Well, Bale was the last commander, up to the last episode. Are you thinking about Lieutenant Dalto (Denise Crosby)? She was the one who was right after Fancy. She was there for two days, and pissed off all the detectives so badly, they managed to get her reassigned, and then Gibson came in.
He was a competent farming news reporter. And I’ll take “Chy Chy Rodrigweez” any day over Rush Limbaugh or Michael Savage.
The only thing Harris cared about was his book, “Blood on the Badge.” He was self-absorbed and totally uninsterested in his actual job.
James Hacker in Yes Minister/Prime Minister
“incompetent” “lazy” “clumsy” “dim-witted” “monstrously ugly”
“Oh, nuts to this! I’ll just go get Homer Simpson.”
Nope, not her.
Gibson was commander shortly before Bale and couldn’t be bothered with anything that was actually goin on in the squad. Bale came in right after that and made it his mission to “clean the place up.”
But then, looking at Season 12 on Wikipedia, the ep “Bale to the Chief” has another LT in charge who would rahter golf than run the squad. I barely remember him.
But… there’s no Rhymer reason to do that!
Sorry! Couldn’t resist!
Limbaugh and Savage aren’t news reporters and so are not valid comparisons. Limbaugh, at least, is exceptionally good at his job, but his job isn’t reporting.
It’s just IMO, but Les seems to get those awards because he’s the only reporter in the area who reports farm-related news, and he’s sent little trinkets by the local agricultural boards because he sucks up to them. (Which is, incidentally, one hundred percent realistic.) We never see any evidence on screen that he is anything other than a complete boob, and whenever Bailey starts to demonstrate legitimate competence, Les is consumed with envy.
Of course Jim was generally incompetent as a human being, but Louie, although abusive, corrupt and venal, was quite competent. In fact, he once got out of the dispatcher’s cage and bet Alex on who was the better cabbie. Louie got more fares, but Alex won because he got more tips.
Incidentally, the scene where Jim took the cabbie test is still one of the funniest in sitcom history.
What does a yellow light mean?
Slow down.
OK. What… does… a… yellow… light… mean?
Slow down!
OK. Wwwwhhhaaaat dooeesss aaaa yyyeeeellllowwww lllliiiight mmmmeeeannn?
Slow down!
OK. Wwwwwwhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaat dddddddoooooooeeeeeesssssssss aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa yyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllloooooooowwwwwwwww liiiiiiiiiigggggghhhhhtt mmmmmeeeeeeaaaaaan?
On* Spin City*, Mayor What’s-His-Name was incompetent, as was Governor Whose-His-Face on the old 1980s show Benson.
Actually, pretty much everyone on WKRP was incompetent except for Jennifer and Bailey. I guess Venus Flytrap showed no onscreen evidence of incompetence, but DJ’ing wasn’t really his background, either.
A lot of posters seemed to have missed the part of the OP that said “Not COMICALLY incompetent” - finding examples of incompetent people in comedies is shooting fish in a barrel.
Nobody’s mentioned Counselor Troi from TNG yet. She might have been the bestest ship’s counselor ever (doubtful), but as a Captain’s advisory, she was as useless as a one legged man in an ass kicking contest.
<Ship fires at the Enterprise>
Troi: I sense a lot of hostility Captain.
Picard: <rolls eyes> Thank you counselor.
I expect, that at the end of Grey’s Anatomy’s run, we’ll get a Seinfeld-like revelation: Meredith Grey is the Angel of Death. I swear, every patient she touches dies. So she does virtually no doctoring on the show…she just stands in the hallways and whines.
The Vorlons & Shadows from Babylon 5. They were supposed to take care of and guide the younger civilizations and at the end started to destroy what their duty was to protect.
He managed to fabricate one of these, no mean feat. Lisa was a fool not to buy it; it was going for a song.
That’s not really true. In the pilot, Venus was represented as a star DJ in Andy Travis’s past as a star station manager; it was only a much later episode (near the end of the show) that revealed that he was a teacher before WKRP and that he and Andy invented the Venus persona.
In the 2nd season episode “Baby, If You’ve Ever Wondered,” Andy worries that he’s lost his touch, and Venus reminds him that he’s gotten too fond of the staff to fire them. Andy then tells Venus that at least he did one thing right: “I hired you.” Venus replies, “Yeah, but that was when you were still perfect.”
So it’s true that Venus wasn’t a DJ before, but no one knows that for almost all of the show’s run. The only truly incompetent people on the show were Herb, Les, and Mr. Carlson. And none of that’s relevant to the OP, because comically incompetent characters are explicitly excluded.
What??! No one’s mentioned Barney Fife, the bumbling deputy of Mayberry! Don Knotts won five Emmys for playing Barney on *The Andy Griffith Show. *A lot of episodes involved Barney screwing up and Andy covering up for him and making Barney look good.
Henry Blake was the paragon of managers! I am blessed to have a bunch of managers like this where I work.
E. B. Farnum was a pretty ineffectual innkeeper/mayor…even for Deadwood.
Venus had a small radio show in Louisiana, which is how Travis first met him. Granted, Venus had a ton of jobs before he came to WKRP, (truck driver for the Army, school teacher, Texas league ballplayer) but he was a dj.
SSG Schwartz