Scrubs goes back to school

What we already knew is that long-running hospital sitcom (and favorite of bambat) Scrubs would be back next year for its ninth season. We also know that the shows star, Zack Braff, along with many others, would not be back. What we didn't know is what the hell Scrubs was going to look like without J.D. Now we know. From Ausiello:

Scrubs boss Bill Lawrence said his cancellation-defying comedy would undergo an extreme makeover in its ninth season, and, man, he wasn't kidding. When the show returns next winter, the action will shift from the hospital to the classroom and make med-school professors of John C. McGinley's Dr. Cox and Donald Faison's Turk.

Color me a hopeless optimist, but I think this can work. McGinley and Faison are more than capable of keeping the show entertaining, even if they don't have the rest of the Scrubs gang (which it appears they won't). That being said, Braff, Judy Reyes, Sarah Chalke, and Ken Jenkins have all agreed to guest spots. Neil Flynn aka The Janitor aka Glenn Matthews is appearing in ABC's The Middle, but perhaps he can make an appearance once that show is canceled after six episodes.

As for the rest of the cast:

Lawrence insists "half the cast, if not 60 percent of it," will be comprised of freshmen, one of which will be more recognizable than the rest. "[ABC] is really after us to hire a big name," he reveals. "So one of them will be fairly famous."

Let the speculation about who that "big name" might be begin. If nothing else, it will certainly be interesting to see if Lawrence can pull it off, especially with some of his energy being directed towards Cougar Town. I know all of bambat will be tuning in. How about you?

via Ausiello

Fall Preview Impressions: Cougar Town

Coming this fall on ABCs is Cougar Town the latest show from Bill Lawrence (Spin City, Scrubs). The show premiers September 23rd and will fill the Wednesdays at 9:30 timeslot. Note that that is Lost's slot, so this will probably be a fall-only run or move somewhere else.

As a fan of Bill Lawrence's entire repertoire, it was pretty much a guarantee that I would at least give this show a look-see, though neither the premise nor the star really excited me that much. But I have to say that after watching the preview, I was pleasantly surprised, though I suppose I shouldn't have been given the source.

Essentially you can figure out the idea from the title of the show. It's about a woman who's getting on in years sleeping with younger men. The woman in question is Courtney Cox, who television viewers will best remember from Dirt and from that episode of Seinfeld where she pretends to be Jerry's wife to get his dry cleaning discount (I'm not forgetting anything, right?). I'm pretty much ambivalent about Cox. She's an alright actress, she's decent looking, she can be funny in a pinch. The jury is out on whether she can make this a successful vehicle.

As for the rest of the cast, you have Busy Phillips best known for whatever show it was you saw her as a recurring character in - for me that was the television classic Freaks and Geeks. Also appearing are the excellent Christa Miller (wife of Bill Lawrence) best known for her roles on The Drew Carey Show and Scrubs. I'm a fan of both actresses, so put them in the plus column. Most of the men in the show are unknowns to me with the exception of Dan Byrd who played Sylar's annoying sidekick for a few episodes of Heroes this season. That's a minus.

In the end, this is a show that will probably function mostly on the strength of Bill Lawrence's genius (which is immense). The key will be how much of an audience Cox can pull in, I'm really not sure how big of a star she is at this point, though I suppose time will tell. I will slap it with the official bambat seal of "worth a look".

No one in the show is really hot enough to get the bambat photojournalism treatment, so here's a cougar: