Question: Any updates on when Scrubs might return to NBC's schedule?
Answer: No news is bad news. With The Office struggling on Tuesdays after My Name Is Earl, the prevailing wisdom was that NBC would give Scrubs a shot in the 9:30 time slot during November sweeps. In fact, it appeared the Peacock was headed in that very direction when it announced late last week that it was benching The Office on Oct. 25 and replacing it with a rerun of the Earl pilot. But an NBC source says The Office is still scheduled to air after Earl during sweeps, so, basically, I don't know what the hell is going on. But I'm beginning to suspect someone at NBC really hates Bill Lawrence.
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Nothing puts a damper on your workplace Halloween festivities quite like an imminent firing — although I do have a fun story about a woefully interrupted Chrismukkah luncheon I should probably save for another forum. It's a credit to this show that in the midst of all my chuckling over Dwight's costume and the unfortunately vacuumed-up party decorations, deep down I was pretty darn nervous about possibly losing one of these characters. Which is why that cliff-hanger of a commercial break that made it look like Jim was on the chopping block led to this living-room scene: me staring slack-jawed at the television and demanding aloud, "So help me, Michael Scott, if you fire Jim I will storm out of this office so fast it'll make your head swim." And then I remembered that I don't actually work at Dunder-Mifflin, got embarrassed, and went to the fridge for a composure-regaining soda. (While we're at it, let's just get all my humiliating Office-watching quirks out on the table.
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Best episode so far, I think. The guy trying to be Andy's friend was perfectly cast since you could see why one wouldn't want to be his pal, but couldn't help feeling sorry for him just the same. And even though Maggie's am-I-racist-or-not? crisis was done first on The Office, it was still damned funny, I thought, particularly the truly uncomfortable moment with the dolls. (Besides, Ricky Gervais can be forgiven for stealing from himself.) I'll tell you, between Curb and this, my cringe muscles are getting a serious workout on Sunday nights. And I don't mind a bit.
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