Wednesday, May 17, 2006

The girl who wasn't there


Cone of Silence is still in place on "Grey's," and I'm two weeks behind on "House," but at least I got to watch the "Scrubs" finale in real time.

Bill Lawrence's publicist randomly e-mailed me yesterday to ask if I wanted to talk to Bill about the renewal. So we got to chatting, and, realizing that whatever I wrote would wind up running after the finale had aired (there'll be a short item at the tail end of tomorrow's column), I asked him if there were any big surprises. So he told me about Jordan being pregnant, and about J.D. knocking up Elizabeth Banks on their second date. The rationale:
"Comedies usually build around some sappy pregnancy thing, and we just hope to have something fucked up and chaotic. It's just another sign of how pathetic J.D.'s luck is; how many guys get a beautiful girl pregnant after they've gone out twice?"
I don't know how well this'll work in the fall, but I'm hopeful Banks will be around for a while. She fit in just as perfectly as the show kept insisting she did (loved the x-ray gag at the end of the credits), and these were the two strongest conescutive episodes since early in the season. Loved Turk and J.D. trading places in the Dr. Acula clip, loved Turk inheriting Cox's pants, loved Cox's speech to Jack about toilet-training, loved Sarah Lancaster's cameo as gift shop girl (though she looked a little too orange), loved Cox and Jordan using Ted's band to torture the guy who botched the vasectomy... loved it all, really. Mid-season's too long to wait for it to come back (according to Lawrence, if NBC had cancelled them, ABC would have picked them up but been forced to hold them for mid-season due to some transfer of ownership issues), but better late than never.

What did everybody else think?

6 comments:

Matt said...

Though I didn't really get her on Everwood, Sarah Lancaster is a gorgeous, gorgeous woman. (Perhaps this is because I generally prefer brunettes to blondes.)

It's interesting that Lawrence confirms that J.D. knocked up Elizabeth Banks, because I wasn't sure that was the case, especially given that there was apparently a two and a half week gap between date #2 and them even speaking again.

Anonymous said...

I loved the two episodes as well, though I am always so nervious about JD's love interests, since they always seem to be guest spots that last a few episodes and then leave. I was crushed when Heather Graham left the cast after a long guest stint, and I'm afraid Banks might be the same case. I guess that's why I'm always rootin' for JD and Elliot, since they do have good chemistry and she's a star on the show [and yes, i know they used to be a thing, then not, then yes, then not].

I esp. liked the scene where the writers made fun of the CoxRant, and J.D. points out to Kim that "and back full circle to the point" when Cox ends up not tellin' her off for not performing the surgery. I also loved J.D.'s reaction at the end of the first episode in the cafeteria when he learns Kim likes him. Very genuine reaction. :)

/vjl/

CM said...

Eh. I liked Elizabeth Banks's character at first, but after J.D. made that moralistic speech to someone he BARELY KNEW about how he was so disappointed in who she turned out to be, both my husband and I sat there with our jaws dropped open -- how much of a jerk can one guy possibly be? So when she confessed her feelings after that, I just lost respect for her. I feel like J.D.'s character just keeps becoming harder to like, even when you think he can't get any worse.

Anonymous said...

What was the X-ray gag? I tuned out the credits because they were pimping out a show I don't watch. Dammit!

Anonymous said...

They were actually the opening "titles"... as J.D. slapped the x-ray on the viewbox, Elizabeth Banks' character appeared, flipped the x-ray and said, "It's backwards! That's bothered me for years!"

Anonymous said...

Thanks, jon & 'mous. I missed the first 10 minutes of the first ep, so I missed that gag altogether. Drat! I hope NBC re-runs it!