Has a sitcom ever overcome jumping the shark?

Scrubs has. And then some. After the debacle that was the seventh season, with stupid plotlines and jokes that have totally run their course (JD being so neurotic and effeminate that he became borderline gay), Bill Lawrence takes his single-camera medical comedy to ABC where it belongs.

I’ve loved Scrubs since the first season. My love had to be rekindled for it when the DVD’s came out because NBC moved Scrubs from Tuesday to Thursday and back and forth so many times in the first three years that I couldn’t keep up. But I loved it and I tried to keep in touch with it. There is so many things to like about it, but most of all, every character exhibits at least one flaw that I see in myself so it’s very easy to become emotionally invested.

This concept jumped the shark the seventh season. You could almost feel the tension between Lawrence and NBC in the writing. NBC didn’t want to keep Scrubs anymore and Lawrence felt like he was getting the shaft. It was as if the seventh was gonna be the last. The writers strike enhanced it ten-fold.

Season eight has re-ignited the fire that I had for Scrubs. It’s like a whole new show. The gags have decreased a bit while we get invested in new characters (the new interns, Ted’s girlfriend) and the other character’s storylines wind down.

After the abomination that was the seventh season and the talent of the writing staff, it’s easy to think that Scrubs could reinvent itself and get back on it’s feet. The causes of abomination causes me to wonder, did Scrubs jump the shark in the first place?

Tags: abc, donald faison, john c mcginley, sarah chalke, scrubs, sitcom, zach braff

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 15th, 2009 at 9:30 pm and is filed under television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.