Zach Braff Shares How SCRUBS Revival Pays Tribute to Late Actor Sam Lloyd From the Show's Original Run

Scrubs is returning for a new season, with original creator Bill Lawrence on board and original cast members back, reprising the roles that made many of them famous.

Zach Braff is stepping back into JD Dorian’s sneakers alongside his real life best friend Donald Faison, who is returning to play Turk with Sarah Chalke’s Elliot. They are joined by returning cast mates Judy Reyes as Carla, John C. McGinley as Dr. Cox, Neil Flynn as Janitor, and Ken Jenkins as Dr. Kelso, among others.

The real strength of the original run of the show (2001-2010) was the writing and the ensemble cast. Every actor in the whole thing was a comedian who could have had a show built completely around them, but we got a whole series of heavy hitters who held their own and brought the laughs.

One actor who will be missed from the original run is Sam Lloyd, who played sad-sack lawyer Ted Buckland. He passed away in 2020 from lung cancer.

When asked by Esquire if the new series pays tribute to this character at all, Faison and Braff were excited to reveal the homage paid to their friend in the reboot. Faison exclaimed, “Absolutely, yes. We do pay tribute to Sam. He was an amazing person. Tell him, Zach…”

Braff added: “There’s a new bar that we all go to, and we named it Lloyd’s Tavern. That was the production designer’s idea, which I thought was beautiful. So there’s a nod to Sam. We love Sam; we miss him. It’s hard to do this show without him.

“He was such an iconic member of the squad. And our plan is to most definitely have an episode that is a tribute to him. Again, I’m still not sure if we’ll be able to do that in this first nine or if that would be in season 2.”

It’s super sad that not every member of the cast will be returning, but it’s very cool that they are able to give their friend a little shout out. I can’t wait to watch the show’s return. Scrubs returns on February 25th on ABC and will stream on Hulu.