103: My Best Friend's Mistake w/ Bill Lawrence

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Donald Countersen. One two, No, Donald, go down, Donald go down.
That's not what I meant. Three two, Well, then that's
what you gotta say. You said, count asen. I thought
you were like Donald, count us down, there we go
because counting us in is you know, like the songs
about seven eight, right, exactly, so count our song, Donald,

(00:20):
I really don't want to anymore. Five six, seven eight.
You want fame, will fame costs? And right here's where
you start paying in sweat, Debbie Allen, fame the TV
show Thank you. Here's some stories about show we made
about a bunch of dots and nurses. And I said,

(00:41):
he that stories never so ye around here are yeah?
Around here? All right? Listen, we have m Donald. We
have our first we have our first real guests, Yes
we do. And I'm really excited about this. I don't

(01:03):
think there could be a more appropriate guest. Because he's
the reason that we're here. He's the reason we're friends.
He's the reason that this show happened, that so many
people across the world love, and it all came from
his brain. He's the reason why I'm in my why
I have a closet that I can stay in. Right Now,
he's the reason I have at this show. He's the
reason I have a desk, He's the reason I have
this water bottle. I always say that to our next guest,

(01:26):
jokingly but also seriously. Whenever I buy myself, even occasionally,
I buy him dinner and he's so grateful, and I say,
are you kidding? I can only buy you this dinner
because of you, ladies and gentlemen. The creator of Scrubs,
mister Bill Lawrence. Yeah, I pretended to not even be
in the frame, even though this is not a video thing. Hey, guys, know,
I wish we were recording so people could see that.

(01:47):
I want people. I want people at home to know
that even though we're not recording the video, Bill hid
on on the Zoom app and made an appearance. Hey,
that was two nice and of an introduction, because you
guys would have both done fine without me. I like that.
I can claim credit for your success and well being,
but um, you would have found your way regardless. Well

(02:10):
that's nice of you to say, but you definitely changed
both of our lives a lot and in a big way,
and also made something that very rarely happens. I'm finding
as I attempt to make TV shows and produce them,
and something that went nine years, and something that is
a global success. And I guess the first logical question

(02:32):
I wrote down in my notes is how did you?
Because I was listening to this, I want to know
how you came up with the idea? How did it?
How did it the seed come to you in the
first place. You guys both know there was a medical
advisor on the show named j D. And he's the
real j D, and he's my best friend in college.
He was a fuck up and h are we allowed

(02:52):
to curse on you? Bill go nuts? Let loose? He was,
He was a screw up. I went the other way
and I used to joke with him because he was
such a bad student that he went back to college
to go to med school a second time. I mean
to pre met a second times. We get into a
med school. I said, my biggest nightmare would be waking
up in an emergency room and having you standing over

(03:14):
me and going, hey, you're gonna be fine. And I
just thought that would be a good TV show because
we used to drink beers and used to talk about
how all these stories, especially the early ones, are ones
straight from his life. You know, worrying that his friends
sewed a piece of gauze up into somebody fallen into
love with a different girl in his residency program, and
he's now married to He's a real guy. It's more

(03:34):
relevant than ever because he has become the Kelso at
a Kaiser hospital in West Fields and he's there running
their COVID virus command center today as we speak. Yeah,
I saw that you tweeted something about that, So tell us, like,
because you're you must be. You're still best friends, so
you must be in contact with him as he's dealing
with all this COVID insanity. Right, Yeah, he's super pals.

(03:55):
He's a heart surgeon and a cardiologist. He still does
speaking in Gay sometimes the real JD, but he goes
by John so people. You know. He put out a
tweet the other day is saying, hey to all the
doctors and nurses you know that work with me. I'm
really proud, and I said, hey, is the real JD.
He married the real Elliott and he's out there fighting

(04:15):
the fight and it became viral and a news story
and stuff in our basketball game that Donald has played
in before, and in this episode you can see that
Donald can play ball. JD played in that game and
he tore his rotator cuff, so he can't be a
heart surgeon as much because it, you know, aggravates his injuries.
So he took the Kelso job the same way. Doctor
Cox took the Kelso job late in life, and he
runs the whole hospital in those fields. That said game

(04:37):
you speak Up is probably the roughest game I've ever
played in in my life. Jaws being broke, Noses Broke listed.
It's a bunch of dumb comedy writers too. Man, It's
oh my gosh, it's violent. It's serious. It's so it's violent, dude,
it's violent. It's it's a lot older now, Donald, we're all,
I mean, we're the old guys now, and there's a

(04:58):
wave of young My son plays Will and I sent
Zach a video of Will dunking the other day and
I was so excited about Yeah, Bill, send me a
video Will dunking. He's like, you have no idea how
proud this makes me? Donald Donald, Zack doesn't understand, as
I said, you know, it's like to see somebody dunk.
I didn't even get in response, as Zach's like, oh yeah,

(05:19):
he's thrown that round ball into the hook. If you
if you had send me that kid singing bring Him
Home from the name Is, I would have cried. You
would have lost your mind, lost your mind. Oh, by
the way, Zach, I am so proud of Will. Oh
my god. I would have had it on repeat. I
literally would have just been playing Will singing bring him Home? Bill.
When when you were younger, could you dunk? Did you

(05:41):
could not? You can? When I was younger, I could.
But when I was a lot younger, yeah, a lot
Donald Will does it? Will does it now aggressively. It's
pretty cool. That's awesome, Like on the spin, move on
the break. He can do it off the dribble, and
he can do it off And how are you he's
has trouble still gripping it. Why are you guys speaking
Latin right now? I have no idea. He tries, he tries.

(06:06):
I wanted to go back to j D for the
real j D for a second, because I remember back
in when we first started, he had a pager and
um and they would literally he'd be at the hospital
advising is So, just for those of you who don't know,
a medical advisor on the show is obviously showing us
everyone the extra is Donald and I all the doctors
how to how to look like we know what we're
doing and this is how you do this, and this

(06:27):
is what you'd be doing in this particular situation. And
this was still in the era of the facts machine,
and I remember j D would he'd be talking to
us and saying, yeah, hohold like that, do that, and
then he'd get a page and then he'd go receive
a facts and he'd look down at the facts of
someone's ekg and he'd be like, I should probably get
goo and yeah. You know, he used to joke about

(06:49):
that that he liked the gig with us so much
more than his real gig, you know, because he was
a grunt. You know, he was still I mean it
was out of residency, but you know he was slaving
away back then to pay off med school loans and
kind of being around Hollywood. You loved it. You know.
His wife would also uh cover for him when he
was when he couldn't be there, she'd come by and

(07:10):
you know, we'd run things by her. Speaking up this episode,
it starts off in the r and I remember thinking, oh,
this is gonna be awesome. I get to show my
dramatic face in the middle of surgery. It'll be just
like all the doctor shows that are on right now,
you know what I mean. And then we get there
and you're like, no, put the mask on me, put

(07:33):
the mask on. You're like, no, you guys, we have
to wear the masks now. I was like, wait, but
we're supposed to reacting. This is nearly and you were
like no, no, no, no no, no no, put the masks on.
And I do it with your eyes. And I remember
being like, okay, this could this is gonna be. This
is okay looking back at it now, we were other
than mash I think the first shows really to do that.

(07:54):
All of these other shows were doing surgery without the
masks on. And Donald It's a great point because you know,
JD is most proud of even though we took so
many liberties and we're goofy and stuff. It's been often
said that this for at least medical professionals, that this
was the most realistic medical show, you know, just on whatever.
I get that all the time, built and people on

(08:14):
my social media and everything will say and even I
think the American Medical Association said that, so so tell
us about that when you when you started, did you
I've always said and correct me if I'm wrong, that
you because the show is going to be silly and
go off in crazy tangents. That you said to your
writers and obviously a mantre to yourself that no, I
want the medicine to always be as accurate as possible.

(08:38):
We had to they, you know, they initially even before
I cast, you guys talked to about making that show
on a sound stage, and I'm like, man, this show's
gonna be so silly in so many ways. If it's
not in a real hospital, people are going to tell
it's fake. And so we used to have this board
of you know, we do all the funny fantasies and
jokes and silly shit, and then we had this board

(08:58):
of ways to make it real, you know, and one
of them. Donald was talking about. One of them the masks.
But you guys need to look competent, people needing to die,
the rooms to be grungy, and to not have as
saturated a look color wise. You know, we just wanted
we thought, like we made everything that wasn't funny real,

(09:18):
that maybe it would work. Going back and forth between
serious and goofy tone. You know, I heard Donald talking
about that in your other episode, about how the colors
didn't pop and everything look kind of dank and you know,
and disgusting intentionally when you came out, you were coming
off of Spin City for those of you who don't know,
But I was going to ask, should we go through
I mean, not that you want to sit here and
discuss your resume or anything like. Yeah, he would, he'd

(09:42):
love to. We gave a little story about what we
were doing before Scrubs and how our life changed before Scrubs.
I imagine your life changed. I remember the table read.
I'm just saying I would love to hear yea, we've
never heard like how. I mean, you were already successful,
You're coming off Spin City, but how you know, Donald
and I went on and on about how it was
such a shock to our lives. I mean, this was

(10:03):
your first hit show on your own. I mean, was
that a big change in your life? Yeah? You know
what I had had such a weird experience on Spin
City that I was partnered up with an iconic star
from my generation. You know, you guys were so kind
to Mike Fox when he came and guessed it on
the show. But that was such a surreal experience for
me writing for Mike. You know, it's like the back

(10:25):
to the guy that I grew up with, this particular experience.
Even before I met you guys, I was like, all right,
you can't have any expectations. There's no huge movie star
doing this. You guys have probably heard me say before.
I decided to treat this whole thing like, all right,
I wrote the script. No one's ever gonna make it.
They're gonna let me shoot the pilot. It'll never be on.

(10:46):
The show's gonna be on. It'll never last a whole season,
So I'll make the janitor an imaginary character, you know
what I mean. Oh, it lasts a whole season, it'll
never be on a season two. And so to me,
that kind of protected me. You know, I thought that
I was making something like Freaks and Geeks, you know,
that would be people would go, hey, that was really good.

(11:08):
And it got canceled after four episodes, and it was
surreal to me that it kept working. That makes sense
to you, guys. So I was really into the art
of it all. Like at a table read, I remember
just being so happy that everyone top to bottom was
so good, you know, and from what I had done,
not necessarily popping you know, jokes in a sitcom style

(11:29):
and playing it real. And I'm like, oh, this is
a show that I'd watch even though no one else will.
So yeah, I was resigned very early to the show
not being successful. It was very weird. I'd never asked
you this question, but be coming off of Spin City
and this was kind of the beginning of a big
single camera comedy craze for those of you don't know
the difference being sitcom traditionally a set in front of

(11:50):
a live audience and then a single camera we shoot
like a movie. Was there any pressure on you to
make this idea? You had a sitcom and did you
have to best thing that Spin City bought me was
the financial and professional security to what happens in television
often is you'll create a show. Hey, I'm going to

(12:10):
do a show about a young married couple and what
it's really like and I'm not going to compromise it
at all, and then you'll go sell it to a
network and when you come out, you're like, all right,
it's the same show. I mean, we have a kid
that's six that speaks like a thirty year old and
I do have superpowers now, but otherwise otherwise it's like
the exact same, right, And so with this show, when

(12:32):
I said, I was so convinced it to be a failure,
because like early on ABC, we're like, hey, that show
is interesting. Maybe the doctor Cox character should be married,
and we'll just it's a sitcom. We see him at home,
we see him at work. I'm again, I'm not going
to do that. It was never really an issue for
me because I was so convinced that this would never
work anyways. I just wanted to stick with what I

(12:52):
thought would be cool, you know, and what would work.
So there was a lot of pressure. The only thing
that this episode resonates in a huge way because the
president of NBC at the time was convinced that single
camera comedy shows weren't funny. Um and uh so I'm like,
I'm going to keep this show on by decorating it

(13:13):
with every bell and whistle I can. So this is
one of the last I think there's only a couple
more episodes after this that still have sound effects. Yeah,
that's something I wanted to talk about. As we get
we start going through the show. Just so we're clear, though,
who was the president of the network. Sucker, what was Sassa?
What was Sassa? Scott Sasa was very sassified, all right, So, uh,

(13:37):
this is built bill in an episode that we'll have
aired by the time. This here is because an episode
two we talk about the infamous time that Donald give
a nuggie to Jeff Zucker and he said please Donald, no,
and um and my, but my, I was I always
thought at the time, I thought that Jeff Zucker was
Scott Sasa's assistant. No, he was Scott sas Sassa got

(14:01):
shuffled out right as Jeff Zucker came in. Jeff Zucker
now run CNA. He's one of the most powerful guys
you know in the news world. Scott Sasa is claimed
to fame with me because there's always a disconnect with
executives that really didn't know how this worked. And what's
really interesting is if you look at the credits of Scrubs,
the only title and the writers that has writer next

(14:23):
to it is staff writer, which is the lowest rank
on the totem pole, and then the other writers on
the show, our story editor co producer things that don't
necessarily say a writer. And when I handed in the
first three scripts, you know, a showrunner always rewrites everything
on any show. We had a great writing staff, but
I was still doing that at Scott Sasa called me up.
He's like, I read the first three scripts and I

(14:45):
gotta say, those three staff writers you hired, because he
thought that was the whole writing staff with three people.
Those three straff writers you hired really nailed it and
really captured your voice from the pilot. I wanted to
be right. Well, first of all, they didn't because I
wrote the in the Secondly, secondly, those three staff writers
are all like twenty one and they've never worked on
a show before. Um so crazy man. And then he

(15:08):
shockingly got fired and uh Jeff Sucker replaced him right
before Donald kissed his head his head. Yes. Yeah, By
the way, you know what, we missed a good bit
of scrubs tribue. I got to say it. I forget it.
Do you guys remember Real j D's wife's name. She's
Elliott and real do you know her last name? Her

(15:31):
maiden last name her No, her maiden last name was
is Dolly Clock. I'm horrible at naming characters. Do you
remember a character on our show named Molly Clock That
was Heather Graham? Yes, wow you Yeah. By the way,
a lot of our fans bill On when we put
the first episode out, we asked the question, well, I
asked a random questions saying I don't even know what

(15:53):
sitcom set that was, and like my whole Twitter feed
was like answering that it was the Damon Wayne's show
having kids. There you go, so everyone probably you know
my favorite, my favorite part of this show and it's
not even the a storyline in this episode is the
clock the countdown. You could have made the whole show

(16:15):
about that. That was That could have been the whole show.
That's good. That's a good writer trick. You put an
imaginary ticking clock on something and everybody invest in it. Yeah,
that was clever. Wait before we get to the show,
I just want to ask another trivia thing of Bill.
I got so geeked out. I really did my homework
this week, and like, oh wait, before you go, I
want to tell Donald because he can look him up.

(16:37):
There's a picture of Donald and the surgeon he was
based on. Donald would be named John Turk because that's
the surgeon's name Button j D was already John, so
he became Chris Turk. There's a picture of you with
your arm around John Turk when he visited set once
and I'm not even sure who he was, remember him.
I remember when he came in visit. He was like,
I'm Turk and I remember him being white and me
being like, oh snap, Donald was like million not I'm Church. Um.

(17:10):
I want to just want to do one other bit
of a trivia that is that UM ABC passed on
the show. Yeah. So for those of you who don't
know UM, the show is produced by ABC Studios, and
ABC the network gets first crack at things if the
studio produces it. And our show ended up on NBC,
So tell us how that happened. The dude is a

(17:31):
true story and I'm not even gonna out him is
a nice man. When I pitched this show to the
people that ran the ABC network, Uh, one of the
dudes had a chair that you know, kind of blocked
you could lean back into that blocked the view of
his head. And about midway through the pitch, like a
bad guy, like a bad guy in a movie. Bad guy. Yeah,
and midway through the pitch we all heard audible snoring.

(17:54):
You'd had a night I think the night before, and
I was literally like, I don't think this pitch is
going that well. Guys like, I'm not sure this is
what you would call a sale in the room because
that the dude that the dude that buys is snoozing.

(18:14):
So they didn't buy it, and the guy that ran
ABC Studios said, you got to wait five months. But
then since they hated it, I'll say, hey, can I
have permission to go sell this somewhere else? And they'll
think it'll never sell, so they'll say okay, And then
I went and sold NBC. But it was why the
life of our show was so weird. We were one
of the only shows on NBC completely owned by ABC,

(18:39):
which is why time slot would me moved around and
not always protected and stuff. So it was it was
a weird business arrangement. I always wonder how that goes
in the TV landscape when like, you know, you hear
these stories of oh, every like everybody passed on Breaking Bad,
you know, and the guy at ABC who passed on Scrubs,
Like I just wonder if they if they fuck with
each other in the hallways, like good job, Tim. You

(19:00):
know the moment I had. There is a great guy
at ABC who ran it for a while and as
now a producer named Stu Bloomberg, and he ran into
me after our first year and he goes, you know,
I didn't he heard that pitch. He was there. He's like,
I heard that pitch and I didn't get it. Now
I get it. I feel like an idiot. And I thought, oh,
that's really cool. So it was. He was very nice
about at least he was mentioned he was not the
one that fell asleep. Yeah, will you tell us about

(19:22):
casting Turk? And um, you're just gonna get right into it. Well,
I literally have like hours of questions for Bill, but
I know we want to also do the episode, But
tell tell us about just you know about We obviously
want to know from your experience because we shared our
experience in the in the first episode, but your experience
of finding Donald. I was a Donald fan already. I

(19:43):
had seen Clueless, you know, and U I just thought
he was really funny and and and he killed all
his auditions and uh in the test part of it. Um,
you know, it's really interesting because I feel like I, um,
both hurt and then saved Donald in a way to
make myself look like a hero feel pretty cool about it,

(20:04):
which is, you know, the one thing I tell people
that don't understand what network tests used to be. It
literally used to be that you would come as an
actor and actress and stand in the head of casting's
office while twenty people were in the back sitting or
you know, leaning against the window judging you, and you'd

(20:26):
have one chance. If you're actually shooting the show, you'd
have twenty chances, but you'd have one chance to do
it not mess up, you know, and and also somehow
make a rim of people that all feel weird to
be standing in someone's office anyways. Laugh. So I used
to tell everybody, you know, the biggest curse in the
world is low energy. You know what I mean, because

(20:48):
if you come into those low energy everbody's gonna be like, oh,
this is horrible. And the one mistake I made with
Donald is if you tell Donald once you doll up
that energy to eleven, won't you make sure you dial
that energy up to eleven? Everybody h Donald, I mean

(21:08):
Donalds like, Hello Los Angeles. And he came in and
he thing he did, he did his audition and the
truth is he did crush all the comedy about what
he left. They're like, that guy's energy was fantastic and
he's really funny, but he very obviously can't do any

(21:30):
of the sincere or dramatic moments because he's an insane person.
And U and I'm like, no, no, no, you can
that's me. That's me. And they never do this. But
I had luckily been through the process before in a
different show, and so I went out to Donald and
tried to make it very grave because I wanted him
to come in then and just play the drama of everything,

(21:52):
you know, because I'm like, I told all of them,
I'm like, look, that's my note. And if he comes
back and does it the other way, you'll see you
can do whatever we want. It's a single camera show,
you know. And I went back to Donald and I'm like,
I think I said something like, all right, they thought
you suck shit. Yeah, those I thought you would come
to tell me, all right, you got the part. You
were like, so I'm walking. I remember skipping into the

(22:13):
room like here we go, here we fucking go, and
you were like So that really was horrible for them.
For them, that was too much. I think much is
the word um now, but the uh but then I
just we talked for a while and I'm just like,
just dial it down and now play it like it's
not a comedy and play the drama of it. Donald

(22:33):
came back in, and there's a compliment to his acting ability.
He came back in and then he did it as
if he wasn't looking for any laughs or energy, and
he walked out. I'm sure shook by doing it again.
And the second he walked out, the head of NBC
casting and got named Mark Hurstfeld was like, oh, I
see it totally. He's got it. Yeah, thank yeah, well,
thank you. Well. First of all, thank you very much

(22:54):
for being a hero and ste I'm not here. I
don't have the best bedside manner. You guys know that,
but it doesn't matter though. Man, you got the point across.
And look, dude, twenty something years later, I owe you
a lot. Bro. Well, I remember it's so intimidating. I
almost I think that may have been the first time
I ever made it to a network test and it

(23:15):
was down to four of us and literally everyone there
must have been thirty people crammed into a small office.
It was the most awkward environment to ever try and
do a good job. What was this for? This was
for Scrubs? Really? It was that guy Mark, wasn't it
Bill Mark? H Yeah. Everyone was crammed into his office
and I was very nervous, and Sarah was there to

(23:38):
read with me for her scenes. But I remember feeling
my adrenaline come up, like I was almost going to
have a panic attack, and I was like, not today. Well,
you know, you know, I cheated. Everybody cheats. I cheated
for the people I wanted to get the part. So
you guys both had extra lines and jokes and moments
that we had all come up with and found together

(23:59):
that other actors weren't doing right. And then when I
at the beginning, when I go in and talk to everybody,
I'm like, hey, I'm really into everybody bringing their own flavor.
And so some of these actors and actresses have stuff
that they've brought on their own and I let him
do it. But it's not true, you know what I mean.
It's just you two and Sarah had stuff that you
brought on your own that we let you do. Well,
I didn't. I remember the time, thinking that's so awesome.

(24:21):
He feels like he's rooting for me, but is he
doing that with everyone? Like I didn't you know that?
You know, I knew. I knew since then you've told
me that. But at the time I'm thinking, like I think,
I think, I think I might be his favorite, Like
I'm getting extra jokes the you know, the only one
that it's great trivia, the only one that we didn't
know what was going to happen, and we shifted gears

(24:42):
a little bit of like what are we gonna do
if this doesn't happen? It's fascinating and I'll when you
have them on the gut as a guest, I'll tell
you I wrote in the script like we were looking
for a John c McGinley type for doctor Cox. And
John came in and read it and was fucking he
was amazing. And then at the student he did something

(25:03):
completely different and high energy John and his intensity dial
had been dialed up like ten notches, and the reaction
of the studio was like, whoa, that is way too
And unlike with you guys, I wasn't even confident enough
to bring John back in and go, hey, you did
that wrong, because I feel like what would follow would

(25:24):
be a hard blow to the face, you know, Oh
my god, get off my neck, Get off my neck.
Um and uh. And so we had this giant level.
Me and the casting directors, you know, Brett and Debbie
were like, uh, oh man, who's it going to be
if it? Because for us it was John McGinley, And
we went into the network and just said just cross

(25:46):
your fingers. And he came into the network and did
it completely different without anybody having spoken to him. And
this the Johnny C dialed down ten notches and literally
walked out of there as if he with the thought
he almost said I got this as he left. It
was just so Johnny C. He was older. He did it,
and then I'm like you feel good? He's like cash,
see you? So was Johnny had so many expressions that

(26:13):
he would always say, we're talking about five good ones
and and cash and how he'd better now, how are
you doing better? Now? Better now? How are you doing
there's five good ones for you. How are you doing
better now? And then how he'd say to the editor.
We'd finish the scene and our editor's name was John Michelle,
and he go, well, we gave John Michelle some mamo,

(26:35):
some amo, I love that dude. Man, that's funny speaking
that you went out for like a Johnny C type
and everything like that. I find it so funny that
when that's almost like a gift and a curse when
they when they say that we talked about this in
the last podcast, you know what I mean when they
say we're looking for a Zach Braft type, they're not
looking for Zach Braft though, they're looking for a Zach

(26:56):
Braff They want they want Zach braff ish. You know what,
Although I think I thought it's different if like and
this is a compliment, like right now, both you guys,
you say Zach Bradford, Donald fays On, they're going TV star.
When I said John c mcginwiy type at the time,
it just meant a character actor, you know, with kind
of an intensity thing. It wasn't like he was a

(27:17):
household name, you know what I mean. So I don't
think it cursed him as much because there's no insult
to him. Seven out of ten people that read the
script or like, no, no, no, cool, who's John c mcginway,
you know what I mean? And so he didn't have
this yes, guy, you mean office space, But that's a

(27:39):
different guy. No, it's the same guy. No, that's not
the same guy. So uh now if you say John
c mcginway type, people are like, oh yeah, arms crossed,
super intense, you know, but that kind of didn't scary intimidating,
Oh scary, you know what I mean. And then we
were we were afraid of Bill in the beginning. But
then when we got like more, I never said that. Well,

(28:01):
you know, I did say one thing. I did say
one thing, and because of it, because of it, it
stuck with me for the rest of the fucking show.
And I said one time, I was like, you know,
Bill said to everybody. He was like, look, I'm gonna
write for all of you, whatever you do, just don't
come in my fucking office and say, how come I'm
not in the show this week. And so as a joke,

(28:23):
I went into his office. I was like, dude, I'm
fucking barely in the show this week. And he was like, oh, yeah,
you got phase on and that's stuck with me. But
do you remember phase Oh my goodness, I totally forgot
about that. So Donald did that and then for the
rest of the show, when you were when you were light,
when you barely had anything to do in the episode.

(28:44):
People are like, oh, man, I got phase on, I
got phase I remember the only two things I remember
like that, I remember phase and I remember even saying
to guest actors, um see if you guys remember this.
A guest actor would be like, I still don't think
I nailed that line. I'm like, dude, I don't have
time pet to Sarah one Morsey because Sarah she wants

(29:09):
one more when she's had seven five. Because Sarah, no
matter how many takes she did, like, she'd be like
the director would always be like, Okay, Sarah, you good.
Can we move on one more? One more? We'll be
like something so good about it. Confused guest actor's face
when I'm like, dude, I don't have time to Sarah
one Morsey right now, they thought I was speaking like

(29:30):
kling On. It is gibberish that that song had like
a nice hook to it. She wants one more when
she's had five. S Hey, you know what's interesting? I
can I remember something donald about someone choosing a take
in this episode. I wish I could remember who said.
It might have been um Neil Goldman because he was
up on set. But it's in the cut, and I

(29:50):
didn't have it in the initial cut, and he said
there's one take where Donald comes in and says, uh,
does as anybody seen my keys? How about my wallet?
And he says, how about my wallet? Like Chris Rock
my wallet? I literally went back to the cut and
I went back to the cut. Watch that, master, and
you're like, how about my wallet? Donald? Was that Chris

(30:14):
Rock inspired? I wanted to ask you, Now, it's probably
Eddie Murphy inspired, obviously, yeah, but it was how about there? Well,
there's there's that one. And the one that we used
to laugh at all the time from this episode is
I try to discover a Little Man. I remember we

(30:37):
laughed for days about that. You're really funny in this episode.
I wanted to say, yes, you are. Now that we're
talking about the episode, I was gonna say that we
can segue to the This is episode three My Best
Friend's Mistake, and first of all, as a show called

(30:59):
Our Stride, I feel like in this episode, now, the
next episode that's after this is My Old Lady, and
I think that's the third episode we shot, but this
episode aired before My Old Flip. I'm correct. Why Why
were Donald and I? You'll have the answer to this.
Both Donald and I forever have always said, oh, one
h three was the episode where we lose three patients,

(31:21):
and it was kind of like a good hitting our
stride moment. And then both of us this morning went
to go rewatch the show and we're like, oh, one
h three is not that? Did they twitch around? I'm
almost positive, but I gotta go look. The pilot and
the next one or two were directed by Adam Bernstein. Yeah,
I can help you out because Joel, our amazing producer,

(31:43):
made a note here that she said, I read this
was originally supposed to be episode two, this one. It
wasn't that as much is because we fixed that in
scripting stage. They wanted me to repilot and I wrote
episode two that you guys talked about. And then Adam
didn't want to go away for a week and come back,
so he was directing two episodes in a row. I

(32:05):
think we crossboarded even a little bit. I can't remember,
off to check. And then Mark Buckland directed The Mild Lady.
After this, even though it was the third episode. We're
going to split him out because Adam wasn't coming from
New York and even though we were gonna go you're
going to direct the first episode. In the third episode,
he's like, yeah, I'm not flying home and coming back.
I'll do all the prep before and do him, you know,

(32:25):
because he's a quirky character. So then we say, so
this day, I've tried to get him to come do
with other things in the years since, and he's like,
I don't really like to leave New York. Donald smart
because we did catch our stride with two things. And
I'll see if you guys that we used to have
this big wall of things that we were trying to
establish his motifs for the show, and this one was

(32:48):
we had a super long discussion. The reason we did
that runner about how important music was going to be
in this show. And so we're like, we're even going
to make a song travel around this show like a virus,
and you know that'll be the start of how queuing
people in that music isn't just background on this show.
It has huge importance. You know. The song that we chose,

(33:11):
I'm So in love with you, you know, just give
me able to it was it was specifically about what
was going on in those scenes. It wasn't just a
viral song. And we were trying to train people to go, oh,
I'm supposed to listen to the words of the song too,
because they're about what we're actually doing. And then the
second thing, this is why it was important that Bernstein
was there, was when we first discussed that the camera

(33:32):
is a character. And it's the first time we did
a cowboy switch. When Zach's running to meet Elliott, that
a stunt man dives and takes a face plant, and
the camera doesn't just cut It goes around looking for
him like it's like it's an actual character, you know,
and then Zach cuts up like this. Yeah, And so
there was a thought bubble you could have almost looped

(33:53):
in the camera, going where'd you go? And and so
those two things kind of set a creation, of course
for the show in ways that you know, we kind
of ran with after this. Yeah, I didn't remember this
one so much. And then as I was watching and
I was going, wow, there was there's a lot in
this episode that are little moments that stuck with me forever,

(34:13):
like the friend zone and and the timer and the
creative timer clock thing every time I see Sarah and
and Donald. Uh. You know, there's a lot of things
that were that were used throughout the show too, that
that are established here, like it's the first time we
see Donald playing basketball, and and you look very good
down you look very fit. I wish I could get

(34:34):
back into that shape. You can eat too much shit. Well,
twenty six years old body compared to a forty six
year old body is a big, big, big, big difference. Man. Well,
I I really I took notice that you looked fire. Well.
I accept and received that, and so did Rob Mashio,
like Rob ye any black hair? Uh the uh the

(35:00):
I gotta tell you, man. So this is one of
the things I get mocked for. Why this episode stuck
in my head was we all have those things, like
remember when you share something with friends that you wish
you hadn't or or you're drunk and you say something
to it's a shiver story. When you think back, you're like, oh, yeah,
so Donald was getting a nuggie to Jeff Zucker. Yes,
so one of mine, And in writer's rooms you tell

(35:22):
personal stories. Was in a fraternity Really I was in
a fraternity. Yeah no, I was, And uh you were
in a fraternity? Yeah no, I swear Okay. In college
we were all drinking and hanging out and I was
a little buzzy, and I had a hometown girlfriend, and um,

(35:44):
you really think you can go and you care that
much about her? And I said, and it haunted me
for the rest of the year. They tortured me. I said, dude,
I miss you so much it hurts sometimes. And that
became one of the memes from this show because the
mental I gotta tell you of all the memes and

(36:05):
and anything I get, gifts I get sent um, I
miss you so much it hurts sometimes, is one of
the most common. And it's also, by the way, the
core of how to use you know, I said, Look,
voiceover can be a crutch comedically because it's so easy.
And when I teach, like the Writers Guild, they're like,

(36:26):
what do you mean how, I'm like, well, the easiest
way is to state a premise in your voiceover and
then do the opposite. An example is just tell Turk
how you feel without sounding like you know a girl
for once. I miss you so much it hurts sometimes.
Another one was when Elliott had the voice over or
uh is when Kelso spilled stuff on his face. Whatever

(36:48):
you do, do not say the word splotchy. And I
think Jade, I think you just said good splotchy, doctor
splotch instead of why would you even say good spot
That's not even a word good anyways, all right, so
I wanted to say at forty nine seconds in as
my first Muppet exit that I ever did in the

(37:10):
show scrolls, which which I always thought of, was when
I when I would just turn my head. I always
always laughed at how Kermit the Frog and all the
Muppets with Sesame Street characters would always turn and then
and then walk out. Yeah, so I U when I
when I leave the viewing room here, I sort of
do a side turn and I just kind of laughed.
I think that was the first time I tried out

(37:31):
my successful Muppet exit. Also ever, yeah became well it was.
It was a go to bill. At one to eleven,
there's an exterior shot of the hospital that has never
ever seen again, I don't think, And I noticed that
it says something about women's on the top of it. Yeah,
paint it out. We didn't have the budget at the
time to be painting or to be painting things out.

(37:53):
But it's funny watching the early episodes, there's like it
looks like you guys were it looks like someone was like,
do we have an exterior shot at the hospital? Nah?
How about that one? All right? Well we went and
shot a bunch of stuff that we used in the pilot,
and then once we ran out of that stuff, we
just started shooting it to their own building, right. But
this one was this, This was not because it says
women's something at the top. Yeah, No, it was particularly bad.

(38:15):
There's a lot of bad stuff in here, guys. Mate.
You know, I always get shipped for that because I'm
always like, you, guys, remember my favorite thing to say
when we're so busy is I'll take all I'll take
all the mail on that. Okay, So someone like an
editor would come up and go, that says women's and
I'm like, when the letters come and there are thousands
of them are going to come, Dear Scrubs used to

(38:35):
be a huge fan, But that hospital exterior said women's
on it. You can send all those letters to me.
I'll take all the mail. And it was such an arrogant,
dicky thing to say, but I just never got caught up. No,
but it's true because if they're looking at stuff like that,
they're not really watching the show, you know. What I mean. Yeah,
Bill would always said that when we when we were
like when we were all holding up for something like
you're you're in the wrong, you're wearing the wrong watch.

(38:56):
Bill would be like, guys, I'll take all the mail
on the wrong watch. Let's say that. And then the
meanest thing that you could say is to say to
John Inwood all the time was he would make you, guys,
wait while he went and fixed a light, you know,
a way in the background. Take it ten minutes. And
when he finally got back to camera, I always go,
show Saber, you know, we were in real trouble and

(39:19):
you fixed it with that light that's one hundred yards
in the background. Yeah. Well, the man was passionate. He
wanted to get it just perfect exact. That was also
the episode was also not only your first Muppet exit.
I wish I had a wider frame, but the first
time that when you got up from following that you
shook out your shoulders. Oh really that ocame. Thanks, I'm
frozen in a frame here at two minutes of me

(39:41):
in a threesome fantasy with Sarah Shaw and another beautiful
model and we're all sweaty, and the first thing that
came in my head, was could you even do that
today on a half hour single camera network comedy. Not
that because it was pretty suggestive and graphic risque. Sure,
that was so awesome by way, like host of My

(40:03):
job right right. Well, first of all, it was so
awesome because that's everybody's fantasy to get married and for
your wife to be like, yeah, we could do this,
it's gonna be It's also it's one of the best
outtakes ever. Do you remember that one outtake where Zach
was like, yeah, I keep kissing when they don't stop.
Remember that. I remember something being like I was like,
I know, I think I was like keep rolling. Yeah. Look,

(40:28):
I've had this discussion a lot. There's tons of things
on our show you couldn't do now, correctly or incorrectly,
Like the Todd is an interesting one, you know, and
we used to say, uh, like the Todd started in
a way. I don't know if you remember he was
always in a banana hammock because I said, if we're
gonna do a young man's fantasies and see women's scantily clad, um,

(40:51):
I think we have to see as much, if not more,
ridiculous male nudity and so Todd would just always be
in a banana hammock um uh. And he was representative
of somebody intentionally, so crass are so ludicrous that he's
to be laughed at and not with, But unfortunately I
think he was laughed with a lot. Um So I

(41:13):
don't know if you could do him now. The one
things I always get busted on or two storylines. One
is when the janitor turned j D into a racist,
and one is when I put Donald's picture on the
cover of his college magazine twice. Do you remember when
I said, like, your college was so happy to have
an accomplished, great black guy that you know in their

(41:36):
lily white school that on their brochure, your your pictures
there twice. That yeah, they photoshopped you in twice just
to look like a PC college. You know. Well, I
noticed that. I noticed that. There are a lot of
things and this is just how how time has gone.
First of all, the show's about sexual harassment, which is
very uh. This episode is yeah, because I was so dominant.

(41:59):
Right now, one of Hollywood's biggest movie makers is now
in jail for doing horrible, horrible, horrible things. Right, but
we're touching things like that that are kind of untouched,
like you can't touch these things now, these things that
we were doing in the show back in the day,
some of these things, networks would be like no, no no, no, no, no, no,
let's stay away from that, Let's stay away. They'd be

(42:20):
so careful. I think, as Bill said, for some for better,
we've we've evolved and we probably wouldn't make some of
those jokes today, and in some I wonder if and
this example, with the sort of sexual, sweaty threesome fantasy,
I'm just surprised Bill that you got it. I mean,
I knew you wanted to push the envelope of what
the show could be. I'm just I just wondered, like,
even in now in twenty and twenty if a in

(42:42):
a primetime network comedy, if you could do a sweaty
sex threesome joke. No. Look, I want to answer two things,
because what Donald was saying, you know, it is interesting.
We talked about it a lot because I don't know
if you remember in this episode the resolve is that
would have been a completely different story if doctor Cox

(43:04):
or younger male was calling Sarah sweetheart and the boy's
sport but we were kind of anticipating stuffing. We talked
about it. Kelso was of a different generation. He was
older than all you guys he called. He was definitely
an old school dude. You can never say these things
are innocuous, but it was a time in which at

(43:24):
the end John c McGinley talks to Sarah and goes,
if you're going to get mad about some quasi term
of endearment, you know from an old out of touch dude,
you know your life here is going to be a
lot more complicated than it has to be. And she
took the lesson of picking my battles, you know. So

(43:45):
to Donald's answer, I think it's a story you can
maybe still do if you're talking. Although we've now moved
twenty years away from that. At that time we were
going like, hey, here's a guy in his mid to
late sixties. You know that is without a doubt, of
a generation. I got so much trouble when he Kelso
said to a male nurse, you know, oh, you're wondering

(44:05):
why you don't get respected, It's because you're doing a
woman's job. And our intent was that Kelso is so
out of touch that he would say that you know
what I mean. And then the complaints I got from
Nurse's Association, got letters and stuff true, were how could
you have a character saying that when it's such a
problem that characters that people out there, especially from that generation,

(44:28):
believe that and say that. I'm like, right, it's real.
He's the bad guy on the show. And there's a
nursing shortage like don't discourage people. Yeah, he's the bad
guy on the show. He has those thoughts, and in
a good way. I think Kelso evolved and into Zach's question.
It comes all under the heading and it's not just
with those two girls, which was a joke and obviously

(44:49):
a joke about some you know, young male fantasy, but
this is for both of you, and for Sarah and
for Judy. When I said the show has to be
real beyond the goofiness. What we fought about more than
jokes was about when we would have sex scenes, you know,
and it was really important to me, not in no
as sibious way that they seemed. They didn't seem like

(45:11):
a TV sitcom kiss where everybody goes whoo. And some
of the romance scenes between Zach and Sarah and Donald
and Judy and even Johnny C and my wife, which
still turns my stomach a little bit because I had
to see it. Did I had to kiss Christa so
early and I was still in the terrified of Bill

(45:32):
Phays and um it was an early episode I don't know,
which was probably five or something, and I had to
make out with Krista, and I remember being like, this
is the craziest job. I'm about to make out with
my boss's wife for him. I still had that on
a loop at my house. It's awesome soon. No, yeah,
it means super sexy. I'm really grateful. Oh my gosh, no,

(45:59):
but it is. Did you did you guys think you
were doing fairly racy sex scenes? The two absolutely throughout
the whole joke. I mean, I can't remember that big
famous one that Sarah and I did with the pizza.
I remember that being like, I can't believe they're gonna
put even put this on TV. This is gonna be censored,
and all my stuff with Amy Smart, I remember being like,
they're gonna air this, like I was really excited about

(46:23):
and not in that way, but like when Judy and
I would do scenes together, I was it really felt
like we were a couple when watched when I watched it,
you know what I mean, because that's how I don't
know that there was just something that was really uh uh.
She and I had great chemistry, I feel like and
because of that, and because of that, I uh, you

(46:46):
know when I watched her stuff. That's that's what everybody
hopes for when they do romantic stuff, that the audience
believes it. And if the audience doesn't believe it, well
hopefully I believe it, you know what I mean. And
I liked you guys. I like you guys. Is no
offense because I love Zach and Sarah. But my favorite
couple on the show, Donald and Judy because as a

(47:07):
writer's room on a glasshem the writer's room. One of
the things we put on those boards in the first
couple of weeks was we're gonna get Turk and Carla
together and never break them up and never threatened them
and uh, you know, because we're gonna do will they
or won't they with the other characters and how cool
is it to see a couple that finds each other
and works right And the only reason we ever even

(47:29):
had you guys have a little dip here there as
a couple was because we never expected the show to
last nine years, and we had to be like, we
should probably throw a couple of curveballs there a way, man,
you know we need them. Looking back at it now,
it's the it's perfect as a young man doing you
know who's on a television show? Like I used to

(47:49):
be like and were gonna have Holly Berry on the
show as my love interest? And those things could never
ever happened. Were you bummed out? Not that it was
Judy because she's a knockout, but were you all my
love I know? But where you like where all my
love interests? Yeah? Absolutely, man, But when you look back
at the storytelling, when you look back at at at
the relationship that those two have, Like I can't post

(48:11):
pictures of my wife and I because people are like,
that's not Carla. Yeah. I get hit by the way
most pictures of me hugging anyone because they're like, why
aren't you hugging turk? Right? That's that's the other one
that comes up. I'll be like, here's a lovely picture
of me and my family and they're like, that's not
where's j D? Where's that? Braf? People? People hit me
all the time too with how and we tried to

(48:33):
do it you and Judy reacted. You know, TV is
a world in which a wife has her hands on
her hips and is frustrated with a husband or the
husband's like, you know, you're crazy. And even when we
sent you guys in crazy stories. One of my favorite
scenes was in a later episode, but when you guys
find out Judy's pregnant before she does, and you're gonna

(48:53):
tell her and everybody knows her and know the cool
thing about your characters is that you when when it
comes to a comedic peak, and we did this a lot,
you admit fault and then she, instead of punishing you
for it, says, I, who gives a shit? We're having

(49:14):
a baby, you know what I mean. And that's not
often how real couples work. So it was a couple
to aspire to, right, I thought, looking back at it now,
I love it, like just the even the courtship, even
how the show starts and how these guys start offs.
You know they're not together, but if you didn't watch
the show from the beginning, you would imagine that when
the show was introduced, these characters started off to you

(49:38):
know what I mean, Like you watch Family Guy and
you and you say, okay, so Peter's married to and
this is his family and this is and you accept
that the whole way through. There's no need for an
origin story or anything like that. And that's why I
feel it is with Carla and Turk, there's no need
for an origin story. They're just a TV couple that works,
you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, I was. I

(49:58):
was thinking about this because get taken it back to
the episode, like the way Zach was doing cool things
in freezing frames. I was trying to remember Minusia for
you guys, and the only the Turk and Carlo Minusha
I remember was the scene in which you two are
going to hang out and watch Fletch and then Donald leaves.

(50:19):
It was very subtle. We added, It's one of those
discussions you have in the writer's room. It's like Donald's
psyched to watch Fletch and Carlo says, do you want
to go hang out in your room? We don't want
just Carla to go do you want to go? Fuck?
Because that makes her seem like a bimbo, And we
don't want Turk to just you know, be like I'll
drop j D in an instant. So like the dumb

(50:41):
things you argue about in writer's room, you won't even
notice unless you watch it again. Did you see that
Carlo was holding two beers? So like when she goes
to you go look at again, she goes, you're watching Fletch,
you know, And it's funny when we do all the lines,
she goes, hey, you want to go hang out in
your room? And she's got So it's not with the
women in the writing staff very right. We wanted to
make it. Oh, we're not just gonna go fuck. I
mean we will eventually, but she's got two beers. So

(51:03):
it's like, do you want to go out your room,
we both have a beer, we'll shoot the shit and
then we'll hook up. And that fine line I think people,
as me being a nerd, I think people, even if
they don't notice that it's subtext, that they if you
do a ton of it, they gradually notice that it's
more than just physical. That's seen also, Zach d And
you can hand it back to you, but you had.

(51:24):
One of our other first arguments was we constantly fought
in the writer's room, and I made huge mistakes as
we went along about things that should be a fantasy
and shouldn't. And this was one of the first arguments
because when Carlos is, do you want to go hang
out in my room? We look to you and when
we look back, the remote control is still hovering in
the air. Yeah, and it drops and it's very bugs bunny.

(51:47):
And it was not done as a fantasy, you know
what I mean? And you already did you always this
early have the sort of white flash to a fantasy? Always? Yeah,
we were. We were making the rules still, but we
hadn't done the sound effects because we were just starting
to obsess about the difference between fantasies and flashbacks. Well,
you know, one of the funniest things I think in

(52:07):
throughout nine years of Scrubs is that Bill was always
dancing around what is so broad that's that it's a
fantasy or what could exist in this world? And there's
a There's two that come to mind is my favorites
that he put in the real world, but we're probably
supposed to be fantasies. One one is when when Donald
packs me into the bag, it was literally, it was

(52:31):
literally the size of a fucking bowling back. Sorry, it
was a backpack, and I was like, and if you remember,
my arm and leg were sticking up like my body
never had I had a fake foot by your head.
And then so when he scratched your nose, that was
real and in the real world. And the other one

(52:52):
is that the janitor builds a full size house out
of sand in the barking lot, and that was in
the real world. That the all right, the sand castle
is not my fault because the sand castle, the gag,
you know, it was written like it was real in
the script, and we thought it would be a sand
castle like the size of like you ever see a
kid's playhouse like outside, something you could actually build and

(53:14):
are When I showed up, I drove, I tried to
drive to my parking spot that morning, and the parking
lot was closed. I remember gone, oh, rounded the part
and there was like a final tap there was a
sand castle as big as my home. I'm like, oh, no, well,
that's we can't say it's a fantasy, because I think

(53:36):
he lived there. For most of the episode. He kept
yelling at people. Those are the two that always stuck
out in my mind as one, and I'm sure as
we go through the series we'll find other ones, but
I remember thinking, like, oh my god, that one in

(53:56):
the bag was in the sand castle. Ye mistake. So
listen to twenty five. We were talking about how you
phased out In this episode you were you went nuts
with sound effects and there's there's literally a horn noise
when Johnny for fucking when you and Jady eventually do Yeah,

(54:17):
I mean this episode, this, this might have been your
peak sound effects moment as you're figuring out, oh no,
there's another one coming. I know there's another one coming,
but this one has this one has the ear flick
noise and also pretty much like any time Johnny c moves.
You guys did the trivia question of Jeff's you know
the Powers that Be And you know it's hard to

(54:38):
screen rough cuts some single camera shows because they wouldn't
hear the laughs of all their friends and Will and Grace.
Is this funny? And I thought it was funny. I
hated those sound effects so much. Did you guys do
the trivia question of the one sound effect that stayed
all nine years? It's got to be the wish to
go away into fantasy? Yeah, no, wish to fantasies, though,
is not a sign effect with an actor. There's an actor,

(55:01):
Oh Todd high five? Who there you go, Todd's high
five being amplified times nine thousand. I think it's I
think that's the sound of like a rubber matt being
slapped on the ground, which you know, and we kept
that one forever. That's funny. They really hurt, by the way.
I mean, come on, John, I'm not being a whimp.

(55:21):
They genuinely hurt. No one's calling you a whimp. But
come on. He still passes out fives, you know on
a line to people. I know you can. You can
go on Cameo. By the way, we'll give robo shout out.
You can go on Cameo and Rob Maschio will send
you a message and high five you virtually. And uh go,
go hire a rob to give your friends a virtual
high five. On count I kind of want to get

(55:44):
one for Donald. I'll accept and receive it, thank you
very much. Three twenty six, The janitor says, one of
my favorite lines of the first season. You see him unhappy.
I like that I had forgotten that you lock you
outside and was talking about Neil for a second bill
because we told we shared with the with the listeners.

(56:04):
The story about how you know he wasn't intended to
be in your mind as big a role as he
was or and and of course everyone always discusses that
he may have been a figment of my imagination if
if the show only went one season, but just talk
about Neil and how you kept expanding his part because
he was just so freaking funny. I have a question,
did he have to audition? Also, that's the other question.

(56:25):
He did not have to here here's here's what happened
is Neil does a stand up bit when he's interviewed
because he's a really good actor. I don't know if
you guys have ever seen him any of his dramatic stuff.
In the middle, he was the theater and he's so good. Yeah,
and he came in and read for John mc for
doctor Cox and um, he was really good. But literally
there because we were old buddies, I'm like, you're gonna

(56:46):
be the janitor and uh. And so when he talks
about it, he's like, so I really prepared and I
came in and then build it. I'm gonna be the Jane.
And when Neil does the bit, Neil's like, well, I
still carry around like a clipboard and a stuff mop
carry around a mop. He well, I get to wear
one of those cool lab jumpsuit. Gray jumpsuit. Oh, he

(57:08):
would get so mad. Neil would that it wasn't a jumpsuit.
He goes, it's it's a gray shirt and pants. It's
not a jumpsuit. I'm sorry. I always thought that his
character was like the worst janitor in the world, But
when you watched the show, he's always working and he's
always doing his job. He was never lazy, you know
what I mean. He was drunk most of the time.

(57:31):
As one of my favorite lines ever, have you been drinking?
I'm not drunk. Nah. So look, JD, the real j
D told me often when he was talking about it,
there would always be somebody as there's any group dynamic.
When he was a resident, we just plague him, you know,
it wasn't always a janitor or whatever. So I wanted

(57:51):
to come up with that character for you, and I
thought it would be a line here or there. But
Neil was so funny man and such a gift just
to have around. And he's you know me, whenever I
think someone's funny in their buddy yet put him or
hurrying as much as I possibly can, so he became
more and more of a character in ways I never thought.

(58:12):
And part of the joy for me of going back
and look at these episodes not only seeing moments like
that Zach that I know Neil made up. You know,
like even in this episode, you're screaming and the line
in the script is la la la, I can't hear you.
But then I kept it in because like, that's one
of the first times that I looked in editing. And
then there was Neil going, what you love who you know?
I mean, just playing around with you, you know what

(58:35):
I mean. I remember the scenes with Neil would always
be so fun because you know, we'd all riffer around,
but Neil was the best at it, and and you
just never knew what he was going to say. And
I just remember I always knew I was going to
laugh extra hard because he would just come up with
the craziest shit ever. I was randomly down the wormhole
of getting ready to talk to you. To you guy,

(58:56):
by the way, the end of my other sentence was
one of the gifts for me. The show go on
and evolved, some stuff got worse as a writer, you know,
like when you say, I torture myself when I got
too broad and stuff like that. But then some stuff
got better, characters got richer, And last night, randomly, I
was watching Neil interact with Donald, you know, I mean,
I don't know if you remember when he had a
sock puppet. He's like, he pretended to hit you with these,

(59:20):
and your dynamic with him was so funny as well.
You know, it was cool to see him start to
interact with other characters. But the wormhole I ended up
with last night and everybody should go look for it.
There's a scene with Sam Lloyd who plays Ted, and
Zach and Neil and you guys are trying to help
Neil with a girlfriend. You know, he's trying to the

(59:43):
girl that played the ukulele Kate mccochie cooch. You're trying
to get him to go for it with her. And
I told Neil, I'm like, you gotta make up something
of what you did with your girlfriend. And Neil, Zach,
we used your real reactions. He made up a monologue
about killing a d for her. It's not in the script,
and I watched it last night. He goes, he starts,

(01:00:05):
and he goes, he goes, look, you should give her
a present, um, like, something personal, something you made. Like
when I first started dating lady, I gave her a
duck that I killed already already a weird premise, right,
And then he said, uh, I know what you're asking.
Wouldn't have been more personal to kill her in front
of her? And yes it would have, which is also
made up. And then he goes, but the duck and

(01:00:27):
I were driving over and uh and he goes, he goes,
maybe I was having a bad day, maybe he was.
I don't know. But next thing you know, we're pulled
over on the side of the road, shirts off, which
meant the duck was wearing her shirt. He goes, next
thing you know, we're pulled over on the side of
the road, shirts off, you know, seeing what's what? So

(01:00:48):
Neil described a scene that he beat a duck to
death on the side of the freeway. Yes, and I'm like,
that's why that guy's in the show so much. Man.
I said, hey, come up with something that you did
for your girlfriend, and he's like, what he's probably looking
for is that I beat a duck to death for

(01:01:08):
her and then brought it over so she could cook it.
See it also he would also just come up with
the craziest ship and to the point where in later episodes,
in later seasons, Bill sometimes it would just say in
the script, it just and then Neil makes up something. Yeah, Neil,
please say something funny. So late I guess it was
one script. I guess it was late night in the
writer's room, Bill, and you're like, we're not going to

(01:01:28):
do that, just putting Neil said something funny. Yeah, dude,
I wrote that in the script at the first time.
I'm like, Neil, it's two in the morning, just say
something funny. And the next day he did. Of course.
You know, I liked it the most when I got
to see him with you guys or with Sarah actually
having a real moment, you know, because it's so cool
that he could actually deliver, you know, absolutely. That's the

(01:01:49):
interesting thing as we you know, as a show goes on,
you start to see people's first one on one scenes together,
and so in this episode, John c McGinley and Sarah
have their first real one on one scene where she's
asking him for advice. And at this point, we as

(01:02:10):
an as an audience member, we think that JD and
John C McGinley are the only ones that you know,
that's the only dad son relationship, but he was actually
a dad to all of us in this show as
far as you know what I mean. And this was
the first episode where we see Sarah and him and
actually him mess with Sarah in a way that could

(01:02:30):
have gotten her fired, you know what I mean. I
just thought that's I thought that was very interesting because
eventually you have to introduce everybody, even though it took,
you know, a whole season for everybody to meet the janitor,
for the janitor to do other scenes with, for Neil
to do other scenes with everyone other than Zach. It
was just it's just interesting because when the show starts off,

(01:02:51):
it seems like the bubble is so small, you know
what I mean. And it starts with JD's relationship with everybody,
but then as it goes on, the bubble just kept
getting bigger and bigger and bigger. It's a great metaphor
and by the end of it, we're all in the
same universe together. And this is also the first episode
where the hospital gets really wacky all of a sudden,
you know what I mean, Like we weren't whacky before that.

(01:03:12):
Before this, we were you know, even though it's episode three,
we started. This is where we're starting to do things
that later on I think, you know, I love it
when you jump from episode one or two and you
jump all the way to episode you know, season three,
episode five, because the growth of the show is so different,
you know what I mean. I think about it in

(01:03:33):
terms of characters, Like, What's one of the things that's
hard for me to watch about the early episodes is
Ken Jenkins is such a good actor, and he was
the bad guy on this show, and I had not
yet realized how deliciously silly and funny that guy could be.
You know, that guy is a comedy assassin. But he

(01:03:56):
was so good at being a guy that you just hated,
you know what I mean, And we leaned into that
and he didn't have any other levels. So it's so
cool when he expands, you know what I mean, to
see that you know that he's silly and funny, that uh,
Johnny c can be kind here there, that Donald and
the janitor can go back and forth at each other,
but beyond different playing fields because Donald's not threatened. Brian,

(01:04:19):
It's it's weird to see you guys all at the
beginning because I did like the rich characters that you
all became very much. You know, I love it. Bill.
We take a caller here on our show and it
looks like side by the way, I just thought it
was a super villain because it is us as a

(01:04:41):
as a gentleman. That is, he's got a cat for
you guys listening at home. His picture came up on
zoom and he's petting a cat, like like the evil
genius you all are enjoying talking about your show. Well,
I have bad news, that's what um. All right, well,
go ahead and introduce him. Yes, Hi, Mark, thanks so

(01:05:03):
much for joining us. Hi everyone, how are you? Can
you hear me? Yes? We can? You just fine? Margin
my first ever zoom meeting. I've never done this. I'm
glad it's working. I'm glad you're here. Well, Mark, you
picked a good episode to beyond because you have the
creator of the whole show, Bill Lawrence. So if you
have a question for any of us, go ahead. Oh well,

(01:05:23):
hello Bill Lawrence, and hello all of you. That's awesome.
It's so glad to be. Where do you live, by
the way, I live in Chicago, on the northwest side
of Chicago. Up in Avondale, old urban Park area. Shout town,
stand up. We're just talking about Neil Flynn. That's where
that's the area of the world that he is from.
My friend really Oh, but not your specific area. But

(01:05:44):
he's from Chicago. No, but he was like downstairs right now.
No no no, no, no, I mean you could be all right,
go ahead, Mark, all right. Even from the earliest episodes,
Scrubs wasn't afraid to raise social issues and took a
clear stance that I thought prioritized like well being of
people over the economics and insurance bureaucracy. I felt like
this helped a lot of young people, myself included, start

(01:06:06):
thinking about the human side of healthcare and healthcare like
as a human right for the first time, and sort
of some of those more serious issues. So I was
just wondering if you guys were called any specific moments
from production episodes or moments on set that might have
changed or influence the way you guys have you the
sort of work done by your characters, or just sort
of the healthcare system as a whole. All that's Donald

(01:06:27):
and Zach answer this for the show. I will tell
you I've been thinking about this a lot lately, Mark,
because the real j D and my pal we were
both kind of screw ups with a lot with very
little direction as young guys. And I remember asking him
what the hell he was doing going back to pre
med and he talked about wanting to be of service,

(01:06:49):
you know, and his viewpoint right now, you know, not
to make this two point. Yet I face time with
him every night when he gets off work because he's
run of the COVID command centers on the whole ICU
for those hospital as we spoke about, and it helps
him decompress and not take that stuff into his family.
And he as a caregiver cares so much more about

(01:07:10):
the humanistic side than any of this other bullshit. And
he instilled that upon me, and he said we could
steal all of his stories, but we could never have
a callousness. He said, he was only interested in me
stealing his stories and his life and his name. If
the undercurrent of the show was that it was about

(01:07:31):
a bunch of people flaws and all that cared most
about helping and taking care of other people. So that
was part of the series. And I'll we have the
rest to Donald and Zach. That's cool. That you asked that,
because I think about him every day. He's out there
doing stuff much more important of courts and and and
it's the perfect question for this era, Mark because these
these medical professionals and everyone who's working in the industry,

(01:07:54):
whether you're a doctor, a nurse, or a janitor, a medic,
everyone who in this environment is as as the world
is finally seeing in the spotlight how heroic these people are.
And I think I always felt when we were making
this show that Bill was really shining a light on
how dedicated these folks were and how they had to

(01:08:17):
deal with life and death every single day. One thing
that really stood out for me when you when you
asked your question was the I remember learning that the
nurses really run the show. I hadn't spent much time
in a hospital when we started making Scrubs, and I
learned that the doctors can't do it without the nurses,
and the nurses are the ones who are on the

(01:08:39):
front lines, and the doctors have to be rotating, and
they can't do anything without the help of amazing nurses.
It wasn't until I spent more time in hospitals with
both my father and my sister, getting sick that I
really this was after Scrubs, but I remember being like, wow,
this is everything we were doing is so real. I'm
witnessing it on the front lines that we see that
doctor like every now and then, but man, these nurses

(01:09:01):
and when we have a good one, it is such
a difference and puts a smile on my sick father's face.
And when we have one that's a little bit aloof
it just drives you crazy. And I just really it
really came home to me everything we had been doing
on the show, how crucial and how important of the
people on the front lines, particularly in this anecdote I'm
telling the nursing staff of hospitals were to me. The

(01:09:24):
one thing that really sticks out for me is to
piggyback on what Bill said, is you know, for some hospitals,
if you don't have insurance, you can't get treated. And
the one thing that Scrubs did which I thought was
amazing was we had a bunch of the doctors on
the show were a bunch of rule breakers, venders, especially
when it came to something like that, you know what

(01:09:45):
I mean. That was always special for me because you know,
a lot of people don't have great insurance, especially right now,
a lot of people don't have it and or any
insurance at all, and tests any insurance at all, thank you, Zach.
And test costs a lot of money, you know what
I mean. And if there are rule breakers and rule

(01:10:06):
benders out there that can save lives in that way,
I'm all for that, you know what I mean. And
I love that we had people on the show, like
doctor Cox. When Kelso's trying to get this person out
of the hospital, Cox comes up with so many different
ways to get this guy a bed, and I thought
that was just amazing. Hey, Mark, we obsessed so much

(01:10:26):
about your question. All in terms of the character doctor Kelso.
There's an episode you guys might remember. I remember the
song and the scenes that because the real j D
he runs a hospital now and he's like, and you're
forced with having to make these decisions for the greater good.
And there's an episode in which doctor Kelso, you know,
it has to punt a guy, you know, from treatment

(01:10:49):
that they don't have in churs to have money in
an effort to still build other stuff and to have
money to save other people. And we made this joke
about how every time doctor Kels so's foot hits the
bottom of the stairs. When he leaves the hospital, he
starts whistling as if the day doesn't even affect him.
And at the end of that episode, even he because
he knew he was directly responsible for his guy not

(01:11:11):
getting care. His foot hits and he has a moment
you can see it's really hard for him to start
whistling again. There's a Citizen Cope song called Sideways playing,
and so we just wanted to make sure that the
people weren't the villains and that the system was So yeah,
I'm really grateful that you noticed that and asked about it. Awesome.
Thank you guys for giving such detailed, great responses. I

(01:11:31):
think it just speaks to how much you guys feel
for this show and put into this show. It really
comes across and I think that's why I've been such
a big fan for so long. So thank you, Thank you, Mark,
thanks so much for asking your question. Did you want
to ask another question? Oh? Sure, all right, you get
one more? All right? So, this episode, episode three, and
the show as a whole, I think has a lot

(01:11:53):
of moments that exemplify really healthy, often sensitive male relationships.
Both your guys's Turk and j D and j D
and doctor Cox and other ones, and I was just
wondering if you guys could maybe talk a little bit
about what was important to you guys to have positive
sort of emotional moments between rows and how that might

(01:12:14):
have affected your real life friendship. I think that's a
great question. I'm glad you asked it with Bill on
the show because for me, I really felt in a
positive way. Granted we joked about it a lot, but
I thought in a positive way we were showing, you know,
when we were growing up. I mean when Donald Bills
a smidgeon older than us, but when Donald and I
were growing up, you know, anything you did that was

(01:12:35):
a motive towards the guy you were called gay and
it was derogatory and it was negative, and it was
just an adjective in high school and junior high and
middle school and everything was And I always as someone
who was it's not no surprise I'm similar in a
lot of ways to j D. I always felt like,
but this is who I am. I am a guy
who is a hugger and who's emotional and where's his

(01:12:57):
heart in his sleeve and loves musicals, who happens to
be a heterosexual. And I felt like Bill wrote a
character a friendship that was like, well, we're gonna show
that that's okay to men in a way, because I've
noticed it in my life, you know the fact that
Donald and I would hug and stuff. You know, I
did a Broadway show and Scrubs fans would come to
the stage door and they'd be like, JD, can I

(01:13:19):
have a hug? And I would always kind of laugh.
It was almost like the show was giving a certain
community of men telling them that it was okay to
You're not gonna no matter what your sexuality is, who cares,
It's not going to be threatened by being like JD,
just being who you truly are. And I always thought
that that was a really positive thing that Bill put

(01:13:41):
out there. Yeah, I love I love the fact that
the two of them were so comfortable around each other
that they could be like brothers and lie in the
same bed in their underwear and it not be a
thing for them, you know what I mean. I like that,
And I think that storyline definitely transfer into my real
life with Zach, you know what I mean, Like, I

(01:14:03):
feel like my comfortability about being around other men and
not being afraid to be who I am and except
who they are. Is all because of scrubs, you know
what I mean. I've played best friends in other projects,
and you know, you played the tough guy, et cetera,

(01:14:25):
et cetera. But with these guys, none of that stuff mattered.
What mattered was that they loved each other at the
end of the day. And I cherished the fact that
I can have friendships with men and I can say
to them I love you and it not be looked
at as a bad thing. It's a weird topic for
me because you know, JD was based on real JD.

(01:14:46):
Donald's based on Doctor with The truth is with these
two characters. Anyways, I always joked around and I was
kind of wrestling with both sides of myself because I
am I played sports and was the high school jockey
type guy that I was afraid of this stuff. And
on the other side, I do. Zach and I share
a love of Broadway musicals, French Bill, Kievoi Pu Condom,

(01:15:12):
poor servitude, all right, whatever, and uh watch that's a digression.
Well single is in later episodes. Yeah, I was always
wrestling as a young man with you know, which which
lane I fit in, and wishing that it would be

(01:15:33):
easier just to not have to pick a lane. And
then these guys, look, the truth is, whenever you create
a relationship as a writer, it's yours for a second.
And then the actors, if they're great, they wrestle ownership
from you. And what starts out is eighty twenty years,
you know, quickly, and this show became fifty fifty mine

(01:15:54):
in theirs and then became all theirs in a way
that I would write moments that weren't supposed to be
romance moments, you know, like whether it was them wanting
to hug each other, you know, at the end, and
then when I look in the dailies, they're rubbing their
faces and heads against That's my favorite gift is My

(01:16:16):
favorite gift is and whatever people are always like you
using gifts of yourself. I'm like, yeah, that one I
do because it looks like we're trying to smell each other. Dude,
that really looks like I think one of you ad
lived in that you smell like an athlete in a
way that you're just so happy. And so my point

(01:16:36):
is I was doing it as an intellectual exercise and
these guys made it something more and it's all about
their You get lucky on a TV show when what
you're watching feels even more real because the undercurrent of it,
their intense friendship is reel. You know. I also like
that when we meet people nowadays, they're so eager to
talk about their best friend and how much they love

(01:16:59):
their best friend, you know what I mean, and that
that that makes me feel great. You know, he's the
brown bear to my vanilla bear, or you know what
I mean. I honestly think it gave us a certain
community of men who watched the show and we're open
to it, a sort of permission to to to be
more true to who they were as Mark. If you
want to, if you want to indulge my version of

(01:17:20):
googling my own name is all occasionally go looking at
all these wedding videos where the best man sings guy
love to the groom. They're fantastic. There's like a thousand
of them out there, and it always starts with a
fake set up. He's like, you know, I was trying
to think of what to toast and what to blah
blah that I thought it's probably better to do in
song then it days the facts, and then the groom.

(01:17:40):
The groom always stands up with a microphone too, because
they've rehearsed it twenty times. And I'm at home by myself,
just going like this, lauding. I love it. All right, Mark,
thank you for two awesome questions. Yes, thanks man, all right,
says Mark. Hey stay safe, buddy, be healthy, Bill. Why
does nurse Roberts have so many bowling shoes for sale? Look,

(01:18:08):
one of the things that we embraced on Scrubs early
on was surreal jokes just for us, okay, and we
are trying to think, I remember this, and we wanted
this to be a runner, and we dropped it. We
shouldn't have dropped it, but you know, you get too busy.
When you were fantasizing about talking to Turk, we started
going down path of going. What he doesn't realize is

(01:18:28):
he's in a topic with Nurse Roberts and she's got
a side hustle. Yeah, and we were like, what's your
side hustle? It's selling her dead husband's bowling shoes but
he didn't even bowl. She's just got like twenty pairs
of bowling shoes and she tries to unload to people.
I thought that was I thought that was so funny,
and I forgot that joke, and then that when Donald

(01:18:50):
showed up wearing them, I just laughed out loud. I
thought that was so funny, and then I and then
I thought, I gotta ask Bill just the logic behind it?
What is Nurse rob Why is Nurse Robert's side hustle
selling her her husband's bull She's just always looking to
get a step ahead, man. The um. I just love
that joke because the same way I told you that

(01:19:11):
Neil's joke meant that he and the duck were both
wearing shirts, even though that wasn't said aloud, that choke
means that while you were fantasizing about turk apropoem nothing.
Nurse Robert said, Hey, is there a chance you ever
be interested in buying some used bowling shoes? Is that
something that you would want? Because then you snap out

(01:19:32):
of it, You're like, I do, I would really want
that when I come out of the when I come
out of the fantasy. She said something like, so the
checks in your locker or something? No, because I got
them in my locker. Oh yeah, you want to write
me a check? You want to write me a check
because I got them in my locker, so I figured
her locker, it's just stacked bulling shoes. Every couple of

(01:19:53):
days she saw someone a pair of bowling shoes. It's
just a little side hustle. Bill touched on this at
nineteen thirty seven. There's the very first thing we did
a lot with stunts on Scrubs called the Cowboy Switch.
And just if you go back and watch it, what
happens is the camera never cuts, but I'm running down
the hall, and then the camera without cutting, goes behind

(01:20:13):
a cart, which switches to the stuntman, who then goes
and does a really hard fall on the ground. The
camera can't find me and comes back and like a
magic trick, I've switched back to where I was. This
is a really clever thing that we used to do
a bunch of times on the show in order to
do a really harder fall that that needed to be
a stuntman. And I wonder, Bill, is that something Adam brought,

(01:20:33):
or something a stuntman brought, or or you knew about
how how did those start coming into the show. Adam
pitched very hard the thing we already spoke about is
on this show. The camera is a character because it's
almost an extension of Jad's head. You know, he's narrating
for this camera that doesn't exist. So that was Adam.
It's why he directed it. I remember him even saying

(01:20:56):
just so you know, I think he shot one without it,
but he's like, just so you know, when we do
the cowboy switch to buy time, the cameras are going
to look around for Jading and I remember going, like
what it's like, it's gonna go like that, it's gonna
try and find it's gonna try and find its owner.
It's like a dog when you disappear, you know what
I mean. And so that was Adam and that dude

(01:21:17):
Noon was all about the cowboy switches because he and
Ernie the two stuntman always, by the way, it's our
favorite jokes at Ernie a great stuntman, but it's like,
always be wary of a stuntman who no longer has
any of his own teeth. He had a big set.
He had a big set of a great white teeth.
I'm like, what happened to your real teeth? So yeah,
the end is they said the stunts on this show

(01:21:39):
you want this stuff to all look real and not silly.
Let's have our thespians and you guys both did some
do them as much as we can, whether it's driving
a scooter into the water or sliding under the cart
or cowboy switches, and it helped sell the reality of
that clumsiness. I thought it was awesome. And when we
get to the Wizard of Oz episode, there's the most
epic cowboy switch that we'll talk about where the scooter
goes to the puddle, but stay tuned for that. The

(01:22:03):
friend Zone bill that is one of the funniest articulations
of the friend Zone. I noticed this time that everything
everybody's dressed in beige. That's my first favorite. That's my
first favorite and one of my all time favorite fantasies ever.
And it just was It's such a smart, smart way

(01:22:24):
to describe the fact. I would have done that fantasy
in a world of streaming where you don't have time
limits for ten minutes, I would have wanted to hear
where everybody cross pass with her. I loved My favorite
was it even Becky being in there. And my favorite
was the guy we worked together at Penguins, Because in
my head, I'm like that guy and Elliott barely had

(01:22:44):
shifts together. They just occasionally overlapped at Penguins yogurt and
he was just like your shifts. I just love the
cleverness of in Elliot's mind. None of those people stood out.
So they're everybody's dressed in a shade of beige. Yeah,
they're all blending in. They're all just people that drifted
through her life. You know. Um. The last thing, I

(01:23:06):
don't know if Donald you have anything else, but the
last thing from the show that I wrote down that
I thought it was really funny. I don't know if
we ever did it again, is that you're using rowdy
mouth to open up the beauties. That was That was
the last thing I had to I was gonna ask you.
I thought rowdy. I thought Rowdy should have always should
have always been a bottle opener. But I think that's
the first time we introduced your dead dog without I
don't think we had any lines referencing it, did we

(01:23:28):
zero lounge draft? No? No? No? Oh? You mean was
he an episode two? Yeah? He had an episode two.
That's when we introduced him. That's when we enter Yeah, yeah, okay,
I loved you know, Rowdy is That's I think something
more than shocking me, more than anything that people would
go now, is is there a dead dog that's a
character in this show? A real stuff dead dog would

(01:23:49):
be a huge issue. Bill. I don't know if the
urban legend is true, and I really don't want you
to correct it if it's not. But Donald and I
were discussing in an earlier episode of the podcast that
when the one the prop men was let go, he
hid Rowdy in the ceiling tiles of the prop room.
That's true, that's true. That is true. I told you,
I told you it's true. Yeah, he we had to

(01:24:10):
let someone go for different reasons, and he knew that
that was a prop that he had that was a
character on the show, so he tried to get us
back by hiding it in the above the tiles. He
locked himself in there and hid that poor dead dog
above the tiles. And by the way, we found it
right away. So when we got an extra one, we
were only getting an extra one in case something ever

(01:24:32):
happened to the real one. But part of the laura
became that we got an extra dead dog to you know,
replace the one that was lost. But it's not it's
just to generate. It's just in a weird way. That's
what generated that story of what would we do? And
then Bill that gave birth to a beautiful, very moving
storyline of introducing Stephen m the other I was already

(01:24:57):
laughing in the end. Did you get Rowdy or did
you get Stephen? I got nothing neither. They're all I
told you this story. No, I don't mean that. I
mean when we break so we don't live together anymore.
At one point, who gets who gets who? Oh? I
forgot who got Rowdy and who got Steven? I don't remember.
But Bill, I was laughing with Donald about how someone
can't tell the difference, and I feel where their old

(01:25:17):
taxidermy balls are, and I go, no, that's Stephen. You
knew one of them was fixed, so Rowdy hit that.
I think that's Donald's line to open. Yeah, I don't see.
I don't know if today you could do taxidermy dead

(01:25:37):
dogs humping someone's leg. Yeah, I don't know a whole
new Let everybody not to make this an end line.
But this was such a fun exercise for me because
everybody always asks me what my favorite episode of Scrubs is,
and I don't know how you guys feel. I always
say the pilot because it remember reminds me of first

(01:26:01):
meeting you all, and of the experience and the people
so much more than any specific episodes. When I watched these,
like the first one, two or three episodes, that's what
I remember is seeing you two idiots become friends and
having to deal with the pluses and minuses of that
when you came in crazy hungover to work, but also
when I would see your friendship on screen, you know,

(01:26:23):
and seeing how people were afraid of Johnny c and
how that translated, and seeing Donald's chemistry with Judy and
Zach and Sarah's puppydog love for each I mean, it's fantastic.
So that's what this stuff takes me back to, you know,
is how cool it is that not only that you
two are still friends, but that we all still spend
time together and talk. You know, I say, I love

(01:26:44):
a lot I've noticed, but I truly do love that
about what we've done together. You know, we didn't just
build a television show together. You know, it wasn't just
you know, you created a show, We acted in it,
see you later. We become like a family and when
we see each other, it's so amazing. And you know,
I don't see everybody as much as I see the

(01:27:05):
two of you, but it's always it's always dope, you
know what I mean. I I enjoy. I know I'm
gonna laugh. I know I'm gonna you know what I mean.
I know I'm gonna feel good. It's always great to
be around Joe. Thank you so much, Bill for coming on.
And I hope that you'll do this. I mean, it
makes sense of all people for you to come on
a bunch to this because I hope. I hope you will,

(01:27:26):
because you know, people seem to be really liking it
and which makes a smile, and it makes so much
sense to have you on whenever you're willing to come on.
You know what, I thought you could do that. Uh,
you can either use this cut it, or take this
pitch and do it from now on on any podcast
that I'm not on. If you guys running too a

(01:27:47):
question with the guest or with each other, why did
this happen? Or is this true? You can fire it
off to me. I will voice memo record a one
line response that you can edit in. And that's great.
That's very smart you'd be like, all right, Joel, we
need a bill voice note answer on this question and
then we'll just cut it in when we do the
podcast editing. I love that. Yeah, um, you know, as

(01:28:10):
if I'm hovering there all the time, which I will
not be. Well, this is great what you guys are doing.
I love you both, I miss you both. Thank you,
and um and um we love you and thank you
and um. You know. We ended the last episode by
giving a shout out to the medical community, and I
think it's right to do it since we were a
show about a hospital. Just to give all our love
to anybody who's listening to this, who has anyone fighting

(01:28:32):
on the front lines of this insanity. Thank you so
much for your your courage and uh and and for
being there for for all of us. And yeah, there's
a thousand things you can do to be of service.
You can write a check, or you can call your
friend that's working at a hospital and talk to him
or her every night just to see how they're doing.
But uh, spend a few minutes and do it. Thank
you so much. And on that note, Donald, will you

(01:28:53):
lead us in song? Yeah five six, here's some stories
show we made about a bunch of docs and nurses
and a janitor who loved me. I said, here's the
stories never you all should know, So gather around you.
Here are gather around you, Here are scut free while

(01:29:17):
show wis at ten time

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Donald Faison

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