Now that the show has been on 5 years strong there's bound to be questions from newbies and hardcore fans alike (ex. "what? Scrubs still on?" ans: yes). The quote title of this thread goes a little while back, but I'm sure most of you get it. All your questions about Scrubs is answered here.

Oh, man, I know I've heard that quote before in one of the early episodes, but I can't remember in which episode and what context.

C'mon...C'mon... you can get it jcpdiesel21. Hint: something isn't working properly because of it.

I know a thread where you can ask where it is from....

Before I got in the shower, I was thinking about posting about where/when it was from. Then I come back, and jcpdiesel21 posted. Now I don't want to be a lurker-know-it-all. So, to make the mystery more interesting...nice quote, it really sums up one of the major themes throughout the series. And, I had to think about it for a few minutes before remembering where it came from!

Eeek! I started posting character threads before asking -- will we have separate threads for characters and actors or will they be smushed together? If smushed, we should probably add the actors' names to their respective thread titles.

RainIsBeautiful, trying to compete with me to see who can get more threads in huh?? hehe

I'll say keep it smushed, and I'm going on The Office forum model here, but I think there'll be more discussion that way.

Sounds good! I'm not trying to compete at all, just trying to open up our lovely new forum as much as possible! :D

Hey all,
I have a question that I haven't been able to find the answer to anywhere...
Does anyone know the name of the actress who played "everyone's favorite patient" (I forget her name... Mrs. Fisk or something)? My family is convinced they've seen her before somewhere but we can't figure it out...
Thanks!

PuffingNoise , the actress in question is Ms. Michael Learned (Mrs. Wilk on Scrubs) and I think she's best known as her role on The Waltons as Olivia Walton and appeared in many many shows.

EDIT: skilldatkillz beat me to it.

Nothing to see here. Carry on.

Thanks so much, skillzdatkillz!!

I haven't seen all the episodes this season. When did JD move in with Elliot?

Now I remember where that quote is from! Hehehe! I can't believe I forgot. Such a fundamental piece of the first season.

Yay, glad you remember! I was starting to think I should've named the thread "Q & maybe A" hehe.

Alisa, JD moved in with Elliot really early this season when he no where to go since Turk and Carla needed their "baby-making" space and his apartment had a huge hole in the ceiling. If you're just a couple eps in I'm sure you'll see it come up real soon.

Two music-related questions:

Does anyone know what the song/artist is at the end of "My Blind Date" on the DVD? The lyrics are something like, "Why won't you break down..."

Also, does anyone know where to find "Closer to Spring" by Bang? It's the song that plays at the end of "My Faith in Humanity" and for the life of me, I cannot find it anywhere.

Thanks! I was able to figure out that I somehow missed 503 and 504 so it must have happened then.

So no one's going to explain the penny thing? I'm a long time fan, but can't remember and it's driving me nuts!

I'm a relative newbie to "Scrubs." I've seen an episode here and there from past seasons, and I've started watching regularly this season. I'm a bit confused about Cox and Jordan. They were married and had a child together, right? And now they're divorced, but they still seem kind of like they're married? Huh? Can someone explain what happened to me? Thanks.

Cox and Jordan were married, and thought they got divorced, but really it didn't go through. When they got back together (and Jordan got pregnant, but told him it was NOT his baby--eventually he found out it was) and were going to get "re-married" they a) found out about the divorce and b) decided through the stress of being about to get "re-married" that they were better off when they thought they were divorced, so they finalized that instead.

I think.

Either that or they DID get "re-married" but found out that didn't really count. One way or the other, they remain divorced now, but decided that was the arrangement that worked best for their relationship.

Wow, well that's confusing, but much less so than trying to work it out myself. Thanks for the clarification!

In the pilot episode, JD first walks into the hospital and the Janitor is fixing the sliding door. He and JD exchange some small talk, and JD says "Maybe a penny is stuck in it." And the Janitor says, "Why a penny? If it is a penny, you're mine" (or something to that effect). The end of the ep show the janitor holding up a penny.

That is the abbreviated version, and just from memory, but the general idea is there.

guppiechic, thanks for clearing that up!

Wait, is that why the janitor has it out for him? That's the starting point of everything? Well, not everything, but his seemingly focused hatred of JD?

Yes, that's exactly it. Actually, the janitor was just supposed to be in the pilot, but when JD walked by him holding up the penny he added a little, "I'm watching yoooou", in a creepy-silly sing song voice, and he's stuck around ever since. And has been tormenting JD to boot.

Aww, how could I forget the "I'm watching yooou." That was the best!!

One of the sweetest moments on Scrubs was when Cox and Jordan had their beautiful divorce in the park, as officiated by Ted, with all their colleagues and their baby as witnesses. SO sweet. See, mnich, they thought they were divorced when they got back together when Jordan got pregnant. So they're together... and then they're told that they're still legally married. They think it's probably a good thing but then both realize that they hate being married (I remember Cox being outraged that he now had to pay for Jordan's botox) so they decide to get divorced so as to continue having a blissful relationship. appletree did a great job explaining but I thought I'd add a couple of details. I can't wait for the release of the season 3 DVDs so I can watch that lovely divorce all over again!

Thanks, Flying Penguin. Looks like I was close, but you were closer. The ceremony WAS nice, I do remember that.

Man, I gotta get my hands on some DVDs. The divorce sounds like it's one of those weird tear-jerker moments on the show that I dig so much.

The divorce actually happens in the beginning of season 4, it's the 3rd episode titled "My New Game". It is a pretty good one. My favorite part of the whole thing is how very excited and emotional Cox and Jordan are, they turn to each other and Jordan says, "I've never been this happy." Then they kiss passionately. The very best part is Carla is holding Jack as they look on, she looks at him and says, "You have no chance at being normal." Hee!

To further explain things, when the show started Jordan and Dr. Cox were already "divorced." Toward the beginning of S2 Dr. Cox's feelings for Jordan returned; throughout her pregnancy Jordan pretended that some other guy was the father. I don't remember if she created a fake father or if she just refused to reveal any info. Jordan gave birth to Jack in S2 "My Karma." Dr. Cox didn't find out that he was Jack's father until after he was born.

Their divorce ceremony was really sweet. Fucked up, but sweet.

Didn't she tell Cox that the father was a Greek bus boy at some hotel in Athens? I just remember some story Jordan was telling him about being in Greece at a hotel full of rich guys and she slept with the help instead.

Yup, that's right.

And as nice as the divorce in the park was, it really makes no sense that a) the divorce wasn't thru and b) they didn't know. I remember Jordan saying to Perry in a S1(?) episode that she uses his alimony cheques to tip waiters. So, obviously they were "fully" divorced back then. Oh well, as long as the show doesn't sink to Friends-esque continuity ...

There's a little bit more to this, actually. In the S1 finale the janitor is again fixing some door and a fresh newbie stands by and - just like JD - starts to make small talk to him. He too wants to help and says that maybe there's a paper clip stuck in there. The janitor reacts the same way like with JD and answers that Fresh Newbie goes down if he finds a paper clip. It is strongly implied in that scene that the door thing is just an pretence to find a new victim because torturing a fresh newbie every year seems to be his hobby. There never was a penny or paper clip in these doors. The door is his cobweb.

Whoa, seriously? I have no memory of this. I need to watch that ep again. Come faster, DVD on hold from library!

A few questions from someone who's watched the show off and on -

I was under the impression that J.D. was living in Eliot's apartment (and an earlier post in this thread confirmed that). Then, in the latest episode, he had a "half acre." Did he move out? Or is the half-acre where he's been living with Eliot?

Have they ever told us what city the characters live in? Or is it a running joke that we'll never find out?

And can someone explain to me what the big twist was regarding Brendan Fraser's character's death? I know it has something to do with the funeral.

BlakeSpeare, J.D. bought the half-acre of land when he was dating Julie, played by Mandy Moore (they bought it together). It was just a quirky purchase. He doesn't live there, as the half-acre as of now only has a front porch on it. He still lives with Elliott.

There has never been any confirmation on what city the show takes place. I've heard in commentaries on the DVDs from Bill Lawrence that they try to make it Anywhere, U.S.A., so the location is vague on purpose, although there have been a few clues that it takes place somewhere in California (J.D.'s car had a California license plate, Elliott's boyfriend played by Scott Foley worked in Sea World, etc.)

As for Brendan Fraser's character Ben's death, I'll take a stab at explaining the episode. Ben was diagnosed with leukemia in the first season. Dr. Cox treated him, and he and J.D. didn't think his chances of making it were that great. Miraculously, the chemo worked for him and he went into remission. That was towards the end of the first season. Ben doesn't come back to Sacred Heart until somewhere about mid-way through the 3rd season. Upon his arrival, we learn that he hasn't been to the doctor to check on his cancer in the past 2 years because he was off traveling the world. I'm not too clear on why, but for some reason he's in the hospital being treated. I can't remember if Dr. Cox just wanted to do a routine check-up or if something triggered his decision to treat Ben. Either way, Dr. Cox couldn't actually run tests and treat him because they were having his son Jack's 1st birthday party and he had to go (which they had been talking about the whole episode, and might be the reason why Ben was in town in the first place). He gave J.D. the responsibility of treating Ben, and made it pretty clear that if it should be his top priority. Meanwhile, J.D. was swamped that day with a ton of patients, some of which were in more serious condition then Ben (or so they believed) and he said something like that to Dr. Cox, but of course Dr. Cox didn't care and told him again to make Ben his top priority. So the rest of the episode is kind of hard to explain. Basically, we are led to believe that one of J.D.'s other patients die, and there is a lengthy bit where J.D. is really upset about his patient dying, and Ben is following J.D. around wherever he goes, commenting on everything. J.D. is really scared to talk to Dr. Cox about this patient's death, and Dr. Cox does totally blame J.D. So we as the audience at this point think that J.D. lost one of his other patients while he was treating Ben, Ben is alive and well and following Dr. Cox & J.D. around all day, and Dr. Cox is blaming J.D. for this patient's death. Then at one point, Ben talks to Dr. Cox and makes him realize that J.D. wasn't the reason for the patient's death and that Dr. Cox is just taking his anger/sadness out on J.D. The next scene, we see Dr. Cox and J.D., dressed in suits, walking through the park, talking about the patient's death. We think they're going to Jack's 1st birthday party, but then the camera pans out and reveals that it's actually Ben's funeral. So what really happened is that after Dr. Cox left, Ben died, Dr. Cox blamed J.D. for his death, and Ben's spirit was talking to both J.D. and Dr. Cox about the situation. It was a very sad episode, and the ending definitely took me by surprise. I really thought Cox and J.D. were talking about another patient. One of the best episodes of the series, in my opinion.

I'm not sure if I explained that exactly right, so if anyone has anything to add in or edit, please, be my guest!

Your library has DVDs of things like Scrubs? That's awesome. Mine has things like John Wayne movies you've never heard of and compilations of "classic" TV shows.

As for the janitor's scenes with the penny and paper clip, I also took that to mean that he was just waiting for the first newbie to come by and bug him and become his next target. As he says in the episode where he starts messing with Turk because he's out of ideas for J.D., "I don't pick them; they pick me."

Not that I know of, but we know it's close to Sea World, so that has to narrow it down. Have they ever had snow? I was thinking I remembered snow in the episode where they track down the girl giving birth under the Christmas tree, but my mind might have edited that in there because I associate snow with that time of year.

The twist is that we don't realize Ben is the one who died, because Cox won't accept it, so we see Ben following him around and stuff after it's happened while Cox is breaking down. They set up the twist by having Cox tell J.D. to stop worrying about this old guy and take care of Ben instead, so when J.D. tells him "he" didn't make it, it seems like he's talking about the old guy. The only clue to what's really going on is that Ben is no longer carrying his camera around snapping pictures of everything, and early in the episode he tells Cox he'll do that until the day he dies. Cox doesn't snap back to reality until he arrives at the graveyard and realizes he's not at his son's birthday party.

I have to say, I know some people saw it coming, but they totally hoodwinked me. It was perfectly set up, with the misdirection with the gomer and the way the birthday party explained why everyone would be getting dressed up for something. In fact, I was so fooled that when you suddenly realize they're at a funeral and Cox is falling apart, I thought for a second his son Jack had died, because of the birthday party angle. It's an incredibly powerful episode, and convinced me to forgive Fraser all the horrible other crap he's been in.

The secondary plot about Turk's mole and Carla's maiden name was very weak in comparison, but it did set up one of those rare-but-powerful Kelso-opens-up-and-helps-someone moments.

ETA: lulu519 and I must have been typing at the same time, but I wanted to clarify that after Ben dies, he actually no longer talks to anyone but Cox, so we're really just seeing him through Cox's eyes, as his denial (and exhaustion, because he works for three days straight to take over J.D.'s patients and keep any more of them from dying) causes him to continue seeing Ben as if he's alive. They're just very sneaky about it, so you don't notice that the other characters in the scenes never actually see pretend-Ben or respond to him.

I've never seen the Ben-is-dead episode but it sounds very Sixth Sense-like. Cool.

They also have Alias, Angel, Sex and the City, Arrested Development, The Sopranos, House, Lost, and all kinds of other shows. Hell, they even have Queer as Folk. My library rocks.

As others have said, the show never specifically tells us where they live so that it seems like they could be anywhere, but there have been hints that they live in California. Since the show is filmed in California, that makes sense.

I want to say that there was snow on the ground and the characters wore scarves and hats in the S1 Christmas ep, but I don't remember for sure and I can't think of any other instances of there being snow or winter clothing.

Actually, they came up with a decent explanation of why the divorce wasn't through but they thought it was. When they were divorcing, Dr. Cox had lawyer Ted take care of the paperwork. As Ted explains it, he was divorcing his wife at the same time, and he and his wife accidentally signed the forms for Jordan and Cox's divorce, and vice versa. So while they all thought they were divorced, it wasn't actually legit. Everyone was still technically married to their respective spouses.

Fine, but that still doesn't explane the alimony cheques. Not to mention that in the episode we first meet Jordan, Cox tells JD that she took half his money. How is that possible if they are technically married at the time?

To me that's still a (minor) continuity error.

There were quite a lot of clues, actually. The real beauty of this episode was how many clues they gave, without giving it away (for most people, anyway). A lot of things just seemed slightly off or like continuity errors, but the story was so compelling that most watchers just went along with it (myself included). In addition to the camera, you have:

• Dr. Cox apparently overreacting to the death of a patient
• No one besides Dr. Cox interacting with Ben
• Some people even react a little bit to Dr. Cox seeming to interract with someone who isn't there
• The birthday party was "this afternoon" early in the episode - but Dr. Cox was there for three days straight
• Who wears a suit to a one-year-old's birthday party?

I think there were more, it's been a long time since I saw the episode. It was really amazing to re-watch it and see so many things I didn't pick up on or glossed over on the first viewing.

That's a neat theory, but I'm not sure the episode ("My Last Day", the 1st season finale) strongly implies it. If anything, I think the Janitor looks upset that the incident has repeated. He sort of hangs his head as he says, "Why a paper clip?" like he can't believe this new newbie would do the same thing.

I admit it's possible, and I even sort of like the interpretation, but I don't think the episode makes that clear.

Could some kind person in the know explain the whole intern/resident/attending thing? I'm not real sure what the hierarchy is and how/why people get to different levels.

I don't think the janitor is stupid enough to think that a scared intern snuck into the hospital before his first day and put a penny or anything else in the door. That's why I assumed that, whether he actually found anything in there or not, he was just using it as an excuse to pick on a newbie.

Interns, residents, and attendings are all licensed physicians. Your intern year is your first post-graduate year (PGY1). As an intern, you are also a resident. Your residency is the time after you have graduated from medical school when you are still being trained. During residency, all your work is double checked by an attending, who is a doctor who has completed his/her residency. Depending on your area of specialty, the length of your residency varies, and depending on what you'd like to do, you may do a fellowship after your residency. So when they first started, JD & Turk were interns and Dr. Cox was an attending. Internal medicine has a shorter residency than general surgery, so Turk is still a resident (I think) while JD and Elliot are attendings.

Thanks, wormlegs, that clears it up some. So when Cox was J.D.'s resident in the first season, and J.D., Elliot, and Turk became residents and got their own interns in the second season, there would have been an attending looking over all their shoulders that we didn't see?

Yes, that's right. That's why Dr. Cox was always looking over JD's shoulder.

Depending on the hospital, Internal Medicine residencies (JD, Elliot) run four years. Surgical residencies can run between 4-7 years, depending on if the surgeon specializes.

Also, you rarely work with the same attending all years of your residency. You generally rotate through various teams -- so that way, JD learns about all the medical subspecialties, at least superficially (i.e., cardiology), and most residencies require you to do rotations in other areas (for example, a month in psychiatry or something so you have some familiarity with those issues). So JD and Dr. Cox really shouldn't have been working together quite so closely.

Wait, I always thought that Cox was an attending from the first season on (and probably before that). I remember in the pilot episode, J.D.'s resident was that annoying suck-up doctor that he immediately pegged as a tool/dork. And there are other references in the first season to J.D.'s resident being that guy, and not Dr. Cox.

Yea, you're right, lulu519. They stopped mentioning JD's tool of a resident in s2. Plus in s2's His Story, JD mentions how he's switching off to another attending (and Cox's therapist tells him to keep JD around so Cox tells JD to switch back to working under him).

I notice all the surgeons where green scrubs. JD usually wears shades of blue. Nurses wear shades of pink/red/multi-color. When JD did his surgical elective, he wore green scrubs. Is this true to life?