Lowell was more social with his co-workers. He was genuinly friends with Joe, Brian, Helen, Fay, Antonio, Alex, Casey and even Roy. Whereas Budd really kept to himself. He'd pass by them and say a little something, then move on.

When you watch Budd, do you ever imagine Lowell saying those lines and maybe doing them funnier?

Also, we knew about Lowell's personal life. We've met his ex-wife, seen him move in and out of the Hackett house. He was very open with his life. Wheras, like I say, Budd didn't give out much. Except, of course, "the incident" in his first episode. But what do we know about Budd? He's a mechanic and spent some time in the army. He didn't stay long enough or spend enough time with the gang to let us know anything about him.

I think the problem with Bud is that the writers tried too hard to make him into another Lowell. I think they would have been much better off if they added a character who was Lowell's opposite, much like MASH did with Trapper/BJ, Blake/Potter, and Frank/Charles.

I think the problem with Bud is that the writers tried too hard to make him into another Lowell. I think they would have been much better off if they added a character who was Lowell's opposite, much like MASH did with Trapper/BJ, Blake/Potter, and Frank/Charles.

This show makes you think all mechanics are dummies, lol. First Lowell (although you could argue that he's not really dumb at all) and then Budd. And with Budd, they could have just been writing for him as if he was Lowell. The jokes Budd told were very Lowell-like.

Also, when I watch the post-Lowell episodes and anyone's in the hangar, I'm always looking to see if Lowell's hat is still up on the wall. But to my knowledge, they never go over far enough for me to get a good look.

Just for the record, I've been watching my USA tapes recently, and I'm on season seven. The last season 7 I have on tape is that Mr. DeCarlo episode. And then I have a handful of season 8. But I have all except for two episodes from seasons 1 thru six. The two being Christmas, season five and the one where Casey gets Lowell to become an artist.

Also, when I watch the post-Lowell episodes and anyone's in the hangar, I'm always looking to see if Lowell's hat is still up on the wall. But to my knowledge, they never go over far enough for me to get a good look.


I never noticed Lowell's hat being up after his last episode. I remember on NewsRadio, they kept that pixture of Bill in Dave's office the whole final season.

I think the main difference between Lowell and Budd was one was funny and the other was just annoying. ;)

Budd did have a lot of lines that I could have seen Lowell saying instead and saying them much funnier as well like when Budd mentions the incident, it wasn't that funny to me, but if Lowell had mentioned it, I probably would have found it to be very funny.

I think the producers were wrong in trying to replace Lowell. He was an irreplaceable character, IMO and you could have gotten anyone to play the new mechanic and they still would have stunk. What they should have done was gotten a new mechanic and made him an off screen character or a character that didn't have any lines, kinda like some of pilots that work for Roy who never really said anything.

Something that I found odd was that when Budd first came, his name wasn't in the opening with the others. Finally, in his third or fourth show, it was added. However, he vanished for like five or six episodes after that. And then his name only appeared in the credits (with the other cast members) in only the episodes that he's in. Either they should have always had him listed as a guest star, or have put him in all the episodes. Because having him in the opening credits and then have so few appearances didn't make sense to me.

And Skywalker, I kind of agree with you. I'm the kind of guy who likes to have direct replacements. Like Bub leaves and Uncle Charley comes. Or The Ropers leave and Mr. Furley comes. Or Diane leaves and Rebecca comes. Or Henry and Trapper leave so Potter and BJ come. I would have liked to have Lowell's replacement been more prominent on the show. So this could be a debate over which mechanic was better. But there's nothing to debate. Lowell was great and Budd wasn't even close. However, you make sense. And they had a big enough cast already that they didn't need to replace Lowell. They already two more characters than when they started (although with Lowell gone, I guess they had only one more character than when they started).

With Budd it seemed forced to make him one of the gang. Would the new mechanic who doesn't really talk to the gang really show up at Fay's wedding? I doubt it. But it's a sitcom, so he came. Antonio forcing himself on Budd in the first episode was kind of funny though. Odd, he makes it seem like Lowell was his only friend in the world and they always did things together. I didn't get that. I knew they were friends, but I didn't know they were THAT close, lol.

I've compared Lowell's cast change to that of Barney Fife. I know Barney had a bigger role in "The Andy Griffith Show" than Lowell did in "Wings." But both were there from the beginning and once they left, their replacements were only recurring for one season and then vanished without explanation. The average person on the street probably couldn't tell you the name of the character that replaced Barney Fife as Deputy of Mayberry. The same with Lowell. Everyone (even some fans of the show) seem to call him Buzz. That drives me crazy, lol. Although they're close enough I guess.

I didn't mind Budd, his lines were very Lowellish though. they could have brought in an actor to play Lowells cousin Bevou (SP?) and have him take over as head Mechanic, that would have been interesting.

I think a female mechanic would have been a good idea. She could have been a love interest for Antonio.