Brian Damage
10-23-2007, 09:00 PM
Don’t look now — and, judging the ratings, not many people have — but NBC’s stalwart sitcom “Scrubs” returns for its seventh and final season on Thursday.
The little comedy that could is gearing up for a final 18 episodes that will cap an improbable run in which the show remained on the air despite a lack of heavy promotion over the years, some years with little or no support from other sitcoms on the schedule and generally lackluster ratings that left its future in peril at the end of practically every TV season.
“I think this is the year that ‘Scrubs’ really becomes a big hit,” creator Bill Lawrence told a roomful of critics at the annual TV Critics Association press tour in July. “We had always kind of geared our plan towards peaking in the seventh year.”
He said it for a laugh, which he got resoundingly, but he might actually be onto something. While it would be silly to expect that the show will suddenly recoup the audience it had in its heyday (15.9 million viewers in its second season compared to 6.1 million last season), there’s good reason to believe that fans who have stuck it out this long will be rewarded with a memorable send-off.
“Scrubs” (NBC, 9:30 p.m. Thursdays) is merely following in the tradition established by many a long-running sitcom in which the second-to-last season is generally regarded as its worst, the one in which only a handful of episodes rise to the level of quality that once defined it. “Friends,” “Sex and the City” and, dare I say, “Seinfeld,” all fell into the familiar pattern, as do many comedies. And it makes sense. When a show starts to show signs of wear, it becomes apparent that the end is near, and then all the stops are pulled out in an effort to give the show a proper farewell final season.
“I think there's something really cool about knowing it's your last season,” “Scrubs” star Zach Braff said, sitting next to Lawrence in July. “I mean so many times, you know, by the time you get to the seventh season or what could be the last season, you don't know (it’s the end), and there's something really invigorating about going ‘All right. We've got 18 more.’ I think it's really going to excite the crew and the cast. … I think to go in for the final 18 knowing we're going out with a bang, we're going out with the way Bill wants to end the show, I think, I'm really, really excited to do it.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21250968/
The little comedy that could is gearing up for a final 18 episodes that will cap an improbable run in which the show remained on the air despite a lack of heavy promotion over the years, some years with little or no support from other sitcoms on the schedule and generally lackluster ratings that left its future in peril at the end of practically every TV season.
“I think this is the year that ‘Scrubs’ really becomes a big hit,” creator Bill Lawrence told a roomful of critics at the annual TV Critics Association press tour in July. “We had always kind of geared our plan towards peaking in the seventh year.”
He said it for a laugh, which he got resoundingly, but he might actually be onto something. While it would be silly to expect that the show will suddenly recoup the audience it had in its heyday (15.9 million viewers in its second season compared to 6.1 million last season), there’s good reason to believe that fans who have stuck it out this long will be rewarded with a memorable send-off.
“Scrubs” (NBC, 9:30 p.m. Thursdays) is merely following in the tradition established by many a long-running sitcom in which the second-to-last season is generally regarded as its worst, the one in which only a handful of episodes rise to the level of quality that once defined it. “Friends,” “Sex and the City” and, dare I say, “Seinfeld,” all fell into the familiar pattern, as do many comedies. And it makes sense. When a show starts to show signs of wear, it becomes apparent that the end is near, and then all the stops are pulled out in an effort to give the show a proper farewell final season.
“I think there's something really cool about knowing it's your last season,” “Scrubs” star Zach Braff said, sitting next to Lawrence in July. “I mean so many times, you know, by the time you get to the seventh season or what could be the last season, you don't know (it’s the end), and there's something really invigorating about going ‘All right. We've got 18 more.’ I think it's really going to excite the crew and the cast. … I think to go in for the final 18 knowing we're going out with a bang, we're going out with the way Bill wants to end the show, I think, I'm really, really excited to do it.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21250968/