Flash-forward to recent years, where we have yet another group of NBC executives who don't like Scrubs, but are afraid to cancel it, because the folks who originally bought it are now at ABC and would be delighted to pick it up. God forbid they should make it successful. So instead, the NBC execs mistreat the series for the balance of its run.
This season was supposed to be the last for Scrubs. When the writers' strike was imminent, NBC asked the creators of the series to pen a quick finale where Eliot and JD would kiss at the end. They said no way.
NBC didn't order additional episodes to let them finish the storylines. The Scrubs folks are writing them and filming them anyway. Maybe they'll show up on ABC next year. Maybe they'll go direct to DVD. I'm sure I'll see them eventually.
But then there's the fiasco that NBC aired last night as the "finale". This involves spoilers, of course.
Scrubs periodically does some pretty creative episodes. This one was framed as a fairy tale that Cox was telling to his son and was quite nicely done.
It wasn't the finale though. It couldn't have been, as Kelso had quit Sacred Heart, but was mysteriously back as the Chief of Medicine for this episode, which had obviously been written for an earlier point in the season, but held back by NBC to be shown now.
And the near-final point of the episode is that Eliot and JD never kiss, because they're both idiots.
Familiar, isn't it?
But at least this time, that particular bit of nonsense won't stand.