The Deevolution of Buddy

What I really want to know is what happened to Mr. Lembeck's intelligence over the years? One of the things that first drew me into Charles in Charge was Buddy's sly conniving manner. He may not have been a Rhodes Scholar, but he was a pretty sharp guy. Then something strange happened. After the show returned to the air following its first season Buddy was different. His inteligence episode after episode and year after year began to wane until eventually all we were left with was a pale dull shell of the buddy we all knew and loved. What happened? He was like Cliff Robertson in "Charlie" after the experiment started to wear off. The show would have been much better if they had stayed with the mentally sharp Buddy instead of going for the cheap laughs they did near the end. The realistic Buddy was far superior to the campy cartoon Buddy. The cool thing about Buddy in the begining was that he was really intelligent but a little morally deficent, near the end the inverse was often true. Oh Buddy, why had you forsaken me??!!!!

[Nicole's Boy]

Aint THAT the truth?! I brought up this observation in some other post (the name of the thread has slipped my mind), and I think it was just a wrong choice by the writers to gradually "******" Buddy Lembeck. He really did become dumber and dumber per episode. In the final season, he basically was brainless!

I agree that the show would have been better if Buddy had remained a slick, witty party-animal like he was in the first couple of seasons.

[ThomasE]

You took the words right out of my mouth. In the first season, it was refreshing to see Buddy in his original state of mind. "******" was the work I was going to use but "Nicole's Boy" beat me to it. Darn! LOL.


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[Charybdis]

If you've been watching the latest episodes on WGN, you would have begun to see the dumbing down of Buddy already.

He's been doing some pretty stupid things. He used to be sort of "cool" acting, but now he's turning into that dork.

[Freakzilla]

I think we can blame Woody Harrelson for Buddy becoming stupid. During the 1984-85 season, Coach was tending bar on Cheers. When Charles in Charge went back on the air in 1987, Woody Boyd was tending bar on Cheers. Woody was stupid and a very popular character on the show. The producers of CiC saw this and said "Hey, we need a dumb guy on our show. Let's make Buddy a lovable idiot."

[This message has been edited by Freakzilla (edited 02-06-2001).]

Very astute insight. Obviously, you sir, are no Lembeck. The difference was that while Woody may not have been the fullest shotglass on the bar, Buddy was quite the empty vessel. Slow and stagnant are two different speeds. Also on Cheers Woody was replacing another slow character in Coach. With Buddy we saw his intelligence just dissipate before our unexpecting eyes.

If the producers were so hard up as to attempt to copy aspects of a hit show like Cheers, maybe they should have just had a really fat guy occassionally walk into the Powell residence, fire off a quick self-depricating quip, and sit on the sofa nursing a beer the rest of the episode. At least that way we could have our "cool" Buddy back.

[PistolPete]

i don't know why you all hate the buddy lembeck of the powell seasons. i thought he was a great member of the cast. he was the cause of so many great lines between him and charles. who can forget the lines when walter says "you're donut has too much hole." or the line from charles, "another pearl from that oyster you call a brain."

[ThomasE]

Originally posted by PistolPete:
i don't know why you all hate the buddy lembeck of the powell seasons. i thought he was a great member of the cast. he was the cause of so many great lines between him and charles. who can forget the lines when walter says "you're donut has too much hole." or the line from charles, "another pearl from that oyster you call a brain."

But a person can only take so much stupidity....

The thing is that those lines could have still been delivered by Mr. Powell or by Charles in response to something that wasn't quite as idiotic. The old Buddy would have reacted by just giving a wry smile and either shaking his head or by having a response of his own.

I think we can attribute it to Willie Ames' drug use. He bounced around a bit too much on that show. He is well over all of that, which he admitted recently on To Tell the Truth. Now he portrays BIBLE MAN, the caped bible thumper.