Scrubs writer and creator Bill Lawrence has revealed that season 9 will be set entirely at a medical school rather than at Sacred Heart, the fictional setting for all previous series of the show.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Lawrence said, “It’s going to be a different show. It’ll still be life-and-death stakes, but if the show is just Scrubs again in the hospital with a different person’s voiceover, it would be a disaster and people would be mad”

This decision to take the show in a new direction was possibly prompted by the departures of Zach Braff who played JD and Sarah Chalke who played his on-off love interest, Elliot Reid.

Lawrence told EW though that the two stars would “still appear as occasional guest stars.” He added that, “Continuity-wise, Sacred Heart will still exist with those people still working there” and that “half the cast, if not 60% of it” will be made up of new characters. He hinted too that there would be at lease one “fairly famous” addition to the cast list.

I don’t think it’ll be the same without JD and Elliot but it certainly won’t be the same without their traditional setting. What do you think?