[ 11. The Scrubs Fansite| Homepage ]

[ The Scrubs Fansite www.scrubs.mopnt.com ]

Scrubs is an American sitcom set in teaching hospital Sacred Heart Hospital, created by Bill Laurence and starring Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke and John McGinley. Each episode is around 23 minutes long, plus advert breaks making a half-hour show. Scrubs is shot with a single camera setup and is strange in terms of the fact that it doesn’t use a laughter track, although in a few episodes the directors have themed the premise of the episode, and sometimes changing the setup of the show, eg. one episode was featured in the style of a traditional sitcom in front of a live audience, and other few were in the style of musicals, featuring multiple camera setups.

[ In Detail ]
The fan website for Scrubs is narrowcasted to the fans of the show and is basically a huge database of the series’ large collection of both music tracks and scripts, of which there are over 130. There are other things on the website, like related links, news, FAQ’s [ FAQ ], trivia, merchandise, Scrubs character personality quizzes, hyperlinks to Scrubs in the media and Scrubs in general. The site is comprehensive with lots of facts, information and generally anything to do with the show itself. The audience is any fans of the show and essentially, anyone who wants to find something out about it. The website itself hosts a number of features, although off-site are many more features, including message boarding. These sites are only made available with the ever increasing internet speeds and home-editing software. This has allowed the fans to show their appreciation to the Scrubs crew and help keep the show running. The wide availability of this website and other alike is the quality of the experience that it brings to the series, as the audience feel that they can get closer and find out more about the series, which also increases their loyalty to the show, as well as knowing that there are other dedicated fans out there, increasing vertical integration.
The Scrubs fansite is a good demonstration of democratisation, reach and a non-linear consumption experience.

[ 10. The Scrubs Podcast | iTunes ]

[ The Scrubs Podcast www.nbc.com/Scrubs/commentary ]

Scrubs is an American sitcom set in teaching hospital Sacred Heart Hospital, created by Bill Laurence and starring Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke and John McGinley. Each episode is around 23 minutes long, plus advert breaks making a half-hour show. Scrubs is shot with a single camera setup and is strange in terms of the fact that it doesn’t use a laughter track, although in a few episodes the directors have themed the premise of the episode, and sometimes changing the setup of the show, eg. one episode was featured in the style of a traditional sitcom in front of a live audience, and other few were in the style of musicals, featuring multiple camera setups. The podcast is available on iTunes and directly from the NBC website with near instant distribution, enabling a wide reach from the internet, and globalised distribution and proliferation due to the global broadcasting of the Scrubs series.

[ In Detail ]
The podcast is narrowcasted at all Scrubs fans, and generally people who are interested in Scrubs and the production techniques involved behind the scenes. In essence it is replacing possibly an article, and possibly replaces, though does not derive from or outdate a special feature on a DVD. The podcast is set to run alongside the TV episodes, intended to be listened to in parallel, and the commentators, usually the directors and the actors, eg. Sarah Chalke [ Sarah Chalke ] or John McGinley [ John McGinley ] comment on the scenes and jokes as they progress on the episode and say how it was shot or what they thought, allowing a non-linear, interactive and personalised viewing experience. Most of the podcasts are of the main characters’ favourite episode, or just episodes that are out of the norm. The main reason why these podcasts are popular is because firstly that they are easy to use and obtain and can be used at the same time as the TV show, giving a well-illustrated set of accounts by the commentators as they can directly refer to the actions on the screen. It also allows the fans to get closer to the show and the production process, making them feel integrated. It is unstructured and completely improvised. These are possible because of good quality recording equipment and high-speed broadband. Due to the proliferation of TVs and internet enabled computers/portable media devices in the home, watching the episode and listening to the podcast at the same time is made easy and flexible.
The Scrubs podcast is a good example of nearly all of the key terms, from quality to reach to convenience and portability.

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[ The Charlie Brown Christmas Special parodied by the Scrubs cast ]