Doctors and other practitioners of the medical profession will likely be familiar with the following three words: House of G-d. It’s Samuel Shem’s novel-memoir of the 1970s that revealed the dirty laundry that goes on behind hospital doors, specifically in the intern year for medical school graduates.
It isn’t pretty. Not only some of the prose and storytelling which is very late ‘70s, but the immense pressure put on interns and residents, the sleep deprivation, the style of communication — both to the interns and about the patients. It presents the intern year as a brutal rite of passage, one that comes with casualties.
While I chose to skim rather than read the book (see earlier warning about prose!), it spurred a rewatch of the series “Scrubs,” the medical comedy-drama whose first season was heavily influenced by House of G-d.
The basic set up — clueless interns — and so much of the lingo (for example, “turfing” and “gomer”) is cribbed directly from the book.
Having watched the series before reading the book, I would not have known there was a 23-year gap between the two. In terms of medicine and the intern year, nothing that Scrubs presented seemed outlandish. (For those familiar with the show, I’m not referring to JD’s overactive imagination!) In fact, I remember doctors at the time saying it was one of the more realistic medical shows.
But a lot has changed since the show debuted in 2001, a contrast evidenced by the newly rebooted Scrubs 2.0 (Hulu/abc). Demeaning rants and name calling by attendings are no longer accepted in the workplace, hospital fees have become even more expensive, and changes have been made to maximum shift lengths.
The new series starts out slow and a bit stilted. I’m glad I stuck it out, though, because the most recent three episodes are the show at its highest form — surprising camera work, unexpected story shifts and pathos that tugs at the heart strings.
Best of all, it included a first rate Dr. Cox rant proving that sometimes the old school approach — even all the way back to House of G-d — is the best medicine.
© IJN 2026
