Will ABC Resuscitate "Scrubs"? Not if NBC Has Its Way

Poor, poor Scrubs.

The struggling NBC sitcom is at the heart of a battle between the Peacock and ABC Television Studios, which produces the series. ABC is said to be in talks to pick up 18 episodes of the comedy for the 2008-09 season. One little problem: NBC isn't letting go.

Their relationship over the years involving Scrubs has always been fraught with complication; it didn't help that many believed NBC treated Scrubs like its bastard step-child, shifting the series through no less than 17 timeslot changes over the last seven years.

This was widely believed to be Scrubs' final season. However, following the production shut-down brought on by the WGA strike, the episodic order for Scrubs this season was cut back to 12 episodes (down from 18) and Scrubs still has five episodes in the can.

NBC hasn't yet made a decision about whether to order additional as-yet-unproduced episodes and air them, order a final original episode (to serve as the series finale), or shoot the remaining episodes and dump all or some of them onto DVD, a rather unceremonious ending to a comedy that has earned several kudos in its day.

NBC claims that they have the first right of refusal in the matter and have the option to (A) renew the series or (B) cancel it before ABC Television Studios can shop the series elsewhere. If ABC is actually in talks with the studio regarding Scrubs, then they are in breach of contract.

"NBC has a license agreement with ABC Studios, which includes a right of first negotiation and first refusal to extend the series term beyond this season," NBC Entertainment C0-Chairman Marc Graboff told Variety. "We're living under the terms of this license agreement, and we expect ABC Studios to do the same."

Which places the series in limbo at the moment: NBC seems unwilling to commit to an additional season (or, indeed, additional on-air episodes) and ABC would rather like the series as it is in desperate need of half-hour comedies (as evidenced by its willingness to explore another season of According to Jim).

In the meantime, Scrubs returns to NBC's lineup on April 10th.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Price is Right (CBS); Amnesia (NBC); Friday Night SmackDown (CW; 8-10 pm); Grey's Anatomy (ABC); Bones (FOX)

9 pm: Ghost Whisperer (CBS); Dateline (NBC; 9-11 pm); 20/20 (ABC); House (FOX)

10 pm: NUMB3RS (CBS); Dateline (NBC); 20/20 (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8-11 pm: BBC America.

If you happen to be staying in after a long work week, why not do it in true Anglophile style with back-to-back episodes of Coupling and new sketch comedy series That Mitchell and Webb Look, from the stars of Peep Show?

StrikeWatch: And... It's Over

It's official: the WGA strike, which began November 5th, has finally come to a close, following a member vote overwhelmingly in favor of ending the strike (92.5% to be precise) and getting back to work during the official ten-day ratification process.

You can literally hear the sound of relief echoing through Hollywood today as writers return to their keyboards to try to pound out as many scripts as possible in time to salvage the 2007-08 season.

"Our membership has voted, and writers can go back to work," said WGA West President Patric Verrone in a statement. "This was not a strike we wanted, but one we had to conduct in order to win jurisdiction and establish appropriate residuals for writing in new media and on the Internet. Those advances now give us a foothold in the digital age. Rather than being shut out of the future of content creation and delivery, writers will lead the way as TV migrates to the Internet and platforms for new media are developed."

So what series will be the first to make it back on air? Most likely it will be NBC's Saturday Night Live, scheduled to return on February 23rd with 30 Rock's Tina Fey as the host (the following week brings Juno's Ellen Page).

As for dramas and comedies, don't expect to see any new episodes of series like Two and a Half Men, The Office, or Ugly Betty until mid-March (for multi-cam comedies) or April (for dramas and single-camera comedies).

As for how many episodes each series will be able to deliver, that depends entirely on the speed of the writing staff and the production schedule. The Office is expected to shoot six more episodes this year, possibly seven. The writing staff on that series had completed a script before the strike began (but were unable to film due to star Steve Carell joining the picket line) but will have to scrap another, a Christmas-themed episode, in an early stage.

"We're going to throw that one out," executive producer Greg Daniels told The New York Times as he explained how the writers would meet this week to plot out the series' storylines. "I'm tempted to just leap ahead to where we would have been."

Five episodes of 30 Rock are expected to be completed before May, depending on Alec Baldwin's availability; the star recently signed on to a feature film, making production slightly more difficult. (And yet something tells me it will all work out.)

The fates of ER and Scrubs are up in the air. It was widely thought that both NBC series would end at the end of this season but without filmed finales, one or both might head back to produce more episodes.... and ER could end up on the fall schedule again, should certain economic factors be worked out. As for Scrubs, NBC has not yet made a decision on the fate of those final six unproduced episodes.

CBS has handed out additional orders for two of its series, giving a six-episode order for comedy Rules of Engagement and four-episode order to Shark.

The network is also in discussions with Warner Bros. Television about restarting production on midseason comedy Old Christine, which was unable to fulfill its entire 13-episode order.

HBO will push the premieres of returning series Entourage and Big Love; Entourage is now expected to be shifted from summer to Fall 2008 while Big Love could launch in either fourth quarter or 2009.

For others, it's the end of the road. On the bubble for renewal (and not producing any further episodes this season): Journeyman, Bionic Woman, Cane, and Big Shots.

While ABC has not yet decided about ordering additional episodes of drama Women's Murder Club this season, if it does return, it will be without showrunners Sarah Fain and Elizabeth Craft and executive producer R. Scot Gemmill, who have all been let go from the series.

Shift Change: "Scrubs"... on ABC?

It's no secret that medical comedy Scrubs has been, well, lagging a bit in the ratings this season.

Now in it's sixth season, the series has been shifted about a number of times in the schedule and, hell, it nearly didn't come back for the sixth season of medical-tinged hijinx and surreal fantasy sequences until NBC exercised their option for an additional installment literally at the eleventh hour.

Nearly a year later and Scrubs is back in the same situation it was at the end of the 2005-06 season. It's a prohibitively expensive show to produce and, despite studio ABCTV (formerly known as Touchstone) locking up Zach Braff for a seventh season, NBC doesn't seem certain it wants the show to return next year.

They might be able to come to an arrangement should the studio reduce the license fee it requires NBC to pay for the right to air the series (the longer series, like Scrubs run, the more expensive the license fee becomes), but NBC and Kevin Reilly might decide that the real estate itself--a slot in its newly created Thursday night comedy block--is worth more to them than Scrubs.

However, unlike last season (where NBC renewed the show and then held onto it until December), Scrubs is being courted by another suitor altogether: ABC. It's no secret that ABC is in dire need of a comedy hit and it's far easier to build a fanbase around a show that, you know, already exists rather than try to develop one from scratch.

ABC has had a Herculean task trying to generate audience interest in new comedy skeins In Case of Emergency, Big Day, and Knights of Prosperity (though there are rumors swirling that the latter will return); it still has Notes from the Underbelly waiting to launch as well. Veteran comedies According to Jim and George Lopez might be on their way out, so what is a network to do but poach someone else's comedy series, especially if the other guy doesn't want it anymore.

It makes sense, especially as Scrubs is produced by sister studio ABCTV. Even with a reduced license fee, it's still an attractive prospect for ABC; the longer the show runs, the more they can make on syndicated revenue (Scrubs recently started airing its first five season on Comedy Central).

I'm happy to see Scrubs live on for a while longer (personally, I love the show) but part of me can't imagine it sharing a network with Lost, Desperate Housewives, and Grey's Anatomy. Which is precisely why ABC needs a hit comedy: to alter the perception that it only offers drama and reality competitions (like Dancing with the Stars).

But I also feel somewhat sad that NBC would continue to use and abuse this smartly written, deftly acted comedy the way it has in recent years. I just wish that they would wake up a bit and realize they don't want to throw out something they've already built from the ground up.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: NCIS (CBS); Dateline (NBC); Gilmore Girls (CW); America's Funniest Home Videos (ABC); American Idol (FOX; 8-10 pm)

9 pm: The Unit (CBS); Law & Order: Criminal Intent (NBC); Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search of the Next Doll (CW); Primetime (ABC)

10 pm: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS); Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC); Boston Legal (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8-10 pm: American Idol.

Tonight, the top 12 contestants perform for their chance at pop credibility and probable future anonymity.

8 pm: Gilmore Girls.

I've given up on this once-great drama, but for the few of you out there still watching, here's what's going on. On tonight's repeat episode ("Go, Bulldogs!"), the theme is parenting as Christopher and Lorelai visit Rory during Yale's Parents' Weekend and April's swimming coach talks Luke into taking her adult swimming class.

NBC Shifts "30 Rock" Closer to Scranton

It was just the other day (Friday, if we're being precise) that I said how much I wished NBC would come to their senses and move freshman comedy 30 Rock (a Televisionary fave), using The Office as a lead-in, rather than the much loved if somewhat underperforming Scrubs.

Looks like someone at the Peacock was listening.

NBC announced that it would do just that, shifting 30 Rock a half an hour earlier, to 9 pm, beginning April 5th.

Wait, what's that you say? You thought the cruelly imposed hiatus of 30 Rock (intended to deny us our fix of such random oddities as Ray Ray's Mystery Garage) was supposed to last much longer than that?

Fortunately, NBC has surprised us again and will be returning 30 Rock to the schedule a little earlier than can be expected. (My prayers to Jack Donaghy were apparently answered.) April 5th will feature a 35-minute "super-sized" episode of 30 Rock (along with The Office and Scrubs).

NBC's lineup for April 5th will be the following:

8 pm: The Office (40 mins): "The Negotiation"
8:40 pm: 30 Rock (35 mins)
9:15 pm: Scrubs (35 mins)
9:50 pm: Andy Barker, P.I. (30 mins)
10:20 pm: My Name is Earl (repeat; 40 mins)

(Meanwhile, Scrubs will vacate its 9 pm timeslot to move to 9:30 pm, where it will air for a few weeks, followed by two back-to-back episodes from 9-10 pm on May 3rd.)

Could this be a positive sign that NBC is willing to commit to second season of the hysterical and addictive 30 Rock? Only time will tell, but I'm looking upon this move as a sign that NBC has more than a little confidence in 30 Rock.

I'm No Charlie Brown (A "Scrubs" Charlie Brown Christmas)

With the Los Angeles sun beating down, I was finding it a little hard this year to get into the Christmas spirit. That is, until I watched a mash up of my favorite Christmas television special, A Charlie Brown Christmas, performed by the cast of NBC's Scrubs.

While you won't get to see Dr. Kelso do the Snoopy Dance (rats!), feast your eyes (and ears) on the vocal talents of the entire Scrubs gang, including J.D., Turk, Carla, Elliot, the Janitor, and even Dr. Cox... in a stunning performance as blanket-toting Linus.



Special thanks to the production crew of a certain non-Scrubs NBC sitcom for sending this my way. It's like a warm mug of cocoa on a cold winter's night.

NBC Revamps Thursday Nights with Single-Camera Comedy Block

I can't even tell you how thrilled I was yesterday to learn that NBC was going to revamp its Thursday night lineup, mere days after the Peacock announced that it was effectively going to destroy its 8 pm timeslot by filling it with cheap-to-produce reality fare like Deal or No Deal.

Fortunately, Kevin Reilly didn't budge on keeping single-cam comedies My Name is Earl and The Office right where they are and shifting Tina Fey's 30 Rock to Thursdays and (finally!) bringing Scrubs back the schedule. Combined, these four series display the possibilities of the single camera format and I've been pleading with the networks to combine them into one single night of fantastic comedic TV.

While CBS has its Monday night comedy lineup and CW its urban-themed laughers on the same night, there hasn't been one-stop shopping for single cam mirth until now. Sadly, I've been calling for this arrangement since the days of the dearly departed Arrested Development, but I'll take what I can get. It's a risky proposition going smack against Grey's Anatomy in the 9 pm hour, but it's also somewhat heartening to see struggling NBC willing to take a risk and try to resuscitate Must-See-TV Thursdays with an all comedy lineup. And it's only fitting that in 2006 those comedies would be of the single-cam variety.

The newly revamped lineup is scheduled to launch on November 30th (which can't come quickly enough) and will consist of:

8 pm: My Name is Earl.

8:30 pm: The Office.

9 pm: Scrubs.

9:30 pm: 30 Rock.

I am surprised that NBC would wait until then to launch the new Thursday schedule. But then again, they might want to launch it after November sweeps has ended, giving them a little bit more of a comfort zone to take a chance (and not go up against a sweeps-powered Grey's in the first week of November). No mention was given to struggling sitcom 20 Good Years, so it's safe to assume it's off the schedule come the end of November.

Additionally, prior to the revamp, My Name is Earl, The Office, and 30 Rock will present super-sized 40-minute episodes on November 16th in a two-hour block. (NBC did something similar last season with Earl, The Office, and Will & Grace.) Look for the Peacock to use this scheme once more before the end of the calendar year.

As for me, I'm just happy that I now have a two-hour block of funny on Thursdays and that it's actually comprised of shows that I love to watch. Imagine that: NBC actually making viewers happy for once!