John C. McGinley Praises “Scrubs” Creator Bill Lawrence for Being ‘Brave’ with Dr. Cox’s Revival Storyline (Exclusive)
John C. McGinley Praises “Scrubs” Creator Bill Lawrence for Being ‘Brave’ with Dr. Cox’s Revival Storyline (Exclusive)
Liza EsquibiasTue, March 3, 2026 at 6:29 PM UTC
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John C. McGinley in 'Scrubs'Credit: Disney/Darko Sikman
John C. McGinley is proud to represent the reality of working in healthcare.
In the Scrubs revival series, which debuted on Feb. 25, the 66-year-old actor returned to his iconic role as Dr. Perry Cox — who reveals that he has decided to step away from his tenure as chief of medicine and asks his mentee, John “J.D.” Dorian (Zach Braff), to take over the position. In a recent interview with PEOPLE, McGinley shares the importance of his storyline.
“I thought it was really brave of Bill Lawrence to explore exhaustion and fatigue and burnout in a real way for a guy who traded on alpha and being a lion,” McGinley notes of the show’s creator. “Seeing that alpha lion freaking exhausted and toast, and that writers can write that — those, kind of, damaged characters — writers can write richly. That's a thrill for actors to get that on the page, because then you have a chance to maybe elevate that 5%, and now you got something.”
John C. McGinley (left); Bill LawrenceCredit: Julian Hamilton/FilmMagic; LISA O'CONNOR/AFP via Getty
Known for his sarcasm and quick wit, Dr. Cox’s retirement took some by surprise. Lawrence, 57, who first developed the sitcom in 2001, explains that the decision to show a different side of McGinley’s character was inspired by a real-life doctor.
“The real J.D., we based a lot of stuff on, struggles really hard,” Lawrence says. “Now, he's in the tail end of his career as a cardiologist and heart surgeon here in L.A. His name's John Doris. Everybody calls him ‘Real,’ because he's the real J.D. The kids love him. He's always picked as their favorite teacher at med school.”
“But he has reached a point where the bureaucratic burnout has gotten to him in a way that, if we didn't represent it and represent what time does to these people that are so of service, it would be disingenuous,” he continues. “So we knew we wanted to do that, too.”
At the end of the premiere episode, viewers watched as Dr. Cox broke from his usual stone-faced demeanor to express his admiration for J.D. in a rare, heartfelt conversation.
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“The only way that we thought that we could suck J.D. back into that world was for his mentor to essentially say, ‘These young people deserve exactly what you got, and I can't give it to them anymore,’ " Lawrence explains.
Zach Braff (left) and John C. McGinley in 'Scrubs'Credit: Disney/Darko Sikman
Braff, 50, who directed the pilot, admits he “was nervous” to usher in this new era 16 years after the original concluded in 2010.
“I really wanted to get it right,” he says, later adding: “That moment in the pilot is really one of the few moments in all of Scrubs, that moment at the end where J.D. gets the affirmation from Dr. Cox he really wants. It's very rare that he ever gets anything from Dr. Cox.”
“[J.D.] even says, ‘Are you messing with me?’ when [Dr. Cox] starts hinting, ‘You should come back, make a difference.’ He just assumes he's effing with him," he points out. "And so in that last scene of the pilot, when he says, ‘No, you're the one. These kids need someone to do for them what I did for you,' and the fact that he chooses J.D. is, if you look back, what the whole show was leading up to, the teacher handing over the torch to the next generation.”
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Scrubs airs on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC, with episodes available to stream the next day on Hulu.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
