For the past few years, the gayest show on network television wasn't Will & Grace, but rather its neighboring NBC medical sitcom, Scrubs. This doctor dramedy, created by Bill Lawrence (co-creator of Spin City), has enough gay innuendo to make Jack McFarland squeal, “I'm so turning straight!”

From hospital intern J.D.'s (Zach Braff) love of appletini drinks to his hetero-romance with best-buddy Turk (Donald Faison), Scrubs is filled with plenty of queer-ish content. But despite Lawrence 's gay-friendly past, such as creating openly gay character Carter Haywood on Spin City, Scrubs doesn't have a recurring gay character. The closest the show has come is sexually ambiguous scalpel jockey Todd “The Todd” Quinlan (Robert Maschio).

“When we came into Scrubs,” series creator Bill Lawrence recently told AfterElton.com, “one of the things that we wanted to do very [early on in] the show was...to be very multiethnic, multi-lifestyle — all that sort of stuff. We came up with the character of “the Todd,” and from the beginning we thought it would be great to have him [be] a surgical meathead. Someone's sexuality who was incredibly vague or maybe he was overcompensating. Someone that, just because he might be gay, doesn't mean he has any of the stereotypical things on TV that usually go along with it. We even did an episode about it [Todd's coming out].”

In that fifth-season episode, “My Lunch,” Nurse Espinosa (Judy Reyes) and Dr. Elliot Reid (Sarah Chalke) try to help Todd come out of the closet. Tiring of his sexual double entendres, the two ladies confront him. Lawrence explains, “The women feel that once he is comfortable with his sexuality, that he will be a kinder, better person.” Eventually, Todd admits to them that he is gay.

The ladies hope that since he's come to terms with his homosexuality, the boorish bravado they've seen for five years will be gone. But the crude comments once directed towards women (“I'd like to double her entendre!”) are now simply directed toward men instead (“Hey Dr. Mickhead! Is that package for me?”). By the end of the episode, it all supposedly turns out to have been a ruse because, according to Todd, “Chicks dig gay dudes.”

Many gay fans believed, just as Dr. Reid and Nurse Espinosa did, that once Todd came to terms with his sexuality, his vulgarities toward women would stop. Having him use those misconceptions to get girls offended some in the gay community.

Rob Maschio, the actor behind “The Todd,” tells AfterElton: “I think he thinks he is the life of the party wherever he goes. He is the star, which is funny, because clearly J.D., Turk and Elliot are the main characters. But I think in the Todd's mind, he thinks he is the main guy wherever he goes. He is a confident and cocky, but genuinely enthused, sincere guy who just wants to have a good time. He is excited to be a doctor, and I think he is omnisexual and he will try anything.”

Some critics scorned the story line and Todd's vague sexuality as a man who couldn't control his sex drive. When asked about these perceptions, Maschio expresses genuine concern about the character he plays. “I feel that there is nothing malicious about this character,” he insists. “There is nothing mean-spirited. He is just someone who is trying too hard. There is a lot of bravado and [it] could be a mask for some loneliness. I know people like that; they always put on a very brave front and they act as if they are God's gift. … I feel like the show does a good job of addressing and depicting any kind of issues regarding gay or straight [people] in a very positive, honest tone.”

At the end of “My Lunch”, Todd comments on the appeal of a female nurse walking by, then a male nurse walking by. The Janitor (Neil Flynn), dumbfounded, asks him, “What the hell are you?”

Confidently, the character replies, “I'm the Todd.”

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