“Frasier” is one of my favorite sitcoms, but I cringe whenever the character of Bulldog comes crashing into a scene.
He only appeared in five of the eleven seasons, thankfully. And I will concede that they dialed his horndog obnoxiousness down a notch or two over time. But man, his character - who was never that entertaining to me from the start - has not aged well.
Bulldog is the turd in the Frasier punch bowl.
mmm
I think Bulldog worked great as a contrast to Frasier and as a foil. I would say Ann from Parks+Recreation. The first series focused on Leslie’s crusade to fill Ann’s pit but from series 2 onwards there was less and less reason for her to be there but she kept coming back.
Mork in Happy Days. Not even for one episode.
Rick on the original Magnum PI. He suffers from a severe case of short man syndrome, he’s obnoxious, and in the episodes that feature him, he comes across like a major league asshole. He married a hooker in the last episode fer cripes sake! The only thing he brings to the table is access to the “plot advancing magical source of information” Icepick.
Jubal in FBI. I’m not sure what he actually does. I guess he’s the “motivator”. “Get me camera views! Track down that license plate. MOVE people!” Like a bunch of trained analysts don’t already know their jobs. The most recent episode had him fall off the wagon and was barking orders more…irrationally? than normal, but I couldn’t really tell the difference. I liken his job to Homer’s in You Only Move Twice, with him and his Tom Landry hat urging people to work harder. The show doesn’t need Jubal at all.
Timmy in Lassie. Man if that kid would just stay out of wells*, Lassie could have a nice easy life
* yes I know
Are sex workers unmarriageable?
I kind of agree about Jubal. I guess he’s the agent in charge of the cases we see (though not the special agent in charge of the field office). Sometimes he goes into the field, but not often.
Would you take one home to mom*? This one was. She was an airhead.But she had big boobs, so I guess that makes up for it.
*yes I know.
Aunt Harriet on Batman. Was she just some kind of matronly beard for two bachelors living together?
Actually, yes. Sort of.
From What I understand, the network wanted her there to dispell any notion that something was going on between Bruce and Dick (those names didn’t help, btw) at stately Wayne Manor.
I can’t find a clip or quote, but didn’t she deliver lines like, “Bruce and Dick sure go on a lot of fishing trips” with a touch of sarcasm. Maybe her real purpose was to actually imply the gay thing to hip members of the audience.
The last several episodes have shown that Sheldon Cooper doesn’t belong in Young Sheldon.
Priya Koothrappali - The Big Bang Theory Good for a couple of laughs as Leonard bones his friend’s sister and the episode with the room mate agreement was solid gold, but other than that she sucked the funny out of the room and even the situations her character creates for others to be funny did not help.
Her life was too dynamic and the thing with Leonard was too complicated and serious for a sitcom so while the ‘duck out of water’ can work for comedy, but not here.
‘Wendy’ the nurse on “Mom”. She’s so boring. She has little back story, she whines, she’s just…there…like an uninvited guest at the party that you tolerate, but you wonder why she’s even there.
Yes, that’s been true for pretty much this whole season, and actually started last season. They’ve expanded the cast and added so many subplots that Sheldon’s lucky to have five minutes in the show named for him. I would have stopped watching a while ago, but my wife still likes it.
Jasper, the little boy on The Last Man on Earth. The writers ran out of funny or interesting things for him to do almost as soon as he showed up.
I would gladly have kept Priya and dumped Amy Farrah-Fowler.
If we can extend this to novels that would’ve been vastly improved by dumping a character, I nominate Constance in the Pendergast series. She was a continual pain in the ass.
Not only that, but I think Bulldog is a pretty realistic portrayal of a talk radio sports guy. I think we’d far more likely see a Bulldog sort of guy rather than a Frasier sort of guy on the radio.
Chief O’hara. I’m guessing he was supposed to be a representation of the common cop, but he was totally useless.
The Simpsons has an annoying habit of taking one shot joke characters and bringing them back over and over again.
The biggest one I can think of is Duff Man, he made complete sense for his introduction episode of literally being a mascot at a promotional event, but then they just kept bringing him back over and over again for less and less laughs.
An even better example is the Christmas Grumple (forgot his exact name) but their Grinch knock-off which served his purpose when they had him during a Grinch parody, but then they just kept bringing him back for literally no reason. Why is a Grinch knock-off in this scene to deliver one line? Why is he now a background character in the show?
This is actually a good point that had not occurred to me.
I still don’t like him, though.
mmm