Zach Braff, Donald Faison, Sarah Chalke and the rest of the "Scrubs" gang are all back for the final season of the quirky hospital comedy.

"Scrubs" is the RODNEY DANGERFIELD of comedies. Despite now being in its seventh and final season, it never received the respect that it deserved, despite a hard-core contingent of fans.

But that's okay with Executive Producer/Creator BILL LAWRENCE, who feels that the way things shook out, it gave him the freedom to write the scripts he wanted to write.

"I'm a competitive guy and I realized that the audience we had was the audience we were going to have, so continuing to try and jump through hoops and get special guest stars and new cast members to try and make the audience bigger and become some weird juggernaut hit wasn't going to happen. And yet we had the luxury of doing well enough that we were going to be on for a long time."

For its final season, airing Thursday nights at 9:30 p.m. on NBC, TOM CAVANAGH and ELIZBETH BANKS will both be returning to the series, and, if SCOTT FOLEY can make it work with his filming schedule for "The Unit," Bill would like to have him back, as well.

"Other than that, you know, there aren't really big, famous names, but there are people that our nerdy fans will care about," Bill continues. "Secondary characters like Hooch and Dr. Zeltzer. We're trying to get everybody their last hurrah."

"It's going to be really sad," ZACH BRAFF says of the end of the series that brought him fame. "This has been a giant chunk of my life. It could not have changed my life more. It's like winning the lottery in more ways: obviously, financially, but getting to be on a television show for seven years, where you really respect what you're doing, and you respect who you work with and you're laughing a lot."

Bill is hoping that the potential writers strike won't affect the final season, but if it does, he is hoping to return when the dust has settled and film one final episode that will be for the DVD only.

Speaking of which, "Scrubs: The Complete Sixth Season" was released on DVD this week; it includes all 22 episodes and is packed with bonus material, including a behind-the-scenes making-of documentary about the famed musical episode, interviews with the cast and creator, and many special moments that never made it to the TV screen.