day: Islam

Los Angeles - After seven seasons on NBC, the staff of Scrubs' Sacred Heart Hospital has found a new place to operate: ABC. And if the mood of the cast members is any indication, they're quite pleased about their move. Onstage before a gathering of television reporters Wednesday at The Critics Association's biannual conference in Los Angeles, the NBC-turned-ABC cast and crew joked about the resilience of their poorly rated series. "You can't kill this show. It'll go on forever," quips creator and executive producer Bill Lawrence of Scrub's season eight network shift. Without skipping a beat, star Zach Braff chimes in: "It'll be on CBS next year." But it hasn't always been high spirits and big laughs from the Scrubs gang. There's still some lingering frustration with NBC's handling--or mishandling--of the series. In addition to relatively little promotion for the long-running comedy, the show was bounced from one time slot to the next, leaving loyal viewers with whiplash rather than laughs. "I think there is a trend in television right now where if you are on a show on a network for six or seven years, and you make someone millions and millions of dollars, you should be able to end the show," says a still-bitter Lawrence of a fate the network, owned by General Electric (nyse: GE - news - people ), didn't grant him or his series. Rather than let him wrap up his final season and bow out with a series finale--as creator David Chase was allowed with HBO's The Sopranos and JJ Abrams is poised to do with ABC's Lost--NBC abruptly pulled the plug on Lawrence's series following the 100-day writers' strike. Fortunately for the series, produced and owned by Walt Disney (nyse: DIS - news - people ) unit ABC's Touchstone Television, it no longer has to end--and, in fact, may go on even beyond the currently scheduled eight seasons, something ABC Entertainment Chief Steve McPherson said he'd be open to earlier in the day. (Ironically, the prospect isn't far from Lawrence's original vision for the show: to have a comedy version of ER, with new actors replacing older ones over the course of its run.) As many in the blogosphere have predicted, this year will likely be Braff's last. If the series continues in an ER-like way, however, the reported $350,000-an-episode star says he'd be happy to drop in from time to time. "Thanks to Steve , this has been a bonus amazing year, but my sense is that this is my last year," he says of a series and cast he obviously adores. "I hope to be able to visit and direct some episodes and do craft services, if they need the help." Cognizant of Braff's impending and creatively significant departure, Lawrence says he's sought out younger actors, including Human Giant's Aziz Ansari, to take up residence on the medical sitcom. (Of course, with Ansari's recent casting in NBC's The Office spin-off, his future on Scrubs may be up in the air as well.) But even with this kind of advance planning, Lawrence admits any decision about whether to continue the series without Braff will be difficult. "I don't just mean making cash, 'cause I'm fine. Don't worry about me," he says with a goofy grin plastered about his face. "But we've got a family there and a crew of people and a landscape that's not friendly now to TV production--and they love it there." And as for the other cast-members' fate, one has a thought: "I think if Zach goes, Donald s character Turk has] gotta go," opines Neil Flynn, who plays the soon-to-be-married janitor whose name, after all of these seasons, remains a mystery.