Scrubs: 5 Times We Felt Bad For Dr. Kelso (& 5 Times We Hated Him)
The characters of Scrubs help the show be one of the best sitcoms available to watch. Their realistic yet hilarious natures make them particularly memorable, as they are all good people with immense flaws. However, if one person is consistently a bad person throughout the show, it is Dr. Robert Kelso, Chief of Medicine.
Dr. Kelso gets shown to be the most despicable individual in the show, and even acts as such when it appears he will get shown in a good light. Nevertheless, there is more to Kelso, and he is a decent person and a sympathetic guy on a few occasions.
10 Felt Bad – When He Get's Forced Into Being The Bad Guy
For a long time in the show, Kelso was just a bad guy. But, as Scrubs progressed, fans see there is a lot of times when Kelso gets forced into that role.
When he steps out of the hospital and for once does not instantly smile, and is actually sad, audiences see him pretend to be happy when running into the gang outside. Viewers also learn how hard Kelso's job is when Dr. Cox needs to fire Kenny due to budgetary reasons. There are a good few moments like this through the show that truly make audiences sympathize with Kelso.
9 Hated – When He Was Humiliating Elliot
When Dr. Kelso spends an entire episode ridiculing Elliot in an attempt to break her, he gets his comeuppance in the form of a Dr. Cox punch to the nose.
Nevertheless, when Kelso chooses Elliot as the doctor to abuse and just totally demoralize, it truly makes audiences dislike him, especially for anyone who really likes Elliot.
8 Felt Bad – When He Passes On Advice To Dr. Cox
Following Kelso's retirement, he and Dr. Cox actually do the unthinkable; they become friends.
When this happens, audiences truly see how hard the job of Chief of Medicine was on Bob, and how he can be a truly good guy. When he imparts wisdom on Perry through his experience in the job, it is both sad and heartwarming.
7 Hated – When He Reveals His True Colors
In the pilot episode "My First Day," it appears on the surface as though Dr. Kelso was all sunshine and rainbows, and a terrific guy, with Dr. Cox acting as his evil opposite.
By the end of the episode, however, Kelso drops the charade and reveals that he does not care about J.D. or the interns, showing himself to be the bad guy to Dr. Cox's hero.
6 Felt Bad – When He Can't Leave The Hospital
Following his retirement, Kelso, for some reason, sticks around at the hospital café, consuming insane amounts of muffins and reading his papers while getting involved in the hospital drama.
Later though, fans find out that Kelso does not know what else to do with his time after so many decades in medicine. He misses the job that defined him for so many years. It is difficult to not feel sorry for Kelso during these scenes.
5 Hated – When He Ran Over A Cat
In "My Waste Of Time," Scrubs includes a flashback to when Kelso first met Ted, and he gets Ted to clean his car.
While doing so, Kelso tells Ted to get in the grill as he knocked over his neighbor's cat last night, not on accident, he moved his car across lanes to hit it. Animal abuse is a very effective way to make a character hatable.
4 Felt Bad – When He Is Forced To Retire
Going back to his retirement, Kelso never actually wanted to retire, he got forced into it, and it was sad to see how broken up about it he was. Kelso took his role very seriously and was not ready to ride off into the sunset.
When Elliot desperately attempts to throw him a birthday party, it reveals that Kelso is of retirement age by hospital guidelines, a fact he tried to hide from everyone.
3 Hated – Treatment Of Ted
The late great Sam Lloyd was one of the best recurring actors of the show with his performance as the down on his luck lawyer Ted Buckland.
For eight seasons, Kelso continuously abused Ted, going as far as to encourage his suicide, in the knowledge that Ted is too scared to do so. It is definitely hilarious most of the time, but sometimes it just gets too much.
2 Felt Bad – When Enid Dies
When Scrubs returns for its fateful ninth season, fans get given the knowledge that Kelso's long time wife Enid had died.
Kelso acts like an absolute despicable animal not long after in his attempts to pick up women. But for a brief time, it was immensely sad knowing Kelso had lost Enid, especially knowing he cannot sleep without her snoring. While the show does not focus too much on Kelso's grief, it is hinted at for a short second before the character returns to normal.
1 Hated – Sexual Harassment
Dr. Kelso comes from an older era of medicine, one where he would objectify women with no consequences. That is how he got with his wife.
Nevertheless, this does not excuse Dr. Kelso's history with sexual harassment and consistent cheating on his wife, which are just deplorable. Season 3's "My Tormented Mentor" dives into the sexual harassment faced by the nurses working at Sacred Heart Hospital, with five complaints being specifically about Kelso.