Scrubs was one of the many shows whose fate was twisted in last years writer’s strike. The final season of Scrubs on NBC was supposed to be the finale of the series. But   between the strike and NBC’s own meddling, the show ended in a strange anti-finale which left the future of the series in doubt. Something interesting happened after that though. Scrubs exploded in syndication. It is now available on WGN, Pax, Comedy Central and about a million other station in the nether regions of your cable guide. For new fans of the show charmed by the infinite syndicated Scrubs have gained a hero in ABC. The original home 8 seasons ago, ABC stepped in, cut a check and brought Scrubs out of the morgue and back into the ER.

For the two-episode season premiere, former Friends star Courtney Cox joins the cast as Dr. Taylor Maddox. As the replacement for the universally despised but lovable Dr. Bob Celso, Courtney Cox plays the authoritarian new hospital head to the hilt and made me wistful for Celso and his Asian massage parlor antics.

In keeping with tradition, Dr. Cox strips away Dr. Maddox’s intial phony friendliness to reveal a management style that’s a cross between Gordon Gekko and Rachel Ray. It won’t be long before Celso’s back and Maddox is dumped off. Courtney Cox has only signed on for a limited episode run.

As for the return of the regulars, not much is changing except for Zach Braff’s ridiculous new beard. JD is saddled with a group of interns that seem unmanageable, Elliot is forced to deal with her shallow, jerky behavior and Turk and JD keep an elderly man company as he dies peacefully.

In the end, it really is the same old show containing both slapstick and sentimentality. JD fantasizes, Cox rolls his eyes and Carla deals out folksy wisdom. For me, its both good and bad. Always nice to see a show take risks, but given the disjointed nature of Scrubs’ jettisoned final NBC season it was good to see Scrubs pretty much intact. the eighth season looks to be one that seeks to be quintessential rather than revolutionary. There’s definitely some comfort in that, like an old pair of shoes.

At least someone at the Screen Actor’s Guild seems to have some sense. The leaders of the New York branch of SAG want the group’s strike authorization vote to be called off because of the failing economy, and on top of that, they want the contract negotiating committee replaced.

I have to say, I think that’s a wise move. There are better days to have this battle – and sometimes you have to NOT fight, even though you may be justified in your fighting, for the betterment of the people you are supposed to protect.

As an organization SAG is supposed to protect its members. It should also, in my opinion, consider the needs of those that it directly affects, and would put out of work. In this economy people can’t afford to lose their jobs over Internet rights. There will be plenty of time for that fight when the economy is in better shape.

There is an emergency national board meeting being held Friday in Hollywood, and SAG President Alan Rosenberg has asked the New York leaders to attend.

You know, sometimes you read something so freaking stupid that it just makes your head hurt. That was the case when I read this post over at Deadline Hollywood.

Jeff Zucker, the complete and total moron that has decided NBC will no longer make pilots, has now decided that teaming up with the Hollywood Foreign Press to possibly SUE the WGA over the Golden Globes fiasco is a really great idea.

Now, I’ve heard a lot of really stupid things in my time – but the idea of suing a union for picketing is like suing a church group for praying, or suing a little league team for playing baseball.

Frankly, I think even the IDEA of this should result in the immediate end to the Golden Globes. The writers and actors should get together and decide that they really don’t need this one additional pat on the back a year and just boycott the things for life, effectively ending the awards show.

This is absurd.

Now that the strike is officially resolved, shows are gearing up to get back into production. One of the biggest question marks has been the fate of Lost. Executive Producer Carlton Cuse chatted with TV Guide’s Michael Ausiello about what lies ahead for the ABC drama.

As has been previously reported, the team will be producing five more episodes of the show. Depending on your opinon, that could be a good thing or a bad thing…personally, I think it’s a good move. Cuse did confirm also that there would likely be a break of about four weeks between the current run of episodes and the launch of the new batch. While I’m not crazy about this, it’s understandable…four weeks is not much time to get new episodes on the air.

Cuse also revealed that the episodes that will be “lost” this season will likely be rolled into future seasons. There will be 40 additional hours of Lost, as has been promised…it will just result in slightly larger seasons down the road.

Anyway, it’s nice to know that the writers are back at work as we speak, and the production process is once again rolling along.

Last night the WGA members voted to end the strike, so it is officially 100% over. The writers returned to work today, and production should resume on most shows very soon. The most immediate changes, of course, will be apparent on late night television – you can be sure if anything particularly interesting happens, we’ll be covering it here.

93% of WGA members voted to end the strike – with only about 280 members voting to continue to hold out. Thankfully, they were in the minority, because if this strike had lasted any longer I’m fairly certain television would have ended up being nothing but shows like “Moment of Truth” and “Singing Bee” from now on – and my head would have exploded.

On Sunday WGA leaders voted unanimously to endorse the proposed deal with studios which will effectively end the Writer’s Strike. Technically it will not be over until Tuesday when all guild members will vote on it. If that passes (which every one involved is confident it will) then the writers should return to work on Wednesday – which means that some of our favorite shows might still be salvaged!

I’m very excited about the news – as I’m sure you are if you’re reading this – and I’m happy to see that, while this contract still falls short of the writer’s demands – it does make some positive steps in the right direction towards acknowledging online media as the future of television that it is.

However, since this is not yet a deal comparable to a standard television deal for the writers, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a strike based on this same issue again in the future.

Also, it’s worth mentioning that SAG will be negotiating with the studios in the coming months, and they’re going to want a piece of the online pie too – so lets hope that gets settled before we have another one of these things on our hands.

By all accounts, the strike is winding down to a close. If you feel like it’s been dragging on forever, consider this…as of today, the strike has been on for 13 weeks and 4 days. The 1988 strike, on the other hand, went on for 21 weeks and 6 days. If the current strike went on that long, it wouldn’t be resolved until April 13, give or take. Just food for thought.

Anyway…Michael Ausiello over at TV Guide did a great job of making up a strike chart back when all of this started, documenting exactly how many episodes were left for each show on television before their respective productions ceased. He continues that now with what is in store for each show once productions resume. I’ve included some of my favorites here, but you can hit the link for the full list.

24
Expected to return this fall or January ‘09.

30 Rock
Expected to shoot 5 to 10 new episodes to air in April/May.

Chuck
No new episodes until fall.

Desperate Housewives
Expected to shoot 4 or 5 new episodes to air in April/May.

Dirty Sexy Money
No new episodes planned until fall; three remaining pre-strike episodes will undergo some tweaking and kick off fall run.

Grey’s Anatomy
Expected to shoot 4 or 5 new episodes to air in April/May

Heroes
TBD.

Jericho
Seven episodes remain. No additional episodes expected for this season.

Lost
Six pre-strike episodes remain. Six additional episodes could air this season.

My Name Is Earl
Expected to shoot 8 to 10 new episodes to air in April/May.

The Office
Expected to shoot 5 to 10 new episodes to air in April/May.

Prison Break
Two pre-strike episodes remain. Future beyond that TBD.

Private Practice
TBD.

Pushing Daisies
No new episodes until fall.

Scrubs
Four pre-strike episodes remain. Four additional episodes will likely be shot; unclear whether they’ll air on NBC or go straight to DVD.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Five pre-strike episodes remain. Future beyond that TBD.

Former Disney CEO and all-around piece of crap Michael Eisner decided to breach the media black out late yesterday and proclaim to the world, “It’s over…They made the deal, they shook hands on the deal. It’s going on Saturday to the writers in general.”

After members of the media pointed out that the writer’s still have to vote on it, and could reject it, he eventually said, “A deal has been made, and they’ll be back to work very soon,” Eisner said, adding, “I know a deal’s been made. I know it’s over.”

Of course, Eisner couldn’t really end things without a nice little jab at the writers, pointing out that “many of the writers who went on strike are unlikely to return to the same big-money contracts they’d had as individuals with the studios” due to “network cutbacks”.

Nice.

Back on January 30, we ran some rumors that the strike was going to be ending as early as Jan. 31. That deadline has come and gone, but this week brings more speculation. The word now is that the respective committee’s have reached an agreement, finally coming to terms over the major sticking point, streaming content over the Internet.

There hasn’t been an official announcement yet, but the contract could be given over to the WGA board as early as this Friday, with an announcement soon thereafter.

Adding some credulence to the report, TV Guide is reporting that the heads of Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty and Brothers and Sisters are planning to get the casts and crews back together in early March to get four or five episodes to air in April and May.

Again…cautious optimism.

I greatly hesitate to even mention this. As many rumors as there are pointing one way, there are several rumors pointing the other way. But what the heck…here we go.

Virtually everyone who knows someone on the inside of the WGA/AMPTP negotiations is saying that a deal has been reached, and all that’s left is the formal announcement. And apparently today, January 30 is going to be the day that announcement is made.

Of course, those same reporters are saying in the same breath that they’ve heard from other sources that the deal is not even close to being done. For example, TVGuide’s Ausiello:

Nothing’s official, but the buzz is that a tentative agreement has been reached, with an announcement coming as early as tomorrow [January 30]. But it’s hard to tell what’s solid intel and what’s just spin. To wit: In the past 24 hours, one source close to the negotiations insisted that talk of a resolution was way premature. “There’s no deal,” maintained my spy. “That’s just misinformation put out by the AMPTP to pressure the WGA.” But moments before I put this column to bed, I heard from another very plugged-in source that the deal is done. Short story shorter: There’s cause for optimism, but not celebration. Yet.

…and eOnline’s Kristin:

It’s official. Everyone in this town has heard from someone—their writer friend, agent or dog sitter’s ex-boyfriend—that the strike “should” end sometime this week…Despite the rampant rumor that “the end is coming,” a few inside sources report today that they have heard the latest WGA/AMPTP proposed deal has not been accepted. So, let’s hope for the best but…you know the rest.

So…don’t break out the bubbly just yet. But guarded optimism is okay.