On this episode of Fake Doctors, Real Friends, musician Joshua Radin joins Zach Braff and Donald Faison to talk about one of the most popular episodes of Scrubs of all time, “My Screw-Up.” Josh talks about being a struggling screenwriter in New York with Zach before he tried his hand at music, and how his song “Winter” got put into Scrubs. They laugh about “gay chicken” (which Zach is great at because “I’m willing to make out. If you’re willing to make out, you always win!”), Elliott’s bunion talking to Turk’s mole (which Donald puppeteered himself), how masterfully the episode foreshadowed the big twist at the end, and Brendan Fraser’s impressive physical comedy. Then Lena, a home care nurse from Pittsburgh, calls in to talk Covid-19, witchcraft, and self-publishing her first novel.
Josh was writing hopeful big-budget romantic comedies between catering gigs and waiting tables, he says, until Zach shared his first draft of Garden State with him. “I remember thinking, ‘This is, like, real. This is making me feel something. I’m not doing it right.’” He was writing to sell something rather than to say something. He had never played music before, but he started to learn the guitar, and wrote his first song, “Winter.” Zach saw the guitar in his apartment and asked Josh to play something for him. Josh was so nervous, “I could barely open my eyes;” he even made Zach turn his back while he was playing. “I remember vividly that...you turned around and your eyes were a little watery, and it had affected you, and I thought ‘wow, that’s cool...I’ve never seen that kind of response from someone.’” Zach encouraged him to record a demo so he could play it for Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence; Josh delivered a stripped-down recording he did on a friend’s old iMac. After it aired on Scrubs, the NBC website crashed with fans looking for the song. And that’s when Josh decided to leave screenwriting forever and become a musician.
Lena calls in to ask them who would play them in a Scrubs reboot (Donald says himself, because “black don’t crack”), and tell them about what it’s like to coordinate home healthcare when there aren’t enough ICU beds for everyone thanks to Covid cases. Much like the Scrubs episode they’re discussing, Lena’s call ends with a twist: She’s a witch who cast a spell to be on Fake Doctors! Then Josh performs his lovely song live to wrap it all up. Listen to this episode for all this hilarity and much more on Fake Doctors, Real Friends.
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