[IMG:L]As the medical comedy Scrubs enters its final season, it promises to tie up the remaining threads for its lead characters. However, one thing that has kept devoted Scrubs fans tuning in for the past six years is the show’s cast of supporting characters. Creator Bill Lawrence likens them to The Simpsons, whose Disco Stu or Comic Book Guy can appear for one joke in an episode, yet have entire backstories defining them.
Meet three of Scrubs standout characters. If you’re just tuning into Scrubs‘ seventh and final season, here are three funny guys who deserve as much attention as Zach Braff and co. If you’re a longtime fan, find out the secrets of these top-tier second bananas.
Janitor
Ever since J.D.’s first day at the hospital, the janitor (Neil Flynn) has been messing with him. He doesn’t even have a name. He’s just Janitor. Giving him a name may be one of Lawrence‘s ideas for the final season, but Flynn might prefer the ambiguity.
“If he doesn’t and just goes down in history as Janitor, I’m fine with that,” said Flynn. “This is not without precedent. As children, we were very familiar with The Skipper and The Professor on Gilligan’s Island. Or The Scarecrow and The Tin Man. The Janitor can join their line. You don’t know Incredible Hulk’s name, do you? Although I guess he has one, his alter ego [Bruce Banner]. One way or another, I’m satisfied with it.”
On medical dramas like ER, House or Grey’s Anatomy, janitors don’t get much screen time. Since Scrubs is a comedy, Janitor can obsess over ways to torment the hero in a way that comes off as playful.
“I don’t think it’s hatred at all, any more than a big brother picking on his little brother actually hates his little brother. It’s just more, I think, something to do. I don’t think The Janitor’s very satisfied with his work load. I don’t think he finds much satisfaction in a nine to five, so I think to The Janitor, it’s a hobby. Over the years, whereas in the beginning, The Janitor was primarily mean, I think now he’s just mostly unusual. Maybe mean to J.D. but more often than not, J.D. these days deserves the abuse he’s receiving.”
Perhaps if Scrubs were a bigger hit, Flynn would be a hero to janitors everywhere. Since the show serves more of a niche/cult following, Flynn has not experienced any janitor worship.
“I’ve never had an encounter with a janitor who recognized me. Come to think of it, at work maybe they’re wondering why I’m not pitching in a little bit more. I have had a couple times where I’m in a shopping mall or a movie theater or something and I see that door with ‘Janitor’ on it and for a moment I feel like I’m welcome to wander on in. I’ve never actually done it though. Maybe I should try it. I’m curious as to how I’ll be treated the next time I’m in a hospital, if that will ever come up.”
[IMG:R]The Todd
The Todd (Robert Maschio) is a surgeon who always pops up to add a perverted comment the end of an otherwise innocent scene. “This is what I’ve always said about this character so it’s so clear for me to play,” explained Maschio. “He thinks he’s God’s gift to women wherever he goes. He thinks he’s the life of the party wherever he goes. He has no understanding of how other people see him. Those are the three qualities that I always remind myself when I’m playing a scene. Total enthusiasm, total like ‘I’m here!’ and just a complete lack of awareness. Those are the qualities I feel he has and those are quite simple and easy and clear for me to play at this point.”
Maschio stays in character in between takes, so co-stars believe he is not acting at all. Actually, Maschio thinks very deeply about this one-note character. “I did standup for a good six years in New York and I really thought very specifically about how to present the male point of view on stage in an inoffensive way without being completely sexist. Although on this show, I’ve totally gone over the line, I feel like I’ve really thought long and hard about what that line is. I feel like there’s got to be a way to present the male point of view without being an asshole on the one hand, or being kind of effeminate or emasculated on the other hand. If you look at TV, you don’t see just regular guys. They’re either total dumb jocks or kind of girly men in a way.”
Off the set of Scrubs, it seems like Zach Braff has the most game of any cast member. Always seen or rumored to be dating various starlets, Maschio analyzed The Zach‘s game.
“Don’t get me in trouble here. Well, he’s a very charismatic, likeable, talented young man in the prime of his life. He’s single, he’s got everything going for him right now. That’s all I can say about Zach. I feel like that movie that he made, Garden State, really spoke to a generation of people, that feeling of I’m in my 20s now and this is what life is. I feel like it tapped into something, so all those girls by the way, from ages of like let’s say 20-30, when I meet those women on the street, they always want to know what Zach‘s really like. The guys want to high five me. Women want to know what he’s like.”
The Todd has become a real icon in the medical community around the world. “I get free medical any time I’m in Peru. In the spring I’m going to the Surgical Society of Ireland and I’m going to be speaking at their commencement day. These are real surgeons. They want The Todd to speak at their ceremony. It’s amazing.”
He has a high five for every situation. High fiving another surgeon in mid-operation without ever touching hands is a sterile five. Even getting slapped in the face is a face five. Maschio agreed to come up with some high fives for some real life situations. All of these are true.
1) An exclusive interview with The Todd: “That’s a mano a mano five!”
2) Attending a topless porn star bowling event for charity: “Bouncing betties five!”
3) Going to karaoke and singing both parts of a duet: “It’s all about me five!”
4) A psychic said I would quit journalism and sell memorabilia: “Stroking you five!”
5) Using The Secret with successful results: “Crazy interview five!”
[IMG:L]Ted the Lawyer
Ted (Sam Lloyd) is the hospital lawyer who is usually the whipping boy for any of his boss’s budget-cutting schemes. With zero confidence, he is almost permanently depressed, and drenched with fop sweat as he stammers his way through high pressure situations.
“When I first go into makeup, they’ll put a moisturizer on my first or just mix it with the actual makeup,” explained Lloyd. “They put that base on me and then they don’t powder me. Right off the bat, I’ve got a nice little sheen to me. As the day goes on, it gets a little shinier and shinier. Then we’ve got little Evian spray stuff and they’ll give me a couple squirts of that right before the camera rolls. In the past we’ve used glycerine which can get really sticky after a while. We might have even used baby oil once or twice, but I think we’ve got the system down now with a nice greasy base and then the added Evian water right before the shot.”
Whenever something bad happens to Ted, he just sighs and resigns himself to his fate of sadness. Fortunately, Lloyd doesn’t let it get him down. “When you’re on the roof of the hospital about to jump, it has the possibility of doing that but for me, there’s so much comedy that comes out of it that I don’t really get that down. While I’m shooting the stuff, in the moment, I can get down but shortly after it’s over with.”
While Lloyd would not call himself Mr. Confidence, suffice it to say he gets through life with a little more security than Ted. “I certainly do, especially being an actor. If I had Ted’s confidence, I wouldn’t have lasted five minutes.”
Ted also refers to his mother a lot. The real Mrs. Lloyd has started to catch on. “Whenever there’s some kind of weird comment about my mother, I hear about it next week. ‘Oh Sam, did you have to say that?’ But she gets a huge kick out of it. In fact, she came and visited last season. I brought her to the set and they actually put her into a nurse’s costume and put her in the back of one of the shots in my scene, which was really exciting for her.”
While Scrubs‘ comedy is peppered with real medical diagnoses, there is no actual law involved with Ted’s storylines. If there is, Lloyd doesn’t know about it. “I know absolutely no law and I decided that it would be best if I didn’t, because Ted is the most inept lawyer probably on earth. I figured any knowledge I knew about being a lawyer just wouldn’t serve the character. It also appealed to my laziness. If I say a legal term, it’s pointed out I usually don’t know what it means.”
