Dr. John "J.D." Dorian starts his first day as an intern at Sacred Heart Hospital. His story begins with a first-person narrative, setting the tone and style of the series while introducing the main character. J.D.'s life slowly unfolds to the audience, showing flashbacks to illustrate J.D.'s strong friendship with Chris Turk. They soon meet Elliot Reid, a recurring love interest of J.D.'s throughout the series.
As J.D.'s day continues, he is thrust into the fray, but, due to his nerves, freezes up and relies on Nurse Carla Espinosa to carry out a routine IV placement, in this scene we are also shown the ever-dominating, bitterly sarcastic presence of Doctor Percival "Perry" Cox, J.D.'s later mentor.
J.D.'s first movement towards Elliot occurs during rounds with the Chief of Medicine, Dr. Bob Kelso, in which J.D. gives Elliot an answer when she appears to be struggling. When asked what she could do to repay him, he replies "Let me take you out to dinner." When she chooses not to help J.D. in order to show her intelligence, J.D. takes back his invitation.
J.D. encounters the hospital's janitor repairing an automatic door. J.D. innocently speculates that the cause of the problem is a penny stuck in the door. The suspicious janitor swears vengeance on J.D. if this proves to be the problem.
The dark side of Dr. Kelso that Dr. Cox detests is shown in his selfish cruelty of only caring for patients who have the required health insurance, crushing J.D.'s previous thoughts of Dr. Kelso being his "safety net". J.D. eventually overcomes his fears and, with Dr. Cox's encouragement, successfully inserts a chest tube. Happy to have gone through his first three days "without looking like a complete idiot", he leaves, runs into a glass door and falls to the floor.
Cultural references
In the first scene, as JD rises out of the bed, he is wearing a "Clone High" t-shirt. "Clone High" was also created by "Scrubs" creator Bill Lawrence.
Continuity
"My First Day" is the only episode in which Elliot wears glasses.
Michael Hobert, who was later cast as Lonnie in Season 3, is listed in the credits of this episode as "Pizza Guy". He is the patient in the MRI machine while J.D. and Turk discuss living arrangements, oddly, he is wearing a pizza delivery boy outfit, rather than the usual hospital gown.
Production details
Several of the scenes from this episode are based on the real-life experiences of Medical adviser, Jon Doris a close friend of director Bill Lawrence. This includes the scene where an attempted paracentesis results in a jet of fluid, and another where J.D. hides to avoid being the first on the scene of an emergency, although both of these scenes are exaggerated.[1]
J.D.'s sitcom fantasy was filmed on the set of "My Wife and Kids".
Footage from this episode was later re-used in "My Urologist", with Dr. Kim Briggs digitally worked into it to make it look like she was there on J.D.'s first day.
This was the only episode of Scrubs not shot at the former North Hollywood Medical Center. Instead, it was filmed at another hospital in Glendale, California. This hospital has since been torn down.[2]
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