The Only Scrubs Recap You Need Before The Reboot

Are you ready to return to Sacred Heart Hospital, or do you need a refresher on "Scrubs" before you do? Either way, Looper's got you covered with our recap video above.

"Scrubs," for fans and newbies alike, is a rare hospital sitcom — one that, point in fact, likely inspired modern medical sitcoms like "St. Denis Medical." Even though "Scrubs" is a heightened, quirky, and downright hilarious look at both major sides of the medical profession, with Zach Braff's Dr. John "J.D." Dorian representing physicians and his best friend Dr. Christopher "Turk" Turk (Donald Faison) working alongside him as a surgeon, it also took time during its original nine-season run to address real medical issues like patients without insurance, losing beloved patients, and other realities of the difficult and fraught system. Don't worry, though; "Scrubs" is laugh-out-loud funny beyond its focus on medicine, thanks in large part to J.D.'s overactive imagination, which creates hysterical scenarios while he's enjoying relatively normal days working at Sacred Heart.

So what can we expect from the reboot, which is also led by original creator Bill Lawrence and is set to bring back a good portion of the show's original cast? Here's everything you need to remember about "Scrubs," a beloved medical comedy that delighted audiences when it originally ran back from 2001 to 2010 and which is returning to the airwaves on February 26, 2026.

In the original series, we follow J.D. as he begins his tenure at Sacred Heart — quite literally on his very first day as a medical intern. Along the way and with Turk by his side, J.D. meets fellow intern Dr. Elliot Reid, played by Sarah Chalke, the maternal and all-knowing nurse Carla Espinosa (Judy Reyes), the hospital's chief of medicine Dr. Bob Kelso (Ken Jenkins), a mysterious janitor who just goes by "the Janitor" (Neil Flynn), and, of course, J.D.'s eventual and highly unwilling mentor Dr. Perry Cox (John C. McGinley). 

Throughout "Scrubs," J.D. and Elliot have an on-again, off-again relationship — though they do end up together in the show's eighth and penultimate season, which is also technically the show's final season before Season 9 became a reboot with new characters subtitled "Med School," which is a much longer story — and Turk and Carla find love as well, getting married partway through the series. As J.D. makes his way through residency with his friends and colleagues by his side, he learns how to be a better doctor and a better man to boot, and "Scrubs" also lets supporting players like Cox and Turk find ways to experience growth and evolution as well.

That's all a pretty brief description of everything that happens on "Scrubs," but if you want the full story and don't have time to rewatch the entire original series before the reboot comes out, don't miss Looper's full video recap of all the stuff you need to remember about "Scrubs." As for the reboot itself, it premieres on ABC on February 26, 2025.