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Sitcom Characters Who Got Stupid
rakesh Posted on Jul 05, 2021 at 11:42 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orJSJGHjBLI
rakesh Posted on Jul 05, 2021 at 11:41 AM
Test
Dalek227 Posted on Dec 16, 2018 at 06:23 AM
Like a few others I always think of Erik Matthews as well! At the start he was a clean cut handsome typical highschool boy. Maybe not straight A student, probably more like average. By the time it was time for college they had him acting insane.
Another one was Becky from Roseanne. Now you could say the personality varied depending which actress was playing Becky, but Lacey played a very smart Becky at the start of the series and by the end she wasn't the same at all. In the updated version she's a total moron.
While I'm are talking about Roseanne, I have to say similar for Jackie. She started out a friendly and funny woman who was strongly independent if maybe a little neurotic. By the middle of the series she was a total emotional wreck and completely goofy.
outcastjon Posted on Sep 08, 2015 at 04:01 AM
A character that I always had this issue with was Eric Matthews on Boy Meets World. At the beginning of the show he started off as being the cool older brother, but when the show got to their college years Eric became a moron where he was dumb, and no longer cool. I always hated what they did to him.
Hoju Koolander Posted on Aug 23, 2015 at 10:12 PM
@Rick Ace Rhodes He was actually on my list originally, but as ridiculous as he got, they still gave him character building episodes in later seasons to show he had some depth. After all, it was Monica who got the turkey stuck on her head, not Joey, so he still had some dignity.
Rick Ace Rhodes Posted on Aug 23, 2015 at 05:44 PM
Cool article, but no Joey Tribbiani? In the early days of Friends they didn't make him out to be stupid at all. He was more naïve then really stupid.
Vaporman87 Posted on Aug 22, 2015 at 04:23 PM
I don't know how much truth there is to it, but it seems like, if memory serves, that Justine Bateman's character on Family Ties got a bit less intelligent as the show progressed. Particularly when she was joined by the reoccurring boyfriend (whose name escapes me... Nick maybe?).
Mr Magic Posted on Aug 22, 2015 at 12:06 PM
It was Kimmy who was the dumb one, not Joey.
Hoju Koolander Posted on Aug 21, 2015 at 09:34 PM
@thecrow174 Really, Joey? Of all the adult characters, i found him to be the most consistent, but he did start out kind of goofy. Jesse on the other hand really took a dive though by the end, where everything was about "the hair".
@pikachulover Yeah, the whole Seinfeld cast got pretty out there by the end, I guess having Kramer in the mix made George's decline less noticeable.
@comic_book_fan So did Erik's hair get floppier or shorter by the end? I have to imagine there is a correlation there.
comic_book_fan Posted on Aug 21, 2015 at 08:00 PM
you forgot Erick Mathews from bmw
pikachulover Posted on Aug 21, 2015 at 06:02 PM
George Costanza; when the series began he was pretty witty and clever, but he still had his schemes like in the episode "The Stake Out" This is the episode when he invents the alias Art Vandelay. Then think about a later episode in the series like "The Abstinence". Where you would watch it and think "How does this character even live?"
Mr Magic Posted on Aug 21, 2015 at 01:20 PM
Let's not forget Joey Gladstone from Full House. There are times when he isn't smart or doesn't dress smart either. It's the cartoon he's been watching. When they say cartoons will rot your brain, they ain't kiddin'.
Hoju Koolander Posted on Aug 21, 2015 at 02:19 AM
@Vaporman87 Yeah, that different seasons in sucession situation was a great way to notice those changes. The other scenario is when the breakout character takes over the show, like Urkel or The Fonz or when they ditched the main character siblings on California Dreams and made Sam, the exchange student the main character.
Vaporman87 Posted on Aug 20, 2015 at 07:22 PM
I absolutely picked up on this phenomena, even in my youth. This was especially prevalent when stations would air back-to-back episodes from completely different seasons. The characters would seem totally out of whack.
This was such a fun read. I liked this line: "Sure, he won, but that's not really something that should boost the kid's confidence, y'know? It's like giving People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive cover to the St. Bernard from the Beethoven movies."
Sometimes the character development would go in a different direction too. Maybe a character would become more bossy or become the "leader". Sometimes one character would begin to become the focus of the show, leaving other characters with the crumbs. These types of blatant changes would sometimes annoy me. Other times, it might seem to suit the direction of the show.
I suppose the cast and crew of a show don't really know what the audience will respond to better until it's been on the air for a while. And then they attempt to adjust things to suit what they believe is the desire of the consumer. All part of showbiz.
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