Every popular TV show comes to a crossroads in which they have to think of ways to keep the audience’s imagination with new and exciting ideas. Or you can just bring in a new character to do the same old crap. So embrace your inner Poochie D with the 7 most inexplicable character additions to TV shows.
Luke – Growing Pains
Growing Pains was one of the most successful family sitcoms to emerge from the mid 1980s. However, as the show lagged on, ratings began to plummet. In a desperate attempt to spice things up, the Seaver family takes a cue from Punky Brewster and invites a homeless kid into their home.
Enter Luke Brower (yep, played by Leonardo DiCaprio). Now, on paper the idea of Luke makes perfect sense: a scrappy kid from the wrong side of the tracks who is street smart, but still good at heart needs a new home. I mean, with a character bio like that, what show WOULDN’T want to bring Luke into the home. Unfortunately, the lame attempt to bring a new kid into the Seaver home proved ineffective. Just like two years before when precocious 6-year-old Chrissy was introduced, Growing Pains just couldn’t farm in enough cute, young kids to save the show.
Oliver – The Brady Bunch
Oliver is the grandfather of modern-day “new kid” TV cast additions. As tends to happen with family sitcoms that are on TV long enough, the child actors of the show all grow up. Deemed “not cute enough” by the network, TV shows then scramble to find some excuse to bring a younger, more adorable kid into the plot.
This fan-made video of Oliver as a secret agent would have been a far more interesting plotline.
For the Brady Bunch, this little show ruiner was Oliver (though, to be fair, the Brady Bunch was never any good). Immediately hated by fans of the show, little Cousin Oliver was the final nail in the coffin of this classic TV sitcom. After just six episodes of Oliver infestation, the Brady Bunch was canceled. Today, the term “Cousin Oliver Syndrome” refers to anytime a younger character is brought in to replace kid characters who have grown up. From Olivia on The Cosby Show to Sam McKinney on Diff’rent Strokes, the ploy has been used again and again.
Scrappy Doo – The Scooby Doo Show
Unlike those pesky real actors, cartoon characters never age. Despite this fact, the powers that be behind the Scooby Doo Show decided to try and boost ratings with the exact same concept. Scrappy Doo was introduced to the show in 1979 as Scooby’s cousin. Why was Scooby’s sister (Ruby Doo) not looking after the young pup anymore? Who cares!
Scrappy Doo has become such a hated character through history’s eyes that he’s been openly mocked in commercials and the Scooby Doo films.
Unlike most of the little devils that are added to TV shows, Scrappy was embraced by viewers and was credited for helping make the show popular again. But I don’t care what my TV watching ancestors thought, the idea of a hyperactive little punk just gets my gag reflex going. Throw in lame catchphrases like “Lemme at ‘em” and “Puppy Power,” and this is by far one of the worst TV cast additions of all time (though, I will say that he is 100 times better than the short-lived recurring cast member, Scooby Dum).
Nikki & Paulo – Lost
To be fair, Lost has introduced a number of intriguing new characters (Desmond, Ben, etc.). However, the show faltered considerably when the writers tried to introduce Nikki and Paulo. Their introduction to the show was jarring, with two immediately being thrust into the spotlight after being “hidden” in the background of the plane wreckage with the other “unimportant” castaways for all that time.
Add in the fact that the characters were completely worthless and added absolutely nothing to the show, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for terrible-ness. Thankfully, the backlash from fans was so overwhelming, that the writers quickly killed off these two boring character additions.
Pam – The Cosby Show
The Cosby Show followed a similar story arc as Growing Pains. Show opens to great ratings. Kids start to grow up. Show begins to go stale. Introduce little kid (Olivia, which actually worked, to a degree). Little kid starts to grow up. Introduce kid from wrong side of tracks to stir things up.
Now, it’s likely that you don’t even remember Pam (I forgot all about her until I saw a rerun of the Cosby Show a few months back). Essentially, she’s Claire’s distant cousin who comes to live with the Huxtables in Season 7. No matter how many episodes the girl appeared in, she always seemed out of place. The last two seasons of the Cosby Show are clearly the worst, a fact that can be wholly contributed to cousin Pam.
The Great Gazoo – The Flintstones
The character of the Great Gazoo can be summed up in three simple words: What. The. F*ck!? Despite the fact that The Flintstones is set in prehistoric times, the writers some how thought it made perfect sense to introduce a futuristic floating green alien into the town of Bedrock. Add in the fact that only Barney, Fred, Pebbles and Bam-Bam can see or hear the alien, and the Great Gazoo essentially amounts to an imaginary friend.
Gazoo’s love of calling people “Dum dum” hid his own shame in his unwavering illiteracy. Presumably.
The Great Gazoo was introduced during the Flintstones last season. Clearly, the writers were clamoring for some way to keep the show fresh. Unfortunately, a mischief-causing alien was not the right direction to go. In all other spin-offs of the show, The Great Gazoo was thankfully left absent from the cast of characters.
Seven – Married With Children
Married With Children was the antithesis of the family sitcom. The Bundy family was brash, imperfect, and in many ways much more realistic than the picture-perfect TV families that preceded them. It is for this reason that such a stereotypical pratfall such as introducing a new kid to the show seemed especially out of place. And apparently the role was so unmemorable and unremarkable that amidst tens of thousands Married with Children videos on YouTube, no one thought, “Hey, that scene with Seven is worth uploading!” Not a good sign.
Seven is the son of Peggy’s cousins (big surprise). After these cousins drop Seven off at the Bundy’s, the family quickly accepts him into the home. Viewers did not. The character was universally hated, and eventually dropped from the cast. While it seems clear that the writers were completely aware of Seven’s dubious introduction into the family (he even appears as an intentional re-characterization of Oliver from the Brady Bunch), this does not excuse the serious miscue.
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