Growing Pains, which also added a daughter (who was aged five years over a summer between two seasons). I don’t know what DiCaprio’s relationship was to the Seaver family.
Well, her father was off in the navy and her stepmother was busy making Angel Heart.
In the first episode, though, the mother asks Cliff pointedly “Why do we have four children?” (this line, along with much of the material in that episode, is drawn directly from Cosby’s comedy routines). The fifth kid, the oldest, was only added later.
Growing Pains, that was it. Now I remember the daughter too. She had a huge Annie perm.
I’m pretty sure Leo was adopted but I have no memory as to why. I suppose it was because all the other kids were in their 30’s by then.
I think that was the pilot rather than the first regular episode.
A bit off-topic, but inspired by the Thread title, many folks aren’t aware that Cousin Oliver is an amazing guitar player.
Mel Brooks joined “Mad About You” as a semi-regular in the last two seasons or so as as Uncle Phil. Wasn’t a good move for the show, but hey, he’s Mel Brooks. You gotta love that…
mm
Leo’s character’s father was a trucker. I remember that much. I remember there was an episode where he came looking for his son, and there was something about him possibly dying / being paralyzed due to some spine condition caused by too much truckin’. I can only assume that Leo was simply abandoned, but I can’t remember exactly.
God only knows why I even remember this much.
And how many years did Family Ties go on after Andrew was born? About five? Some death knell.
And it is left to me to mention Mirth on Mork & Mindy- Jonathan Winters’ most shameful role.
Designing Women, when Suzanne (Delta Burke) and Charlene (Jean Smart) left and they brought in, I believe, someone who was supposed to be a cousin of Charlene’s and some sort of relative of Suzanne and Julia’s…ugh. :o
Leo was abandoned by his father and living on the streets when Mike took him in. I’ve heard of children bringing home stray puppies, but really…
Roseanne’s daughter Darlene would later bring her boyfriend David into the house.
This happens all the time on soaps. I watched Days of our Lives for over 10 years, and never once heard anyone mention the Brady family. Then cop Roman Brady gets assigned to protect Marlena from a stalker, and next thing you know there’s an entire family who never appeared before.
If someone leaves town on a soap, nobody will mention them for years. Then they will be mentioned three times in one week, and show up the next week.
nitpick: He was Larry with the two brothers Darryl.
I think that Leonardo Dicaprio was a street kid that Mike (Kirk “look at me I’m christian” Cameron) took in after hearing his sob story, or possibly after being pickpocketed by him.
Jan Hooks as Carlene Dawber, Charlene’s sister. Who’s a replacement rather than an addition so she doesn’t count, but does get honorable mention since in the episode “Odell” we meet and are introduced to all of Charlene’s siblings by name and there’s no Carlene. And Julia Duffy as Julia and Suzanne’s cousin Alison. Also a replacement rather than an addition. She lasted one season then was replaced by Jusith Ivey as B.J. Poteet. Certainly a long way from the stellar comedy of earlier seasons but there were a few solid episodes mixed in, like the Clarence Thomas episode (put together from scratch in something like three days) and “Mamed.”
The Thomasens also tried a semi-Oliver by saddling Julia with Randa, the daughter of clients who left her alone with servants while they globe-trotted, but Randa only appeared a few times and then vanished without trace. Randa’s last name was Oliver. Coincidence? I think so!
Quinn Cummings (the little girl from The Goodbye Girl) joined the cast of Family in its final season or so, but I don’t recall what her relationship was to the family, or what overall effect she had on the show.
Tiny little nitpick:
That was Uncle Tannous
Eight is Enough added Abby’s nephew Jeremy Andretti for the last season, played by Ralph Macchio
Quote:
Originally Posted by kunilou
As for relatives who actually improved the show, near the top of the list is Uncle Toonoose on the Danny Thomas Show.
According to the IMDb, Hans Conried’s character was Uncle Tonoose.
Son of a Gun. I had always figured that his name was Tannous, because that is actually a name. You learn something new…
British comedy series Only Fools And horses (is this known in America) had Grandad in the early seasons. After the actor died, the character was replaced by Grandad’s brother Albert. Did it make the show better or worse? Well, it lasted for years afterwards, and grew in popularity. I think it was just as good either way.
Notice how much more restrained they were about this sort of thing in the 60s series, though (probably because it was a new show and it wasn’t automatically assumed that anyone in the audience would really care if Sulu had a brother or Uhura had a sister, etc.). if I remember the episode with Kirk’s brother correctly, they beam down to a planet where everyone’s dead, or stark raving mad…and later discover that this planet has been attacked by the flying pancake creatures (as my brother and I used to call them…). Anyway, we never got to meet Kirk’s brother, he was dead at the beginning of the episode, right?
The Next Generation established the idea of bringing in a relative whenever they couldn’t come up with a decent idea for the next episode…
(Worf’s son and Troi’s mother were particularly hard to take…makes me angry just thinking about them…grrrr…)
No one has mentioned The Sopranos here…they’re constantly dragging in new characters who are related in some way to the regular cast. The whole last season revolved around a new character (Tony Soprano’s cousin, Tony B., played by Steve Buscemi) who was never mentioned (as far as I know) in the first four years of the show.
I think the show is definitely getting worse, and the “Cousin Oliver effect” has something to do with it…mainly because the show seems to suck more as it adds more plot twists and secondary characters, and gets away from the original formula that worked so well (i.e., focused more or less exclusively on Tony Soprano, commenting to his shrink about how crazy his mobster life is…).