they're laughing because I think
Speaker 1: they both inherently know that I'm the last person on
Speaker 1: earth that wants somebody to be in his office. We
Speaker 1: turned you into a hugger, Bill Building. Donald and I
Speaker 1: remember when you didn't. Donald and I broke your doad.
Speaker 1: You were finally like, yo, come on, let's hug and
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, Donald and I broke him down.
Speaker 1: He was not a hugger. He was a very waspy
Speaker 1: Connecticut guy. And they used to always make fun of you. Think,
Speaker 1: come in with some emotional thing of work or life
Speaker 1: or whatever. And I would, subconsciously, with all the things
Speaker 1: on my desk, build a wall between the two of them.
Speaker 1: Almost nuts. What's going on with you and your and
Speaker 1: your your boyfriend? Do that? And you had to do
Speaker 1: that with with everyone. And also I think you know,
Speaker 1: you started in Spin City where you were you were young,
Speaker 1: and you had, you know, a legend like Michael j.
Speaker 1: Fox to to work with and to make sure he
Speaker 1: was happy. And then when when Scrubs came on, we
Speaker 1: were all unknown. Did you feel a little bit of
Speaker 1: uh an onus to keep everyone's egos in check? I
Speaker 1: mean I would, I would think that, Yeah, I really
Speaker 1: wanted to keep people's egos in check because in between,
Speaker 1: you know, I had seen, you know, how hard it
Speaker 1: is when certain things hit you. You know, I was
Speaker 1: on the first year of Friends and actually empathize with
Speaker 1: actors and actresses because watching how you know that group
Speaker 1: of their kids, how their lives all changed so fast,
Speaker 1: sometimes to the better. And you know, you guys know
Speaker 1: this burden nothing to complain about, but sometimes in complicated ways.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it was it was really important to me
Speaker 1: to have a good culture at work, to keep everybody's
Speaker 1: egos from blowing up. And I'm not you know, I
Speaker 1: don't uh to equate it to sports because we were
Speaker 1: talking about the Michael Jordan's thing. No I'm not Michael Jordan's,
Speaker 1: but to be a leader for a group of people
Speaker 1: that they at least knew there were levels of respect
Speaker 1: you had to have of each other and way as
Speaker 1: you're supposed to behave and and that somebody would watch
Speaker 1: your back. You know, you might not be a Michael Jordan,
Speaker 1: but I think of you like a Mike Kaminsky. Donald
Speaker 1: and I are basketball guys. It's such an insult man.
Speaker 1: That is the problem is that that's the only basketball
Speaker 1: guy he knows. No. Listen, when my father, um of
Speaker 1: a certain age, my father would drag me to the
Speaker 1: New Jersey Nets games and so I only know whatever
Speaker 1: year that was, that team, Darryl Dawkins, Mike Jaminski, Otis
Speaker 1: bird Song. Um, So whenever I have to make a
Speaker 1: basketball reference, I'm still like, oh, you mean like Otis
Speaker 1: bird Song? Do you know? Do you know Darryl Dawkins
Speaker 1: uh nickname? Yeah? Um, yes. And you know why I
Speaker 1: care because it was a pitch that we were really
Speaker 1: trying to do. I don't I don't know why we
Speaker 1: got bogged down in it, but it lived for the
Speaker 1: better part of two years. That everybody wanted Darryl Dawkins
Speaker 1: to be nurse Robert Sex husband. That would have been awesome. Man,
Speaker 1: God rest his soul, but that would have been awesome
Speaker 1: if he was on the show. That would have been
Speaker 1: the best day that would have been. That would have
Speaker 1: been a highlight from me. Oh my god. It was
Speaker 1: so like it sucks because it breaks It sounds like
Speaker 1: it breaks down on male female dynamics because there's a
Speaker 1: lot of guy sports fans in there. But it was
Speaker 1: one of those things that a lot of the great
Speaker 1: female writers in that show, We're like, I don't understand.
Speaker 1: Why do you want this former seven ft tall NBA
Speaker 1: that would have been perfect that they called Chocolate Thunder
Speaker 1: to be or actually he's not even an actor, right actor?
Speaker 1: Is he famous for being funny? No? He breaks he
Speaker 1: breaks backboards? Why was? Why am I right with the
Speaker 1: trivia that he was famous for breaking backboards? And why was?
Speaker 1: Why did he do that? And how could he do that?
Speaker 1: He didn't do it in person? He used to the Thunder.
Speaker 1: He used to dunk so hard that occasionally when he
Speaker 1: would dunk, even just with a rubber basketball, he would
Speaker 1: leather basketball, it would shatter the backboard. Yeah, he's he
Speaker 1: was the first too. Yeah, he would do it in games.
Speaker 1: It wouldn't the whole fans would go nuts. They didn't
Speaker 1: step it up and put a new one up. It
Speaker 1: was really crazy because when Shaq broke the backboard, he
Speaker 1: just made the backboard fall to the ground, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, Like the whole thing came down chocolate thunder.
Speaker 1: When he hit the rim, that thing exploded like the
Speaker 1: death Star. Dude. It was like wow. It was such
Speaker 1: his He has like two or three of them, I
Speaker 1: think too, but they were so thunderous and monstrous. Man.
Speaker 1: And when he did it was so hard. And this
Speaker 1: was you know, basketball is a finesse game, and you
Speaker 1: know it's a it's a it's a game of you
Speaker 1: know where athletes they run real hard and then they
Speaker 1: go at this little cup and it's so like, you know,
Speaker 1: graceful and everything like that. There was no grace in
Speaker 1: the way he slammed a basketball, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: It was like wow, you know what I said, You
Speaker 1: know what I mean? I heard it that, Yes, drink
Speaker 1: drink up, bill, Bill. The fans have started a drinking
Speaker 1: game because Donald says, you know what I mean, so
Speaker 1: much that they're drinking every time he says, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, I would force people by the way.
Speaker 1: I want to say two things, one to that one
Speaker 1: another thing. You guys can see the connection to how
Speaker 1: much fun it would have been for j D to
Speaker 1: want to call Turk, as one of his many nicknames,
Speaker 1: chocolate Thunder. And then Nurse Roberts doesn't like it. And
Speaker 1: then you guys don't know why she doesn't like it,
Speaker 1: and it's because the man that left her his chocolate thunder,
Speaker 1: darl donness, Oh my god, it must have been so
Speaker 1: late in the night in writer's room when you guys
Speaker 1: are wrestling all that just hours? How do how do
Speaker 1: we reach by the way and by the way, I'm
Speaker 1: sure he was a lovely man, but there's no doubt
Speaker 1: in my mind while he's alive, if he had showed
Speaker 1: up first of all, if he had gotten that call.
Speaker 1: You've been like, they want me to do what beyond
Speaker 1: st because I don't think I ever saw him like
Speaker 1: on Love Boat or on any shows they want me to.
Speaker 1: They want me to come out of retirement to do
Speaker 1: something I've never done before and play a nurse's husband.
Speaker 1: All right, break a backboard or something. I think people
Speaker 1: should also drink at any time, Zach, and I've only
Speaker 1: heard it three or four times that you say one
Speaker 1: of the things that you would always say to sum
Speaker 1: up the show and the voiceovers at the end because
Speaker 1: it's become part of our lexicon, and one of them
Speaker 1: I heard you going at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: It was so funny to me because you're talking about
Speaker 1: scrubs in an episode that if you listen to it
Speaker 1: goes at the end of the day all you can
Speaker 1: really hope and then you go, at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, what we so any any any scrubs at
Speaker 1: the end of the day type things? Okay, And I
Speaker 1: also had another drinking game idea for people. You're gonna
Speaker 1: get ship faced listening to this podcast. But I got
Speaker 1: really excited in this episode when I when I had
Speaker 1: a Snoop Dogg intern siting, and I thought it might
Speaker 1: be fun for fans to also do a shot every
Speaker 1: time you see Snoop Dogg in turn resident attending. Well,
Speaker 1: it should turn into it should start with Snoop Dogg.
Speaker 1: But then once you know, Mickhead shows up and and
Speaker 1: and betor doctor Man, Colonel Doctor Doctor passed away, didn't he? Yeah,
Speaker 1: Colonel doctor. Just sobody knows it's called Colonel doctor because
Speaker 1: he looks like the colonel from Kentucky Fried Chicken. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And my favorite thing about that, that's why you think
Speaker 1: he's I mean, it's funny that that's his nickname, Colonel Doctor,
Speaker 1: and his name turns out to be Coleman Slavsky, which is,
Speaker 1: oh my god, here's what I like. My favorite thing
Speaker 1: that you guys all liked that Zach is the first
Speaker 1: one kind of that he uh noticed was he had
Speaker 1: all these great background performers, and we wanted the consistency
Speaker 1: of recognizing nurses and doctors, and so he tried to
Speaker 1: have the same people come back. And then because they
Speaker 1: were around, whether it was Coleman Slavsky, doctor Mickhead who
Speaker 1: ultimately I think murdered his spouse and gave and uh
Speaker 1: Colonel doctor and dog and the and the world's oldest intern,
Speaker 1: uh Gloria, I think it's a really But the point
Speaker 1: is that even amongst the background people, they became tears
Speaker 1: like a call sheet. And I started noticing that I'd
Speaker 1: come into like the background holding area, and there'd be
Speaker 1: all the background and then there'd be the King's ship
Speaker 1: background of those four doing the equivalent of like drinking
Speaker 1: Martini's is the ones that had been the ones that
Speaker 1: have names to sit around going like we're fucking we're
Speaker 1: ruling this world and I love it. What was really
Speaker 1: cool was when you would trust them with lines and
Speaker 1: stuff like that and they would deliver, Like I remember,
Speaker 1: mick Head had so many lines and you gave him
Speaker 1: a storyline and everything, and it was because you were like, yo,
Speaker 1: he delivers every time I give him something. That man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a lot of those books were actors. They just hadn't
Speaker 1: had a had a break yet. And you know, like
Speaker 1: like any group of actors, some could act and some couldn't.
Speaker 1: But I think Mickhead was one that was actually really good.
Speaker 1: His back story was Frank's backstory was a fascinating He
Speaker 1: was a paid screenwriter that none of his even though
Speaker 1: he had sold a bunch of movies, none of them
Speaker 1: never got made. And you eventually reached the end of
Speaker 1: that career and he was still plugging away writing and
Speaker 1: came by to make dough And then when he was
Speaker 1: doing it, he at least had a knowledge of film
Speaker 1: enough you know that he was good and subtle and
Speaker 1: he's like, what are you making me into an actor? For?
Speaker 1: This is not my plan. It was really fun, well
Speaker 1: and manly. Henry delivered one of the greatest lines in
Speaker 1: Scrubs history. Where my hoose at, I haven't seen them.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen you know. I played golf with Mick
Speaker 1: Head quite a bit. We played. That's one of my
Speaker 1: golf buddies. And he still writes books. He's a novelist,
Speaker 1: you know. He writes novels with his with his wife,
Speaker 1: and it's hard for me. Man. He was a nice man. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I definitely will. Let's say a break. We'll be right
Speaker 1: back after these fine words you okay, So we're back.
Speaker 1: So yeah, and we don't do the full song at
Speaker 1: the commercial breaks. Bill the song start. Whenever I say
Speaker 1: five six seven, Dan's got his finger on the trigger.
Speaker 1: And whenever you save five, hitt say five six seven,
Speaker 1: stop saying five six seven eight. That's my favorite. He
Speaker 1: should Dan should just be contractually obligated to do it
Speaker 1: whenever he hears that, yeah, seven eight, whenever he started
Speaker 1: he started, Dan five the power stick. Got it all right? Donald,
Speaker 1: you were gonna start us off. We're forty minutes and
Speaker 1: we should probably talk about the TV show, okay, So,
Speaker 1: first of all, uh, Whiney Dancer was pretty good. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna put that up there. I thought that was a
Speaker 1: very funny nickname. I laughed very hard at that, and
Speaker 1: I was mad that it didn't stick. But Scooter short
Speaker 1: for Scooter pie. Is he even because he hates Scooter Pie.
Speaker 1: There's two things. It was hard for me to watch
Speaker 1: that story because a Neil Flynn is funnier than the
Speaker 1: material we gave him, you know what I mean in
Speaker 1: that one, because we could have done a much funnier
Speaker 1: stuff with your nickname. Uh. And then be is I
Speaker 1: don't know why he's eating a popsicle In that next one,
Speaker 1: I don't seemed he seemed to want to be eating it,
Speaker 1: which made me really laugh. And then the third one
Speaker 1: is I remember that because we're, you know, strapped for
Speaker 1: figured out a moment at the end when someone finally
Speaker 1: calls you Scooter, which is a moment I do like, uh,
Speaker 1: and I go, let's revealed, Neil. And he's like, how
Speaker 1: should I celebrate? I'm like, I don't know, do some
Speaker 1: kind of dance or Irish jigger or something. And that
Speaker 1: made me a laugh out loud because he committed to it,
Speaker 1: like good god, yeah he could, really he could. But
Speaker 1: Meal just pull out in Irish shape because it looks
Speaker 1: pretty good. Yeah, I don't. I don't think that he
Speaker 1: had planned that, you know, and you know, we put
Speaker 1: the music to it, and we put the music to
Speaker 1: it afterwards. It was really straight river dance. He went
Speaker 1: to straight river dance. That was funny before. That's also
Speaker 1: not us at that beach by the way. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't want to ask you. I don't want those doubles
Speaker 1: because that's not my hair, and I know that you're
Speaker 1: not in my head. Yeah, no, I think we went
Speaker 1: and got that without you, guys. But Donald's double is good.
Speaker 1: My my, it doesn't look like my head. I'm that
Speaker 1: I'm going to that Donald that looks like your head.
Speaker 1: I'm at four or four seconds if you're following. I
Speaker 1: wish it was my head. So not you guys, A
Speaker 1: and be you guys. This is the show runner issue.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you guys have this. What the
Speaker 1: unfun thing about watching these shows for me is that
Speaker 1: I just watched them for all the mistakes I made,
Speaker 1: especially early and like even that stupid fantasy, I didn't
Speaker 1: have a frontal shot coming back on YouTube, like the
Speaker 1: flash out of it, so it was a weird transition, like,
Speaker 1: oh man, it's screwed that up too. I still have
Speaker 1: to I think, I think this is such a funny episode.
Speaker 1: I laughed so many times in this episode. So well,
Speaker 1: do you guys watch you see? What you see is
Speaker 1: your mess ups. What I see is you know that.
Speaker 1: That's how it always I feel like that's how it
Speaker 1: always is with people, you know what I mean? Like
Speaker 1: we we make things and then we find the flaws
Speaker 1: in them. But if you sit back and let other
Speaker 1: people tell you how amazing it is, you'll be like, really,
Speaker 1: I didn't see you know what I mean? That's another one,
Speaker 1: drink Bill, I laughed at you chose smooth jazz from
Speaker 1: when we were sitting on the bench, and unless that's
Speaker 1: another track that's been changed, but when I don't, I
Speaker 1: don't know. But I didn't remember it. Look, I had
Speaker 1: my first weird thing. I was giving you guys ship
Speaker 1: here at home for not remembering any of this stuff.
Speaker 1: And uh, I wrote this script by myself like at
Speaker 1: home to catch us up, and I didn't remember writing it.
Speaker 1: I didn't remember what it was about until I watched.
Speaker 1: It was really weird. So is that what just talk
Speaker 1: to that for a second. So so when you're the showrunner,
Speaker 1: you're overseeing uh, your writing staff having episodes and then
Speaker 1: of course you end up rewriting them a lot yourself.
Speaker 1: But when you said you wrote this to catch up,
Speaker 1: just to explain that to people, uh, the you know
Speaker 1: you in comedy staffs, especially if someone will go out
Speaker 1: and write a draft, the whole staff will help kind of,
Speaker 1: you know, you'll outline it and do out stuffhole staff out,
Speaker 1: kind of punch it up and uh. And then the
Speaker 1: show runner of any show that you've ever loved will
Speaker 1: usually do a pass of it before it shoots, you know,
Speaker 1: just not just out of arrogance, but out of wanting
Speaker 1: the show to sound like it's from that one distinct voice.
Speaker 1: That's why people over the years, you know, they noticed
Speaker 1: when the show runner on one of their favorite shows
Speaker 1: left for a year, how it suddenly sounds different. You know.
Speaker 1: Um and uh, when you get caught and behind and writing,
Speaker 1: you know, when you look at all the different stages
Speaker 1: outline which has to be approved by the showrunner, UH,
Speaker 1: draft which gets notes from the showrunner. UM, rewrite with
Speaker 1: the whole staff, which the showrunner does you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, It's you often can catch back up if
Speaker 1: you're behind writing. If as the show runner, you're like, hey,
Speaker 1: why we're all doing this, I'll outline one on my
Speaker 1: own and write it and then just drag all you
Speaker 1: this whole gang and to punch it up really quick
Speaker 1: and then we'll shoot it, you know. And so that
Speaker 1: was one of those one and sometimes those to tell
Speaker 1: you the truth in a weird way, sometimes don't aren't.
Speaker 1: Those aren't as good as other episodes because show runners
Speaker 1: don't have to listen to other people's input and sometimes
Speaker 1: and sometimes instead of the whole group punching it up,
Speaker 1: they'll just hand it in and go, that's done. Now
Speaker 1: we're as long as we don't spend four days trying
Speaker 1: to make it better, we're back on timing again. You know,
Speaker 1: make twenty four episodes this year. Well you nailed it
Speaker 1: with this one, man. This one has everything that you're
Speaker 1: looking for from you know, from the drama to the comedy.
Speaker 1: This was I laughed so many times at this episode.
Speaker 1: There was a couple of things I really liked it,
Speaker 1: you know. One at one fourteen, Neil is just boring
Speaker 1: a giant hole in the reception, does for no for
Speaker 1: no apparent reason. I was trying to think about what
Speaker 1: what Neil is doing? No, you know what, you know
Speaker 1: what that's for. This is what you'll see early on,
Speaker 1: and you guys should look for it. There are certain
Speaker 1: things that exist solely because directors, once they knew that
Speaker 1: they were allowed to have fun visually, you know, on
Speaker 1: this particular show, would work backwards from the shot they wanted,
Speaker 1: so that, without a doubt, was somebody working backwards from
Speaker 1: in the script j D going hey, uh, and the
Speaker 1: janitor turning and being imposing. You know what I mean saying, oh,
Speaker 1: you know would be cool is there's giant ten ft
Speaker 1: drill in j D's face. I know, I know, but
Speaker 1: I'm just laughing at I'm just laughing because I like
Speaker 1: to just rationalize things. I'm like, well, what what assignment
Speaker 1: did he have with that drill in that reception desk?
Speaker 1: I guess he was adding a new hole for a
Speaker 1: new phone line or something. Well, dude, we we used
Speaker 1: to get It's so funny if you think about this
Speaker 1: in terms for writers. At first, it would annoy us
Speaker 1: when we would see you know, uh, directors came up
Speaker 1: with for like, why is the janitor there? How is
Speaker 1: he going to be imposing, and then when we would
Speaker 1: get trapped, we'd start making jokes out of it. And
Speaker 1: one of my favorite ones, we needed the janitor in
Speaker 1: there and we didn't know why, and so we had
Speaker 1: him say, I don't really have anything to do. I'm
Speaker 1: mopping the rug. And then if I know, if you
Speaker 1: guys remember, then the rest of that scene, when you
Speaker 1: guys walked across that rug, you would hear squishy sounds
Speaker 1: like why is that guy mob on the rug? I
Speaker 1: love that Neil would Neil would take it seriously and
Speaker 1: he'd be like, I why would my character be mopping
Speaker 1: in a carpeted room? Um, you know, it's just everybody
Speaker 1: wants their motivation, you know, of course, but Donald pointed
Speaker 1: out I think Donald, was you mentioned that? You know,
Speaker 1: I never realized either, But the janitor feels like he's
Speaker 1: a pretty good janitor, right, I mean he's I never
Speaker 1: realized until rewatching it. But like, even though he spends
Speaker 1: his entire existence fuggy with me, you know, he does
Speaker 1: his best. He's pretty much a one man band, except
Speaker 1: for that that that Troy Troy, Oh my god, Nicemp
Speaker 1: Troy and then um Martin, yeh Troy was the best
Speaker 1: because Troy frustrated the janitor to no end. My favorite
Speaker 1: thing was when Troy's like, I'm gonna go beat up.
Speaker 1: He's like, that's not how we do it, man, that's
Speaker 1: not how we do it well. It was literally like,
Speaker 1: we're better than that, man. I enjoyed working with flynn
Speaker 1: Um and I forgot about the frozen affecting bill and
Speaker 1: it's really cool. It's at two forty three. It's really
Speaker 1: done well. And I don't even remember how he pulled
Speaker 1: that off, but the foreground and background are frozen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and whoever that was executed was really good. And
Speaker 1: then we go to the guy who's then on the
Speaker 1: other side of things. We go to the guy who's
Speaker 1: just frozen and doing a horrible job trying to be
Speaker 1: frozen without anything, you know, you know, it's really interesting,
Speaker 1: is it. One of the things you'll see in the
Speaker 1: first year, much like the sound effects that you guys noticed,
Speaker 1: is they're drifting away. I think they're almost gone. I'm
Speaker 1: hoping that we keep laughing. We keep laughing that uh
Speaker 1: that you say, they're almost going away? And then we
Speaker 1: here and then there jingle bells, Yeah, jingle balls but
Speaker 1: that the other thing that you have to look for
Speaker 1: is um. We used to because writers want to procrastinate.
Speaker 1: We used to have hours of talks about rules, you know,
Speaker 1: and the rules of the world. Um, and uh, this
Speaker 1: broke one of them. And we made it right after
Speaker 1: this was you can't still be in a fantasy after
Speaker 1: you're out of a fantasy, you know, because after you
Speaker 1: flash out, it has to be real. The one the
Speaker 1: conversation that tortured people forever, and we didn't show the
Speaker 1: answer to it till like the six or seventh year
Speaker 1: is when j D has these long fantasies, what's he doing?
Speaker 1: Is he just standing there? That's happening? And uh, eventually,
Speaker 1: eventually we had you and talking to the todd in
Speaker 1: like the sixth or seventh year when you go, uh oh,
Speaker 1: that makes me think about trolls and you go like this,
Speaker 1: and then Robin's tough times with a better part of
Speaker 1: like thirty sec and then you're like, and that's why
Speaker 1: you shouldn't buy blah blah blah whatever. Yeah. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: well you started. It's funny because the last time you're wrong.
Speaker 1: We talked about how when I when I came out
Speaker 1: of a fantasy. I had agreed to buy Nurse Robert's
Speaker 1: dead husbands the bowling shoes, and I didn't know because
Speaker 1: I was in a fantasy land. But I forgot you
Speaker 1: didn't really keep that that little thing going that I
Speaker 1: would have a funny runner if, like j D, because
Speaker 1: he's in a fantasy ends up agreeing to all this
Speaker 1: random ship. We didn't have any of the rules yet, man,
Speaker 1: and we were trying. People used to argue all like
Speaker 1: the biggest argument that you guys can look for in
Speaker 1: the writer's room and at eight up hours the first
Speaker 1: year was was j D's voiceover omniscient? Did he know
Speaker 1: what was going on in the other stories and could
Speaker 1: narrate them? Or did we have to write it so
Speaker 1: general as if he's talking about himself but doesn't know
Speaker 1: about those stories. And it used to drive people insane. Right,
Speaker 1: were we hit at this time? At this point where
Speaker 1: we like, did we get the back nine? At this point?
Speaker 1: The first the show, Uh, the show did so well
Speaker 1: coming out of the gate the first year that um,
Speaker 1: it was considered a hit, and then the second year
Speaker 1: they made a mistake in my view, and uh, the
Speaker 1: first year of the show was sometimes increasing on its
Speaker 1: lead in and just crushing and they should have kept
Speaker 1: it there forever. And then the set they said, it's
Speaker 1: such a big show for us. Next year, we're gonna
Speaker 1: put it after Friends, and the combination of no show
Speaker 1: could retain of Friends um audience. It was a cultural
Speaker 1: you know, uh, lightning bowl, and so you know, we
Speaker 1: were like the eighth ranked show in the country. But
Speaker 1: they're like, you're only retaining like scent of their audience.
Speaker 1: So we're and just so you know, anytime they want
Speaker 1: to do a forty minute episode, we're gonna make it
Speaker 1: supersized and you guys will be moved or not on
Speaker 1: or whatever. And uh, they never they should have they
Speaker 1: didn't on the show. They should have put us after
Speaker 1: Friends and left us there in perpetuity. The show would
Speaker 1: have been bigger and bigger. But instead they put nine
Speaker 1: thousand different shows one after another, after Friends, each time
Speaker 1: pulling them when they don't get the same ratings as
Speaker 1: this giant monster juggernaut and never established a new successful
Speaker 1: show after that show in its entire existence. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: not only that, it was also the end of Friends too,
Speaker 1: and then Joey came right after that, and then we
Speaker 1: followed Joey for a little bit and gonna work either. Now, yeah,
Speaker 1: we followed Joey for like a little bit. And then
Speaker 1: for those of you don't know what what the networks want, Bill,
Speaker 1: please correct me if I'm wrong. Is they want you
Speaker 1: to hold that is to say, keep of the leading
Speaker 1: shows audience, which is pretty impossible if it's Friends and
Speaker 1: it's the biggest show ever, And if you go below that,
Speaker 1: then they kind of start thinking about moving you or
Speaker 1: losing you, right right, So yeah, well, the only difference
Speaker 1: is they would have went because the show is so
Speaker 1: well reviewed and was doing really well. If they owned
Speaker 1: our show is all born business, they would have kept
Speaker 1: us on there forever, going, hey, we'll keep this on
Speaker 1: forever and make tons of money for ourselves. But since
Speaker 1: they didn't own it, the second it didn't immediately become
Speaker 1: bigger than Friends, they said, let's try some shows that
Speaker 1: we own to see if they have become bigger than Friends,
Speaker 1: and just kind of feel like that was I feel
Speaker 1: like Friends was the end of t G OF of
Speaker 1: not t G I F, but that Thursday night line
Speaker 1: must see, Must see Thursday. Yes, you know, because you'll
Speaker 1: like this, You guys should get it and I interrupt him. Sorry, Donald,
Speaker 1: But Jeff and Gold, who was an NBC exec, has
Speaker 1: a must see Thursday poster in his office. He's proud
Speaker 1: of when it was us thirty Rock, the Office and
Speaker 1: Parks and Wreck, We're all Thursday and that's that was
Speaker 1: a cool That was a cool line up. At one
Speaker 1: point that was a Thursday night. I think it was
Speaker 1: I can't remember if I have the No, it might
Speaker 1: have been Earl, but it was US Dirty Rock Office
Speaker 1: and um, either Earl or you know, but it was.
Speaker 1: He's like, that was total, a total must they were
Speaker 1: still doing. Um, that's a pretty good must say, that's
Speaker 1: a pretty must set Thursday. Can we talk about Nicole Sullivan, guys,
Speaker 1: Bill tell us about obviously, you know a lot of
Speaker 1: people know knew Nicole Sullivan from Mad TV and how
Speaker 1: did how did you choose her? Were you friends with her?
Speaker 1: She was, Yeah, she's another you know, we brought people
Speaker 1: through our world that we're friends of mine, that I
Speaker 1: knew were super talented. Um, we wanted to have her
Speaker 1: um in this world because not only she really funny,
Speaker 1: but we knew she could actually act and we had,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of the idea beforehand, whether it was
Speaker 1: with Brendan Fraser or her or Mrs Wilke, that there
Speaker 1: were sometimes patients that we would say, let's bring them
Speaker 1: in and know that they're going to come back, you know.
Speaker 1: And so we didn't know right then that Nicole was
Speaker 1: going to die, but we knew she was going to
Speaker 1: come back, and uh so we were setting her up
Speaker 1: for the crap that you know, journey that her person
Speaker 1: went down, you know, um in a cool way. I
Speaker 1: think the most fun way to do that. Donald said
Speaker 1: something about it is you sneak it up on people.
Speaker 1: You introduced somebody is something that's just gonna be funny
Speaker 1: in a goof to see them, and you get people
Speaker 1: emotionally invested. So when there's stuff, when the wheels come off,
Speaker 1: people are just you know, emostly affected. But that that
Speaker 1: was something that you know, uh and it just shows
Speaker 1: how great of a writer you are. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: sure you're you know this already, but he does, like
Speaker 1: like like Michael Jaminski of writing almost you said, you
Speaker 1: you would give everybody clues. The clues are there, and
Speaker 1: if you're really paying attention, you know, if you're really
Speaker 1: really paying attention when it happens. It's not that big
Speaker 1: of a surprise like It's four. We foreshadowed so much. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you talked about that, and I really appreciated it because
Speaker 1: the way our staff worked that I thought was cool.
Speaker 1: Before the pre production every year, before we wrote episodes,
Speaker 1: we talked about what big things, you know, arcs and
Speaker 1: stuff we wanted to do. Like we'd say, hey, um,
Speaker 1: we want Turk and Carlo to get engaged, but we
Speaker 1: wanted to be a little bit of a rocky road,
Speaker 1: and then we would work backwards, same way. We'd go, hey,
Speaker 1: we want Johnny c to end up with his ex.
Speaker 1: He's never moved past. Now he's a more matures and
Speaker 1: we worked worked backwards. We're gonna kill Brendan Fraser. Let's
Speaker 1: worked backwards. And then it would almost seem when we're
Speaker 1: doing these initial episodes, since we had already plotted out
Speaker 1: these arcs, it was very easy to go, all right,
Speaker 1: so Nicole Sullivan is gonna eventually die, um, and uh,
Speaker 1: let's establish her here as a fun neurotic person that
Speaker 1: you think is just being kype of hypochondriac and then
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So it is set up
Speaker 1: because we were working backwards from the big episodes that
Speaker 1: we wanted to accomplish was part of the fun. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's good writing to me. That's because when whenever you
Speaker 1: can look back and say to yourself, oh, I was
Speaker 1: there and I didn't see it right, I feel like
Speaker 1: you know, Kaiser, so's you know it is the it's
Speaker 1: the trick of it all. That's the trick is that
Speaker 1: is you know you're not gonna the audience isn't gonna
Speaker 1: have the heartbreak for an asshole. You know, you gotta
Speaker 1: have the audience fall in love with them and go, oh,
Speaker 1: I love the screw. She's racky, she's silly, she's I
Speaker 1: want to be her friend, she's they want to you
Speaker 1: want to fall in love with the person before Bill
Speaker 1: kills them. It was the it was the one trick
Speaker 1: we went back to a lot. It was too mean,
Speaker 1: was we knew in twenty two minutes was too hard
Speaker 1: to get people to love someone and then kill him.
Speaker 1: So we're like, all right, let's bring him into another story.
Speaker 1: And our goal is not only to do a successful story,
Speaker 1: but make people like this person so that when they die,
Speaker 1: we're screwed. The only time we thought we pulled it
Speaker 1: off that we killed someone people cared about in one episode.
Speaker 1: It ties to this one because this is me being
Speaker 1: a dummy. So Nicole Sullivan, you know, one of the
Speaker 1: bride'smaids at my wedding. Old friend she I'm not good
Speaker 1: at naming characters, so she played Jill Tracy, and uh,
Speaker 1: And then I didn't realize until later Jill Tracy, who's
Speaker 1: Tim Hobert at the executive producer, one of um um uh,
Speaker 1: a great actress in her own right. Not only had
Speaker 1: I not put her on the show, but I named
Speaker 1: another character after and somebody else played it. So then
Speaker 1: Jill Tracy came and played the woman who died in
Speaker 1: a Broadway musical waiting for my real life Colin Hey
Speaker 1: on a clear day when I can't see see that's
Speaker 1: pretty long may So did she call you? Did j
Speaker 1: Jill Tracy call you? And what was she like? Um? No,
Speaker 1: Jim is just such a good buddy. I realized that,
Speaker 1: you know, as it happened, and I'm like, oh, I'm
Speaker 1: a piece of ship. We gotta make sure we get
Speaker 1: you in there. And she was luckily also a Broadway
Speaker 1: level singer and had done musical theater her whole life.
Speaker 1: You know, she was great. Hey, I'm looking at these
Speaker 1: blackberries and I remember that this was like the time
Speaker 1: that blackberries came out and Bill, as I recall, you
Speaker 1: gave us all our first blackberries as a president. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I gave him to everybody as a Christmas gift. And
Speaker 1: I have a memory. I remember you like we were like,
Speaker 1: what is this so you can type on it? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that I wrote that down, Nicole Sullivan says email as
Speaker 1: we're talking. That kind of dates the show. Yeah, I know,
Speaker 1: I know. It was so weird, right when they all
Speaker 1: came out. I mean that's we were like state of
Speaker 1: the art. She's got a state of the art gadget.
Speaker 1: Getting back to the show, that was one of my
Speaker 1: favorite things because we really wanted everybody had their thing
Speaker 1: to overcome on this show, and we really wanted Sarah
Speaker 1: Chalk's character to overcome how hard she always is on herself. Um,
Speaker 1: and you know how much she buries herself psychologically on
Speaker 1: an unhealthy way with all her work. And my favorite
Speaker 1: scene in this besides the Judy and Zach went out
Speaker 1: in the rain, was Sarah and Johnny C with Johnny
Speaker 1: C doing some really subtle stuff when he says, go
Speaker 1: ahead and make your case why Jill Tracy can stay
Speaker 1: in the hospital, and Sarah is saying, you know, sometimes
Speaker 1: you get overwhelmed and it's this and this, and John
Speaker 1: mcginwiy is without doing anything big, proving to her that
Speaker 1: she does the very same thing to herself. I love
Speaker 1: that moment. The reason I loved it as a writer
Speaker 1: was it wasn't something that Sarah was necessarily doing in
Speaker 1: this episode, but she had done it in every episode
Speaker 1: up to this one. Yea, yeah, I wrote that down
Speaker 1: that that that that's such a great moment. That's scene
Speaker 1: is so awesome, and Sarah pulls it off really well.
Speaker 1: Wish he's talking about you know, she's talking about Nicole's character,
Speaker 1: and then and then you know, Johnny says, but have
Speaker 1: you looked at how you Have you looked at yourself?
Speaker 1: I know I'm a skank? And then she yeah that
Speaker 1: she's like, and she's like and then she'll do anything.
Speaker 1: She's such a people pleaser for anyone. I think he says,
Speaker 1: will you go clean up my dog ship and take
Speaker 1: it to She's really good in that scene. Oh but
Speaker 1: it cuts right from that into you pulling up in
Speaker 1: the cab and that's where I got piste off because
Speaker 1: right there, pup up up, up up up, but no,
Speaker 1: not now, Joe, but it's but it marries so well,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, drunk up by the way.
Speaker 1: And then the parents we did in this one. The
Speaker 1: parents we did in this show made me think of
Speaker 1: another question I answered to you guys in a previous episode,
Speaker 1: because I believe Kelso calls you Turk in this episode
Speaker 1: because you guys are having a battle, and he did
Speaker 1: it in another episode two he didn't. But that's why
Speaker 1: it's important. It's important to know that. That's why we
Speaker 1: do believe he thinks your name is Turkleton. But that's
Speaker 1: why we got to the logic with the writers that
Speaker 1: he thinks your name is Turk Turkleton. When we said,
Speaker 1: when we said, you know, he thinks your name is
Speaker 1: Dr Turkleton. You know, in the writers you fight about everything.
Speaker 1: Writer's room. A lot of the writers were like, he can't,
Speaker 1: he's called him turk before. And then somebody's like, well,
Speaker 1: then he thinks his name is Turk Turkleton. That's one
Speaker 1: of the best room. And to this day, to this day,
Speaker 1: to this day, there are a lot of there are
Speaker 1: a lot of Scrubs fans that no, you know, Christopher
Speaker 1: Turk is the name, but there are some that honestly
Speaker 1: believed Turkleton is the character's name. You know what else,
Speaker 1: by the way it came up randomly is somebody asked
Speaker 1: me after why you were named gand like why Dr
Speaker 1: Coxon name checked you as Gandhi because I was a
Speaker 1: bald head guy. It wasn't just that, it was because
Speaker 1: I was concurrently looking at cartoons and okaying, the character
Speaker 1: designed with Christ and Phil for Clone High and the
Speaker 1: Gandhi character. They had him with a hip goate because
Speaker 1: he was a young teen version and whatever, and I'm like, oh, Ship,
Speaker 1: we should go to I do. We were definitely going
Speaker 1: to talk about that right now. Let's just go to
Speaker 1: coal real quick. Okay, sure, going to commercial fix stopping
Speaker 1: show we Okay, we're back. Steph is in the house, y'all.
Speaker 1: Steph is in the house. Step Steph is in the house.
Speaker 1: All right, Steph is in the house. We're just gonna
Speaker 1: finish the Clone High chat. So step okay, So let's
Speaker 1: get back into Clone High. Dude, you now had Phil
Speaker 1: and Chris done anything before this or or they were barely.
Speaker 1: They were barely getting their careers started. They were young
Speaker 1: animators from for Disney that went to Dartmouth and we're
Speaker 1: also very funny, and we're just starting their career as
Speaker 1: kind of comedy writer. Animate they've done nothing, and it's
Speaker 1: like the first project that I supervised someone else the
Speaker 1: way I was supervised. And now the two guys that
Speaker 1: are gonna give me and you and Steph and Joel
Speaker 1: a job eventually, I pray that they give me Donald
Speaker 1: Wyn't you explain the context, because not everyone's gonna know
Speaker 1: what the hell? Okay? So Chris and Philip gone on
Speaker 1: to create movies like twenty one, Jump Street Street, the
Speaker 1: Lego Movie, the Best probably the best Spider Man movie,
Speaker 1: Every Inn and everything. Yeah, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Yes,
Speaker 1: they were the animators, directors writers of that as well.
Speaker 1: Yes they've gone on to do some amazing things. But
Speaker 1: in the beginning, before this all happened, there was a
Speaker 1: little show called Clone High, which Bill was an executive
Speaker 1: producer on, And while we were making scrubs in the basement,
Speaker 1: they were doing all their recordings and in the mental word,
Speaker 1: in the mental world, I believe, and because those the
Speaker 1: writers from Yeah, we hid to save money. We hid
Speaker 1: our writing staff of that show in the hospital, and
Speaker 1: then you guys just casually started to notice other writers
Speaker 1: around the commissary every day, eating, just hanging out. But
Speaker 1: they put us in the show too, So I got
Speaker 1: an opportunity to play two really cool characters in that
Speaker 1: which I was George and I was also Toots, who
Speaker 1: was Jonahvacs father in law or something like that. It
Speaker 1: was a blind, blind former jazz man. Yeah, it's so
Speaker 1: weird because a bunch of clone high nerds and I
Speaker 1: love big Mouth, but Toots is very much like the
Speaker 1: jazzy ghosts that they have in that cartoon big Mouth.
Speaker 1: You know, are you guys bringing it back in some way? Bill,
Speaker 1: I'm not at liberty to discuss that I stumbled across
Speaker 1: something top secret audience. That would be awesome. That's a
Speaker 1: good tease. I was in it too, but I don't
Speaker 1: know who I played. You weren't in it a lot.
Speaker 1: I don't minimize my part. I I did occur. Did
Speaker 1: it was? It was such a cool college filmmaking type atmosphere,
Speaker 1: which is what Scrubs was anyways, that you guys would
Speaker 1: be shooting scenes and we would literally go, hey, do
Speaker 1: you mind while you're eating to walk downstairs and record
Speaker 1: a voice being a cartoon character, and you guys were
Speaker 1: all so nice about it. Yeah. Well, I loved working
Speaker 1: on that show Man. That was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: I was Paul Revere, Joel is telling so Paul Revere
Speaker 1: is an important, important character everybody. Yeah, but that was
Speaker 1: like one episode a bigger you had a bigger You
Speaker 1: had a bigger one when you were selling a weird
Speaker 1: energy paste with Sarah Chalk and Marilyn Manson came in
Speaker 1: and saying the food Pyramid song. It's very weird, dude.
Speaker 1: I just remember being I remember being there, and this
Speaker 1: is the first time I met Mandy Moore. She did
Speaker 1: a guest spot on this show. I met uh, I've
Speaker 1: never met like, should we go to stuff? I met
Speaker 1: Tom Green? That was cool. That was the first time
Speaker 1: I've ever met Tom Green. And he was on fire
Speaker 1: at the time, and I was on it. Step was
Speaker 1: on and then I think, and we have a caller, guys,
Speaker 1: our carler has has finally we're gonna let her talk.
Speaker 1: Katies and gentlemen, please welcome Step seven. Still counting into everything,
Speaker 1: Dan turn off the theme song. Step At any point
Speaker 1: that you want to hear that awesome song, just say
Speaker 1: five six seven eight. We have It's it's official. Anytime
Speaker 1: you say five six seven eight, it's not even wait
Speaker 1: three whole minutes, so I think it's only just right
Speaker 1: five six stop, we're not playing. Do you want to
Speaker 1: do the tag at the end? I don't give us
Speaker 1: the tech you good boys? All right? This this has
Speaker 1: all gone to ship Steph. What's your question? So I'm
Speaker 1: finishing up my second year of medical school, UM, which
Speaker 1: is in part due to scrubs. So basically, yeah, super
Speaker 1: funny story. UM. I alluded to this in my personal statement,
Speaker 1: but left out certain details because I didn't want them
Speaker 1: to not take me seriously. But basically, my mom is
Speaker 1: a surgeon. So when I was growing up, I saw like,
Speaker 1: you know, pictures of her job and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: and I thought it looked awful. I was like, I
Speaker 1: have no idea how you do what you do. She's
Speaker 1: a breast cancer surgeon, so it's like that's disgusting, Like,
Speaker 1: how do you look at boobs all day? So weird?
Speaker 1: I never am going into medus in how do you
Speaker 1: look at boobs all day? That's just I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's easier if you're not a medical professional. Continue. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I started watching Scrubs maybe like I don't even
Speaker 1: remember when, maybe in middle school, and um, I related
Speaker 1: to Elliott's character on such a spiritual level that I
Speaker 1: was like, this looks really fun. Maybe maybe I will
Speaker 1: go into medicine. And since then kind of became more legitimate.
Speaker 1: But definitely the first thing that piqued my interest with Scrubs.
Speaker 1: So thank you guys. Do you use the word frick
Speaker 1: a lot? Um? I kind of graduated to the the
Speaker 1: U version, but for sometimes I gotta say I want
Speaker 1: interject step because that means so much to me, because
Speaker 1: we wanted to make sure that medical personnel seemed like
Speaker 1: heroes and the job seemed like fun. And I just
Speaker 1: was talking to the real j D last night and
Speaker 1: his wife Dolly, who Elliot's based on, and their favorite
Speaker 1: thing is to consider you know that they might have
Speaker 1: had a tiny part in some people kind of embracing
Speaker 1: medicine as a career. Except means so much to them.
Speaker 1: That's A and B for those of you they're just
Speaker 1: listenings that you can't see. Steph uh could easily have
Speaker 1: played Elliott just so you guys know, she's Elliott esque.
Speaker 1: She's elliot s both in her mannerisms and her appearance.
Speaker 1: And uh, I almost, by the way, this is the
Speaker 1: thing I have to watch out for late like because
Speaker 1: I'm much older than all these people. But I almost
Speaker 1: said I am here talking to a young Sarah Chalk.
Speaker 1: But Sarah Chalk is still very young, So I did
Speaker 1: not say that a person at all. My mad school friends,
Speaker 1: I'll tell me, all the ones that watch Scrubs religiously
Speaker 1: are like, you have the same luck that she does.
Speaker 1: When you, guys, did the episode of Sarah Chalk, how
Speaker 1: like the crazy stories that come out of nowhere, You're like,
Speaker 1: there's no way that happened to you on a Monday.
Speaker 1: That's me. Yeah, I was watching that. I think that
Speaker 1: that that story that Zack and Donald told led us
Speaker 1: to write a story in which he bought a new car.
Speaker 1: In every thirty seconds, someone someone took another door off
Speaker 1: a brick. That would happen to Sarah. The best part
Speaker 1: of that episode is when the grumpy radiologists like, thanks
Speaker 1: for stopping by and don't forget your car doors, Like
Speaker 1: you know, you're a real fan. This will make you laugh.
Speaker 1: And I don't even know if Donald and Zack remember it.
Speaker 1: Different things from different episodes would stick on set and
Speaker 1: people would say them over and over and I never
Speaker 1: could predict what it was. And I don't know Zack Donald,
Speaker 1: if you guys remember what it was from this one.
Speaker 1: But it was a made up flavor of smoothie that
Speaker 1: you guys kept saying for weeks. Orange, remember that, what
Speaker 1: flavor do you want? I'll have a frasberry, I'll have
Speaker 1: an orange goo goo. I believe that, Bill. I believe
Speaker 1: that came from in the writer's rooms. You would have
Speaker 1: the assistance to do like a smoothie run and you'd
Speaker 1: all be like calling out weird jama juice flavors. You
Speaker 1: make up fake flavors and just to torture the poor
Speaker 1: young people work and with immunity. Alright, stuff, We're come on,
Speaker 1: come on, that's your time. It's your time. Stuff, it's
Speaker 1: your time, it's your time. Stuff. Cooney's good stuff. So
Speaker 1: it's actually kind of perfect that Bill is here in
Speaker 1: this episode because it's kind of relates to the behind
Speaker 1: the scenes part of it. Um. But since I watched
Speaker 1: the show so much, a lot of the times and
Speaker 1: I'm studying, I'll recognize words that will like remind me
Speaker 1: of certain scenes of the show. And I know you
Speaker 1: guys talked about like trying to make it really medically accurate.
Speaker 1: It is um re verifying, but it's also really funny,
Speaker 1: which I think is hard to do with medical vernacular
Speaker 1: if you're not really used to it. So I was
Speaker 1: wondering if there are is a specific member of the
Speaker 1: writing team that was, you know, kind of crucial in
Speaker 1: making the medical scenes, specifically the funny ones, because I
Speaker 1: think it would be kind of hard to write if
Speaker 1: you didn't have that medical knowledge. I'm gonna give props
Speaker 1: to First of all, we have actors and actress is
Speaker 1: gonna can sell comedy, and they were great, But the
Speaker 1: real J D is um and as I can tell
Speaker 1: by your persona, he is a guy that I would
Speaker 1: not have been surprised if he went into comedy writing.
Speaker 1: He was funny and um so for me, it was
Speaker 1: it would be interesting to even go back to all
Speaker 1: his memories. But I remember him talking about pimping, you know,
Speaker 1: when you get grilled with questions and rounds, and he
Speaker 1: would be like, I was never ready. I always felt
Speaker 1: you know, like I was a deer in the headlights.
Speaker 1: And then just from him saying that, you know, I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, j D is gonna be a deer
Speaker 1: in the headlights when they asked him a question, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean? And Uh, I would bet stuff
Speaker 1: that the you when you go through all this stuff,
Speaker 1: we'll meet it with humor and banter, because if you don't,
Speaker 1: I think you go crazy. So I give him the
Speaker 1: prop sport and the performers the prop sport because they'd
Speaker 1: find ways to make it funny. You know, Bill did
Speaker 1: did j D Ever like oversteps a line and he's like, hey, Bill,
Speaker 1: I got an episode for you. Here's what's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: He and uh. They did two things. One he and
Speaker 1: Dolly once said hey, we got bored because we're both
Speaker 1: sick and stayed in all weekend. We wrote an episode
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh my god. I was like yeah,
Speaker 1: And as of course I'll look at it. And then
Speaker 1: they're like, no, we're not gonna show it to you
Speaker 1: and forget it. We don't want to do that, right,
Speaker 1: which was super cool probably and and and the movie
Speaker 1: version would be like the most brilliant script ever written.
Speaker 1: I know, and then the other thing was to answer
Speaker 1: steps question. We would sometimes work backwards, you know, which
Speaker 1: was really hard because for him, so I'd go, I
Speaker 1: want to do this funny moment. We need you to
Speaker 1: say something that would cause this guy to not have
Speaker 1: a sense of smell and not blah blah blah. And
Speaker 1: it can't be so sious enough that I have to
Speaker 1: worry about whether or not he'd die and he should
Speaker 1: still be conscious and be able to talk because he
Speaker 1: has to talk in the scene. And j D would
Speaker 1: be like, dude, this is worse than med school homework.
Speaker 1: This is impossible hard. One of my favorite one speaking
Speaker 1: of speaking a funny medical dragon. Uh, it's pronounced anal
Speaker 1: jes I can't believe you said that. Literally, I had
Speaker 1: to give a talk to my like med school. It
Speaker 1: was one of our small groups, and they were talking
Speaker 1: about how it's so important to be able to articulate
Speaker 1: in kind of layman's terms what you're talking about. And
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, there's a scene of Scrubs where
Speaker 1: Turk has to explain that analgesic is like not the
Speaker 1: same as anal jesu put it in your butt. And
Speaker 1: then everyone was like, I mean, yeah, I guess that works.
Speaker 1: That was on my top ten jokes that I did
Speaker 1: not write that I wish I could take credit for.
Speaker 1: That's such a funny joke. Man, don't seen Neo Goldman whatever.
Speaker 1: I'm not going It really bums me out. I think
Speaker 1: that might have even been artists are Gabby, I don't
Speaker 1: even know. It sounds like a Tim Hobert choke too.
Speaker 1: All right, Steph, you got another question. Yeah, it's kind
Speaker 1: of piggybacks off of the first one a little bit. Um. So,
Speaker 1: you guys talked about early on in your episodes that
Speaker 1: you kind of work to develop this character and figure
Speaker 1: out what kind of mannerisms you wanted and all that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. It really shows throughout the progression of
Speaker 1: this season that kind of grow into those character traits
Speaker 1: while also still growing as people. But I find that
Speaker 1: they're really kind of congruent with how you would expect
Speaker 1: that person to act as a clinician. And I was
Speaker 1: wondering if the kind of character that you developed influenced
Speaker 1: the way that the writers wrote scenes of how you
Speaker 1: practice medicine. Like later on, I'll set Donald and Zack
Speaker 1: up to talk about this, but I'll tell you. My
Speaker 1: philosophy of running a TV show is they were talking
Speaker 1: about show running earlier. So your question is awesome because
Speaker 1: it needs a lot to me that it felt that
Speaker 1: way to you. Because my when I teach sometimes like
Speaker 1: the I teach the Writer's Guild for kids running shows
Speaker 1: for the first time and stuff. I said, the most
Speaker 1: successful shows in my mind, when you write the pilot
Speaker 1: and come up with it, and actors and actresses don't
Speaker 1: exist the career that characters belong to you. You invented them,
Speaker 1: and then you cast these people. And uh, when you
Speaker 1: do the pilot the first episode, for it to be great,
Speaker 1: it's got to be a partnership. You know, it's half
Speaker 1: mine and half years. But then for a show to work, ownership,
Speaker 1: you have to stop being a control freak, and ownership
Speaker 1: has to go to the actors and actresses playing the parts.
Speaker 1: Um And so I would ask Donald and Zach you
Speaker 1: know at this point in the show where they staid it,
Speaker 1: you know, because what would happen is it's really cool.
Speaker 1: Eventually on good shows, people start coming up to you
Speaker 1: and going, I don't think my character would say it
Speaker 1: this way, or are you sure this is how my
Speaker 1: character would react in this moment or should my character
Speaker 1: would be more like this? And you on on shows
Speaker 1: that are working, you have to listen, and I did
Speaker 1: you guys eventually kind of feel like those characters were yours,
Speaker 1: you know. I definitely felt I definitely felt like Turk
Speaker 1: became U, if not I became Turk or Turk became me.
Speaker 1: I definitely at some point everything it just seemed like
Speaker 1: I was living life on camera at some point. And
Speaker 1: what really helped me though, was you realizing medical jargon
Speaker 1: wasn't my strength. And once you realized that, and right
Speaker 1: and when when once you realize that and made Turk
Speaker 1: just a scalpel jockey, it freed me, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? And I didn't have to worry about having
Speaker 1: to say certain things, you know what I mean? Uh,
Speaker 1: drink up. I didn't have to worry about saying certain things,
Speaker 1: whereas Zach and Sarah would say and and Johnny would
Speaker 1: say things, and I'd be like, I'm so happy I
Speaker 1: don't have to do that. I remember being in the
Speaker 1: makeup chair in the morning and being like looking through
Speaker 1: the sides and be like, oh no, Donald's got a
Speaker 1: medical jargon monologue. Lunch is going to be late today. Yeah,
Speaker 1: those would be the worst. Those would be the worst days.
Speaker 1: But once Bill was like, I'm not going to give
Speaker 1: you medical jargon anymore. Churk Tchurk knows it, he just
Speaker 1: doesn't like to use it, right, Mike became so much easier.
Speaker 1: It's a good question, though, because do you guys eventually
Speaker 1: even would start riffing your own ones, and I gladly
Speaker 1: would use them because they knew their characters and how
Speaker 1: they would react and what they would say, and uh
Speaker 1: didn't bother them at all. It made me happy. And
Speaker 1: you're you know, even get to talk to the same
Speaker 1: way you Getting to talk to you makes me happy.
Speaker 1: One of the things I mementos I have on my
Speaker 1: wall in my office from Scrubs is from a med
Speaker 1: student Steph, who pulled an answer it rounds out of
Speaker 1: their ass because they remembered a chunk of dialogue on
Speaker 1: our show. And they said the attending was so blown
Speaker 1: away because it was a question they shouldn't have known
Speaker 1: the answer to, you know what I mean. And I
Speaker 1: the same things about her med students that like all
Speaker 1: of the fact like trivia that people don't really they're
Speaker 1: not supposed to remember you know, bears into practice because
Speaker 1: it just is you never see it. She was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: all the med students know it. Subscribes, that's what kind
Speaker 1: of what kind of doctor do you want to be? Stuff?
Speaker 1: I'm leading towards surgery, but we'll see open anything. I
Speaker 1: think it's really really neat. You know that you're doing that,
Speaker 1: and uh, it's a gig. That's up service. It's like
Speaker 1: being a teacher. It's awesome. The most important jobs to
Speaker 1: be of service. I think like teacher, soldier, physician, and
Speaker 1: of course comedy writer. I would think, right, not at all.
Speaker 1: All right, Step, thank you so much. Really amazing questions
Speaker 1: and also really inspired us. I mean we made us
Speaker 1: all feel like we we we may have inspired at
Speaker 1: you know, we inspired at least one person indicine a lot,
Speaker 1: a lot. Let me. Yeah, you guys have a huge
Speaker 1: medical fan base. Well good luck like that. I promise
Speaker 1: me that you'll dress up and you'll dress up as
Speaker 1: Elliott for at least one Halloween up, oh yeah, every Halloween.
Speaker 1: And whoever if if, if you have friends that go
Speaker 1: is Turk for Halloween, tell them please nope black face.
Speaker 1: Make sure they're really black because Donald and cringe No,
Speaker 1: they don't even have to be black if you just
Speaker 1: just don't paint your face, right, Okay, but Donald and
Speaker 1: I cringe every Halloween when people tag us on Instagram
Speaker 1: like excitedly, like Turke and j D for Halloween. And
Speaker 1: still in two thousand twenty, there's still people painting their
Speaker 1: faces brown and black and it's horrible, although we did
Speaker 1: it a lot on Scrubs. Yeah, but by the way,
Speaker 1: one of the many things that doesn't hold up in
Speaker 1: retrospect on the show the a stuff. Good luck with
Speaker 1: all this stuff. And Hi, Vic and Hayden, I hope
Speaker 1: you guys are jealousy. Turn it off, Turn it on,
Speaker 1: turn it off. Steph thought she was just gonna sneak
Speaker 1: in a Vicken Hayden a quick thing. But I think
Speaker 1: we should just keep talking about Vick and hay I
Speaker 1: like Vic, but I don't like Hayden. I don't like
Speaker 1: it at all. I want their shout out to go awry.
Speaker 1: They can Hayden shout up. Now, let's uh, let's do
Speaker 1: it episode. We should so at four or forty four, guys,
Speaker 1: what's happy at four or forty four, what's happening is? Yeah,
Speaker 1: we haven't talked about this episode at all. Yeah, here's
Speaker 1: what I like. We've talked about the Sarah's story, both
Speaker 1: with Steph and um. We jumped around, we jumped around,
Speaker 1: and we talked about the Neil, but we haven't talked
Speaker 1: about the Judy and Zach story. We're gonna get into it,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna get you know, but listen, Donald Bill
Speaker 1: Lawrence episodes are always going to be long because he
Speaker 1: brings a lot to the table and he's no, I'm
Speaker 1: not complaining. I'm not complaining about the length of the episode.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying some people, some people wanna listen to
Speaker 1: a rewatch podcast and actually rewatched the show at well,
Speaker 1: then they should listen to a different show. We happened
Speaker 1: to we happen to meander at fourty four's happening is
Speaker 1: mentioned for the first time. Okay, you don't need to
Speaker 1: start bang. Just did bang the table? I banged the
Speaker 1: table on that? Why am I yelling? What happens at?
Speaker 1: What's happening is mentioned for the very first time on Scrubs.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and you guys did the dance and we
Speaker 1: don't even idea it really, She says, it's not that
Speaker 1: great a show. We expected people to know what we
Speaker 1: were talking about. And that's such an old reference, I know,
Speaker 1: And nowadays kids don't even know the glory of what's
Speaker 1: happening unless you're our age the glory of what's happening
Speaker 1: or what's happening? Now? Do you remember what's happening now?
Speaker 1: Surely owned the restaurant. They all grew up, and now
Speaker 1: d is not just a small character, she's like the star.
Speaker 1: Was the star, I think because everybody came back. I
Speaker 1: didn't like what's happening now as much as what's happening.
Speaker 1: What's happening just I just liked reruns dance, and I
Speaker 1: liked the moment you guys did for me, which is forever.
Speaker 1: I like, hey, what's happening? Hey, hey, hey, do you
Speaker 1: remember the opening credits when they made they left rerun
Speaker 1: and he's driving the street do do dud dude, dude?
Speaker 1: And then re runs this running after the pickup truck.
Speaker 1: That's rude. That's that they did that. I know they were.
Speaker 1: They were making fun of it, said guy, making fun
Speaker 1: of the heavy set. Watching me run chase after that
Speaker 1: truck was funny. Come on, this show was because he
Speaker 1: had suspenders on. Yeah, well that that and the hat
Speaker 1: and the and the same red. His outfit never changed.
Speaker 1: Do you remember the episode where Roger decided he was
Speaker 1: going to be a nude model? My favorite thing that's
Speaker 1: happening right now, As you guys said, we haven't talked
Speaker 1: about the show yet, and then you're going remember the
Speaker 1: episode of What's Happening by the way, and if I
Speaker 1: was like if I was like at ten fifteen and
Speaker 1: that What's Happening episode, that's the first time that Shirley says,
Speaker 1: I just remember. I'm just well, we can go back
Speaker 1: to the show, but I just remember there's an episode
Speaker 1: where Roger was doing nude modeling for for artists, you
Speaker 1: know when they like paint the nude model. And I
Speaker 1: remember thinking as a child, like this is scandalous, Rod,
Speaker 1: He's gonna take off his clothes, Like that's that's crazy. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's get back into the show. So let's talk about
Speaker 1: the j D and Carla storyline, which is a very
Speaker 1: interesting storyline because at the beginning of the show, you
Speaker 1: guys are really clicking and grooving. One reason because your
Speaker 1: best friend and his now girlfriend are always you know,
Speaker 1: we lived together, or your roommate and his girlfriend, uh
Speaker 1: always around. And so you guys have developed a relationship
Speaker 1: and because of that, you're a dynamic duo of your own.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean. She doesn't work drink up,
Speaker 1: she doesn't work for you. But you guys are a
Speaker 1: team that is very very very cohesive, and you go
Speaker 1: along and you fuck it up by becoming judgmental. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm i'm, I'm I'm feeling every one is being condescending
Speaker 1: to me and I and I'm starting to become a
Speaker 1: good doctor. I'm starting to get my groove. I'm starting
Speaker 1: to know what's happening. And uh and also do okay
Speaker 1: um and and and I just you know, like like
Speaker 1: someone does, he lose he loses his temper, and of
Speaker 1: course he loses the temper his temper at the worst
Speaker 1: person possible, his teammate, uh with Carlo. Yeah, this was
Speaker 1: also a product The reason I wrote this is is interesting,
Speaker 1: the product of two things. One, all the nurses that
Speaker 1: were nice enough to give us interviews. You know, one
Speaker 1: of the stories that you saw was the nurses are
Speaker 1: essentially the last line of training, you know, for a
Speaker 1: lot of these medical students and residents and interns and stuff.
Speaker 1: Because when you first show up, you know more than
Speaker 1: they do even say it in the show them, the
Speaker 1: training kicks in and the dynamic ships um, and you
Speaker 1: know so many of them ultimately, um um told us
Speaker 1: that it's so interesting how to navigate that, because you know,
Speaker 1: there is an air of superiority to some doctors, you know,
Speaker 1: when they get to that point, and it messes up
Speaker 1: that dynamic, you know. And uh, I wanted to combine
Speaker 1: that my personal life, my mom's family. My mom and
Speaker 1: then me were the first two in her side of
Speaker 1: family to go to college, you know, and then you
Speaker 1: always kind of enter these dynamics of like, oh, you know,
Speaker 1: you think you're smarter than me because you actually went
Speaker 1: on to secondary education and did that stuff. And you know,
Speaker 1: as you get older, you realize that doesn't have anything
Speaker 1: to do with anything. You know. At this point in
Speaker 1: my life, UM, I know tons of geniuses that didn't
Speaker 1: finish high school and tons of you know, grad school graduates.
Speaker 1: They're the dumbest people alive, do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: But uh, around youthful things that kind of carries there.
Speaker 1: And um, my favorite part of that stuff was her
Speaker 1: challenging you to admit it and you actually admitting it
Speaker 1: to what I mean, and that was what enabled you
Speaker 1: guys still to be friends. That scene was really I mean,
Speaker 1: Judy's I'm just you know, the straight man in that scene.
Speaker 1: Her her performance in that rain outside the bus, I
Speaker 1: thought was just incredible. She did such a beautiful job
Speaker 1: and it was heartbreaking. Still to this day, I'm watching
Speaker 1: and was so moved by Bye bye, by how heartfelt
Speaker 1: and open she was. Uh and uh, I wrote down
Speaker 1: because this is what we wanted to do. That people
Speaker 1: didn't understand comedy of comedy at the time, and why
Speaker 1: Judy Rays was so perfect, you know, because there weren't
Speaker 1: a lot of drama tas on. And one of my
Speaker 1: favorite jokes in this episode was when before you get
Speaker 1: off the bus, she's leaving and she's like, I'm so
Speaker 1: mad at you and you said you you can't you
Speaker 1: forgave me. You can't just change your mind, and without
Speaker 1: selling it as a joke, she's like, have you never
Speaker 1: met a woman before? And she walks out into the rain,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, And it wasn't read like a punchline.
Speaker 1: It was read like, yeah, you can still be funny
Speaker 1: in drama and amongst pathos, when you're feeling bad, and
Speaker 1: that was like the tonal stuff. That's why she so
Speaker 1: good man, because she's always so real, very very very
Speaker 1: good actor. I look back at it like I had
Speaker 1: no clue how much of a power house she was
Speaker 1: or or is, I should say, And when I watched
Speaker 1: these episodes, you know, I said it in our first
Speaker 1: podcast her and Ken. Wow, really they're really m vps
Speaker 1: of our show, you know what I mean? Uh, drink up.
Speaker 1: You don't have to tell people to drink when you say,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm just I'm They're just gonna do
Speaker 1: it what I'm bringing. I'm bringing it to my attention
Speaker 1: that I said it. This is the most you've ever done,
Speaker 1: by the way you went from the previous episode being
Speaker 1: conscious of it and doing none to this one doing
Speaker 1: like thirty You know what I mean. I probably said
Speaker 1: it several times in the last episode. Also, this episode
Speaker 1: is also about how how important your name is, regardless
Speaker 1: of if it's Bambi or j D or your reputation
Speaker 1: or Scooter whatever it is you have. Reputation is very
Speaker 1: important and you only get one chance to make a
Speaker 1: first impression, and after that people will have judgments of
Speaker 1: who they think you are. And this episode really touches
Speaker 1: on that. There's the thing I screwed up in this
Speaker 1: episode off what Donald sad bothers me. What Dr Cox's
Speaker 1: character does to j D, you know, of shaming him
Speaker 1: was so bad that it bummed me out that he
Speaker 1: never got his come upance for that, you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: because you didn't tell her to go protect to you.
Speaker 1: And then he makes everybody stop and goes, We're all
Speaker 1: to be super special to this little flower, you know.
Speaker 1: And I thought that was so egregiously mean, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. But his character, I guess was flawed,
Speaker 1: but we should have gotten him have him make amends
Speaker 1: for that. I get thumped for that, m hm. But
Speaker 1: Boxing Fantasy was pretty funny though, Johnny, I'm about to say,
Speaker 1: holy cow, was at I watched it with Christa, who
Speaker 1: had to do all her romance scenes with Johnny c
Speaker 1: and uh and she will eventually, you know, be on
Speaker 1: your You're so nice about her too, that you're gonna
Speaker 1: cat she he came. He came on as a punching bag,
Speaker 1: and she was half asleep through upstairs in the room
Speaker 1: and she goes up half drowsy. Here comes allD up
Speaker 1: that he is just just listening with has a full
Speaker 1: bottle of Cristal oil. Let's be honest. He's ripped. He's ripped.
Speaker 1: He looks I think it's drawn on. Oh, you know
Speaker 1: what I wanted to say, and I wanted to tell
Speaker 1: me if you guys thought this in real life when
Speaker 1: I say that, because what I wrote, the last thing
Speaker 1: I wrote down about Judy, what I say like when
Speaker 1: you get really lucky. It's not the writing or anything else,
Speaker 1: that's all. It's everything and the casting people have to
Speaker 1: really nail, you know, these characters and be who they are.
Speaker 1: And the amazing thing watching Judy back then, you guys,
Speaker 1: Zack and Donald were such kids, and um Sarah's character,
Speaker 1: and Sarah felt like a kid and Judy and this
Speaker 1: is one of the reasons I think the show works.
Speaker 1: She was not significantly essentially the same age as all
Speaker 1: you guys, but she seems like such a grown up,
Speaker 1: even if she started definitely way more mature than we were,
Speaker 1: you know, and seemed like such an adult that it
Speaker 1: made the show work. Of like, oh, one of these
Speaker 1: four is you know, old for her years and an
Speaker 1: adult already, whereas Judy is, you know, she could have
Speaker 1: easily on a different show, Ben Elliott or been you know,
Speaker 1: the little kid, you know, and so it was was
Speaker 1: she like that in real life? Or she is that
Speaker 1: good man in real life? Judy was way more mature
Speaker 1: than the three of us. I think we were. We
Speaker 1: were just as silly and goofy as our characters, and
Speaker 1: you know, Judy was funny and would play along with us.
Speaker 1: But I think she was definitely more mature than us. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: By the way, there's a really funny there's a really
Speaker 1: funny funk up bill at twelve o three when Donald
Speaker 1: runs into the room with that Kelso's lured him to.
Speaker 1: You could totally see a hand that's all come in
Speaker 1: and it's on the floor and it's holding the door open.
Speaker 1: And it made me think that out And I know,
Speaker 1: I know nowadays we just you know, painted out, but
Speaker 1: it made me think it was probably Patrick Bolton or
Speaker 1: something lying on the floor. Patrick shout out, Patrick Bolton.
Speaker 1: Patrick Bolton was the onset trick. It has wheels. That
Speaker 1: thing will be on set. I enjoyed after hearing the
Speaker 1: interestingt thing you guys post said about eating. I think
Speaker 1: I've never seen the two of you do more eating
Speaker 1: In an episode Zack having to jam a cupcake in
Speaker 1: your mouth, Donald just wolfing sandwich. Did you guys really
Speaker 1: eat that stuff or were you just spitting it out
Speaker 1: as soon as they said cut. I do love a sandwich.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie, and a cupcake doesn't count. But
Speaker 1: if someone says we need you to jam this cupcake
Speaker 1: in your mouth or you're gonna do it, I mean
Speaker 1: that's your excuse. And also is that it was that
Speaker 1: cheap cupcake. What are those called? Um host this cupcakes?
Speaker 1: That was a dang Listen. I'll tell you something right now.
Speaker 1: You put some cold cuts, some cheese in between some
Speaker 1: here bridge that sounds delicious to me. You could put
Speaker 1: some lettuce tomato on it. I'll eat that ship And
Speaker 1: another another strike at the janitor not speaking to anyone
Speaker 1: in the season one Bill is that he clearly has
Speaker 1: told Dr Cox to call me Scooter at the end.
Speaker 1: I don't know what you're talking about. He never ever
Speaker 1: spoke to anybody except and I Donald that I have
Speaker 1: been going through like detectives going we're trying to keep
Speaker 1: the janitor Laura alive for season one. But the facts,
Speaker 1: the facts are the facts are problematic. The facts are problematic,
Speaker 1: Bill doesn't We've done all the work, just like Turkleton,
Speaker 1: there was just so in your mind, Bill, your rationalization button.
Speaker 1: How does Cox know to call me Scooter? It's just
Speaker 1: a random coincidence, the nickname. He's like, I love it.
Speaker 1: I really want this to be a running gag that
Speaker 1: Donald and I do the detective work to see how
Speaker 1: the janitors talks to other people. And the only one
Speaker 1: I think you've ever seen him speak to is Elliott.
Speaker 1: And that thing when they're all walking up to each
Speaker 1: other mad, Yes, yes, well she speaks to him, he
Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily speak to her. That might not have even
Speaker 1: been a janitor and she made mad. This is just
Speaker 1: all seen through JD Lens. The last thing I want
Speaker 1: to uh, the last thing I've ever you know what?
Speaker 1: And you're absolutely right. Actually, the very next person at
Speaker 1: the janitor, the very next person that's attacked after Elliott,
Speaker 1: uh does that to the janitor is j D. So
Speaker 1: it could be it could be that that one's that
Speaker 1: one's imaginary and Elliott was talking to an intern order
Speaker 1: or something, or no, that's possibility, or she's just not
Speaker 1: even talking to anyone. There's no one there and she's
Speaker 1: just saying it, Yeah, it's very fight clubby when the
Speaker 1: last thing I want to say is this, they went
Speaker 1: overboard with the filters on Sarah in the bathtub because
Speaker 1: it's like Barbara Walters, you can barely see her through filters,
Speaker 1: and and she's in like this most enormous fucking bathroom.
Speaker 1: And I was thinking, like, why does thet But then
Speaker 1: I remember, this doesn't Eliot supposed to have money from
Speaker 1: her parents. Her parents are paid by Elliott's in like
Speaker 1: the bathroom of a millionaire's house. It was subtext that
Speaker 1: we had planned for and a lot of it got cut,
Speaker 1: but it eventually pays off when she tells her dad
Speaker 1: she doesn't want to go into a female specialty and
Speaker 1: he stops paying for her life, so she has to
Speaker 1: move in with you. She loses her whole apartment, she
Speaker 1: works as at the apartment, she's like, this place is big.
Speaker 1: She works at the clinic, she starts working at the clinic.
Speaker 1: All of that stuff, I remember, well, thank you, sorry, Yeah, audience,
Speaker 1: we we went all over the place today. But we're
Speaker 1: so excited about show. We made about a bunch of
Speaker 1: docs and nurses and so get around here yeah, around here,
Speaker 1: mm hmm.