You combined K.C. (blonde) with Roger Phillips (brunette, played by Ted McGinley), who directly replaced Ritchie in 1980.
Piper Laurie’s sub-plot in “The Hustler.”
Ted McGinley played Richie? What? I’ve rarely watched any episodes of Happy Days and am only 22 but that seems blasphemous, even to me.
You stopped watching too soon (or not soon enough). There was a whole subplot where she got to walk though wiz-bang technology or some such. She was beating someone up, but (surprise) something went wrong, and she ended up on the floor while whatshername finished the baddie off.
I give Charles Xavier a pass, by the way. I haven’t read any of the comic books, but in the movies he’s just in a chair and that’s that.
Okay let us clear this “Happy Days” stuff up. Chuck was Richie’s older brother during the first season. He promptly disappeared. Ted McGinley, the king of shark jumping, and Crystal Bernard were brought in when Ron Howard left the show temporarily, and when Erin Moran went off to do the spin-off “Joanie Loves Chachi”.
Ah, therein lies our problem. I assumed you were talking about the long-running comic series. I wasn’t aware that it existed in any other form. Is this a movie or tv series you’re talking about?
I never understood “Superman’s pal” Jimmy Olsen. He wasn’t exactly a sidekick, certainly wasn’t a best friend Superman could hang out with, and didn’t deserve an ultrasonic watch. If Superman needed an impetous friend to constantly get into trouble and need rescuing, that was Lois Lane’s job.
And Jimmy’s girlfriend was Lois’ sister, an even more unnecessary character.
Scooby Doo was the dog that single-handedly saved Saturday morning cartoons.
Thus, interjected into almost all cartoons for the next decade was some kind of Scooby Doo ripoff.
Birds of Prey TV series. Didn’t last long at all.
Jimmy existed for the same reason as Robin and Speedy (Green Arrow’s ward). The writers wanted a teenage boy in their comics to give their primary audience–teen boys–someone to identify with. It wasn’t really possible to give Superman a sidekick in the traditional sense. Sidekicks were sometimes younger trainees (Robin and Speedy) and sometimes girlfriends (Hawkgirl and Bulletgirl), but they all tended to have the same abilities as the title character, although to a lesser degree. Superman’s origin prevented this, so they stuck in a teen pal to stand in the reader’s stead as Superman’s pal.
“Wonder Twin powers activate!”
Um, yeah.
And let’s see… Star Trek: TNG actually did the right thing and dumped the added-on precocious kid. (Actually, I’ve never heard what happened - was Wil Wheaton fired, or did he leave of his own accord?)
Bat-Mite?
Ah, I see now. It appears to be another one of those adaptations that kept the title and character names and threw out everything that made the source material interesting in the first place. I wonder how it is that I never heard of it.
According to one of his books, he left on his own.
And have you ever visited Wil Wheaton’s web site? He’s a Grade-A dork! 
Wil Wheaton is my hero.
Well, The Fonz would certainly count. He stole the show from that sap Richie.
And though I wouldn’t consider it a positive example, I’d have to say Steve Urkel does, too.
Oh hell yes. Didn’t you just want to slap the crap out of her?
And don’t forget the Indian casino Simpson’s episode, where Bart has a vision and afterwards wonders why the vision included an unrelated story about his parents searching for gold. The casino managers’ reply: “Maybe the spirits thought the main vision was a little thin.”
Newt was mostly lame…mostly.
And you’re all forgetting the biggie - the black guy in Ghostbusters.
Oh, and anything with Tom Arnold. That guy was born tacked-on.
Blasphemy. Her knowledge of the air ducts is what allowed Ripley and Hicks to escape. Plus she competes with Hudson for the best lines in the movie:
“They mostly come at night… mostly.”
“It won’t make any difference.”
“They’re dead, all right? Can I go now?!”
And when Hudson says “Well, whyn’tcha put her in charge?!” it doesn’t seem like that bad an idea.
Although the “endangered child” bit is a movie cliché, this time it wasn’t the child’s own stupidy/curiosity that created the crisis. Newt falls down an airshaft when Gorman’s grenade goes off, through no fault of her own. Heck, when a facehugger comes after her, she has the presence of mind to push a table forward and trap the thing’s tail, gritting her little teeth the whole time.
And you call that “lame”? Have you no soul?
Chris Tucker’s character from The Fifth Element. His sole purpose is to dress like an idiot and shriek Bruce Willis’s character’s name.
“Corby Corby Corbycorbycorbycorby waaaaaah!”
Any number of 1990s animated kids shows?