Cult TV show Scrubs was forced to ditch one particular storyline after changing networks from NBC to ABC.
During last weekend’s Scrubs reunion panel at Vulture Festival Los Angeles, series creator Bill Lawrence sat beside a host of performers made famous by the comedy show. Here, they shared some insight into how the material was policed by the network.
With the Disney-owned network newly in control, Roberto Maschio’s sexual rascal Todd was affected by some censorship – blunting his character’s nature, you could say.
Zach Braff explained: “When we moved from NBC to ABC we were no longer allowed to show Rob in his banana hammock. We had to frame above his penis,” with Lawrence elaborating “In the Bahamas episode he comes out and flexes on the beach, and we had to blow up that shot because it showed the banana hammock.”
Braff then admitted that the show’s creator only ever had to throw out one storyline, a storyline that covered the topic of drugs (via Vulture).
“That many years ago they were like ‘Medicinal marijuana? Get the hell out of here!'” he said.
Lawrence then proceeded to discuss why he thought network television is so screwed up; “We had this story about getting medicinal marijuana for somebody who was having trouble with chemo and cancer.
“So to make a point, I said, ‘What if the patient was a virgin and decided they want to have sex for the first time and Carla and Elliot wanted to go looking for a male prostitute for him?’ They said, ‘Oh, that’s fine.’
“We could get a prostitute, just not medicinal marijuana.”
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