Lawrence Continued Scrubs For Crew

The hospital comedy garnered a cult following after its launch in 2001 but its future was seemingly left hanging earlier this year (09) when lead actor Zach Braff announced he was quitting, and an episode entitled My Finale aired in May (09).

But fans were delighted when head writer Lawrence announced in June (09) the show would move forward with a ninth season, which would follow new castmembers as they train to become doctors at medical school.

Lawrence now admits he had intended to wrap up Scrubs after eight years - but revived the show after executives at U.S. TV network ABC gave him the opportunity to renew employment for workers who helped him behind the scenes for nearly a decade.

He tells TV.com, "Season eight was the end of Scrubs and it still is, in my head. That's how I'm fine with all this stuff. That was without a doubt a series finale and we all thought the show was over.

"I've always followed the fan base and anybody that has been interested in Scrubs. (They say) 'Why would they keep going? Why didn't they just let the show end?' If any of those people actually did this for a living, I'd (ask) the same questions, because Scrubs was over...

"After eight years, we ended Scrubs and one of the heads of ABC said, 'Hey, if you want to keep going and keep a crew of a hundred people still working for a year, you can do it.'

"If a network president, in this landscape (where) there are only six or seven comedies on the air, says, 'Hey, you can essentially do a new pilot and put it on television for thirteen episodes and hopefully people will like it and it'll keep going forward. Do you want that opportunity?', you'd be an insane person to say no."

Braff signed up to star in six episodes of the reformatted show as a doctor training the cast of new students, including James Franco's actor brother Dave.