My Musical

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“My Musical”
Scrubs episode
"Welcome to Sacred Heart!"
Episode no.	Season 6 Episode 6
Guest stars	Stephanie D'Abruzzo
Written by	Debra Fordham (book) Jeff Marx, Robert Lopez, Debra Fordham, and Paul Perry (lyrics and music) Jan Stevens (music)
Directed by	Will Mackenzie
Production no.	607
Original airdate	January 18, 2007
Episode chronology
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"My Friend With Money"	"His Story IV"
List of Scrubs episodes

"My Musical" is the 123rd episode of the American situation comedy Scrubs. It aired as Episode 6 of Season 6 on January 18, 2007.

1 Episode overview
2 Musical numbers
3 Production notes
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Episode overview

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

J.D. and Elliot are in the park, when a woman, Patti Miller (Stephanie D'Abruzzo), abruptly falls unconscious upon the grass. As she returns to consciousness, she sees Elliot and J.D. singing while testing her vision, telling people to call an ambulance, and asking if anyone is with her; she asks them why they are singing, and then is surprised that she had asked the question in song. She fades out of consciousness as J.D., Elliot, and worried onlookers repeat, in a worried chorus, "Are you okay? / Are you alright?".

As she is wheeled out of the ambulance, the full Scrubs cast greets her in the parking lot with a large-scale musical number, "Welcome to Sacred Heart," led by Kelso. Dr. Cox tells J.D. he believes Ms. Miller is suffering from a psychological problem, and tells him to run some tests and "turf her to Psych." Turk and J.D. approach Ms. Miller for a stool sample since "we can figure out what's wrong with you / by looking at your poo" ("Everything Comes Down to Poo ").

Carla has brought in Isabella, and everyone is cooing over the new baby, when Elliot comes in and announces happily that she just bought a new house. Turk exits with Isabella, and Elliot expresses concern over J.D. thinking he's moving into the house with Elliot. As Kelso pins a visitor's badge on Carla, Ted asks Carla when she'll be returning to work by introducing a soulful gospel number called "Gonna Miss You, Carla," with Carla, Laverne, Kelso, Ted, and the Worthless Peons (Ted's band), in which the various cast members wonder how they're going to get along without the numerous things that Carla does around the hospital, and Carla begins to realize that she doesn't want to separate herself from her work family for so long.

Ms. Miller stops Cox in the hall to insist that she is not crazy, and J.D. runs into the hall to let Cox know that he's now "bumper buddies" with Cox, having gotten an adjoining parking space. Cox breaks into a rapidfire delivery of the litany of things J.D. does that annoys him, which includes a brief bass-voiced operatic solo by the Janitor regarding his immediate hatred of J.D. that "all started with a penny in the door ... ". Dr. Cox tells Ms. Miller that if she can get J.D. to leave him alone, she'll get the tests she wants; Ms. Miller then belts out to J.D., "Shut your cakehole, Mary Beth / or I swear to God I'll shut it soon," and an impressed Dr. Cox arranges a CT scan for the afternoon.

Elliot and Carla are talking with each other near the CT scanner, Carla trying to figure out how to tell Turk she wants to return to work, Elliot trying to figure out how to tell J.D. she does not want him to move to the new house with her. As Ms. Miller is wheeled into the frame, they break into a brief song of "lameass ideas," which stops as soon Ms. Miller is wheeled into the CT room. J.D. tells Ms. Miller as he puts her on the scanner that she'll "have to face the future / when the truth comes out," and Cox enters, expressing his belief that the test will reveal (and prove to Ms. Miller) that she's medically fine and that the problem is in her head. Lines from the individual storylines, and songs sung thus far, combine into a song about facing the future, during which Kelso offers Carla her job back; during a brief spoken interlude in the song, Cox and a neurologist study the CT scans and realize that an aneurysm near her temporal lobe is causing the "musical" phenomenon and is an immediate threat to Ms. Miller's life. The curtain closes around Cox and Ms. Miller as he breaks the news to her, concluding the first "act" of the musical episode. (The subsequent commercial break then acts as an intermission would during a staged musical.)

As the second "act" begins, Carla and Elliot decide to confront Turk and J.D.; Carla thinks that Turk and J.D. will help each other through the respective problems, but Elliot thinks that the guys won't get "touchy-feely." Quite the contrary, Turk and J.D. then sing about their "Guy Love," a ballad about their deep love and friendship for each other ("I'll be there to care through all the lows / I'll be there to share the highs"). Elliot breaks the news to J.D., who walks out of the room refusing to talk to her. Carla tells Turk she wants to return to work. Turk responds by saying, "I always thought family was the most important thing to Puerto Ricans," deeply annoying Carla, who begins a tango called "For the Last Time, I'm Dominican," in which Carla challenges Turk's knowledge of her family, history and ethnicity, and in which Turk agrees he will support her return to work. Elliot catches up with J.D. and offers to let him move in with her. J.D. demurs, and promises they'll be fine — indeed, they'll be "Friends Forever," an uptempo musical number that incorporates most of the cast.

Ms. Miller interrupts the high-spirited song, fearfully singing of her terror that she will die within the day, not having done so many things she had postponed. The group in song assures her in the musical finale to "plan for tomorrow / because we swear to you / you're going to be okay" — qualified by the last sung line of the show — J.D. singing "we hope" — just as she goes under the anesthesia.

When she awakes, the cast no longer sings, and as the instrumental line of "Welcome to Sacred Heart" plays in the background, J.D. reflects in voiceover that after having made a choice, we may miss the way things were — as Elliot realizes she misses her roommate, Carla realizes she misses her daughter, and Ms. Miller realizes she misses the music.

[edit] Musical numbers

The show features ten musical moments, whose titles appear in the closing credits: "All Right", "Welcome to Sacred Heart", "Everything Comes Down to Poo", "Gonna Miss You, Carla", "The Rant Song", "Options", "When the Truth Comes Out", "Guy Love", "For the Last Time, I'm Dominican", and "Friends Forever/What's Going to Happen".

[edit] Welcome to Sacred Heart

"Welcome to Sacred Heart" was composed by Deb Fordham and the Avenue Q composing team of Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez.^[1] In an NBC promotional video, actor John C. McGinley revealed that Cox jump-roped in this number because McGinley cannot dance.

[edit] Everything Comes Down to Poo

"Everything Comes Down to Poo" was also composed by Fordham, Marx, and Lopez.^[1] The inspiration for the song came when the show's medical advisor, Jonathan Doris (referred to by Fordham as "the real J.D."), shared his observation with Fordham that, as the song's lyrics would eventually come to state, stool samples seemed to be asked for at hospitals no matter what was being diagnosed. The number was the latter of two music videos released by NBC on YouTube in advance of the episode's airdate.

In a video blog entry, Marx indicated that an earlier draft of the song featured the lyric "it may sound gross, it may sound crass, but we need to see what comes out of your ass," which was then rewritten for broadcast to "it may sound gross, you might say shush, but we need to see what comes out of your tush." Fordham indicated that working drafts of the lyrics referenced "turtleheads" and other slang for feces.^[1]

[edit] Gonna Miss You, Carla

"Gonna Miss You, Carla" was composed by Fordham and Paul Perry, who is a member of The Blanks, the a cappella group that has appeared in Scrubs as the "Worthless Peons." Judy Reyes, the actress portraying Carla, sits throughout this song because she had broken her hip shortly before filming.^[1]

[edit] The Rant Song

This song was also written by Fordham and Perry. The song, according to show creator Bill Lawrence, is a knockoff of the "Major General's Song" from The Pirates of Penzance, who said "[w]e were mortified because Studio 60 did [a 'Modern Major General' spoof] first. But theirs isn't funny."^[2]

[edit] When the Truth Comes Out

"When the Truth Comes Out" was written by Fordham, Marx, and Lopez.^[1] "Obviously," Fordham said during an NBC podcast, "we were very much going for a Les Mis thing, and it was really important to me to bring in all the songs that we heard up to this moment."^[1] Carla does not march much in this sequence due to Reyes' aforementioned broken hip, and once Carla is seen from the back, she is portrayed by a double. However, Carla is seen marching for a few steps in front of Ms. Miller's bed. When Judy Reyes was filmed doing this, she was still recovering from her broken hip, and this brief sequence was reportedly very painful for her.^[1] The doctor conferring with Dr. Cox on Ms. Miller's diagnosis is Broadway musical actress Karen Ziemba.^[1]

[edit] Guy Love

"Guy Love" was written by Fordham and Perry, and was one of two music videos released by NBC on YouTube well in advance of the episode's airdate.

Fordham had difficulties in composing the lyrics to this song, and met with Perry, who gave her the hook: "It's guy love, between two guys." That enabled Fordham to write most of the remainder of the song. However, she was writing this while sleep-deprived; while she knew that she wanted to reference a moment between J.D. and Turk that would be a fan favorite, she was so sleep-deprived she was unable to come up with any. She e-mailed D'Abruzzo (the actress portraying Ms. Miller, and a concerted fan of the series), asking for, off the top of her head and unresearched, her favorite moments between J.D. and Turk. "And, no exaggeration ... five minutes later?" Fordham says, "She sent me a list of 30." The moment incorporated into the lyrics, when Turk removed J.D.'s appendix, was selected from D'Abruzzo's list.^[1]

Show creator Bill Lawrence indicated that Guy Love came about because "[a]ll the modern musicals like Jekyll and Hyde have these really overwrought love songs, so we really wanted to have one between J.D. and Turk."^[2]

The laugh at the conclusion of the song is the actors breaking character, but it was left in on purpose.^[1]

[edit] For the Last Time, I'm Dominican

"For the Last Time, I'm Dominican" was written by Fordham, Perry, and Jan Stevens, the show's "normal music guy." The song was filmed two months after the rest of the episode, to give Judy Reyes' hip enough time to heal in order for her to perform the tango. Fordham knew she wanted to write a Latin-themed number for Carla, but could not decide on a style; to decide on a musical style, she "literally was on iTunes listening to every Latin style of music [she] could think of [...] and then [she] finally found some tangos."^[1] The song contains a factual error: Derek Jeter batted .309 in 2005 and .343 in 2006, never "three-oh-three."

[edit] Friends Forever/What's Going to Happen

"Friends Forever/What's Going to Happen" was written by Fordham, Marx and Lopez.^[1] "This is the one time I was really shocked when I got the demo back, because I had never envisioned a '50s number," Fordham remarked. "I did mention 'We Go Together' [the closing number from the musical Grease] just as an example of I wanted a cheesy, fun, happy ending kind of a thing."^[1] According to this video blog entry, Fordham said that Ms. Miller's little solo in "What's Going to Happen" was the easiest lyric to write.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Production notes

In a January 2007 interview with TV Guide, show creator Bill Lawrence indicated that they had no plans for a musical prior to the show's medical advisor, Dr. Jonathan Doris, finding a medical case where an individual with an aneurysm was hearing everything in music. This quote, however, is contradicted by Debra Fordham, the episode's writer, in the NBC podcast for the episode; Fordham stated that Lawrence has been a lover of musicals and that during the fifth season, he asked for volunteers amongst the writers. Fordham states that she then contacted Doris, who provided her with three case studies.^[1] (The study used was "Musical hallucinations associated with seizures originating from an intracranial aneurysm," published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings.^[2]) It also is contradicted by Lawrence's January 2007 interview with TimeOut Chicago, in which he stated, "We’ve talked about doing a musical episode every year, but when we realized how much work it would be, we shied away from it,” and only did it when they thought the sixth season might be the series' last.

Fordham suggested director Will Mackenzie as director of the episode since he had portrayed the role of Cornelius Hackle in Hello Dolly during the show's original Broadway run, opposite Carol Channing.^[1]

Lance McDonald choreographed the episode.^[1]

Tony-winner Doug Besterman arranged and orchestrated the songs "Welcome to Sacred Heart" and "Everything Comes Down to Poo."

The NBC podcast commentary for this episode states that although Stephanie D'Abruzzo, Jeff Marx, and Robert Lopez all worked together on Avenue Q, their involvement on this episode was coincidental, in that writer Debra Fordham wrote the part of Ms. Miller with D'Abruzzo in mind after seeing her in the off-Broadway show I Love You Because..., after D'Abruzzo had left Avenue Q.^[1] Marx and Lopez's involvement came later when Zach Braff overheard Fordham asking producer Randall Winston if it was possible to get actual Broadway composers to work on the episode. It was Braff who then suggested the Avenue Q composers. Since Fordham had already written the part for D'Abruzzo, she remembered thinking at the time, "Wow, that's incredibly weird." However, since the official casting didn't happen until after the songs were completed, D'Abruzzo was unaware that a part had been written for her when she saw the article on Playbill.com announcing that Marx and Lopez were writing songs for the Scrubs musical. In the Scrubs production blog [1] D'Abruzzo talks about her reaction to the article, having no idea at the time that she had already been cast.

The ten musical numbers of the episode were created by writer Debra Fordham providing songwriters Jeff Marx, Robert Lopez, and Paul Perry the lyrics to the song, and then examples of songs that were in the same genre as what she wanted written.^[1]

In addition to musical references documented above, show creator Bill Lawrence indicated in the aforementioned Time Out interview that songs within the episode are takeoffs of "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast and Rent.^[2]