Wednesday, January 25, 2006

'Scrub'-ing In to See the Wizard! Plus, Find out which Show Landed on Top of the Nielsen Heap!

Any show that manages to pay homage to something like The Wizard of Oz with the perfect blend of subtlety and the more apparent mixed in without making it seem forced, deserves a tremendous round of applause! What a wonderful way for Scrubs to celebrate its 100th episode! From the moment it began last night, I knew it was going to be good. I know I wasn't the only one rockin' out to Toto's (Wizard of Oz reference #1) "Africa!" I'm a music dork because I LOVE that song, and it's on heavy rotation on my iPod too, JD. Moving along, the episode went from awesome to hilarious when JD drove his scooter into that ginormous puddle in the parking lot! I almost fell out of my chair laughing at him, especially when he came out the other puddle. The Oz references kept rolling in, but some of my favorites were Dr. Cox continuously calling JD Dorothy, JD's ruby red sneakers, the overarching theme of JD just wanting to go home, Janitor's muffled oil can plea, Jordan's "melting" scene (complete with her silicon expanding lips), the man behind the curtain, and of course, all of the characters quests along the yellow brick road. It was pure genius and it reminded me why this show is leaps and bounds above others.

The second episode had a more solemn tone as the Morbidity and Mortality Conference worked to uncover who was responsible for a patient's sudden death, but that didn't stop the show from putting all of the characters into hilarious situations along the way. In the end, it was these hilarious actions that left the patient unattended when he started to crash. Elliot was duct taped to the wall by the wife of a man she made out with, Carla was crossing her fingers and watching the lotto drawing to see if she and her co-workers won, and JD and Turk were trying to get a thank you from a patient (guest star Jason Bateman) that owned several attack ostriches. JD and Turk got treed by a pack of ostriches! It was classic. Luckily for each of the characters, the conference discovered that it was a radiologist's mistake in not seeing a pulmonary embolism on the films, but as Dr. Cox pointed out in the end, they all shared a piece of the responsibility. The ending moments with each of them walking around with the dead patient following them really hit the point home and brought in some of the tremendous heart that this show manages to convey along with all its silliness (like JD's mic trouble during the conference).

The Scrubies
"You never went to assface school, but you seem to be an expert at that." Elliot to Dr. Cox after he calls her on her limited knowledge of Endocrinology because she thinks she's an expert after her couple-month fellowship

"I didn't know what I was high five-ing. I've got to stop doing that." JD after Dr. Cox tells him he made a big mistake high five-ing Elliot for her above comment

"I love religion." JD to Turk after discussing their plans to meet in heaven on the lesbian cloud

"My scooter Sasha was assassinated this morning." JD explaining his bad mood to a patient after his scooter was involved in a police shoot-out

FUNNIEST EXCHANGE OF THE NIGHT:
JD (narration): With the Morbidity and Mortality Conferences, the first question sets the tone for the whole day.
DR. KELSO: Who the hell ate my scone?
DR. COX: That would be me Bob-O, and it was DE-licious! My compliments to the little lady.
DR. KELSO: I made those.
DR. COX: I know

"Oh no Turk, they're organized!" JD after encountering the group of ostriches

"I'm starting to see why Leon outsmarted you." Mr. Sutton (guest star Jason Bateman) to Turk after learning that Leon the ostrich got the better of him

AND THE NIGHT'S BEST SCRUBIE GOES TO.......

DR. COX (to Carla): And the category is.....DING! Things that have a better chance of happening than you winning the lottery. Ted-ski, put 10 seconds on the clock for me.
TED: Go!
DR. COX: Brain transplants, Britney Spears having another hit record, the Rolling Stones going on a farewell tour and actually meaning it, me caring about anything that happens on Wisteria Lane, Jessica Simpson winning an Oscar, Jessica Alba winning an Oscar, Jessica Simpson becoming Jessica Alba-Simpson...
TED: Time!
DR. COX: Oh!

There's a look at some of last night's funniest lines. As always, if you have a line that you would like to nominate, leave me a comment and I'll post it here in a later edition.

As usual, here's the link to this week's Gilmore Girls recap from TVGuide.com's Watercooler feature. Click HERE to read what they had to say about the episode.

About Last Night... Fox easily captured the first hour with American Idol, followed by CBS's NCIS and ABC comedies According to Jim and Rodney. At 9, Fox's Idol continued its dominance in its second hour, followed by CSI: Miami (r) on CBS and Commander in Chief on ABC. NBC's hour of Scrubs landed in fourth. The final hour of the night went to ABC's Boston Legal, followed by NBC's Law & Order: SVU (r) and CBS's Love Monkey. For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.

~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. - The auditions (good and bad, but mostly bad) continue on Fox's American Idol.

@9 p.m. - UPN's Veronica Mars finally returns! Tonight, Lucy Lawless guest stars as an FBI Agent hot on the trail of one of Neptune's most wanted after said character is involved in a kidnapping and goes on the run.
Lawless invades Mars tonight on UPN (photo courtesy
UPN/Warner Bros. Not for use on other sites/blogs)

Over on ABC, Locke begins to think that Charlie might be using again and Sawyer persuades Hurley to act on his attraction to Libby on Lost. Fox moves Bones to its new, temporary timeslot with a case that brings Brennan and Booth to Los Angeles.

@10 p.m. - Underlay is shot and he finds himself reliving the 1996 plane crash that triggered his "rebirth" on ABC's Invasion. Over on CBS, Danny must stop a moving train before it hits a body on the tracks on CSI: NY.



QUICK CUTS

*Cold Case's Kathryn Morris is spilling some secrets to TVGuide.com's Mike Ausiello. In today's Ask Ausiello column, he reveals that he ran into Morris at CBS's Winter Press Tour party last week. She told him that [STOP READING NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED] Lilly's old flame (the motorcycle man that she ran off with, but didn't marry) will show up in an upcoming episode. According to Ausiello, actor Brennan Elliot will play the part. Morris told Ausiello that we will "see a different side to Lilly that [we] didn't expect." She also told him that Lilly will face a serial killer in episode 16 (this Sunday's episode is #13) who's quite familiar with her experience with George Marks last season[END OF SPOILER WARNING]. Cold Case airs Sundays on CBS.

*And finally, it's Nielsen Wednesday! Fox snagged the weekly ratings crown away from CBS last week as more than 19 million viewers tuned in on average. Leading the pack for Fox was American Idol (Tuesday) (#1), NFL NFC Championship (#2) and American Idol (Wednesday) (#3). CSI (#4), Desperate Housewives (#5), Without a Trace (#6), Grey's Anatomy (#7), Lost (#8), Dancing with the Stars (#9), and The Golden Globe Awards (#10) rounded out the top 10. For the full top 20 list, visit USA Today.

That's all for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for the return of Veronica Mars (we can all do the happy dance because it's BACK!!!!) and thoughts on Lost (how cute would a Hurley/Libby romance be?). Plus, all the latest television news!

Don't forget to help Veronica Mars with the $4,000 Shower Campaign! Click HERE for details

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey! I checked out the Watercooler and GG was a repeat Tues. night. I guess TV Guide did get it right. The episode you described is supposed to be on next week according to TV Guide.
I just finished watching VM. Have you heard if Teddy Dunn is leaving the show? It was awesome. I did not see Veronica's involvment coming al all although I guess i should have.

Anonymous said...

Scrubs is so funny. Dang sometimes I wish we were on the same programming schedule so I could comment on the shows you watch. Aw well.