Thanks to shows like The Pitt and St. Denis Medical, 2025 has arguably been the year of great medical TV shows. There are many reasons why both of those shows were so great, including the fact that they both featured many great storylines. Another one of the things that made both shows truly great is that they introduced viewers to a slew of fascinating characters fans grew to care deeply about.
During St. Denis Medical’s first season, the show’s colorful ensemble of characters were introduced to the show’s fans. While many of those characters made a great impact on viewers, one of them managed to stand out for being more multi-faceted than they first seemed to be. Based on St. Denis Medical’s first season, David Alan Grier’s character, Dr. Ron, seems to be one of TV’s best new characters.
St. Denis Medical’s Dr. Ron Is Far More Nuanced As A Character Than He First Seems
Since sitcoms are one of the most popular television formats in history, there have been endless examples of them over the years. After years of watching a slew of different sitcoms, viewers recognize the tropes and archetypes that many of them are built around.
For that reason, when people watch the first episode of a new sitcom, they commonly compare the show’s characters to others from the past. During the first episode of St. Denis Medical, Dr. Ron seems like he is going to perfectly fit a common sitcom archetype.
By the time that St. Denis Medical’s first season ended, regular viewers were bound to think of Dr. Ron differently. The reason for that is that after getting to see more of him, it became clear that Dr. Ron was a much more nuanced and complicated character than he initially seemed to be.
When fans were first introduced to Dr. Ron, it was instantly clear that he was a medical professional with a lot of experience and knowledge. While Dr. Ron’s gray beard gave that away to a certain degree, it was how he spoke to his co-workers that truly made that obvious.
St. Denis Medical’s Main Characters, According to Screen Rant | |
|---|---|
St. Denis Medical Character | Actor |
Joyce | Wendi McLendon-Covey |
Alex | Allison Tolman |
Dr. Ron | David Alan Grier |
Dr. Bruce | Josh Lawson |
Serena | Kahyun Kim |
Matt | Mekki Leeper |
Val | Kaliko Kauahi |
Keith | Dave Theune |
The moment that exemplified how Dr. Ron came across early on involved Allison Tolman’s character, the charge nurse Alex. As she professed that she was leaving and going home soon, Dr. Ron told Alex she wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon and then mocked her each time her saw she was still there.
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To be clear, those scenes were hilarious and acted to perfection by the comedy legend who brings Dr. Ron to life, David Alan Grier. Still, moments like that certainly communicated to fans that Dr. Ron was likely to be another example of a commonly seen sitcom character.
The Best TV Know-It-Alls, According to Collider | ||
|---|---|---|
Show | Character | Rank |
The Big Bang Theory | Sheldon Cooper | #10 |
Brooklyn Nine-Nine | Amy Santiago | #9 |
House MD | Gregory House | #8 |
Sherlock Holmes | Sherlock Holmes | #7 |
Game of Thrones | Lord Varys | #6 |
Rick and Morty | Rick Sanchez | #5 |
SUITS | Mike Ross | #4 |
Friends | Ross Gellar | #3 |
How I Met Your Mother | Ted Mosby | #2 |
Parks and Recreation | Leslie Knope | #1 |
Based on first impressions, it seemed obvious that Dr. Ron was going to be a know-it-all character who often had a sarcastic sense of humor.
As St. Denis Medical’s first season progressed, however, there were a lot of hints that Dr. Ron wasn’t as simple as he first seemed. While Dr. Ron continued to be a highly knowledgeable and sarcastic person, he proved to be much more of a team player than he first seemed.
According to Famous Birthdays, David Alan Grier was born on June 30th, 1956 in Detroit, Michigan. That means that, as of May 2025, David is 68 years old and soon to turn 69 years old.
At one point in the season, Dr. Ron made a bet with two of his co-workers. Dr. Ron bet that his co-workers couldn’t influence two prisoners who hated each other to make peace while they were being treated in the hospital. While Dr. Ron first relished believing he was right, he soon began caring more about his co-workers’ continuing to be optimistic.
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At another point in the season, Dr. Ron learned that his co-worker, Kahyun Kim’s character Serena, hadn’t invited him to a party.
Technically speaking, St. Denis Medical premiered in 2024, since six episodes aired that year. However, the vast majority of St. Denis Medical’s first season aired in 2025 and the character Dr. Ron had most of his most interesting character moments during that year.
After figuring out everyone else had been invited, Dr. Ron showed that he cared because being excluded hurt, even though he didn’t want to go.
Ultimately, one moment exemplified that Dr. Ron didn’t care as much about being right as it initially seemed to. At a charity event for the hospital, Dr. Ron was being upstaged by Wendi McLendon-Covey’s character Joyce. While he was upset at first, Dr. Ron decided that he and Joyce should learn from each other and team up.
All of those examples and more prove that Dr. Ron is a nuanced and much more fleshed-out character than he easily could have been. With that in mind and the fact that he is hilarious, it is easy to argue that Dr. Ron is one of 2025’s best new TV characters.
St. Denis Medical’s David Alan Grier Perfectly Explained How Nuanced Dr. Ron Is
In May 2025, David Alan Grier spoke to Today about his St. Denis Medical character Dr. Ron. During that conversation, David spoke about two of Dr. Ron’s most memorable character moments during St. Denis Medical’s first season.
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First off, David addressed Dr. Ron mocking Allison Tolman’s character, Alex, for staying late at work. David told Today that he believed that Dr. Ron’s goal in mocking Alex was to send her the message that she needed to prioritize having a good work/life balance.
“I think a recurring theme of Ron’s life is this phrase: ‘I’m not going to f*** up like that again.’ He’s the oldest doctor there. He’s pretty much seen it all. He lost his family, he lost his wife — he worked too much. He’s a really good doctor, but I think that is his main goal with Allison’s character: He really admires her as a nurse and her dedication to a patient, but I think it’s taken him all this time to learn that to be your best self as a doctor, you have to have work-home life balance.”
While discussing the moment when Dr. Ron and Joyce teamed up to raise money for the hospital. David said something to Today that was very revealing. David explained that he believed that Dr. and Joyce’s relationship had gone through a lot of different phases while bringing up a experience from his real life.
“I don’t know if you’ve ever had this, but there was a girl that sat next to me from third grade all the way up until I graduated from high school. She sat next to me because her name was Goodman. My name was Grier. Alphabetically, she always sat next to me. So we saw each other in different forms since we were little kids — the cool nerd, the f****** hippie, hip-hop weirdo. I mean, that’s Dr. Ron. So when he looks at Joyce, he sees what you see now, but he’s known her for over 20 years.”
Considering that David believed that his character had such an interesting history with Wendi McLendon-Covey’s character, Joyce, it makes sense he is such a compelling character. David also told Today that he believed Dr. Ron and Joyce might have an even more complicated and intimate history than it seems. “Listen, they could have hooked up back in ‘87, we don’t know.”
