Although it had 15 long years since they last got into their scrubs for their popular ABC sitcom Scrubs, Zach Braff, who plays Dr. John “J.D.” Dorian, and Donald Faison, who plays Dr. Chris Turk, were never really apart. They became best friends, never thinking there would be a second life for the show on which they worked together for nine seasons (but don’t talk about the ninth season since they are pretending it never happened).
During that span Faison got married at Braff’s house, and Braff is godfather to both of Faison’s kids. They also have done a podcast focusing on different episodes of the original series (Fake Doctors/Real Friends), commercials, you name it. They never thought the show would come back, though don’t call it a “reboot” — it is not. This is a revival.
They both join me for this special edition of my Deadline video series The Actor’s Side on location at Disney’s Toast To TV event at Soho House Holloway. This fun interview actually took place in late April and at that point, as you will hear, they didn’t know if they would be picked up for a second season of the revival. The good news is that just a few days later they were indeed renewed and are now hard at work crafting a second season of the show where they are no longer young doctors but now running Sacred Heart, passing on their wisdom and knowledge to new interns at the teaching hospital that had to be re-created from scratch. The original series was shot in an actual abandoned hospital, but now you might not know the difference thanks to the exceptional production design and other elements fans will recognize.
To watch my conversation and to get the “actor’s side” of things from Scrubs star/executive producer/director Zach Braff and star/executive producer Donald Faison, watch the video above.
