Scrubs is Done. ER also?

I love Scrubs. I thought for years it was underrated. They were able to pull off a light, whimsical humor-style which takes a lot of imagination and nimble, clever writing. It's a wonderful escapist sitcom.

But it was a show about young students becoming doctors, and now that it's been four years it feels like they're fully fledged and it's time for them to face life changes and move on with their lives.

Also it feels like all the relationships in the show have been fully explored and are very comfortable in a stagnant way, where nothing ever changes and all the gender and heirarchical roles have been assigned long ago. The territory of office and gender politics has been passed over a hundred times and the boundaries have been clearly marked. It's light comedy. There's nowhere to go here.

And then, it was off the air for a while so the audience has put it out of our minds' eye, superseded by other shows.

So basically it's on it's last legs and has no future. The reason it's back on is because none of the replacement shows in the bullpen are looking very promising. Still I'm sure the creators are thrilled, as they've hit the magic 100 episode mark and will now have a more attractive package for syndication.

The only hope is for them to 1) Replace one or two major characters, and 2) Move the characters' lives forward a bit. They should get married and have children. They should go out and explore other locations, like bars or the gym or the characters' parents. etc. Even this will probably not keep this show alive, but it would save the ratings for the last few episodes.

ER is the best-written drama on the air, and has continually renewed itself with new characters for 10 years. I fully expect it will stay alive as the preeminent prime-time adult soap of the last two decades.