WAITING FOR THE DOCTOR `SCRUBS' CREATOR TOOK HIS TIME TO DEVELOP A QUALITY SHOW, AND AUDIENCES HAVE RESPONDED.

Byline: David Kronke Television Writer

An unlikely sign meets you when you approach the production site for NBC's new hit sitcom, ``Scrubs'': ``THIS HOSPITAL IS NOT OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.''

Give ``Scrubs'' points for verisimilitude: NBC's new single-camera sitcom works out of an abandoned Valley hospital. The actors' dressing rooms and writers' offices used to house sick patients. The cafeteria once cranked out gruel far less palatable than craft services'. And the metal roll-out trays in the morgue still reek of disinfectant and - well, propriety prevents us from elaborating further.

Creator Bill Lawrence and the show's stars love having their own hospital to play in but all still use the word ``creepy'' to describe their environs. ``There's a standing $500 bet for anyone who'll stay in one of those slide-out drawers for an hour,'' Lawrence reports. ``No one's claimed it.''

Humorous, humane

There may be a whistling-by-the-graveyard nonchalance on the set, but ``Scrubs'' has emerged as the new season's standout hit sitcom on the strength of its wryly sardonic wit, broad slapstick and, most of all, its rigorously humane backbone. The show focuses on three green interns - J.D. (Zach Braff), Turk (Donald Faison) and Elliot (Sarah Chalke) - fumbling along their way to becoming competent doctors.

Aiding them - as well as occasionally obfuscating their progress - is Carla (Judy Reyes), a nurse who knows far more about medicine than they do, and the hilariously scabrous Dr. Cox (a star-making role for John C. McGinley), whose penchant for withering sarcasm is as boundless as his ability to hide the extent of his dedication. It's a colorblind series that never calls attention to its racial mix.

Tonight's episode is a perfect example of ``Scrubs' '' facility in balancing its compassionate heart with its eye for absurdity: J.D. encounters a terminal patient accepting of her plight, even if he isn't, while both Turk and Elliot once again realize how precarious life can be and that if doctors have a God complex, then God is in the details: the quality time they spend with patients. At the same time, a janitor threatens J.D. by miming sticking his head on a pike, and in a fantasy sequence, J.D. is crushed by a ton of bricks.

Hardly the usual stuff of sitcoms. ``Everybody in sitcoms is sprinting so hard to be funny every seven syllables that they forget it's OK to be a human being,'' observes McGinley.

``It seems to be able to yank the humor out of the worst situations and see the humanity in people that you've been taught to expect no mistakes from,'' marvels Reyes.

``One of the things that makes the show unique, whether people take to it or not, is that compassion,'' Braff adds. ``That you can have a half-hour comedy that can have comedy on all levels, including broad and slapstick at times, and then have the grace to slip into a compassionate moment. And that's what separates this show from other sitcoms.''

Faison notes that ``Scrubs'' is really about how the characters become compassionate, not just competent, doctors. ``We get defeated a lot of times, but that's what makes us better doctors - I don't think anyone's seen anything like this since 'M*A*S*H,' '' he says. ``And especially right now, I think this is something we kind of need. It's a breath of fresh air.''

Part of the reason ``Scrubs'' works so well is that Lawrence spent almost a month simply developing his characters and their backgrounds. ``Even if the jokes don't work or the stories don't go the whole way, it's important that people get to know the characters,'' he says. ``Other sitcoms' error, even if they're funny, is they never do the groundwork to make you (care). As a comedy writer, one of my favorite shows was `NewsRadio,' and I always tried to get my folks and friends to watch it, and they could never get invested. They didn't care if the couples got together. I said, 'Look at these jokes,' but they didn't care. I'm trying to embrace the sentimental side without being maudlin.''

Balancing the zanier humor with the more contemplative material, Lawrence allows, ``is a tightrope walk. Any time when we mess it up - and I guarantee there will be a time when we mess it up - it'll crash and burn badly.'' Lawrence says he has already scaled back the show's fantasy sequences a notch. ``I like them; I think they're funny, and when they work, they work well. But the problem is when they don't work, they seem like they're wedged in; it sucks the air out of stuff.''

Dream material

All Lawrence's efforts have paid off, with scripts that cast members are anxious to get. ``Late last night, there was a rumor that next week's script would be messengered to my house, so I walked up to my mailbox seven times between 1 and 2 in the morning to check on it,'' says McGinley.

``There are some cases where your pilot's the best thing, and that clearly isn't the case with this show,'' Braff adds. ``I'm confident because they continue to get better.''

Likewise, Lawrence thinks he has struck gold with his cast. ``John C. McGinley, when you meet him in real life, comes off as a frat boy,'' he begins, ``and then you see him with his son Max, and how he's involved with Down syndrome because of Max, and how caring he is with his kid, and he is Dr. Cox. And Zach is so in over his head as the lead of an ensemble TV show - he really hasn't done a lot before - but that shows through, as he's playing a doctor who's in over his head and is overwhelmed.''

Also performing well in its role is the hospital ``Scrubs'' has set up camp in, which is integral to the show's success, Lawrence believes. ``Every time someone's tried a medical comedy, for some reason, it didn't work well with those three walls (in front of a studio audience); it just seems fake,'' he observes. ``It's hard for anyone to believe that it's anything but actors on a set. The only reason we're able to get away with the broad jokes and the silly gags is because the place looks really real.''

Says McGinley, ``This is not on a set on the Warner Bros. lot - people have died in those rooms, and that has to weigh in the back of our minds.'' He adds that the realism makes the cast more natural performers. ``I was in the movie 'Article 99,' which was shot in a veterans hospital, and that was the first time it occurred to me: The one thing you didn't have to do is act like you're in a hospital.''

Live bodies missed

Still, Lawrence, a veteran of the traditional live-audience sitcom (he's worked on ``Friends,'' ``Spin City'' and other shows), admits, ``I really miss the immediate audience response. It sometimes feels as though you're operating in a vacuum here. Not only are there no laughs, but if somebody does laugh, it ruins the take.''

As Reyes notes, ``Perhaps we at one point early in the process underestimated how complex it would be. But it's always a can-do atmosphere - it's never impossible, but it's definitely a lot of work. As we proceed, the shows get more ambitious.''

This assurance has translated into a most comfortable set. Reyes' dog Chulo, glomming a tennis ball, roams the hospital's third floor with a couple of other canine colleagues. Braff makes jokes counting down the show's first case of diva-like behavior (``What's the date? - two days after the premiere''). Actors applaud the crew after the successful completion of a scene. Chalke and Faison exchange playful bumps, the actor's variation on athletes celebrating after a big play, after each take.

Still, Lawrence says, the buoyant atmosphere is merely an illusion. ``It's just a good day,'' he says. ``Come back a week from now and we'll be, 'We're (screwed)!' ''

``SCRUBS''

What: Comedy focusing on the experiences of young interns at a surreal hospital.

The stars: Zach Braff, Donald Faison, Sarah Chalke, Judy Reyes and John C. McGinley.

Where: NBC (Channel 4).

When: 9:30 Tuesdays.

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) To E.R. is human

The creator and cast of 'Scrubs' breathe new life into the old formula

(2) Judy Reyes, left, Donald Faison, Sarah Chalke, John C. McGinley, Ken Jenkins and Zach Braff (seated) portray the kooky yet compassionate medical personnel in NBC's ``Scrubs.''

(3) In tonight's episode, Braff consoles a dying patient (Kathryn Joosten), and vice versa.

(4) Sarah Chalke, previously on ``Roseanne,'' returns to comedy as the ambitious intern Elliot Reid on ``Scrubs.''