# Poor (additional) cast choices of good TV shows **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 3, 2016, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-additional-cast-choices-of-good-tv-shows/753802 "2016-05-03T19:34:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**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:** [May 5, 2016, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-additional-cast-choices-of-good-tv-shows/753802/41 "2016-05-05T02:27:15Z")
> [@MovieMogul](#): > > Except a sense of normalcy. For “normalcy,” read “creepiness.” Even if she did represent “normalcy,” that’s the last thing the show needs. ---
**Author:** ![magnusblitz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@magnusblitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magnusblitz)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2016, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-additional-cast-choices-of-good-tv-shows/753802/42 "2016-05-05T03:02:30Z")
I always found Lydia in _Breaking Bad_ to be pretty annoying. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2016, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-additional-cast-choices-of-good-tv-shows/753802/43 "2016-05-05T03:16:54Z")
Connor on Angel. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2016, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-additional-cast-choices-of-good-tv-shows/753802/44 "2016-05-05T08:28:59Z")
Holographic lounge singer Vic Fontaine on _Star Trek: Deep Space Nine_. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2016, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-additional-cast-choices-of-good-tv-shows/753802/45 "2016-05-05T14:52:47Z")
Tori on _Saved by the Bell._ She was a terrible fit with the rest of that cast. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2016, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-additional-cast-choices-of-good-tv-shows/753802/46 "2016-05-05T20:01:15Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Rosanne’s mother and all of Seinfeld’s and George Costanza’s parents. Spoiled lots of episodes. Parents are usually fatal distractions in sitcoms, turning geat comedy into inane slapstick… :eek: They added immensely to the shows IMO! They were hilarious! Jerry Stiller is the best part of ‘King of Queens’, he seems to be living in some old B movie from the 50s (but Doug’s parents are ciphers. Perfectly ordinary, no indication how they produced that fat buffoon.) The parents I wonder about are the WASP-y moms and dads, dripping with money, tastefully dressed, passive-aggressively butting into their children’s lives. All the mothers have long bangs and turned-under bobs (hairstyles). The fathers have big white teeth and are drunks. I’ve seen them on a lot of shows, though I can only think of two right now - the long-ago ‘Days and Nights of Molly Dodd’ and Debra’s parents on ‘Everybody Loves Raymond.’ Their appearance in their childrens lives brings on tension and anxiety. George Costanza has a screeching harpy of a mother, but a WASP mother’s critique of her daughter’s shoes brings on the same kind of trembling anger and resentment. I wouldn’t know why, it seems well off people in Connecticut are as bad as dirt-poor ignorant goombahs from the slums. As parents. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2016, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-additional-cast-choices-of-good-tv-shows/753802/47 "2016-05-06T03:50:36Z")
> [@DeptfordX](#): > > Wasn’t that kinda the point? Yes, I see that, but she crossed the line and made me all stabby. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2016, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-additional-cast-choices-of-good-tv-shows/753802/48 "2016-05-06T08:07:39Z")
This probably happens a lot when a major star gets replaced late in a series’s run. Like how Josh Myers’s Randy Peterson replaced Topher Grace’s Eric Forman in the last season of _That '70s Show_. Even with an ensemble cast, I can kind of see how it was necessary to provide a substitute for a missing character, as you need to preserve the show’s dynamic. Certain character types need certain other character types to serve as foils. But Eric was so central an established a character that there was literally no chance that the audience would warm to Josh. Simply ending the show would have been a better idea. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2016, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-additional-cast-choices-of-good-tv-shows/753802/49 "2016-05-06T11:51:41Z")
I didn’t like _Cheers_ after Kirstie Alley joined the cast [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-additional-cast-choices-of-good-tv-shows/753802.md?page=2)