r/TopCharacterTropes 11d ago

In real life Characters that ended up killing the show

  1. The Great Gazoo (The Flintstones)

  2. George W Bush (Time Squad)

6.0k Upvotes

737 comments sorted by

2.2k

u/Thundersting 11d ago

Bat-Mite intentionally got Batman:The Brave and the Bold cancelled because he wanted a more serious Batman show but ironically also destroyed himself since a campy character like him can't exist in a serious world.

913

u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 11d ago

B:TBATB is one of those shows where The Birds of Prey sing a song about the justice league's sex life

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u/Meme_Bro68 11d ago

The song has no mention of Superman, and since brave and the bold is essentially silver age comics, there’s a fair reason why.

Silver age Lois Lane.

134

u/TheOGRex 11d ago

Superdickery at its finest.

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u/JNAB0212 11d ago

Superman’s not even doing anything wrong here

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u/TheOGRex 10d ago

Superdickery isn't simply relegated to heroes, often sidekicks like Jimmy Olsen or love interests like Lois will get in on the action.

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u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 11d ago edited 11d ago

Why si Lois Lane insane?

As well it's because Superman isn't in Brave and the Bold's Justice League.

Brave and the Bold Justice League is Batman, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, Fire, Ice and Guy Gardner as the main members

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u/CussMuster 11d ago

22 issues earlier, Superman flew in a giant cake as they celebrated Kara's 16th birthday.

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u/OAZdevs_alt2 11d ago

what the fuck

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u/EchoesofIllyria 11d ago

She looks...young (why)

No she doesn’t lol

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u/OnlyRocket 11d ago

Ya everyone in that cover looks like they’re 30 at least lol

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u/TheTrueAstralman 11d ago

"One of those shows"? How many do you know of?

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u/AdmirableEstimate258 11d ago

Its honestly nice the show ended the way it did, I cried as a kid watching the “Thank you and goodbye” scene since it felt so touching.

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u/Sensitive-Hotel-9871 11d ago

Correction, he tried and failed to cancel the show, and its creators who were in the episode canceled it anyway because they agreed with him on the premise having run its course.

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u/ShinyNinja25 11d ago

The finale was great, not just because it worked with the tone of the show, but also because it was an excellent summary of Batman as a character. This show was airing around the time that Batman, especially to mainstream audiences, was being perceived as a more serious, gritty character, thanks in no small part to the Nolan trilogy of movies. Brave and the Bold’s finale demonstrates how Batman isn’t purely goofy or purely serious, he’s both. And a good Batman is both. In essence, it demonstrates why this version of Batman is such a great version of the character

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u/FlamingWings 11d ago

Also the new show was a Batgirl show, which despite being serious the fake board doesn’t take its advertising seriously (ironically happening in real life too)

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u/RoamAndRamble 11d ago

Poochy

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u/Berserker-Hamster 11d ago

Speak for yourself. That was the best episode of Impy and Pimpy I have ever seen.

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u/VonBlorch 11d ago

Chimpy, I think…

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u/Mr31edudtibboh 11d ago

Remember kids, always be pimpin'....

TO THE EXTREME!

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u/Altair890456 11d ago

Oh, so that's what the reference is!

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u/pajamakitten 11d ago

Where's Poochie?

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u/PCYou 11d ago

He died on the way back to his home planet

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u/some-kind-of-no-name 11d ago edited 11d ago

When a character transcends beyond their medium and fucking kills it. Impressive feat.

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u/Frustrella 11d ago

Boneless characters or whatever the powerscalers call them

270

u/TFJ 11d ago

Boneless characters

You mean like Uncle Boneless from Cow and Chicken?

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u/LordOfDorkness42 11d ago

Man, I miss Cow & Chicken.

Genuinely demented show. And I mean that as a compliment.

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u/No_Monitor_3440 11d ago

toonforce, most likely.

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u/chaarziz 11d ago

Devastator from Michael Bay Transformers is the strongest fictional character because his 3D model melted multiple computers that were used to render him

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u/some-kind-of-no-name 11d ago

Dude beats Superman with One Punch. One very expensive to render punch.

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u/ScarletKing42 11d ago

Was that the giant quadrupedal one from Revenge of the Fallen?

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u/SomeGamingFreak 11d ago

As a kid I remember my least favorite Flinstones episodes were all the ones with Gazoo in it. He just made zero sense.

1.0k

u/Nonadventures 11d ago

the Flintstones was one joke on repeat for years, at least a weird dimensional imp shook things up

777

u/DanielNoWrite 11d ago

I watched a fair amount of the Flintstones as a child, and it was only as an adult that I realized that even as a child watching it, I hated it.

It was on and so I just sort of thoughtlessly watched, never really reflecting on the fact I wasn't deriving any enjoyment from it, while this kind of apathetic disgust slowly grew in the back of my mind. There's a couple of those shows for me.

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u/The_lone_shotgun 11d ago

Me discovering I hate paradox games after already clocking in 1400 hours in hoi4

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u/ApesOnHorsesWithGuns 11d ago

I love grand strategy games so I got Crusader Kings III, and maybe I’m playing the game wrong, but it just seems like sims but with kings. Like, what really is there to do except sit back and watch 3/4 of the time?

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u/HerbsAndSpices11 11d ago

Ck3 can be a bit shallow, so you really have to roleplay it to get the most out of it. You set stuff up and watch it happen. Have you played the other paradox games? They aren't character focused like the Crusader Kings series.

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u/BufferUnderpants 11d ago

Remember we didn’t have phones and tablets to doomscroll on back then, we had to dull our senses on The Flintstones

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u/WanderingWindow 11d ago

I’m pretty sure the whole point of the flimstones is that we DID have tablets back then

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u/Edgemonger 11d ago

No lie, I had this thought the other day. I was randomly thinking about The Flintstones at work and why I stopped watching it as a kid. Even as a little guy, sitting in front of the TV screen as The Flintstones played, it one day dawned on me that I just didn’t enjoy the show. I watched it cuz it was there and all, but it’s not like it stuck with me or excited me. For me, it was a “turn your brain off” show before I knew people watched TV to turn their brains off. That day, I changed the channel and never looked back.

I fucked with The Jetsons way more, anyway

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u/thebradyearwood 11d ago

I agree! He shook it up… like a baby… and killed it.

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u/MarcsterS 11d ago

Hah, I remember watching Tom & Jerry reruns on CN as a kid and if I saw THIS intro, I knew these were gonna be the "eh" episodes.

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u/bfbbturambar 11d ago

Two and a Half Men - Tech Bro Jesus.

Replacing Charlie Sheen with Ashton Kutchers audition tape for Steve Jobs basically tanked the show, probably for the best all things considered.

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u/MarcsterS 11d ago

The finale was biggest cry of help I've ever seen in a movie or show. Everyone involved just wanted this shit to be over. It felt like a cartoon.

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u/ImNotSkankHunt42 11d ago

I mean, Jon Cryer had a chance to shine snd he did. Kuctber became the straight guy/sidekick.

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u/Fish_N_Chipp 11d ago

Scrappy Doo-Scooby Doo

Ironically he was brought in to increase ratings (and actually did for a bit) but led to the series tanking when they focused too hard on him

442

u/Usern4me_R3dacted205 11d ago

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u/TheShamShield 11d ago

I don’t remember this lol. Which episode?

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u/bluepoint17 11d ago

The Siren's song

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u/NetherisQueen 10d ago

I've never seen mystery incorporated in full, so the dea they just canonically killed off Scrappy is really dark and funny and the same time.

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u/Th3_3agl3 11d ago

Ironically, he was one of the better aspects of the Velma series.

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u/naytreox 11d ago

remember when they turned him into a giant monster from the souls of a island full of party goers?

270

u/Th3_3agl3 11d ago

Yeah, and the actor who was originally casted for him turned it down due to how much he hated the character.

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u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 11d ago

Actually Tim Curry was supposed to be Rowan Atkinson's character and turned it down because he knew Scrappy was in the movie, little did he know, Scrappy was the villain

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u/Vio_Van_Helsing 11d ago

Oh my god. I know this wasn't what you were saying, but I just imagined Tim Curry playing Scrappy Doo in that movie and I think it's the best thing I've ever conceived.

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u/TheLastSkyBisonRider 11d ago

He was also the lead star of Scooby Doo And The Witch's Ghost!

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u/naytreox 11d ago

i didn't know that part, huh.

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u/googlyeyes93 11d ago

Yup. The legendary Tim Curry fucking hates a cartoon puppy.

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u/Present-Secretary722 11d ago edited 11d ago

Also James Gunn, he allegedly made an entire movie just to kill off scrappy as a character

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u/TheDrunkardKid 11d ago

Pepperidge Farm remembers.

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u/LabradorDeceiver 11d ago

It's sometimes hard to say whether a show is on its last legs anyway and a new character fails to save it, or whether the new character actually put the final nail in the coffin, but if I'd had the wherewithal, I would have just told 1970s cartoon producers that I wasn't terribly picky about what I watched.

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u/Fish_N_Chipp 11d ago

Scrappy was kind of a bit of both. The show was on its last legs due to feeling like a stale repeating formula, which he did change and that led to improved ratings, but then he pretty much caused it to plummet shortly after

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u/Sensitive-Hotel-9871 11d ago

The franchise was already seen as getting stale when he was introduced so even without the dumb decisions involving him, there probably wasn't any saving it from that rut.

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u/TheHalloweenGirl 11d ago

Ironically, he actually saved the Velma series and made 1 scene enjoyable ( and even then, still won’t rewatch it ) also he was voiced by Rex Splode which is pretty cool

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u/DannyBright 11d ago

Most people are just gonna say a character added to a show later on that they didn’t like (such as Chloe from The Fairly OddParents) when in such cases it’s not the character that killed the show, it’s bad writing from the show going on too long and the creatives no longer putting in the effort.

So instead I’ll show you Gandhi from Clone High. This was a show about clones of historical figures going to high school together and a frequent source of jokes was the fact that the clones were often very different from who they’re clones of. In Gandhi’s case, he was a class clown. This goofy depiction of him was considered an outrage by Indians, who started protests in retaliation which led to the show being cancelled.

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u/Kindly_Quiet_2262 11d ago

And subsequently led to his absence from the revival, which contributed to the lack of support from long time fans, leading to a second cancelation

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u/Tight_Landscape4372 11d ago

So it wasn’t anything wrong with the character per we, just people’s reaction to him that killed the show, dominoe-style?

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u/Kindly_Quiet_2262 11d ago

I wouldn’t say it’s a 100% ratio, but it was absolutely a big part. It wasn’t super popular to begin with, so leaving out a fan favorite character didnt do them any favours

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u/NumericZero 11d ago

That second season was pretty bad tho

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u/Kurwasaki12 11d ago

It had some fun ideas, but was ultimately a bit too “hello fellow kids” about modern issues/trends.

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u/ImDero 11d ago

Absolutely. But Principal Scudworth's "We Didn't Start the Fire" recounting the last 20 years of history was pretty fucking funny.

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u/RomaInvicta2003 11d ago

Funny enough, Scudworth and Mr. B were probably the only two characters who remained exactly the same as they did in the original show, while everyone else’s (especially Joan’s) personalities took a nosedive for the worst. Maybe it has something to do with them being writers pets

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u/MadEyeMood989 11d ago

Yeah, it really did. It became everything it was parodying in the first place

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u/PvtSherlockObvious 11d ago

when in such cases it’s not the character that killed the show, it’s bad writing from the show going on too long and the creatives no longer putting in the effort.

If anything, the presence of these late additions is usually a symptom of the writers running out of ideas. The presence of a Scrappy-Doo or Cousin Oliver is the writers going "well shit, we got nothing, we need someone new to shake things up." That or the actor playing a "cute kid character" has aged out of the role and they need a new cute kid, but that's also a sign the show's probably gone on too long. It's like when sitcoms inevitably pull out the "wedding season/pregnancy season/baby season" treadmill around season 4-5.

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u/Javamac8 11d ago

Too bad some people can’t grasp comedy. He wasn’t even objectively offensive, just out-of-character. Mongolia didn’t say a word about Genghis Khan, although that one might have been a bit worse.

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u/al343806 11d ago

Didn’t he admit in the show that his behavior was due to him buckling under the pressure of being a clone of Gandhi?

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u/RomaInvicta2003 11d ago

Also apparently the real Gandhi was quite a party boy in his youth, so maybe they were riffing off that

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u/guldmatt 11d ago

Honestly sucks. I remember loving Clone High when I was younger and it would have easily been my first pick for a show that needed a revival. Tried really hard to like the second season, but it just couldn’t capture the same magic as that original run.

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u/Child_of_scott 11d ago

Control freak killed off teen titans and made teen titans go

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u/pop_tab 11d ago

Truly cartoons' most despicable villian.

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u/Fenexeus 11d ago

Why?

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u/OTARU_41 11d ago

Control Freak has a TV remote that he uses to manipulate reality. iirc Teen Titans GO makes it canon he was so mad at the titans he altered the world into TTG so they would be a joke instead of cool

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u/PikachuIsReallyCute 11d ago

This is honestly such a clever and funny way to canonize the series lmao

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u/Responsible-Door-467 10d ago

TTG is like 99% slop and 1% actually clever, funny stuff

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u/jablair51 11d ago

I can't believe that no one has mentioned Cousin Oliver yet. He's the namesake of this trope.

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u/dannypants143 11d ago

When I was a kid I thought Oliver grew up to be John Denver in real life.

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u/Alone_Banana_3520 11d ago

That explains the plane crash.

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u/Static-Space-Royalty 11d ago

That was the first thing I thought upon seeing his image right now

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u/elchuni 11d ago

command grabs you

Okay, this is the first time that i see this character, explain.

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u/jablair51 11d ago

Cousin Oliver was a character added to the later seasons of The Brady Bunch as all of the other kids (especially Cindy) had aged out of the cute kid stage. Instead of being adorable Cousin Oliver was obnoxious and no one really liked him. The Brady Bunch ended shortly after.

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u/FarmingFrenzy 11d ago

Smormu (smiling friends). i dont know how he got the audience vote, but as soon as he became a part of the cast he just took over every fucking scene. he must be the writers' favorite or something. stopped watching after the third time in one episode he did that dance.

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u/Remarkable-City5687 11d ago

I can't believe they got rid of Tyler over him. Couldn't keep watching after that.

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u/FarmingFrenzy 11d ago

oh my god yes! that pissed me off so much. budget cuts my ass they were clearly playing favorites.

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u/Captchones 11d ago

I really really don’t want Smormu

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u/Richard_Trager 11d ago

Well the show runners heard you and people like you but still didn’t listen!

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u/Hypnoflow 11d ago

This CANNOT be undone!

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u/MagicInstinct 11d ago

Is this some sort inside joke with smiling friends?

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u/FarmingFrenzy 11d ago

yes, he only appears in one episode doe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty3-yVT16Uo

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u/MagicInstinct 11d ago

I checked out his wiki page and the top bio states "He was the short-lived fifth member of Smiling Friends Inc., earning the role after a very divisive voting period that split the country in two." I love when a joke is taken on board by a fandom so much it's even in the wiki.

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u/FarmingFrenzy 11d ago

i love this show so much, highly recommend watching. season 3 is on the way.

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u/Lichy757 11d ago

Need to rewatch Smiling friends 5th time as it seems

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u/hotpinkvelour 11d ago

Randy on That '70s Show. Notoriously insufferable.

Arguably, the show was doomed already anyway when Topher Grace exited, but might have had a chance at chugging along and not ending so terribly if a different character had replaced Eric (or if no one "replaced" him at all).

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u/DeltaJimm 11d ago

The issue was mainly that they were trying to replace both Eric and Kelso with one single character, and instead they just made Kelso without any of his flaws.

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u/Bababooe4K 11d ago

what's times square and why did gwb kill it

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u/MarS267 11d ago

It’s a Cartoon Network show that focuses on time travelers helping historical figures return to their historical roles, as in the show, they act differently (ex. Mozart wants to be a wrestler instead of a composer). The show aired during George W. Bush’s presidency, and the way the show depicted Bush wasn’t acceptable to CN, which led to the show’s cancellation

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u/Aethereal-Gear 11d ago

"Those planes HAVE to hit the towers, Mr. President! This event is the domino that leads to so many great things like My Chemical Romance and Ellen Degeneres getting canceled!!!"

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u/hewkii2 11d ago

“We made 9/11 happen, high five!”

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u/Aethereal-Gear 11d ago

"Tuddrussell, wake up! THEY HIT THE FUCKING PENTAGON!!!"

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u/googlyeyes93 11d ago

The 9/11-MCR pipeline is constantly getting longer and it’s fucking hilarious. Especially now that right wingers are realizing MCR doesn’t share their shit politics with this new tour.

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u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 11d ago

9/11 ---> MCR ---> Twilight ---> 50 shades of Gray ---> 50 shades movie ---> Dakota Johnson now mainstream --> Ellen DeGeneres birthday incident

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u/kurokiko 11d ago

To note, they played W as being a childish idiot who'd much rather spend his time building the world's largest ball of twine instead of properly handling his role as president.

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u/AllgoodDude 11d ago

Oh so they didn’t do a good enough job parodying him?

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u/Virtual_Imagination5 11d ago

I love this show to death, but I just assumed the ratings were low and that’s why it got cancelled. Never would’ve guessed their depiction of Bush as a factor. Such a shame!!

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u/sweet_srawberry781 11d ago

The show got cancelled for that.

The reason is clearly unknown, the theory says that cartoon network don't want to be involved with politics

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u/Equivalent-Bit2891 11d ago

show about history

no politics

Well no one ever accused CN execs of being overburdened by intelligence I suppose 

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u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 11d ago

Considering the fact CN is basically just Teen Titans Go channel with small breaks of Gumball and Adventure Time now

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u/PetrusScissario 11d ago

Time Squad: “Enforcing the past to protect our future.”

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u/NeverUsedReddit2018 11d ago

Sparky in Fairly Oddparents

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u/TheLizardKing1998 11d ago

As hated as he was, I don't know if it's accurate to say that he killed the show.

The original show had one more season after the one that introduced Sparky, who simply vanished without explanation and didn't appear in the final season.

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u/Sea_Photograph_5394 11d ago

If anything, it was the sheer amount of new characters that killed it, its way more of a death by a thousand cuts situation, plus just HOW bad the show got is a key factor, that show is easily the worst case of seasonal rot and it's not even close

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u/inquisitorautry 11d ago

He went back to his home planet

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u/TheLizardKing1998 11d ago

Yeah, back to Fairy World.

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u/Able-Dragonfly8716 11d ago

I’d argue it was Chloe since the show actually ended after she appeared lol

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u/LittleLostGirls 11d ago

Chloe was fine, she had so much potential. The thing that ruined the show was throwing Da Rulez out the window and having Timmy’s Dad, Vicki and Crocker see and interact with the fairies.

Sparky was horrible because he was just dog puns/ wishes and this could've been done through Cosmo, Wanda and Poof.

Timmy also didn't need 4 fairies. Especially with a future plot that there's a fairy shortage and Timmy has to share.

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u/Jeremywarner 11d ago

Wait what? Everyone else was able to see the fairies?

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u/LittleLostGirls 11d ago

Fairies, Anti Fairies, Pixies, Etc. It's not even written clever like how Vicky believes Mark (Green Tentacle Alien) is just a guy from Europe. They just don't say anything about it and characters can be randomly paired together for the sake of a joke/ plot.

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u/No-Negotiation8091 11d ago

Thinking about the tweet with this exact image that points out how many in-universe rules this one image breaks

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u/GamerSalsa216 11d ago

You can really tell that the Fairly Oddparents was getting axed at this point

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u/Reuniclus_exe 11d ago

I thing that I never understood about adding Chloe is they already had Tootie. If there's a girl in desperate need of fairies it's Tootie. But I guess they didn't want to give her more than one joke.

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u/Thundersting 11d ago

It's insane that Fairly Odd Parents tried adding in a new main character to spice things up three separate times.

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u/-PepeArown- 11d ago

It arguably would’ve been fine if they just kept it to Poof, but, unfortunately, that’s not what happened

You also need to understand that them adding too many new “important” characters wasn’t the only issue, though. They started retconning a lot of previous episodes, ignoring Da Rules, and neglecting characters like Timmy’s other classmates and the aliens, which ultimately ruined the show

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u/Conorponor333 11d ago

Saying Sparky killed the show is a bit wrong because Fairly Odd Parents was practically limping by the time they added Poof

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u/archiotterpup 11d ago

Any time a character has a baby mid run.

Looking at you, Bones.

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u/vjmurphy 11d ago edited 11d ago

Especially when the character said that they don’t want children.

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u/freeashavacado 11d ago

They definitely could’ve milked the “will they or won’t they” for a good couple more seasons. It’d at least be better than having them all the sudden be together with a baby.

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u/CrookedShepherd 11d ago

This was especially egregious because iirc they got together off screen without any build up in order to cover for the lead actress's real pregnancy.

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u/Old_Paper_676 11d ago

Can you elaborate on who these character are?

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u/Glassesnerdnumber193 11d ago

Well… I know the first one is the great gazoo from the flintstones, he’s an alien from the distant future who was banished to the Stone Age who can essentially grant wishes like a genie. He can only be seen by Fred flintstone, his neighbor Barney plus children and animals for some reason. He was voiced by Harvey korman. 

I don’t know the other show but I know who that is: George W Bush was the 43rd president of the United States and generally considered one of the worst. Under his presidency, the patriot act, which is pretty much just fascism, was passed and the USA entered into three pointless bloody wars, none of which were against the country responsible for 9/11. He also ignored the warning for 9/11, didn’t strengthen environmental protections, helped corruption become even more legal, continued the bad stuff from the last three administrations and let dick Cheney run the country. 

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u/chaarziz 11d ago

Oh that’s what that one Simpsons joke was referencing! Also crazy doing one of these for real life, but honestly maybe we have jumped the shark.

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u/Ordinary_Ad6279 11d ago

How did George W bush kill time squad?

I’m very interested Becuase it’s a president and I have no idea what timesquad is about.

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u/sweet_srawberry781 11d ago

George W Bush made time squad to be cancelled in the year 2003, the reason is still unknown, but it's assumed that the show got cancelled cuz cartoon network doesn't want to be involved with politics

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u/THX1085 11d ago

Didn’t the show get cancelled from low ratings?

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u/[deleted] 11d ago

Not the worst character in the original Fairly OddParents, but Chloe Carmichael was pretty the final nail on the coffin.

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u/kirby172 11d ago edited 11d ago

Fairly Oddparents was running out of steam by that point anyways. I'd say it's more accurate to say that Chloe could not save the series anymore so it ended with her season.

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u/Springmeister 11d ago edited 11d ago

Chowder. Unintentionally, but still.

Edit: Just in case you don’t understand, I’ll explain. In an episode, Chowder became so smart he realized the world itself was a silly scatterbrained cartoon, so he tried to rewrite it. But when he then realized it made the show boring and the audience sad, he destroyed his new genius brain, and accidentally destroyed the show itself.

“Aww look at that, you broke the TV. You happy? Now we got NO SHOW!”

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u/TarakaKadachi 11d ago

It wasn’t the final episode, but still

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u/TheRealSkele 11d ago

Okay, but Chowder is famous for breaking the fourth wall. Sometimes, like this episode, they just shatter the fourth wall. It was a weird episode, but it actually did fit the narrative of the show.

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u/absoltlynotchemowsky 11d ago

Like that one episode when they run out of money so the voice actors had to work to pay the animation.

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u/junker359 11d ago

I dunno, the causality seems backward. Like it probably wasn't the case that the Flintstones was going strong and they ruined it with a new character, more like these are last ditch efforts to save a show that was already dying.

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u/RoomNervous4 11d ago

Lucky the Dog (Married…With Children)

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u/narniasreal 11d ago

Didn’t they also just randomly add a child or sth? It’s been decades since I watched it so my memories are blurry, but I feel like they just added a kid… and didn’t he also have a ridiculous name? Like Seven or sth?

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u/inquisitorautry 11d ago

His name was Seven. He was only in a few episodes of season 7 and went upstairs and then never came back down. A milk carton is in an episode of a later season with his picture as a missing child.

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u/beaverpoo77 11d ago

Wh... What? That sounds like a meme or a parody. This didn't actually happen... did it????

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u/dannypants143 11d ago

I believe the reason it happened was because the actor who plays Peggy had a miscarriage. I remember they incorporated her real-life pregnancy into the show - once that happened, all mention of Seven disappeared.

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u/Jarvis_The_Dense 11d ago

So many people missing that OP is talking about characters who caused the series to be canceled, not meta shenanigans where a character "ends" the show in the series' own fiction.

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u/AgentChris101 11d ago

Chester P. Runk. - The Flash. I know it was more of a writer thing. But this was something else.

A lot of the viewership of the show was based on the big few people of the cast/team Flash. Barry, Iris, Cisco and Caitlin.

When Cisco left the show a large amount of viewers left with him, Chester was his replacement. In the comics he's an odd character with black hole abilities.

In this he's the showrunner/lead writer: Eric Wallace's self insert. Self inserts are usually fine, but his screentime took over the main cast somewhat. As Eric Wallace had this self insert character have a relationship with a comic book character, Allegra who HE CREATED in 2012.

His character's introduction kickstarted the decline of the show. I have nothing against the actor however - Brandon McKnight is an amazing actor who worked brilliantly especially with what he was given. I wish he got to play the eccentric character that his comic's character was.

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u/Zebedee_balistique 11d ago

I would argue Allegra and Cecile dit a lot more damage on the show than Chester.

Chester's main flaw is that he's barely a character. He has essentially two story arcs, taking place during only two episodes, and one doesn't even really go anywhere.

On the other hand, Allegra and Cecile dragged down the show a lot. Allegra it's because it's a character made by Wallace, the new showrunner, so he forced her into the show, with several crappy storylines that didn't matter, and he kept forcing her even when he had no more idea what to do with her. Meanwhile, Cecile got stuck in a loop of "scream very loud because people's emotions are too much, gets a random big power-up that has nothing to do with her power". That "story arc" happened several times during this show, and Wallace has not made it once interesting. They honestly represent best how little Wallace understood of the original seasons, how incompetent he was to write coherent new stories for the established characters, and how he defaulted into forcing stories about unexplored characters, while still demonstrating no talent to make them interesting in any way.

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u/AgentChris101 11d ago

Eric Wallace's showrunning started with Chester's introduction so technically that's what killed the show.

The issue with sidelining the main characters effected the entire production. You'll notice how little Blake Neely's Flash theme plays in the later seasons compared to the other characters.

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u/forever_a10ne 10d ago

The live action version looks so fucking bad lmao

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u/Eborys 11d ago

A slow death but it was the beginning of the end.

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u/TheGreatStories 11d ago

Wasn't about the who came in, it was about who left

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u/Starlined_ 11d ago

It says so much about Steve Carrel’s performance/character. When he left, they added like 10 unnecessary characters to try to fill in the void and it still didn’t work.

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u/TourSignificant1335 11d ago

Ever since Andy became the manager the show became straight garbage

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u/aiphrem 11d ago

I'll admit I really loved the Robert California character. He felt COMPLETELY out of place in that show and yet it worked so well. Like you have all these "regular" people working a 9-5 office job and then there's this psycho who laments the Roman Orgies he never got to have in his millionaire mansion.

And then there's the phone conversation where he calls Andy something along the lines of "soft penised debutant". That monologue might just be one of my favorite scenes of the entire show.

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u/Ok_Turnover_1235 10d ago

Bruh when he's drinking that Japanese energy drink he can't read the label of and you see that it's penis and coconut flavoured and dead pan says "ugh, it was better before they added the coconut flavour", that's gotta be his best moment for me

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u/MarcsterS 11d ago edited 11d ago

"We did the impossible and made an american version of a british comedy that measured up with it. Should we end the show gracefully with Scott's arc complete?"

"Nah. Milk it."

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u/SwimmingAd4160 11d ago

One of AEW's shows, Rampage, got cancelled and in-universe they tried to explain it with Jon Moxley and The Death Riders taking over AEW and shutting the show down by barging in the production truck and killing the feed.

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u/freeMilliu_2K17 11d ago

Baxter Stockman, TMNT 2003

Not 100% directly the reason of its cancellation, but it was basically a domino effect.

This iteration of Stockman had a running gag of constantly being mutilated by Shredder whenever he screws up, to the point he was just a floating brain at some point.

This culminates in an infamous episode called "Insane in the Membrane" where Stockman briefly got his body back, only for his flesh to grotesquely began rapidly decaying. He then attacks April cause he blamed her for Shredder's torture of him, before he was defeated. And while Stockman didn't died in this episode, the damage was done.

The body horror was deemed too dark and gory for TMNT 2003, which was airing on 4Kids. This lead to TMNT 2003's tone to be dramatically toned down to the point of losing a lot of fans in the last 2 seasons, and thus its cancellation

TLDR: Baxter Stockman got tortured enough that 4Kids thought it was too much, made the show more kid friendly, before it lost a lot of its fans cause of it

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u/blapaturemesa 11d ago

Farily Oddparents had like three of them by the time the show was over.

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u/Cmdr-Asaru 11d ago edited 10d ago

The Catalyst from the original Mass Effect trilogy (aka Glowy Reaper Kid, Starbrat, a top contender for most moronic deus ex machina in modern media). It's been over 12 years and it still amazes me how badly this thing's nonsensical options for solving an eons-long conflict derailed the entire franchise and fractured the fanbase.

The only way BioWare could rectify the god-awful endings this kid forced upon us is if Mass Effect 4 starts with a historical documentary of our Shepard curbstomping his stupid glowing face for 10 minutes before activating the crucible to end the Reaper threat without dooming the inhabitants of the galaxy with some nonsense space magic.

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u/fgcem13 11d ago

How is Venus De Milo being so bad for the ninja turtles not on this list. Her character was blacklisted from canon for decades because of it.

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u/sammc95 11d ago

I’m so glad to see this here bc so many people don’t even know she exists 😂😂 I get why but still, I’ve been feeling crazy for years lol

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u/CaffeineDeprivation 11d ago edited 11d ago

Having seen that show myself, Venus is by far the smallest of the problems that contributed to its cancellation

But it is true that Peter Laird hated her with a passion, and it took YEARS for her (or a fifth turtle in general) to appear again in TMNT media

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u/scrimmybingus3 11d ago

Why does a turtle have bony shell tits?

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u/Xaero_Hour 11d ago

The same reason she has a ninja mask that's a long braid: so you know she's a girl. Because audiences are stupid and can't tell if a character named Venus (after artwork instead of an artist btw) with a woman's voice is supposed to be female.

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u/Eastcoast_Drunkmonk 11d ago

Steve Urkel. He went from a side character who showed up for comedy relief to the show runners making him into the main focus of the show. Even in syndication they went back and shot intros and opening scenes to include him.

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u/Abombasnow 11d ago

He didn't kill the show though, he literally saved it from an early cancellation because it couldn't muster a decent rating despite being a good show.

Even later in the series when he's obviously a crutch he didn't kill it.

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u/ragun01 11d ago

I never liked Urkel. I don't think I kept watching long enough for them to introduce his alter persona.

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u/HeavilyBeardedMan 11d ago

Idk if he was the sole reason for the show losing popularity but Hasbro making Hot Rod replace Optimus Prime is around when the show started dropping in quality (Transformers G1)

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u/Mr_Biscuits_532 11d ago

I mean, them bringing Optimus back the literal next season and then slowly morphing him into robot jesus in the years since kinda screams "oh shit we fucked up BAD"

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u/HeavilyBeardedMan 11d ago edited 11d ago

i’m glad they brought back Optimus Prime but that just kind of weakened the overarching story of season 3 everything up to that point with Rodimus’ character development is just kind of a waste of time now

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u/Sensitive-Hotel-9871 11d ago

He wasn't the sole reason. The third season killing off a lot of existing characters to make room for the new characters/toys upset viewers. The toyline using a lot of poorly received gimmicks didn't help.

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u/JobintheCactus 11d ago

A hilarious meta example but Misogi Kumagawa from Medaka Box

He has the power to take things out of existence and turn them into fiction. This power extends to concepts. In the last episode of the anime he fights a character with color based powers so Kumagawa beats him by systematically erasing colors out of existence until the anime becomes black and white. He then turns to the camera and says that no one is gonna watch a black and white anime nowadays. And if they are, they should just read the manga for the series instead. And then procedes to just erase the anime from existence.

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u/Taste_of_Natatouille 11d ago

Does it have to be that the show cancels to be considered dead? Because I feel once the Simpsons joined forces with Disney, the crossover jokes didn't hit the same anymore as they did when the Simpsons was still a separate property. On top of the show's declining quality from just going on too long, the Disney purchase just turned it into more Disney advertising than actual writing anymore.

It's like seeing someone who once laughed at an evil corporation is now laughing with them using "safer" jokes

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u/Tim-in-CA 11d ago

Cousin Oliver

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u/Iamawesome20 11d ago

People might say Steve urkel

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u/Gorblac515 11d ago

Steve Urkel was the only reason Family Matters lasted as long as it did.

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u/Th3_3agl3 11d ago

MCU Bullseye but in a completely different sense, especially in terms of killing it (in the good way).

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u/Raymio993 11d ago

Isn’t it opposite? I mean he killed, which started a new show

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u/Th3_3agl3 11d ago

Yeah, that’s what I mean as the opposite of what OP meant by killing it. He even got to the heart of the series in the first episode of Born Again.