Which character suffered from the worst derailment in the later years

[TMC]

Originally Posted by Novera

Wow these are all spot on and accurate, especially Mona. She would insult Angela early on in the series, but like you pointed out, you could always sense it came from a place of love or concern. Like as a made up example, early in the series she might have said "Angela that dress makes you look like the host of HEE HAW" then audience laughs... but then she would walk over to her and in a very soft gentle voice say something like "You don't need all these bells and whistles to impress a man, if he doesn't love you for who you are...." etc. etc.

But in the last few seasons she just sounds like a bully mean girl.

I have a feeling the writers started to sense that pop culture was moving away from wholesome family shows and the 90s would be more edgy. I imagine they were watching Roseanne shoot to #2 in ratings by being crass at times and thought that was the way out of their ratings slump.

There was also another episode from the last season, "This Sold House", where Tony makes Sam recite a poem on the spot. And Sam at the very end of her "poem" says "A Stepsaver kitchen, sure is bitchin'!" while giving the thumbs up signal and laughing. When I saw that recently, on GAC Family I immediately thought, did I hear what I thought that I just heard?

[TMC]

Originally Posted by peteemory

All of your assessments are spot on TMC. The writing on the show had devolved so badly by the last 2-3 seasons that all the characters (save Angela) are nearly unrecognizable from their initial selves. Strange the iterations that TV series often undergo...the very qualities that make characters likable are often lost and replaced by annoying paradies of actual humans. Why that is I'll never know, but I'll surmise that perhaps the original writers move on to bigger and better opportunities and are replaced by hacks who've gotten their jobs due to nepotism. I may be wrong, but that's the only reason I can imagine. That said, watching late-era WTB episodes nearly always puts me in a melancholy mood. The show was such a delight early on, such a drag later.

I was watching on IFC the two-part season finale from Season 7 in which the Bower-Micelli gang (and Billy) go to Washington, D.C. and what really struck me was Tony Danza's acting. I don't know how to properly explain it but his character towards the end of the series, got really weird. Like, he became this hyperactive, spazzy, man-child. I don't know why his character became like that since Tony isn't really a dumb person despite not exactly coming across as "sophisticated" as Angela.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by peteemory

All of your assessments are spot on TMC. The writing on the show had devolved so badly by the last 2-3 seasons that all the characters (save Angela) are nearly unrecognizable from their initial selves. Strange the iterations that TV series often undergo...the very qualities that make characters likable are often lost and replaced by annoying paradies of actual humans. Why that is I'll never know, but I'll surmise that perhaps the original writers move on to bigger and better opportunities and are replaced by hacks who've gotten their jobs due to nepotism. I may be wrong, but that's the only reason I can imagine. That said, watching late-era WTB episodes nearly always puts me in a melancholy mood. The show was such a delight early on, such a drag later.

I just happened to catch the "Between a Rock and a Hard Place" episode from Season 7 the other day, and Sam is really obnoxious in that episode. If people want to argue about how her character became extremely unlikable in the last two or so seasons, then I would point to this episode as a clear example.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by peteemory

All of your assessments are spot on TMC. The writing on the show had devolved so badly by the last 2-3 seasons that all the characters (save Angela) are nearly unrecognizable from their initial selves. Strange the iterations that TV series often undergo...the very qualities that make characters likable are often lost and replaced by annoying paradies of actual humans. Why that is I'll never know, but I'll surmise that perhaps the original writers move on to bigger and better opportunities and are replaced by hacks who've gotten their jobs due to nepotism. I may be wrong, but that's the only reason I can imagine. That said, watching late-era WTB episodes nearly always puts me in a melancholy mood. The show was such a delight early on, such a drag later.

Who's the Boss? during the last two seasons became a farce. I really don't know what happened behind the scenes that made things change the way that they did. But when you compare the episodes from fall 1990 through the end of series in 1992 to what the show was before that, they're almost like night and day.

As others have said in the last two seasons, there were really none of the sweet moments that you would often gets between the characters that we were used to in the previous seasons. The episodes from Season 7-8 instead, felt forced, downright cartoonish, and missing a heart.

[TMC]

In the later seasons, did it feel like Tony became more like Angela was in the beginning (uptight and rigid), with Angela becoming more loose and confident?