Thanks to the magic of Netflix, I recently rediscovered one of my favorite sitcoms of the early 2000's. Scrubs, an early multi-camera half-hour comedy, told the story of the medical staff, patients, and others working at Sacred Heart Teaching Hospital. This is a new classic sitcom, with its unique mix of physical comedy, verbal wordplay (I wish the book of Dr. Cox's rants that JD gave him at the end of season 8 was a real book, I bet it would be a great read), and the best ever musical episode of a non-musical show. It's sure to make audiences laugh for years to come.
Unanswered Questions
By the end of its nine season run--if we include the last, when the show was renamed Scrubs: Med School--we learn almost everything about the people of Sacred Heart, including the name of its university (Winslow University). But with all we know, three unanswered questions remain:
1. Where is the show set (city/state)?
2. What is Janitor's real name?
3. Why does Dr. Cox have such unrelenting hatred of Hugh Jackman?
While these are all important questions, today we are most interested in the first one. There are occasionally shots of licence plates, the state is never shown.
What The Production Says, and the "Seattle Theory"
The actual production of the show was at the decommissioned North Hollywood Medical Center, located at 12629 Riverside Drive, which was a real hospital from 1952-1998 (the site is now the location of an apartment complex.)
The cast and crew has famously said that the show was set in San DiFrangeles, California, encompassing the area triangulated by San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles. This is interesting, but that is an awfully big area of California.
My personal theory, until my Netflix review of the show, was that it was set in Seattle, Washington. I had no real evidence of this. It was a really strong gut feeling. A feeling that was blown out of the water by the season six episode "My Road to Nowhere", in which the gang took a trip to Tacoma, Washington, which is only about 40 minutes outside of Seattle. On the show the trip took all day, so Seattle is out.
A Few Assumptions And Other Ideas
Seattle may be out of the running, but the San Diego area, thanks to Sea World, may still be a viable candidate. Elliot's on-and-off boyfriend is a trainer at Sea World San Diego, and she often takes the train there for the day or to stay overnight.
Detroit may also be a possibility due to the fact that when JD returns to work after his father's funeral, Dr Cox gives him a Red Wings jersey. But I feel that is less about location, and more that Dr. Cox is a Red Wings fan.
Before we go any further, let's consider a few assumptions:
1. The road trip mentioned above started from the hospital in the morning after sunrise, but they arrived in Tacoma before dark. There is no evidence from action or dialog that they traveled over night, so it is assumed that the outgoing trip (to Tacoma) happened in one day and they were on the road no more than 12 hours.
2. The overall average speed limit for the trip is 70 miles per hour. Let's assume that with traffic and rest stops the actual average speed they traveled is 65 mph.
3. This means that the maximum one-way distance traveled is 750 miles.
4. Finally, let's assume that the show was set in a major metropolitan area of California.
Now We're Almost There....
We can now picture a to-scale circle on a map, representing 750 miles, with Tacoma at its midpoint.
Using Assumption #3, we finally have to eliminate San Diego because it is over 1000 miles from Tacoma. We also must, based on Assumption #4, eliminate all of Washington State, Oregon, Canada, and of course the Pacific Ocean.
At the limits, however, we still have the Sacramento and San Francisco areas.
Conclusion (AKA "The Winner Is...")
Based on the above, I have determined that the location of the show is in a suburb of California's capital Sacramento. Not only is this the only Californian metropolitan area that fits all assumptions, we have the additional fact that in all driving scenes over 9 seasons, there was very little driving up or down hills.
Unanswered Questions
By the end of its nine season run--if we include the last, when the show was renamed Scrubs: Med School--we learn almost everything about the people of Sacred Heart, including the name of its university (Winslow University). But with all we know, three unanswered questions remain:
1. Where is the show set (city/state)?
2. What is Janitor's real name?
3. Why does Dr. Cox have such unrelenting hatred of Hugh Jackman?
While these are all important questions, today we are most interested in the first one. There are occasionally shots of licence plates, the state is never shown.
What The Production Says, and the "Seattle Theory"
The actual production of the show was at the decommissioned North Hollywood Medical Center, located at 12629 Riverside Drive, which was a real hospital from 1952-1998 (the site is now the location of an apartment complex.)
The cast and crew has famously said that the show was set in San DiFrangeles, California, encompassing the area triangulated by San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles. This is interesting, but that is an awfully big area of California.
My personal theory, until my Netflix review of the show, was that it was set in Seattle, Washington. I had no real evidence of this. It was a really strong gut feeling. A feeling that was blown out of the water by the season six episode "My Road to Nowhere", in which the gang took a trip to Tacoma, Washington, which is only about 40 minutes outside of Seattle. On the show the trip took all day, so Seattle is out.
A Few Assumptions And Other Ideas
Seattle may be out of the running, but the San Diego area, thanks to Sea World, may still be a viable candidate. Elliot's on-and-off boyfriend is a trainer at Sea World San Diego, and she often takes the train there for the day or to stay overnight.
Detroit may also be a possibility due to the fact that when JD returns to work after his father's funeral, Dr Cox gives him a Red Wings jersey. But I feel that is less about location, and more that Dr. Cox is a Red Wings fan.
Before we go any further, let's consider a few assumptions:
1. The road trip mentioned above started from the hospital in the morning after sunrise, but they arrived in Tacoma before dark. There is no evidence from action or dialog that they traveled over night, so it is assumed that the outgoing trip (to Tacoma) happened in one day and they were on the road no more than 12 hours.
2. The overall average speed limit for the trip is 70 miles per hour. Let's assume that with traffic and rest stops the actual average speed they traveled is 65 mph.
3. This means that the maximum one-way distance traveled is 750 miles.
4. Finally, let's assume that the show was set in a major metropolitan area of California.
Now We're Almost There....
We can now picture a to-scale circle on a map, representing 750 miles, with Tacoma at its midpoint.
Using Assumption #3, we finally have to eliminate San Diego because it is over 1000 miles from Tacoma. We also must, based on Assumption #4, eliminate all of Washington State, Oregon, Canada, and of course the Pacific Ocean.
At the limits, however, we still have the Sacramento and San Francisco areas.
Conclusion (AKA "The Winner Is...")
Based on the above, I have determined that the location of the show is in a suburb of California's capital Sacramento. Not only is this the only Californian metropolitan area that fits all assumptions, we have the additional fact that in all driving scenes over 9 seasons, there was very little driving up or down hills.
