Tuesday, October 23, 2007
For the Scrubs fans...
... care to offer suggestions for best episodes ever list I'm doing to accompany my review of the season seven premiere? I have some definites in my head already ("My Old Lady," "My Lunch," "My Screwup," the one where Turk dances to "Poison," the one where JD asks The Janitor the riddle, among others) but there are some open spots on the list. So name your faves and make your case.
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47 comments:
It would be tough to say my favorite ep for comedy reasons, since they almost all make me laugh, but the last episode with Brendan Fraser (I think it's "My Screwup") is one of my favorites just because it was so touching. Legitimately had tears in my eyes at the end. I think what always made Scrubs so good is they could lay on the cheese, mix it with comedy, and it never came out too cheesy / preachy.
Yup, My Screwup is the one where Fraser dies. My Old Lady is the one where Mrs. Landingham dies and My Lunch is the one where Nicole Sullivan dies.
Odd how I've often been agnostic about the dramatic side of this show and yet the top of the top 10 list is going to be dominated by episodes that made me cry.
Besides the ones you mentioned, I love the use of music in My Overkill, and My Best Friend's Mistake.
I will third the vote for My Screwup. What a great episode that was.
But I also have to nominate Her Story 2. That may be the funniest episode they have ever done. Between all the jokes with Jordan in a sort-of coma, and "That's so funny" and Turk's glee at seeing Lando Calrissian, it is just a hilarious show. "Notice she isn't saying 'That's so sad', she's actually crying" "You're an idiot" "Yes I am"
One of my favorites is "My American Girl," the season 3 premiere. Lots of funny stuff - baby Jack's sailor outfit, J.D.'s failed attempts at talking trash on the basketball court ("I heard your sister started drinking again!"), excellent Kelso/Cox interaction, and Elliot's awesome Tom Petty-fueled makeover.
My Way Home (the Wizard of Oz episode).
My Overkill.
The ones that have been mentioned are all great ones.
Greg, "Her Story 2" is hilarious, but I don't know that I can justify including both halves of the Mandy Moore two-parter, and the first half ("My Half-Acre") is an automatic because of the Turk/"Poison" scene, maybe my favorite funny moment of the entire series. (It's either that or Cox with a bad back trying to pick up a pen.)
speaking of Scrubs, I saw Neil Flynn (The Janitor) do improv this past Saturday night. Guy's a comedy genius, not to mention about 6 foot 6!
Gotta say, my all-time favorite is the first Brendan Fraser episode, My Occurrence. Everyone goes for My Screwup, but its predecessor was the first time Scrubs really blew me away. The polaroids and the Guided by Voices really enhanced that closing montage for me. Plus it's the episode featuring JD's talent for naming movies with naked actresses.
My other favorites have pretty much been covered (My Screwup, My Lunch, My Old Lady, My Way Home), so I'm pretty sure I'm gonna love this list.
Alan, I'd definitely nominate "My Life In Four Cameras" just for the sheer creative brilliance of it. Not only was it a sentimental tribute to Cheers, but it managed to mock all the cliches of the traditional sitcom (the guest star Clay Aiken singing and everyone rawking out, the talent show that supposed to save the day, the laugh track, the female characters' cleavage openly displayed) but then it brought it back to reality when the guy died. The closing, with JD eating ceral, watching Cheers, and Colin Hay singing the Cheers theme, reminding us that television is always there to comfort us from real life, was wonderful.
Plus, it has a hilarious beginning, with Turk fighting off Carla's affections to tune of the Sandford and Son theme.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=6aUvzPB7xLA
My 15 Minutes -- Funny (Time to get an EKG, G) and Touching (JD's first evaulation)
My Blind Date -- the near Perfect Game
My Way or the Highway -- A Surgeon and A Doc...
My Interpretation -- "It's benign". "Benign, benign and 1/2..."
My Screwup -- duh
My Butterfly -- great episode overshadowed by "My Screwup" 2 weeks earlier.
My Best Friends Wedding -- Drunk Kelso rules!
My Cake -- Drunk Dan rules more!
I agree with Brandon on My Occurrence. I also love the episode "My Philosophy". When the patient dies and begins to sing and the actress starts in on "On a clear day..." I get teary no matter how many times I watch it.
"I can seeeee, see for a very long way." Sniff.
My Musical! Come on, an instant classic.
I think the emotional ones are the highest because they're the most memorable. Which is ironic because I find "Scrubs" often gets too maudlin, especially in the first season. But when they hit it, they hit it.
Glancing through the synopses on Wikipedia, I'd list:
"My Lucky Night" - even without the riddle, the JD-Elliot stuff is good
"My Self-Examination" - more good JD-Elliot stuff, bringing that to a good ending, and the Turk-Marco fighting leads to a hilarious speech, which leads to a strong, heartfelt speech
"Her Story" and/or "My Last Chance" - You definitely need one of the Heather Graham episodes. Every one of them was excellent, not only was the show firing on all cylinders, but she did a good job with a character that fit in well with the group. The first because of the Eliot-Molly storyline, the second because of the long chase to get Molly, with the Janitor's tricks, the change of clothes, and the kicker of the approval note's contents
"My Cake" - a good emotional episode, with great character moments. (Ted: "Why are we clapping?" Cox: "His dad just died.")
"My Deja Vu, My Deja Vu" - A clip show, without the clips, that allows them to note just how far the characters have grown
"My Fallen Idol" - I know people prefer My Lunch, but I like the second part, where Cox copes by becoming drunk and everyone has to band together to help, except JD, who can't bear himself to see his idol weak
Note, nothing from last season. You might want to include "My Musical", but resist the urge. Outside of the concept, there's not much worth remembering.
Here's my top episodes...
My Bed Banter and Beyond: JD and Elliot get together, and we get to see the implosion of the relationship framed by that one perfect day. Loved this episode.
My Own Personal Jesus: I'm not religious, but I loved how this episode portrayed Turk's crisis of faith. It was heartwarming and felt really true to everything.
My Screw Up: You know. Everyone knows.
My Butterfly: Loved the dual-storyline of this one, with the two potential landings of a butterfly sending the group through a completely different day, and yet it has the same result in the end.
My Best Friend's Wedding: Love this episode, top to bottom. Dramatic and comedic all at once.
My Lips Are Sealed / My Big Move: These episode, with the JD/Carla kiss and fallout of it, are both excellent.
My Way Home: 100th episode that works on every level, with the 'Wizard of Oz' stuff working without being too much or too vague.
My Fallen Idol: Moreso than My Lunch, this episode showing the hard fall of Dr. Cox and the various 'cheer up' scenes is one of the best episode without a doubt.
My Musical: Great musical numbers, great choreography and just a big feeling of FUN!
My Long Goodbye: The episode that convinced me Season 7 was redeemable, this episode was amazing. It singlehandedly revived the season, something the musical episode had even failed to do (as the episodes fallowing it were still lacklustre til this one).
Their Story: Hilarious, got a new POV on a few mostly ignored characters (Todd, Jordan, and Ted).
My Conventional Wisdom: While not aflat-out amazing episode, this was very amusing. The money is in that final scene, which gave me goosebumps. Perfect use of Dashboard Confessional's 'Stolen'.
I love My Philosophy. That's a better music scene, in my opinion, than all of My Musical.
My Choosiest Choice of All has the Polyphonic Spree, which was great, and the Janitor as Security Guard.
My Journey did "Don't Stop Believing" years before the Sopranos.
My Monster: your new nickname is Pepe Le Fritz. Also, it had that great sex scene at the end between JD and Eliot scored to the Coral's "Dreaming of You".
My Old Man had John Ritter, and I love Turk capping the speech at the end in front of the parents (while Cheap Trick's Surrender is playing, which is only the greatest song of all time): Thanks folks, we've been great.
I have zero arguements with any of the above and I'd like to second the choice of My Way Home - really great idea and execution, especially good because it was the 100th episode.
Also, His Story 3 just for the Janitor's "Knock. Knock. Who's there? Nurse Mophead. Nurse Mophead who? You have a mophead." voiceover. It was also a good emotional episode for the Janitor who can always use more of those.
Also, the episode with Ryan Reynolds (My Dream Job?) and any episode with Dan.
I definitely think "My Way Home" has to be in there somewhere. Love the Oz references.
I also thought the one when Jordan has to break up with the mean lawyer (Julianna Margulies) was hilarious, especially the sword fight. IMDB doesn't have the synopsis up, but I think it is "My Malpractice Decision."
I don't remember the name or anything else that happened in the episode but I thought it was hilarious when JD was watching "The Fugitive" and saw the Janitor. Great stuff.
Also, JD and the German dancing to "99 Luftballons" is my favorite JD daydream.
"My Day Off" from S1, which features my hands-down favourite Turk moment - the "I get to cut you open" dance. Every surgeon would do that dance if they could shake a tail feather like Turk. It also contains Cox singing "Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong" like a bell clock, the first appearance of the overly-honest patient, the Fat Albert gang at the Free Clinic, and Neil Flynn ad-libbing the line about his son's play "Town Without a Turkey".
I definitely agree with "My Old Lady" and "My Own Personal Jesus"; I'd add "His Story" for the awesome Eric Bogosian appearance, and possibly the first Heather Locklear episode which I believe was "My First Step".
Is "My Bad" the one where JD and Carla get in a fight? That one, whichever it is. Also, whichever episode has Molly Clock being excited about kielbasa. It was that one that made me think Heather Graham could become a regular on the show, she fit in so well.
I think everyone pretty much agrees about "My Screwup," and I would like to second (or third or whatever) "My Best Friend's Wedding," which is a great episode for many reasons, not least of which is that it has one of my favorite lines of the series: Turk's realization, "You think my name is Turk Turkleton?" Also, Freddy Rodriguez is awesome as Carla's brother.
Count me in for My Way Home, My Life in Four Cameras, and My Screwup.
I'm also partial to which ever episode it is that has "KnifeWRENCH!"
The one where the Janitor deals with the patient that talks with the computer is another personal favorite. I also like the one where Turk, Cox and Janitor figure out how to get the light bulb out of the patient's butt, and the one where Cox has to tell his friend that his son is autistic.
Definitely "My Long Goodbye," easily sadder than "My Screwup." "My Way Home" cannot be left off the list. And I agree that the original Ben episode(s) may deserve a place as well. After all, "My Screwup" was only a pretty good episode until the ending. But I can't believe nobody's mentioned either "My Catalyst" or (especially) "My Porcelain God," both with Michael J. Fox. (Come on, an epiphany toilet? What's better than that?)
The one where they show The Janitor in The Fugitive is "My Friend The Doctor."
Another good one from season 3 is "My Dirty Secret." That's the one Barry Bostwick guest stars as the WASP with prostate cancer, and Elliot tries to overcome her aversion to saying "dirty" medical words. There's an hilarious flashback with Markie Post giving young Elliot an important lesson.
Back when I was OCD in love with "Scrubs," back before the characters became caricatures and every episode was great, not just once or twice a season, this was my guide to all things "Scrubs" and if anyone else is looking to make a list, looking to find out which episode had which song, looking for your favorite quote, this is the guide:
http://scrubs.mopnt.com
That first season blew me away and I'm surprised more people aren't mentioning the Super-Sized-Episodes. Those were, in my opinion, always the best.
Off the top of my head, here are some of my favorites:
"My Old Lady:" Self explanatory
"My Bed Banter and Beyond": The evolution and devolution of JD and Elliot in a single, super sized episode.
"My Monster": JD gets his mojo back to the tune of Coral's "Dreaming of You"
"My Jiggly Ball": The best Kelso episode ever where we see that at the end of the day, Kelso's hardass act, is just that, an act for the other doctors
"My Occurrence": The first Brendan Fraser episode.
"My Nickname": The episode where Carla and JD have a fight over his nickname of Bambi, and we hear Sebadoh's "On Fire" as Carla demands JD tell her that he thinks he's better than her or they can never be friends. A crying shame though that this song was replaced on the DVD set. Scrubs, along with My Name Is Earl, are two comedies that often have great music, that never makes it to the DVD. Hence, why you might want to hold on to your downloaded, TIVO's, DV-R'ed episodes.
"My Lunch": Further proof that "Gray's Anatomy" is nothing more than a rip off of the show, using "How To Save a Life" in the exact same manner that "Scrubs" does weeks later.
I have a strange love for "My Cabbage". It's the episode where Patricia Wilk, the hospital's favorite patient, is finally ready to go home. When Cabbage thanks Mrs. Wilk for being so kind to him (at the very end of the episode), her reaction is truly heartwarming. Plus I think this is the same episode with the flashback of Mrs. Wilk showing Turk how to breakdance..?
I'm genuinely shocked that nobody has mentioned the one with the Air Band, where Turk does his breakdance. It's just about the funniest thing I've EVER seen, let alone on Scrubs. (In fact, I think you posted the link to that on YouTube on this site once.)
Another vote for "My Way Home", which is my favorite Scrubs episode ever, besides Fraser's death. The way it ultimately ties so effortlessly to The Wizard of Oz's theme is sweet and surprisingly and astonishing.
And if you go with any episode from last year, it's the hilarious "My Conventional Wisdom" with the Old MC's Bust a Move, and the single funniest line of the whole season (not a huge feat, since the season sucked, but still), "You, sir, have a problem."
All great choices. A few of mine would have to be:
"My Screwup" - duh
"My Philosophy" - so I like Colin Hay. There's nothing wrong with that. Every damn time I watch this one I start to tear up.
"My Overkill" - of course, there's also nothing wrong with seeing John C. McGinley smash Colin's guitar.
"My Brother, Where Art Thou?" - Dan sacking up to Cox at the end of this episode, reminding him that he is JD's mentor and role model no matter what gets me
"My Cake" - again, duh
"My Common Enemy" - a fun episode for Heather Graham especially as she gets in the cab with her big hat at the end
"My Best Moment" - tugs at my heart pretty well
"My Life in Four Cameras" - that gutshot when they cut back to one camera out of JD's fantasy is awesome
"My Way Home" - anytime Sam Lloyd sings is a good time, but this episode would rock even without
"My Lunch/My Fallen Idol" - you'd think they'd kill off a few more of their recurring patients to get highs like this. Richard Kind is going down this season, I'm sure of it.
"My Own Private Practice Guy" - some great bits with Jay Mohr, and the reveal on Cox's marital problems is well played.
"My No Good Reason/My Long Goodbye" - duh.
"My Friend the Doctor" - I always like when Janitor gets humanized
I don't follow the show well enough to figure out the title to this one, sorry, but my favorite episode (even more than the very touching Fraser installments) is one where our three doctors are each stuck with a difficult decision to make--I believe they're alone on the ward on a night or holiday shift--and each manages to struggle through to a right answer. It's my personal choice because of how, at the end, it's revealed to the audience but not J.D. or the others that Carla had switched shifts to be by their sides. Which was both a pleasant reminder of her sympathetic nature and a nice little dig at the egotism and narcissism of the frazzled young docs--something the show used to do quite well fairly often its first few years, though recent displays have been rather broader and less humane.
I'm probably biased in that Carla's my favorite character, however.
My life in four cameras and definitely my musical.
best musical ever
greebs, it's been mentioned several times and is mentioned in Alan's post itself.
"My Interpretation" with the 99 Luftballoons interludes and Turk having the sex dreams about Elliot.
I don't know about the actual episode, but the scene where JD has to tell the Janitor (after accidentally looking in Janitors window while he was peeing) that he noticed a possible problem on his... er... genitalia..
"Hey..... (realizing he doesn't know his name).... Janitor."
My vote goes to My Last Chance. Elliot's note at the end and Janitor's comment after dumping J.D. in the field (It's been 4 years - how do you not get how this works?) have already been mentioned, but don't forget Ice Tongue and J.D.'s comeback "So's your face." The B-story wasn't the greatest, but it was touching and provided a nice balance to the pursuit of Molly.
The best Scrubs episode is probably "My Screw Up," bu I also love "My Jiggly Ball" because it's a great Kelso episode and a great J.D. and the Janitor episode. I also love Carla's "Her Story" and any episode with Hooch.
I don't have names handy and these might even be the same episode, but anyway:
--The one with "Payback is a bitch"
--The one with Dr. Cox saying people are "bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling"
And of course, My Musical solely for "Guy Love"!
Definitely My Bed Banter and Beyond. The interesting contruction of the epsiode, the mix of humor and pathos. This was the epsiode that first made me think this show was something special.
I don't remember the title but its the epside after My Lunch where J.D. talks Dr. Cox down from his depression. I love the ending with the gang celebrating Cox's recovery.
The episode with the woman from SNL as an ambulance driver.
And finally the episode from the first season about Turk's competitivness if only because it introduced the world to the game of "Steak."
By the way Alan, I should thank you. It was your positive review of My Own Personal Jesus that convinced me to try out the show in the first place several years ago. It's since become one of my favorites of all time so thanks!
Sorry, I misnamed my last one. I meant "My Cold Shower", not "My Conventional Wisdom", the latter of which I hated with a passion.
They've been mentioned before, but I love "My Bed Banter and Beyond," "My Cake," "My Overkill," and "My Best Friend's Wedding."
Oh - and the episode where we find out why the Todd is the best surgeon because the voice in his head is singing "dum da da dum da da dum shiny scalpel...gonna cut him up"
My List is quite repetitious, but here it is anyway
My Way Home - I just adored it. And it makes me cry, for pretty much no reason at all.
My Lunch and My Fallen Idol - gotta have them both. When it first aired, we somehow missed the second one. And is this the one where JD did the PSA?
My Old Lady was when I knew it was better than a soap opera.
Oddly, I like My Night to Remember, as it knows it's a clip show and doesn't try to hide it. Or that part of Their Story, where Todd complains about JD's fantasies and the JD has to find a whole lot of gnomes.
I don't think I can recognize most of the rest by their titles (oh, and My Musical and also the one where that lady sings about her ship coming in, after she dies - what was that one)
My Last Chance is also fun. But not necessarily weighty.
I'd mention My Favorite Mistake, but, quite confusingly at the time, that was a Grey's episode... (and the start of that George/Izzie debacle)
I have almost all the eps on my DVR now (where did I get 139 eps?) so I'll look some more.
It should be noted that on the DVDs, the tribute card to John Ritter has been removed. We checked our home made DVDs from off air, and it *was* there.
My Screwup has always confused me. *When* in the episode does Brendan Fraser die?
My Best Moment in Medicine or whatever it's called - it's sappy for sure, but I really like it. My favorite eps give me goosebumps and this one does that. Especially when Carla says "they really listened to me" or whatever.
More when I think of them.
>It's my personal choice because of how, at the end, it's revealed to the audience but not J.D. or the others that Carla had switched shifts to be by their sides.
I believe that was My Nightingale
and definitely *don't* include - My Road to Nowhere. The only Scrubs ep that actually made me *mad*!
oh and My Rite of Passage - where everyone lets Jordan get "taken" but the druggie. I'll have to watch it to make sure.
maybe something with Michael Learned...
there is also a scene in some ep - Their Story, perhaps, where Todd has to be reminded of his own last name.
oh, the Michael J Fox eps were good. I liked Elliot overcoming her fear and peeing on the root toilet and JD sayins something about no matter how bad your problems are...
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gB9H3h Nice Article.
LnyLP1 Thanks to author.
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