Janitor (Scrubs)

Janitor
File:Janitor Scrubs.jpg Promotional image of Neil Flynn as the Janitor
First appearance	"My First Day"
Created by	Bill Lawrence
Portrayed by	Neil Flynn
In-universe information
Alias	Dr. Jan Itor
Gender	Male
Occupation	Janitor (Fired in My Jerks (801), Re-hired back in My Happy Place (804))
Family	Janitor's father (played by actor R. Lee Ermey in "My Old Man", potentially not his real father), Janitor's mother (real and seen in a flashback)

Janitor is a fictional character, played by actor Neil Flynn in the American comedy-drama Scrubs.

Profile

In the series' pilot episode, protagonist J.D. sees Janitor fixing a sliding door that is stuck, and suggests someone might have stuck a penny in the door. Janitor immediately assumes that J.D. stuck a penny in the door, and forms a grudge; thus spending the entirety of the series tormenting J.D. as a result. Some of his practical jokes have been on the severe side, such as destroying J.D.'s bike, trapping him in a water tower, and stranding him in the middle of nowhere.

Neil Flynn, who plays Janitor, has said:

"I think it's possible that he doesn't hate J.D.. Maybe J.D. is as close to a friend as he has. For all we know, he just has poor social skills. I think that the Janitor constantly misreads J.D.'s motives and assumes he's a young punk."

Personality

Janitor's personality, and even his personal history, are hard to piece together given his penchant for lying; in fact, lying may be the only consistent aspect of Janitor's life. In "My Bright Idea," J.D. lists some of the things Janitor has told the hospital staff about his life, and many members of the staff indicate that they agree Janitor made up most of it. However, later in the episode the Janitor proves that his most recent story is true; he claims to have been a world class hurdler in college, and proves it by running roughly 100m, while jumping a series of obstacles, at nearly world record pace. His childhood and family life are equally mysterious. The occasional cutscene shows that his parents were fastidious and mildly abusive, which caused him to take on a janitorial career. Also, in the episode "My Therapeutic Month," he claims that his great-grandfather was the Civil War general Ambrose Burnside (mispronounced "Burnsides").

Even though he has a low-level job, Janitor is very intelligent (he speaks Spanish, Korean, German, Italian, and knows American Sign Language) and is well respected among the hospital staff, though it's suggested that the respect may be due, in part, to fear of physical harm and him turning his talents for ruthless harassment on others, such as the time Dr. Cox ended up duct-taped in a morgue drawer for hours after insulting the Janitor's work and lightly shoving his shoulder in an attempt to provoke him into an argument. When attempting to solve J.D.'s "two coins add up to 30 cents and one of them isn't a nickel" riddle, Janitor makes reference to having attended Harvard (though this too may be a lie because he mentions having attended Yale in the episode My Déjà Vu, My Déjà Vu). When the hospital support staff wants dental coverage, he becomes their spokesman.

On occasion Janitor indicates he does little actual work. He told J.D. that he spends only an hour and a half a day performing his duties at work. But Janitor takes inordinate pride in the cleanliness of the hospital's floors. "My floors are my children! I've given them names!" he insists.

Several episodes show Janitor pretending to be a doctor ("Dr. Jan Itor") and he also greatly enjoys one occasion when he is asked to assist during a medical emergency. On one occasion, he even had a set of broken defibrillator paddles and was pretending to shock a patient (pillows) back to life. He does, however, defend his sanitary responsibility in the hospital whenever J.D. insults him about it.

Janitor shows a softer side on several occasions. In the episode "His Story III", Janitor spends the day talking to a patient unable to speak or move, just to keep him company. At the end of the day, when Dr. Cox brings the patient a new computer with which to communicate, the patient says "Thank you", then specifies that he was thanking Janitor, not Cox. In the episode "My Long Goodbye", he joined the others in saying a heartfelt farewell to Nurse Laverne Roberts; later, as Turk, Cox, Kelso, Carla, and Elliot mourn Laverne's passing at a bar, Janitor buys them a round of drinks and raises his glass in salute.

Flynn had a small role in The Fugitive. The show's writers took advantage of this, placing Janitor (in his fictional role) as the real actor in the film. J.D. notices this during an episode as he watches the movie. When J.D. confronts Janitor, he admits that it really was him but that "If you tell anyone, I'll kill you". Also, in a newer episode, he sees Carla pluck a "booby" hair, and taunts her about it. Carla, however, acts as if the incident never happened, and the janitor begins to question his sanity. As he does this, he ruminates, "Maybe I was never in The Fugitive."

In one episode, Janitor's father is portrayed as someone who treated him the way a drill instructor would treat a new recruit. His father is played by actor R. Lee Ermey in a parody of Ermey's most famous role as a drill instructor in Full Metal Jacket. However, Janitor later tells J.D. that his father died when he was young. When J.D. remembers meeting his father, Janitor responds that "You met a man".

The new Chief of Medicine fires the Janitor in the episode "My Jerks" for pulling a prank on J.D. that could have resulted in serious injury. At the end of the episode he remains fired and does not appear in the following episode, but is replaced. He returns in "My Saving Grace" and is rehired by "My Happy Place".

Name

Janitor's real name is, as yet, unknown. According to the first season DVD commentary with Neil Flynn, when Janitor's real name is revealed, the show will be over. In interviews prior to the start of season 7, series creator Bill Lawrence confirmed that Janitor's name will be revealed during the series finale, although a name has not been decided on and Flynn has "veto power" regarding the name choice, having already exercised it. As of 2008, however, Janitor's name has not been revealed because the show was given an eighth season on ABC.

In several episodes, he calls himself "Janitor" (even in his own mind), and in at least three episodes he refers to himself as "Dr. Jan Itor."

In "My Hero", Janitor chastises JD for not even knowing his name while Janitor knows many personal details about J.D.'s life (though it's later shown Janitor has been breaking into J.D.'s locker and reading his diary to learn them). When J.D. protests that he does in fact know Janitor's real name, Janitor asks him to say it aloud and quickly claps his hand over his name badge so J.D. can't read it. If the scene is paused, it can be seen that his name badge only says "Janitor" anyway.

There is also speculation over whether his name is Neil Flynn, after J.D. spots Janitor in The Fugitive and Janitor later confirms that he did in fact play the police officer in the film.

In "My Manhood" he lists out a bunch of nicknames, one of which is "Josh", yet does not confirm any.

In "My Conventional Wisdom" Janitor tells the coffee worker the story of his name. To which the coffee worker replies "You don't look asian." Whether he made up a story or used his actual name is unknown viewers,

In "My Growing Pains" Janitor talks to Kelso after reading his personal files. He tells Kelso he can read Janitor's personal files if he wants to, but it only says that his name is Captain Billy Stinkwater and that he is half gopher.

In "My Jerks" the new Chief of Medicine, Dr. Maddox (played by Courteney Cox Arquette) approaches Janitor after seeing him trip J.D. and asks him his name, to which he replies "Jeez, you really are new." She then examines his name tag only to find it says "The Janitor."

In "My Happy Place" when he's firing the replacement janitor, he says his name is "Jan Itor".

Figment of J.D.'s imagination

As revealed in the DVD commentary on several episodes, the Janitor character was initially to be used as a figment of J.D.'s imagination if the show had been canceled during the first season or the first half of the second. This would have been revealed to the audience in the finale.

In the first season the Janitor seems to be acknowledged by other characters; however, these could have been explained as coincidences, or the interacting as being part of J.D.'s imagination. For example, in "My Bad", Elliot seems to acknowledge him when she throws a coffee cup down next to him and sarcastically says "Sorry!" In "My Nickname" Janitor gives J.D. the nickname "Scooter", and later Dr. Cox refers to J.D. by that name. In "My Drug Buddy", Elliot comments "I am not saying anything about a girl that you're sleeping with" (referring to Alex Hanson, J.D.'s girlfriend at the time) and Janitor walks by and responds "he's not sleeping with her." In "My Bed Banter and Beyond", J.D. refers to "those two" as he and Elliot both watch Janitor annoy Laverne with a vacuum cleaner, and later in the episode, Janitor says "I like that guy" (Dr. Cox) to J.D. and Elliot and they both appear to look at him. In "My Way or the Highway", Janitor gives advice to several patients (recommending surgery) and one even indicates that Janitor is in the room. In "My Occurrence," Ben Sullivan appears to show J.D. photos of the Janitor stalking him, but this is revealed to be part of a prolonged daydream.

The first time that Janitor interacts with another major character besides J.D. is in the season two episode "My Karma", in which he blackmails J.D. and Turk. From the beginning of Season 2, Flynn joins the rest of the main cast appearing in the show's extended opening credits, but the credits were changed back due to objections by fans to other new elements of the credits. Because of the extended time of the new episodes, the shorter credits were put back in place. Flynn has not been represented in the credits since. However, he was still acknowledged as a main cast member by the producers as of the second season. Since the start of season two, Janitor has had encounters with most of the other regular characters. He has even had an entire episode ("His Story III") devoted mostly to him.

Production notes

• Flynn is an improv comedian and, as such, ad-libs many of his lines. Although it is often stated that Flynn ad-libs all of his lines, on several parts of the Season One DVD commentaries and special features both Flynn and series creator Bill Lawrence say that it is generally a mix of ad-libbed lines and the original script, with Flynn usually building on the original lines. Lawrence has also said that the rest of the cast have followed Flynn's lead and that he will occasionally enter the rehearsal room with no idea what scene is taking place due to its lack of resemblance to the original script. Janitor's alter ego, Dr. Jan Itor, is a happy consequence of one such moment of inspiration. Flynn originally auditioned for the role of Dr. Cox (which ultimately went to John C. McGinley). However, Lawrence asked Flynn if he would consider another part—the mysterious custodian who makes tormenting J.D. his life's work. Sam Lloyd once commented on Flynn's improvising: "I opened my script up once and it said 'Janitor: Whatever Neil says,' and I just started laughing."
• Janitor does not appear in 2 episodes. In "My Lucky Day", there were originally scenes in this episode in which the Janitor appears, but they were cut for time and added to "My New Old Friend". He also did not appear in "My Last Words," the second episode of Season 8, due to having been fired the previous episode.
• The role of Janitor was originally devised as a one-time gag in the series' pilot episode, Lawrence admitted: "When we watched the pilot, we knew instantly we had to keep this guy around."
• In flashback scenes of Janitor's childhood, he is played by Brandon Waters.
• In the episode "His Story III", the Janitor reflects on how the hospital would be if he wasn't there. The two scenes that are shown reflect each other very closely. The one difference is that when the scene showing the Janitor's presence plays, "Jill" is pregnant. When the scene where Janitor isn't around, "Jill" isn't pregnant.