10 TV Shows That Failed To Stick The Landing

The most important element of a TV comedy is the chemistry. If you’ve got a collection of actors who gel well enough together, then you can watch them do just about anything. After eight years of Scrubs, the beloved medical comedy decided it was time for a change. Gone were JD, Elliot, Kelso and Cox. In came James Franco’s brother and a ragtag group of brand new doctors with whom, it was assumed, the audience would immediately forge a similar connection.

Well, they didn’t. The characters fit among roughly the same archetypes as the former stars - an emotionally distant woman, an optimistic, goofy, but oh-so-talented rookie - but the audience didn’t want to meet a new set of characters. The writers evidently saw this coming, and had the old guard pop in from time to time, as though to ease the transition to the new era.

As it happened, the transition never transpired, as Scrubs’ ninth season was its last. The writing was clearly on the wall early doors, as the show, lately a cult hit rather than a smash hit, was hemorrhaging viewers.

Scrubs ended with a run of the mill episode offered little closure for any of the new characters. In a way that’s a shame, but at the same time, did anyone really care? The Scrubs characters people connected to were gone, for the most part; they had their sign off, and a good one at that. This was little more than a victory lap.