TV Character's you felt were pointless/served no purpose

[SoapDope]

I never cared for Alex on One Day At Time. I thought he was pointless.

 

A lot of the side characters on Hotel really didn't have much to do. 

 

People despised the addition of Quinn Cummings on Family in it's later years.

 

 

 

 

[DRW50]

The kids on The Lucy Show. The son annoyed the hell out of me. The producers clearly agreed, as they dropped them like a bad habit. 

 

Patty on the Donna Reed Show and Dodie on My Three Sons. Both shows ran too long, but that isn't a reason to try to sop up the cute kid concept. Dodie in particular was just so depressing to watch. My Three Sons had, for years, been a sharp, noisy show. It had become much more low-key with various actors aging and leaving (and in some cases losing any comic ability they had as children), but she just added a moroseness that made it seem like a completely different program.

 

 

I think the character had potential, especially his relationship with Kerry, but the show by that time had no real ability to write for complex characters.

[Khan]

 

My favorite time on "Facts of Life" was that season or season-and-a-half when Deidre Fay and Stuart Wolpert, who introduced Over Our Heads (and George Clooney), were show runners.  They, along with Paul Haggis, helped liven up the show, I think, after the issue-heavy years with Linda Marsh and Margie Peters.  

[amybrickwallace]

 

Don't remind me. A month after that will be the 40th anniversary of MY debut. 😂

[Khan]

 

I think they had Charles and Caroline adopt more kids for the same reason KNOTS LANDING's producers had Mack and Karen become Meg's legal guardians.  With Mary and "Half-Pint" getting older, getting married, etc., this was Michael Landon's way of keeping the Ingallses from aging TOO much.  Plus, it helped retain that family element upon which the series had been built originally.

[amybrickwallace]

 

Not to mention straws (see opening credits). 😉😂

[Khan]

 

Kelly appeared for the first time shortly after Mrs. Garrett had opened Edna's Edibles and all the girls had move into the upstairs loft.  By that point, Natalie and Tootie were still at Eastland, but Blair and Jo had graduated and were attending Langley.

 

I definitely agree that Ginny as a potential love interest for Schneider was a wrong-headed decision on the producers' part.  But I wonder whether that was an attempt at salvaging the character, since Bonnie Franklin felt Mary Louise Wilson was upstaging her and wanted her off the show.  Regardless, though, I think Ginny, as a character, was doomed from the start.  Between Ann, Barbara and Julie, with Schneider as comic relief, there simply wasn't room for more regulars.

 

RE: Vera on "Alice" -- if you watch closely, you'll notice that in the episodes produced by Chris Hayward during (I think) s2, Vera's "dingy-ness" was toned down considerably.  In fact, Beth Howland's hair wasn't in her familiar ponytail.  That goes to show you how fluid Vera was as a character until Bob Carroll, Jr. and Madelyn Davis really locked onto her as a primary source of kookiness and klutzy, physical humor.

 

Cousin April is a classic example of ABC's tinkering with a hit series in the hopes of expanding its appeal.  Sort of like how they forced all those changes on "Mork & Mindy" that, in tandem with a time slot change, effectively sunk the show.

 

To this day, I still think Jason Bateman did his best work on "Silver Spoons" and "It's Your Move."  Try as he might, but I don't think he's convincing as anything other than a scheming bastard.

 

 

Agree -- and I would add Pierce and Paige's...whatever that was, too.  Not even the one-eighty they took with Pierce, turning him into a psychopath (and wasting a golden opportunity to make Marcia Cross a permanent part of the show), helped.  By the time Paige was temporarily paralyzed and Greg rescued her from Pierce's boat, I was so over that storyline (and much of the rest of the show).

[amybrickwallace]

 

I believe Shelley Fabares as Francine Webster was a much better foil for Bonnie Franklin as Ann. Plus, she was only recurring so it was a better fit.

[Khan]

 

You know, I always have a problem with Lucy behaving the way she does (not just on "The Lucy Show," but on all her shows) when I remember that she is, after all, supposed to be a mother.  Like, how am I supposed to believe anyone that kooky can raise children?  It's preposterous.

[All My Shadows]

It's definitely more the latter than anything else. ML was forever trying to recapture the magic of "Pa and Half-Pint," the idea of the show being told from the POV of a young child who is coming of age. This culminates, of course, with A New Beginning and The Goddamn Carters, who are still like strangers to me because I have NEVER watched a full episode of ANB outside of the series finale telefilms. And don't get me started on Nancy's annoying ass.

I think many people dislike Albert's addition (he was sort of the true beginning of TPTB creating their own world instead of strictly adhering to Laura's life and books), but I think he was ML's way of getting to do father/son stories as Laura matured. It helped that Laura and Albert were not that far apart in age. I'll give them a hand because they did well keeping Willie, Andy, and Albert as separate, distinguishable characters when it had to be so easy to just write them interchangeably. Andy and Albert shared some qualities, but they made sure to put in episodes/scenes that reminded you that they were different.

[robbwolff]

I've been watching the Little House reruns on Cozi and they remind me how much I detested the character of Albert. His addition -- as well as the introduction of Adam Kendall -- totally changed the dynamic of the show. I wish Landon had stayed true to the Little House book series. Keeping the show in Walnut Grove limited it and deprived viewers of some of the memorable plots and characters that were featured in the books.

 

Interesting tidbit. Landon grew up in the town where I live -- Collingswood, NJ. There's a memorial playground for him in the park near my house.

[DRW50]

 

I would have loved to have seen a TV adaption of The Long Winter, my favorite of the Little House books (although I question how well Melissa Gilbert could have played it...). Michael Landon (RIP) is lucky that Little House aired long before the Internet, as "book purists" would have been all over his ass the way A Song Of Ice and Fire fans have spent a decade shouting at the Game of Thrones hacks. 

[DRW50]

 

 

Ginny was so brash and such a parody - she always seemed more suited to an ABC sitcom of that era than ODAAT. I guess you could say Schneider was similar, but Pat Harrington always knew when to play the softer beats. MLW probably could have too, but on a show already so dominated by women, she just felt unnecessary. 

 

I've always had a soft spot for Shelley Fabares but she never quite fit for me either. As the years have passed I've realized that's partly because ODAAT struggled to write for more than about three characters at a time. Even in the later years, where they tried to bring in more characters to freshen up the original cast, you would get the feeling, as shown in their last season credits, that the characters were on several different shows and struggled to meet up.

 

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The reboot manages it a bit better, but also tends to struggle to write for more than 3-4 characters at a time and always leaves someone somewhat shoehorned into the canvas. Maybe it's the format, or Norman Lear. 

[SoapDope]

LOL.....sorry. I turn 40 this year.

[SoapDope]

 

Yes. Dodie on My Three Sons was like an albatross. I remember years ago there was a hilarious site called Jump The Shark. You could spend days there reading all the TV boards. Every show created had a board. One of the most active was MTS. Posters were trashing Dawn Lynn and her Dodie character. It got so much buzz that Dawn came on the board herself and they highlighted all her comments in red. People were brutal to her. 

 

Ted McGinley was also named the Patron Saint Of Shark Jumping. I think one of the shows like Dateline or 20/20 showed him the website. You could tell he was hurt and offended but tried to act like it didn't bother him to save face. Not long after TV Guide bought the site from the creator and closed it down.