Tribute to Laverne (Aloma Wright)

Tribute to Laverne (Aloma Wright) by Roxanne McDonald

You really learn to appreciate people and are reminded to express how much you love them when you lose someone important to you.

Okay, I’m talking about a character. A character on “Scrubs.” But I was really close to writing a tribute to the marginal characters on such shows, characters who are undersung, underappreciated—especially when their actors are so damned good.Once you get past the delightfully witty major characters; get over how Turk (Donald Faison) was once Diva Dionne’s doormat boyfriend, Murray, on “Clueless”; move beyond how Sarah Chalke is as dingy as Elliot as she was as Roseanne’s Becky #2; and appreciate the seamless transition actors like John C. McGinley make from Platoon to “Scrubs” or Zach

Braff from “Scrubs” to Garden State to endearing voiceovers for commercials for tp or something …you get to characters like Laverne Roberts and actresses like Aloma Wright.

Wright as Laverne is surly, righteous, and smart-alecky.

She is also protective, devoted, and hard working.

She has the best supporting actor lines, and has the most vocal presence for a character who is in the margins for the most part.

But now she is in a coma and dying [life support has been removed].

We who love Laverne (and Wright) are beside ourselves with disappointment and grief. We are rebelling the killing off of one of the best comic characters in the wings of sit-com television.

And we are hoping she goes to an even better place (the lap of Jesus for Laverne, the good movie parts for Aloma) than “Scrubs”.

If that’s possible.

*Best of luck to Aloma in upcoming (in production, now) feature films–Dress 2 Impre$$ (as Mrs. Baptiste); Love… & Other 4 Letter Words (as Nana); After School (as Ma Dear); and Hurricane in the Rose Garden (as Miriam)…though likely she will be as impressive a film star.

Is Scrubs Dying, without a Chance of Resuscitation?

Is Scrubs Dying without a Chance of Resuscitation? by Roxanne McDonald

A reminder to watch the new episodes of “Scrubs” also brings a prediction that the re-runs will soon be all we have.

I must be watching something waaaay more crucial to my TV-viewing habits, as I adore “Scrubs,” but forget to watch the new episodes as they come on—watching throughout the afternoon the other four or five re-run episodes…. So I am in one sense missing some great material evidently, and will miss the rest if I don’t get with it. Then again, maybe I’m not missing so much:
According to super critic Doug Elfman, in the Chicago Sun Times, the “Scrubs” season opener felt

“like the beginning of the end of itself.” Elfman acknowledges the moderately funny script, but suggests that the show is dying, what with the number of babies and pregnant women and the inappropriateness of their appearance in madcap comedy—where, he says, babies have no business being.

While the renown critic of entertainment for the masses does give credit—to Miller (who plays Jordan), to Braff, to “all the quirky twists” in the writing—he also points toward the possible demise of “Scrubs”, attributing his prediction to the weakening material (how Carla, Jordan, and Kimberly’s pregnant bellies “drag down the fun-loving joke-a-thon of fastly edited visual humor and verbal absurdities”) and to the fact that Zach Braff has announced plans to leave “Scrubs” to direct and act in movies.

Elfman suggests that is “Scrubs” dies, we still have “Family Guy” and “South Park.” I would contend that these shows are not really in the same league as “Scrubs,” but we will still have the five or six re-run episodes a day.

And then there are fine substitutes, such as “Dexter” and “Boston Legal” to lean on for the adult guffaws—sine the babies.

Keep TV Funny, Too–PLEASE

Keep TV Funny, Too–PLEASE by Roxanne McDonald

Guilty pleasures include as many re-runs of Scrubs as your TiVo will hold. But how will other comedy and comedy in general hold up for those preferring TV over Internet castings?

Guilty pleasures include as many re-runs of Scrubs as your TiVo will hold. But how will other comedy and comedy in general hold up for those preferring TV over Internet castings?

My friends and I always confess our latest or longest-running passions for television nobody really admits to being obsessed with. The other day,

I sheepishly commented on having become re-addicted to Scrubs; much to my delight, my buddy said he TiVos every episode, too.

What we agreed makes Scrubs so amazingly witty are a number of elements, such as the unique characterizations, the screwball bits, and the voiceover narrations that deliver tight storyline complete with moralistic tear-jerking observation at the close of each episode.

But what also makes the show stand out and over other comedies (Like Seinfeld) is the remarkably brilliant writing. How the creator(s) know the medicine, cover technique, and bring realism to the many articulate and bright characters (and dialogue) is right up there with the realistic frat boy (and girl) behavior meets uppity prodegy we don’t get to directly witness in a real hospital but are made privy to in this stunning and still fresh behind the scenes setting/comedy.

Bill Lawrence, the brains behind Scrubs, gave an interview to TV Guide, wherein he reminds us that Scrubs—like the few other addictive comedies—is challenged by the networks to the point where they are not scheduled, are cancelled, or are relegated to re-runs on more obscure channels.

“The young folks,” he concedes, now watch their comedy online—if they are so inclined.

But where does that leave those of us who still enjoy climbing in bed, taking with us the Butter Brickle ice cream, and delighting in the thirty minutes of sardonic, silly, so-what antics and attitudes of characters we will only ever get to know this well on our big screens?