Dealbreaker TV Characters

[Princeton]

Charlie from two & half men, his selfishness and irresponsibility and treatment of the girlfriends that he did have made me not watch the show. And Martin from Martin, his god's gift to the world attitude and how he constantly downed Gina's friend Pam, turned me away from the show. And finally will from the fresh prince of bel air, the reckless way he was , and how he always downed Carlton for not being like him. He made me want to reach into the TV set, and slap him.

Admittedly Carlton and Gina both had it coming and very much set themselves up to be made fun of. But you're right, the protagonists in their respective shows took it too far.

but he also often went out of his way to be pompous and condescending towards others in camp whom he held contempt with (which was practically everyone but Margaret).

I think he had less contempt for also Potter, Mulcahy, and Radar. Here's a fun hypothetical: what do you think the dynamic between Trapper and Charles would have been?

 

[D'Snowth]

what do you think the dynamic between Trapper and Charles would have been?

I actually think about this a lot. Much like with Hawkeye and B.J., I could see him maintaining a professional respect for Trapper, since he, like the others, took his work as a surgeon very seriously, but I could also imagine an exchange like this:

CHARLES: From this moment onward, I am going to pretend that you and I come from two completely different towns named Boston.
TRAPPER: Whatever you say, Chuckles!

 

[D'Snowth]

Some for me:

ALVINNN!!! AND THE CHIPMUNKS: Gee whiz, this show has so many terrible supporting characters, but none are as bad as Derek the Bully, simply because of that very fact. The first episode where he was the focus was an anti-bullying episode . . . yeah, in the end, he learns his lesson, but in every episode he's been in afterwards, he's right back to being a bully, so that episode was pretty pointless.

ARTHUR: Pretty much any characters who have been un-necessarily added to the series, since it already had tons and tons of characters as it is. The Molinas, Cheik, Carl, Lydia . . . but none of them are dealbreakers for me as much as Pal and Kate when they talk - those episodes I avoid like the plague.

HOGAN'S HEROES: Marya the White Russian. I mean, come on, this show was full of hammy characters, but Marya was not only hammy, she was incredibly cheesy as well, and her episodes are honestly just cringeworthy because of it.

THE LOUD HOUSE: Lynn. Out of all the characters on the show, she's the one whose character development never sticks, it's like the writers keep hitting the reset button with her, defaulting her back to a stereotypical overzealous jerk jock. I used to feel the same about Lola since she was essentially another D.W. or Angelica.

GET FUZZY: Okay, I know this is a comic strip and not a TV show, but Mac Manc McManx is this for me. I know he's actually really popular with fans for being something of a Woobie and being hilariously British, but I always saw him as a Scrappy, to be honest.

 

[fuzzygobo]

I can still understand a little where Winchester came from. He had a nice cushy gig in Tokyo and Colonel Baldwin screwed him over.
Charles was like Frank, in the exchange of old scrip for new, he was trying to make a big profit.
So in a lot of episodes when he was mean, stingy, or selfish to others, he ended up getting what he deserved.

The only thing I’ll hold against him: he was upset his sister Honoria was going to marry an Italian. Then he tells Father Mulcahy “At least she’s not marrying an Irishman!” Mulcahy dropped his tray on Charles’s foot. I would’ve given him a kick and made him a soprano.

 

[D'Snowth]

The writers also played around with the idea of Charles becoming the new Frank in terms of Margaret's love interest at the beginning of his first season on the show, but thankfully after a few episodes, they dropped the awkward sexual tension between the two of them.

There were also an occasion or two where they played up Charles having something of a sense of blind patriotism much like Frank that, also, didn't last very long, though Charles being dyed-in-the-wool conservative was something that remained intact, as he even told a visiting Congressional Aid, "Sir, I am so conservative, I make you look like a new dealer."

 

[fuzzygobo]

I think the closest Charles and Margaret came to a romantic interlude, was when he read poetry to her and she got hot, or stuffing their faces with the canned pheasant(which made them both sick).

Canned beer good.
Canned bird bad.

 

[D'Snowth]

There was also the time she felt like she had something in her eye, and when he checked for her, she "moved in closer," and started remarking about his small pores, which Father Mulcahy walked in on, then left in embarrassment.

There was also an occasion where he joined her for lunch, but she kept insist they go to another table because people may assume there was something going on between them for sitting together alone and talking softly to each other (which Hawkeye teased about).

 

[mr3urious]

ARTHUR: Pretty much any characters who have been un-necessarily added to the series, since it already had tons and tons of characters as it is. The Molinas, Cheik, Carl, Lydia . . . but none of them are dealbreakers for me as much as Pal and Kate when they talk - those episodes I avoid like the plague.

The Molinas aren't bad characters, if you ask me. Out of all of them, Vicita can certainly be a dealbreaker, but to me, it's more because she got too much screen time compared to her brother.

And as for the Pal & Kate episodes, it's Nemo that's the real dealbreaker. Not only has he become a clichéd mean cat antagonist in those eps., it contradicts the one where he made his debut. You know, where Arthur had a hatred towards cats, and where Nemo became friends with Pal, with no explanation as to why that relationship soured? Nemo's attitude now justifies his prejudice because of that. Great going, writers.

 

[D'Snowth]

To be fair, I agree they're not bad characters, I just feel like they're among the many un-necessary characters that have been thrown into the mix over the years. It also doesn't help that, up until 2005, for whatever reason, my PBS would skip Season 6 altogether, and for the longest time, I never even saw the episode where the Molinas moved in next door, so whenever I'd Alberto or Vicita, I would wonder where they'd come from. Same with Marina for the longest time, but the episode "Tardy Tumbler" did a world of good for her.

Now, Ladonna, I'm mixed about. On the one hand, part of me wants to automatically hate her because, again, she was thrown into the mix, so late into the series' run, and as a major/main character at that (with Bud also sort of becoming D.W.'s sidekick) . . . and, I know a lot of fans actually do see her as a Scrappy. On the other hand, I can't bring myself to hate her, because . . . she's not really a bad character, albeit a little annoying at times (particularly in her debut episode) . . . and being a southerner myself, I suppose she's relatable in some cases (such as her desire to experience an actual snowy winter, her love of storytelling, and the like). And now, she and her family are gone, so . . . again, their addition and inclusion was rather pointless.

 

[Princeton]

I knew I forgot one: Shirley from Community.