Info:
DVD Release Date: May 17, 2005 (Touchstone Television & Buena Vista Home Entertainment)
Color
MSRP: $49.99
Number of Discs: 3
Number of Episodes: 24
Running Time: 558 minutes
Total Run Time of Special Features: approx. 76 minutes
(not counting commentary)
Languages: English
Subtitles: English; Closed Captioned.
Special Features:
• “Newbies” (Disc 1) Season One, The Writers,
Character Profiles
• Audio Commentaries on episodes “My First Day,” “My
Old Lady,” “My Fifteen Minutes,” “My Blind Date,” “My
Sacrificial Claim,” and “My Hero.”
• “Superman” Music Video (Disc 2)
• “The Doctor Is In” (Disc 2)
• “Alternative Lines: A Second Option” (Disc 2)
• “Not Just Another Medical Show” (Disc 3)
• “Favorite Moments” (Disc 3)
• “Outtakes Reel” (Disc 3)
• “Deleted Scenes” (Disc 3)
My Thoughts:
Put on your scrubs and get ready to watch the quirky
comedy Scrubs for the first time on DVD! The
critically acclaimed show from Touchstone Television
is now on DVD with the first season. The first season
has very good episodes, very good special guests, and
very good special features. So, join J.D. and the
gang at Sacred Heart Hospital for some wacky fun and
you just might hear J.D. talking to himself!
The show stars Zach Braff as Dr. John Dorian, Sarah
Chalke as Dr. Elliot Reid, Donald Faison as Dr. Chris
Duncan Turk, Judy Reyes as Nurse Carla Espinosa, Ken
Jenkins as Dr. Bob Kelso, and John C. McGinley as Dr.
Perry Cox. The show also has many key supports, such
as the janitor played by Neil Flynn. The show airs on
NBC and is from Touchstone Television. Originally the
show was supposed to air on ABC, but ABC passed.
Memorable episodes from this season include the very
first episode titled “My First Day,” “My Old Lady,”
“My Fifteen Minutes,” “My Blind Date,” “My Old Man,”
and “My Hero.” Scrubs had numerous special guests in
its first season. The names are just astounding! The
late great legendary John Ritter (“Three’s Company,”
“8 Simple Rules…”) guest stars as J.D.’s dad in “My
Old Man,” that episode also has Markie Post of Night
Court fame. Both John and Markie also starred in
their own sitcom in the early 1990’s on CBS called
“Hearts Afire.” Other guests include Kathryn Joosten
(“Joan of Arcadia,” “Desperate Housewives”) in “My Old
Lady,” Louie Anderson in “My Two Dads,” Sean Hayes in
“My Super Ego,” Nicole Sullivan in “My Nickname,”
Jimmie Walker of Good Times fame in “My Blind Date,”
Carrot Top in “My Balancing Act,” Scott Foley in “My
Way or the Highway,” Ed Begley Jr. & William Daniels
in “My Sacrificial Claim,” and Brendan Frasier in “My
Occurrence” & “My Hero.”
The packaging is decent. It comes with a slip sleeve.
I’m not a big fan of that, but it is nice. The
Complete First Season and the Scrubs logo are on the
top cover of the slip sleeve, and below that are
Kelso, Turk, Cox, Elliot, J.D. and Carla holding some
disgusting looking green glob in a spoon, which
probably is medicine. The back of the slip sleeve has
six little headshots of the main six characters, a
quote from the San Francisco Examiner, show info, set
info, and the special features breakdown. Inside the
slip sleeve there is a nice case. A nice blue X-ray
of something is on the cover along with the words The
Complete First Season and the Scrubs logo beneath
that. The back of the case has three photos, with
bandages holding each one—very cool! When we open the
case, on the left side we see three inserts. The first
one is the Scrubs Appendix. It basically just lists
the episodes on each disc—nothing more than that. The
second insert is titled “Get the Hottest TV Titles of
the Year!” Shows like Alias, The Golden Girls, Home
Improvement and Boy Meets World are listed. It also
states that Scrubs Season 2 is COMING SOON!! And for
other fans out there is lists Alias Season 4 for fall
2005, and season 3 of The Golden Girls and Home
Improvement are coming soon, too. The third insert is
a chance to win a TV-on-DVD library. No postage
necessary, so why not enter? Then you can put all
three inserts back into the little pouch, which also
holds a scissor, a stethoscope, a bandage and yes, a
chicken. On the right side of the case, there are
three more photos, with built in bandages holding
them. Then when we open the case a second time, we
get to the discs.
Disc one has a photo of J.D. and holds episodes 1-8
and bonus features. Disc two has a photo of Elliot
and holds episodes 9-16 and bonus features. Disc
three has a photo of Turk and holds episodes 17-24 and
bonus features. On the discs they tell us run times
of each disc, episodes on each disc, along with
technical info. What I do not like is that disc one
is on top of disc two. So, we have to take out disc
one if you want to watch disc two first. Luckily disc
three is on its own, so it is not affected.
Now a way we go inside the DVDs! The menu screen
starts off with the blue X-ray shot (seen on the
case’s cover), and then clips of various scenes are
playing while the cool theme song (“Superman”) is
playing in the background. The options are: Episode
Selection, Newbies (disc 1 ONLY), Audio Commentary
(disc one ONLY), Bonus Features (discs 2 and 3 ONLY),
Set Up, Play All. When we select Episode Selection we
get nice graphics and background music is playing.
Episode title and snapshot from the episode are given.
Unfortunately we do not have scene selections, and
even worse there are no chapters. So, if you have a
favorite scene, you’ll just have to fast forward to
find it. The Set Up menu is where you can turn on the
Captions, in this case for English only, and where you
can Register the DVD.
Both the video and audio are exceptional. Then again,
they should be, since this is not old at all. Not
even 4 years old. The video has no flaws and it looks
like it should be. Fans will not be disappointed.
The audio is just as good, if not better. It is in a
nice stereo format, just like how it is on NBC. There
is no turning up the volume for this set to hear
scenes. Keep it at your normal volume, and you will
be able to hear crystal clear sound. The episodes are
unedited and showed in their original form just like
how NBC airs them. The episodes run about 21-22
minutes, give or take a few seconds. The pilot is in
its original runtime of over 23 minutes.
Now get your little rubber chicken and let’s start
dancing, because the special features will just make
you want to! Disc one has a whole bunch of features
underneath the “Newbie’s” option. A feature called
“Season One” runs 2:25 and has tons of interviews.
Interviews with creator/exec producer Bill Lawrence,
Medical Advisor Dolly Klock, Medical Advisor and the
real J.D. Jon Doris, Christa Miller (Jordan Sullivan),
Sarah Chalke (Dr. Elliot Reid), producer Randall
Winston, Zach Braff (J.D.), Robert Maschio (Dr. Todd
Quinlan), and Judy Reyes (Nurse Carla Espinosa). Then
there is a feature called “The Writers” and that runs
over 2 minutes. Has interviews with some of the
people from the first feature and also has interviews
with Donald Faison (Turk), John C. McGinley (Perry
Cox), writer/producers Gabrielle Allan, Matt Tarces,
Mike Schwartz, Deba Fordham; and Ken Jenkins (Kelso).
Disc one also has little features on almost every
character, if not all. Zach’s feature runs 3:10,
Sarah’s runs 2:06, Judy’s runs 1:39, Donald’s runs
1:23, Ken’s runs 1:15, John’s runs 3:32, Christa’s
runs 1:18, Robert’s runs 1:52, Neil’s runs 2:33,
Aloma’s runs 51 seconds, and Sam’s runs 2:15. If
that’s not all, disc one has audio commentary as well.
Bill Lawrence comments on the first episode, “My
First Day.” Lawrence returns but this time with Zach
Braff in “My Old Lady,” and Lawrence comments with
Neil Flynn in “My Fifteen Minutes.”
Disc two’s special features are “Superman” Music
Video, which runs 3:36. “The Doctor Is In” featurette
runs 5:01 and has a sit down with Zach Braff.
Alternative Lines: A Second Option runs 9:08 and
basically this shows more of the scenes. There is an
audio commentary for the episode “My Blind Date” with
creator Bill Lawrence and series star Zach Braff.
Disc three’s special features are “Not Just Another
Medical Show” which runs 6:17. It has interviews with
some of the cast and crew featured on other features
along with John Inwood (director of photography),
Cabot McMullen (production design), Carey Bennett
(costume designer), first assistant directors Paul
Pedreira, Richard A. Wells, and Franklyn Gottbetter,
and editors John Michel and Rick Blue. “Favorite
Moments” runs 8:35, in which the cast and crew name
some highlights of the season. Braff talks about
Jimmie Walker and how cool it was to have him and
Faison talks about John Ritter and how he called him
Donny, but it was cool that he called him that. Ever
wanted to see the flubs the casts make? Then you’re
in luck because there is an “Outtakes Reel” that runs
3:57. And if that’s not enough, there are deleted
scenes that run 10:39. Finally, more audio commentary
from Bill Lawrence, in “My Sacrificial Claim” he is
joined by Sam Lloyd and Robert Maschio. In “My Hero”
he is joined by John C. McGinley.
This was such a fun set. Buena Vista/Touchstone did a
really good job with this. Nothing will probably beat
this, well maybe except Lost and Desperate Housewives,
but this set is overall just well produced. What I
wish they had put on this set was the interview John
Ritter did for his episode. I remember watching it,
and it was so funny. Make sure you buy this set ASAP,
because Buena Vista has already given the word to
expect season two soon!
Final Numbers (out of 5 stars):
Video Quality: 4.7/5
Audio Quality: 4.7/5
Special Features: 5/5
Menu Navigation/Design: 5/5
Overall: 4.8/5
-- Reviewed by pavanbadal on 04/27/05
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