Look at Sitcom Cliche’s-I Hate You (at first)!!!

It just wouldn’t be a normal sitcom if two characters didn’t have some sort of inexplicable hostility between each other. Sometime it is within the main cast, and sometimes with a recurring guest star. Often they are in-laws who never learned to get along. Other times they are just friends who got off on the wrong foot and remained antagonistic. The thing that annoys me about this cliche, is that very often no matter how much hatred these two characters have they will almost always be friendly at some point before the end of the series. It’s as if the writer’s can’t come up with a way to get keep them rivals so they give up on it even if it hurts the characters (or even the show) a bit.

Of course in TV Tropes these are rivals or “arch enemies”. And of course they are not limited to sitcoms. But we will ignore drama’s for now.


Before I start my list, here is one huge exception:



Seinfeld

I give this show a lot of credit. There were times when if this were another sitcom, Newman would have become friends and even a permanent part of Jerry and their little group. At the very least he would have made a regular part of the cast and appeared in every single episode. But this is one show that did not give in to that, and Jerry and Newman were rivals for the whole run of the show. Of course every character had their own rival. Elaine had Sue Anne Mishky, Kramer had Mickey, George had various people including Lloyd Bruan, and Jerry had Kenny Bania.

And yes this is not the only show to keep a good rivalry going. Check out Married..With Children. But most series are unable to do this and fall in thos cliche. Here are some examples :

Look at Sitcom Cliche's:The Break-Up

Sitcoms, and other TV shows, always seem to hate it when characters are happy in relationships. You may have noticed that relationships follow three criteria:

1. Unrequited love which I have talked a lot about. This is when a character loves another, but the other is oblivious

2. Happy relationship. This is when the creators decide that they want a character to have a relationship so they let it develop. Think Jesse and Rebecca on Full Hour or Howard and Bernadette on Big Bang Theory.

3. And this one, which is today’s subject. When the creators want the character to have a relationship but do not want it to last. They just want the character to have the story arc, often going so far as to get them engaged to be married and in some instances married, and it always ends with a break up. And very often, the reason for the break-up is lame!


Why does it always end in a break up? We will talk more about it as we go but essentially it’s to maintain the status quo. So that the characters don’t change so much that fans lose interest. One classic example was Moonlighting. The show was based around the sexual tension around the two leads and once they hooked up the show got dull. Of course, once in a while there is an off screen reason for this as you will see in the examples below. But usually this was the plan from day one, let the character be happy until they have used up all the story they can (or they no longer have the actor available) then do the break-up which of course crushes the character. Good story telling engine or lame cliché? You be the judge!


Now let me specify I am not talking about single episodes where we discover a character is dating someone and then some goofy thing breaks them up by the end of the show. These are long term relationships which had the new character coming back several times in arcs that would go three episode or much longer so that we could get to know them and feel the main character’s pain when the relationship falls apart. Also, no discussion of relationships that ended with a sudden death because I have already gone over that.


There are several romance tropes these fall into including True Love is Boring and Off-Screen Breakup. Here are some examples:

Look at Sitcom Cliches:The Operation

I thought I was done with these but I came across one I just had to talk about. In sitcoms, characters only gets sick when convenient. In the old days they never went to the bathroom either, but Seinfeld (among others) took care of that one. So very  often we get an episode where a character is ill with a cold or maybe even something more serious like a sprained ankle, kidney stone, chicken pox, or even the measles (all six kids at once? YIKES!!)



But I wanted to focus on something else. When a sitcom is waning on its last legs, very often they resort to a stunt to get veiwers to tune back in. The stunt involves one of the cast members needing a very serious operation. It's usually a two or three episode arc which of course when resolved is never spoken of again. Even though some of these surgeries require extensive recovery time.



Before I begin let me be crystal clear about one thing. I am NOT making light of these medical problems or surgeries. If someone has, or knows someone who has, gone through these serious experiences than my heart goes out to them. What I am making light of is the obvious ratings stunt that the series is using to keep viewers watching. They always have the same cliche's including the characters waiting going through "life changes", flashbacks or fantasy sequences to fill the show out, and the scare where we are supposed to believe the character is really going to not survive.



These episodes could fit several TV Tropes though not sick episode since those are just when a character is ill. As you will see many of these are "heart attack episodes" but not all. Before we begin, fare warning. I usually hate these. Here are some examples of surgeries on sitcoms except for child birth. That is another discussion my friends.





All in the Family


Archie had gallbladder surgery in one memorable episode. Of course being Archie he gets admitted by a Puerto Rican receptionist, treated by a Jewish physician, and is forced to accept a blood transfusion from a female West Indian doctor's assistant. Got to love that show. Gallbladder surgey was also required for Mona on Who's The Boss? in one of the best episodes of that series.

Look at Sitcom Cliches-Next Top 5 Most Annoying Cliches

At the start of the year I listed five cliches which always appear in sitcoms, and always drive me nuts. Here are five more!




#5.The Gay Gag

Not sure if this is still around but man was it around back in the 90's! The gag is simple, someone things one of the characters is gay. Frasier had one of its best episodes around that when a co-worker thinks Frasier is gay. Seinfeld did it in "The Outing", not that there's anything wrong with that. Chandler was believed to be gay more than once on Friends. On Just Shoot Me Finch had to convince his own father he wasn't gay. It didn't start in the 90's, back on an episode of WKRP a man thinks Les Nessman is gay which sends Les into a crisis!  




#4.The Kids Trash the House

You'd think parents on sitcoms would no not to go away and leave the kids alone in the house. I guess it wouldn't be a family show if they didn't portray this rite of passage. Theo threw a wild party that got his house trashed on The Cosby Show. Mike did the same thing on Growing Pains. On Home Improvement Brad threw a wild Halloween party which got broken up before any serious damage could be done.

Look at Sitcom Cliches:The Plan (aka The Lesson)

At first I thought this would be a tough one because these don't stand out a dramatically as others I have covered. But when I started thinking about it examples just started coming to me.


Another of my favorite plot devices! The plan can take a few forms. The most popular is that a character on the show, a regular or a guest star, is out of line but not aware of it. So the other characters hatch a plan to get the characer to realize the errors of his ways. Sometimes the plan can be simple but usually the plan is elaborate and, to be fair, far fetched. It can also be used as a practical joke just meant for laughs and not to deliver a message.  It's fun because it gives the characters a chance to break out a bit, beyond their normal roles. This shouldn't be confused with The Misunderstanding. That is another topic my friends.



Here are some examples:




The Brady Bunch

Sometimes this is used to convince a regular that something they believe is incorrect. In this case, Alice has decided that with Carol around, she no longer has a place and will leave. The Brady's rally to convince her that she is very  much needed with an elaborate plan. Suddenly the house goes into chaos as Mike and Carol try to get ready for a last minute engagement, the Marcia realizes she forgot a club meeting, Peter comes in to report that Tiger is missing, Greg needs a ride home, Cindy and Bobby are fighting, all while trying to get dinner made, and for no reason Bobby and Peter come in and splatter mud all over Mike's tuxedo. It's the last one which makes Alice realize she is being tricked, and acknowledge she may still be needed after all. Season 1 of this show mostly sucked, but this episode is one of the few stand outs.







Benson

Not as bad at the last article, but still this show really liked this one. Here are some examples. One episode has Ms.Kraus get scammed by a record label. In order to get her money back, Benson concocts and elaborate plan by pretending to a Calypso singer. In another episode, Denise goes on a date with the son of a friend of the governors. The date ends badly, Denise is almost raped which is a bit dark, so once again a plan is put into motion to scare the guy into confessing he is a jerk. Benson pretends to be a detective looking for Denise who has been missing. The plan is almost botched but all works in the end. Another episode involves Benson getting revenge on the condo owner who scammed him by moving into the show condo and threatening to blow a prospective new renter by telling the new tenants how awful his real place is. Finally, when a the governor starts to rely to much on a cool new robot who has taken over every job in the mansion (have I ever mentioned how weird this show could be?) Benson plans to teach the governor a lesson by simply having all the employees gone and the governor realizes he can't trust the robot to do everything.

Look at Sitcom Cliches:Locked In

In the past my articles on sitcom cliches have included tropes that often find their way into other kinds of TV. For instance its safe to say soap operas have cornered the market on amnesia. And doppelgangers are used a LOT in drama.

But this one is sort of specifically a sitcom one, and I am amazed Ihaven't discuseed it before. We are today talking about the cliche of having two characters locked away for an episode, and this has happened MANY TIMES!

The trope has two basic rules. The two characters are usually two who are at odds, and being locked away gives these two a chance to mend fences and have some actual development. The second rules is that whatever development happens has to be canceled out in the end and the status quoe re-established. Sometimes these episodes are played for laughs, and other times can be more serious as the character or characters find themselves in real peril.

The Dick Van Dyke Show

Leave it to Carl Reiner to do things against type. In one episode Laura gets her toe stuck in a bathtub. The funny part of the episode is that Laura is off screen, which makes her siuation funnier since we have to imagine it.

Look at Sitcom Cliches:FIRE!!!

Having your home or business catch fire is quite possibly one of the biggest tragedies anyone can face. To have everything you cherish lost in an instant, is something I couldn't handle. In fact a fire has always something I always feared. Of course there is also the sad possibility of loss of life. I don't know how firefighters do what they do everyday.

For many years now sitcoms have captured this dramatic life event, sometimes for drama and sometimes more for laughs. It makes sense a fire is one of those things that make you realize what is really important, and brings out emotions that you don't see in most events. But it seems many shows have done an episode where something burns down or nearly burns down. These episodes are usually dramatic with good acting, and yes can be played for laughs as we will see.

All in the Family

A fire in the bathroom drives the family out of the house in the middle of the night. The rest of the episode is about Archie and his hopes for a big insurance check.

The Facts of Life

One season premiere began with the girls returning from vacation only to find Edna's Edibles had burned down. To be fair, this episode does not compete with the others I list here but it still hit the right notes. It was just a set-up to revise the location into the retro store it would become later on.

Look at Sitcom Cliches:Dual Roles

Welcome back to sitcom cliches where we look at tired and often overused cliche's in sitcoms and other genre's

Today I wanted to discuss another common trope that was a favorite of mine over the years. When an actor on a series plays a different character than the one they usually play. This one is as old as the hills, and why not? It's always fun to see an actor stretch their wings and play a character different from the one we are familiar with seeing week after week. When done well, you hardly even realize it's the same person! Often these dual roles are used to show the character we do love in a different light, and in the end maybe understand them a little better. And other times it's just a stunt to get people to watch.

Whatever the case, here are some examples of the split screen effect being beaten to death:

The Patty Duke Show

This may be the standard setter. Patty Duke played twin sisters Cathy and Patty in this quirky sitcom. "They're cousins...identical cousins all the way!" Only on TV can cousins, from totally different parents, be identical! I mean really, how does that work? Some shows are smart enough to put a little make-up on one and say they "look alike", but identical? No. But I do love how the theme song to this show tells you all you need to know about these two characters. Cathy is the quieter one while Patty loves to party. Nice when a theme song does that. I have nothing against Patty Duke but I never watched this series.

Look at Sitcom Cliches : GAME SHOWS!!

Game shows and sitcoms are a lot like chocolate and peanut butter. Two different things which shouldn't work together and yet when they are combined just complement each other perfectly. This goes back as far as The Honeymooners which had an episode where Ralph appeared on "The 99,000 Answer". I guess it makes sense, since sitcom characters are supposed to be everyday people (in theory) so why wouldn't it work if they appeared as contestants? It also gives the game show a chance to be seen by people outside their normal demographic that may not watch/

I am only talking today about sitcom episodes regarding real game shows. There are two reasons for this. One, if I included episodes with fake game shows we'll be here all day. And second, for some reason I usually do not like those kinds of episodes. Not sure why, maybe because the game show that is being made up is often done like a parody of game shows. That is fine on SNL but a sitcom?

The trope is pretty simple. Usually the characters lose, and embarassingly so, or if it is a dim witted character they win and win huge! So here are some memorable sitcom episodes regarding a cast member(s) appearing on a real life game show.

Look at Sitcom Cliches:TV Amnesia

Yeah, been awhile since I did one of these but this was one I had to talk about eventually. I loved this plot device when I was young, even though it is completely ridiculous. In real life Amnesia is memory loss due to a severe head injury, and can last for an unspecified amount of time.

On TV, not only does amnesia come about through simple bangs on the head but the amnesia can do all kinds of fun things. Sometimes it causes memory loss, but other times it can cause radical personality shifts so that people will think they are totally different person! I suppose it is a clever way to see a character in a different light, but it's used so inaccurately! The best part is that the solution is very often to bang the person on the head again. In real life I really don't see how that would do anything more than make the head injury worst. But in sitcoms, it's a cure all which instantly restored the persons memory and or original personality.

I will never forget being in a Psychology class and the instructor brought this up, and started to get so irrirtaed. I guess I can't blame him, not enough this is everywhere but it's almost always used wrong! 

Now before I list the sitcoms that have done this, I have to mention the other TV genre which really beat this to death. That of course is Soap Opera's! I mean amnesia is such a favorite plot device! I don't even have to list the shows, just name a soap opera and I will bet anything there was an amnesia strory line at some point. This goes for daytime and primtime soaps. Amnesia is used more than the evil twin plot device,which I could do another whole article on!

Look at Sitcom Cliches-Top 5 Most Annoying Cliches

I have talked a lot about story cliché’s, those stories which pop up in every sitcom. For instance how every show has to do at least one bowling episode like it’s some kind of rule or how every sitcom has one annoying neighbor who drops in without invite.

But what about those little clichés which are not plot related, but seem to appear again and again in sitcoms? Here are the five most annoying to me. 


#5. To Be Continued

I always loved the Seinfeld bit about how annoying it iswhen you can sense the To Be Continued coming. We all know that feeling, that there is no way that the story can be wrapped up in the time allowed.  In my day, being as old as I am, very often we didn’t see that coming and it was annoying. In fact in another article I willtalk about a “To Be Continued” which was nearly traumatic! But that is another article…………

Look at Sitcom Cliches:The Dream Sequence

Sitcoms are famous for certain stunt episodes. For instance almost every sitcom has done an episode where two cast members, who usually hate each other, end up trapped alone somewhere. Like in a meat locker for example. Benson did a lot of these! Another is the dreaded clip show, where the cast basically sits around while old clips play. There is usually a plot tying the clips together, some better than others and some shows did these once too often.

 Today I wanted to talk about another sitcom cliché, the dream episode. And I will just admit it; I am a big sucker for this one!

These episodes are just fun. There is usually some kind of strange special effects, there all kinds of cheesy gags and in-jokes, the cast get to wear make-up and even overact a bit. Some of my favorite episodes of all time are dream sequences because they are as much fun to watch as they are to probably make.

One of the earliest, and greatest, examples of this was the Dick Van Dyke episode "It May Look Like a Walnut" which was a hilarious Twilight Zone parody. I will just say if you have never seen it, check it out! It guest stars the great Danny Thomas and is just a hilarious show.

A dream sequence serves a couple of objectives. Sometimes a show does it just as an excuse to cut loose and have some fun for one episode. For example, Facts of Life had that famous episode spoofing horror movies. Another shows the girls still living together in their old age. Facts of Life could be a heavy show and these kinds of episodes give the cast a chance to just have a little fun. Another example would be the famous Scream parody they did on Boy Meets World. And I think anyone who saw The Hogan Family’s spoof on zombie movies remember that particular episode, I know I do. Head of the Class had a great episode where T.J. sells her soul to the devil. There are all kinds of gags and over the top acting, and in the end it turns out it’s a dream. They did a cute touch to let the audience know, usually in this show the transitions are given the day and time but during the course of the episode none of them are,  until the final scene after T.J. has woken up. Have I mentioned I love this show? Arvid also had dreams involving the wild west and other TV shows in various episodes.

Look at Sitcom Clichés : The Drop-In Character

It’s been awhile since I’ve done one of these, but this is one cliche I just couldn’t pass up talking about. It amazes me how often this happens in sitcoms, so often that it’s almost just a part of the formula that makes a show work. It always works the same way. The character barges in unannounced and often unwelcome, has a few funny lines, and then he’s gone.

There is a simple reason why this happens so often, in virtually every example the annoying character barging in is also the most popular character on the show. Fans look forward to their arrival and love it when they finally appear. In some cases the character becomes so popular that they actually are the one thing the show is watched for.

These are friends who don’t understand boundaries. Sometimes these are obnoxious neighbors that the characters of the show have just learned to tolerate. They all have one thing in common, barging in whenever they want. Does anyone lock their doors in sitcoms? Let’s look at some famous examples.

The Honeymooner-I think if this trope started anywhere, it was here. Jackie Gleeson played Ralph Kramden and his friend was Ed Norton played by the amazing Art Carney. I would be lying if I said I have seen many of these, but Ed Norton may have been the first friend who just barged in without warning.

I Love Lucy-Not sure if Fred and Ethel really count, but how could I not mention them in passing?

Laverne & Shirley-Lenny and Squiggy were the all time classic example (well, until a more famous one came along which we'll get to in a minute). Not only did they just barge in, unannounced, but almost every entrance was preceded by a cue. The cue would be some vague remark about something horrible, immediately followed by Lenny and Squiggy storming in with Squiggy's famous "Hello!” This is also an example of people barging in who aren’t particularly welcome. Laverne and Shirley generally met the arrival of the guys with groans.

Special Valentine's Day Article-Look at Sitcom Clichés : Unrequited Love

It amazes me how often the subject of unrequited love comes up in sitcoms. It usually works like this: Person A loves person B, but person B is either blissfully unaware, or in a situation which precludes a romantic relationship with Person A so they just drop annoying hints but never do anything about it.

In honor of Valentine's Day, I wanted to take look at some of these classic examples. As we'll see, sometimes these work out, and other times they don't. The one constant rule of this cliché seems to be that when the two people finally get together, the magic chemistry vanishes. Is that really always the case?

Happy Days-Why do I always start with this show? I could be wrong about this, but I am pretty sure that when Chachi first came on the show Joanie pretty much turned down his advances. He was just an annoying boy to her. However, as time went one (and the creators started needing a reason to keep viewers interested), she returned his affections. They started dating, had an awful spin-off series, and in the series final episode got married. They had ok chemistry together so I guess it worked.

 

Look at Sitcom Clichés : The Super Bowl

With the Super Bowl this weekend, where my Patriots are going to beat the Giants, I thought I would take a minute to discuss the sitcom episodes which have done super bowl episodes. This trend seemed especially big in the 90’s. Usually this happened because the network showing the game wanted a little plugging. Sometimes they would air right after the game, other times the week before. So, here is a look at these shows.

Full House-Not sure what the title of this ep is, but I call it the “Michelle is a spoiled brat” episode. The plot is Joey wants to watch the game, but has committed to spending the day with Michelle’s science group. Long story short, the group ends up watching the game and everyone is fine with it, except Michelle who pouts because they didn’t do what she was hoping for. Um, Michelle, we can’t always do everything we want, why not stop being a little witch and go and have fun? I have said good things about Full House and Michelle, but this episode isn’t a good one. So anxious to cram a message in, they make the character seem like a spoiled brat.

Seinfeld-“The Label Maker” will be discussed more in my episode guide, but one of the stories had Jerry trying to give away Super Bowl tickets. After the tickets change hands a few times, he winds up at the game with Newman!

Everybody Loves Raymond-Ray is assigned to cover the Super Bowl and is allowed to bring one person, so he invites his friend Gianni. His whole family is mad at him. Then when he sees other wives he gets Debra down there, promising Gianni he will still take him to the game. However, being typical Debra she is too good to do what every other wife is doing and ends up in a fight with Ray. The result is him destroying the tickets to prove a point, and no one gets to go to the game because Debra is so mean (have I mentioned I don’t like her?).

Home Improvement-This is a funny episode. Tim has planned a big Super Bowl bash; unfortunately Jill is sick and needs to be taken care of. Tim tries to have the party anyway, dividing his time between the game and Jill, but when his new sound system blows the TV the guys crash Tim and Jill’s bedroom, with her sick in bed! I do love how when women are sick they expect to be taken care of, but when men want that they are mocked and made fun of as being babies. Anyway, this is a good Super Bowl episode and has typical Home Improvement hijinks, in the Tool Tim segment some real Detroit Lions players make cameos.

King of Queens-After trying to get the newest kind of Hi-Def for the big game and failing, Doug finds out that his wife Carrie has a boss who has a brand new hi-def TV (these were more rare when this show was first on). He arranges to have his sister start to date him in an attempt to worm an invitation to a Super Bowl gathering. The plan goes pretty well until his sister and Carrie compare notes and figure out the way Doug has been manipulating them. In the end, the TV gets changed to the movie Heidi and Doug misses the game.

Roseanne-Roseanne’s mother Bev has vowed to give up drinking, right before Super Bowl Sunday. So Dan is forced to have an alcohol free Super Bowl party. This doesn’t work very well. This is a very short description of this episode, which I never really liked. Is it really a bad thing to not have beer when watching the big game? I am not a beer drinker, so maybe it is.

Empty Nest-This Golden Girls spin-off has a Super Bowl episode which was really just a clip show. Not much more to say about it than that. It was followed by an episode of Nurse’s which also had a Super Bowl story. The plot involved a party ending up with no TV and one of the characters injured trying to hook up illegal cable.

3^rd Rock From the Sun-In doing research for this I discovered this episode is generally despised. I liked it, but then again I wasn’t a loyal fan of the show so that may have something to do with it. The plot involved super models from Venus trying to take over the Earth (hmmm, did I really type that?). Their plan is to use a super bowl commercial to take over the world, so Dick, Harry, Tommy, and Sally have to stop them.  That does sound like a bad B movie. However, I think the episode is pretty good. The best part was the beginning, the episode started with a live feed of Greg Gumbel recapping the game, when John Lithgow storms into the shot screaming about the crazy women. The shot then fades into the episode, and I always that was a clever way to kick the show off.   

The Simpsons-Homer is hired by sports superstars to help with their victory dances and is subsequently tapped to choreograph the Super Bowl XXXIX halftime show. Guest voice cast includes Warren Sapp, Tom Brady, Yao Ming, Lebron James and Michelle Kwan.

George Lopez Show- The Lopez family finds out that Benny's estranged brother, Joe, is dying. However, Benny refuses to speak to him due to her losing a bet with him. However, George and Angie convince Benny to reconcile with Joe, and Benny agrees to, but to try and get his Super Bowl tickets. However, she changes her mind when she sees him.  Never a fan of this show, and never saw this episode.

Still Standing- After Bill and Judy catch Brian, Lauren and their friends drinking in the basement, they decide to set an example and abstain from drinking for an entire month. Unfortunately, Bill and Judy's infamously wild Super Bowl party takes place during that time. When the day comes the adults give in to temptation. I know what people say about this show, and they’re right. This episode has the same message Roseanne did, that football without alcohol is unacceptable. 

Friends-In 1996 NBC decided to have the sitcom Friends do an episode following the Super Bowl. The show, called “The one after the Super Bowl”, is stuffed with celebrities like Brooke Shields and Julia Roberts and is generally considered one of the weakest episodes of the series. The celebrities and the length do stretch the show a bit thin, but I think it ultimately works. The biggest mistake may have been Jean Claude Van Damme, not only is he wooden in the show but the whole story with Monica and Rachel feels like a high school story and is just dumb. We also get reunited with Marcel the monkey, and in another article I will discuss how much I hated that little simian.True, this episode really doesn't have anything to do with the Super Bowl past the title, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Those are the only ones I could remember, If I missed any please let me know. 

Well, that’s enough about sitcoms. Time for a little football, go PATS!!!

Look at Sitcom Clichés : He Who Must Not Be Seen

Years ago, The Dick Van Dyke show had a classic episode where Laura (played by Mary Tyler Moore) got her toe stuck in a bathtub. What made this brilliant was that Carl Reiner kept Laura off screen for a fair amount of the episode. We could hear her, but did not see her which added to the comedy since the audience had to imagine what was going on.

This idea of having a character we can hear, or we hear about, but never see is a very popular one in sitcoms. When the viewer has to imagine what the person looks like it adds mystique to the character, and makes the jokes broader since you can practically make anything up as long we never see the person.

Sometimes these characters are nothing more than a voice, or we may see parts of the character but no face. In some instances we don't even hear the person but they are spoken of so often and in such detail they have are as much of a character as anyone on the show. The soap opera “Passions” did this with its main villain Alistair; we only saw his legs or the back of his head until his face was finally revealed. In the world of TV Tropes, this is known as He Who Must Not Be Seen. I wanted to take a look at just how often this has been done over the years.

Look at Sitcom Clichés : Christmas

I love Christmas episodes of sitcoms, they are the best! They always feel like are a little more special than a usual episode, which is fitting since Christmas is a special time of year. However, these shows tend to have the same themes over and over again. I wanted to take a look at some of these clichés that seem to pop up in sitcoms over and over again.

Christmas Sucks-It seems odd to start with this one, but lots of episodes involve the aggravations of Christmas. Writer/Producer Diane English was great for writing these; she did an episode of her not-so well known series "My Sister Sam" where the characters are whining about the holidays. Then a few years later wrote an episode of her more popular series "Murphy Brown" where the characters are complaining about the aggravation of buying presents for others. To top it off, she wrote an episode of her short lived series "Love and War" which again made note of the bad things about the holidays. In this series a Jewish man was dating a woman who adored Christmas so the episode involved how they could successfully celebrate both. Of course every cliché about the bad things associated with Christmas is thrown in; from the story of Santa to the national crisis that is Christmas tree fires. Other shows have focused on the negative including King of Queens, Everybody Loves Raymond which has explored every dysfunctional family Christmas angle possible, Becker, and Seinfeld.

Snowed In-It amazes me the bad luck that sitcom characters have with the weather. Why do bad snow storms always hit on Christmas Eve? It does snow other times of the year. And why does no one in sitcoms believe in checking the weather forecast? They're always stunned it's snowing! Perfect Strangers, Golden Girls, Night Court, Roseanne, Home Improvement, and Newhart (just to name a few) have done shows where the characters couldn't get to where they needed to be because of badly timed snow storm. Sometimes this is lumped in with a ski trip disaster, which happened on Kate & Allie and Charles in Charge.

Look at Sitcom Clichés : Brother Chuck Paradox

It's one thing for a show to try to add a character to a series. I can understand the need to spice things up and keep it fresh, even if it doesn't work most of the time. Sometimes a show will also lose characters for the same reason. Maybe the actor wants to leave, or maybe the character is just getting old so they get written out. Sometimes they get a nice goodbye episode, and sometimes they get written out with just a line of dialogue. However, there is another trend in sitcoms which is kind of disturbing. When a regular character just disappears, no reason given, and everyone forgets that he or she ever existed. This is what we call the "Brother Chuck" paradox.

Happy Days-Here is the show which originated the phrase. In the first two seasons, Richie had a brother named Chuck. Played by two different actors, this character was in college so didn't necessarily appear in every episode. However, when the creators realized they could have Fonzie be the big brother figure, they quietly made Chuck disappear. Totally forgotten. In fact in the final episode Howard makes a toast and talked about how "both their children are married now".

Now I can understand this happening in the old days because people didn't pay really care about these kind of things. What amazes me is that this still happens, and here are a few examples.

Look at Sitcom Clichés : Cousin Oliver Syndrome

The Cousin Oliver Syndrome is when a sitcom in the middle of its run gets the inspired idea to add a new child cast member, out of the blue and for almost no reason, in an attempt to get the ratings to back up. This is different than replacing a character that has left the show, usually there is no reason and no need for this new character. They are simply there to smile at the camera and draw in new viewers.

Why do these shows keep doing this? I can understand the problem. When a show has been on for a long time and the kid actors who were once so cute start to become old and boring, what is a show to do? Wait, I know, we'll bring in a brand new character which no one has ever seen before to love and adore! Sometimes it’s a new child (age 5 or younger) and sometimes it’s a new teenage heartthrob. Why can't these creators figure out that we aren't going to want to watch this new kid, we want to see the characters we know and love.

In all fairness, there have been times when this has actually worked. Sometimes when it doesn't the creators realize and rectify the mistake. Of course, more often than not it not only fails but kills the show. Here is a look at some great examples of just what I am talking about.

I am excluding when the show has a child, since this isn't totally contrived (usually), also excluding when a program inexplicably ages a child. That is a another topic for another day 

Look at Sitcom Clichés : The Bowling Show

I wanted to start a new series of articles regarding sitcom clichés. Every so often I will pick a cliché and talk about it, today's topic is the annoying bowling episode. It seems every single show has done at least one episode which is either directly, or indirectly, about bowling.

Everyone has bowled at least once in their lifetime. Some love it, others hate it. I don’t mind it, let’s leave it at that. I don’t think I need to explain how the game is played, it’s not terribly complicated. Hey, maybe that’s why so many sitcoms have episodes centered in a bowling alley. For some reason it almost seems a rule that every sitcom has to have at least one show centered on bowling. It always has the same set up, the camera is where the lanes would begin, and the ball rolls past the cameras and we get the sound effects (sometimes they cut to a clip of a series of pins being knocked down). Then the cast member reacts accordingly. The funny thing is, I hate the bowling episode. For some reason the episode’s almost always fail for me.

It’s ironic that very first episode of one of the very first sitcoms would be about bowling. However, you can’t condemn The Honeymooners because it wasn’t a cliché yet. Same for The Dick Van Dyke so. However, after awhile these episodes began popping up a little too frequently. Let’s talk about some bowling episodes. I know shows like The Odd Couple, Laverne & Shirley, and MASH (somehow) did these, but my area of focus as always is 80’s and 90’s so we will start there.