I'm not simply or necessarily talking about just plain annoying characters. I'm talking about characters who didn't bring any substance to the show or were unnecessary and/or were just plain forgettable.

I'm not simply or necessarily talking about just plain annoying characters. I'm talking about characters who didn't bring any substance to the show or were unnecessary and/or were just plain forgettable.


Schneider...........One Day at a Time

Ralph...................jeffersons

Cindy...................Three's Company

Mrs. Kotter..............Welcome Back Kotter

Woody..........................Sanford and Son

Shanice (Cole's girlfriend in the final season) - Martin

Ira Lee "Tripp" Williams (replaced Sinclair as the women's roommate when she married Overton and Kyle moved to London in the final season) - Living Single

Seven Wanker - Married With Children (probably the worst of them all)

The (not so) Great Gazoo - The Flintstones

Orbitty - The Jetsons

Scrappy Doo - Scooby Doo series

Cousin Oliver - The Brady Bunch

Rico and Hammer characters of Tnbc Hang Time.

Malory on Family Ties.

Chuck Cunningham - Happy Days

The extra guys in the newsroom on Mary Tyler Moore who never had any lines!

The extra guys in the newsroom on Mary Tyler Moore who never had any lines!


Alex on One Day at a time lol

The extra guys in the newsroom on Mary Tyler Moore who never had any lines!
I saw an episode once where one of "those guys in the back" said something to Mr. Grant in one scene. So at least one of them talked once.

Carol, Susan, Emily & Charlie on FRIENDS

Steve Urkel on Family Matters.
Luke (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) on the last season of Growing Pains.
Jake Sisko on StarTrek: Deep Space 9. I blame the producers and writers for that though. It's like they had no idea what to do with him. I thought the character was very boring which is a shame I think there was a lot more they could've done with him. There are several DS9 episodes Jake isn't even in and I don't even miss him when he isn't.
Chrissy Seaver on Growing Pains.

Ed.

Jenny P. on Happy Days.

Carol, Susan, Emily & Charlie on FRIENDSI did not mind carol too much but I could not stand susan

Alex on One Day at a time lol


He got on my nerves and I could do without him. But to me more useless on OTAAT were Francine and Ginny!

carol on empty nest

Andrew on Too close for comfort and Chrissy on Growing Pains !! Both of these couples did not need to have another baby! Esp. on Too close for comfort, Too old!!!

And I love children , but these two didn't add anything to the show !

what about Haunani Minn as "Hang" on "China Beach"? i mean they usually had her playing her guitar and singing folk music and that annoyed Dana Delany as "Colleen McMurphy" to no end!:lol: it was funny though because the way they did it though and Dana Delany would always yell at Haunani Minn to stop it because it was interfering with her work!:lol: kind of reminds me of "Perry Mason" when Raymond Burr thinks he has good question Valerie Mahaffey as "Assistant D.A. Barbara August" says "I Object!":crazy: those were two of the usless television characters i have seen ever:lol:

Christine Armstrong on Coach. Why didn't they just have Hayden be single and only associate with his fellow coaches at Minnesota State (and later with the Orlando Breakers)? She complicated the story lines way too much!

(I suppose his daughter Kelly and son Timothy David qualify, too.)

He got on my nerves and I could do without him. But to me more useless on OTAAT were Francine and Ginny!
I was just about to say Ginny.

Alan Willis on The Jeffersons

Most of the other waitresses on Alice

what about on Guiding Light Nurse Charlotte Wheaton because she is out to get Ed kicked out of Cedars? she was really mean and what about her calling into Maureen and Fletchers radio show! no wonder she was a bitch! my folks were happy when she was was killed off by her sister WSPR TV anchor/reporter Alicia Rhomer

Andrew on Too close for comfort and Chrissy on Growing Pains !! Both of these couples did not need to have another baby! Esp. on Too close for comfort, Too old!!!

And I love children , but these two didn't add anything to the show !
I didn't watch Growing pains but I did watch a bit of Too close for comfort and I just thought as you say Bonnie girl, Henry and ? was it Muriel were too old to have a child. Just didn't make sense.

Jan Spears and Willow Stark from Days of Our Lives. They were weak bad girls and both played by horrible actresses (although they recast Jan and the recast was a little better). Days gave them front-burner storylines despite being extremely popular with the majority of viewers.

Christine Armstrong on Coach. Why didn't they just have Hayden be single and only associate with his fellow coaches at Minnesota State (and later with the Orlando Breakers)? She complicated the story lines way too much!

(I suppose his daughter Kelly and son Timothy David qualify, too.)
I found Christine annoying too! she even more annoying than Hang on China Beach too!( if you don't remember, Hang was a Vietnamese chore woman that was a friend of Holly(Ricki Lake). She made Nurse McMurphy(Dana Delany) annoyed anytime she wanted to! like playing her guitar in front of McMurphy, and also a few times making Colleen look upset. I wonder if Nurse McMurphy wanted her out!

Ricky on the Partridge Family

Ricky on the Partridge Family
Of course as you know, whenever a new character is introduced into a sit-com or TV show that has been ongoing for several seasons, it means that the show has "Jumped The Shark." It means (for one thing) that the writers decided to bring in a "fresh face" (new character) to somehow change things hopefully for the better. That was Ricky's (Ricky Seagull's) supposed purpose. It was the same regarding the Stephanie character in All in the Family after Gloria and Michael Stivick moved away. Very young children or adolescent or teen characters were notably introduced into already established TV families back in the 70s. Joey Stivick was not a very useful character most of the time. He only came in handy when Archie Bunker had to make jokes about smelly diapers.

But I just feel like saying some more about The Partridge Family. I would say that Chris and Tracy were overall useless characters on the Partridge Family, particularly Tracy. All she did was ring a triangle or bang a tambourine which any one of the group could do , or if there were no tambourine or triangle sound to the music, it would not have made a big deal. (Tracey Partridge was no Davey Jones. Davey could genuinely play some other instruments than tambourine. Of course Davey was mostly tambourine player in the sitcom The Monkees. Not to make light of it but come to think of it, both tambourine players in the group died first. Must be something about characters who play tambourine.). But to continue, it seems that the "Tracy" character was just put in so as to slightly "even out " the family composition, so that there are at least two daughters instead of one when there are already three sons in the family. It seems what the writers could have done is make Chris not-only the drummer but the one who does other percussion sounds like play the tambourine and triangle. I have thought that maybe the writers could have instead made Tracy be the drummer ( so that there is another daughter in the family than just Lori ) and she is not just some pathetic thing whom the rest of the Partridge family puts to play the triangle or tambourine so as to try to make some use of her since she is too young to do anything else.
I watched the Partridge Family when it first premered in the early 70s.
Regarding the characters, I always thought that I would seriously consider suicide if I were Tracy Partridge. She was just there for the rest of the family to think of as the baby of the family and treat like the helpless little sister that everyone has to protect and feel sorry for, especially the males in the family. In one episode it seemed particularly true in that the best purpose she served was to be a poor helpless little girl by accidently falling off a chair she was standing on and some guy in the house ( who I think Shirley Partridge might have been dating since I don't recall the exactness of the plot) caught her and saved her from getting hurt. I thought it was also sexist that young female characters were still being portrayed in such a stereotypical way in the 70s when things were supposed to be changing . In fact there were a half handful of girl characters before that of Tracy Partridge who weren't just sweet passive things. Even Buffy of Family Affair and "Pokey" of To Rome With Love played a bigger role in certain episodes.There also was "Tiger" of The Double Deckers .
I recall reading back in the 70s that Suzanne Crough's character just isn't used much. Brian Foster's character was a not-too-close second. The episodes were almost all about Danny
Making mischief , Keith and Shirley and Rubin being the main recipients of Danny's mischief, and Lori was frequently falling in love with some guy who wasnt a match for her or she was worried about her braces or she was just being a teen girl which was necessary for the other characters to play off of.

I don't like friends, but I'll say Phoebe Buffay. She never really brought anything to the show. She acted like a mental patient. And she was also just downright annoying.

Thought of a few more:
Carlton the Doorman was never really funny IMO. I don't think he was necessary all the time.

Dana Plato's character Kimberly seemed to serve no serious use.Of course the late Dana Plato herself reportedly felt her character was less than second fiddle in Diff'rent Strokes.

Franklyn in Peanuts (Charlie Brown). He was actually just added to be a black friend of Charlie Brown.

Bam Bam was added only to be a friend of Pebbles. Actually both of them only served the purpose of being useful to an episode when they sang "Let The Sun Shine In." ("Hoppy" the prehistoric kangaroo was really a useless character and was only added so that the Rubbles would keep up with the Flinstones by having a pet since the Flintstones had "Dino.")
The Saturday morning show which featured Pebbles and Bam Bam as teenagers "The Pebbles and Bam Bam show" was so absurd. Maybe someone ought to make a post about useless "sequels" or "spinoffs"


If II think of more I will comment.

Little House on the Prairie Two Words - Nellie Oleson. :thumbsdow

Sondra Huxtable on The Cosby Show - She didn't show up until the middle of Season One and she just never fit in.

Andrew on Too close for comfort and Chrissy on Growing Pains !! Both of these couples did not need to have another baby! Esp. on Too close for comfort, Too old!!!

And I love children , but these two didn't add anything to the show !


The show jumped the shark

Olivia from The Cosby Show

Christine Armstrong on Coach.


The producers wanted to draw in the women viewers, that is why they reduced the football scenes in later seasons. Ladies find Football icky :rolleyes:

Jenny P. on Happy Days.

Flip on Happy Days. Who? Exactly! :D

I always shake my head when criticizing comes up. Sure the shows new characters didn't go anywhere. I would hate to be the actors playing the part and be jumped on. Did anyone write to the producers and complain then??

The producers wanted to draw in the women viewers, that is why they reduced the football scenes in later seasons. Ladies find Football icky :rolleyes:


I like football. Not icky at all! :D

Toby on Good Luck Charlie

"Chico" (Freddie Prinze's character ) was so useless IMHO.

"Chico" (Freddie Prinze's character ) was so useless IMHO.


WHAT!!!!!:confused: :confused: :confused: :eek: :eek: :eek: He was the main character of the show! ;)

WHAT!!!!!:confused: :confused: :confused: :eek: :eek: :eek: He was the main character of the show! ;)
Yeah, without Chico you just have "The Man" and that's no good.

It is just my opinion that the very concept of the show was absurd. Freddie Prinze had minimal talent. His character was shch a negative stereotype. He was not able to hold a candle!e up to Jack Albertson who was a seasoned actor. The mix of Albertson and Prinze was one of the worst ideas in TV history. The show became a hit because it was popular with an unsophisticated but huge audience.

It is just my opinion that the very concept of the show was absurd. Freddie Prinze had minimal talent. His character was shch a negative stereotype. He was not able to hold a candle!e up to Jack Albertson who was a seasoned actor. The mix of Albertson and Prinze was one of the worst ideas in TV history. The show became a hit because it was popular with an unsophisticated but huge audience.
I couldn't agree more. What a piece of junk that was.

Stephanie on all in the family don't forget about her

It is just my opinion that the very concept of the show was absurd. Freddie Prinze had minimal talent. His character was shch a negative stereotype. He was not able to hold a candle!e up to Jack Albertson who was a seasoned actor. The mix of Albertson and Prinze was one of the worst ideas in TV history. The show became a hit because it was popular with an unsophisticated but huge audience.


Chico was cute!! ;) And the show was cute too!! I enjoyed it!! :)

Stephanie on all in the family don't forget about her

The show already jumped the shark when two major characters Gloria and Mike were taken out. Introducing a new character , especially a child is really the nail on the coffin

Moondoggie on "Gidget". He doesn't appear in the bulk of episodes. He's attending Princeton 3000 miles away. And even though Gidget is technically his girlfriend, she dates other guys all the time. My feeling is if "Gidget" had gone to a second season, they would have written him out of the show.

Franklin - My Wife and Kids
Dennis Garrison - California Dreams Season 1
Lorena - California Dreams Seasons 3, 4, and 5

Selby on Mad About You. Don't remember him? Selby was dropped halfway through season 1 and replaced by Ira.
Roselyn Sanchez's character on Without a Trace. The original great cast of five didn't need added to, she was hard to understand.
The first two law leads on Law and Order- show was pretty boring until Jerry Orbach joined.
Lori Beth on Happy Days- Richie had a lot prettier girlfriends.
The twins on 7th Heaven- lousy actors
Kes on Star Trek: Voyager- Seven of Nine was a huge upgrade.
Bob on The Middle- Chris Kattan started out as a series regular but did not add much to the show.
Gary Cole's character on NCIS- a very boring lead actor replacement for Mark Harmon
Katrina Law's character on NCIS- big downgrade from any of Kate, Ziva, and Bishop
Katherine Heigl's character on Suits- How that milquetoast actress ever won an Emmy for Grey's Anatomy is a mystery.
Eldin on Murphy Brown
Alan on Head of the Class- He might have been written as an Alex P. Keaton clone. But the actor playing him was no Michael J. Fox.