Basically, what are the most notable examples of a good character getting screwed (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CharacterDerailment) by outside circumstances such as the ego (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WriterOnBoard) or negligence (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CreatorsApathy) of the writers.

Cordelia Chase (played by Charisma Carpenter) on Angel. It was like they were trying to assassinate the character (https://jennycrusie.com/excerpts/the-assassination-of-cordelia-chase/)... and they eventually did. New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Crusie calls the season-long destruction of this character, formerly one of the best-written characters on television, one of the worst moments in TV history, and states that Season 4 of Angel, with Cordelia's stupid storyline, was the moment "the writers lost their minds". It's been stated that the silencing of Cordelia Chase made viewers question how feminist this show really was (http://meloukhia.net/2010/05/feminism_and_joss_whedon_the_silencing_of_cordelia_chase_2/), and viewers reacted so badly to Cordy's storyline that the series was effectively revamped after the season (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/CharacterDerailment/LiveActionTV), according to TVTropes. It was soul-crushing watching the writers slowly destroy this character over 22 episodes, and it's even worse now, knowing actress Charisma Carpenter hated what they were doing to her character, and was dealt this terrible end simply because she had become pregnant (https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2021-02-15/david-boreanaz-buffy-stars-support-charisma-carpenter-joss-whedon-claims).

This topic is hard. Its easier to find examples when an actor was mistreated (or screwed) and likely written off the show or replaced, than just the character but not the actor.

As for character:
-On Boy Meets World, Topanga seemed more quirky the first season but made more normal in the subsequent seasons. It might not have made a huge difference but thought a normal Topanga was more boring.
-On Parks and Rec, the character for Jerry was bullied and made fun of way too much. In real life, that’d be form of work place harrasment most likely.
-On Wonder Years, Kevin’s brother Wayne seemed mostly one-dimensional and a big jerk most of the time. I think if they made him more realistic with some positive qualities it would have made his character more interesting.
-On Family Ties, I think the writers made Mallory too dumb. Indirectly it kept her so far behind Alex in terms of popularity.

-On Wonder Years, Kevin’s brother Wayne seemed mostly one-dimensional and a big jerk most of the time. I think if they made him more realistic with some positive qualities it would have made his character more interesting.

Yes. I remember watching at the time, thinking he could have been fleshed out into a real person, but instead he was very two-dimensional.


-On Family Ties, I think the writers made Mallory too dumb. Indirectly it kept her so far behind Alex in terms of popularity.

Another good pick. I remember the episode where a teacher gets Mallory to open up, revealing that she is not as dumb as she lets on... but in the very next episode, Mallory was dumb again.

Arthur Harmon on Maude.

Darrin on Bewitched (Ah, the places I've been [sent] and the things I've been turned into)

Stuart Bloom on The Big Bang Theory.

Stuart Bloom on The Big Bang Theory.

OMG, that poor man! :lol:

Angela, on The Office, started out more xenophobic in nature, and dismissive towards Pam and other characters. Her character was best in the early seasons. (My favorite seasons are the early seasons, before Ed Helms as Andy Bernard joined the show).

Towards the middle to end of the series when the characters started dating then marrying each other, the writers reduced her idiosyncrasies and just made her bland, almost a friend of Jim and Pam.

I always thought that Uncle Fester got kind of a raw deal

https://i.imgur.com/sfZKgnZ.gif

Did any of these actors or actresses come to resent the characters they played?

Did any of these actors or actresses come to resent the characters they played?

I think Ted Knight was a little self conscious.

Jawarhalal on Head of the Class- Jory Husain who sometimes posts here on the Head of the Class board was a good actor. But the writers just had too many characters to give good stories to everyone, I don't recall Jawarhalal ever being the main focus or even B plot of an episode. He was the only student that happened to, barely had any lines in many episodes.

Judy Winslow on Family Matters- I had thought Jaimee Foxworth's demanding stage mother was the main reason she appeared less and less until not at all. But after hearing about how her acting was mocked by Jaleel White and Darius McCrary, it seems like a lot of the cast was cruelly out to get her. As immature as Urkel always was, I had assumed Jaleel White was naturally better than that in real life, I had liked his guest appearance on Psych. Mocking her is awful enough, but if he really did lock her in the closet what shameful behavior.

Darrin on The Middle- The writers treated him like total dirt after Sue rejected his marriage proposal. Most of the time after that Darrin was ghosted like he never existed. It went from Axl having Darrin and Sean as co best friends to Sean being his only friend until meeting Hutch. The one time Darrin was mentioned it was very disparagingly, although poor Carly was even worse there. She was not the type of girl who slept around and got knocked up. :rolleyes: They also made revisionist history like Sue and Sean had wanted each other from early on. Yeah right, the only way they interacted before Darin left was thru Axl. Sean's asking Sue to the prom was a pity invite, nothing more.

Eric and Mr. Turner on Boy Meets World- Besides the addition of Rachel who I couldn't stand and lousy writing in general, the sharp dumbing down of Eric is why the latter era of this show, especially seasons 6 and 7, is so much worse. It is one thing for a character to be dumb and stupid yet funny from the start, like Lowell on Wings, Bull on Night Court, Waldo on Family Matters, and Mr. Kimball on Green Acres. But Eric had average intelligence for the first four seasons, sure he had screw-ups but he wasn't a moron either. Mr. Turner was great when he was a regular. They supposedly got rid of him because of it being unrealistic for a teacher to follow their kids all the way through high school. But that can't be the real story since Mr. Feeny followed them all through college and married life. :crazy:

Chrissy on Three's Company
Potsie on Happy Days
Mrs. Wilson on Dennis the Menace (due to Joseph Kearns's death)

putting fonzie in the bunny suit on the fonzie's spot episode so against his charactor

Jawarhalal on Head of the Class- Jory Husain who sometimes posts here on the Head of the Class board was a good actor. But the writers just had too many characters to give good stories to everyone, I don't recall Jawarhalal ever being the main focus or even B plot of an episode. He was the only student that happened to, barely had any lines in many episodes.

It was really cool to get to "meet" Jory here, and as you say, he never had his own episode, which he must have been disappointed about. But he was a cool character, one of the first south Asian actors regularly played on television, and it's sad they didn't give him more to do. Surely they could have, given the number of episodes they dedicated to Simone/Eric.


Judy Winslow on Family Matters- I had thought Jaimee Foxworth's demanding stage mother was the main reason she appeared less and less until not at all. But after hearing about how her acting was mocked by Jaleel White and Darius McCrary, it seems like a lot of the cast was cruelly out to get her. As immature as Urkel always was, I had assumed Jaleel White was naturally better than that in real life, I had liked his guest appearance on Psych. Mocking her is awful enough, but if he really did lock her in the closet what shameful behavior.

I couldn't agree more about Jaleel's terrible behavior. Jaimee asked Darius, on the phone, to just not discuss if he can't say anything nice, and they seem to have a relationship where they can talk on the phone. I felt like Darius' comments were mostly respectful to her (not so much to her mom), but Jaleel's comments were horrific. Absolutely horrific. I will never watch him in anything, ever again.

The character of Judy Winslow was very mistreated, but I feel bad for Jaimee. I'm sure proud of her for standing up to bullies.

Every comedy act from time immemorial has had a 'stooge'.

It was really cool to get to "meet" Jory here, and as you say, he never had his own episode, which he must have been disappointed about. But he was a cool character, one of the first south Asian actors regularly played on television, and it's sad they didn't give him more to do. Surely they could have, given the number of episodes they dedicated to Simone/Eric.
Simone is my favorite, the only character I like more than Mr. Moore. Maybe less Alan. He was their attempt at an Alex P. Keaton but Tony O'Dell doesn't have the natural charisma of Michael J. Fox.

Every comedy act from time immemorial has had a 'stooge'.


That comedy act becomes a lot funnier when you have three of them!!

Simone is my favorite, the only character I like more than Mr. Moore. Maybe less Alan. He was their attempt at an Alex P. Keaton but Tony O'Dell doesn't have the natural charisma of Michael J. Fox.

Simone was awesome, and she was my favorite student as well. Just saying they could have thrown Jawarhalal a bone now and again.

Alan was okay, but you're right: he was a much weaker clone of APK.

Well, Ted Baxter got beat up pretty good. As the show's punching bag, Ted was sort of patterned on Mel Cooley of the Dick van Dyke Show. But, only Alan Brady and Buddy really abused Mel. And, when all was said and done, Mel was still Buddy's boss. Ted was just the butt of everything, and I don't think they ever established why he stayed there, or why he was wanted.

Frank Burns: they were still hammering on him in the last scene of the last regular episode. Just seemed unnecessary and personal at that point.

Actually the character of Ted Baxter was based on a character from the series "He and She" named Oscar North. Oscar Jetman North was played by Jack Cassidy and it had been the hope of the people who put the Mary Tyler Moore Show together that Cassidy would play Ted Baxter but he turned them down.

Stuart Bloom on The Big Bang Theory.

I thought the character of Stuart Bloom could have been a breakout character. The show had to service too many characters so Stuart was underutilized. To be honest the character of Raj really hit a wall the second half of the series run, it would have been a funnier show if Raj had been written out with Stuart becoming a fully realized character.

I thought the character of Stuart Bloom could have been a breakout character. The show had to service too many characters so Stuart was underutilized. To be honest the character of Raj really hit a wall the second half of the series run, it would have been a funnier show if Raj had been written out with Stuart becoming a fully realized character.

Honestly, you could also add Raj (Kunal Nayyar) to this list.

Actually the character of Ted Baxter was based on a character from the series "He and She" named Oscar North. Oscar Jetman North was played by Jack Cassidy and it had been the hope of the people who put the Mary Tyler Moore Show together that Cassidy would play Ted Baxter but he turned them down.

I'm glad Ted Knight took the role. Although Cassidy did make an appearance playing Ted's brother.

That comedy act becomes a lot funnier when you have three of them!!

Ted Healy didn't know what he had.

Cliff Clavin in Cheers
Half the characters of the show were harshly treated, both by the authors and other characters. He had the worst tratment I think.
Some episodes were kinda depressing, but in a cruel way.

Billy Thomas in Ally McBeal
His arc at the end was tremendous.

Willow Rosenberg in Buffy the Vampire Slayer
For totally different reasons: the authors grew too fond of her, chaned her and she simply became too much. From the most lovale character, to the unbearable one. But I'm not objective on this one.

-On Family Ties, I think the writers made Mallory too dumb. Indirectly it kept her so far behind Alex in terms of popularity.
Appearantly, she was only dumb to make her mother the hippie feminist look smarter by comparison.



I couldn't agree more about Jaleel's terrible behavior. Jaimee asked Darius, on the phone, to just not discuss if he can't say anything nice, and they seem to have a relationship where they can talk on the phone. I felt like Darius' comments were mostly respectful to her (not so much to her mom), but Jaleel's comments were horrific. Absolutely horrific. I will never watch him in anything, ever again.

The character of Judy Winslow was very mistreated, but I feel bad for Jaimee. I'm sure proud of her for standing up to bullies.
Wow... I missed a lot of drama here. :eek:

When we're talking about "Family Matters" though, we have to remember Myra too.
They ruined that character just to make their precious Laura look (supposedly) better.

I am a fan of Parks and Recreation but don’t understand why Jerry was bullied so much. That wasn’t funny. The other characters really acted liked jerks. Jerry somewhat got some of them back at his Christmas party but it didn’t really make any sense and it took away whatever fondness I had for the characters. If I was a 55 year old Jerry, I’m not going to get bullied by a 22 year old April. She is young enough to be my daughter and would put her ass in her place.

This sucks because I have been a victim of bullying in my life since kindergarten and even at work I had would occasionally be bullied. I am a big blonde guy and different people called me “Barney Rubble” which I absolutely hated (and turned me off completely from watching The Flintstones, the old show I used to like.) I worked at a casino dealing craps when someone rolled a 2 or 12 and the stockman went “Double the Bubble, Rubble.” I wanted to kill him. Even decades later I entertain fantasies of what I should have done, either assaulted him on the floor when I came back from break or follow him back to his home and do damage there. Nothing was done and I was the butt of jokes. No protection. I actually don’t want to be involved with people because of this and I went crazy and was on drugs.

I went to a drug rehab center and some fool said “You look like Barney Rubble” and I got about an inch to his face and said quietly that he spread that I will kill him. He didn’t. It sucks we live in a World like this, and I don’t have kids but if you do, you need to teach them to commit physical violence against those who disrespect you. Hurt them, make them know you won’t accept that. Even if you get beaten, more than likely you will get respect and this won’t happen again. If I could get away with it, there are some people I would torture and murder for insulting me. Which is a mystery why we don’t have serial killers who kill their torturers and insulters. To say we forgive them is so weak and a cop out. Anger is a true feeling and emotion like any other. We stuff it, drink it out or go crazy. Trust me, people who shoot up schools and shopping malls have reached their limit of society. Now you see the problem.

People are animals, never forget this.

I am a fan of Parks and Recreation but don’t understand why Jerry was bullied so much. That wasn’t funny. The other characters really acted liked jerks. Jerry somewhat got some of them back at his Christmas party but it didn’t really make any sense and it took away whatever fondness I had for the characters. If I was a 55 year old Jerry, I’m not going to get bullied by a 22 year old April. She is young enough to be my daughter and would put her ass in her place.

This sucks because I have been a victim of bullying in my life since kindergarten and even at work I had would occasionally be bullied. I am a big blonde guy and different people called me “Barney Rubble” which I absolutely hated (and turned me off completely from watching The Flintstones, the old show I used to like.) I worked at a casino dealing craps when someone rolled a 2 or 12 and the stockman went “Double the Bubble, Rubble.” I wanted to kill him. Even decades later I entertain fantasies of what I should have done, either assaulted him on the floor when I came back from break or follow him back to his home and do damage there. Nothing was done and I was the butt of jokes. No protection. I actually don’t want to be involved with people because of this and I went crazy and was on drugs.

I went to a drug rehab center and some fool said “You look like Barney Rubble” and I got about an inch to his face and said quietly that he spread that I will kill him. He didn’t. It sucks we live in a World like this, and I don’t have kids but if you do, you need to teach them to commit physical violence against those who disrespect you. Hurt them, make them know you won’t accept that. Even if you get beaten, more than likely you will get respect and this won’t happen again. If I could get away with it, there are some people I would torture and murder for insulting me. Which is a mystery why we don’t have serial killers who kill their torturers and insulters. To say we forgive them is so weak and a cop out. Anger is a true feeling and emotion like any other. We stuff it, drink it out or go crazy. Trust me, people who shoot up schools and shopping malls have reached their limit of society. Now you see the problem.

People are animals, never forget this.
I don't believe that violence is the solution to these problems.
But it's not funny to me either to watch bullying being played for laughs in a sitcom.
And I can relate to how something seemingly innocous can make you go nuts even years afterwards.
People will not know why they shouldn't call you that and just see it as some harmless joke, but it's not.

Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls. They ended up making her dumber than a houseplant.

Ed.

Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls. They ended up making her dumber than a houseplant.

Ed.
That is not entirely true though.
She could be surprisingly smart at times.

I am a fan of Parks and Recreation but don’t understand why Jerry was bullied so much. That wasn’t funny. The other characters really acted liked jerks. Jerry somewhat got some of them back at his Christmas party but it didn’t really make any sense and it took away whatever fondness I had for the characters. If I was a 55 year old Jerry, I’m not going to get bullied by a 22 year old April. She is young enough to be my daughter and would put her ass in her place.

I totally agree! I mentioned this on another thread or post that Jerry was over-bullied on Parks and Recreation and it was unfunny if anything.

Kind of surprised given that liberals, and let's say Amy Poehler and the cast are mostly that, like to be for causes such as anti-bullying, and most of Jerry's segments are of him being made fun of or bullied outright. But maybe because he was a white man, it was accepted which is hypocritical.

Anyways, I only liked seasons 2-3 or so. By season 4, Aziz (Tom) opening a business, and a lot of other guest stars (like the girl he dated and then that girl's brother who he has a business) became very annoying.

Still never understood why an Indian actor comedian, and Indian American, few on network TV, had to play a role with a name of Tom Haverford with nothing Indian American about him, not a whole lot different than the Mindy character on The Office (albeit they had a Diwali show on The Office and Kelly at least had an Indian last name). The writers might say it's like a Bobby Jindal thing where he is trying to keep an American name for political purposes, but real life politicians like Bobby Jindal don't change the last name too. Perhaps because it was good for too short of a time, or other reasons that bother me about the show, but Parks & Rec is mostly unwatchable as a rerun.

I think Superstore handles the unfavorable character better. Sandra, played by Kaliko Kauah, is at times disliked, but they make her character have an upper hand at getting back or being likeable in a way. Kudos to Superstore in that regards.

I totally agree! I mentioned this on another thread or post that Jerry was over-bullied on Parks and Recreation and it was unfunny if anything.

Kind of surprised given that liberals, and let's say Amy Poehler and the cast are mostly that, like to be for causes such as anti-bullying, and most of Jerry's segments are of him being made fun of or bullied outright. But maybe because he was a white man, it was accepted which is hypocritical.

Anyways, I only liked seasons 2-3 or so. By season 4, Aziz (Tom) opening a business, and a lot of other guest stars (like the girl he dated and then that girl's brother who he has a business) became very annoying.

Still never understood why an Indian actor comedian, and Indian American, few on network TV, had to play a role with a name of Tom Haverford with nothing Indian American about him, not a whole lot different than the Mindy character on The Office (albeit they had a Diwali show on The Office and Kelly at least had an Indian last name). The writers might say it's like a Bobby Jindal thing where he is trying to keep an American name for political purposes, but real life politicians like Bobby Jindal don't change the last name too. Perhaps because it was good for too short of a time, or other reasons that bother me about the show, but Parks & Rec is mostly unwatchable as a rerun.

Mike Schur has explained about the Jerry humor that they make clear that the insults roll right off of him and that he's living a sweet life with a practically age-,less Christy Brinkley as wife, beautiful house and family so it was okay. The humor of Jerry's personal life was also that it subverted expectations, which goes back to an.Indian-American going by Tom Havorford.



NeesRadio. Matthew Brock was a clumsy idiot but wasn't completely incpetent. By season five, he was barely tolerated by the other characters. Probably reflecting behind-the-scenes/post-hartman stuff. Also the show could've done a lot more with Catherine Duke before Khandi Alexander got tired of being under utilitiilized and left.

Let's not overlook the bullying and elder abuse of Mr. Feeny on "'Girl Meets World"!

In the episode 'Girl Meets Pluto', Cory suddenly gets a bee in his bonnet and insists that he, Topanga, their daughter Riley, his bestie Shawn and Riley's bestie Maya all drive down from New York to Philadelphia straight away to Mr. Feeny's garden and dig up a time capsule he, Topanga and Shawn had buried there- without making the slightest attempt to notify Mr. Feeny of their arrival much less to ask permission to dig up his garden. All Topanga does is whine that she's getting blisters from not wearing the right kind of shoes while digging.

Anyway, Mr. Feeny catches them having dug up the garden he'd spent decades of hard work tending to and what do they do?! Cory and Shawn scream like 12-year-olds for supposed laughs (the show replays a similar scream when they were that age from 'Boy Meets World' ) while Mr. Feeny threatens the two with 'big boy detention' while Cory whines that he doesn't do well with big boy detention. THEN Riley and Maya make weird cat sounds, WAVE THEIR HANDS IN HIS FACE(!) and do their rendition of Eric's Feeny Call to him- without so much as 'Hello' much less any kind of introduction. Let's not overlook that up to that point as per the script Riley was at least near-stranger and Maya was a total stranger to him AND Mr. Feeny had said and done absolutely NOTHING to them but be their VICTIM and THAT is how they treat him. Oh, and the so-called adults say and do nothing to stop these teens from being so snotty to him (Topanga even SMILES while they do this)! After asking to speak to the girls solo and asking them what kind of father and teacher Cory has been, Mr. Feeny lets them ALL off leave the property sans consequences- despite the fact that NONE of them make the slightest attempt at an apology for tresspassing, vandalism or bullying and they NEVER do for the rest of the annoying show's existence.

Why was tresspassing, vandalism and bullying an old man who hadn't said or done anything to the teens and had been a mentor who all three so-called adults had sung great praises for at the end of 'Boy Meets World' supposed to be funny? BOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mike Schur has explained about the Jerry humor that they make clear that the insults roll right off of him and that he's living a sweet life with a practically age-,less Christy Brinkley as wife, beautiful house and family so it was okay. The humor of Jerry's personal life was also that it subverted expectations,

Yeah, I know that. Jerry being able to brush it off all the time, just wasn't realistic, likeable behavior or funny. Or the occasional references to his hot wife, that he has it all with her, or somehow that makes it all okay.

Parks is over a five years old since it went off the air and depictions were less scrutinized, but it wasn't that long ago either.

I still liked a lot of the show, just didn't like the portrayal of Jerry and disliked the basis of the Tom character for other reasons, but he would be funny at least before getting annoying.

Everyone on Under the Dome- 1st 2 seasons were great. But season 3 had horrible writing that ruined all of the characters, why no one from that list is a contender for my top 1000 scripted characters even though I really liked seasons 1 and 2.

In this case, both the character and actor:

Dorothy Zbornak/Bea Arthur: The Golden Girls frequently had numerous jokes about how big, unattractive, un-feminine, etc. Dorothy was. Bea Arthur was actually hurt by many of these, taking them as against her in real life!

Carol Seiver/Tracy Gold: On Growing Pains, there were at one point in the series fat jokes about Carol, which were deliberately used to make Tracey Gold lose weight by the producers. Eventually, she lapsed into full-blown anorexia, and her weight dropped to 80 pounds by the end of final season.

Devan Maguire on Crossing Jordan- Jennifer Finnigan's character was more interesting than a lot of the regulars. Yet the idiot producers killed her off after just 10 episodes. :mad:

[COLOR="Green"]
Judy Winslow on Family Matters- I had thought Jaimee Foxworth's demanding stage mother was the main reason she appeared less and less until not at all. But after hearing about how her acting was mocked by Jaleel White and Darius McCrary, it seems like a lot of the cast was cruelly out to get her. As immature as Urkel always was, I had assumed Jaleel White was naturally better than that in real life, I had liked his guest appearance on Psych. Mocking her is awful enough, but if he really did lock her in the closet what shameful behavior.


Absolutely, her case was not caused by her or her mom but by Urkel himself.

It might be Potsie on Happy Days. Once Ron Howard and Donny Most left Potsie became just a punchline on the show. He had no one to hang out with. He didn't even have a girlfriend. They would have him appear and say something stupid, the other characters would make fun of him or look at him in disgust and he would leave. A perfect scene to describe it is when Arnold returned to take over the place. Arnold mentions how everything has changed and everyone is gone and Potsie says "I'm still here" and Arnold reply's "why?".

And then Potsie just vanishes with no goodbye episode and does not return for the finale.

Absolutely, her case was not caused by her or her mom but by Urkel himself.
Nope, that is not true.
The truth is that the writers obviously didn't know what to do with her character.
And no, that was hardly Jaleel White's fault.
Sure, he was the big star of the show.
But plenty of characters who were given their time in the spotlight only occasionally interacted with Steve.
And still, they had more chances to do something than Judy did.
The writers had zilch interest in her and just assumed that nobody else cared about her either.
Of course, they might have done things differently if they'd known that people would still complain 28 years later.
But at the time, they saw the Judy character as dead weight and were just happy to get rid of Jaimee.
Her mother was a very convenient excuse to make this happen.
Now, I must agree that they could have tried harder to find storylines for Judy and let Jaimee stay on.
But unfortunately, she was at an awkward age when this happened.
That is, she was too old to be a cute little kid and too young to deal with teen isues at the same time.
And that is why the writers just didn't know what to do with the character, I think.
They just gave up and didn't believe that so many people would miss Judy this much.
I must admit that I too would have liked to see Judy as a teenager instead of so much of Stephan and Myrthle.
But I can't deny that the show went on for five more years without Judy and did fine without her...

Frank Burns is probably the winner here from MASH. I would have however written Burns as a very competent doctor who otherwise was him. But a lot of Burns’ problems were of his own making.

Parks and Recreation Jerry Gergich who over the course of the series was called Larry, Gary and other names. Everyone in the office with the exception of Chris and Leslie’s husband Ben bullied him, especially April, a character I otherwise like but was basically a out of high school girl giving grief to an older middle aged man who didn’t deserve it. Jerry got his comeuppance by being married to a gorgeous woman and only inviting certain people to his famous traditional Christmas party. But most of the characters including Ron was a dick to the man, which was kind of a downer to an otherwise stellar show.

Nope, that is not true.
The truth is that the writers obviously didn't know what to do with her character.
And no, that was hardly Jaleel White's fault.
Sure, he was the big star of the show.
But plenty of characters who were given their time in the spotlight only occasionally interacted with Steve.
And still, they had more chances to do something than Judy did.
The writers had zilch interest in her and just assumed that nobody else cared about her either.
Of course, they might have done things differently if they'd known that people would still complain 28 years later.
But at the time, they saw the Judy character as dead weight and were just happy to get rid of Jaimee.
Her mother was a very convenient excuse to make this happen.
Now, I must agree that they could have tried harder to find storylines for Judy and let Jaimee stay on.
But unfortunately, she was at an awkward age when this happened.
That is, she was too old to be a cute little kid and too young to deal with teen isues at the same time.
And that is why the writers just didn't know what to do with the character, I think.
They just gave up and didn't believe that so many people would miss Judy this much.
I must admit that I too would have liked to see Judy as a teenager instead of so much of Stephan and Myrthle.
But I can't deny that the show went on for five more years without Judy and did fine without her...

It should have been criminal for the writers and producers to just erase a child off a tv show like that. A number of kids go down a dark path in reality, and having a TGIF show normalize children disappearance is troubling. But I suppose we should be happy for the Family Matters cast for their little reunions. No one will say anything about Judy. I suppose we could say Happy Days was just as bad although the son was older.

It should have been criminal for the writers and producers to just erase a child off a tv show like that. A number of kids go down a dark path in reality, and having a TGIF show normalize children disappearance is troubling. But I suppose we should be happy for the Family Matters cast for their little reunions. No one will say anything about Judy. I suppose we could say Happy Days was just as bad although the son was older.
It is clear that the writers didn't think about those unfortunate implications at all.
But when you put it that way, I have to say that you have a point.

Frank Burns is probably the winner here from MASH. I would have however written Burns as a very competent doctor who otherwise was him. But a lot of Burns’ problems were of his own making.

Parks and Recreation Jerry Gergich who over the course of the series was called Larry, Gary and other names. Everyone in the office with the exception of Chris and Leslie’s husband Ben bullied him, especially April, a character I otherwise like but was basically a out of high school girl giving grief to an older middle aged man who didn’t deserve it. Jerry got his comeuppance by being married to a gorgeous woman and only inviting certain people to his famous traditional Christmas party. But most of the characters including Ron was a dick to the man, which was kind of a downer to an otherwise stellar show.

April's the one character on Parks and Recreation I absolutely can't stand for all kinds of reasons. She's hateful, selfish, immature, petty, bullying, lazy, and weird! :mad:

Ed.