[vman41]

They could have built a contest around this episode the way they used to do Drew Carey 'mistake' episodes. On the re-airing, have a little counter ticking off the WoO references.

This is one of their better efforts, the writers put a lot of work into setting up the gags (e.g. cleary establishing that it is a rainy day so you can have a rainbow at the end).

 

[Warren]

I really liked this one

 

[twm01]

picked up on the name of the organ donor?

(Never mind, those that did will be the only ones to reply).

Therefore - for those of you that missed it - the father Turk was speaking with was Mr. Bolger, and his son was called Ray. Nice touch.

 

[Rangers4me]

Very, very, solid episode. Best of season five, top four of last two seasons. I thought they did the references very well for the most part, without hitting you over the head with them.

 

[jeff92k7]

I would agree. This is one of the best "Scrubs" my wife and I have seen in a while. This season has had that "been-on-so-long-that-they-ran-out-of-good-stories" feeling to it. This episode sure broke that feeling.

Then, the second one came on.... back to dissapointment land. Oh well, I guess the good ones wouldn't be so good if there weren't boring ones to contrast against.

Jeff

 

[JDHutt25]

picked up on the name of the organ donor?

(Never mind, those that did will be the only ones to reply).

Therefore - for those of you that missed it - the father Turk was speaking with was Mr. Bolger, and his son was called Ray. Nice touch.

The wife and I picked up on it immediately. Nice touch.

 

[MikeCC]

I would agree. This is one of the best "Scrubs" my wife and I have seen in a while. This season has had that "been-on-so-long-that-they-ran-out-of-good-stories" feeling to it. This episode sure broke that feeling.

Then, the second one came on.... back to dissapointment land. Oh well, I guess the good ones wouldn't be so good if there weren't boring ones to contrast against.

Jeff

Or the bad ones wouldn't seem so bad if they didn't have the good ones to be contrasted to...

All seriousness aside ( ) ...

The folks at Scrubs just set the bar pretty high. Compare one episode against another, and you can be disappointed. Compare it against another show, that's something else again.

I find Scrubs in a class pretty much by itself, with both lighthearted humor and some tendencies to zany over-the-top humor in almost every episode. Scrubs is funnier than many of the comedies out there; but not every episode is a gem.

 

[DPF]

Really enjoyed this one too. The setups were great, and I did pick up on the Bolger fairly early, but I missed the late addition of the son's name being Ray. Overall a great episode. I enjoyed the second as well, and althpugh it should be saved for another thread, I was doubled over laughing during the second when Turk said "And he look my hat!" and you saw the ostrich come in the background. I was dyin'.

-DPF

 

[AccidenT]

I loved the heaven/hell exchange between JD and Turk:

"I've thought a lot about you dying"
"Oh, because you think I'm going to die before you because of my diabetes?"
"Yeah, and where are we going to meet up in heaven?"
"At the milkshake pool on the lesbian cloud!"


"And if someone tried to get me to pull the plug on you without being completely honest with you, where would they end up?"
"In hell, watching 'The View'!"
"Yep, right next to the super-tall unreachable cupcake table"

 

[mrpantstm]

I was sorta eh about most of the jokes in this episode but the WoO references were excellently done. Just kind of obvious enough for you to pick up on them. No flying monkeys, thankfully.

 

[Jonathan_S]

I can't believe how long it took me to realized that the red painted sneakers were a ruby slippers reference. (Didn't even think about it until they basically hit you over the head with it during the pan to see the rainbow shot).

And I even thought about J.D. doing the click your heels, "There's no place like home" bit, and still didn't realize he had on the ruby slippers...

Fun episode though.

 

[dtle]

Here's another reference that most people would not get. The dying son's name is Ray Bulger. That's also the name of the actor who played the Tin Man.

(I have to give credit to Chris Berman on NFL Primetime for making me aware of this fact. He was always making fun of the Rams QB Mark Bulger.)

Isn't Mortality & Morbidity (M&M) supposed to be a learning lecture, not to place to blame on anyone?

 

[JDHutt25]

Here's another reference that most people would not get. The dying son's name is Ray Bulger. That's also the name of the actor who played the Tin Man.

(I have to give credit to Chris Berman on NFL Primetime for making me aware of this fact. He was always making fun of the Rams QB Mark Bulger.)

Isn't Mortality & Morbidity (M&M) supposed to be a learning lecture, not to place to blame on anyone?

SOME sure did get the reference.

 

[MitchO]

dtle: Half the posts on this thread already say that they got the Ray Bulger reference (for the record, we got it in my household, too). The one reference I didn't get until they hammered it home later in the show was "Toto" ... I already knew that JD was a big Journey fan.

Does anyone know if there is a list out there of girl's names that Cox has called JD? I remember reading somewhere that he's never used the same name twice, but in yet another blatant reference, he called JD "Dorothy" at both the beginning and the end of the ep.

I like Jack turning green, tho I was waiting for something Munchkin-related to be part of that joke.

 

[TeeSee]

Actually, Ray Bolger played the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz. Shouldn't the patient have been named Jack Haley? That's who played the Tin Man, who needed a heart. Ray Bolger's Scarecrow needed a brain.

 

[cmontyburns]

Here's another reference that most people would not get. The dying son's name is Ray Bulger. That's also the name of the actor who played the Tin Man.

Actually, it's Ray Bolger, and he played Scarecrow.

I loved this episode. I agree that it wasn't the funniest episode, but I don't think they were going for that, necessarily. It was just exceptionally clever. This sort of thing really separates Scrubs from any other show (comedy, anyway) on television. I can't think of another one that would even do an epsiode like this, let alone pull it off so expertly.

I had to watch it twice to make sure I caught all the Wizard of Oz references, and I'm still not sure I did. My two favorites: Todd, on getting back from the zoo (sent there by Nurse Roberts at the request of Turk!), saying he saw "lions and tigers and bears" -- then, seeing a hot girl in the hallway -- "oh my!"; and Janitor, working on a door hinge with a screwdriver in his mouth, barely able to ask for "oil can! oil can!" -- just as the Tin Man did when Dorothy first encountered him. Oh OK, and Cox talking about the mop of straw-colored hair on Elliott's head, and of course she represented Scarecrow in this ep. Oh, and...

Nice direction by Zach Braff, by the way.

 

[vman41]

Did the Sacred Heart sign J.D. scootered past always say east wing entrance?

 

[vman41]

Actually, Ray Bolger played the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz. Shouldn't the patient have been named Jack Haley? That's who played the Tin Man, who needed a heart. Ray Bolger's Scarecrow needed a brain.

The patient Ray Bolger was brain dead, they wanted to transplant his heart to someone else.

 

[TeeSee]

The patient Ray Bolger was brain dead

I can relate right now.

 

[DPF]

Until this reread of this thread-

Missed the Ruby slippers

Missed the Toto

Missed the Ray Bolger/braindead connection

/not very bright

-DPF