Was the way that Valerie Harper was written off mean spirited

[TMC]

Let me try to explain. I get that you couldn't just pull a Darrin Stephens and have another actress play her character, since the whole show initially built around Valerie Harper. And it would've been a tad too hasty and contrived to have Valerie divorce her husband and run off from the family. So killing her off was perhaps, the most practical solution under such circumstances.

Where I suggest that the producers may have taken things a step too far was having the house burn down (technically, the attic and second floor but still it was practically just the parts with most of the evidence that Valerie Hogan ever existed). Depending on how you look at it, it seemed like that was their way of trying to get rid of any trace of her. Have you ever noticed that the fire destroyed all the pictures of Valerie.

[DJM77]

That clip was horribly painful to watch! It was only 39 seconds long, but Jason manages to get four things wrong.

1. The show only had three titles (Valerie, Valerie's Family and The Hogan Family).

2. Valerie didn't die in the house fire, she died in a car accident.

3. In the "Burned Out" episode Jason's character discovers the fire when he pulls up in a car, not a moped.

4. "Burned Out" was not a two part episode.

Talk about a bad memory!

[RetroGuy2000]

I share DJM77's shock at how poor Jason Bateman's memory is (and also Sandy Duncan's memory).

I feel like Valerie was a poor fit for a Miller-Boyett sitcom, which were never known for consistency or being fair to all the characters: they found the break-out star, and then hyped that character through the roof, neglecting other characters. That was M-B's MO.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by RetroGuy2000

I share DJM77's shock at how poor Jason Bateman's memory is (and also Sandy Duncan's memory).

I feel like Valerie was a poor fit for a Miller-Boyett sitcom, which were never known for consistency or being fair to all the characters: they found the break-out star, and then hyped that character through the roof, neglecting other characters. That was M-B's MO.

From what I've gathered, Valerie Harper wanted to do a family/domestic sitcom but something with a bit of an "edge". I'm guessing something along the lines of say One Day at a Time or Kate and Allie, female led sitcoms that were decidedly grounded. Or even something along the lines of Family Ties, which was airing on NBC around this time.

Unfortunately, Miller-Boyett to the best of my knowledge, had never done a true "star vehicle" before what was at the time known as Valerie. Plus, there whole philosophy of creating shows was to double down on as much broad jokes and sentiment as possible. In effect, their shows could be very formulaic and cliched when you get right down to it.