Bill Lawrence, the creator of Scrubs, which moves from NBC to ABC this season, aimed some barely contained derision at his former network during a Q&A session Wednesday afternoon at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills.
According to Lawrence, NBC executives were disengaged for much of the final season run of Scrubs and attempts to give the show a proper send-off – if it was indeed to end – were mostly ignored.
“I’m very conflicted talking about NBC,” he said. “If you’re (doing) a show for seven years and you make someone millions and millions of dollars you should be able to end the show (the way you want to end the show).”
(Viewers will know Scrubs is over, said Lawrence, when the Janitor’s name is revealed.)
Lawrence was asked whether Aziz Ansari – who joins the cast of Scrubs as one of the new interns and who also has been cast on NBC’s Office spin-off – would be able to do both shows should Scrubs continue beyond its initial 18 episode order on ABC.
And he capitalized on the opportunity to needle Ben Silverman, the new co-chief of NBC entertainment whose former production company Reveille has multiple shows on NBC and elsewhere.
“Is that a Reveille show, The Office spin-off,” he asked facetiously. “Really? That’s odd.”
