Scrubs: My Supermen

Wow. Sorry for the lapse between posts. I've been in Buffy and Angel overdrive lately (I'm not sure whether I should label my quick progress as sad or impressive). Anyway, the humor of Scrubs would be nothing without the incredible ensemble cast. Each character and actor has their own unique contribution to the show, which allows everyone to be as funny and/or dramatic as they can, without stepping on other people's toes. Each character has a role to play at the beginning, and these parts believably evolve over the course of the series, based on experiences and interactions.

Zach Braff's J.D. is a quirky man-child prone to bizarre fantasies and goofy mannerisms. One of the first things we ever see him do is make a shaving cream bra for himself before coming in to work on his first day at Sacred Heart Hospital. He and his best friend Chris Turk (usually just called Turk) are portrayed as being as close to a couple as possible without either of them actually being gay, and J.D. is definitely the girl of the relationship. His man-childishness extends beyond the whimsical; J.D. is a great doctor, but he needs to learn how to be comfortable being himself. He is often needy and cannot keep his romantic relationship going, usually due to silly reasons (I know this sounds like a traditional sitcom, but Scrubs rises above these trappings through great writing). Turk is the yang to J.D.'s yin; whereas J.D. can be a little too emotional, Turk tries to hide his feelings and project a macho exterior. Fortunately, this disguise is thin at best, and Turk's true geeky nature often shines through (remember when he couldn't resist calling Billy Dee Williams "Lando", much to Williams' chagrin?), and while it is funny to see Turk failing to be ubermanly, he is at his best when he is being himself. Elliot Reid, who is a woman despite what her name suggests, is the third new employee at Sacred Heart. Elliot and J.D. are internal medicine interns (while Turk is a surgeon), and there is a bit of a friendly (usually) rivalry between the two. Like J.D., Elliot is nervous as hell about her life as a doctor, but unlike J.D., her approach to survival in the hospital is much different. And with doctors like Cox and Kelso as her superiors, "survival" isn't hyperbole, but more on them later. Whereas J.D. gets the hang of things relatively quickly, Elliot's insecurities keep her at home when other people are out having fun, since she feels that she has to stay on top of all the latest medical journals in order to be the best. For the first few seasons, this nearly drives Elliot crazy, since these same insecurities prevent her from reaching her full potential while J.D. excels. But things change, and when the tables turn, J.D. can't seem to handle inferiority for a while.

Carla Espinosa, who has been a nurse for a few years, is a supportive force for the new interns, which is much needed in the harsh reality of the hospital. That's not to say that her only role is to be motherly and supportive. She develops a relationship with Turk that is probably the most stable one on the entire show. And while she knows how to handle herself in the workplace, it is real life where she sometimes needs help. The unfairness inherent in being a nurse (doctors get all the credit, and aren't always respectful) wears on her, and though her relationship with Turk is stable, that doesn't mean that it is without its problems. But, while her advice isn't always heeded, she is a beacon of hope for the new interns. And she is certainly needed.

Dr. Perry Cox and Dr. Bob Kelso are pretty much the only higher-up doctors who get any screen time, especially in the early seasons (eventually, the supporting cast of Dr. Beardface, Dr. Mickhead and Col. Doctor develop, and some recurring guests appear, like Dr. Molly Clock and Dr. Kim Briggs, but these characters usually don't stick around for a while), and they are forces to be reckoned with. Dr. Cox is a cynical doctor who would prefer to be left alone and pursue his own goals and cure his own patients. He genuinely cares about the people that he helps (though he does get aggravated with the more annoying ones; and before you make any House comparisons, remember that Scrubs started about three or four years before House), and deep down, he also cares about the new interns. He hides his compassion by insulting everyone around him; he particularly delights in picking on J.D. (though this may be a sign that he cares for J.D. the most) by calling him girls' names and launching into drawn-out rants against the things J.D. cares about. But this behavior is almost pleasant when compared to that of the Chief of Medicine, Dr. Kelso. Kelso begins the show as an evil jackass who only cares about turning a profit, even if that means turning away patients who don't have insurance. For the first few seasons, Kelso is the villain of the show; he provides obstacles for the interns and conflict for Dr. Cox. This doesn't mean that he isn't funny, though; Kelso's personality makes him bizarrely funny due to his many quirks, such as his love of cupcakes and other baked goods, callous attitude towards his wife, and preference for Asian hookers. As the series goes on, Kelso's initial villainy is steadily scaled back (sort of like Mr. Burns' on The Simpsons). Starting around Season 3, Kelso becomes much more lovable, and his initial villainous tendencies are explained to be the result of having to make the tough decisions. When he fires nurses for seemingly no reason or chooses to treat a rich patient over a poorer one, the rest of the staff may become understandably and justifiably upset, but it was because the budget is stretched thin. Not firing the nurse may have hindered patient care in other, more destructible ways, and the rich patient survived to donate large sums of money to the hospital (the cost of this was the death of the poorer one).

The final regular cast member is the hospital's janitor, known only as Janitor. He was originally created to only appear in the pilot, but Neil Flynn's portrayal impressed the staff so much that they made him a recurring character for the first season, and a regular from then on (of the seven current regulars, he is the only one not to be a regular since the beginning of the series). For the first year and a half, he had no purpose other than to torment J.D. An innocent comment by the young intern in the pilot about a broken door jamb made the somewhat psychotic Janitor believe that J.D. was responsible for the break, and made it his personal mission to terrorize, deride and undermine J.D. whenever possible. After that year and a half, the Janitor expanded his antics to include anyone caught in his path; the writers were afraid of a quick cancellation, and wanted a cool twist for the finale, which would have been the revelation that the Janitor was only a figment of J.D.'s imagination, representing his insecurities. When it became clear that the show was safe for a while, Flynn asked the writers to let him interact with someone other than Braff.

In addition to the great regulars, the show also has a great cast of secondary and tertiary characters (few other shows paid so much attention to the people in the background; right now, the closest example I can give is the first two seasons of Veronica Mars, where characters whose actors' names appeared in the closing credits actually contributed to the plot). Most of the tertiary characters are crew members. These include Dr. Beardface, Dr. Mickhead, and Col. Doctor. I think that all three of these characters started out as one-joke characters, but continued to show up to keep a sense of continuity. Other characters, like Dr. Doug Murphy, Dr. Todd Quinlan, Jordan Sullivan and Ted Buckland are more or less full-fledged characters, but have never been as important as the regular players.

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