# How many characters ruin the sitcom? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 11, 2013, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-characters-ruin-the-sitcom/650014 "2013-02-11T20:36:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-characters-ruin-the-sitcom/650014/1 "2013-02-11T20:36:47Z")
I have read some criticism from Big Bang Theory fans lately saying the cast has gotten too large. That the quality has gone downhill with more people to squeeze in. I disagree. I think the the new characters are successful, and we don’t have to focus on all the players on every episode. The larger question is - Is having a smaller number of main characters better for a tv show’s success in general? Modern Family has a large cast; Taxi had a large cast. They did ok. What do you guys think? ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-characters-ruin-the-sitcom/650014/2 "2013-02-11T21:29:48Z")
I think adding new characters is more of a bad sign than just having a large cast ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-characters-ruin-the-sitcom/650014/3 "2013-02-11T21:31:49Z")
Usually in a cast like that it’s about the pairings, isn’t it? When I read the AV Club reviews of Modern Family and other shows, they mostly talk about the pairings. If you have a 26-episode season, the more characters you have the more possible pairings! If you had a smaller season, it’d get to be too much yeah. But BBT has to come up with situations somehow, and “Raj and Amy do a thing!” is a situation right in itself. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-characters-ruin-the-sitcom/650014/4 "2013-02-11T21:37:56Z")
That 70’s Show had a main friend group of six, plus three or four parents. It wasn’t too large; in fact the worst season ws when they dropped two character and only brought in one new one. For TBBT, the dynamic of four guys and one girl was played out, and Bernadette and Amy are good characters. So what if individual screen time is reduced? ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-characters-ruin-the-sitcom/650014/5 "2013-02-11T21:41:16Z")
Audiences tend to dislike _adding_ characters, not large casts in general. You start watching a show for the original cast, so adding cast members is going to dilute that formula - you’re getting less of what you came for. **Friends** started with 6 cast members, so no problem. **BBT** started with 5, so going to 7 or 8 can annoy people. Joss Whedon was one of the worst for this. If the audience had a strong reponse to a character, they were soon stuck with them. I liked Spike as a villain of the year - doesn’t mean I wanted to see the guy shirtless for 5 more seasons 'cause Noxon has a crush. ---
**Author:** ![FrankJBN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@FrankJBN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrankJBN)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-characters-ruin-the-sitcom/650014/6 "2013-02-11T21:46:12Z")
Audiences tend to dislike adding characters. Any market research to support? Any fan of Dickens will tell you characters are always added. There was no earlier season. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-characters-ruin-the-sitcom/650014/7 "2013-02-11T21:47:17Z")
Just wondering if anyone else ever noticed: In a very early episode of TBBT (maybe even the third or the fourth), there was a real-life reference to Mayim as “that girl who played Blossom; she’s really smart.” Indeed, she has a doctorate in neurosurgery, if I’m not mistaken. What other kind of woman would Sheldon hook up with? What’s so funny about it is that she’s finally experiencing sexual arousal after being just as stodgy as Sheldon. The question now is, what will it take to bring Sheldon around, if ever? ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-characters-ruin-the-sitcom/650014/8 "2013-02-11T21:52:21Z")
For a half-hour sitcom, four major characters (appear every episode and are rarely not involved in the story line) and four secondary characters (around two of which appear significantly in any one episode). _I Love Lucy_ did it with two and two, but that was a long time ago. _Bob Newhart Show_, three and three. \*Gilligan’s Island \*may have been the mold-breaker, with seven regulars who rarely (ever?) failed to appear in each episode, and no secondaries. Followed by _Brady Bunch_, with nine primaries. But four and four is the tried and true center of the sitcom world. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-characters-ruin-the-sitcom/650014/9 "2013-02-11T21:54:50Z")
> [@FrankJBN](#): > > Any fan of Dickens will tell you characters are always added. There was no earlier season. I’m unclear on what this has to do with the price of tea in China. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-characters-ruin-the-sitcom/650014/10 "2013-02-11T22:04:24Z")
Cheers had a fairly large cast and was very successful. Sam, Diane, Coach, Carla, Norm, Cliff. Later, Frasier Crane was added, Diane was replaced by Rebecca, Coach was replaced by Woody, Robin Colcord was added as Rebecca’s love interest and Lillith came in as Frasier’s wife. A large and often rotating cast and Cheers lasted for 12 seasons IIRC. M_A_S\*H was another successful sitcom with a rather large cast. Hawkeye, Trapper, Henry, Radar, Klinger, Hot Lips, Frank, B.J., Potter, Father Mulcahey. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-characters-ruin-the-sitcom/650014/11 "2013-02-11T22:11:02Z")
Yes, Amy was almost a shoe-in. If Sheldon ever does start having sex he’ll probably deal with it like going to the bathroom; something that just has to be done. In fact, he could become rather freaky, not knowing what “normal” is. Dress-up would be right up his alley. The newly introduced characters further develop the already established ones. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-characters-ruin-the-sitcom/650014/12 "2013-02-11T22:19:29Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Cheers had a fairly large cast and was very successful. Sam, Diane, Coach, Carla, Norm, Cliff. Later, Frasier Crane was added, Diane was replaced by Rebecca, Coach was replaced by Woody, Robin Colcord was added as Rebecca’s love interest and Lillith came in as Frasier’s wife. A large and often rotating cast and Cheers lasted for 12 seasons IIRC. Four primary - Sam, Diane/Rebecca, Coach/Woody, Carla - and two secondary - Norm and Cliff. Replacement characters don’t count because they inevitably fill the same slot, even if they occasionally cross paths later. The others appeared most often as walk-throughs except in the occasional episodes they were given a bigger role. They all could be omitted from an episode without comment. (That’s the test of primary/secondary.) > [@](#): > > M_A_S\*H was another successful sitcom with a rather large cast. Hawkeye, Trapper, Henry, Radar, Klinger, Hot Lips, Frank, B.J., Potter, Father Mulcahey. You’ve got two replacements in there. I make it five primaries (Hawkeye, Trapper/BJ, Henry/Potter, Hot Lips and Frank). Radar came close to being a primary but he could be pushed in the background without any need for comment; even more so for Mulcahey. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-characters-ruin-the-sitcom/650014/13 "2013-02-11T22:25:54Z")
It’s not adding new character that is a problem–it’s adding new characters without adding to the character dynamics. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-characters-ruin-the-sitcom/650014/14 "2013-02-11T22:49:15Z")
Adding characters doesn’t seem to have doomed _The Simpsons_. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2013, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-characters-ruin-the-sitcom/650014/15 "2013-02-12T00:02:56Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Adding characters doesn’t seem to have doomed _The Simpsons_. I don’t think that’s really what people are talking about. I think this is more about recurring regulars, not world-fillers. They add characters but no one thinks “Weird, we didn’t see Bumbleman this episode.” ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2013, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-characters-ruin-the-sitcom/650014/16 "2013-02-12T00:18:01Z")
_Corner Gas_ had eight primaries and managed to get all of them in all episodes, often with interweaving subplots. It never felt forced to _me_. But then, they never tried to shoehorn in a ninth during the show’s run.