The three episodes featured characters in blackface.
The creator of Scrubs has addressed the removal of three episodes of the show from streaming services Hulu and All4.
In the popular podcast Fake Doctors, Real Friends, which is hosted by Zach Braff (JD) and Donald Faison (Turk), show creator Bill Lawrence and actress Sarah Chalke discussed the episodes being removed.
Bill Lawrence said that the decision to use blackface in the show was his, and that it was also his decision to have the episodes removed from streaming services.
He said: "We almost thought that we had, in a bad way, a free pass to not have those thoughts back then. Because we were so fucking proud of ourselves for doing a very diverse show, in front of and behind the camera, great black and white friendship, great interracial couple who are stars of the show.
"It was almost a block of arrogance, like 'we're so good in what we're portraying and doing and showing that we could never venture into muddy waters'.
"Even now with that same ignorance, we never really connected the two things."
The episodes in question are Season 3's My Fifteen Seconds and My Jiggly Ball and My Chopped Liver from Season 5.
The episodes depict Zach Braff and Sarah Chalke in blackface, and have now been removed from streaming services.
Also speaking on the podcast, Faison said that, at the time, he did not feel offended by the scenes, but that he now sees them differently.
Lawrence did say that he plans to reupload the episodes at some point, with the scenes in question edited out.
The episode of Fake Doctors, Real Friends can be listened to
now.
