It's 'Scrubs: The Next Generation'

Scrubs is back. Sort of.

It's not really the same show. It's just sort of the same show.

And it's sort of funny. Sometimes it's hilarious.

If this was an entirely new show, I'd probably be telling you how promising it is.

But it's only sort of a new show, and it's hard not to worry that it won't be as good as the old version.

"Scrubs," you may recall, ended its eight-season run back in May with an episode titled "My Finale." And it was a great series finale. One of the best we've gotten from any long-running TV show. Ever.

If creator/executive producer Bill Lawrence had his way, it would have been the last TV episode of a show titled "Scrubs."

And yet tonight at 8 and 8:30 p.m. on ABC/Ch. 4, there are two new episodes of "Scrubs."

"It's a completely different show but with some of the same characters," Lawrence said. "It is tonally the same."

In a lot of ways, this is "Scrubs: The Next Generation." Even that might have been a better title than just keeping it "Scrubs," but that decision was out of Lawrence's hands.

ABC Entertainment president Stephen McPherson "wants to keep it the 'Scrubs' brand," Lawrence said.

The new "Scrubs" features a couple of regulars returning from the old "Scrubs." Perry Cox (John C. McGinley) and Chris Turk (Donald Faison) are still doctors at Sacred Heart Hospital — the new Sacred Heart, because the old one has been torn down.

They're also teachers at the medical school across the street. And the new focus of the show is on the new crop of med students.

"I would say it's a little like 'Paper Chase' in a hospital setting," Lawrence said. "It's one of those things we always fudged on 'Scrubs.' We always said it was a teaching hospital, but we never really showed the teaching aspect of it."

The show certainly hasn't toned down the outrageousness. Like when Turk, who's African American, addresses his new students.

"In my class, you will each be graded by the color of your skin," he says. "If you're white, raise your hands. F's."

The new stars of the show are Kerry Bishe, who plays naive Lucy; Michael Mosely, who plays former med school drop out Drew; and Dave Franco, who plays obnoxious, entitled Cole.

And Eliza Coupe, who joined the cast last season as socially inept Denise, is back as another mentor of sorts to the newbies.

The new "Scrubs" feels pretty much like the old one, only with new faces and a bright, new setting.

" 'Frasier' was very smart because they moved it to a new location so it didn't bother you when you didn't see Sam and Diane (from 'Cheers')," Lawrence said.