‘Scrubs’ Mixes Medicine, Music

“Scrubs” begins its second year of residency on NBC tonight at 8:30 facing a critical test: Can it live up to the expectations that come with its new time slot, after ratings heavyweight “Friends,” which won its first Emmy for best comedy series on Sunday?

Only time will tell. Interestingly enough, that wait-and-see sentiment is also one of the themes with which the young doctors of Sacred Heart Hospital must grapple tonight.

For J.D. (Zach Braff), Elliot (Sarah Chalke) and Turk (Donald Faison), the three residents, the world is full of dangerous liaisons: Turk is having problems with his nurse girlfriend, Carla (Judy Reyes); J.D. is feeling guilty for having betrayed his hilariously idiosyncratic mentor, Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley); and Elliot is literally hiding from rekindling a relationship with J.D.

As viewers have come to expect from the first season, the show deftly weaves bittersweet material with outright nutty humor, as observed and fantasized by J.D. It also employs music as a key element, and in the season opener, former Men at Work frontman Colin Hay appears as a troubadour of sorts.

In fact, the musical side of “Scrubs” is threatening to turn into a cottage industry, with the release this week of a soundtrack CD featuring songs by Hay, Guided by Voices, Eels and many others. The show’s theme song, Lazlo Bane’s “Superman,” is being made into a music video, directed by none other than series star Braff.