Zach Braff and Donald Faison's Scrubs rewatch podcast officially launches

[TMC]

https://ew.com/tv/scrubs-rewatch-pod...-real-friends/

Episode 1 of Fake Doctors, Real Friends with Zach + Donald is now available for download. "We started thinking of doing this for the people who did watch the show, fans of Zach and I who are wondering what we're doing and how we're doing," Faison tells EW. "This is a great place to check-in and hopefully enjoying conversations between two best friends." In the first episode, Braff recalls landing his Scrubs role while working at a French Vietnamese restaurant in Beverly Hills. The debut episode also features a chat with their former co-star Sarah Chalke.

Zach Braff and Donald Faison want to keep their Scrubs podcast fresh as they tape their separate homes amid coronavirus crisis

Initially, Braff and Faison looked at Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey's Office Ladies podcast for inspiration in developing their podcast Fake Doctors, Real Friends with Zach + Donald. But unlike the former Office stars, Braff and Faison were in different parts of the country. "We were all gearing up to record in a studio at iHeart, our very first (episode), and then this insanity happened," Braff tells The Hollywood Reporter, referring to the coronavirus. "So then we had to hit pause and go well, 'Should we still do it? How do we do it?' We thought, 'Well, we were going to do it anyway, it could be good to distract people, make people laugh, particularly because the show was such a love letter to hospitals and the medical community.' In the back of our minds, we thought maybe this would be a chance to give them some love and honor them. So we just started doing it. iHeart helped us figure out how to do it from our homes. Donald literally records in his closet, so he can hide from kids, and I did it in my office." Braff says they opted to do one or two episodes per week. "I want it to be fresh," he says. "Ideally, I didn't really want to bank them, because then you're getting tired and there's not that new energy. We discussed this before the world changed, maybe doing like three in a day or something. I think it's good that we're not. Ultimately, it's about two friends kind of catching up and we're telling stories about the show we made together. But there's a really good energy, I think, if we haven't spoken in a few days, and we're excited to chat." Faison adds: "Yeah, it's like when you go on vacation with your best friend. When you guys see each other on vacation, the first couple of days, you're are like, 'This is the best vacation ever! I can't believe we're doing this!' And then by like day four or five, it's like, 'Maybe I'll see you tomorrow for breakfast.'"

Scrubs' Zach Braff and Donald Faison: It shouldn't take coronavirus to celebrate medical workers

While promoting their new Scrubs recap podcast Fake Doctors, Real Friends on Buzzfeed's AM to DM morning show, Braff and Faison discussed how doctors, nurses and other medical workers often didn't get the heroic credit they deserve. "This is a new level of hero," said Faison. "For a long time we idolized superheroes that wore capes and big emblems on their chests. It’s been a long time since we’ve given the medical profession the kudos that they deserve, and it’s unfortunate that it’s taken this for us to recognize that." Faison added: "Just being a fake doctor, that was for me overwhelming, so I couldn’t imagine being on the front lines just now." The actors hope that the coronavirus crisis will give a new appreciation for those sacrificing their health and safety in the medical profession. "We did this drama/comedy for nine years and the whole idea was to show the lives of these people and how hard it is and the love and dedication they put into it," said Braff. "So now more than ever we celebrate them and their heroism."

Zach Braff recalls Donald Faison giving Jeff Zucker a drunken noogie at Scrubs' first NBC upfronts

CNN president Jeff Zucker was then president of NBC Entertainment when he picked up Scrubs in May 2001. "Donald was going around giving everyone noogies, and I look over, and Donald has Jeff Zucker, the president of the network, in a full headlock,” Braff recalled on their Fake Doctors, Real Friends podcast. “He’s giving him a drunken noogie on his bald head and I hear Jeff Zucker go, ‘Please, Donald, no!'”