# Stuff in your otherwise favorite TV shows that bugs you **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 30, 2004, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-in-your-otherwise-favorite-tv-shows-that-bugs-you/257565 "2004-07-30T05:49:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2004, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-in-your-otherwise-favorite-tv-shows-that-bugs-you/257565/1 "2004-07-30T05:49:24Z")
Okay, they don’t even have to be favorites; they can just be shows that you’ve watched enough so that you notice certain irritating things. **ER** –Sam’s young boy. My God, this is the most annoying kid I have ever seen on TV. He’s even worse than Hallie Kate Eisenberg (the Pepsi Girl). **Enterprise** : Three seasons finished, and we’ve never even glimpsed Chef’s face. He’s turning into Maris In Space. **Navy NCIS** : A doctor nicknamed “Ducky”?? Please. And Abby the lab tech…are we to believe that anyone would be allowed to do that sort of work while wearing all that wanna-be punk/Goth gear and listening to loud music? **JAG** : Every time you turn around, Harriet Rogers is pregnant again. Enough with the soap opera already. Got any dumbass foolishness you’d like to share? Oh, and it can be older TV shows as well. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2004, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-in-your-otherwise-favorite-tv-shows-that-bugs-you/257565/2 "2004-07-30T05:50:47Z")
:smack: Make that **Roberts** , not **Rogers**. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2004, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-in-your-otherwise-favorite-tv-shows-that-bugs-you/257565/3 "2004-07-30T05:54:48Z")
I’ve never noticed how they refer to Chef. Is it with a wink and a nudge or is he just mentioned in passing? Have they ever shown him but had his face obscured? If it’s either of those, I can understand your annoyance but otherwise, I’d think it fine. And to add my own - the characters of Angel and Dawn on BtVS annoy me. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2004, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-in-your-otherwise-favorite-tv-shows-that-bugs-you/257565/4 "2004-07-30T05:56:07Z")
I didn’t mean Dawn. While she’s I don’t like her, I don’t dislike her either. I meant Tara. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2004, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-in-your-otherwise-favorite-tv-shows-that-bugs-you/257565/5 "2004-07-30T11:46:59Z")
> [@vivalostwages](#): > > **Navy NCIS** : A doctor nicknamed “Ducky”?? Please. And Abby the lab tech…are we to believe that anyone would be allowed to do that sort of work while wearing all that wanna-be punk/Goth gear and listening to loud music? Ducky’s last name is Mallard. I think the writers wanted him to have an eccentric nickname to go with the character, but I don’t get it. It’s just kind of dumb. The character is a bit more refined and the name’s too silly, IMO. And I’m with you on Abby. It’s a Navy base. Again, I think the writers want to have a funky or eccentric character, but she’d never be allowed to dress that way IRL, right? My irritant? The way the rooms in houses are laid out in regard to the outside “establishing shot.” They _never_ match. Example #1: _Full House_. The outside establishing shot showed a very narrow home, but inside we got an airy, spacious home with lots of room, much wider than what was shown, including two staircases, four bedrooms, and a big backyard. Example #2: _Happy Days_ The outside establishing shot showed a spacious colonial home with separate garage, but inside it was rather small, with the dining area right in the living room, the small kitchen supposedly sticking out the front of the house, and an attached garage with the apartment over it. There are more, but it’s early. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2004, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-in-your-otherwise-favorite-tv-shows-that-bugs-you/257565/6 "2004-07-30T12:53:48Z")
Mystery Science Theater - Oh, how I wish they had the foresight to secure the DVD release rights of the movies they did in advance, so I could now be enjoying season-by-season box sets of the show. Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Tara bad. Xander’s Eye-gouge bad. Where Oz go? Oz good. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2004, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-in-your-otherwise-favorite-tv-shows-that-bugs-you/257565/7 "2004-07-30T13:19:44Z")
Today’s page on my little Star Trek page-a-day desk calendar reminds me that I really, _really_ hated anything to do with Vic Fontaine on DS9. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2004, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-in-your-otherwise-favorite-tv-shows-that-bugs-you/257565/8 "2004-07-30T14:07:38Z")
One of the recurring themes on Buffy was that she would be facing insurmountable odds, then tell her friends she has to go it alone because all the legends are about The Slayer, not The Slayer and all her friends. This, in spite of the fact that _every single time_ her friends came along to help her, she kicked ass _because her friends helped._ Then she had the balls to wonder why all her friends started to think a little more highly of themselves late in the series. Hello? Fighting monsters and vampires for five years now, and none (well, very few) of us have died? All parts of the Star Trek franchise, until Enterprise: Security officers who carry one (1) weapon. Weapon gets kicked away, and they’re screwed. Now, on Enterprise, weapon gets kicked away, pull out second weapon and resume fight. Awesome. Non-combat officers, sure, carrying just a sidearm makes sense. But troops? Get real. Gilmore Girls: My got, but Lorelei and Rory are rude little bitches. They didn’t start out that way. I started out watching because they were funny and oh, so pretty. Now they’re just pretty. Wha hoppen? ---
**Author:** ![LibrarySpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f9ae1b/32.png) [@LibrarySpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LibrarySpy)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2004, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-in-your-otherwise-favorite-tv-shows-that-bugs-you/257565/9 "2004-07-30T14:35:11Z")
**Stargate SG1** is officially endorsed by the United States Air Force. That creeps me the hell out. I imagine it’s even worse for European fans. **Cold Case** - Scotty’s mentally disabled girlfriend. It was thoughtfully cute the first episode. By the season finale when it had been a dominant storyline for months, I was damned tired of it. ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2004, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-in-your-otherwise-favorite-tv-shows-that-bugs-you/257565/10 "2004-07-30T14:41:22Z")
Have they shown Chef on **Enterprise** _at all_? If not, do you think if they ever do have him show up as a character, they can get Isaac Hayes to play the part? ---
**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:** [July 30, 2004, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-in-your-otherwise-favorite-tv-shows-that-bugs-you/257565/11 "2004-07-30T14:59:20Z")
The Brady Bunch is another interior/exterior house problem. The outside was very spacious, with a huge back yard, yet the six children were in two very small bedrooms. And Mike was an architect. Couldn’t he have enlarged it somehow? When the Bunkers ate, they sat on only one side of the table. Who eats like that? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2004, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-in-your-otherwise-favorite-tv-shows-that-bugs-you/257565/12 "2004-07-30T15:10:08Z")
> [@Ponder Stibbons](#): > > Isaac Hayes to play the part? That would be awesome. He would walk onto the bridge and say. “How are my little crackers today?” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2004, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-in-your-otherwise-favorite-tv-shows-that-bugs-you/257565/13 "2004-07-30T15:32:44Z")
I can’t stand Zapp Brannigan from **Futurama**. I hate his Phil Hartman-knockoff voice, and the whole strutting horndog routine just seems very stale. And Kif isn’t funny either. > [@CandidGamera](#): > > Mystery Science Theater - Oh, how I wish they had the foresight to secure the DVD release rights of the movies they did in advance, so I could now be enjoying season-by-season box sets of the show. I dunno … I can barely afford the 4-diskers they’re releasing now. A 26-episode box set of MST would probably cost around $300. I am, however, pissed that they’re releasing **Manos** again along with **Santa Claus Conquers the Martians,** and that you can’t get the latter without also buying the former. Short of cash, BBI? ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2004, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-in-your-otherwise-favorite-tv-shows-that-bugs-you/257565/14 "2004-07-30T15:38:52Z")
> [@Rysler](#): > > **Stargate SG1** is officially endorsed by the United States Air Force. That creeps me the hell out. I imagine it’s even worse for European fans. I can’t imagine why it would creep anyone out that the Air Force has agreed to give technical advice to the show. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2004, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-in-your-otherwise-favorite-tv-shows-that-bugs-you/257565/15 "2004-07-30T15:44:58Z")
> [@Nonsuch](#): > > I can’t stand Zapp Brannigan from **Futurama**. I hate his Phil Hartman-knockoff voice, and the whole strutting horndog routine just seems very stale. And Kif isn’t funny either. To be fair about the voice, the part was obviously written for Phil Hartman. The voice was kept as a tribute, not that that’s supposed to make you like it. I don’t like characters with Zapp and Kif’s dynamic, but I can’t complain too much when he says things like “My plan is so simple an _idiot_ could’ve devised it.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2004, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-in-your-otherwise-favorite-tv-shows-that-bugs-you/257565/16 "2004-07-30T16:07:41Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > That would be awesome. He would walk onto the bridge and say. “How are my little crackers today?” > > 🙂 Yeah, but would he sing any songs? Preferably about how to get it on with a hot alien babe while in decontamination. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2004, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-in-your-otherwise-favorite-tv-shows-that-bugs-you/257565/17 "2004-07-30T16:20:23Z")
In the television show “Fame”, it always used to bug me that they could spend an eternity yucking it up in the hallways between classes. Also, you never saw the kids in math and science classes, only English and their “art” classes. It also bugged me that you’d find the drama kids in dance class and vice versa. Like, I remember one episode when Doris was in the same dance class as Coco and Leroy. I attended a performing arts school. You weren’t allowed to “cross over” like that because you didn’t have time. Two hours were reserved for your “speciality” and the rest of the day was full of English, science, math, and history. And even if you could jam in another hour of an elective, a clumsy person like Doris would NOT be in the same class as graceful Leroy. She’d be in a dancing for dummies class. Come on now! I liked Boston Public, too, but hated the fact that it made no sense. For instance, they had a class called the Dungeon where all the bad kids spent the entire day. But in a school the size of BP, there’s no way all the bad kids could fit in one class (they also did this in _Sister Act II_). And how would it be possible for Marilyn, who taught English, to also to teach music? Maybe there was only one music class, and she taught it during her free period? I don’t know. It also wasn’t unusual to see the faculty sitting at their desks, late into the night. I know teachers work hard, but I know they usually go HOME when it starts getting dark. ---
**Author:** ![LibrarySpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f9ae1b/32.png) [@LibrarySpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LibrarySpy)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2004, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-in-your-otherwise-favorite-tv-shows-that-bugs-you/257565/18 "2004-07-30T17:55:41Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > I can’t imagine why it would creep anyone out that the Air Force has agreed to give technical advice to the show. Nor could I. And that isn’t what I said. They have a registered nurse as a technical advisor, too, but I don’t want _JAMA_ endorsing them. ---
**Author:** ![Katisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bcef8e/32.png) [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2004, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-in-your-otherwise-favorite-tv-shows-that-bugs-you/257565/19 "2004-07-30T18:53:20Z")
> [@Miss Mapp](#): > > Today’s page on my little Star Trek page-a-day desk calendar reminds me that I really, _really_ hated anything to do with Vic Fontaine on DS9. Argh, me too. Though not as much as I hated Ferengi episodes. **shudder** ---
**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2004, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-in-your-otherwise-favorite-tv-shows-that-bugs-you/257565/20 "2004-07-30T19:12:34Z")
_Monk_ - I’ve never heard them explain how he makes a living, but maybe I missed it. He has a very nice apartment in San Francisco - that’s ain’t gonna be cheap. Plus, a personal assistant who, as near as I can tell, spends virtually every waking moment with him. Plus, regular therapy sessions with a psychologist who looks to be extremely high-priced, based on his luxurious office. He was presumably fired from SFPD, so I’m guessing he’s on some sort of disability, maybe. And he does piecemeal consulting on cases, but it doesn’t seem like that would even _begin_ to pay for all that stuff. Did they ever explain that on the show? And going way back: _M_A_S_H\* - One could write a whole book on the incongruities in the show, but the main one, I guess, was that the set was just altogether too small for the supposed size of the camp. In the movie, it’s a huge, bustling camp, but on the show, there are only 4 officers and a handful of enlisted that we ever see or hear about. And the tiny scale of the camp is constantly betrayed. The funniest time, I think, is the “cease fire” episode, where people pile into a Jeep and drive around the camp to celebrate, but all they can do is drive the Jeep around in a little circle. And speaking of establishing shots: _Roseanne_ had the cheesiest-looking shots ever. They looked like paintings or scale-models or something. Is it that hard to take a picture of a real building? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-in-your-otherwise-favorite-tv-shows-that-bugs-you/257565.md?page=2)