CALIFORNIA SHOP

One of the few new TV series of the 2001-2002 season to earn almost unanimously good reviews, the weekly NBC comedy-drama Scrubs was created by Bill Lawrence, late of Spin City. The series offered a skewered view of life in a big-city hospital, as seen through the eyes of a group of interns fresh out of medical school. Zach Braff headed the cast as J.D. Dorian, who in addition to deflecting the patronizing comments of the "established" doctors and the tongue-clucking of the more experienced nurses, also had to deal with the social situations brought about by two fellow interns: his best friend Chris Turk (Donald Faison) and the competitive yet insecure Elliot Reid (Sarah Chalke). Also on hand was the ever-reliable John C. McGinley as gimlet-eyed Dr. Phil Cox, who despite his huffing and puffing genuinely cared about the greenhorn interns placed in his charge, and Carla Espinoza (Judy Reyes), a good-hearted nurse who caught the eye of Turk. Scrubs was supposed to have debuted on September 25, 2001, but coverage of the World Trade Center disaster moved the premiere date to October 2.