Effect of character change or loss on sitcoms

[JJNJustin]

I'm thinking of many sitcoms I loved that went downhill or got supringinly better when a character or characters were lost or replaced.

Three's Company-
Ropers --> Furley improvement! Don Knotts was much funnier than the stereotypical exchange between the Ropers about how ugly she is and how sexually impotent he is with his characteric smiling aside Norman Fell did.

Chrissy ---> Cindy, et al.
very bad, very bad. Chrissy was cute, funny, and sexy, Cindy was goofy and awkward, Terri was too smart and too serious and just blah.

addition and loss of that old [censored]-bag Lana
Did she add anything to the show? Did the show get too crowded? Do we miss her after she exits? Does she look dated, as if she was picked from a pile of random seventies sultry skanks.

I'm thinking of other shows like Cheers, Mash, Bewitched, All in the Family, Happy Days, and many more I cant think of right now.

-J

p.s. on a side note, which intro do you like the best-
a) the one where joyce is pouring water on the tanning suzanne, b)the sailboat one c) the one where they are all riding bumper cars d)the zoo one.

[BobOjedaFan]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm thinking of many sitcoms I loved that went downhill or got supringinly better when a character or characters were lost or replaced.

Three's Company-
Ropers --> Furley improvement! Don Knotts was much funnier than the stereotypical exchange between the Ropers about how ugly she is and how sexually impotent he is with his characteric smiling aside Norman Fell did.

Chrissy ---> Cindy, et al.
very bad, very bad. Chrissy was cute, funny, and sexy, Cindy was goofy and awkward, Terri was too smart and too serious and just blah.

addition and loss of that old [censored]-bag Lana
Did she add anything to the show? Did the show get too crowded? Do we miss her after she exits? Does she look dated, as if she was picked from a pile of random seventies sultry skanks.

I'm thinking of other shows like Cheers, Mash, Bewitched, All in the Family, Happy Days, and many more I cant think of right now.

-J

p.s. on a side note, which intro do you like the best-
a) the one where joyce is pouring water on the tanning suzanne, b)the sailboat one c) the one where they are all riding bumper cars d)the zoo one.

[/ QUOTE ]


I have to disagree with you on the Ropers/Furley. I thoguht Don Knotss was awful and weird and not funny. The Ropers repitoire with the gayness of Jack or what not was somewhat funny. Furley always seemed out of place.

I agree that Chrisy was the best character of the 3 but that's kind of obvious.

My favorite intro is the 1st one because Suzzane Summers had an awesome body, lol.


Too answer the question from my perspective. Cheers changed the most after the character change, in fact I JUST made a thread about that episode. Cheers SUCKED after Diane left.

Diane and Sam had opposites attract chemistry. Dianne was quirkly and lovable. Kirstie Alley's character was a golding whore who had no redeemign qualities, no chemistry with Sam and was not funny. Cheers 1st 5 seasons were awesome. The last 6 sucked. Diane made Cheers, I hate that she left.

[Glo]

Phil Hartman - News Radio [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[MicroBob]

Diane leaving Cheers really hurt that show.
Indeed, the chemistry was awesome.

I'm a huge MASH fan and have probably seen every episode at least 20-30 times each (I'm not kidding).
I have many thoughts on the transition after Trapper and Henry Blake left (for BJ and Col Potter).
After that was the transition that most people think is the biggest, the departure of Frank Burns for Charles Emerson Winchester.

They practically became two completely different shows...although this was a somewhat gradual process.
The old and new MASH are both great in their own ways and I still can't pick a 'favorite' although I might have slight leanings towards the early line-up.



3's Company - the zoo one is pretty lame. sailboat one is kinda sexy.

[youtalkfunny]

You guys are nuts. Cheers became BETTER after Diane left!

They stopped focusing on the romance, and the supporting players (all great) stepped up and took over. Any episode about Cliff's mother is better than Sam and Diane playing footsy.

I thought NYPD Blue was going to go right down the toilet after David Caruso left. I think a lot of people agreed with me, at the time. Fortunately, Bochco and Milch are brilliant men. When Jimmy Smits walked in and introduced himself, Dennis Franz' character ran into his boss' office, frantically moaning, "This guy's not going to work out. 'How you doing?', and so forth..."

The audience was yelling at their tv, "Gee whiz, give the guy a chance." Absolutely brilliant move, to win over an audience who couldn't wait to hate the new guy.

Then Smits left, and I just couldn't get behind Rick Schroeder. I don't think the problem was Rick, I think it was his character that I didn't like. Instead of the rock-solid citizen we had grown accustomed to with Caruso and Smits, we got a disturbed young man. Dealing with his problems didnt' interest me. I tuned out.

EDIT: Oh, sitcoms, right! I spent too much time typing all that to take it down now.

ADDING: Why did they keep making "Chico and the Man" after Freddie Prinze died?

[DrewDevil]

I think Cheers was still very good after Diane left, but never quite the same as before.

[JJNJustin]

I actually liked Cheers after Diane left, mostly because I found her character annoying and found Rebecca's ditsy-ness, insecurity, and moodyness funny and more entertaining. I also thought Lilith was hilarious, and the later episodes had more Fraser and Lilith subplots. Fraser also became more developed and more humorous than earlier episodes. The ongoing Cliff and Norm chacterizations were funnier and more defined in the later seasons, even if it did get a little old and stale towards the end.

I also found Woody slightly funnier at times than Coach, although Coach was very funny, as well. The Woody/Kelly thing was hilarious at times.

-J

[MrMon]

The addition of Kirstie Alley on Cheers started out good, but got progressively worse as she blimped out. The whole having a baby with Sam thing lost me. Fortunately the rest of the characters, especially the addition of Frasier and Lilith made up for the loss of Diane, and as long as they avoided Rebecca, the show was actually pretty good.

[moose47]

Speaking of Don Knotts, The Andy Griffith Show went downhill after his departure.

Also, Wings without Lowell was unwatchable.

[Sod_a_You]

My favorite, Married....With Children;

First big change was Steve Rhodes for Jefferson D'Arcy. I might be in the minory, but I really liked Jefferson's character better. Maybe it's because he meshed with Al in some ways Steve didn't. However, the Ted McGuinley curse soon struck, and the show declined about 3 years later.

The addition of Seven, the left-behind son of Peggy's cousins was awful. Thankfully, they quickly wrote him out of the show.

Also, as for co-workers, Griff was much better than the first guy, I think his name was Larry. Larry was some bachelor playboy, whereas Griff was another working stiff with woman problems, just like Al. Again, the things they had in common led to better episodes.