Doesn't anyone else find it odd that in the first few seasons, Eric is sort of smart....maybe less than sort of...and sometimes helps Corey with his problems, then in later seasons, he's dumber than a paper towel rack?

Did the writers really think that we wouldn't notice that Eric's I.Q. plummeted a couple hundred points between seasons?

The dim-witted Eric is one of the reasons the show wasn't as good towards the end. His character was at his best, when he could be dumb/funny, but also be capable of holding a serious conversation.

I agree with both of you on this excellent point. It was a crime what they did to the Eric character as the seasons went on. Still, even in the final seasons, they did show Eric shine in the area of having more wisdom at times than other characters & these were the best moments for the show, IMO. Like the Brotherly Shove show, Eric makes some pretty deep & meaningful points. And also the "plays with squirrels" show, though the PWS character was goofy, the depth of the insights expressed were great. In a way, the writers kind of flubbed having a lame brain capable of such wisdom, but nevertheless I liked it because the Eric character deserved the meat that came from these moments. But all in all, what they did with Eric, was one of the things I didn't like about the show. He deserved more than to be the comedy relief. And as you so correctly point out, it makes no sense that a fairly intelligent person would degenerate into an idiot as years go by. But I guess Will Friedle did such a good job with the transition that we,, the viewers, pretty much were WILLing to just accept it without too much complaint.

Freidle is an awesome comedic actor, and he's probably the only guy on tv today who could have pulled off being likeable to very young viewers despite the writers inability to come up with good stuff. They had a few bright spots (Eric marry's a bear), but not much...