Interestingly the Janitor in Clone High (another Bill Lawrence show) was named Glenn as well.
Except for all we know, that’s still not his real name. As soon as JD walked way, someone walked by and said to the janitor, “Hi Tony”.
-Joe
The Janitor’s been known to present multiple personae to different persons in the hospital; in the episode in which JD learns he was in the fugitive, it’s clear that no one in the hospital knows the real him.
I’m sure Cox knows his real name, as it would be trivial for him to find out, and obviously his wife does.
His name tag says Janitor. It wouldn’t surprise me if his file said Janitor as well. Or some fake thing.
I do like to believe that his name is Glen Matthews, and that J.D. is really the first person to ask him.
The clock thing might work, but the Sea World thing is hardly conclusive. There is more than one Sea World. I’ve been to two of them and I’ve never been anywhere even close to California.
Scrubs has been picked up for a ninth season: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3i505437152ed713679693475460c59f27
It sounds more like a spin-off, but they are keeping the Scrubs name.
I note that they are considering going multi-camera, which to me hints at abandoning much of that which made Scrubs Scrubs in favor of making it cheap. Unless the new show is going to center on Jo & Sunny falling in love, I think I’ll skip it.
Can someone explain to me the deal with single and multi-cam shoots with respect to sitcoms? All I can see is that the latter allow you to shoot close-ups at the same time. But how else does it change the nature of the show, which makes it important enough to be noted whether a sitcom is single or multi-cam?
Multi-cam sitcoms usually use three mostly-stationary cameras. It’s cheaper and faster (and thus, is usually a sign of a lower budget, once you’ve discounted the actors salaries), as it allows the same scene to be showed from one of three angles without multiple retakes. However, it’s also very obvious and less dynamic, as it’s always the same three angles.
Multi-cam shows also tend to strictly use sound-stages, and a very limited amount of sets (look at Fraiser, it had like 3–or Friends). Single-cam shows are able to roam all over, as seen in Scrubs where they film in an actual old hospital. It also allows for much more unique shots, such as in the Office, where although it uses (mostly) a single-environment, they’re able to do a shit-ton with it. Just try to envision how exactly the office is laid out–it’s tough compared to, say Fraiser or Friends where most shots reveal the set in its entirety.
Another problem with multi-cam shows is lighting–it’s always the same, scene for scene. In single-cam shows, its dynamic, changing with every shot to reflect the director’s will, as they’re able to do such since they record in smaller chunks, and can change whatever they want between.
My Life in Four Cameras shows the differences pretty well.
My take on the whole Janitor’s name thing is that his name really is Glenn Matthews.
With the history that he and JD had, I was under the impression that the Janitor was honest this one and only time.
Except that it was also multi-camera + cheesy sitcom writing. People using associate multi-camera with bad sitcoms, but correlation is not causation. If they kept the same writing and everything, the show won’t necessarily be worse off.
Yes, the writing makes all the difference in the world. But the “Four Cameras” episode did dramatically show the problems that **Red Barchetta ** mentioned. If they can continue to use their current hospital for their sets, it might not be so bad. Let’s keep our fingers crossed. Let’s also hope that Sarah Chalke and Judy Reyes decide to come back.