Randy Disher

Randall Disher
File:JasonGrayStanford.jpg Jason Gray-Stanford as Randy Disher
First appearance	"Mr. Monk and the Candidate"
Created by	David Hoberman
Portrayed by	Jason Gray-Stanford (2002-2009)
In-universe information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Philadelphia Police Department, Police Sergeant (pre-1999) San Francisco Police Department, Police Lieutenant (1999-2009) Summit, New Jersey Chief of Police (2009)
Family	Spouse(s) Sharona Fleming Maria Disher (mother) Harvey Disher (uncle; deceased as of "Mr. Monk Visits a Farm")

Lieutenant Randall "Randy" Disher is a fictional character portrayed by Jason Gray-Stanford on the television series Monk.

Personality

Disher is Captain Leland Stottlemeyer's second-in-command and employed at the San Francisco police force. He is characterized as a naïve, loyal, overly ambitious but not necessarily bright assistant to Stottlemeyer. His far-fetched theories and comments about the cases Monk works on are a running gag of the series. Apart from his truly ridiculous theories, which often involve defying the very laws of physics, Disher appears rather competent within his own range of abilities. He has proven himself to be trustworthy, courageous, and capable of providing valuable insights into the cases they tackle. Indeed, in the pilot episode, "Mr. Monk and the Candidate" (where he was known as Randy Deacon, although not referred to by name), while there was a naive aura about him - and somewhat resentful of Monk, he was not depicted as much as a bumbler as he would be in later episodes. A running gag is the awkwardly ceremonial way in which he delivers news to Stottlemeyer, asking him to guess what it is or sit down for it. His feelings towards Monk change from the pilot episode of the series. In the pilot, he was not only skeptical of Monk, but he seemed to find Monk a joke. Disher calls Monk "the defective detective" to his captain upon meeting Monk. What appears as his jealousy of Monk in the beginning becomes admiration as their relationship develops. However, he was still bumbling, as he had his gun pick-pocketed by Monk during a frantic scene.

In the book Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu, Captain Stottlemeyer, in a covert meeting with Natalie and Monk, reveals that Randy has a high clearance and conviction rate. While teaching Monk how to be a Captain and delegate, he tells how Randy is a people person, who gets people to say things they wouldn't have said otherwise. They aren't high profile or unusual like the cases Monk gets, but it is how Stottlemeyer delegates cases. The implication is that Stottlemeyer is a good captain for matching staff to cases, and Disher, while incapable of solving a weird case, is good at others. Although he is not that bright, in "Mr. Monk Goes to the Dentist", most of the case was solved by him. In "Mr. Monk and the Man Who Shot Santa", it is suggested that he does not know that Santa Claus does not exist.

Relationships

Like Stottlemeyer, Disher used to be wary of Monk's abilities, but as the series progressed, he came to admire and respect them.

During the series, Disher loses his entire life savings during a trip to Las Vegas in "Mr. Monk Goes to Vegas", which prompted Monk and Stottlemeyer to come to his rescue, using Monk's abilities to win the money back. He acts as Natalie Teeger's bodyguard in "Mr. Monk and the Election. He helps Monk find clues for the Trudy Monk case by traveling to New York with him in "Mr. Monk Takes Manhattan". Randy is shown to argue regularly with but not-so-secretly be attracted to Monk's first assistant, Sharona Fleming, and he maintains a friendly, professional behavior towards Monk's second assistant, Natalie Teeger. He seems to always harbor crushes on both Sharona and Natalie, writing a personal ad fitting Sharona Fleming in "Mr. Monk and the Paperboy" — which he unsuccessfully tries to hide from her. In the season 6 episode "Mr. Monk and the Bad Girlfriend", when Natalie tells Randy that she and Monk have news, he guesses that she wants to say she loves him, leaving Natalie in a dumbstruck state while Monk delivers their theory that Captain Stottlemeyer's girlfriend Linda Fusco killed her former partner. Natalie is shown to be irritated by Randy's theory that she is in love with him.

His lack of luck getting dates is so notorious that when he does get a girlfriend, in the episode "Mr. Monk and the Employee of the Month", no one believes him. Throughout that episode, he shows the cast a generic picture of a woman. Sharona confirms that it was included with his wallet. They dismiss Randy's claims that his girlfriend is a wallet model named Crystal Smith (when Randy mentions that her first name is Crystal to Sharona, Sharona asks if Crystal's last name is "Glassware", referring to the box of Crystal Glassware in the loading dock). It is revealed to the viewers but not to the characters that Randy was telling the truth. A few episodes later, in "Mr. Monk Gets Cabin Fever", he dates a Chinese woman named Hayley, who turns out to be part of a Chinese mob hit crew sent to kill Monk. Randy states that he would have to arrest her and it would put a damper on their relationship. It is hinted at the end of "Mr. Monk and Sharona" that he may be dating Sharona Fleming. In the series finale, Randy accepts a job as Chief of police in Summit, New Jersey in order to move in with Sharona.

Background

Disher was born in San Diego. He attended Temple University and lived in Philadelphia briefly, where he was a sergeant in that city's police. This is mentioned in the season 4 episode "Mr. Monk Goes to a Wedding". In Philadelphia, one of Randy's cases was that of Darlene Coolidge, a black widow who murdered her husband. In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Wedding", someone attempts to run Randy down in the parking lot. Monk reveals that Jonathan Davenport's new wife, Theresa Scott, is the same person as Darlene Coolidge. As Randy was the chief investigator into the death of her husband, he would have recognized her, so Theresa tried to run him down.

The season 5 episode "Mr. Monk and the Leper" reveals how as a teenager Randy suffered from an extreme case of acne, although Randy says that he was undercover and posing as a teenager with acne problems. He attempts to steal that one picture of him with acne from Dr. Polanski's office. He joined the police force three years before the start of the series. In the season 2 episode "Mr. Monk Gets Married", Randy has Monk and Sharona pretend to be married in order to rescue his mother Maria from bounty hunter Dalton Pedrone, whom he hates referring to as his stepfather. While at the marriage counseling institute, Maria mentions Randy several times to Monk and Sharona, but Monk pretends not to know Randy.

Randy also has an uncle, named Harvey Disher. In the season 5 episode "Mr. Monk Visits a Farm", Randy inherits his uncle's farm when Harvey (supposedly) commits suicide. But soon after he arrives, Randy gets the chilling suspicion that nearby farmer Jimmy Belmont (Ricardo Chavira) murdered his uncle, and he brings Monk in to prove that there has been foul play by Belmont. (This contradicts the third season episode "Mr. Monk Gets Cabin Fever". In that episode, Hayley -- an assassin pretending to be Randy's girlfriend -- fakes a number of incidents to convince him that he's getting warnings about the future through fortune cookies. One fortune tells him that he will receive money from his uncle; and Randy says the fortune must be wrong, since he doesn't have any uncles. The fortune is then "proven" when he receives a fake refund from the IRS, a.k.a. Uncle Sam. Since Uncle Harvey and Randy share the same last name, it's implausible that Harvey is a recent uncle through marriage. There is no on-screen explanation for the conflict between these two episodes.)

The Randy Disher Project

In high school, he was part of a rock band, the Randy Disher Project, which he resurrects with his fellow bandmates in the episode "Mr. Monk Goes to the Dentist" after he quits because no one believes his claim that Dr. Oliver Bloom and Terri killed a man in the dentist's office during his operation. The band creates a music video entitled "Don't Need a Badge", trying to justify Randy's leaving the police force. The band breaks up and Disher returns to the SFPD shortly afterwards. The song was reprised in the season 5 episode "Mr. Monk and the Really, Really Dead Guy". Disher is placed as a decoy to try to attract the attention of the perpetrator, playing the erstwhile rock song while forgetting most of the lyrics with the instruments of a one-man band. Further, in "Mr. Monk and the Rapper", Randy climbs the stage in a rap club, shouting: "If you enjoyed that, check out Therandydisherproject.com!". However, his rapping abilities are questionable and he gets offended when Murderuss (Snoop Dogg) calls him the "whitest white guy".