Judy Reyes Reveals What John C. McGinley Would Say Every Day Before Filming “Scrubs” Revival (Exclusive)
Judy Reyes Reveals What John C. McGinley Would Say Every Day Before Filming “Scrubs” Revival (Exclusive)
Liza EsquibiasWed, February 25, 2026 at 9:19 PM UTC
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Judy Reyes; John C. McGinleyCredit: Disney/Jeff Weddell; Disney/Darko Sikman -
Judy Reyes and John C. McGinley tell PEOPLE how it felt to return to Scrubs for the revival 16 years after the original series concluded
Reyes, who plays nurse Carla, says McGinley embraced his character Dr. Cox's signature move by creating a catchphrase he said to her every day before filming began
Scrubs premieres on Wednesday, Feb. 25, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC
It wouldn’t be a day at Sacred Heart without hearing one of Dr. Cox’s catchphrases!
PEOPLE recently caught up with the cast of Scrubs as they step back into their beloved roles for the show’s highly anticipated revival. While it has been 16 years since the original series wrapped in 2010, Judy Reyes and John C. McGinley — who play nurse Carla and Dr. Perry Cox, respectively — say it felt like no time had passed.
“It pretty much came naturally,” the actress, 58, shares.
“Just like getting back on a bike,” McGinley, 66, adds. “If, after almost 200 episodes, you can't turn that on like a light switch, it begs the question, 'What were you f---ing doing the whole time?' ”
(l-r) Actress Christa Miller as Jordan Sullivan, actor John C. McGinley as Dr. Perry Cox, actor Zach Braff as Dr. John 'J.D.' Dorian, actress Sarah Chalke as Dr. Elliot Reid, actor Donald Faison as Dr. Christopher Turk, and actress Judy Reyes as nurse Carla EspironsaCredit: Paul Drinkwater/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty
He remembers their first day back was spent filming scenes together, and the moment that the cameras picked up, “We were off and running immediately.”
“All day in between episodes, he would just walk from one room to the other, and that’s the fun part of it,” Reyes says of McGinley, who even developed a Dr. Cox-esque saying of his own: “John would come out of his dressing room when we were on set and we'd run into each other and he'd say, ‘Jude, you ready to go make television history?’ ”
“I meant it,” he quips before Reyes continues, “He meant it. I didn't realize it until that time — so many years later — that we did.”
They both further credit the fandom, along with co-stars Zach Braff, Donald Faison, Sarah Chalke and creator Bill Lawrence, for creating a show that has had such a lasting legacy.
“To be in something that has just a centimeter of traction as a storyteller is f---ing gratifying,” McGinley says.
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Reyes adds: “I appreciated the impact that Scrubs had after COVID and after the writer strike, because that's when the new generation of people were starting to get hip to it. So the 20-somethings would come up to me and be like, ‘Oh my God, I just started watching Scrubs,’ or ‘I just binged Scrubs. It was amazing. I love this. I love that.’ That's been a real eye-opener for me to see how everybody's really responding.”
She even reveals that her 16-year-old recently started watching it, joking that “they are running around the house... quoting Dr. Cox all day long.”
“You never know if people are going to respond,” she notes. “But they did, and that's been magical. The fact that my child is a fan of the show…”
Bill Lawrence, Donald Faison, Sarah Chalke, Zach Braff, Judy Reyes and John C. McGinley.Credit: John Fleenor/Disney
When it comes to returning to their characters, Reyes and McGinley say they are excited for fans to see the ways in which they have changed and stayed the same. Dr. Cox, for example, gets right back into his signature rants, which McGinley enjoyed.
“I love jumping back into those rants, because they're really, really technically hard,” he admits. “And it's hard for me to stick all those words in my head, or harder, and it felt really good to be able to execute that.”
Reyes explains that it is only right that Carla would still be at Sacred Heart, because she was always “absolutely passionate about it.” Still, viewers will see the headstrong nurse navigate some “challenges” at work this season.
“That's the reality,” Reyes says. “And that's one of the things that Bill is good at — embracing the reality within the comedy so that people both laugh and then they get weepy or teary-eyed or even cry, because that's a reflection of what real life is.”
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Scrubs premieres on Wednesday, Feb. 25, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC, with episodes available to stream on Hulu the next day.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
