A shot in the arm

After watching their show shuffled around for four years, then dropped from the fall schedule announced in May, the cast and crew of NBC’s “Scrubs” can feel good about their work, said the comedy series’ creator, Bill Lawrence. The show about medical residents, starring Zach Braff, received four Emmy nominations Thursday: for best comedy series, actor, casting and multi-camera picture editing in a comedy series.

“Scrubs” developed a loyal fan base and sales of its DVD went well, Lawrence said. But with network television driven relentlessly by ratings, he said, the cast and crew were constantly told they were failing, even though they felt they were doing good work. “It’s got to be embarrassing for NBC,” he said. “They put other shows on the air and they didn’t seem to get nominations. Maybe this will shame NBC to put it back on earlier.”

Kevin Reilly, entertainment president of NBC, called the nominations “long overdue.” But Reilly acknowledged the difficulties the show has faced, some of them created by the network. “ ‘Scrubs’ has traveled a winding path, that’s for sure,” Reilly said. “It’s a show that has been among the best produced and consistently creative shows on TV, but it has struggled to find a wider audience and I think the network has struggled to try and find the best way to position it, and frankly not always helped it. Lots of moves make it harder to establish a habit.”

Lawrence said he understands the business reasons behind the executives’ decisions. In a competitive network environment, “You have to deliver immediately or you could lose your job,” he said. Still, NBC used to point proudly to shows like “St. Elsewhere” regardless of how well they did in the ratings, Lawrence said. The nominations might help get that kind of perception back for “Scrubs,” he said.

“I’m just thankful the audience stuck with it,” said Braff, who won a Golden Globe nomination for his role. “Our whole gang started to kind of give up on expecting anything on nomination morning. It was really a surprise.”

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Merrill Balassone and Maria Elena Fernandez contributed to this report.