Most episodes feature multiple story lines thematically linked via voice overs by main character and narrator Dr. John Michael "J.D." Dorian, played by Zach Braff. According to Lawrence, "What we decided was, rather than have it be a monotone narration, if it's going to be Zach's voice, we're going to do everything through J.D.'s eyes. It opened up a visual...

Most episodes feature multiple story lines thematically linked via voice overs by main character and narrator Dr. John Michael "J.D." Dorian, played by Zach Braff. According to Lawrence, "What we decided was, rather than have it be a monotone narration, if it's going to be Zach's voice, we're going to do everything through J.D.'s eyes. It opened up a visual medium that those of us as comedy writers were not used to." The show is shot with a single-camera setup instead of a multiple-camera setup more typical for situation comedies. The broad comedy is often counterbalanced by more serious scenes, as Lawrence notes: "One of the things we thought early on was we occasionally showed actual patients and actual people dying and things with emotional stakes, working in single camera, that it might be enough to combine with broad comedy." At the end of most episodes, J.D. summarizes the story's theme in a sequence of shots that show how it has affected each of the characters. Scrubs has been advertised as "half as long as ER and twice as funny." The series has repeatedly featured guest appearances by movie actors not generally seen on episodic television, such as Colin Farrell, Heather Graham and Brendan Fraser.