(S06E11) When I interviewed Bill Lawrence in January, one of the things he made a point of mentioning was how he and his writers like to try to avoid standard sitcom clichés when they can. "The one thing we're adamant about here is you can't do old hacky sitcom stories unless you do them and do a twist on them so it's not the same old story," he told me.
Nothing is more hacky in sitcomland than the clip show, is there? Up until now, Scrubs has avoided doing one, and I'm guessing it's because Bill and his writers probably didn't know how to do one in a unique and funny way. Well, apparently they came up with something. Unfortunately, it wasn't really all that unique. But it was a little funny.
First off, let's talk about the newly-smooth skull of John C. McGinley. My guess is that Johnny C. shaved it for a movie role. What's interesting is that no one made reference to the fact that Dr. Cox was suddenly clean bald; considering how easily the people at Sacred Heart single out and pick on each others' flaws (which was the topic of one of the clip montages), you'd think they would have zeroed in on Bald Cox immediately. He also looked like this when Kevin and I visited the set in January. Not to worry, though; from what I remember from the episode being filmed, that issue is addressed, and in a pretty funny way.
Anyway, there isn't much that I can say about an episode that was mostly clips. Having J.D. make self-referential statements about how he's thinking back on his life like he's in "a clip show from a bad sitcom that's too lazy to come up with a story" didn't make it any less disappointing. What's ironic is that the cold open, which had Cox torture the interns with a game of "Who's Going to Stay Here Forever?" and J.D. fantasize that Turk had udders and the ability to slice bacon -- Turk-y bacon... get it? -- off his body, had promise. Those two scenes and the scene where Elliot and Carla troll through the stuff of a woman they thought had died were all pretty funny. But after that? Well, what can you really do? Not even the "lesson," which is generated when the docs try to figure out hot to tell a man with amnesia that he tried to kill himself, wasn't even all that interesting
As you'd expect, Bill and company did a good job selecting the music behind each clip montage. And yes, I did laugh when J.D. said "There have certainly been a lot of odd moments around here. And whenever I think of them, The Fray is playing... No, not that Fray song, this Fray song." My favorite? A tie between using Billy Joel's "Sometimes a Fantasy" behind the fantasy montage and the song behind the dancing montage (if anyone knows what that is, let me know in the comments).
The montages themselves really didn't do anything for me, and I think it's mostly because I've seen the episodes so many times in reruns. My brother Rich had a theory that a clip show would have had more impact if they did it before the show started in syndication, which makes sense to me. Sure, the show's been out on DVD for a while, but the number of people who have the DVDs pales in comparison to the number watching the four-to-six-times-a-day reruns. Either way, the jokes are funnier in the context of each episode, and showing them in a montage, even one that utilized quick cuts like this episode did, really kind of blunted the impact.
The Simpsons is the only show that's been able to turn the whole clip show idea on its head, and it's because they made fun of the concept at every turn. Scrubs only went halfway, leaving us with only half an episode. Oh, well. Experiment over; thankfully, we'll be back to all-new material next week...
Seven greatest hand cannons in TV history
TV Squad previews NBC's new shows (part 1)
TV 101: How ESPN controls the world and what the other networks can learn from it
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
3-01-2007 @ 11:25PM
Borat said...
Scrubs is definitely not as strong as it used to be but I enjoy it a lot anyway.
I mean, how can you not enjoy Turk dancing? I thought that the clips were fun.
Reply
3-01-2007 @ 11:29PM
Steve said...
I think the song you were looking for is Diner by Martin Sexton.
Yeah, I thought the episode was standard clip show fair but I thought the parts that were not clips, were pretty solid. It felt, like they had the old Scrubs energy back, especially the Turkey Bacon bit, that was hilarious and disturbing. Maybe it was Johnny C's new cut, but for some reason he seemed like he was back to normal. He felt kind of out of it this season.
Anyways, I have a good feeling that next week's episode will be a good one. I can just feel it.
Reply
3-02-2007 @ 12:04AM
Roy said...
The first few minutes - I howled out loud at Turk-y Bacon - were great and after that, the show was awful. A subpar clip show and extremely disappointing.
Reply
3-02-2007 @ 1:03AM
Randy said...
I wonder if they produced this episode before they were assured of a seventh season. This seems like something they would do near the end of their run.
Reply
3-02-2007 @ 1:21AM
Curt said...
meh. It was better than most clip shows. At least they acknowledged it. And it was good for me seeing as I didn't start watching it until it came to comedy central, where I thought I'd seen the whole run out of order in reruns, that there are a few episodes I've yet to see.
So all in all, I dislike most clip shows, but this was better than most.
Reply
3-02-2007 @ 1:36AM
justin said...
Can't say I loved this episode, but I guess it's a whole lot better than a rerun.
They seemed to take a ton of clips from the early part of season 2.
Reply
3-02-2007 @ 2:55AM
VitoTheTiVo said...
Cost-cutting. Must be some good stuff coming. Or this is a budget hangover from the musical episode.
Reply
3-02-2007 @ 3:52AM
JuancarlosII said...
"Diner" by Martin Sexton was the song playing
it was the same song played during the dance montage in the season2/3 special
Reply
3-02-2007 @ 7:47AM
Meg said...
I thought that the "yes or no" bit with Cox and the intern was the time to comment on his new un-hair-do, because as soon as he said it, I was going "NO"
Maybe I had an attention lapse at that moment, but that's what I thought that scene was about.
Reply
3-02-2007 @ 10:08AM
Hugeliver said...
I thought it was a GREAT episode for a half hour. The pratfalls were great and I love how they utilized the music (a staple of SCRUBS).
I agree with Randy though. Seems more fitting to be in a finale.
Reply
3-02-2007 @ 10:15AM
Eric J. said...
My assumption was that they did the clip show to bank some money and time for the musical episode.
Reply
3-02-2007 @ 10:29AM
Chip said...
Zzzzzz...
Reply
3-02-2007 @ 10:57AM
margot said...
Was just awful. Disappointing and awful. Even the 'real-time' interludes with the main cast were dull and awkward.
Reply
3-02-2007 @ 11:15AM
Randy said...
Meg, I know exactly what you mean about that part and Cox's hair. I thought the same thing.
Reply
3-02-2007 @ 11:26AM
Jeff said...
This was actually the third clip show that Scrubs has done. Johnny C. hosted one in the first or second season which included bloopers. There was also one done in season five (My Déjà Vu My Déjà Vu), which was actually a groundbreaking innovation in the standard clip sitcom. They incorporated past jokes/clips into the real-time storyline of the episode.
This just goes to show that Scrubs can be great when they try (which according to Bill Lawerence is 2-3 times a season), but can be terrible when they just phone it in (most of seasons 4/5/6).
Being in the Six Season and knowing the type of show that Scrubs can be when it tries, we shouldn't cut them slack and just say "Well, it was okay for a standard sitcom clip show." The standard sitcom is dead. Hold your TV up to a higher standard. Scrubs has now done two clip shows in two seasons. Seems like they're running out of ideas.
Reply
3-02-2007 @ 11:28AM
Aaron said...
Yeah, it was an ok episode... I guess like the reviewer I have seen every episode a hundred times in syndication, and I own the DVDs, so in many ways the clips were a bit of a letdown. I hope that next week we get back to some good original Scrubs action!
Reply
3-02-2007 @ 11:43AM
George said...
IMHO, Scrubs has been awful this season -- cloying and aggressively unfunny. Clips from the days when the show was actually *funny* merely reinforced that point. On the bright side, it's no longer possible to blame McGinley's ludicrous hair for the downturn.
Reply
3-02-2007 @ 12:30PM
David said...
I thought it was a good episode. Nothing great.
I'm still just confused as to why Scrubs has been fairly weak this season. I mean, weak in Scrubs terms is still pretty much the best comedy on TV, but season five was SO fantastic week after week after week, and yet this season's been very hit and miss.
Are there new writers this season? New... somethings?
Reply
3-02-2007 @ 6:20PM
mike said...
i think this new season is a bit lacking compared to others but its been alot more negative wot with JD's split up and the like, and boring with elliot still with the same guy i reckon while still good the script writers seem to need some sort of inspiration.
Reply
3-03-2007 @ 8:58AM
Eklen said...
um..I liked it...
Reply