List of Monk Characters - Secondary Characters - Charles Kroger

Charles Kroger

Dr. Charles Kroger (played by Stanley Kamel) is Monk's psychiatrist for the first six seasons. (Kamel died at age 65 in 2008 after suffering a heart attack, while Monk was on hiatus.)

Dr. Kroger serves as a critical pillar of emotional support for Monk. While he engages in routine talk therapy, he does not prescribe medication. Adrian avoids medications, for when he does, things can go badly. In "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine", Dr. Kroger prescribes Dioxynl, which successfully relieves Monk's phobias while also impairing his detective skills.

Dr. Kroger is instrumental in trying to get Monk reinstated as a detective, all while discussing his problems and progress as a person. In the novel Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu, Natalie describes Dr. Kroger as relaxed towards everything: she notes that she could easily walk into his office with a monkey on her head and a ratchet in her chest, and he would not be the least bit disturbed.

Most of Dr. Kroger's scenes help move Monk's character forward. Similarly, Dr. Kroger also (usually unintentionally) helps Monk solve cases. In the season five episode "Mr. Monk Gets a New Shrink", he temporarily retires when he finds his cleaning lady Teresa Mueller stabbed and killed in his office, and the police believe that one of his patients is responsible. However, Monk soon finds that the cleaning lady was killed by drug trafficker Francis Merrigan, who also owns an office in Dr. Kroger's building.

Dr. Kroger is also the subject of an ongoing feud between Monk and Harold Krenshaw, another patient with similar problems. While very forgiving, even he has to get fed up with Monk from time to time, most heavily demonstrated in "Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect", when Dr. Kroger returns from vacationing in Costa Rica and sees Monk standing outside his home. Dr. Kroger instructs the cab driver to keep driving and keeps his head low to avoid Monk. On another occasion, in the season five episode "Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike", in which the city stops collecting garbage, a desperate Monk mails his garbage to Dr. Kroger's house. When questioned about it, Monk denies it until Dr. Kroger points out that this garbage has Monk's handwriting on the shipping label and has been sorted according to color and food groups.

In several cases Dr. Kroger is the only person capable of getting through to Monk during difficult situations, such as when Monk is brainwashed by Ralph Roberts (Howie Mandel) in the season 6 episode "Mr. Monk Joins a Cult".

It is revealed in the season three episode "Mr. Monk and the Election" that Dr. Kroger is married, had a first wife, has children, and is Jewish. In the first episode of season five, "Mr. Monk and the Actor", Monk wants to take up the entire week with therapy, but Dr. Kroger says he does not like working on the weekends so he can spend time with family. In "Mr. Monk Gets a New Shrink", it is revealed that he has a wife, Madeline, and a rebellious adolescent son, Troy, who denies that he is their child.

The season seven episode "Mr. Monk Buys a House" is dedicated to Stanley Kamel's memory.