Bob Kelso

Dr. Robert Kelso
File:Kenjenkins4x15.jpg
First appearance	My First Day
Created by	Bill Lawrence
Portrayed by	Ken Jenkins
In-universe information
Gender	Male
Title	Chief of Medicine
Occupation	Doctor of internal medicine
Family	Spouse: Enid Kelso Son: Harrison Kelso

Dr. Robert "Bob" Kelso, M.D. (most commonly referred to as Bob Kelso or Kelso) is a fictional character played by Ken Jenkins in the American sitcom Scrubs.

Profile

Bob Kelso is the truculent chief of medicine for the hospital. He graduated twelfth in his class at Stanford University in 1969.

He appears to be more interested in profit and staying out of legal trouble than helping patients; he reasons that if he permitted pro bono treatment towards impoverished patients, the hospital would close. Despite such pretensions of selflessness, however, he is fond of spending the hospital budget on himself (in My Kingdom Kelso chooses to spend hospital money on a golf trip to Hawaii rather than buying a new computer for the hospital).

Personal background

Kelso has said his father, Dr Kelsonovich, moved to Monroeville, Pennsylvania and that he played baseball as a star shortstop in Altoona, about one hour away. He can play the guitar and wrote numerous blues songs in college. His father was also a doctor, who endeared himself to his poorer patients by accepting gifts such as food and clothing in lieu of actual payment; he was apparently less generous to his own family, however, having left them on Kelso's own bike (an event to which Kelso attributes his irrational hatred of bikes, as seen in the Season 5 episode 'My Five Stages'.)

Kelso was in the Navy during the Vietnam War. He claims to have a tattoo of the word "Johnny" on his buttocks ("...he's an old sailor buddy, and if you went through what we did, you'd understand."). He is married to Enid "Bunny" Kelso, a nurse who worked in his hospital during his early career. She is morbidly obese, paralyzed from the waist down and is confined to a wheelchair. He has two children: a son, Harrison, a gay heavy metal fan, and a secret love child, Trong Tri Kelso, the product of his relationship with a Vietnamese prostitute. The existence of his love child embarrasses him, but he still pays for the boy's college education. Kelso's wife and sons are unseen characters who are often referred to but never seen by the audience. Kelso often cheats on his wife with young Asian women.

Peculiarities

Kelso is a strong advocate of nepotism. He is despised by the more medically ethical but equally vindictive Dr. Cox (who refuses no opportunity to insult his boss and even punched Kelso in the face at the end of Season 2, in the episode "My Dream Job"). Cox has often been the perpetrator behind pranks on his boss, though he doesn't always escape retribution.

Kelso has a tradition involving his wedding anniversary: the day of his anniversary, he is blissfully happy due to the night of lovemaking with his wife, and becomes uncharacteristically generous. This is therefore the only good day any staff can approach him and ask him for something. He later reveals to Turk that this is actually a ruse so that employees only ask him for favors one day a year.

He is determined to let everyone in Sacred Heart know who is boss; to reinforce his superiority, he picks out one individual every semester and drives them to their breaking point (this is what leads up to Cox's outburst at the end of Season 2). Sacred Heart's lawyer, Ted Buckland, is also a frequent target of Kelso's malice; Kelso is fond of bossing the weaker Ted around and depriving him of any kind of joy or comfort during the work day.

Kelso is a master of Ms. Pac-Man and uses the game as a stress reliever. In one episode, Chris Turk cut off the power cord to the Ms. PacMan arcade in retribution for Kelso parking on the basketball court. Kelso also "competed" with Turk for a spot on the bench to eat their lunch in a peaceful area in mid-season 1 (he becomes impressed with Turk's efforts). He has also assured himself that Turk's name is Turk Turkleton after getting drunk at Turk and Carla's wedding and has called him "Turkleton" since. Later, when Turk reminds him of his real name, Kelso says that he prefers Turkleton.

One of his personal quotes is "What has two thumbs and doesn't give a crap? [gives a double thumbs-up] Bob Kelso." This is part of another personality quirk, as stated by series creator Bill Lawrence in the DVD commentaries: Dr. Kelso loves to say his own name.

Kelso seems to pine for the old days of being a doctor, having not personally dealt with patients since he was promoted to Chief of Medicine. He confesses to Dr. Cox in "My Boss's Free Haircut" that he misses the days when doctors were respected, well wished, and even rewarded for their service to humanity.

Kelso has "oddly youthful" legs, which is seen in Episode 24 of Season 5, "My Transition". He shaves them during spring so he can show them off in the hospital, and is able to jump eight feet thanks to his well-defined calf muscles. In Vietnam, he was able to jump into helicopters when they hovered above the ground for pickup.

Kelso's compassion

According to Dr. Cox, Kelso is "The most evil human being on the planet, and may in fact be Satan himself". (My First Day). He also admits to liking whores (he said "My name is Bob Kelso and I like whores" in My Perspective) -- preferably whores from Southeast Asia ("for the food," as he said while snapping out of his daydream in His Story IV). In spite of this, Kelso is shown to have a soft side: he looks after his gardener and their family ("Who wants Dairy Queen!?"), he gives Carla a lift to the hospital, and demonstrates a close, friendly relationship with people outside of his work ("My Drug Buddy"). Kelso even went as far as publicly humiliating Elliot in My Dream Job. Afterwards he was punched by Dr. Cox in defense of her. He may have some compassion towards Cox as he didn't take any action against Cox because he fixed Kelso's broken nose. In addition, the blues songs he wrote were very tender and loving, and Elliot Reid considers them to be indicative of a tender side. While he often jokes about it, he is accepting of his gay son's lifestyle and really does love him. While trying to crush Dr. Molly Clock's spirit in "My Common Enemy" with Dr. Cox, he shows guilt and sympathy when she appears to break down due to their efforts. This is what Molly was trying to prove all along; that neither Cox or Kelso are the completely heartless men they try to appear to be. His character has shown slight changes thoughout the seasons. Earlier on he was more blatantly 'evil'.

On occasion, his morally dubious business decisions are based upon professional and practical concerns rather than callousness or greed. This side of Kelso is also shown in Season 5, episode 4 ("My Jiggly Ball") where Kelso shows remorse for going back on his word by taking a patient with a brain tumor out of a drug trial in favor of a wealthy patient (in order to secure money for a recently closed program for the impoverished in the hospital). However, in My Scrubs, Kelso reveals that he's known the whole time about how patients with no health insurance have been recieving treatment.

During the episode "My Best Moment", he gives a man without health insurance a free stay at the hospital. He found the man's eight-year old child to be particularly affable and couldn't doom the boy's father to certain death right before Christmas.