These ‘Scrubs’ Episodes Were Removed From Streaming for a Damn Good Reason

The big picture

• Scrubs
  removed three blackface episodes following a fan's suggestion on Twitter, and the show's stars and creator addressed the issue on their podcast.
• The episode “My Fifteen Seconds” was misidentified as blackface, but it was actually “My Friend the Doctor” who made references to blackface.
• The creators of
  Scrubs
  like the cast of
  It's always sunny in Philadelphia
  did not initially equate their use of blackface with “traditional blackface”, but now acknowledge the wrongness of their actions and plan to edit the episodes for future airing.

During the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement that coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, 30 Rock he made his own gesture of contribution to the movement by removing blackface episodes. one fan tweeted Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence to follow suit, to which he replied: “Okay. Already in the works.” three Scrubs The episodes were soon removed from broadcast entirely. The stars of the show Zach Braff i Donald Faison (who play JD and Turk respectively) host the Scrubs watch the podcast again Fake Doctors Real Friends. “There were three episodes in particular over the years that had instances of blackface,” Braff explained on the podcast. “One was me in a fantasy being Donald, one was [Sarah Chalke] in one fantasy it was Donald, and the third was Donald and me attending a black frat party, him in white face, me in black face.”

For the “Our Difficult Past” episode of the podcast, Lawrence joined hosts Braff and Faison for an episode devoted entirely to addressing the reasons why these three problematic episodes were removed. Lawrence explained: “The biggest reason I wanted to do this […] It's just that I saw some things directed at Donald, Zach and Sarah, and everyone should know, I think the reason the word 'showrunner' exists on TV is because you're the gatekeeper and anything that's allowed in the program, you ultimately have to take responsibility.” Lawrence directly apologized for the use of blackface, and the podcast discussed each instance.

Season 3, episode 7 titled “My Fifteen Seconds” was noted by several news sources as the first episode removed from broadcast due to its use of blackface. However, “My Fifteen Seconds” never featured blackface, and was probably mistaken for the next episode. “My Friend the Doctor” includes several references to black culture, including JD judging the family of a black patient for not understanding a reference in the film. hey. The joke is based on JD's ignorance, though, with one of the family sarcastically replying, “Yeah, that's our Citizen Kane.” Scrubs it was celebrated for moments like this, in which You can joke about race as long as the focus is always on the right subject. One instance where this episode failed miserably, however, was a fantasy where JD imagines himself as a Turk.

After Elliot (Chalke) suggests that JD isn't over their relationship, Turk tells JD to imagine Elliot with other men, including Sean (Scott Foley) and Turk himself. In JD's later fantasies, JD is always Elliot's significant other, showing that he still has feelings for her, but in his Turkish fantasy, JD is black and with Turk's characteristic green dresses. The episode also reveals the goalkeeper (Neil Flynn) for being an aspiring actor, and Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley) and Carla (Judy Reyes) try to grow up. This makes JD's final narrative: “Some people hide from who they really are. Others finally accept who they are. But sometimes it's the hard times that help you realize who you've finally become “. Poetically, this also speaks to the episode's elimination, with Braff calling the episode's use of blackface “a teaching moment for all of us.”

“It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia” has a similarly controversial history

The next episode to feature blackface was “My Jiggly Ball”, episode 4 of season 5. At this stage in the series, JD and Elliot are back to being a couple living together. The episode's cold open sees JD imagine an amalgamation of Turk and Elliot. Chalke performed “Turkiot” in blackface, just like Zach Braff had two seasons earlier. A subsequent justification made by the cast of is heard It's always sunny in Philadelphia, who insisted that their use of blackface was justified as they did not represent a generalization of black people, but rather Danny Glover specifically They later changed their minds, devoting an episode of season 15 to exploring this troubled past. As with ScrubsHulu removed five episodes of sunny of streaming. Similarly, Braff on the podcast commented on this idea a Scrubs saying, “I really, frankly, at that point delineated in my mind between traditional blackface [and what Scrubs was doing]. I'm ashamed to say it now, I never equated it.”

As expressed in Fake Doctors Real Friends, the Scrubs The team is unanimously embarrassed by every instance of blackface. As with “My Friend the Doctor,” “My Jiggly Ball” features a problematic scene that could easily be edited out due to its placement, and depending on your streaming service, it may have been edited out of lose the episodes in their entirety. . Lawrence stated on the podcast that removing the full episodes was a short-term solution, and after the pandemic, he had plans to edit more suitable cuts of the episodes for streaming. Fortunately, one advent of streaming services compared to broadcast TV is their less strict rules about running times, which means that dropping entire sequences is not a problem. However, a minor issue that comes up regularly on the review podcast is this scrubs' The signature soundtrack is being changed due to pre-broadcast licensing agreements that prevent the original music from being shown indefinitely.

Creator Bill Lawrence felt 'Scrubs' diverse crew 'had a pass'

The use of blackface in “My Chopped Liver” was different from the other two, but no less wrong, according to Lawrence and the cast. A flashback sees Turk and JD arrive at a black frat party hosted by some of Turk's friends. as a joke Turk is white-faced while JD is black-faced. JD himself even addresses his issues with the idea, while Turk assures him that as long as they're together, the joke will land. Turk then gets distracted and leaves just in time for JD to appear alone at the door as several black men open the door.

Although this is a joke about blackface (rather than just using blackface), Lawrence now sees both as bad as the other. Lawrence recalls that at the time of writing this episode, they felt they had “a free pass to not have those thoughts at the time.” He elaborated:

“Because we were very proud of ourselves for making a very diverse show. In front of and behind the camera. [We had a] a great black-and-white friendship that exists as a real-life friendship, a great interracial couple who are stars of the show, you know, so it was almost an arrogance block. Like, “We're so good at what we're portraying and doing and showing, you know? We could never venture into muddy waters!” And even now with the same ignorance, we have never connected these two things until now.”

Scrubs is available to stream on Hulu in the US

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