Cougar Town – Brought to you by Disney

by Kona Gallagher

It's a Disney-filled 'Scrubs' reunion on 'Cougar Town,' AKA "'Scrubs' in Florida with a lot of wine."

“When I rank all the things that make me want to die, it goes, books; snakes; PBS; a capella.” – Jules

I imagine that there are a lot of downsides of working for Disney, including (but not limited to) having to do weird Mickey propaganda commercials for ABC’s On-Demand channel. So why not take advantage of the good parts? Have a giant Scrubs reunion featuring a host of classic Disney songs interspersed throughout.

This week’s title card delightfully claims that Cougar Town is “…not just Scrubs in Florida with a lot of wine.” This is, of course, true, because there is nary a hospital to be seen in Cougar Town. Otherwise, totally Scrubs with more wine – which is part of what makes it so great. It’s also what makes Scrubs alums fit in so seamlessly to the show. Ted is back with his a capella group, joining Sarah Chalke, who showed up last week as Bobby’s love interest.

Instead of the love connection that it appeared we were getting, they deliver instead some great opportunities for physical comedy, mainly resulting from soup-related thigh burns (the least-sexy type of thigh burns). What I found interesting about the whole scene at Grayson’s Pub, was that Angie didn’t really seem put off by the unconventional Jules/Grayson/Bobby dynamic, but that she got really snippy with Jules. I can understand why she would be put off by her dates ex-wife telling him how to eat, but really? Dead manatees, spilled champagne, a golf cart accident, and that’s what you choose to get bitchy about? Seems like a weird way to make a first impression to me. But Jules, of course, is singularly focused and continues her plan to find Bobby love.

The same woman who was so put off by Jules’s bread bowl warnings was perfectly cool with hopping on a strangers back and running full-bore into a throng of Canadians with crabs. She and Bobby finally have their perfect kiss, and “Kiss the Girl” gets stuck in my head for hours. Well played, Disney. Well played.

The big news from this episode, of course, was the giant Scrubs reunion. In addition to Christa Miller and Sarah Chalke, we got the aforementioned Ted (Sam Lloyd), Todd (Robert Maschio), Dr. Kelso (Ken Jenkins), and even J.D. himself (Zach Braff), delivering a pizza. It was a quick scene – just the tag at the end of the episode, but it was so worth it, just to see Sarah Chalke slip into full Elliot mode, if only for a second.

Watch the reunion again here: