NBC
The late Matthew Perry directed a single episode of “Scrubs,” marking his only directing credit across film and television.
The episode, Season 4’s “My Unicorn,” aired in November 2004 and featured Perry both behind the camera and on screen as Murray Marks, the estranged son of a hospital patient in need of a kidney transplant. Perry’s real-life father, John Bennett Perry, appeared in the episode as his character’s father — the second time the two had played father and son on screen, following the 1997 movie “Fools Rush In.”
Perry directed the episode shortly after “Friends” ended its 10-season run in May 2004, making it his first post-“Friends” credit. “Scrubs” was created by Bill Lawrence, a former “Friends” writer, who gave Perry the opportunity to step behind the camera on a single-camera comedy.
In an interview with Zap2It.com that was later syndicated by News Times, Perry said he was interested in directing something stylistically different from “Friends,” explaining: “If I were to direct another four-camera show, it just wouldn’t be as good.”
The episode drew 8.13 million viewers — outperforming the series’ Season 4 average.
Despite expressing interest in directing again — “I think this experience has taught me enough that I could possibly fake my way through directing a little movie,” he told Zap2It at the time — Perry never stepped behind the camera again.