List of Scrubs characters
The following are a list of minor characters from the American sitcom Scrubs.
Recurring cast
These cast members have appeared in numerous episodes since the show's beginning but remain credited as guest stars.
Dr. Wen
Dr. Wen is an attending surgeon, played by Charles Chun, who was also Turk and the Todd's mentor for the first three years. He seems very serious but does lighten up and make jokes from time to time. There is much we don't know about him, including his first name, but we know that he is married, as well as a fan of the band Erasure and their song "A Little Respect" (Ep 1.03 "My Best Friend's Mistake").
Lonnie
Lonnie is the medical resident under the supervision of J.D. and Elliot played by Michael Hobert. He and J.D. occasionally spar with each other over insignificant incidents, but Lonnie has been spending an increasing amount of time with J.D. and Elliot. He is married with three children "that he knows of", and can grow a moustache in one day. Dr. Cox chose him for research into ATTP over J.D because his father passed away from said disease. Introduced at the end of Season 3, his role has continued to increase. Michael Hobert also appeared as an extra in the pilot. In a Season 4 episode, he was part of the "Triple Giant Doctor." Lonnie is a very good basketball player, having made all-conference (Big East) while at Villanova.
Dr. Murphy
Dr. Doug "Nervous Guy" Murphy, played by Johnny Kastl, is the nervous and terribly inept colleague of J.D. and Elliot. Because of his incompetence he is known for many quotes such as "stop bleeding, stop bleeding, oh god please stop bleeding". After being the only person in the history of the hospital to repeat his third year of residency, he transferred from internal medicine to pathology in Season 4, where his extensive personal knowledge of botched medical procedures makes him an expert coroner, though he still occasionally makes mistakes such as forgetting his gurney or misplacing a dead body. He is under the impression that the dead bodies in the morgue are after him after having a lot of them falling on him.
Ted
Theodore "Ted" Buckland is a divorced hospital lawyer, played by Sam Lloyd, whose desire to kill Dr. Kelso is surpassed only by his unfortunate inability to have an opinion. Ted stumbles through life as one of its ultimate losers. Despite being a qualified attorney, he is Kelso's doormat, given tasks such as standing in the hospital carpark to monitor Carla's arrival times. The other characters rarely treat him better. He is part of a barbershop quartet with three other administration workers from around the hospital called The Worthless Peons (played by Lloyd's real life band The Blanks) [1].
He is prone to panic and outbreaks of excessive sweating. He lost his hair in the 8th Grade. He has also tried to commit suicide in a number of episodes, in between being socked by the Janitor, having his ice cream treat taken by Carla and having his tie stuffed in his mouth by Cox.
The Todd
Dr. Todd "The Todd" Quinlan (also sometimes called "High-Five Todd") is a jockish surgical resident played by Robert Maschio who is friends with Turk. He attempts to turn every sentence into a double entendre, once when accused of this by a female nurse, he responded by saying "Yeah I'd like to double her entendre!". He loves high-fiving, which is often painful to the recipient. He is, however, a skilled surgeon despite his frat boy personality. There have been numerous hints that his excessive boorishness towards women is over-compensation for homosexuality, and in one Season 5 episode he even comes out to Carla and Elliot, but this only turns out to be a ruse as "Girls love gay guys!" as he reveals he has had sex with a number of women around the hospital. Later in the same episode, however, he continues to display an attraction to men. This is perhaps because he is bisexual, or, more likely simply because his character is intended to be sexually depraved to the point where sexual orientation isn't even an issue. When asked out right what orientation he is, he simply replies "The Todd". In Season 4, Episode 14, My Lucky Charm, the Todd is apparently upset at JD having an attractive male visitor (Colin Farrell) arrested, saying "The Todd appreciates hot, regardless of gender". He has a fixation with tight-fitting men's underwear ("banana hammocks" or Speedos). Maschio previously had two small guest appearances on Lawrence's Spin City. In Season 5, Episode 15 ("My Extra Mile"), Todd's surname is confirmed as Quinlan on the Surgical Residents Rankings list that Dr. Wen tapes to the board.
Jordan Sullivan
Jordan Sullivan is Dr. Cox's bipolar ex-wife played by Christa Miller Lawrence, who is his only rival for sheer sarcasm. She and Perry broke up temporarily after Jordan had an affair with Dr. Cox's coworker (portrayed by Jay Mohr). She has a sister Danni, played by Tara Reid, who dated J.D., and a brother named Ben played by Brendan Fraser, who was Dr. Cox's best friend. In season three, Ben dies of Leaukemia. She slept with J.D. before he realized that she was Dr. Cox's ex-wife. In Season two, she gave birth to Dr. Cox's son, Jack, and the two have since rebuilt their relationship and live together, albeit in a non-marital arrangement. She is on the hospital's Board of Directors, but gets a full-time position at the hospital at the end of Season 4.
Laverne
Nurse Laverne Roberts, played by Aloma Wright, spends her days at the hospital watching soap operas and keeping up with inter-office gossip. She has made many comments about others "having to answer to Jesus" implying a religious background. Although her husband Mr. Roberts has been mentioned many times, he, like Dr. Kelso’s wife Enid, remains an unseen character. She nicknamed her breasts "Paris" and "Nicky", but denied that this was after the Hilton sisters ("Other way around" was her defiant riposte). Nurse Roberts is one of the lucky few hospital employees who is not afraid of the Janitor, and refers to him derogatorily as 'Jumpsuit'.
Major guest cast
Important roles have been played by:
- Nicole Sullivan, as flighty and nervous recurring patient Jill Tracy. She and Elliot got along extremely well due to how alike they are. She was known to suffer from depression and relationship problems, which became more extreme up until the day she died. She was originally misdiagnosed as fatally overdosing on cocaine, but the cause was later revealed to be rabies.
- Elizabeth Bogush as Alex Hanson, a social worker at the hospital and who dated J.D. during the first season. She was revealed to be a drug addict.
- John Ritter, as J.D.'s father Sam Dorian. As on 8 Simple Rules, Scrubs featured an episode dealing with the character's death, following the real-life death of Ritter.
- Kelli Williams, as Kristen Murphy, Turk's medical student and Dr. Cox's love interest.
- Scott Foley, as Elliot's two-time ex-boyfriend Sean Kelly.
- Brendan Fraser, as Jordan's brother and Dr. Cox's best friend Ben Sullivan, who died of a sudden heart attack during season three. He previously had leukemia but he went into remission.
- Tom Cavanagh, as J.D.'s older brother Dan, who still lives with his mother in his home town and works at a bar. J.D. is slightly embarrassed of him, which Dan is aware of. He also had a fling with Elliot Reid, J.D.'s on-again-off-again girlfriend. Cavanagh was apparently chosen due to his physical similarity to Zach Braff.
- Heather Locklear, as Julie, a representative of a pharmaceutical company, lusted after by the men of the hospital. Had a relationship with Dr. Cox which lasted less than a full episode, as Jordan came back, interested in renewing their relationship.
- D.L. Hughley, as Turk's rambunctious brother Kevin. He is divorced, claiming he "got the hell out of there", when in actuality his wife took the kids and left him.
- Dick Van Dyke, in the second season as Dr. Townshend, Kelso's opposite in terms of relation to the staff, J.D.'s attending for one episode. Reluctantly fired by old friend Kelso (who began his career the same time) for a botched checkup on a patient and refusing to follow contemporary methods of treatment.
- Freddy Rodríguez, as Carla's brother and Turk's nemesis Marco.
- Rick Schroder as slightly controlling male nurse ("murse") Paul Flowers, whom Elliot dated during the 2nd season.
- Amy Smart, as J.D.'s drama-creating one-time love interest, and wife of a comatose car crash victim, Jamie Moyer or Tasty Coma Wife (TCW).
- Tara Reid, as Jordan's sister and J.D.'s two-time ex-girlfriend, Danni Sullivan.
- Michael J. Fox, as Dr. Kevin Casey, a medical attending and also a surgeon with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Has a good rapport with Cox in bossing the younger staff around. He also is the only doctor shown in the series whose medical genius rivals Cox's.
- Bellamy Young as Dr. Miller, in the middle of Season 3 was one of the new surgeons and is at times the female version of Dr. Cox in regards to her personality. Dr. Cox was at one point attracted to her.
- Martin Klebba as Randall the Crotch-Punching Midget, who became a janitor in Season 3. Whenever J.D. thinks about or meets him, he says, "Powerful tiny fists." Randall joined the Janitor's impromptu a cappella band (Hibbleton), along with Troy the Cafeteria Worker (Joe Rose) in Season 4 to help the Janitor impress Elliot. Troy also spits in J.D.'s lunch everyday because J.D., without thinking, said he was stupid.
- Heather Graham as attending psychiatrist Dr. Molly Clock, whom J.D. had a crush on and was Elliot's friend and mentor.
- Julianna Margulies, as cold-hearted malpractice attorney Neena Broderick.
- Josh Randall, as Elliot's boyfriend Jake, who was introduced towards the end of the 4th season.
- Travis Schuldt as Keith Dudemeister, an intern under J.D.'s supervision who came to Sacred Heart at the beginning of Season 5. He is said to be a very competent doctor, which annoys J.D. to no end. He was also Elliot's "booty call" for a brief period, but their relationship has progressed to a dating status.
- Cheryl Hines as Paige, Dr. Cox's born-again Christian sister who reminds him of their troubled childhood and abusive father.
- Jason Bateman appeared as Mr. Sutton, an unappreciative patient who raises ostriches in Season 5. Bateman was originally slated to play a larger role, but was unable to because shooting of the episode followed surgery to remove throat polyps. There is speculation that he will reprise his role in a later episode. Braff made an appearance in Bateman's FOX sitcom Arrested Development in 2004.
Cameo appearances
Guest appearances have also been made by Alan Ruck, Michael Boatman, Barry Bostwick, Alexander Chaplin, and Richard Kind, who previously worked on Spin City with Bill Lawrence (who have been producer on both).
Other guests (mostly as quick appearances in JD's mind): David Copperfield, Clay Aiken, Lee Ermey, Colin Farrell, Dave Foley, Sean Hayes, Phill Lewis, Christopher Meloni, Jay Mohr, Matthew Perry, Ryan Reynolds, Gary Busey, Molly Shannon, Jimmie Walker, Carrot Top, Mary-Kate Schellhardt and Hattie Winston.
