ABC is definitely keeping the costs down. Last week, Turk was nowhere to be found in either episode, and this week the first episode went down with no janitor and J.D. only heard over a cell phone. But Percival Ulysses was in da house!

I liked the idea of Dr. Grumpy aka Denise hooking up with Dr. Giddy AKA Sunny. It’s a good dynamic. We’re finding out that Denise works as a character on this show; it’s too bad that it’s too late. I guess we could always root for a spin-off with the new interns and some of the principal cast members. Call it Sacred Heart and everything can essentially be the same. Or better yet, have Elliott get her own building and call it Private Practice. Then there’s a good reason to take that other Private Practice off the air!

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Tonight’s twofer thematically fit together, with both episodes focusing primarily on Dr. Perry Cox’s adjustment to being the new Chief of Medicine. It turns out it’s a helluva lot of work and it’s almost guaranteed to make you unpopular, as his new friend Dr. Kelso tells him.

See, Dr. Kelso wasn’t so bad. He just had a tough job, and someone has to make those decisions that piss everyone off. And now that person is Dr. Cox. Unfortunately, Dr. Cox doesn’t like to admit he can’t do anything, so he’ll just take on these tasks on top of everything he did before. What could possible go wrong? Ask his son Jack.

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(Season 8, Episodes 5 & 6 – “My ABC’s” & “My Cookie Pants”)

Fun Fact: Janitor’s grandpa apparently called him Janitor, too.

In the first of our two-part Scrubs hour, we got to see J.D., Elliot and Perry all choose one of the new interns to mentor. J.D. hooked up with Denise/Jo, who’s the go-to “strong woman (cold-hearted psycho).” Perry went with Ed, who’s too manic and cool for his own good and Elliot went with Katie because … well, because they have the same hair. As we learned in earlier episodes, Katie is actually a manipulative, selfish and incredibly driven person.

Ed — I guess — is brilliant, but so brilliant that he’s lazy and absolutely doesn’t apply himself. Not enough yet to make these three worthy of holding a show of their own, but it was nice to get a little bit more face-time with these new … um … faces (*ahem*). Even if they did have to share it with various Muppets from Sesame Street. Was it just me or was it a little odd to see Elmo rubbing up against Denise’s chest like that?

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(Season 8, Episodes 3 & 4 – “My Saving Grace” & “My Happy Place” )

Dammit, they did it again. Another two solid episodes of Scrubs, and another week shaved off of the total run time of this season. Unfortunately, ABC currently has this entire 18 episode season scheduled in this back-to-back format, meaning that instead of 18 weeks of new Scrubs, we have barely more than two months. With the last episodes on the marquee for March 10, it seems they’re in a big hurry to burn through them. Or maybe they just don’t have any compatible comedies in their lineup. Certainly According to Jim is no good fit.

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(Season 8, Episodes 1 & 2 – “My Jerks” & “My Last Words” – Season Premiere)

The first words of the shiny new season on ABC are “That’s new,” as JD points to the ABC logo in the bottom right corner. This segueways us into a discussion between him and the janitor about his new “Miami Vice” beard, which he feels makes him look like a new Kenny Loggins. Yep, Scrubs is back and hasn’t lost any of its charm for the switch from NBC to ABC.

Right off the bat we were introduced to three interns: Katie (who is the mother of all kiss-asses), Denise (who completely lacks in bedside manner), and Ed (who pretended to be a woman on a Lost fansite to mess with someone as revenge for their doing that to him). No, I’m not sure what that means about the character, but that’s what we were given. Much has been made of this being possibly the last season of Scrubs, and definitely the last with Zach Braff. So we’re told this new batch of interns could be the future of the franchise, a la ER and the cast of rotating doctors there. We’ll see.

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ABC Studios

You know, it’s a little depressing looking at these DVD sets for the 2007-2008 television season. Because of the writer’s strike, most of our favorite shows had really short runs, truncating plans and creating pretty uneven presentations. This was especially difficult for Scrubs, because the seventh season was supposed to be their final season. And it was. On NBC.

So we only got 11 episodes, which creates for a pretty lean DVD experience. Clocking in at 236 minutes, it’s shorter than the 1993 film Gettysburg and Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet. So what do you do when your entire season is shorter than some theatrical films? Pack that bad boy full of extras, and that’s exactly what ABC Studios almost did.

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