A Wild Pokemon Rumor Suggests George Clooney Inspired This Problematic Character
For a show about 10-year-olds collecting fire-breathing monsters, "Pokémon" has plenty of suggestive material. The most obvious example is Brock, who hit on almost every woman he saw throughout the anime in his quest to become the best Pokémon "breeder." But there were plenty of other high-libido men who made some questionable decisions, like Dr. Proctor, who appeared one time throughout the series in the Indigo League episode, "A Chansey Operation."
The episode starts with Pikachu choking on an apple, so Ash Ketchum, Misty, and Brock have to take him to a human hospital since there aren't any Pokémon Centers around. For some reason, there's only one doctor working there — Dr. Proctor — who takes an instant liking to Misty, which is pretty creepy considering she's 10. The hospital soon finds itself bombarded with other Pokémon patients that the nearest Pokémon Center can't handle. Throughout the episode, Dr. Proctor also shoots his shot with Nurse Joy and Team Rocket's Jessie. While Dr. Proctor could've gotten in trouble hitting on Jessie, seeing how she claims her age is 17 in "The Ultimate Test," a promotional CD actually confirmed she's in her 20s as of the second episode, so he's safe there at least.
It's easy to overlook Dr. Proctor as a one-off Pokémon character who was a little too complimentary toward a minor. And while nothing can be confirmed, there's substantial evidence to suggest he's based on George Clooney, or at least the character he played on "ER," Dr. Doug Ross.
Dr. Ross at least hit on women his own age
It's hard not to see similarities between Dr. Proctor and Dr. Ross. The two share a physical resemblance with short brown hair and strong jawlines. They both also have healthy libidos. Dr. Ross was a total womanizer throughout his time on "ER," and it seems like Dr. Proctor is meant to be a parody of that. He only shows up in a single 22-minute episode, and he hits on three different girls in that time. However, the most solid piece of evidence that there's supposed to be a connection is the fact Dr. Proctor is voiced by Rikiya Koyama in the Japanese dub of the episode. Koyama has dubbed over many of George Clooney's roles over the years, including Dr. Ross on "ER."
"A Chansey Operation" came out in 1999, when "ER" would've been at the height of its popularity, so it's definitely not out of the question for "Pokémon" to have a little fun at its expense. But it's a safe bet Clooney wouldn't appreciate the implication one of his characters would hit on underage girls. Dr. Ross flirting with women while on the job may be unprofessional, but at least everyone involved was an adult. Dr. Proctor needed to cool his jets when it came to Misty, but he really just follows in a long, weird tradition of perverts in anime, like Master Roshi from "Dragon Ball." Brock hit on a lot of women, too, but he's only supposed to be 15 or 16 years old.
Dr. Proctor redeems himself a little bit by helping Ash and company defeat Team Rocket, but it's probably for the best he was left to the annals of time for the anime at large.