Janitor (Scrubs)

Janitor
First appearance	"My First Day"
Created by	Bill Lawrence
Portrayed by	Neil Flynn
Information
Aliases	Dr. Ján Ïtor
Gender	Male
Age	47
Occupation	Janitor
Family	Janitor's father (Or: "A man"), Janitor's mother, Janitor's deaf sister (possibly not real)

Janitor is a fictional character played by actor Neil Flynn in the American sitcom Scrubs.

Contents 1 Profile 2 Name 3 Personality 4 Hobbies 5 Figment of J.D.'s imagination 6 Relationship with other characters 6.1 J.D. 6.2 Turk 6.3 Dr. Kelso 6.4 Dr. Cox 6.5 Elliot 6.6 Carla 6.7 Ted 6.8 Brain Trust 7 Dubious claims 8 Miscellaneous 9 Production notes 10 References

Profile

In the series' pilot episode, protagonist J.D. sees Janitor fixing a sliding door that was stuck, and suggests someone might have stuck a penny in the door. Janitor tells J.D., "If I find a penny in the door, I'm taking you down." He has spent the rest of the series tormenting J.D. 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. This may have been shown when The Janitor decides to torment Turk, he says "new friend". I think that the Janitor constantly misreads J.D.'s motives and assumes he's a rich young punk."^[1]

Name

In several episodes, he calls himself "Janitor," and in at least two episodes he refers to himself as "Dr. Ján Ïtor." However, in another episode, he challenges J.D. to remember his real name, quickly covering his name tag before J.D. sees it, although his name tag simply reads "Janitor". In "My Conventional Wisdom" an orderly is seen finishing a conversation with Janitor. Janitor says, "...and that is how I got my name." The orderly responds, "That's funny, you don't look Asian" (it is worth noting that the Janitor is a pathological liar, and that this story is most probably a lie as well, in keeping with the character). Janitor adopted three personas in the episode My Friend the Doctor: Klaus, a dim-witted German; Ephraim, a "good-natured stutterer"; and Nigel, a British man. In the episode My Identity Crisis, Janitor challenges J. D. to learn the real names of all 310 employees of the hospital. J.D. loses the bet because nobody knows Janitor's name. Consequently, J. D. has to take over janitorial duties for a day. It has been speculated that his name was revealed in the episode "My Buddy's Booty", when one of his friends appears to say "Nice one, Tom." However, when listening closely, it is clear that the line is actually "Nice, you tell 'em", which is confirmed by the script. 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. His personnel file claims his name is Captain Billy Stinkwater, although it is insinuated that this is a joke as it also says that he is half gopher. (Episode 5 Season 7 - My Growing Pains) According to the First Season DVD commentary with Neil Flynn, when Janitor's real name is revealed, the show will be over. Neil admits that he had not yet picked out a name for him. Some examples he gave were Ben-Hur and Buffalo Bill. In interviews prior to the start of season 7, Bill Lawrence confirmed that Janitor's name will be revealed during the season (and series) finale, although a name has not been decided on and Neil Flynn has "veto power" regarding the name choice, having already exercised it.^[2]

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. At one point, 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 most of it up. Janitor's penchant for tormenting others is mainly due to his feeling that they have slighted him or look down at him for being a janitor. As he once said, he doesn't pick them (his targets), they pick him. However, it should be noted that Janitor may see these antagonistic relationships as real friendships, because when he first starts tormenting Turk he privately refers to him as a "new friend" with a genuine smile on his face. Janitor appears to be moderately insane, often mentioning rather outrageous things (like his squirrel army and the fact that as a kid his mother kept him in a pet cage during trips) as if they were normal; even fondly reminiscing about his grandfather's beating him every morning with a sock filled with nickels. Janitor also doesn't seem to comprehend simple concepts of morality, or simply doesn't care for the welfare of others. Even though he has a low-level job, Janitor is very intelligent (he speaks Spanish, Korean, Italian, and knows American Sign Language) and is well respected among the hospital staff. When the hospital support staff wants dental coverage, he becomes their spokesman.^[3] He used to be the president of the Janitors' Union, but he lost the election to a dwarf who was strong enough to bring Janitor to his knees with a handshake. Some of the regard that people have for him is a result of their fear of his retaliation for insults; when Attending Physician Dr. Cox pushes him on the day he's lost the Janitors' Union election, subsequently leaving him pissy, Janitor responds by having Dr. Cox tied up and left in a morgue drawer. He has made several attempts to move up the career ladder. In one episode when the lady who does the hospital's PA announcements was injured, Janitor takes over her job.^[4] Chief of Medicine Dr. Kelso is temporarily deaf for most of that episode, so for a while Janitor gets away with making joke announcements. When Kelso gets his hearing back, he fires Janitor from that job. In another episode Janitor becomes a security guard, but when he finds out that Dr. Kelso is causing a mild lapse in security (by routinely using an emergency-egress door), Janitor tackles him to prevent it, and Dr. Kelso fires him. Several episodes show Janitor pretending to be a doctor ("Dr. Ján Ïtor") and he also greatly enjoys one occasion when he is asked to assist during a medical emergency.^[5] He does, however, defend his sanitary responsibility in the hospital whenever J.D. insults him about it. In the episode "His Story III" the Janitor says he could have worked as a janitor anywhere, but he chose to work at a hospital because he wanted to make a difference. Janitor shows a softer side on several occasions. In the episode "His Story III" there is one patient who is unable to move, or talk without the aid of a computer. When that computer breaks down, Janitor spends the day talking to him just to keep him company. At the end of the day when Dr. Cox brought him a new computer and Janitor starts to leave the room, the patient says "Thank you", then specifies that he was thanking Janitor, not Cox. 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 Fugitive. 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'. This makes J.D. happy to think that Janitor wasn't always so bitter, but that he once had dreams of a better career. This back story is contradicted by flashbacks that imply that he became a janitor because his mother used to yell at him whenever he made a mess. His love of acting is given as his reason for continually lying to others, and taking on completely different personalities in the episode "My Friend the Doctor". In one episode, Janitor's father is portrayed as someone who treated him the way a drill sergeant 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. (who claims that he'd met Janitor's father) that "You met a man", implying it was not actually his father. Janitor commonly refers to people by their physical characteristics, like "Nurse Mop-Head." He also referred to Elliot Reid as "Blonde Doctor" and, as of season 4, seems to have romantic feelings for her. At one point he says the reason he likes her is that she is the only doctor in the hospital who treats him like a real person. Janitor is friends with one of the cafeteria attendants, Troy, who in one episode taunts J.D. when he insinuates that Janitor is stupid. Janitor is also friends with many other support employees, such as "Crazy Eyes" Margot from housekeeping who sold her children, and Brent from parking who is gay. Janitor has a custodial closet and when J.D and Elliot walked in, they saw many other janitors hanging out with a big poster of J.D. (labeled "Him") on the wall.^[6] Janitor also appears to have a much greater rapport with animals than with humans. His animal friends can be either alive (like the birds he befriends in "My Big Move" or the raven Sanchez) or dead (Rowdy, Steven, and his squirrel army). He once said, while praying, that he wishes he could speak with animals. Janitor also thinks that J.D.'s new goldfish has the ghost of Chief of Medicine Bob Kelso's Vietnam squad leader, Roger Dorsey, residing in it in "My Fishbowl". It should be noted that Janitor did not actually know Roger Dorsey was the name of Dr. Kelso's squad leader until after he had named him.

Hobbies

Janitor fancies himself an inventor, though usually his inventions are simply combinations of two existing devices such as his pen-straw (which makes soda taste like ink), knife-wrench (he calls it "practical and safe" – so much so that he plans marketing it for kids – and then accidentally stabs himself), drill-fork (which can "drill and fork, mostly fork"), the Hover-Hoover ("where suction meets the sky"), a business card printer with built in paintball gun and a device that mimics the sound of a patient's heart monitor flatlining as well as a truck backing up (the latter is used on people who "are sensitive about their weight"). Janitor is obsessed with taxidermy and at one time carried around a stuffed rabbit named Bingo that doubled as a salt shaker and pepper grinder. He rids the trees by the hospital of squirrels, and maintains a bizarre "Squirrel Army" consisting of stuffed squirrels (each of whom he had given a name) and even holds "meetings" with them where he imagines them talking and even interrupting him. Also in His Story III, he says that he has a sixth sense of "knowing when squirrels are afraid". Although he sells them at the end of the episode My First Kill, in order to get a new stuffed dog, Steven, to replace J.D. and Turk's stuffed dog Rowdy, it is implied that he is still attached to them, even though he says "It is not a healthy habit." But, it was later revealed, he located Rowdy, and used him to blackmail Carla.

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 fact 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. For example, in My Two Dads Dr. Kelso seems to acknowledge him, saying "Ammonia is a little strong today" when he walks past him. In My Bad Elliot seems to acknowledge him when she throws a coffee cup down next to him and sarcastically says "Sorry!". In My Own Personal Jesus, a small girl hits him in the genitals after he asks her what she wants for Christmas. 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. The first time that Janitor interacts with another major character besides J.D. is in the season two episode My Karma, when 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.

Relationship with other characters

Since the start of season two he has had encounters with most of the other regular characters and, aside from Elliot's rebuffing his romantic advances, few of the others ever get the better of him, even the head of the hospital Dr. Kelso or the acerbic Dr. Cox. He has even had an entire episode devoted mostly to him^[5] wherein he provides narration instead of J.D., and the story revolves around a day in his life.

J.D.

Janitor's initial "war" on J.D. seems to have begun when J.D. suggests in the pilot that somebody jammed a penny into a door that Janitor is trying to fix. Janitor later claims to actually find a penny in the door frame, swearing revenge on J.D. Another possible reason is revealed in My Common Enemy where Janitor reveals to Dr. Cox and Dr. Kelso that he victimizes one person in a group for seemingly no reason, almost spotting J.D. behind him to prove his point. Also, in My Last Day, after congratulating J.D. on making the transition from intern to resident, he picks one of the new group of interns on their first day, and repeats the same dialogue about the door to him, except that the intern theorizes that it might be a paper clip rather than a penny. Exactly as in the first episode with J.D., Janitor tells him that if he finds a paperclip in the door frame, the intern is "going down." From Janitor's point of view, he is a frequent victim of J.D. In the episode My Brother, My Keeper, J.D. innocently moves a ladder out of the way, causing Janitor to fall to the ground from over a story up. "I don't know why you keep doing these things to me," he says to J.D. while in pain, prompting J.D. to nervously reply, "I don't know either." In My Brother, Where Art Thou?, J.D.'s older brother (played by Tom Cavanagh) slams a counter shut, breaking Janitor's hand, and J.D. appears moments later to introduce each other, making Janitor blame J.D.: "Oh I get it, you send him to do your dirty work." In another episode, J.D., in an attempt to make small talk, asks Janitor where he's headed, and Janitor guiltily replies he is going to sneak out on break to see his son's school play. J.D. tries to avoid the situation, but inadvertently worsens it and causes Janitor to miss his son's play, and later complain to J.D. that he broke his kid's heart, and that he won't eat. In another episode, however, he states that he does not have any children and he would not have any until medicine was advanced enough to make a child with gills, with whom he would go treasure hunting. Janitor has made it his mission to terrorize J.D. on a daily basis, frequently stalking him from a distance. People who are not familiar with Janitor will ask J.D. if he knows the man that follows him almost everywhere he goes. In My Occurrence, when Dr. Cox's brother-in-law Ben (played by Brendan Fraser) shows J.D. the dozens of candid photographs he's taken of J.D. and the hospital staff over his stay, Janitor can be seen hiding in the background of all of the pictures with J.D. present. Janitor once outright told J.D. "I don't jump out and scare you. I follow you around all day. I only got about an hour and a half of work around here, and the rest of the time I track you, like an animal." The degree of malice with which Janitor interacts with J.D. varies in episodes. Once, after a full episode of threatening to harm J.D., he just stated "You're stupid". After J.D. responding "That's it?" he correctly predicted "it will eat at you". Other times he merely engages J.D. in banter intended (and often succeeding) to prove that Janitor is actually smarter or simply "better" than J.D. is. Most times, Janitor outright bullies J.D., wrecking his bike in one episode and, in another, attacking him with a "knifewrench" (one of his inventions) for no apparent reason. In My Case Study, Janitor puts J.D. in line to get a new mop from Kelso. J.D. goes out of the line and Janitor doesn't receive a new mop. However, J.D. personally buys Janitor a new mop; Janitor then seems to soften up, nearly beginning to cry. Unfortunately, at the end of the episode, Janitor trips J.D. up, and while he is lying on the floor Janitor stands over him and says "I liked my old one". In the first episode of Season 6, Janitor is confronted by a patient (played by Flynn in heavy makeup) who says that although he once dreamed of becoming a lawyer, he has wasted his life obsessing over chasing his JD. The Janitor initially considers how his life might have been different if he didn't spend every waking moment trying to get his own J.D., but eventually returns to his old ways by the end of the episode; not only not learning the lesson, but actually turning J.D. into a makeshift American flag with paint. In rare instance, Janitor supports J.D. In My Way or the Highway, he spends time convincing patients J.D.'s medical decisions are correct. In My Words Of Wisdom, Janitor helps J.D. and Turk communicate with a deaf patient. In My Cake, out of sympathy for his father's recent death, he doesn't harass J.D. In My Road to Nowhere, though temporarily amnesiac, he stands up for J.D.'s desire to continue on. In episode 22, My Sacrificial Clam, Janitor purchases tickets for the two of them, J.D. rejects this gesture as 'sarcasm', causing distress. Neil Flynn has theorized that J.D. is as close a friend as Janitor has. J.D. has had at least one success in retaliation against Janitor. In My Own Personal Hell, J.D. successfully traps the Janitor in a walk-in freezer. In My Lucky Night, J.D. uses the riddle "Two coins add up to 30 cents, and one of them is not a nickel." Janitor fails to uncover the answer, which is 'The other one is a nickel'.

Turk

Janitor's relationship with Chris Turk, J.D.'s best friend, has included some rivalry and conflict, such as in My Karma and My Malpractical Decision. In those episodes, Turk pulls pranks on Janitor both for fun and in revenge for Janitor's harassment of J.D., but in My Dirty Secret, Janitor begins preying on Turk when J.D. orders him to 'pick someone else to annoy.' Janitor responds "I don't pick them, they pick me!" In My Best Moment, Turk annoys Janitor by (unintentionally) spitting his gum on the floor. Janitor gets back by using gum to write "Gum goes in the trash!" on Turk's windshield. Turk plays a practical joke on Janitor, on behalf of J.D., by putting blue hand prints all over the wall, and then blue paint on the Janitor's hands as Dr. Kelso walks past. Janitor retaliates by giving Turk's new cellphone number to a hypochondriac patient. In My Half-Acre, Turk and Janitor work together in an air band, The Cool Cats, showing that they can put their differences aside. In My Best Friend's Baby's Baby and My Baby's Baby, Janitor helps Turk push the ice machine in which his hand is stuck to a delivery room, but not before slapping him twice in the face. Janitor also helps Turk and Dr. Cox get a lightbulb out of a patient's anus. In the first episode of season 6, Janitor and Turk also work together to hang J.D. up like an American flag. Janitor was doing it due to J.D.'s refusal to salute an empty flag pole, while American flags were on back order. Turk does it to get back at J.D. for getting him in trouble with Carla, after J.D. tells him that Carla's middle name is Juanita, so while they have different reasons, they both work together to hang him up.

Dr. Kelso

Though the hospital's Chief of Medicine is technically his boss, Janitor is one of the few characters willing to stand up to Dr. Kelso. While Kelso's fear tactics work to paralyze the majority of the staff, they are less effective on Janitor. In the fifth season episode My Half-Acre, Turk asks Janitor how he knew that Kelso only wants respect, to which Janitor replies, "Because I know him." In another episode, Janitor stops Dr. Kelso in the hall for a chat by holding up his cleaning rag up against Dr. Kelso's face and Dr. Kelso barely seems to notice it. In the episode My Quarantine, he has a "double or nothing" wager with Dr. Kelso about whether he can catapult a cotton ball across the room and into a beaker. In the episode My Choosiest Choice of All, Janitor and Kelso collide when it is discovered that Kelso is disconnecting an alarmed door in order to get to his car quicker. The newly assigned "security guard" Janitor is torn between doing his job by stopping Kelso and the fear that he might lose his new job. Kelso also seems to trust Janitor more than anyone else in the hospital, as evidenced in the episode My Urologist, when he gives Janitor the keys to his house and asks him to bring him back $400 from his personal savings (which he keeps in a jar in his kitchen) so Kelso can bail his son out of jail. Janitor allegedly spends some of the money on a leather jacket and tells Kelso to prove if he did it; it is unclear whether Janitor actually took the money. Kelso later trashes Janitor's van in retaliation and tells him to prove it, which Janitor does by showing Kelso a video of Kelso's doing it. As a result, Janitor forces Kelso to tell the entire staff that he fears him and he has awesome 'fearitude'. Also, when Kelso forces Elliot Reid to look "frumpy" like the other female doctors, Janitor deliberately leaves the floor wet to so that Kelso slips and knocks himself unconscious in retaliation as he "liked how Blonde Doctor looked." While Kelso is at a conference in Arizona, Janitor "pretends" to take over his position as Chief of Medicine. Even though it was supposed to be a farce, Janitor made several key decisions, such as creating a new day care program for children of hospital employees, purchasing new hospital equipment, and cutting Ted Buckland's vacation pay. Kelso sometimes refers to the Janitor as "Jumpsuit." In the second episode of the 7th season, while Turk was asking who would like to help him in his video game, Dr. Kelso and Janitor high five and say "We're friends at night".

Dr. Cox

Early on, Janitor and Cox also lock horns. At one point, the maintenance crew locks Dr. Cox in a morgue drawer on the Janitor's orders; on another, Cox blows up Janitor's van after winning a bet with him over Elliot (My Best Laid Plans). The Janitor helps Cox with an odd case in My Office, his knowledge of lightbulbs allows the doctor to remove one from a patient's rectum. When Dr. Kelso steals the credit, Janitor installs the removed bulb in Kelso's office. In the episode My Buddy's Booty, the two become drinking buddies, although Janitor treats him badly in the hospital in order to maintain his 'cool'. Cox soon understands. In My Friend With Money, the two even become roommates; personality conflicts drive them apart. Like most of the other characters, Cox refers to Janitor by several nicknames, most commonly Shrek, Lurch, Sasquatch and Mongo.

Elliot

Janitor's romantic feelings for Elliot, or as he calls her, "Blonde Doctor", causes several embarassing moments over the series. In the season 6 finale, My Point of No Return, after Elliot invites Janitor to her wedding, he sets himself and his "Brain Trust" on a mission to make sure that her fiancé, Keith Dudemeister, will be a good husband.

Carla

Janitor refers to Carla as "scary nurse-wife" in His Story III. Nonetheless, Janitor is not above subjecting Carla to his special brand of torture on certain occasions, such as when he makes her self-conscious by giving a younger nurse the nickname “Young Carla”. When Carla organizes a staff photo, in My Missed Perception, that leaves Janitor out, he ruins it. When things are patched up, he reconvenes the hospital staff using 'fear'. He also gives Carla a passionate hug, but he insists that he had to resist the urge to kill her. In My First Kill, Janitor trades his treasured stuffed squirrel army for 'Steven', a stuffed dog. This helps Carla greatly. In "My Long Goodbye", the Janitor buys Carla a round of drinks to console her for the loss of Nurse Roberts.

Ted

Janitor seems to like Ted Buckland, Sacred Heart's milquetoast lawyer. At lunch Janitor often sits with Ted, Doug Murphy and The Todd, forming an outcast group (see "Brain Trust", below). In season three he appears to have a rivalry-friendship with Ted based around singles' nights at the Korean church. Later in season three it is revealed that Janitor once had a relationship with Ted's wife. In the Season five episode My Half-Acre, Ted and Janitor are the founding members of an air band (playing guitar and bass, respectively) known as the "Cool Cats", which later includes Turk on vocals and Lloyd the delivery man on drums.

Brain Trust

Janitor has on occasion controlled a group of people he calls his brain trust, a group which seems to exist solely to help the Janitor in certain situations. Janitor originally referred to Troy the Cafeteria Worker, Randall, and Crazy-Eyes Margot as his "Brain Trust." When he abandons them in the effort to get Elliot's attention, he replaced them with the new Brain Trust of Ted, Doug and The Todd. Most recently, Lloyd the delivery man has been auditioned as a potential replacement for Doug.

Dubious claims

Much of Janitor's life isn't known for certain. A well-known (and admitted) liar, he is notorious for telling tall tales about himself; since nobody believes him, it is difficult to determine which stories are true. The dubious claims he has made over the years include:

• He claims to have gone to Harvard in My Lucky Night. In My Déjà vu, My Déjà vu, he claims to have attended Yale.
• In My Drama Queen, he claims to have a wife who only has a "pointer" finger on her right hand and "thumb/pinky" on her left.^[7]
• In My Own American Girl, he tells Elliot that he grew up believing his mother was his sister and his father was his brother; he calls them "sister-mom" and "brother-dad".^[8]
• In My Bright Idea, he appears to be a world-class hurdler. He claims to have been accepted to Grambling. This appears to be another lie until later in the episode he runs 100 meters in 9.98 seconds (to attack J.D. by surprise). This makes him one of the fastest men in the world, and the fastest hurdler (in the 100m Hurdles) of all time (despite the fact that he was apparently a heavy smoker).^[9]
• He claims to have slept with Amy Carter. When confronted about this, he clarifies his statement saying, "I didn't sleep with Amy Carter. We did everything but."
• In "His Story III", he claims to be the reason a nurse named Jill is pregnant, although details are withheld.^[5]
• When Dr. Kevin Casey mentions that he has obsessive-compulsive disorder in My Porcelain God, Janitor says his grandfather had the disorder too. He then elaborates by saying that his grandfather used to beat him with a gym sock full of nickels, which of course doesn't have anything to do with OCD.^[10]
• In My Rite of Passage, he tells J.D. that he has a brother who is a stripper.^[11]
• He has told J.D. that he has an adopted brother named Clete, whom his parents adopted at the age of 46. Apparently, he and Janitor's father used to beat each other because his mother slept with Clete. This turns out to all be a lie just to distract J.D.
• In My Moment of Un-Truth, he claims to have a twin brother, but later admits it to be an attempt at tricking J.D. and Turk.^[12]
• He failed 8th grade gym because he hated the gym shorts,^[13] although this may be untrue because he once came to work in shorts in a planned "Short Day" along with J.D.
• In My Therapeutic Month, he says his great-great-great grandfather was Ambrose Burnside, prompting him to grow mutton-chop sideburns^[14]', although once again, this proved to be a lie.
• In My Scrubs, he claims to be ¼ Inuit,^[15] although it is his stepmother who is Inuit.
• In My New Coat, he claims that he was once in the military, but when asked by J.D. which branch, he quickly retracted the comment, saying "The Janitor Branch".^[16]
• In My Long Goodbye, he claims to have converted to the Norse religion; ("it just made sense"),^[17] In Their Story, however, he replaces a light bulb with a tanning bulb, saying that he was tired of being the only white guy at his mosque; any affiliation with Islam has yet to be confirmed, however, and as such may also be a lie.^[18] He is seen at a Korean Church's singles night, and speaks Korean to Ted.
• In My Friend the Doctor he refers to himself as Nigel (the Brit), Klaus (the 'dimwitted' German), and Ephraim (a 'simple good-natured' stutterer).
• He knows sign language, and at first he said that he was inspired to learn it by a gorilla at the zoo who knew only two hand signs. When asked by J.D. if any of this was true, Janitor replies "someone would have to read that back to me." Later he claims to have been taught sign language by his father so he could communicate with his deaf sister. Then when J.D. later asks if any of that was true, Janitor responds by saying "Most of it", and elaborating that his father died before he was born. When J.D. says he had met Janitor's father, Janitor responds, "You met a man."^[7]
• In many episodes, he has stated he is married and has children. However, in Her Story II he states that he wants to wait until they have the technology to allow his son to have gills^[19] and in the season 7 premiere My Own Worst Enemy he has a girlfriend named Lady, yet it is not said he has broken up with his wife.^[20] However, he hinted in My Blind Date that he was thinking about divorce, and sarcastically asked J.D. for his advice on the subject.^[21]

Miscellaneous

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• Janitor is often seen leading other hospital employees in various initiatives and other activities, including giving the evil eye (several times) to J.D. and Carla.
• On multiple occasions when several staff members go to a bar together, Janitor often goes with them. Although he has drunk with Dr. Cox alone, in groups he normally stands by himself in a corner or apart from the others. He tends to only nod to the other employees, but goes as far as buying them drinks when Laverne dies and when Cox's daughter is born.
• Janitor claims to enjoy drawing kangaroos in My Big Move.
• Janitor also likes to go "Vanning", which consists of driving long distances in his van.
• He also enjoys "Clubbing", a sport which involves going to the roof of the hospital and clubbing rats to death, once inviting Elliot to join him for a "date".
• In My Best Friend's Wedding, Janitor brings a date, Franny, to Turk and Carla's wedding. They steal the silverware (he says forks and ladles are "where the big money is"). Later in the episode, Franny is gone and Janitor dances with Elliot.
• He also apparently has a tattoo of a mop, according to J.D. in the episode My Big Move, when Janitor gets a new uniform.
• In My Interpretation, J.D. sees Janitor at home naked in the shower through a first floor window, subsequently diagnosing him with a possible melanoma on his penis. After a mutually uncomfortable examination finds that the growth is benign ("benign, nine and a half"), Janitor admits to J.D. that he had been brave in confronting him.^[22]
• He is also interested in breathing underwater, or would at least like a child who has gills.
• Janitor has claimed drinking problems more than once. He says he is "still drunk from breakfast" in My First Kill, is too drunk to move in My Boss's Free Haircut, and claims he is missing an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting to drink in a bar with Dr. Cox in My Fault.
• He claims that he looks older because of excessive drinking, smoking, working with chemicals, and sleeping on his face.
• Janitor knows Spanish, as revealed when Carla' s brother comes by the hospital. Janitor also knows sign language. He uses this to converse with a deaf patient for the benefit of J.D. and Turk; he takes the opportunity to claim to the patient the two are dating. He also seems to know Korean.

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. Ján Ïtor, 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.^[1] Sam Lloyd once commented on Flynn's "improv"ing: "I opened my script up once and it said 'Janitor: Whatever Neil says,' and I just started laughing."
• The only episode that Janitor does not appear in is My Lucky Day which suggests that part of J.D.'s lucky day was that there was no Janitor to harass him. There were originally scenes in this episode in which the Janitor appears, however they were cut for time and added to My New Old Friend.
• 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.

References

•  • e Scrubs
Main characters	J.D. (Zach Braff) · Elliot Reid (Sarah Chalke) · Christopher Turk (Donald Faison) · Carla Espinosa (Judy Reyes) · Perry Cox (John C. McGinley) · Bob Kelso (Ken Jenkins) · Janitor (Neil Flynn)
Other characters	Jordan Sullivan (Christa Miller) · The Todd (Robert Maschio) · Ted Buckland (Sam Lloyd) · Keith Dudemeister (Travis Schuldt) · Doug Murphy (Johnny Kastl) · Laverne Roberts/Nurse Shirley (Aloma Wright) · Kim Briggs (Elizabeth Banks) · Minor characters
Setting	Sacred Heart Hospital
Music	"Superman" by Lazlo Bane · The Blanks · Colin Hay · Keren DeBerg · Joshua Radin
Crew	Bill Lawrence · Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan · Mike Schwartz · Michael Spiller · Adam Bernstein
Notable episodes	Episode list · "My First Day" · "My Old Lady" · "My Screw Up" · "My Way Home" · "My Lunch" · "My Musical"