{"id":3829,"date":"2012-08-18T01:23:20","date_gmt":"2012-08-18T09:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/?p=3829"},"modified":"2017-12-03T21:05:08","modified_gmt":"2017-12-04T02:05:08","slug":"was-the-janitor-on-scrubs-originally-just-a-figment-of-j-d-s-imagination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2012\/08\/18\/was-the-janitor-on-scrubs-originally-just-a-figment-of-j-d-s-imagination\/","title":{"rendered":"Was the Janitor on Scrubs Originally Just a Figment of J.D.&#8217;s Imagination?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. Click <a href=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2009\/04\/19\/tv-legends-revealed-history\/\">here<\/a> to view an archive of the TV urban legends featured so far.<\/p>\n<p><u><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">TV URBAN LEGEND<\/span><\/u>: Janitor was written in the first season and a half of Scrubs as though he was a figment of J.D.&#8217;s imagination.<\/p>\n<p>Scrubs was on the air for nine seasons and it even survived a move from NBC (where it was for Seasons 1-7) to ABC (Season 8-9), but when it began, creator Bill Lawrence did not expect his quirky comedy to last past a season (and early on, it was not clear that it WOULD).<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/418e80ceee977d242e2cd50844d0979c819daa96.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><iframe style=\"width:120px;height:240px;\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&#038;OneJS=1&#038;Operation=GetAdHtml&#038;MarketPlace=US&#038;source=ac&#038;ref=qf_sp_asin_til&#038;ad_type=product_link&#038;tracking_id=legenrevea-20&#038;marketplace=amazon&#038;region=US&#038;placement=B003H9M26Q&#038;asins=B003H9M26Q&#038;linkId=858ccc599268d12916903f4178406af4&#038;show_border=true&#038;link_opens_in_new_window=true&#038;price_color=333333&#038;title_color=0066c0&#038;bg_color=ffffff\">    <\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Due to this knowledge that the show might be canceled at any given time, Lawrence wrote the entire first season a certain way so that, if the show was canceled, he would be able to give it a nice twist ending. <\/p>\n<p>Read on to see what it would have been!<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>One of the most popular supporting characters on the show is The Janitor (whose name has yet to be revealed), the bizarre nemesis of lead character John &#8220;JD&#8221; Dorian. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/6a00d8341bfb4353ef00e54f2de3558833-800wi.jpg\" alt=\"6a00d8341bfb4353ef00e54f2de3558833-800wi\" title=\"6a00d8341bfb4353ef00e54f2de3558833-800wi\" width=\"515\" height=\"687\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-178\" srcset=\"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/6a00d8341bfb4353ef00e54f2de3558833-800wi.jpg 515w, https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/6a00d8341bfb4353ef00e54f2de3558833-800wi-224x300.jpg 224w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 515px) 100vw, 515px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Eventually, the Janitor became a regular cast member, and was since Season 2. However, when he began, he was just a recurring character, and what Lawrence made sure to do was to have The Janitor only interact directly with JD during season one.<\/p>\n<p>The Janitor DID have some mild interactions with other people, but they were mostly instances where you were not positive that the other person definitely WAS talking to the Janitor or you were not positive that said interaction was not part of JD&#8217;s daydreams (a big part of the show is JD&#8217;s vivid daydreams about wacky situations). <\/p>\n<p>The reason for this is that Lawrence was going to reveal, at the end of the season (if the show was canceled) that the Janitor actually was just a figment of JD&#8217;s imagination (Lawrence revealed this on the commentary on the Scrubs DVDs)!!<\/p>\n<p>Even when the show was renewed for season two, Lawrence figured that the show was not in good shape to start, so he was planning to use the same reveal if it was canceled soon into the second season. However, decent ratings coupled with actor Neil Flynn (who plays the Janitor)&#8217;s request that he have scenes with actors other than Zach Braff (who plays JD) finally led to Lawrence giving up the plan and, in a Season Two episode, had the Janitor interact with another character, Donald Faison&#8217;s Turk.<\/p>\n<p>Still, it was a long commitment by Lawrence to a bit, and it is to be commended!<\/p>\n<p>NOTE: There WAS a moment in Season 1 where he sure seemed to interact with Sarah Chalke&#8217;s character, Elliot, but I guess that was just a screw-up. <\/p>\n<p>The legend is&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><u><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">STATUS<\/span><\/u>: True<\/p>\n<p>Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future urban legends columns! My e-mail address is &#x62;c&#x72;o&#x6e;&#105;n&#x40;l&#x65;g&#x65;&#110;d&#x73;r&#x65;&#118;e&#x61;l&#x65;d&#x2e;&#99;o&#x6d;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the TV urban legends featured so far. TV URBAN LEGEND: Janitor was written in the first season and a half of Scrubs as though he was a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[8],"tags":[1148,1152,1146,1149,1150,1147,1153,1151],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7MjBq-ZL","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4611,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2013\/04\/12\/was-nbcs-must-see-tv-really-created-for-their-thursday-night-lineup\/","url_meta":{"origin":3829,"position":0},"title":"Was NBC&#8217;s &#8220;Must See TV&#8221; Really Created For Their Thursday Night Lineup?","date":"April 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. 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TV URBAN LEGEND: Lawrence Welk played \"One Toke Over the Line\" on his TV show.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;TV Legends Revealed&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3692,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2012\/07\/24\/tv-urban-legends-revealed-were-there-really-no-black-people-in-mayberry\/","url_meta":{"origin":3829,"position":2},"title":"Were There Really No Black People in Mayberry?","date":"July 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the TV urban legends featured so far. TV URBAN LEGEND: There were no black people in Mayberry. Let's get it out of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;TV Legends Revealed&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/barneycomestomayberry06.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4162,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2012\/12\/09\/did-the-flintstones-do-commercials-for-winston-cigarettes\/","url_meta":{"origin":3829,"position":3},"title":"Did the Flintstones Do Commercials for Winston Cigarettes?","date":"December 9, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the TV urban legends featured so far. TV URBAN LEGEND: The Flintstones did commercials for Winston Cigarettes. Like I have noted before,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;TV Legends Revealed&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7502,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2015\/12\/25\/did-a-famous-tv-director-get-his-start-on-buck-rogers-as-a-protest-over-the-shows-cancellation\/","url_meta":{"origin":3829,"position":4},"title":"Did a Famous TV Director Get His Start on Buck Rogers as a Protest Over the Show&#8217;s Cancellation?","date":"December 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the TV urban legends featured so far. TV URBAN LEGEND: Angry about the cancellation of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;TV Legends Revealed&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":357,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2009\/04\/19\/tv-legends-revealed-history\/","url_meta":{"origin":3829,"position":5},"title":"TV Urban Legends History","date":"April 19, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Here are quick descriptions of each of the previous editions of TV Urban Legends Revealed. To see if they are true or false, you have to click on the link! The legends are in chronological order, so the most recent ones are at the end of the list! 1. Cheers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Archives&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3829"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3829"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8746,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3829\/revisions\/8746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}