JOHN C. MCGINLEY HOME for the HOLIDAYS

The Scrubs alum talks about his limited series Holidazed and shares his favorite showbiz memories

- Amanda Champagne-Meadows

In 2001, the producers of Scrubs were looking for a "John C. McGinley type" to play sarcastic attending physician Dr. Perry Cox. "I auditioned five times to play the John C. McGinley type," John C. McGinley tells Closer. "That always seemed curious to me." Of course, he eventually got the job, and John co-starred on the popular hospital-set comedy for nine seasons.

This month, John stars in Holidazed, a limited comedy series from Hallmark that follows five families who live in the same Oregon cul-de-sac as they experience all the joy and stress of the holiday season. "Each house is a study in dysfunction around the holidays," he explains. "Our house is just insane. It's really very funny."

Tell us about the character you play in Holidazed.

Chuck is a guy whose children are adults and he's feeling less and less relevant. So he rages. He's overcompensating for everything to try to not be a dinosaur. One of the manifestations of this is that he has to have all the [Christmas] lights in the neighborhood. Of course, it has nothing to do with the lights. It has to do with him being relevant and finding a lane where he feels important. It's just so misguided and so delicious to play.

Sounds like fun.

Yes, and they let me have an opinion about who was going to play my wife. Virginia Madsen and I have known each other-we did Highlander together with Sean Connery about 30 years ago. Because I am so fond of Virginia, I don't have to act. The camera knows when you really love someone.

Did you always want to be an actor?