Fans Trash The ‘Scrubs’ Reboot Teaser For Looking Like A Ketchup Commercial

The cult-hit medical sitcom Scrubs is coming back to television with most of its main cast returning – but the color-graders must have died on the operating table.  

Back in 2009, Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence decided to undo his team's hard work on what was one of the most emotionally fulfilling and narratively satisfying finales in sitcom history by bringing the show back for its soon-to-be-reviled ninth season. Scrubs: Med School, as Lawrence dubbed it, reversed course from the critically acclaimed two-part ending “My Finale” the previous season, but fans found the extra episodes to be completely unnecessary and slightly cynical in how they milked Scrubs down to its last drop of good will.  

Now, Scrubs is coming back for another revival with its tenth season, and fans can’t help but wonder if ABC shot the reboot entirely with sets, lights and cameras from Goodwill.  

While the newly released teaser for Scrubs Season Ten is, by definition, a commercial, fans of the show ironically weren't expecting the first footage from the reboot to look so sterile. “You can't convince me this isn't just an elaborate T-Mobile commercial,” the top commenter in a Reddit thread about the Scrubs teaser wrote.  

"This is great as a teaser, but I hope it's not an actual scene in the show," another fan chimed in.  

“But why is everything so bright?” one user asked.

Another added, “Why does it look like that?”

One fan offered a defense of the new look, arguing that the new set wasn't exactly the first choice for the Scrubs producers. “I know we all hate the med school season, it never happened blah blah blah, but they mentioned in that one that the original hospital was torn down,” the Scrubs defender stated, “Given that the shooting location was then torn down, I'd be a bit surprised if they didn't at least say it's a new building.”

There are many reasonable explanations for why the visuals of the Scrubs teaser are off-putting to some OG fans. The original eight seasons of Scrubs – plus the one that the fandom doesn't like to talk about – weren't exactly HBO-level in terms of production value, and hospitals are notorious for the kind of fluorescent overhead lighting that doesn't lend itself to ultra-HD 4K streaming. Add on fifteen years to Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke, John C. McGinley (and, astounding, definitely not Donald Faison and Judy Reyes) and the result isn't the most flattering of promotional images.  

Ultimately, sitcoms don't live and die on their lighting, so there's no reason to think that the Scrubs revival will be a bust just because the teaser looks like it should have a skip button in the lower right-hand corner.