Do you think that when the character of Bookman was brought on the show, it was already the beginning of the end of James' character? I mean, do you think they brought Bookman in, knowing the character of James would be killed and therefore, a male figure of some sort was needed and this was a way to ease the character of Bookman in instead of dumping the character on us in the new season after James' demise?

I don't think so. I think Bookman was brought in as a character for the Evans' and Willona to crack on. It was a sitcom thing, like Schneider as the super on One Day At A Time or Carlton the doorman on Rhoda, I think Bookman was just added as another character, unrelated to James' departure.

I would have rather seen more than 2 scenes with Bookman and James instead of seeing Willona busting through the door talking about NOTHING-lol