My Musical

"My Musical"
Season	Six
Episode	Six
Writer	Debra Fordham
Director	Will Mackenzie
Air date	January 18, 2007

“Why are you singing? Wait, why am I singing?”— Patti Miller

My Musical is the sixth episode of Scrubs' sixth season. A new patient, Patti Miller, sees and hears everyone around her singing, even though they are actually just talking. Carla wants to leave work to look after Izzy, to Turk's happiness, but she then has some second thoughts while Elliot is moving into her new house, but realizes that J.D. wants to move in with her too.

Synopsis

J.D. and Turk sing.

J.D. and Elliot are in the park when a woman, Patti Miller, behind them faints. When she wakes up she realizes that everyone, including herself, is singing. They take her to the hospital where everyone is still singing, when in reality people are just having normal conversations. J.D. does some tests on her to find out why she is singing, but Dr. Cox believes it is just because she is crazy and refuses to perform extensive tests, but when she expresses her annoyances at J.D., Dr. Cox changes his mind about the tests. After another song in her head, Dr. Cox finds out Patti hears everyone singing because she has an aneurysm, a fatal condition. Meanwhile, Carla works out that staying home and looking after Izzy would work out better than if Carla went back to work and hired a nanny, which makes Turk very excited. But after everyone expresses how they will miss her, Carla has some second-thoughts about leaving her job. Elliot finds a new apartment to move into, but finds out J.D. wants to move in with her, but Elliot doesn't want that to happen.

The staff sings to Patti.

Elliot and Carla are thinking of how to break their news to J.D. and Turk, who are in another room 'singing' about their "guy love" for each other. Once the two finish their song, they meet Elliot and Carla who both break the news to them. J.D. deals with his news by ignoring Elliot and walking off, while Turk storms off and accidentally calls Carla Puerto Rican, despite her being Dominican. Carla tells Turk that he knows nothing about her, and that she still is going to return to work, but Turk supports this. Elliot then asks J.D. if he would like to move in with her, but he decides he won't, but says that they're still good friends. Patti is then scared about her aneurysm but after surgery, she is luckily cured and everyone stops singing. Despite this good news, Elliot still misses J.D. when she's at home, Carla misses Izzy when she returns to work and Patti misses the singing in her head.

The Worthless Peons sing to Carla.

Recurring Themes

Janitor sings "The Rant Song".

Fantasies

The majority of the episode is a semi-fantasy, as Patti sees everyone singing. However, J.D. does not have any fantasies.

Janitor story

• Janitor sings in "The Rant Song", about how J.D. annoys him and after the 'penny in the door' incident, he wants revenge on J.D..

J.D.'s Girls Names

• Dr. Cox lists during "The Rant Song" some of the names he has called J.D..

“So now that is why I call you names like Carol, Jane, and Sue. Like Moesha, Kim, and Lillian, Suzanne and Betty-Lou”— Dr. Cox, The Rant Song

• During "The Rant Song", Patti calls J.D. "Mary-Beth".

“Shut your cake-hole, Mary-Beth, or I swear to God I'll shut it soon!”— Patti

Guest Stars

Stephanie D'Abruzzo as Patti Miller.

• Stephanie D'Abruzzo as Patti Miller
• Karen Ziemba as Radiologist
• Adam Hunter as Patient #3
• Kym Hoy as Patient #1
• Jennifer Leigh Warren as Patient #2
• Paul F. Perry as Randall
• Philip McNiven as Roy
• George Miserlis as Crispin
• Mike Schwartz as Lloyd Slawski
• Troy Christian as Paramedic (uncredited)
• Gordon Hart as Dancer (uncredited)

Music

     ♫ List of music featured in Scrubs

"My Musical" Soundtrack

Full list: Category:Songs from My Musical

See also: "My Musical" Soundtrack

• "Are You Okay? Are You Alright?" - J.D., Elliot and Ms. Miller
• "Welcome to Sacred Heart" - Cast of Scrubs
• "Everything Comes Down to Poo" - J.D., Turk and Nurses
• "Gonna Miss You Carla" - Carla, Ted's Band and some of the cast
• "The Rant Song" - Dr. Cox, Ms. Miller, J.D. and Janitor
• "When The Truth Comes Out" - Cast of Scrubs
• "Guy Love" - Turk and J.D.
• "For The Last Time I'm Dominican" - Turk and Carla
• "Friends Forever" - Elliot, J.D., Turk, Dr. Kelso, and Sacred Heart staff
• "What's Going to Happen?" - Cast of Scrubs

Quotes

Is there someone here with you?

“Okay, so, if we check my salary and subtract the cost of a full-time nanny plus her health assurance, we'll be still ending up with...LOSING five dollars a month?”— Carla

“This is completely your decision, I don't care one way or the other...”— Turk

“Maybe I'll try staying home with Izzy for a year...”

“Yes! YEEEEEES!! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!”

“If you want to know what's wrong, don't sit and act so cool. Be a man and eat some bran and drop the kids off at the pool.”— Turk

Welcome to Sacred Heart!

“Why are you singing? Wait, why am I singing?”— Patti Miller

“All across the nation, we trust in defecation!”— J.D.

“Do you have a hemorrhoid, or is it rectal cancer? When you flush your dookie down, you flush away the answer!”— Turk

“The mind's a freaky thing, Elliot, maybe she does hear singing.”— J.D.

“Yeah, well I haven't sung since the sixth grade talent show when I did Pat Benatar's "Hell is for Children". Then afterwards, Mr. Shemin, the M.C. said "No, Hell is for everyone who just had to hear you sing that song". My mom was so mad at him she slept with him and ruined his marriage.”— Elliot

Am I still singing?

“We cannot find anything that explains why she's hearing music.”— J.D.

“No? How about this for an explanation? She's cuckoo-pants.”— Dr. Cox

“Dr. Cox huge news! I pulled some strings! And got the parking spot right behind YOURS! Bumper Buddies!”— J.D.

Trivia

I could buy him his own place...

That's why our matching bracelets say "Turk" and "J.D."!

• When J.D. claims Elliot is closer to 40 than 30, she states she is actually 29. This would make her approximately two years younger than J.D.
• In the song "Welcome to Sacred Heart", the young man with the STD bears a striking resemblance to Joey from Friends, possibly as a reference to the character.
• This episode marks the first time when Janitor confirms what had been suspected for years: that his hatred for J.D. stems from the penny in the door in the first episode.
• This episode is reviewed and discussed in the podcast episode #207 Musical TV Episodes Get Broadwaysted!

Production

• Judy Reyes had a broken pelvis at the time of filming so she is sitting for most of the episode. During the song "When The Truth Comes Out", her body double is used for the rear shots of her marching. The tango, for "For the Last Time, I'm Dominican", was filmed approximately two months later.
• Debra Fordham consulted Dr. Jonathan Doris for medical reasons why Patti Miller maybe hearing singing and he provided her with several papers, one being a paper on Musical hallucinations associated with seizures originating from an intracranial aneurysm (pdf) from the Mayo Clinic.
• Stephanie D'Abruzzo was in the original cast of the Broadway musical Avenue Q. Coincidentally Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez, the Tony Award-winning writers of Avenue Q, assisted in writing "Welcome to Sacred Heart", "Everything Comes Down to Poo", "When The Truth Comes Out", "Friends Forever" and "What's Going to Happen?"
  • After his work on "My Musical" Robert Lopez went on to win a Daytime Emmy Award in 2008 for his work on The Wonder Pets, two Tony Awards and a Grammy Award in 2011 for his work on The Book of Mormon and an Academy Award in 2014 for his work on the song "Let it Go" from Disney's Frozen. These awards (and his 2004 Tony Award win for Avenue Q) make him the youngest person to EGOT.
• Elliot's comment about not singing since sixth grade is based on Sarah Chalke's real-life experiences - she was kicked out of the choir in elementary school and was once told to mime the words when singing Christmas carols in a mall instead of actually singing them.
• While every member of the cast did his or her own singing, everybody did his or her own dancing where that was required except John C. McGinley, who could not do so, which explains why Dr. Cox jumped rope in the "Welcome to Sacred Heart" number.

Mistakes & goofs

• During "For the Last Time, I'm Dominican", Ms. Miller's hair is slightly longer than in the rest of the episode due to the scene being shot later.
• During "Guy Love" the clock behind Turk says 10:05, then immediately after when Turk and Carla sing "For the Last Time, I'm Dominican" the clock is set to 4:10. Although this is probably down to the fact, that particular scene was shot later due to Judy Reyes broken pelvis.
• Even though Dr. Kelso is supposedly angry with Elliot for moving into private practice, they both sing and dance together in the song "Friends Forever". But this could be part of the hallucination.
• In the song "For the Last Time, I'm Dominican", Turk makes reference to Derek Jeter's batting average "last year", which he says was .303. Jeter has not hit exactly .303 in any season.

For the last time, Turk, I'm DOMINICAN!

• Possible continuity error: Elliot states she is 29 years old, but in "My Occurrence" (Season One) it is revealed she is 26. Since "My Occurrence" takes place nearly five years before "My Musical", it doesn't work out (it would also make her the same age as J.D. who was revealed to be 26 in "My Day Off" and turned 30 in "My Day at the Races").
  • However, since most of that episode is the patient's hallucination, it could just be her imagination.
    • The entirety of the episode is not a hallucination. Only the events occurring in Ms. Miller's presence are sung. When Elliot says shes 29, they are outside of Ms. Miller's room, and therefore spoken. So it can be assumed that Elliot actually said she was 29.
  • Also, not every season matches up to the calendar year, though it usually does. For example, J.D.'s son is conceived on "My Transition" (May 16, 2006) and is born in "My Hard Labor" (November 1, 2007; a total of 19 months.)
  • Also, women as self conscious as Elliot often lie about their age once they approach 30 so as to appear younger than they really are. Elliot, in fact appears particularly age conscious in Season 8's My Comedy Show, when Brianna Tarasi's mom indicates she and Elliot are part of the same generation.
• During "Gonna Miss You Carla", the clock behind Turk says 3:05 yet he says it's lunch.
  • Doctors' shifts are staggered so there is always someone on duty. Not all doctors eat lunch at noon.

We'll be friends forever! We're gonna be friends forever! We will always be true-ooh-ooh!

Awards

"My Musical" was nominated for five Emmys:

• Outstanding Music & Lyrics - Debra Fordham, Robert Lopez & Jeff Marx for "Everything Comes Down to Poo"
• Outstanding Music & Lyrics - Debra Fordham & Paul Perry for "Guy Love"
• Outstanding Music Direction - Jan Stevens
• Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series - Will Mackenzie
• Won: Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series (Half-Hour) And Animation - Joe Foglia, John W. Cook II, & Peter Nusbaum