Zach Braff and Donald Faison want to keep their Scrubs podcast fresh as they tape their separate homes amid coronavirus crisis

The Hollywood Reporter

Initially, Braff and Faison looked at Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey's Office Ladies podcast for inspiration in developing their podcast Fake Doctors, Real Friends with Zach + Donald. But unlike the former Office stars, Braff and Faison were in different parts of the country. "We were all gearing up to record in a studio at iHeart, our very first (episode), and then this insanity happened," Braff tells The Hollywood Reporter, referring to the coronavirus. "So then we had to hit pause and go well, 'Should we still do it? How do we do it?' We thought, 'Well, we were going to do it anyway, it could be good to distract people, make people laugh, particularly because the show was such a love letter to hospitals and the medical community.' In the back of our minds, we thought maybe this would be a chance to give them some love and honor them. So we just started doing it. iHeart helped us figure out how to do it from our homes. Donald literally records in his closet, so he can hide from kids, and I did it in my office." Braff says they opted to do one or two episodes per week. "I want it to be fresh," he says. "Ideally, I didn't really want to bank them, because then you're getting tired and there's not that new energy. We discussed this before the world changed, maybe doing like three in a day or something. I think it's good that we're not. Ultimately, it's about two friends kind of catching up and we're telling stories about the show we made together. But there's a really good energy, I think, if we haven't spoken in a few days, and we're excited to chat." Faison adds: "Yeah, it's like when you go on vacation with your best friend. When you guys see each other on vacation, the first couple of days, you're are like, 'This is the best vacation ever! I can't believe we're doing this!' And then by like day four or five, it's like, 'Maybe I'll see you tomorrow for breakfast.'"