Turk (Scrubs)

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Chris Turk
First appearance	"My First Day"
Created by	Bill Lawrence
Portrayed by	Donald Faison
Information
Nickname(s)	Turkleton, Brown Bear, Chocolate Bear, Gandhi
Gender	Male
Age	32[1]
Occupation	Surgical doctor
Title	Attending surgeon
Family	Margaret Turk (mother),Father(unnamed), Kevin Turk, Bob "Jabbari" Turk (brothers), Lesley (aunt), Nfume, George, Shedaisy (cousins)
Spouse(s)	Carla Espinosa
Children	Isabella "Izzy" Turk (daughter)

Dr. Christopher Duncan "Chris" Turk, M.D.^[2][3] (most commonly referred to as Turk) is a fictional character played by Donald Faison on the American sitcom Scrubs.

Contents 1 Profile 2 Family life 3 Relationships with other characters 3.1 J.D. 3.2 Elliot 3.3 Dr. Kelso 3.4 Dr. Cox 3.5 The Todd 3.6 The Janitor 4 Production details 5 References

[edit] Profile

Christopher Turk, commonly referred to by his surname, is the best friend and former roommate of the series' protagonist, J.D. He is currently an attending surgeon at Sacred Heart Hospital, where the series takes place, and is married to Carla Espinosa, one of the nurses. He was most likely born somewhere around 1976, as he first left for college in 1993/1994, during which time, as well as completing his pre-med requirement, he completed a minor in Psychology.^[4] In "My Bad", he reveals that he regularly attended therapy during this time in order to deal with the stress.^[5]

Turk is a very competitive person. He says that his competitive nature drove him to "play everything" in high school, and also cites it as the main reason why he became a surgeon.^[6] He can frequently be seen throughout the series playing basketball outside the hospital, which helps him to relax before he has to perform surgery, or engaging J.D. in childishly competitive games (such as "Steak", wherein whoever finishes their steak first wins, "Ankles," in which the first person to be embarrassed by having their pants around their ankles loses, or "Find the Saltine").

In "My Cake" Turk is diagnosed with type two diabetes; he initially takes it as a joke, but now takes it seriously.^[7] Also, in "My Manhood", it is revealed Turk had a testicle removed months earlier when Izzy kicked him in the groin causing testicular torsion, requiring removal. Turk had not told J.D. about it as he felt like less of a man.

Turk is Roman Catholic, though his faith is tested in the episode "My Own Personal Jesus" by numerous casualties occurring on Christmas Eve.^[8] His faith is restored at the end of the episode by his miraculous finding of a missing pregnant girl in severe need of medical attention.

As evidenced by "His Story IV", Turk appears to be a political liberal; he votes Democrat and does not support the war in Iraq.^[9] He is also frequently seen wearing Amnesty International t-shirts (as is J.D.) He states in a deleted scene of "My Way Home" that he is a Democrat.

Along with being a gifted singer, Turk is an extremely talented dancer. In "My Half-Acre", he becomes a member of the Cool Cats, an "air band" put together by the Janitor, hospital attorney Ted Buckland, and Lloyd, the hospital's delivery man. He also seems to be very attracted to Tyra Banks; He admits freely that he has a picture of her in his cell phone, and Carla mentioning her name is all it takes to get him "ready" in bed.^[10] He has also said to Carla that "…in [Turk's] book, it goes: Cheese, you, Tyra".

[edit] Family life

Turk has at least two brothers, Kevin (played by D.L. Hughley), who paid for Turk's college and medical school;^[11] and Jabbari (formerly Bob), who is described as "militant".^[12] He also mentions a sister, a "bipolar Aunt Leslie" and three cousins: Nfume (who it is implied hails from an African cultural background), George and Shedaisy. Turk also mentions that he has another cousin named Tiger (implied to be Tiger Woods), but this may or may not be true: Carla rejects the idea of naming their baby after this cousin because "no one believes it". Turk also mentions a cousin whom he describes as the world's biggest "blerd", or black nerd).^[13] His mother Margaret is a Jehovah's Witness.^[14] Turk has also mentioned a grandmother, who attended his wedding with Carla and was thrown up on by J.D.'s ex-girlfriend, Danni Sullivan. In "My Brother, Where Art Thou?" Turk notes that while the members of his family are seemingly dysfunctional, they are very close to each other.^[12] He is especially close with his mother, at times almost inappropriately so; Carla claims to have caught them "snuggling" in bed together on a recent visit home. During an earlier episode she also realizes that she bears a striking resemblance to Margaret, and begins to fear that Turk was marrying her because she resembled his mother. Turk calms her worries by claiming that he is indeed attracted to her for this reason; both Carla and Ms. Turk are "smart, independent women who are always looking out for [him]."

Carla catches Turk's eye immediately, although she is reluctant to go out with him at first because of his arrogance, purely physical attraction to her, and his god complex.^[15] He impresses her in "My Mentor" by telling her that she should give Elliot Reid, with whom she does not get along, a break; she agrees to a date with him, and they soon become a serious item.^[14] They first sleep together in "My Two Dads" and confess their love to each other later in the season. In "My Overkill", their relationship is shaken when Carla finds out not only that senior attending physician Dr. Perry Cox has feelings for her, but that Turk knows about it; she soon learns to trust him again, however. In season two, Carla becomes very uncertain after Turk's proposal, but she eventually accepts. They then spend the whole of season three planning their wedding, which happens, albeit with a few problems, in the season finale.

During college, Turk had a girlfriend named Rosanna, with whom he maintains a friendship for many years after breaking up with her, regularly talking to her over the phone. However, he does so without telling the girlfriend that he was married. When Carla finds out he had been talking to his ex in "My Best Laid Plans", she becomes angry, until Turk convinces her it means nothing. He breaks ties with his ex-girlfriend anyway, to show his commitment to Carla. Unfortunately, he tells Carla that he did this by telling his ex that he was married, causing an even greater rift between them; for a while, it seems their relationship won't survive, a situation worsened by Carla and J.D. sharing a "friend kiss" after coming home drunk together. Eventually, the two of them fix their relationship, and at the end of season four they agree to begin trying for a baby. They spend most of season five trying to conceive, finally succeeding in the sixteenth episode of the season, "My Bright Idea". Their baby, Isabella, is born after some complications in "My Best Friend's Baby's Baby and My Baby's Baby".

Turk seems to be comically incapable of remembering Carla's ethnicity, often saying that she is Puerto Rican when she is, in fact, Dominican. Other blunders include telling J.D. that Isabella is "Blaxican," and claiming at a taco stand that he is entitled to free guacamole because he "is married to one of their people."

Carla is somewhat jealous of Turk and J.D.'s close relationship, wistfully saying, "Maybe one day he'll love me like that", and referring to J.D. (in her thoughts) as Turk's "boyfriend".

[edit] Relationships with other characters

[edit] J.D.

Turk and J.D. are best friends and are like brothers. They both attended The College of William and Mary (Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence's alma mater), where they roomed together.^[16] They share a goofy sense of humor; for example, they both enjoy dancing 'the robot',^[17] "dramatic slow running", and are known to sometimes pretend to be the "multi-ethnic Siamese doctor." In "My Day Off" J.D. is afraid to let Turk perform his appendectomy because he still sees Turk as a frat boy who doesn't take anything seriously. Turk is forced to perform the surgery, however, and J.D. thought he watched Turk and found him to be an amazing surgeon. Afterwards, when Turk tells J.D. that he is still a nerd in his eyes, he proves to J.D. that when it comes to surgery, he's all business. However, J.D. realizes that Turk stitched his initials into his abdomen.

J.D. likes to tell people that Turk's middle name is Duncan because his father likes doughnuts. J.D. has given Turk many nicknames, such as "Brown Bear," "Chocolate Bear," "Mocha Bear" (In addition, he once called Turk's daughter Izabella "Mocha Cub"), "Super Chocolate Bear" "Black Whale" "Obi-Brown" and "My Negro Amigo". He and J.D. own a stuffed Yellow Labrador Retriever named Rowdy which they treat like a live dog. They plan to someday own a robot, which they will name 2Pac, formerly Gizmo. J.D. is also Turk's best man,^[18] and, according to Turk, is the prime candidate for godfather of his and Carla's child.

They best explain their relationship in their duet "Guy Love" in "My Musical": "It's Guy Love/That's all it is/It's Guy Love/he's mine, I'm his/There's nothing gay about it in our eyes."

[edit] Elliot

Elliot and Turk are unlikely friends who had a rough start. They bond while doing a research project, but have their first fight in the same episode, when The Todd tells Elliot that Turk only chose her because she was a nerd. Turk patches up their relationship by the end of the episode. They advise each other at tough times, but Turk often teases her and they have sometimes had arguments. In "My Cabbage", they argue about Elliot not putting his phone number in her cell phone and, in "My Coffee", Elliot is surprised when Turk actually defends her when she is insulted by other staff members. In "My No Good Reason", Turk reveals that any girl J.D. has ever gone out with has become instantly hideous to him, which is displayed when Elliot walks by and Turk sees her as an ugly man. This is contradicted in the episode "My Interpretation," where Turk has a series of sexual fantasies about Elliot, but Carla assures him that they are meaningless; in turn, she soon has a sex dream about Ted Buckland. It is also contradicted in "My Fishbowl," when it is revealed that Turk had sex with J.D.'s college girlfriend, Stacy (Though it is possible that J.D. had not slept with her and Turk would have been aware of this as they were roommates). Turk also hates that Elliot is a Republican, and mocks her for it in "His Story IV".

[edit] Dr. Kelso

At first, Turk regards Dr. Kelso, the hospital's curmudgeonly chief of medicine, with the same fear and hatred as his fellow employees. In "My Case Study", however, he gets the upper hand when he finds out that the hospital tradition of asking Kelso for favors on his anniversary is based on a lie; he then demands a huge favor for the staff. In "My Nickname", he and Kelso compete over a bench to sit and eat lunch at (it is implied that Kelso is impressed by his efforts). While a member of Cool Cats, he also openly defies Kelso, resulting in Kelso forbidding "air banding" in the hospital; this restriction is removed after Turk apologizes.

Beginning in season four, their relationship grows somewhat calmer. After getting drunk at his and Carla's wedding, Kelso begins calling Turk "Turkleton", having convinced himself that Turk's name is Turk Turkleton rather than Christopher Turk. He also starts calling Carla "Mrs. Turkleton" and "Nurse Turkleton" and has referred to them as the "Turkleberries". Turk and Kelso also have a common nemesis in Dr. Cox; Kelso helps Turk play a prank on Cox in "My Turf War".

[edit] Dr. Cox

Dr. Cox hates Turk almost instantly, though he doesn't even put face to name until the middle of the first season. His hatred is increased when it is learned Cox still has a crush on Carla. They declare a truce until Cox's ex-wife Jordan blows their cover in "My Last Day". Like with many others, Cox has nicknamed Turk "Gandhi" or "Turtle Head" or "Scalpel Jocky" or, more recently, "Gumball."

They remain adversarial for some time, although they do find common ground in "His Story IV" in that they both oppose the war in Iraq. In "My Turf War", Turk tricks Cox into thinking he performed an unnecessary and unethical surgery on Lloyd, an annoying hypochondriac. This gets him to admit that Turk is a good person and surgeon. Humiliated but impressed, Cox begins giving Turk patients.

Cox does not let his adversarial relationship get in the way of helping Turk become a better surgeon. In "My Drive-By", he convinces Turk a healthy ego is essential to his job.

[edit] The Todd

As fellow surgeons, Turk and The Todd are close. Due to the latter's never ending sexual innuendo, Turk feels that he is smarter than The Todd. Turk eventually learns from his friend when Dr. Wen tells him to clear his mind during surgery, like The Todd. They constantly share The Todd's trademark high five. In the episode "Their Story", the Todd calls J.D. Turk's "second best friend" (implying he believes himself to be Turk's best friend) and spends the entire episode trying to save Turk's career from a pushy senior physician.

[edit] The Janitor

Turk has a rivalry with the Janitor, because of the latter's cruel treatment of J.D. In one instance, Turk frames the Janitor with blue-paint-hand prints on the wall, and later casually drops gum on the floor. In "My Half-Acre", however, they put their rivalry aside long enough to be in an "air band" together. In "My Mirror Image", meanwhile, Turk teams up with the Janitor to pull a prank on J.D. over a misunderstanding of Carla's middle name.

[edit] Production details

• His cell phone number is (916) CALL-TUR (225-5887), although he hopes that people will dial the 'K' anyway. At first, fans who dialed the phone number found themselves connected to an actual phone located on set. Several fans reported many cast and crew members picking up the phone and having live conversations with them (Zach Braff, who plays J.D., accounted for this in his own blog). The phone soon became overloaded with calls, and callers were re-directed to a voice mail message from Turk or Carla announcing that Turk was out, but would be back at the start of the next season. The voice mail was later changed to one including Braff plugging a website and movie. As of December 2006, the message was one of Neil Flynn (who plays the Janitor) advertising for the season premiere of Scrubs. As of February 2007, the message changed to one of Sacred Heart's security guard Leonard promoting Scrubs on Comedy Central. Since March and as of January 2008, the message is of Doug Murphy, one of the show's minor characters, saying that they are attempting to pull a body off of him and then he plugs a website, as well as the Scrubs blog and podcast. As of April 2008, the message is of the Janitor saying that "...this is J.D., I'm not available right now, leave a message and I'll call you back immediately. If I don't, feel free to come after me and personally harm me." He then advertises the episode "My Princess."
• Turk's name is based on that of real-life physician Dr. Jon Turk, a medical consultant for Scrubs.^[19]

[edit] References

v • d • e Scrubs Main characters J.D. (Zach Braff) · Elliot Reid (Sarah Chalke) · Christopher Turk (Donald Faison) · Janitor (Neil Flynn) · Bob Kelso (Ken Jenkins) · Perry Cox (John C. McGinley) · Carla Espinosa (Judy Reyes) Other characters Jordan Sullivan (Christa Miller) · The Todd (Robert Maschio) · Ted Buckland (Sam Lloyd) · Doug Murphy (Johnny Kastl) · Keith Dudemeister (Travis Schuldt) · 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"