The worst part of this show was Meadowlark

[TVFactFan]

Just big and goofy and saying stupid shet all the time. He ruined any scene he was in and not sure why he was added to the show. I guess he was a neighbor. He was like Snake on What's Happening, just big and crazy

[EccentricGenius]

Originally Posted by TVFactFan

Just big and goofy and saying stupid shet all the time. He ruined any scene he was in and not sure why he was added to the show. I guess he was a neighbor. He was like Snake on What's Happening, just big and crazy

I couldn't agree with you more, TVFactFan. Meadowlark Lemon was a last-ditch (and ultimately futile) effort to inject some much-needed energy into the already-ailing sitcom, as well as to desperately improve both its tepid ratings and its reputation...despite the benefit of having two of its most popular programs "Real People" and "Diff'rent Strokes"--along with two other NBC hits, "CHiPs" and "Little House On The Prairie," both "Real People" and "Strokes" ranked in the top thirty on the Nielsen charts during the 1979-80 season--as its lead-ins on Wednesday nights, "Hello, Larry" was terminated by the "Peacock Network" in the spring of '80 after limping through two extremely low-rated seasons and 38 episodes.

Meadowlark was indeed one of the Alders' neighbors in the apartment complex where Larry and his teenaged daughters, Diane and Ruthie, resided, and he obviously portrayed himself as the proprietor of a sporting goods (of course) establishment in Portland. As annoying, and totally unnecessary, as he was, Meadowlark was still a considerable improvement over Raj's college buddy "The Snake" (played by Leland Smith) on "What's Happening!!" ("The Snake," along with bumbling cop "Big Earl" Barnett and his smartass son "Little Earl," was added to the cast during its third--and, unfortunately, final--season after Mabel King's acrimonious departure at the end of the previous season following disagreements with the show's producers; "What's Happening!!" was retooled by having Raj and Rerun both sharing an apartment, and Shirley subsequently moving into Raj and Dee's house as both a boarder and guardian for Dee after Raj had moved out in order to shack up with Rerun at their apartment).