Zach Braff reflects on friendships and what made making Scrubs 2 with his closest pals special

Some friendships are built on shared memories others involve years of perfecting the art of a perfectly timed highfive When Scrubs returned in February fans were treated to a generous scoop of nostalgia as Dr John lsquoJDrsquo Dorian Zach Braff and Dr Christopher Turk Donald Faison reunited for their trademark hospitalhallway antics The medical comedyrsquos revival on JioHotstar brings back the familiar faces while exploring how their lives have evolved since the original series ended in 2010 In a conversation with midday Braff opens up about his offscreen friendship with Faison what prompted the reunion how the show has evolved and why the team wanted to recapture the magic of the original seriesExcerpts from the interviewWhat prompted you to return to ScrubsWell wersquore all still very close friends We all are in each otherrsquos lives We all go on trips together We all make each other laugh Even the showrsquos creator Bill Lawrence is one of my best friends There was a lot of demand for it Donald and I had done a podcast about the show which did well Then we did a whole ad campaign for a phone service provider and that was also popular I think the momentum of those two things and us all wanting to do it made the makers decide to bring it back We were just grateful and excited to work together againLR Zach Braff as JD and Donald Faison as Turk in lsquoScrubsrsquo 2026The show had reached a point where you were repeating jokes and feeling burnt out The spinoff that followed also didnrsquot work as expected Why do you think the revival would work now when it didnrsquot work thenFirst of all itrsquos been so many years and now we have fresh perspectives If you are telling a new story yoursquore using the same hospital and the same tone but yoursquore now telling a story about these people who are in their early 50s who are at the top of their game as doctors Itrsquos about their relationships now and them being the teachers not interns I think the earlier spinoff idea was called Scrubs Med School It was a different concept whereas this was still going to stay with the same three main characters but itrsquos about them at this point in their lives And not only are they going through the drama of life mdash divorce depression and things that happen to people in their 50s They were also teaching the next generation of young doctors It seemed like a new and interesting story to tellThe show catapulted you into the big leagues and gave you opportunities to direct What does returning to it mean to you emotionallyI love it Itrsquos the best job in the world Itrsquos hard challenging but we laugh all day long A job where yoursquore hanging out with friends funny people all day long and cracking each other up is the best We worked very hard to make the show in five days Itrsquos almost like a marathon to get it all in five daysThe cast of the original lsquoScrubsrsquo 2001What was one thing you were careful not to repeat from the showrsquos earlier runI think the tone was important Over the many years Scrubs was on the comedy got broader and broader We wanted to reset to have the show based in reality in a real way Thatrsquos one main thing we did The last season of Scrubs became more about the med students than about the three of us I was barely in it And I think the concept was what if we handed the show to the next generation But the audience wasnrsquot really interested in that And they did make it clear they were interested in our characters So we kept the focus on our characters We brought back a lot of the writers particularly our head writer Aseem Batra We really focused on what worked with the original Scrubs and tried to recapture that magicThe spinoffslsquoScrubs Internsrsquo 2009 A web series consisting of 12 short video episodes released during the eight seasonlsquoScrubs Med Schoolrsquo 2009 It shifted the setting to a university medical school and introduced a new generation of students with original cast members appearing in mentoring or guest rolesAlso in his filmographyZach Braff wrote directed and starred in the lsquoGarden Statersquo 2004 which won a Grammy Award for its soundtrack He also directed lsquoWish I Was Herersquo 2014 and lsquoA Good Personrsquo 2023