The addition of Sam

[Scoobiedoo30]

Why did you not like sam

[needles1987]

He annoyed me.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by needles1987

He annoyed me.

Sam's whole precocious, wide-eyed country boy act got really corny and grating really fast.

[chris jacob]

i think it sucked with sam

[Rod8456]

I liked his character.

[bgva]

Didn't mind him, although the country accent was pretty bad.

I didn't mind the final season, but that revamped theme song was also pretty bad lol...

[jehobden]

Originally Posted by megamanj2004

Talk about jumping the shark! JtS moment #6!

New Kid in town...Sam!!!

Like Laverne and Shirley, I hold this show to also jump twice in the same time period. Why? B/C:

It jumped when:

- Mr. Drummond got married to Maggie (yes, two actresses played the same role)

- And the addition of Sam, the equivalent of the addition of Olivia on the Cosby Show and why Cobsy JtS'd later on as well!

I couldn't stand Sam, b/c he kept on asking too many stupid questions at the wrong times!

I also couldn't stomach the last two seasons also, b/c:

-ABC screwed DS big time, especially since Webster was also on that network
-And of all three Embassy Television shows (DS, Facts of Life, and Silver Spoons in particular) that updated their themes in their later seasons, DS has the worst-sounding theme update of the three!

Curses to the Sam-era eps.!!!

I couldn't stand Sam either, from his country accent (even if it was real) to his bad hairdo. It seemed a lot of these "New Kids" had bad [long] hair, from Cousin Oliver (Though he didn't look as bad w/ it, somehow.) to Ricky Stevens on The Partridge Family and even Andrew Keaton on Family Ties. Maybe they were all trying to look like the original annoying kid actor, Mason Reese.

[DJM77]

Originally Posted by jehobden

Maybe they were all trying to look like the original annoying kid actor, Mason Reese.

I googled Mason Reese and stumbled across your worst nightmare.

[marlins3]

Sam was awful. The episode where he gets kidnapped should have been a highlight of the show. Unfortunately, he was returned to the Drummonds.

That episode is very unrealistic. If anybody kidnapped him in real life, they would have been so annoyed that they would have returned him within 2 hours.

Bo and Luke Duke never should have helped Sam either (I forget what Danny Cooksey's name was in the Dukes of Hazzard episode in which he appeared).

he also should have been shunned as the fake Ben ("who's that weenie?") in that episode of Growing Pains. I hope Mr. Cooksey has a prosperous life, but he was the most annoying child actor of the 80's.

[TMC]

http://www.avclub.com/article/what-t...how-you-230712

Will Harris

I’m answering this with the caveat that the show was clearly already past its sell-by date at that point anyway, but in my mind, there has always been a direct correlation between my falling out of love with Diff’rent Strokes and the arrival of Sam McKinney, played by Danny Cooksey. Sam—the red-headed 7-year-old son of Mr. Drummond’s new love interest, Maggie—joined the series during its sixth season, and he was absolutely insufferable, completely throwing off the balance of the show. I don’t blame Cooksey, who earned redemption for his sins by virtue of his work in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, not to mention his subsequent career as a voice actor. But his character cemented my recognition of when a family-centric show is attempting to survive the aging of the kids in its cast by bringing in new kids to regurgitate the gags that the old kids used to deliver. Instead of attempting to evolve and move forward, Diff’rent Strokes made a conscious effort to maintain the status quo, and it failed miserably: After Sam moved in, I tuned out. Thankfully, I didn’t know until after the fact that the show had done an episode where Sam was kidnapped. I probably would’ve rooted for the kidnapper.

[WalterTheDrinker]

Originally Posted by hughpuppies

Family Ties added Andy later in the show.

Interestingly enough, while it seems like Family Ties brought the Andy character in later in the show's run, Elyse became pregnant with Andy in the second episode of season 3. It was quite an early development in the show's run.

[WalterTheDrinker]

Originally Posted by Wawwie

I never liked Sam. At that point, Diff'rent Strokes was already dying and Sam was just the final nail in the coffin. Diff'rent Strokes should have ended on a high note like Sienfeld.

Seinfeld actually stunk towards the end, and the extremely hyped final episode was absolutely awful.

['80sSitcoms]

^---Technically that would be "stank", but I actually loved the series finale, lol :-)

[TMC]

Originally Posted by Scoobiedoo30

Why did you not like sam

Sam was in essence, the '80s equivalent to "Cousin Oliver". Arnold was at an age where they could have focused on some of his growing pains, but instead he was always shown hanging out and babysitting (with Willis giving little to do most of the time) a precocious kid a few years younger than himself.

[faraj]

Originally Posted by hughpuppies

He played on Salute Your Shorts which only lasted one year.

Like Growing Pains added Christine(Ashley Johnson to the show when it was almost over, and suddenly in a year she went from a baby to like 5 years old.)

Step by Step added (Emily Mae Young and in a year she went from a baby to 5 years old.)

Brady Bunch added Cousin Oliver.

Gimme a Break added Joey Lawarance real life brother to the show right before it went off the air(Mathew Lawarance)

Fresh Prince added Nikki(played on movie Little Rascels and went from a baby to like almost 5 in a year or so.)

Murphy Brown had a baby like 2 years before show went off the air.

Roseanne had Darlene have a baby right before it went off the air.

Family Ties added Andy later in the show.

Don't know why shows have to add kids, or have more than one person play the same character, or yet get a new character if one of the regulars leave.

Then they have disappearing character with no explaination at all. Like Happy Days Chuck, Family Matters Judy, Barney Miller his wife suddenly disappeared.

And Full House added Nicky and Alex Katsopolis.