A Hospital Divided: 'Scrubs' Gets Political

It was an episode of Scrubs that felt like it was set in the world of All in the Family.

At least that's how Zach Braff explains "His Story IV," the seventh episode of season six, to former co-star Donald Faison on their podcast Fake Doctors Real Friends with Zach and Donald.

"All in the Family, for those of you too young to know, was a comedy that really brazenly took on politics and all of the issues of the time," said Braff. "When I was watching this episode of Scrubs suddenly get very political about the Iraq War I couldn't help but feel like (Showrunner) Bill (Lawrence) was trying to have a All in the Family moment."

The show's usual formula sees a bit of a shake up when Braff's "J.D." has a literal run-in with the fictitious hospital's Chief of Medicine "Dr. Bob Kelso" who takes over as the episode's narrator. One of Kelso's patients is an injured soldier from Iraq, a hot button issue when the episode aired in 2007.

"The main story line is 'Kelso' feels like the hospital is falling apart because of what he is witnessing," said Faison.

The debate over the war spreads around the hospital and almost grinds everything to a halt as doctors and nurses get so involved in throwing petty insults at each other they forget about their patients.

The conflict is finally resolved when "Kelso" gives the hospital a common enemy to hate in himself when he takes away the employee discount at the hospital coffee shop. Towards the very end, "J.D." returns to the hospital after being absent for most of the episode.

"I was in the park reading Iraq War for Dummies, Braff said laughing. "By the way, the janitor predicted where (Osama) bin Laden was. This was long before we knew where he was and the episode ends with him saying Bin Laden is in Pakistan."

"We were ahead of the game," Faison replied.

Despite the sensitive topic of war and politics, the hosts reflect on some of the episode's lighter moments, such as the return of the "Janitor's" salt and pepper shaker made out of a rabbit as well as the introduction of "Slagathor," a medical intern named "Debbie" who gets renamed by an indifferent "Kelso".

If you want to be sure you’re listening to the podcasts everyone else is checking out, iHeartRadio has you covered. Every Monday, iHeartRadio releases a chart showing the most popular podcasts of the week. Stay up to date on what’s trending by checking out the chart here. There’s even a chart just for radio podcasts here.