- “Finally, doctors, if there is a mistake, don't admit it to the patient. Of course, if the patient is deceased - and you're sure - you can feel free to tell him or her... anything.”— Ted ("My First Day")
Theodore "Ted" Buckland, Esq. was the lawyer of New Sacred Heart until he left to spend time traveling with his ex girlfriend Stephanie Gooch. He now spends his time in Hawaii playing guitar and has the ability to turn any song into sounding sad after his ex girlfriend 'The Gooch' broke his heart. He was the legal department of the hospital for many years, during which he served as a better punching bag to Dr. Kelso than an attorney. The rest of the staff didn't dislike him as much as Kelso, except when he made their job more difficult and as time progressed he became a friend to virtually everyone, frequently helping them get one over on his boss.
He has clammy hands, a sweaty brow, and a bald head; which are all targets of insults tossed in his direction. Because his life was so depressing, he often thought about killing himself but never mustered the guts. Eventually he became a member of the Brain Trust, but his ineptitude as a lawyer sadly never changed. He is also a member of the a capella band The Worthless Peons.
Ted is portrayed by the late Sam Lloyd and has appeared in 93 episodes of the series over all nine seasons. He appeared in the pilot, and his last appearance in Scrubs was "Our Histories". He later appeared in the Cougar Town episodes "Something Good Coming" and "A One Story Town".
About[]
Family Life[]
Until recently, Ted lived at home with his mother, who thinks he's a doctor. ("My Scrubs") They used to sleep together in the same bed but Ted recently moved to have his own room and only sleeps in the same bed as his mother when either of them has a bad dream. ("My Soul on Fire, Part 1") Sometimes Ted helped her apply lotion to places she can't reach. ("My New Suit")
Ted claimed to have had a wife and "family" before he began working at Sacred Heart. ("My Fifteen Minutes") He tells Neena Broderick that his wife divorced him. ("My Malpractical Decision") He was single from J.D.'s first day in 2001 until 2008, when he met Stephanie Gooch, a musician who entertained children in the pediatrics ward. ("My Lawyer's in Love") Ted left Sacred Heart in 2010 with Gooch to tour the nation. ("Our Histories")
- “I've been the hospital's legal counsel for... well, let's just say when I started, I had hair.... and a wife and family...”— Ted ("My Fifteen Minutes")
Self-Esteem Issues[]
Ted was Dr. Bob Kelso's personal punching bag when Kelso was the Chief of Medicine. He is still emotionally scarred by how he was treated. ("My New Role") Ted has virtually no self-esteem, and any confidence he had was systematically crushed by Kelso. He carried a murderous hatred of Kelso as well as suicidal tendencies, but lacked the wherewithal to do anything about either situation. It was mentioned that he had a wife that left him. ("My Blind Date")
- “Well one's in case I get sad... and the other is in case I get really sad. ”— Ted (My Jerks)
- “Well one's in case I get sad... and the other is in case I get really sad. ”— Ted (My Jerks)
Career as an Attorney[]
Ted is an attorney, but not a very good one. He is, in fact, a rather horrible one. He took the bar exam in Alaska, where there are only ten laws. ("My Lawyer's in Love") He is easily intimidated by other, better lawyers, rendering him useless during legal battles. At one point he had aspirations of being a senator, but that dream was crushed long ago. He has never won a case. ("My Faith in Humanity") He has to look up definitions for common sense terms, and the phone in his office does not dial out. ("My Philosophy")
He is constantly fearful of Sacred Heart being sued. Once, when J.D. and Turk asked him what the issues would be if a doctor hit a golfball off the roof, and it went into the windshield of someone who would then go to that very hospital, Ted froze for a moment. When they attempted to get his attention, Ted greeted them once again, and asked them what he could do for him, as if his fear had completely repressed the memory of the question. ("My Karma") He also freezes up in front of Neena Broderick. ("My Malpractical Decision")
The amount of time he has actually worked at Sacred Heart is unclear because he once commented to Dr. Kelso that he had a full head of hair when he started out (which was also shown in a flashback), ("My Waste of Time") but later reveals to the Janitor that he had lost his hair in eighth grade. ("My Best Laid Plans") He was the legal representative for Sacred Heart Hospital for many years and continued on to New Sacred Heart Hospital, before leaving to travel and play music with his girlfriend Gooch. ("Our Histories") While they were traveling, Gooch left him for Hooch and he moved to Hawaii to escape his sorrows. ("Something Good Coming")
Ted's Music[]
Ted's only real release from his life is his band. He is a part of the a capella band "The Worthless Peons," a group of similarly pathetic, but reasonably talented, singers who specialize in odd song numbers, such as television theme songs or commercial jingles. While generally despised, Ted's band did end up playing at Turk and Carla's wedding, where they successfully performed songs by the Beatles. ("My Best Friend's Wedding") Ted was also a member of the air-band The Cool Cats. After giving up being a lawyer to travel and perform with his former girlfriend Stephanie Gooch in every US state, he ends up in Hawaii heartbroken. Music has become Ted's main focus, as it was shown that he had become well known on the island for playing any song in a sad way. ("Something Good Coming"). He later moves back to the mainland and reunites with The Worthless Peons, whereupon they attempt to audition to sing at Disney World. ("A One Story Town")
Relationships[]
Dr. Kelso[]
Robert Kelso used Ted as his personal punching bag when he was Chief of Medicine. He often had Ted do demeaning tasks simply for his pleasure. Ted often talked about murdering either himself or Dr. Kelso due to this mistreatment. When Perry Cox convinces the hospital that Dr. Kelso has died, Ted celebrated but was scared when he returned. When Dr. Kelso did retire, he seriously thanked Ted for all of his hard work and left Ted speechless. Ted was shown to be a keen and excited lawyer with a full head of hair when he started working for Kelso, but likely Kelso's poor treatment of him and the stress of his job left him a totally different man. ("My Dumb Luck")
Janitor[]
Ted seems to respect and follow the Janitor, and he's one of the few people for whom Janitor has compassion. He often helps the Janitor with his plans, and is a member of his brain trust. While the Janitor sometimes takes advantage of Ted, he's not nearly as bad as Dr. Kelso, and he encourages Ted to stand up to him. The Janitor even called a truce with JD to help Ted ask Stephanie Gooch out, and was inspired by Ted to be greener.
Ted's Mom[]
Ted's mother Mary Anne Buckland is portrayed as someone who is still childish and reliant on his mother, but he often loses his temper when someone attempts to boss him around or boast to him about something they have done better than him, such as Jim, the other lawyer, to whom Ted replies angrily: "You're not my mom, Jim! You're not my mom!", implying that Ted's mom may put him down. His social awkwardness and eccentric and often melodramatic personality may have developed.
Social relationships[]
Ted was plagued with a lack of relationship for years. Typically, a beautiful woman even remembering his name is enough to make him infatuated. He did, however, have a short fling with a cancer patient who was going to die as a virgin (though in "My New Game" it is revealed that Ted is in fact impotent). Whenever a female interacts with him in a positive light, he says "we can walk home together", or other things among that degree, most of the time in a slightly eager tone. He has mentioned that he was married, though now she is with his brother, though apparently through a mistake with divorce papers, he signed Dr. Cox's papers and vice versa, making them both still legally married. He professes an unrequited love for Carla and participates in triathlons with Doug; he is also seemingly close to Keith with whom he tests urban legends.
Stephanie Gooch[]
Ted and Stephanie Gooch were in love. They both loved singing, and they met at Sacred Heart. He was incredibly shy around her at first, but J.D. and Janitor gave him courage to talk to her. ("My Lawyer's in Love") He later left Sacred Heart with Gooch to travel the states together. ("Our Histories") Later Gooch may have left Ted to be with Hooch (depending on whether or not you consider Sam Lloyd's cameo in the Cougar Town episode "Something Good Coming" as part of the Scrubs canon). ("Something Good Coming")
Personality Profile[]
Likes[]
- Brain Trust
- Brain Bunch
- Janitor
- Cycling
- The Gilmore Girls
- His "Going-Out" Hair
- Scratching one side of his head with the opposite side hand.
- Singing
- Staring contests
- The Worthless Peons
- Triathlons
- When people know his name
- Wigs
- Dancing
- Catchy music
Dislikes[]
- Dr. Kelso
- Dr. Cox
- His job
- His bald head
- Dr. Cox
- His lack of courage
- Lawsuits
- Dr. Kelso
- Other lawyers
- Flop sweat
- Dr. Cox
- People other than his mom calling him Thunder ("My Point of No Return")
- His easily sunburnt skin.
- Dr. Kelso
- Dr. Cox
Nicknames[]
- Big Chief Flop Sweat (Dr. Cox) ("My Nightingale")
- The Buck (Jules Cobb) ("Something Good Coming")
- Captain Clip-on (Dr. Cox) ("My Drama Queen")
- Garfunkel (Dr. Kelso) ("My Tormented Mentor")
- No-Hair Club (Kevin Casey) ("My Catalyst")
- Lackey (Dr. Cox) ("My Nightingale")
- Loki
- Ned (Dr. Kelso) ("My Sacrificial Clam")
- Sweaty Teddy (Dr. Cox) (Mary Anne Buckland)
- Sweat Balls
- Teddy
- Teddy Bear (Dr. Kelso) ("My Occurrence")
- Thunder (Mary Anne Buckland) ("My Point of No Return")
- The Hospital Sad-Sack (Dr. Cox)
Trivia[]
- It is shown in flashbacks that Ted has worked for Dr. Kelso since he had a full head of hair, and it has been mentioned numerous times that Ted has worked there (and been abused by Kelso) long before the show started, but in ("My Dumb Luck") Ted says that he has only been Kelso's whipping boy for 8 years, the number of years passed since the show started.
- When he gets put on the spot, his throat closes up.
- He constantly goes up to the roof, trying to work up the courage to jump. He had almost done so twice, but was stopped once by garbage that had been stashed by the Janitor and Randall, and once by the aura emanating from the rare occurrence of Dr. Cox in a good mood.
- Has stress-induced dyslexia
- He keeps a bottle of pills and a gun in his office.
- He keeps a smiley face button and a revolver in his briefcase. One is for when he gets sad, the other is for when he gets really sad.
- He often thinks about murdering Dr. Kelso. Kelso knows about this, but always replies "You don't have the guts." When asked about his dreams he replied, "Oh no, not me. I just have the one dream over and over. I hold his (Kelso's) head under the water until that last bubble goes... bloop".
- Can be sadistic and shameless when it comes to his murderous fantasies.
- In the first four seasons, Ted's backstory is consistent when it comes to his marital status (once married and his wife left him). But in the 8th season, when he starts dating Gooch, he says that she is his first girlfriend.
- Dr. Kelso sarcastically says Ted is "hardly his type", but Ted disagreed saying that he had seen Enid. ("My New Game")
- Ted is an active member of the Brain Trust. At one point when he regained some confidence he left with Todd and started the Brain Bunch.
- When Ted was a baby, his mother would sometimes leave his crib in the driveway and on one incident, a marble fountain fell on him. (This coincidentally also happened to the Janitor)
- Ted once got Nurse Tisdale's phone number from Dr. Cox in exchange for a key to Dr. Kelso's room. ("My Hypocritical Oath")
- Ted had reconstructive surgery after Baxter ate the lower half of his hamstring. ("My New Role")
- Due to his excessive bicycle riding, Ted's sperm have no tails, therefore they just "float". ("My Absence")
- Ted's skin is very sensitive to the sun and demands a lot of sunscreen. Without it, he burns in mere seconds. ("My Soul on Fire, Part 1") ("My Soul on Fire, Part 2 ")
- Ted is left-handed.
- Sam Lloyd appeared in an episode of the final season of 'Til Death. Kate Micucci, who plays Stephanie Gooch, also appeared on the series.
- Ted's sterile; this is possibly from excessive bike riding. ("My Drama Queen")
- He considers himself to be a "follower".
- The cell phone he used in the show was a Motorola Microtac.
Images[]
- → See and enjoy 112 pictures of Ted Buckland at Images of Ted Buckland.
CHARACTERS | ||
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J.D. • Turk • Elliot • Carla • Dr. Kelso • Dr. Cox • Janitor • Denise • Lucy • Drew • Cole |
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