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...

Aziz Ansari seems to be the hottest name around Hollywood casting circles. According to Variety, the stand-up comedian, who's also one-third of the MTV's acclaimed sketch team Human Giant, has been cast in the upcoming Office spin-off. He's also signed a one-year talent hold deal with Universal Media Studios.

What's interesting about this news is that Ansari was also tapped to play one of the new interns on the eighth season of Scrubs, which is produced by and will now air on ABC. What I'm guessing is that, since Scrubs will finish shooting in August, this deal will start after his deal with the veteran medical comedy ends. If there happens to be a ninth season of the show, as Bill Lawrence told me might happen, I'd imagine he'd come back after his Universal deal ends or they'll just replace him with someone else.

As I found out when I first spoke to Bill Lawrence last year, it doesn't take much to get the creator of Scrubs going. All it might take is a quick question and he'll go off on a monologue that is not only funny, but has a lot of good information as well.

That's what I got from him when I spoke to him earlier this week. Yes, we went over what happened with NBC after the writers' strike and how his show was able to make the shift to ABC. But, since he already spoke about that at length, we talked more about why NBC treated the show like it did, what creative shifts he's going to make to the show this year (expect to see less baby and relationship stuff this year, and more of the medical drama and comedy that got people hooked on the show). And, of course, he also dropped the mini-bombshell that I posted about earlier in the week, that there might be a ninth, "next generation" season of Scrubs.

I'll warn you right now, this is a long transcript, which is why we're splitting it into three parts. But it's got a lot of good information, and if you're patient, you'll find some interesting spoilers about what's going to happen next year on the show (production on eighth season should be wrapped up by August, according to Lawrence). So, buckle up and enjoy the ride...

Sacred Heart will have three more interns when Scrubs moves to ABC. TV Guide's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Aziz Ansari, Betsy Beutler, and Eliza Coupe will have recurring roles on the comedy's eighth season. Bill Lawrence wants to take the show in a more dramatic direction, and these cast additions are part of that agenda.

Betsy Beutler is best known for her role as Joanie on the Black Donnellys. Eliza Coupe guest-starred on an episode of Flight of the Conchords and had a role on the prematurely canceled HBO series 12 Miles of Bad Road. Fans of MTV's Human Giant are already familiar with the comedic work of Aziz Ansari.

It shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to anyone that Human Giant, the new sketch comedy series for MTV, has been granted a second season.

In order to drum up more interest in the show, MTV turned the network over to the Human Giant men: Aziz Ansari, Rob Huebel, Paul Scheer for 24 hours and told them they had to garner one million hits on their Web site if they wanted a second season. Of course, taking into consideration lines from the press release like, "fans can also show up in Times Square to deliver a pizza counting for 80 hits, or carving Paul Scheer's face into Mount Rushmore for the entire million hits" it's obvious the series was going to be renewed all along. Still, it's nice to hear an official announcement.