# Terrible characters from great shows.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-characters-from-great-shows/852614
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [April 26, 2020, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-characters-from-great-shows/852614 "2020-04-26T14:49:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2020, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-characters-from-great-shows/852614/41 "2020-04-27T23:26:59Z")
> [@Spoons](#):
>
> If we can name Cousin Oliver, then I’ll add Ricky from The Partridge Family.
>
> Supposedly, the child of the next-door neighbor, four-year-old Ricky was brought in, in the final season. Unlike Cousin Oliver, Ricky contributed nothing to an episode’s plot (okay, in fairness, he did in the episode where his family moved in next door). Yet somehow, towards the end of an episode, Ricky would find an excuse to visit the Partridges, and insist on singing a children’s song. The kid’s speaking voice sounded like fingernails on a blackboard; you can imagine what his singing voice sounded like.
>
> He did maybe ten episodes. I don’t know what kind of complaints the producers were receiving, but there must have been a lot of them, because suddenly Ricky disappeared, and the family never spoke of him again.
No, we cannot name Cousin Oliver. He was a terrible character on not a great show. 🙂
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2020, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-characters-from-great-shows/852614/42 "2020-04-27T23:50:01Z")
> [@LurkMeister](#):
>
> Elliot Stabler on Law & Order SVU. How he managed to stay on the force without being brought up on charges of brutality constantly amazed me. I remember at least one show where a suspect was brought in on pedophile charges and Stabler tried to beat a confession out of him. It turned out that the guy was totally innocent, but apparently the mere suspicion was enough to justify Stabler’s actions.
>
> Oddly enough, I loved Chris Meloni in Happy!
Where he’s far more brutal.
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### Author:  [@Clark\_Cello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clark_Cello)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2020, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-characters-from-great-shows/852614/43 "2020-04-28T00:06:38Z")
> [@Author\_Balk](#):
>
> For me it would be Cliff on Cheers. He is mildly annoying. But it is rare when he adds anything to the show. (maybe I’m a minority on this)
I’ll take this in a slightly different direction. I am watching Cheers for the first time in 20+ years, and I really dislike Carla. She is a terrible person, and rarely funny. I really think the writers got lazy with her, just giving her easy put-downs. One of the impacts of this is that Cliff, would was sometimes a very interesting character, more often just became someone for Carla to make fun of in an unfunny way.
I have heard many lines in my recent viewing that I think hold up as some of the best written lines in sit-com history, but in some ways it has also aged poorly, and Carla is one of them IMO.
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### Author:  [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2020, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-characters-from-great-shows/852614/44 "2020-04-28T01:58:28Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> Where he’s far more brutal.
I realize that, and my only defense for liking him in Happy! was that the violence was so over the top that (to me, at least) it crossed the line into farce. I’m particularly thinking of the scene where he took out the residents of a nursing home, who were all Nazis.
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### Author:  [@steepone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steepone)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2020, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-characters-from-great-shows/852614/45 "2020-04-28T02:23:09Z")
Anthony Dinozzo in NCIS, I recently binge watched the show and realized he is a complete arsehole, his constant sexual harassment of female coworkers, bullying of coworkers, reading their email, breaking in to their desks, stealing food etc, in any workplace I ever worked at he wouldn’t have lasted 5 minutes
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2020, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-characters-from-great-shows/852614/46 "2020-04-28T03:26:46Z")
I love Brooklyn Nine-Nine but Charles isn’t funny. He’s massively irritating.
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### Author:  [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2020, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-characters-from-great-shows/852614/47 "2020-04-28T03:47:01Z")
Any ‘little sister’. On any show that seems to need a boost, and hey! why not throw in a little sister???. Usually cruelly bereft of parents who died in a car crash, the ‘little sister’ is sent live with her older sister/cousin. Fucks up the older sister/cousin’s life, drinking/drugging/acting like an asshole - spoiling the older sister’s/cousin’s burgeoning romance. Oh, and let’s not forget, buddying up to or getting kidnapped by The Villain of the show. … How come there are no bereft little brothers who need to be shipped off to the heroine of the show? too troublesome? too uncontrollable? too dangerous?
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### Author:  [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2020, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-characters-from-great-shows/852614/48 "2020-04-28T04:35:13Z")
> [@madsircool](#):
>
> Her character was supposed to be evil. She was a female Tony and she was ruthless and manipulative.
>
> My choice would be Artie Buccos wife, the restaurateur. Her accent could peel paint. And could she nag.
If we’re talking about _The Sopranos_, I don’t think there’s any actor/character whose quality was as inversely proportional to the rest of the show, as AJ.
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### Author:  [@RunSilent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RunSilent)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2020, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-characters-from-great-shows/852614/49 "2020-04-28T11:50:54Z")
Two on That 70s Show: Casey Kelso and Randy
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### Author:  [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2020, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-characters-from-great-shows/852614/50 "2020-04-28T12:30:47Z")
Everybods mother on all sitcoms. Especially Rosanne and George Costanza.
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### Author:  [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2020, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-characters-from-great-shows/852614/51 "2020-04-28T12:36:32Z")
Kripke and Leonard’s mom on Big Bang. Kripke’s speech impediment was like nails on a chalkboard. Leonard’s mom was a heartless bitch.
Cliff Barnes on Dallas, always picking on poor old JR.
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### Author:  [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2020, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-characters-from-great-shows/852614/52 "2020-04-28T12:47:30Z")
Robin on How I Met Your Mother. I get that she is supposed to be somewhat distant and tomboyish but can’t see her appeal to Ted and especially Barney.
Lisa Bonet’s character on The Cosby show. I loved her fashion but hated everything that came out of her mouth.
I agree with those that can’t stand Pauly Perrette on NCIS. And I’ve never seen the show! Just clips and commercials showed me I did not want to watch her. Her “quirky” hair made me grind my teeth. I just saw a commercial for a new sitcom she’s on and _she still has those damned pigtails_!
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### Author:  [@Little\_Brother\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Brother_1)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2020, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-characters-from-great-shows/852614/53 "2020-04-28T20:30:42Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#):
>
> Voyager had a lot of other flaws, but also some very good aspects - it could be argued to be great.
>
> Neelix ruined every episode he was in. The worst thing was, we were supposed to like him and think he was a wonderful, kind person. Even with all his “Mr Vulcan” stuff.
>
> And the one time I went to a Star Trek con we were given a free autographed photo in our goody bags. Guess whose it was?
I could’ve written this myself, except for the Star Trek con part-- I’ve never been to one.
Some wag once said of the original series that, absurd “Prime Directive” notwithstanding, Kirk and the Enterprise was essentially a cosmic “Mary Worth” wandering around the galaxy and butting into the affairs of other planets at every turn. (If younger readers don’t get the “Mary Worth” reference, look it up.)
Neelix made Mary Worth seem like an introvert.
But, to make one more observation short of derailing this into a “Voyager” discussion, over time I realized that almost _all_ of the characters are variously pompous stuffed shirts, pricks, and a-holes. Some critics and fans derided bringing in Jeri Ryan as eye candy, but apart from her smokin’-hot jumpsuited body her character had more texture and nuance than the rest of those stiffs put together. (Belanna and even Naomi Wildman excepted.)
I’ll stop now.
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### Author:  [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_Arachnid_Laser_1)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2020, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-characters-from-great-shows/852614/54 "2020-04-28T21:23:53Z")
Debra Morgan, Dexter’s sister in Dexter.
Seriously, what did she add? She wasn’t particularly good at her job, she was unable to sense anything odd from two serial killers she was very close to, her former fianceé and her own brother, and mostly she ended up as damsel in distress at the end of a couple of seasons.
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### Author:  [@LLCoolL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LLCoolL)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2020, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-characters-from-great-shows/852614/55 "2020-04-29T01:07:52Z")
nm
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### Author:  [@LLCoolL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LLCoolL)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2020, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-characters-from-great-shows/852614/56 "2020-04-29T01:10:38Z")
> [@DigitalC](#):
>
> Brother Mouzone on The Wire was basically a comic book character in a hyper realistic show.
Excellent example.
Having said that, Omar was pretty much a comic book character as well - with his ability to wander around in the same neighborhoods where he was ripping off major drug dealers, yet they could never find him to retaliate. But Omar is almost universally loved by fans of the show.
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### Author:  [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2020, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-characters-from-great-shows/852614/57 "2020-04-29T02:10:21Z")
Southland on TNT
I dont remember who the characters name was but there was one character was supposed to be native American or Hispanic or both but was nothing but an 8th-grade jackass and when they had the shootout in the precinct I was hoping hed get killed… and he didn’t but he acted like it … he thought he was the “cowboy” of the bunch …
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### Author:  [@Santos\_L\_Halper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santos_L_Halper)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2020, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-characters-from-great-shows/852614/58 "2020-04-29T03:43:01Z")
How about **Craig Middlebrooks** on **Parks and Recreation**.
He was a semi-regular character in the last two seasons and yelled every one of his lines for his entire run on the show. He was never even the tiniest bit funny.
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### Author:  [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_Arachnid_Laser_1)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2020, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-characters-from-great-shows/852614/59 "2020-04-29T04:07:20Z")
> [@Santos\_L\_Halper](#):
>
> How about **Craig Middlebrooks** on **Parks and Recreation**.
>
> He was a semi-regular character in the last two seasons and yelled every one of his lines for his entire run on the show. He was never even the tiniest bit funny.
God, yeah. I don’t know what they were going for, but it didn’t work at all.
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### Author:  [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2020, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-characters-from-great-shows/852614/60 "2020-04-29T04:19:08Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#):
>
> \*\*Great Shows? \*\*
😕
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