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Posts tagged as scrubs

Looking Back

Neil Flynn Talks Del Close

by | February 20th, 2013

Neil Flynn, star of sitcoms Scrubs and The Middle, sat down with The AV Club for an interview today, in which he talked about his early days as an improviser at the ImprovOlympic theater. At iO, he studied under improv guru Del Close and performed alongside Ian Roberts, Matt Besser, and Adam McKay in the legendary group The Family. Here's Flynn reminiscing about his Chicago days:

"Del and I were both in a production of Hamlet in the mid-’80s with Chicago native Aidan Quinn starring as Hamlet. Del was Polonius, and that was pretty much his crowning glory, although he still had more than a decade left to live. In [...]

Checking In

Six Recent Examples of "Breaking the Fourth Wall" Trope Subversion

by | December 2nd, 2011

When I learned the meaning of the expression “breaking the fourth wall” (which Urban Dictionary surprisingly accurately describes as when “a character [acknowledges] the fact that they are fictional”), all those many years ago, I was ecstatic — “Hey, I know a smart movie and TV term…” — and extremely obnoxious — “…and I’m going to say it ALL THE TIME now.” And I probably did, because it’s something impossible not to notice when it’s happening, and it was nice finally having a term to peg to it.

Then you start noticing it everywhere, in every movie and on every sitcom. It’s what people call a “trope” (another [...]

Channel Changing

'Cougar Town' Now Located in TBS City

by | May 10th, 2012

As we speculated earlier, Cougar Town is officially moving from ABC to TBS for 2013. The deal is for one 15-episode season, with the possibility of a second. This is the second time, after Scrubs, one of Bill Lawrence's shows has switched networks, which is particularly impressive, considering it almost never happens. I hope TBS is ready for all the campaigns that will come their way, trying to get them to save every failing cult sitcom.

New Shows

Scrubs, Cougar Town Creator Cranks Out Another One

by | September 13th, 2011

Creator of Scrubs and Cougar Town Bill Lawrence sold a show to Fox reports Deadline, his second project to sell this season after CBS purchased a workplace comedy from him. The single-camera comedy is apparently "inspired by Lawrence’s real-life experiences" and focused on "a father-son relationship," which I again must fervently hope will involve surgically attaching a dad's living head to his teenage son's body. America is ready for a hook like that, right? It'd be like The Thing With Two Heads, minus the racism, plus heartwarming family moments.

Interviews

Bill Lawrence on Tricking Networks Into Airing Good Comedies

by | February 14th, 2012

Bill Lawrence – the creator of Scrubs, Cougar Town, and two new pilots – gives a big insiders' look in this interview at the process of making network television and how drastically a show or character can change in its first season. Here's his description of how Cougar Town came to be:

…I said, “You know what sucks? I can’t sell my passion project. But if I go to [ABC President] Steve McPherson right now and said” — and this was just off the top of my head — “‘I’ve got a Courteney Cox comedy, she just got divorced, she never had her 20s, and she’s gonna [...]

TV

10 Sitcoms that Lost Their Lead Actors and Kept Going

by | March 9th, 2011

With The Office and Two and a Half Men facing a future without their lead actors, it’s important to remember that this is far from the first time a long-running sitcom has tried to move on without its star. Many shows have tried over the past several decades, with varying degrees of success. This usually happens late in a show’s run as the network tries to squeeze the last remaining juice out of the series, but it can sometimes have the effect of alienating fans of the show, resulting in a quick cancellation. Time will tell what fate The Office and Two and Half Men will meet next season, [...]

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