TVSquad

By far, the funniest panel of ABC's first day at the press tour -- one that had Jimmy Kimmel question the network president and had Ashton Kutcher and his fellow producers bring up critics to play a miniature version of Opportunity Knocks -- was the one for Scrubs, which will air its eighth season on the network.

A panel with Zach Braff, Donald Faison, Sarah Chalke, and John C. McGinley couldn't help but be funny, right? But if you've ever read interviews from the show, you'd know that creator Bill Lawrence is usually the one who steals the show. This time around, though, he had an assist from Neil Flynn, who had a few good zingers thrown in for good measure. One of them came when someone asked him if he knows the name of his character, which for seven years has always been known as "The Janitor."

More after the jump, including an episode spoiler...

When Flynn got that question, he immediately shot back with the name "Zanzibar Buckbuck McFake." He even repeated it later on, with a insistent tone to go along with his serious face. Also, when the subject of Zach Braff not returning for a possible ninth season came up, Flynn chimed in that "I think if Zach goes Donald needs to go," referring to the fact that Turk and J.D. are such a pair. Of course, Faison didn't agree with his co-star, as the mock horror in his face suggested.

As I said, Bill Lawrence let loose a number of funny lines, mostly in a self-deprecating fashion. When a question about Sarah Chalke's participation on How I Met Your Mother came up, he said "I don't know if I can say this, but she's the mom." When asked about Braff, Lawrence said it was more than likely his final year, then added "not by choice." When I asked him about Aziz Ansari, who's playing one of the season eight interns, but is under contract with NBC to do the Office sequel, Lawrence brought up his not-so-secret beef with Ben Silverman of NBC by referring to the name of Silverman's former production company. "The Office spin-off... is that a Reville show? Funny..." Believe me, all the gathered critics laughed their asses off at the inside baseball joke.

Braff had a good line or two; Lawrence mentioned that they've stolen 90% of their material from M*A*S*H, even for the "finale," and Braff chimed in that "I even strangled a chicken," referring to a dramatic scene in the M*A*S*H finale. Very Hawkeye of him. When Bill mentioned that the chicken was actually a baby (and that the baby's mother actually smothered the kid to shut Hawkeye up, but whatever), Braff said "I didn't watch that far!"

Lawrence made sure that he didn't light into NBC too much, but some of his remarks about how "supportive" ABC has been were telling. "I was surprised to have people from network visit our set. I don't think that's happened in six or seven years." Of course, he diffused it with, "I think it's because Courteney Cox (playing a guest arc as the new chief of medicine) was there."

There really wasn't much news beyond what Bill told me in my May interview with him, except for the fact that they recently shot an episode in the Bahamas, where the Janitor gets married to his Lady. He invites 700 people to get the gifts, but J.D. gets everyone he invites to come and screw him over. Lawrence has a bit part playing the minister who marries the couple There will also be webisodes, shot from the new interns' point of view.

Oh, and despite what he told me in May, Lawrence may remain beyond season eight. "I think when I probably said that I was feeling... I don't know, how many guys stay on a show for eight years?" he told me in the post-session scrum. "But at the time I think we were taking some deserved hits creatively. I think i felt that way because I took a year off and do some other things. But I can't think of a better job, though, man."

I also spoke a little to McGinley and Flynn after the session. More on that later.