Should I be more loyal to "Scrubs?"

"Scrubs" has been good to me. It really has.

Just thinking about Turk's Sugarhill Gang alarm clock makes me giggle like a four-year-old girl. Ask me to play a quick game of "Scrubs" word association, and boom, "knife wrench" or "Hibbleton" will get me talking about other classic Janitor moments as if I were actually related to Neil Flynn. Heck, even my wife and I routinely walk around the house when we've won an argument and make sure to rub it in each other's face by bellowing Dr. Cox's famous, "wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong" declaration.

So how come I can't tell you what's going on in J.D. and Elliot's world anymore? How come the news that "Scrubs" could come back for a full season on ABC has me yawning as though we were discussing "According to Jim?"

It happened somewhere in Season Five, and man, it happened fast -- probably faster than any other show I've watched before. I can't even recall the exact moment, but for the first four seasons of "Scrubs," I was absolutely hooked. Bought all the DVD's. Watched every episode. Watched every episode AGAIN on Comedy Central, sometimes twice in the same day. Even started taking Colin Hay's solo work seriously because of his appearance in "My Overkill" back in Season Two.

Maybe it was the inclusion of Keith Dudemeister. Maybe it was Mandy Moore's guest appearance. Maybe it was the fact that everybody on the show -- heck, when is "the Todd's" baby coming? -- started getting pregnant. Either way, I lost interest faster than Bill Clinton on his wedding night.

And folks, I feel extremely guilty about it.

All shows hit a creative slump or start to lose a bit of steam over time. It's inevitable. And honestly, that's where my guilt comes from. "Scrubs" was on the chopping block since Day One, but in a rare example of a major network giving a show several second chances, Zach Braff and Co. kept surviving despite mediocre ratings. Sure they were jerked around on the schedule and given less-than-ideal November start dates. But "Scrubs" was also added to NBC"s Thursday comedy lineup alongside "The Office" and "30 Rock." Braff was given a lucrative contract following a bit of movie stardom.

How did the show reward the network's faith? By finishing 87th among all shows last year. The year before that, 98th. The year before that, 88th.

It's never been a hit, yet NBC kept re-ordering episodes And now ABC might give it even more rope and let its final season have a full order. This should be cause for celebration. This should be a win for the little guy. This should restore my hope in network TV.

But I feel nothing. I don't know J.D.'s baby's name. Don't even know if it's a boy or girl. Don't even know if he's with Elliot, or that one blonde doctor played by Elizabeth Banks, or finally outed himself and ran away with Turk to Barbados. And I know the show is recycling plotines, jokes, hook-ups, inner monologues, rivalries, Cox's girly nicknames and a cappella renditions of TV theme songs from Ted's band.

That's the point, though. If you're gonna pull for a show during its good times, you should be there for the bad. In fact, if NBC had yanked "Scrubs" off the air after Season Three, I would have been irate. And now I just don't care? That's blatant hypocrisy, is it not? (I'll answer my own question. Yes it is.)

Look, I should have stayed loyal. If I'm going to criticize Fox for pulling the plug on "Arrested Development," or still hold a grudge against NBC for chopping "Freaks and Geeks" after one season, I should follow "Scrubs" until the last pile of dirt is placed on its coffin. I should want to watch its final season so I can see what became of every character I grew to know on a first-name basis. I should root for it on ABC like I would a once-proud professional athlete who gave everything he had on the field, but chose to leave a battered wreck instead of riding off into the sunset after a Super Bowl victory.

That's when loyalty counts, right? And "Scrubs" is still kinda funny. Or at least more funny than "According to Jim" could ever dream to be.

Don't I owe a once favorite show more than I've already given?

-- Thomas Rozwadowski, trozwado@greenbaypressgazette.com