North Hollywood Medical Center
Encyclopedia
North Hollywood Medical Center was a hospital in the community of North Hollywood, California
, demolished in mid 2011. It was located at 12629 Riverside Drive in North Hollywood in the San Fernando Valley, north of Los Angeles. The hospital is famed as being the filming location of the television hospital comedy show Scrubs
, seen originally on NBC
and later on ABC
, which has been nominated for both Emmy and Golden Globe awards.
It was originally a small private hospital, containing just 160 beds and an emergency room, and was called Valley Doctors Hospital. The hospital was sold to Hyatt Medical and opened as "Riverside Hospital" in 1973. In the 80s, the name was changed to "Medical Center of North Hollywood", due to negative publicity caused by people confusing this hospital with Riverside Community Hospital in the City of Riverside, where a male nurse on staff at that time had been convicted of killing several of the patients there. It closed in the summer of 1998. The hospital underwent expensive reconstruction in order to make it fit for filming.
Shortly after opening as "Riverside Hospital", the facility had been used for the filming of a TV movie called "Having Babies
".
facility, for which a stage set at Culver Studios
was used. In the show, Sacred Heart Hospital was said to have been torn down and re-built on the "Winston University" campus.
The building required reconstruction before it was possible for it to be used as the Scrubs location. The series' lead actor, Zach Braff
, commented on DVD
audio commentary that the hospital still received patients in the lobby asking for medical advice, after they believed the hospital was still running due to the ambulances parked as props outside. On another DVD
commentary, Sarah Chalke
recalled having a man and his wife show up looking for medical help. She remembered that the man's arm was bloody and there was nothing anybody could do except direct the couple to a real hospital.
. The center was used to film an advertisement for Communities In Schools
. It also served as the filming location of the hospital-drama Diagnosis X
, which featured doctors acting out their most unusual cases. The hospital can been seen from the outside in the Britney Spears movie Crossroads; it was used to show the exterior of the hospital her friend Mimi ended up in after losing her baby.
The hospital has also been used in the following:
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, demolished in mid 2011. It was located at 12629 Riverside Drive in North Hollywood in the San Fernando Valley, north of Los Angeles. The hospital is famed as being the filming location of the television hospital comedy show Scrubs
Scrubs (TV series)
Scrubs is an American medical comedy-drama television series created in 2001 by Bill Lawrence and produced by ABC Studios. The show follows the lives of several employees of the fictional Sacred Heart, a teaching hospital. It features fast-paced screenplay, slapstick, and surreal vignettes...
, seen originally on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
and later on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, which has been nominated for both Emmy and Golden Globe awards.
It was originally a small private hospital, containing just 160 beds and an emergency room, and was called Valley Doctors Hospital. The hospital was sold to Hyatt Medical and opened as "Riverside Hospital" in 1973. In the 80s, the name was changed to "Medical Center of North Hollywood", due to negative publicity caused by people confusing this hospital with Riverside Community Hospital in the City of Riverside, where a male nurse on staff at that time had been convicted of killing several of the patients there. It closed in the summer of 1998. The hospital underwent expensive reconstruction in order to make it fit for filming.
Shortly after opening as "Riverside Hospital", the facility had been used for the filming of a TV movie called "Having Babies
Julie Farr, M.D.
Julie Farr, M.D. was a short-lived American television show that aired on the ABC network in 1978. It followed three television movies called Having Babies which aired from 1976-78, and was not renewed after its initial run of episodes aired in March-April 1978...
".
Filming location of Scrubs
The hospital was the filming location of the NBC/ABC sitcom Scrubs for the first eight seasons of the show, where it was called Sacred Heart Hospital. The pilot of the show was filmed elsewhere. Season 9 was set in a new medical schoolMedical school
A medical school is a tertiary educational institution—or part of such an institution—that teaches medicine. Degree programs offered at medical schools often include Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, Bachelor/Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Philosophy, master's degree, or other post-secondary...
facility, for which a stage set at Culver Studios
Culver Studios
The Culver Studios is a historic Colonial-styled movie studio located at 9336 W. Washington Blvd., in Culver City, California. It was the site of filming for Gone with the Wind, Citizen Kane and other classics from Hollywood’s Golden Age...
was used. In the show, Sacred Heart Hospital was said to have been torn down and re-built on the "Winston University" campus.
The building required reconstruction before it was possible for it to be used as the Scrubs location. The series' lead actor, Zach Braff
Zach Braff
Zachary Israel "Zach" Braff is an American actor, screenwriter, producer, comedian, and director. Braff first became known in 2001 for his role as Dr. John Dorian on the television series Scrubs, for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award and three Golden Globe Awards.In 2004, Braff made his...
, commented on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
audio commentary that the hospital still received patients in the lobby asking for medical advice, after they believed the hospital was still running due to the ambulances parked as props outside. On another DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
commentary, Sarah Chalke
Sarah Chalke
Sarah Chalke is a Canadian-American actress known for portraying Dr. Elliot Reid on the NBC/ABC comedy Scrubs, "Second Becky" Conner Healy on Roseanne, and Stella Zinman in the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother...
recalled having a man and his wife show up looking for medical help. She remembered that the man's arm was bloody and there was nothing anybody could do except direct the couple to a real hospital.
Other roles in film and television
Other than being used in Scrubs, the hospital was featured repeatedly as the hospital in the 2001 film The One, starring Jet LiJet Li
The fame gained by his sports winnings led to a career as a martial arts film star, beginning in mainland China and then continuing into Hong Kong. Li acquired his screen name in 1982 in the Philippines when a publicity company thought his real name was too hard to pronounce...
. The center was used to film an advertisement for Communities In Schools
Communities In Schools
The Communities In Schools network is a federation of independent 501 organizations in 27 states and the District of Columbia that work to address the dropout epidemic. The organization identifies and mobilizes existing community resources and fosters cooperative partnerships for the benefit of...
. It also served as the filming location of the hospital-drama Diagnosis X
Diagnosis X
Diagnosis X is a television program on the channel TLC and Discovery Health. The original airdate was July 25, 2007. The series mixes regular actors with actual physicians, illustrating difficult to diagnose medical cases based on real life situations...
, which featured doctors acting out their most unusual cases. The hospital can been seen from the outside in the Britney Spears movie Crossroads; it was used to show the exterior of the hospital her friend Mimi ended up in after losing her baby.
The hospital has also been used in the following:
- The SopranosThe SopranosThe Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...
, HBO dramaDramaDrama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a... - Childrens Hospital, Adult SwimAdult SwimAdult Swim is an adult-oriented Cable network that shares channel space with Cartoon Network from 9:00 pm until 6:00 am ET/PT in the United States, and broadcasts in countries such as Australia and New Zealand...
comedyComedyComedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in... - ChuckChuck (TV series)Chuck is an action-comedy/spy-drama television program from the United States created by Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak. The series is about an "average computer-whiz-next-door" named Chuck, played by Zachary Levi, who receives an encoded e-mail from an old college friend now working for the Central...
, NBCNBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
comedy-dramaComedy-dramaComedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy... - CrossroadsCrossroads (film)Crossroads may refer to:* Crossroads , a Chinese film starring Zhao Dan* Crossroads , a mystery film directed by Jack Conway* Crossroads , directed by Bruce Conner...
, Britney SpearsBritney SpearsBritney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
dramaDramaDrama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a... - Eli StoneEli StoneEli Stone is an American TV series, and also the name of the title character.San Francisco lawyer Eli Stone begins to see things, which leads him to discover a brain aneurysm...
, ABCAmerican Broadcasting CompanyThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
comedy-dramaComedy-dramaComedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy... - The ForgottenThe Forgotten (TV series)The Forgotten is a television series which premiered on September 22, 2009 on ABC. On November 9, 2009, ABC ordered five additional episodes of the series, bringing the first season's total to eighteen episodes...
, ABCAmerican Broadcasting CompanyThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
dramaDramaDrama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a... - The Office (US version), NBCNBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
sitcomSituation comedyA situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue... - The One, Jet LiJet LiThe fame gained by his sports winnings led to a career as a martial arts film star, beginning in mainland China and then continuing into Hong Kong. Li acquired his screen name in 1982 in the Philippines when a publicity company thought his real name was too hard to pronounce...
actionAction filmAction film is a film genre where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic chases... - ParenthoodParenthood (2010 TV series)Parenthood is an American comedy-drama television series developed by Jason Katims and produced by Imagine Television and Universal Media Studios. The first season premiered on March 2, 2010 on NBC...
, NBCNBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
comedy-dramaComedy-dramaComedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy... - Three RiversThree Rivers (TV series)Three Rivers is a medical drama, which premiered on CBS on October 4, 2009 and aired Sundays at 9 pm Eastern Time/Pacific Time. The series was set in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at a fictional hospital specializing in transplants, with Alex O'Loughlin starring as a famous transplant surgeon...
, CBSCBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
dramaDramaDrama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a... - Worst WeekWorst WeekWorst Week is an American TV series which originally aired on CBS from September 22, 2008 to June 6, 2009. The series was based on the British sitcom The Worst Week of My Life...
, CBSCBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
sitcomSituation comedyA situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue... - United States of Tara, Showtime comedy-dramaComedy-dramaComedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy...