PASADENA, Calif. — After catching up on the last few episodes of the new version of "Scrubs," a somewhat surprising pictures emerged.
It's good. Very good. Darn good.
Who would've thought?
Not me, obviously. I was skeptical after the show ended its eighth season with what was supposed to be a series finale. And that episode was practically perfect in every way, so the series had nowhere to go but down.
The new "Scrubs" (Tuesday, 7 p.m., Ch. 4) isn't as good as the old one (yet), but it's still one of the funniest shows on TV.
It's just that the bar was set too high after eight seasons of hilarity. And the ratings haven't been good.
But creator/executive producer Bill Lawrence — who still consults on "Scrubs" while giving most of his attention to "Cougar Town" — has no regrets. Even though he joked that agreeing to bring the show back for a ninth season is "absolute proof that I sold my soul to the devil."
"The opportunity to take another shot with a bunch of new, young characters and see how it goes, man, I couldn't be more grateful for it," said Lawrence, who repeated that a big part of his decision to keep the show going was to keep its crew employed. "There's not a lot of gigs out there right now, and to keep everybody working has been fantastic.
"I'm proud of the work. It gets better every week."
And, as we near the end of the 13-episode ninth season — Tuesday's episode is the 11th — the new characters have definitely grown. And grown on me.
The incredibly insecure Lucy (Kerry Bishe); the incredibly arrogant Cole (Dave Franco); the devoid-of people-skills Denise (Eliza Coupe); and the back-for-a-second-chance Drew (Michael Mosley) have become well-rounded characters whose flaws make them lovable.
I'm in complete agreement with Lawrence, who would have preferred that the new version of the show have a different title. Although he acknowledged that it's "an understandable business decision," keeping the title makes the new version "a prisoner to the old show and immediately judged by it," Lawrence said. "So one of the things that's tough is after three episodes, you read something saying, 'Hey, we don't even know who these new characters are yet. They aren't well-rounded.'
"And in my head, I'm like — when, in any TV show, after an episode and a half, do you know who all seven characters are completely and how they're well-rounded?"
An excellent point.
There's been some buzz that "Scrubs" ought to be moved into the slot left vacant on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. when ABC canceled "Hank." That, however, appears unlikely.
As is any thought that "Better Off Ted" — another hilarious and ratings-anemic ABC comedy — could end up there.
"We didn't feel that those two shows were really compatible with the Wednesday night (lineup)," said ABC Entertainment president Stephen McPherson. And, believe it or not, Lawrence agreed with him.
"Look, if I could brand this night, though I think that Steve and company have already done so, I would call it a night of family comedy for adults," Lawrence said.
While some (including yours truly) have speculated that both "Scrubs" and "Ted" are pretty much already canceled, McPherson insists that's not the case.
"I love both those shows," he said. "I mean, 'Scrubs' is something that I did resurrect. I think that they've done an amazing job of taking a show into (its) later years with the challenge of the lead (Zach Braff) only being in a few episodes. They've really found some great young actors there.
"So I would hope that there's a potential that that could grow, but I'm not going to lie and say that the numbers have been really encouraging for us."
Still, he insists no decision has been made on canceling either "Scrubs" or "Better Off Ted." And whatever happens, Lawrence still has no regrets.
"I think in the best-case scenario, people will like it, and it will keep doing a little better," he said. "And in the worst case, it will be a noble failure that I'm fine with because I like the work that's done. And I'm pretty confident it didn't ruin anybody's careers."
e-mail: pierce@desnews.com