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My First Day

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My First Day

Directed by Adam Bernstein
Written by Bill Lawrence
Air Date - October 2, 2001 on NBC
Transcript - Images
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DVD • iTunes • Syndication
Season One Episodes :
  1. My First Day
  2. My Mentor
  3. My Best Friend's Mistake
  4. My Old Lady
  5. My Two Dads
  6. My Bad
  7. My Super Ego
  8. My Fifteen Minutes
  9. My Day Off
  10. My Nickname
  11. My Own Personal Jesus
  12. My Blind Date
  13. My Balancing Act
  14. My Drug Buddy
  15. My Bed Banter & Beyond
  16. My Heavy Meddle
  17. My Student
  18. My Tuscaloosa Heart
  19. My Old Man
  20. My Way or the Highway
  21. My Sacrificial Clam
  22. My Occurrence
  23. My Hero
  24. My Last Day
   Episodes: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 w • 9


“Since I was a kid, I've been able to sleep through anything - storms, sirens, you name it. Last night, I didn't sleep. I guess I get a little goofy when I'm nervous. You see, today isn't just any other day. It's my first day.”— J.D.'s Narration

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

John Dorian, a young doctor fresh out of medical school, rises at 6:00 a.m.. Commenting that he has been able to sleep through anything his entire life he notes that he was unable to sleep the past night. After goofing off in the mirror with shaving cream, he puts on a fresh set of scrubs and heads to Sacred Heart Hospital. Upon stepping inside and receiving complicated requests from a nurse, J.D. comes to realize that despite all of his schooling, he doesn't "know jack."

J.D. and Chris Turk, his best friend through college, attend a legal presentation by the hospital's lawyer Theodore Buckland. Dr. Robert Kelso, Sacred Heart's Chief of Medicine, enters and tells the interns to think of him as their "safety net." In the break room, J.D. and Turk meet Elliot Reid, another medical intern. Shortly after, J.D. and Elliot meet Dr. Jeffrey Steadman, their resident. Stedman gives J.D. and Elliot their pagers, saying that the pagers now control their entire lives. J.D. then meets nurse Carla Espinosa while helping push a patient on a gurney. In the patient's room Dr. Perry Cox rudely enters and demands that J.D. place an I.V. in the patient. After failing to do so, Dr. Cox forbids J.D. to talk to him ever again. During rounds, J.D. keeps his secret that he had a nurse perform a routine procedure for him. A tardy Elliot is asked a question by Dr. Kelso. After seeing that Elliot clearly doesn't know the answer, J.D. whispers it to her and asks her on a date, which she agrees to. During his break, J.D. fantasizes about marrying Elliot when Dr. Cox walks in and rants at J.D. for paging him for a frivilous reason. Dr. Cox tells J.D. that if other doctors find out that the nurses are doing all of his procedures for him, he'll be fired on the spot.

Meanwhile, Turk seems to be having a great first day. He has made a new friend, Todd, and he is excited that he was able to reach into a person's body. J.D. comments that surgical interns are like the jocks of the hospital, whereas medical interns are "the chess club."

The next day at rounds, J.D. is lost for an answer to one of Dr. Kelso's questions and looks to Elliot for help. She whispers that she doesn't know the answer, but when called upon she correctly answers with confidence and a bit of smugness. While working on a patient, Turk tells J.D. that they should move out of the apartment and find new roommates, an idea that J.D. agrees to, but internally hates. J.D. responds to a page about heart failure. As he is sprinting towards the patient's room, he realizes that he is still too nervous to be in charge. He stops short and runs into the adjacent closet where he finds Elliot hiding as well. J.D. tells Elliot off for back-stabbing him. Elliot says that he would have done the same thing if it weren't for the fact that he wanted to sleep with her. J.D. then cancels their date.

After trying to brag about Turk and Carla nearly having sex in the on-call room, Dr. Cox frightens J.D. by telling him that he might kill someone. Elliot complains to Carla that all of the men at the hospital are disrespecting her. Carla tries to be nice about it but Elliot goes on the offensive, attacking Carla about her encounter with Turk. Carla quickly retaliates by saying loudly that Elliot is "out for herself."

J.D. spends his first night on-call that evening. An elderly patient, Mr. Burski, passes away and Nurse Roberts tells the young intern that it happens to every doctor. The emotional strain of his first night on-call are put to rest the next day when Turk tells him that he actually wants to continue living with him. Shortly after, Dr. Kelso denies a request by J.D. to skip an autopsy and yells at him for it. Kelso mentions that he sees interns as nothing but "a large pair of scrubs". J.D. is shocked, and begins to wonder who the "good guy" in his story is. J.D. is then paged and runs to a room where Dr. Cox is helping a patient. Dr. Cox tells J.D. to insert a catheter. J.D. panics, but Dr. Cox coaches him through the procedure. J.D. then decides he wants Dr. Cox to be his mentor.

As J.D. is finishing his shift, Elliot apologizes. Although he tells himself he can never forgive her, he instantaneously forgives her after she kisses him on the cheek. J.D. then walks towards the hospital's exit, satisfied that he got through his first three days "without looking like a complete idiot," right before running into the glass door and collapsing on the ground.

[edit] Plot Points

  • J.D., Turk and Elliot begin their internship at Sacred Heart.
  • The new interns meet the staff of the hospital including nurse Carla Espinosa, Dr. Cox and Chief of Medicine Dr. Kelso.
  • J.D's feud with The Janitor begins.

[edit] Recurring Themes

[edit] Fantasies

  • J.D. and Elliot race through the hospital. J.D. wears a track jersey with "33" on it, and dumps coffee on his face as if it were water.
  • Dr. Jeffrey Steadman only says "I'm a tool" instead of talking, and later "I'm a dork."
  • J.D. and Elliot appear in a sitcom on the television in the break room, the set happens to be the one from the T.V. show 'My Wife and Kids'.
  • J.D. is a deer in headlights and is hit by a semi-truck after Dr. Kelso asks him a question during rounds.
  • Hearing Turk and Carla in the on-call room, he imagines The Todd watching.
  • Dr. Kelso has a deep voice and flames for eyes.
"Maybe there is a penny stuck in there" —J.D.

[edit] Janitor story

The Janitor attempts to fix a broken door, and J.D. suggests that it might be broken because somebody might have put a penny inside the door's sliding system. The Janitor immediately wants to pin the blame on J.D., and tells J.D. that there will be trouble if there really is a penny in the door.

Later, The Janitor shows J.D. a penny and tells him "I'm watching you." This is the main event which causes Janitor to start picking on J.D.

[edit] Guest Stars

[edit] Music

Music from Season:

One • Two • Three • Four
 Five • Six • Seven • Eight

  • "Away" by Leroy
  • "I Want You To Want Me" by Cheap Trick
  • "Over Me" by Tricky
  • "Please Forgive Me" by David Gray

[edit] Quotes

“I know what you're thinking.”— Elliot
“Your butt looks like two pringles hugging.”— J.D.'s Narration
“No you don't.”— J.D.


“Carla, can I ask you a personal question? Do you spray the perfume on or do you just fill your bathtub up at home and splash around in it?”— Dr. Cox
“I smell nice.”— Carla


“The door's broke... fifth time or so it don't open.”— Janitor
“Maybe there's a penny stuck in there.”— J.D.
“Why a penny?”
“I don't know.”
“Did you stick a penny in there?”
“No, I was just making small talk.”
“If I find a penny in there, I'm taking you down.”

[edit] Trivia

  • "My First Day" is the only episode in which Elliot wears glasses.
  • The patient in the MRI machine in the scene where Turk decides to move in with J.D. was cast as Lonnie in Season Three.
  • This was the only episode of Scrubs not shot at the former North Hollywood Medical Center. Instead, it was filmed at another hospital in Glendale, California. This hospital has since been torn down.
  • The set in J.D.'s fantasy with him and Elliot being married is from the show My Wife and Kids.
  • This is the only episode where the title theme "superman" plays during the end credits.
  • The scene where J.D. does the catheter procedure was shown again in My Urologist with Kim Briggs edited in.
  • In the first scene, J.D. is wearing a Clone High t-shirt, a former show by Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence.
  • In the scene where Dr. Cox is pushing around a "dead" woman, the woman is not wearing glasses when she is in the foreground of the shot, but when the camera angle switches and she is in the background she is wearing glasses. This scene is also the scene that the actors auditioning for the parts of Dr. Cox and J.D. had to recite.
  • Neil Flynn was not intended to be a regular on the show, but because of how well he recited his lines and improvised the line "I'm watching you" he was made a regular, even though he was only allowed to talk to J.D. in season one, because if the show got canceled he was supposed to be just a figment of J.D.'s imagination.

[edit] Title explanation

It's J.D.'s first day at the hospital.

[edit] Images

J.D. is stunned

J.D. races to answer a page

Elliot is J.D.'s dream girl

Janitor decides that J.D. is the enemy

Kelso is very mad at J.D.

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