Scrubs’ Reboot Finally Fixes a Mistake That Was in the Original Show From the Very First Episode

Scrubs is a beloved medical procedural parody that is getting a new day thanks to the long-awaited revival series that is now airing on ABC and streaming on Hulu. The cast of the original series has (largely) returned, for a storyline that catches up with Dr. J.D. Dorian (Zach Braff) after a real-time span of years since Season 8 of the original series aired (Season 9 didn’t count). After a somewhat sobering tour of J.D.’s new status quo (including his divorce from Sarah Chalke’s Dr. Elliot Reid), fate intervened to bring J.D. back to Sacred Heart Hospital, and his old crew of Elliot, Dr. Chris Turk (Donald Faison), head nurse Carla Espinosa (Judy Reyes), and the other zany characters (The Janitor) who show up for medical hijinks.

Few series get a chance to do things over again, and Scrubs isn’t missing out on the opportunity to right some errors it made as a scrappy young comedy show, back in 2001. And that includes finally righting a wrong made from the very first moment the show introduced itself.

The Scrubs Reboot (Finally) Gets Its Title Card Right

The opening credits of Scrubs were revolutionary for its time: the main cast of characters were rapidly spliced in and out of corridors and rooms of the emergency room, as the camera panned around, thereby conveying the breakneck pace and nonstop work that comes with an ER. The theme song, “Superman” by Lazlo Bane, added the final layer, reinforcing the show’s deeper theme of how a hospital requires the coordinated efforts and teamwork of so many people, from the doctors and surgeons to the nurses and orderlies, to hospital administrators and crew members like the infamous “Janitor.”

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However, all that sophisticated and heartfelt artistry that went into the opening credits ironically ended on a boneheaded blunder. The end of Scrubs‘ opening credits was a reveal of the title logo, via an X-ray of a rib cage. However, those with actual medical training quickly spotted that the Scrubs logo X-ray image was backwards!

That aesthetic error became part of Scrubs lore, both on and offscreen. In fact, the show made multiple in-universe references to the gaff: When Elizabeth Banks’ Dr. Kim Briggs joined the show in Season 5, she made her presence felt by correcting the title logo at the end of the opening. There would be a few more times throughout the series when the title logo issue would be referenced and played with, but the backwards X-ray would remain a staple of the original show.

Now the Scrubs revival is showing that it is older and wiser (and better produced) by making sure that the logo X-ray is facing the right way, from the start. In a featurette for Architectural Digest, Zach Braff walked through the new version of Scrubs‘ opening sequence, explaining the changes that have come with modern technology – including digitally moving X-rays from the machine to iPad screens to observation monitors. In the modern version of the ER, hanging X-rays backwards just isn’t a mistake that happens anymore.

“Now, a funny little tidbit for you guys, back in the old days, it was actually a physical X-ray we’d put on a light box. And somehow, the chest X-ray went up backwards,” Braff explained. “And we tried to rationalize it by saying, ‘Well, they’re interns, they don’t know any better!’ There was a lot of questioning: Should we still have the X-ray be backwards in the new incarnation? But we figured ‘It’s digital, and they’re very experienced doctors at this point, it should probably be the right way.”

Some may argue that Scrubs having the X-ray facing the wrong way was a clever (if unintentional) head nod to the show being slapstick rather than actual medical procedures. But one gag can’t last forever, and this more grown-up and (semi-serious) version of Scrubs isn’t resting on old laurels to make us laugh.

You can catch Scrubs Season 10 on ABC and Hulu.