# Out of the Blue things learned about TV Characters **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 26, 2005, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-blue-things-learned-about-tv-characters/318775 "2005-08-26T19:00:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [August 27, 2005, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-blue-things-learned-about-tv-characters/318775/21 "2005-08-27T03:44:47Z")
> [@Kaspar Hauser](#): > > And his last name wasn’t even Ignatowski! You’ll understand everything if you say it backward. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2005, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-blue-things-learned-about-tv-characters/318775/22 "2005-08-27T06:21:31Z")
In the 2nd season of 24, George Mason suddenly reveals he had a son, but they were rather distant. But then again, nobody really talks about their family on that show(unless they are threatened by terrorists), so it probably doesn’t count. ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2005, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-blue-things-learned-about-tv-characters/318775/23 "2005-08-27T10:46:02Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > You’ll understand everything if you say it backward. Maybe it’s just too early in the morning for me still, but 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2005, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-blue-things-learned-about-tv-characters/318775/24 "2005-08-27T12:36:24Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > That show built in backstory like that fairly often. For example, the revelation that Jackie and Rosanne were battered as children by their fathers. And the revelation that Dan’s mother was a crazy lady (of course, so was Roseanne’s, but that was always true). Also, it was revealed in the last episode that she had switched her daugher’s husbands–Darlene was married to Mark and Becky to David. That made so much more sense. ---
**Author:** ![Katriona](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/katriona/32/113_2.png) [@Katriona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katriona)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2005, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-blue-things-learned-about-tv-characters/318775/25 "2005-08-27T12:49:01Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > It’s unclear from the episode whether she told them she was the Slayer or just about vampires. > > Either way, not to go all tangential or anything, I _hate_ this one. It completely negates Joyce from S2. You’re Joyce. Your 14 year old daughter was committed for a couple of weeks because she was having delusions about vampires (or being a super-hero, whichever). She burns down a school building in one city and upon moving to another city you almost immediately start having to wash blood out of her clothes, she has all sorts of unexplained injuries, she’s sneaking out of the house at night, etc. and all you can think to do is ground her? At the very least Buffy should’ve been in therapy. That one’s always really bugged me, too - in the S2 ep where they introduce the Gorch brothers, Buffy and Joyce split up at the mall, where Buffy is supposed to pick up Joyce’s outfit but get sidetracked follwing a Gorch. When they meet back up for dinner, she actually slips up and starts to say something about vampires. And this only warrants a slightly puzzled look from Joyce? ---
**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:** [August 27, 2005, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-blue-things-learned-about-tv-characters/318775/26 "2005-08-27T13:58:21Z")
> [@lorene](#): > > Maybe it’s just too early in the morning for me still, but 😕 Okay, roughly remembered: In one episode, a private detective shows up at the garage, looking for Jim Ignatowski. He announces that Jim’s family hired him to track Jim down and remarks casually that Jim was particularly difficult to find, especially after the name change. Reiger: Wait, Jim, you changed your name _to_ “Ignatowski”? Jim: Well, it was the sixties. Everybody was changing their name to “Moonbeam” or something. Reiger: But why “Ignatowski”? Jim: Say it backward. Wheeler: [hesitantly] Ix-wo-TANG-y ? Jim: [in genuine shock] That’s not “Starchild”?! ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2005, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-blue-things-learned-about-tv-characters/318775/27 "2005-08-27T14:07:10Z")
> [@BiblioCat](#): > > Just last week on _Monk_, we learned that Natalie is from a very well-to-do family; she’s a toothpaste heiress. All this time we’ve been lead to believe she’s a very blue-collar working-class girl. She was a bartender (or waitress in a bar) when she started working for Monk, and widowed, and sort of always on the verge of being broke. She’s always had a bit of an “edge,” not at all what you’d expect from someone who grew up leading a very priviledged lifestyle to be like. And this week we learned that she can kick ass! ---
**Author:** ![Kaspar\_Hauser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b3f665/32.png) [@Kaspar\_Hauser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaspar_Hauser)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2005, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-blue-things-learned-about-tv-characters/318775/28 "2005-08-27T15:05:26Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > You’ll understand everything if you say it backward. Hmmm… sounds kind of like “Star Child.” ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2005, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-blue-things-learned-about-tv-characters/318775/29 "2005-08-28T03:09:13Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > You’ll understand everything if you say it backward. OH, NO! That doesn’t sound \*anything \*like “Starchild”! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2005, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-blue-things-learned-about-tv-characters/318775/30 "2005-08-28T04:34:41Z")
Years back, “St. Elsewhere” writers and producers apparently wanted Kim Miyori’s character, Wendy Armstrong, off the show, so in the last episode of one season, it was revealed out of nowhere that she was a depressed, suicidal anorexic. Wendy killed herself about 5 minutes after her anorexia was revealed. A VERY sloppy segue from a show that usually handled things much better. Except for that stupid, tacked-on “it was all an autistic kids’ fantasy” in the series finale. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2005, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-blue-things-learned-about-tv-characters/318775/31 "2005-08-28T05:00:56Z")
Isn’t there an episode of _Alias_ where everything we knew aboout every single previous event turned out to be not entirely as it seemed 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2005, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-blue-things-learned-about-tv-characters/318775/32 "2005-08-28T05:18:15Z")
They had a scene in this season’s _West Wing_ where Margaret took off her sweater and we saw she was about seven months pregnant. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2005, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-blue-things-learned-about-tv-characters/318775/33 "2005-08-28T06:15:07Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > …Except for that stupid, tacked-on “it was all an autistic kids’ fantasy” in the series finale. Hasn’t most American TV been an autistic kids fantasy? 😉 ---
**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:** [August 28, 2005, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-blue-things-learned-about-tv-characters/318775/34 "2005-08-28T14:20:18Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Years back, “St. Elsewhere” writers and producers apparently wanted Kim Miyori’s character, Wendy Armstrong, off the show, so in the last episode of one season, it was revealed out of nowhere that she was a depressed, suicidal anorexic. > > Wendy killed herself about 5 minutes after her anorexia was revealed. A VERY sloppy segue from a show that usually handled things much better. > > Except for that stupid, tacked-on “it was all an autistic kids’ fantasy” in the series finale. I might actually have an anecdote about this… Unless St. Elsewhere had another character largely unexpectedly commit suicide. The brother of my high school art teacher came to talk to our school for a career day type thing. He was a tv writer (Growing Pains, ST:TNG). When asked how he got into it he explained- He used to watch St. Elsewhere when he was a teenager, he wrote a fan letter to one of the producers praising the show and asking if they were really going to have “X” commit suicide because that’s where it looked to be going. The producer was impressed because they thought that the character’s plotline had been so oblique up to that point that no one would see where they had planned it to go. So this producer wrote him back and became a excellent contact for this guy. So apparently it wasn’t entirely out of the blue and some hints had been there. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2005, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-blue-things-learned-about-tv-characters/318775/35 "2005-08-29T03:43:01Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Also on ER, when the character of intern Malucci (Erik Palladino) was fired, he pleaded with Weaver not to because “I have a kid”, again the first time this had ever been mentioned. Same thing happened with Doug Ross (George Clooney) back in the early days. He’s treating a little black brain-damaged kid (whose father has signed a DNR order), and the dad asks him if he has any children. He says that he has an eight-year-old son. Later a nurse says, “I never knew you had a son.” He replied something like, “I’m not in contact with him.” ---
**Author:** ![JpnDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@JpnDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JpnDude)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2005, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-blue-things-learned-about-tv-characters/318775/36 "2005-08-29T03:57:15Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > In the 2nd season of 24, George Mason suddenly reveals he had a son, but they were rather distant. But then again, nobody really talks about their family on that show(unless they are threatened by terrorists), so it probably doesn’t count. I don’t think this should count on the fact that only one day passes during one season. ---
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2005, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-blue-things-learned-about-tv-characters/318775/37 "2005-08-29T16:25:59Z")
Fin, on _Law and Order: Special Victims Unit_, also mentioned that he had an 18-year-old son out of the blue. ---
**Author:** ![flight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbce88/32.png) [@flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flight)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2005, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-blue-things-learned-about-tv-characters/318775/38 "2005-08-29T19:59:08Z")
This is a really interesting thread in that it consists of about 50% interesting and surprising revelations about characters that give them more depth, and 50% hack writing that requires instant shifts and the revelation of unheard of characters to fit the plot of one episode. ---
**Author:** ![belladonna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9fc29f/32.png) [@belladonna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/belladonna)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2005, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-blue-things-learned-about-tv-characters/318775/39 "2005-08-29T20:02:38Z")
It always amused me that David on Rosanne was originally introduced as “Kevin” in the first episode he appeared in. Doesn’t really make sense that a name would be changed like that, but little about that show did after a while… ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2005, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-blue-things-learned-about-tv-characters/318775/40 "2005-08-29T20:33:38Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > One of the later episodes of BattleTech (did ANYONE but me watch that show?) revealed that Franklin (the shady Draconian fellow who is seemingly allways trying to get a one-up on everyone else) is in fact an heir to the throne of the Draconian Combine, his mother having been killed in order to hide this fact from pretty much everyone (including him; in this ep he gets kidnapped by people wanting to place him on the throne) Well, Franklin Sakamoto is a bastard son, so I don’t think he’d be put in front of Theodore’s legitimate children for the throne to the Draconis Combine. And piloting BattleArmor takes some training, not just stepping into a suit, especially one likely fitted for a 7’+ 300+lb warrior. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-blue-things-learned-about-tv-characters/318775.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-blue-things-learned-about-tv-characters/318775.md?page=3)