We Bet You Didn’t Notice These 7 ‘Scrubs’ Easter Eggs on Your First 2,319 Binge-Watches

Nov 29, 2017 2:43 pm

By Carly Sitzer

There are few shows that get better every time you binge watch the entire series — and, luckily for us, Scrubs seems to get better and funnier with each viewing (and we would know — the show has been watched from start to finish more times than we can count!). One of the things that makes Scrubs one-of-a-kind is its sense of humor, and instead of becoming lame and predictable on the second time around, it only makes us laugh harder with each additional watch.

In fact, some of the jokes on the show are so funny (and self-referential), that they may have even gone under our heads the first… second… and maybe even the third time we binged the series! Think you know all there is to know about Sacred Heart and its lovable cast of characters? Keep scrolling to see if you caught the show’s best in-jokes, easter eggs, and continuity slip-ups!

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In Season 4’s premiere, “My Old Friend’s New Friend,” J.D. plays Scrabble with his patient Mrs. Grodberg both before and after her procedure. In the “after” scene, he tries to bamboozle J.D. by playing the word “Jzilbek,” which he reassures her is not a real word. Later, in Season 5, Episode 13, “My Five Stages,” we briefly see a Scrabble board where someone played the word “Jzilbek.”

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In Season 2, Episode 22, “My Dream Job” — which, for what it’s worth, features the oh-so-dreamy Ryan Reynolds as J.D. and Turk’s college pal Spencer — The Janitor stops J.D. in his tracks when he reveals that his salary is higher than the young doctor’s, a fact he learned from accessing the personnel files.

When J.D. expresses doubt that he’d have access to that, he tell J.D. his own social security number (987-65-4320), telling J.D. it’s his PIN, not his SSN, prompting J.D. to say, “No, my PIN number is 3674.” What you may not have realized, however, is that his PIN spells “DORI” aka the first four letters of his last name, Dorian!

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During its nine-year run, Scrubs had a lot of cameos and super-famous guest stars. Season 4, Episode 18 (aka “My Roommates”) featured the one and only Ed McMahon along with a — what else — giant check. When J.D. knocks on the famous sidekick’s door (mistaking his home for his colleague’s Doug), he tell the doc that he has to “go change someone’s life!” What you likely didn’t realize is that the check is made out to Will Quinn — likely a play on “Neil Flynn,” who happens to be the actor who played The Janitor!

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Every once in a while, Scrubs sort of broke the fourth wall and made it known that they were on a TV show — and not, you know, real doctors. A couple of these came courtesy of “My Jerks,” aka the premiere of Season 8.

In the opening credits, J.D. remarks about something new — which, we know, is referring to the ABC logo which replaced the NBC one when the show jumped networks. Later in the episode, J.D. gives his interns a little pep talk:

J.D.: “Come on, I know it’s tempting to kust mail it in, but there’s still a lot of people who rely on us week-to-week. I think we owe it them to be as inspired as we were in our first few years. Now I know we never do great come medical awards season — except for Dr. Shalhoub, he wins everything — but I still think we’re as good as anybody else out there!”

Turk: “The Nielsens certainly beg to differ.”

J.D.: “Oh, they’re just upset because their insurance won’t cover a private room!”

Of course, Dr. Shalhoub would be referring to Monk star Tony Shalhoub, who used to clean up at the award shows — and “the Nielsens” is referencing the company used to collect and analyze data related to TV viewership! We see you, Scrubs writers!

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One of the best parts about Scrubs is that even the show’s supporting characters were well-developed and interesting. Take, for example, Hooch (who is crazy). And who can forget when J.D. and Turk rearranged the schedules so the wonderful Dr. Hooch was working with Dr. Turner! But what you probably didn’t realize is that Dr. Turner is played by Jim Hanks aka brother of Tom Hanks aka the star of the real Turner and Hooch!

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In the Season 8 finale (which happens to be one of the best finales to a series ever and we will fight anyone who says otherwise), J.D. revisits the hospital, and the hall is filled with people — living and dead — from his past who he met on his journey. What you may not have realized, however, is that the Grim Reaper aka Death is one of the many people standing there. Which makes sense, considering in Season 1’s “My Blind Date,” J.D. declared, “So many patients die here, you start to think of death as just another co-worker — always looking over your shoulder with the same annoying demands as everyone else you work with.”

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The ninth season of Scrubs introduced us to some new characters who were attending medical school at the newly done Sacred Heart teaching hospital. Apparently, there were some familiar faces who were teaching (and time travelling) at the med school… When the teacher evaluation list came out in Season 9, Episode 5 (“Our Mysteries”), the list included some past presidents such as Thomas Jefferson, Gerald Ford, and Dwight Eisenhower.