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Season Nine of Scrubs is currently airing on in from December 1st 2009 to Spring 2010. 13 episodes have been ordered by ABC, and they may order more depending on ratings. With the subtle nickname Scrubs: Med School, the series shifted locations to Winston University and the New Sacred Heart Hospital.

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THE SKINNY: Many SCRUBS have been waited with baited breath to see how creator Bill Lawrence transforms the show from a hospital based comedy to a “med school” based comedy, and while at the Summer TCA Press Tour, iF caught up with him to get the skinny.

Here’s what he had to say …

“I tried to change the title of SCRUBS to SCRUBS MED,” says Lawrence. “I felt we had been writing the ending of SCRUBS for four years, because I thought it was going to be cancelled for four years. It’s a completely different show with some of the same characters. It is tonally the same. [ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson] wants to keep it the SCRUBS brand, but the show takes place in the med school. I’d say it’s like THE PAPER CHASE in a hospital setting.”

Lawrence also notes, Sacred Hearts is actually a teaching hospital, but it was something that was never really emphasized on the show.

“It’s one of the things we always fudged on SCRUBS,” says Lawrence. “We always said it was a teaching hospital, but we never really showed the teaching aspect of it. If any of you know the show, we would fudge it and have little classrooms built on set. This year we built a college campus over at Culver Studios and it looks like a Med School. We put the hospital right on campus, much like the UCLA Hospital is in Westwood and on campus. It’s back and forth with 21-year old students at Med School starting their first day of hospital care.”

Of the cast, John McGinley and Donald Faison are full time cast members with Zach Braff “there for the first six or eight episodes,” says Lawrence.

“The only intern who survived last year was Eliza Coupe who is now a regular on the show,” says Lawrence. “I really liked what she did, but 80 percent of the people are new actors. Three new young actors are testing next week for the parts.”

Another comparison Lawrence offers is the transition that happened when Kelsey Grammer moved from CHEERS to FRASIER.

“FRASIER was very smart, because they moved it to a new location, so it didn’t bother you when you didn’t see Sam and Diane,” says Lawrence. “The way we’re going to be able to get through this, is there is a Med school setting and right across the street is the hospital. When they’re in the hospital, you’ll see all of the familiar faces from the show. Whether it will be the attorney, or The Todd or Sarah Chalke or Judy Reyes or Ken Jenkins or Christa. We created a world in which the hospital still exists and they’re still there.”

And there will be an explanation for the Janitor (Neil Flynn) leaving the show as well.

“He makes up his own stuff, so he just came up with an idea of how his character would have left, because he has his own show to do,” says Lawrence.

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