Potsie Weber Syndrome

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Another Spider-Man supporting character: John Jameson.

Introduced as J. Jonah Jameson's astronaut son (who Jameson would praise as 'the REAL hero, unlike that phoney Spider-Man'), there are times when he's pretty much been irrelevant, and the writers have to give him just about anything to do. I can't remember how he ended up working at Ravencroft (the Spider-comics equivalent to Arkham Asylum), but it gave him something to do.

One of the funniest career moves in the late 1970's/early 1980's was radio DJ as well. I have a Savage She-Hulk 13/14 where he was a radio DJ.

I think John Jameson has jokingly held every job now we can think of.

[Monty_Cristo]

Brian I just wanna make some points about Potsie and his role on Happy Days.


By the end of the 2nd season it was clear the dynamic of the show was changing. Fonzie became Ritchie's best friend and confidant onscreen and Potsie was dropped into a 2nd string friendship with Ralph. The direction of the show shifted to the friendship of Fonzie leaving under the same roof as Ritchie.

Fonzie became Ritchie's big brother and protector. In a sense he became part of the family. The show shifted to fit this. He would help Joanie with homework , he would get kisses on the cheek from Mrs. C like a son would. She would even pack his lunch for work ! If he had a problem he would come to them like a son would at night , comically sitting between them in bed .

Potsie had lived with Ralph and was like him...a background character. He had little interaction with Ritchie by season 8 when he left. In fact in one episode ...Ritchie spends a moment saying good-bye to his real best friend that sums up how far Fonze had replaced Potsie as his friend and ...brother.

Richie says goodbye to Fonze
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvzwYKUFaRw

In fact in one of the seasons 3-7 , Richie gets hurt on a motorcycle. Fonzie spends the night at the hospital and begs god to save him and breaks down crying. A rare feat for the character who broke his cool there. So by the end Fonzie was Richie's best friend on the show.

Onto other shows....


Family Matters- Originally a spin-off of Perfect Strangers featuring the Harriette Winslow character and family spun show...the focus of the show changed by the 2nd season. Steve Urkel took the show over and by the end of the 4th or 5th season , the home family aspect of the series changed to way out there adventures with Urkel & Carl. The show became a light hearted non-reality show where Urkel would shrink him & Carl. Or clone them...or anything else ya can imagine.

By the end of the series Jo Marie Payton had gotten pissed at how much the series had changed and quit. In fact the anger had built up since season 2/3 and basically she said fuck it and left.

i don't blame her. watching the shallow Laura toggle between being interested in Stephan and indifferent to Steve was a bit tiring. i think they should have given Waldo a spinoff.

[Monty_Cristo]

Another Spider-Man supporting character: John Jameson.

Introduced as J. Jonah Jameson's astronaut son (who Jameson would praise as 'the REAL hero, unlike that phoney Spider-Man'), there are times when he's pretty much been irrelevant, and the writers have to give him just about anything to do. I can't remember how he ended up working at Ravencroft (the Spider-comics equivalent to Arkham Asylum), but it gave him something to do.

he married She-Hulk for a bit too.

[Monty_Cristo]

would the Simpsons be a case of Potsie Syndrome; what with Homer basically overshadowing Bart as the lead/main protagonist?

[SUPERECWFAN1]

i don't blame her. watching the shallow Laura toggle between being interested in Stephan and indifferent to Steve was a bit tiring. i think they should have given Waldo a spinoff.

Waldo Gerald Faldo baby. They missed the boat with Waldo really. He had became a very popular reverse of Urkel in a sense. The actor claims the producers didn't like the character becoming popular and tried to limit him being on screen from what I remember reading. That by the 7th or 8th season , he was barely appearing and just asked if he could do something else. I think the show had costs and couldn't afford if Waldo exploded as Urkel did.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Step by Step



In the 1990's another ABC sitcom would have an actor show up as a minor character and become a breakout star. It also would have the effect of pissing off one of the main stars who rumor was , wanting him gone from the moment he appeared. Its no shock that the moment Sasha Mitchell walked on as Cody Lambert he stole the show. His character was a dim witted , funny ...heart of gold character who could do the smartest things in Rain Man fashion. He ended up doing an Urkel the 2nd season much to Suzanne Somers dismay.

Its claimed Somers didn't want Mitchell to become a main cast member. That his popularity and good looks would over shadow the core of the show. Which was the blended family of the Lambert's and Foster's. Within the 2nd season Mitchell did and was someone who became the breakout character. He even did a few B-Movies since he was a student of the martial arts.

Of course it all went to hell when Mitchell was caught for spousal abuse that 5th season of Step by Step. Somers finally had her push to get rid of Mitchell. The ABC executives listened and instead casted Bronson Pinchot and 2 other actors to pick up the slack. The ratings went in the shitter in quick order. ABC was gonna cancel the series , til CBS picked it up for another season.

It only lasted 43 episodes without Mitchell.

[Jeremy A. Patterson]

Step by Step



In the 1990's another ABC sitcom would have an actor show up as a minor character and become a breakout star. It also would have the effect of pissing off one of the main stars who rumor was , wanting him gone from the moment he appeared. Its no shock that the moment Sasha Mitchell walked on as Cody Lambert he stole the show. His character was a dim witted , funny ...heart of gold character who could do the smartest things in Rain Man fashion. He ended up doing an Urkel the 2nd season much to Suzanne Somers dismay.

Its claimed Somers didn't want Mitchell to become a main cast member. That his popularity and good looks would over shadow the core of the show. Which was the blended family of the Lambert's and Foster's. Within the 2nd season Mitchell did and was someone who became the breakout character. He even did a few B-Movies since he was a student of the martial arts.

Of course it all went to hell when Mitchell was caught for spousal abuse that 5th season of Step by Step. Somers finally had her push to get rid of Mitchell. The ABC executives listened and instead casted Bronson Pinchot and 2 other actors to pick up the slack. The ratings went in the shitter in quick order. ABC was gonna cancel the series , til CBS picked it up for another season.

It only lasted 43 episodes without Mitchell.

A sad case of removing a popular character resulting in the show's demise!

Jeremy.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

A sad case of removing a popular character resulting in the show's demise!

Jeremy.

Well the ABC executives never had that issue with Jaleel White who played Urkel. Even if the actress who played Harriet didn't like how suddenly her show changed from focusing on the Winslow family to suddenly Urkel , they were smart enough to never listen to her. Also the fact White never had any issues like Mitchell did.

[dupersuper]

A sad case of removing a popular character resulting in the show's demise!

Jeremy.

Well, the spousal abuse part is certainly sad, but I shed no tears for the loss of Step by Step...

[David Walton]

Well, the spousal abuse part is certainly sad, but I shed no tears for the loss of Step by Step...

Didn't it turn out later that there was more to the story? I seem to recall a follow-up years later where he made the case that he didn't abuse his wife and he got custody of the kids.

[dupersuper]

Didn't it turn out later that there was more to the story? I seem to recall a follow-up years later where he made the case that he didn't abuse his wife and he got custody of the kids.

You're asking the wrong guy...

[colloid]

Interesting topic. On Star Trek The Next Generation's first couple seasons, Riker was the action hero while Picard was more cerebral. Riker and Worf were becoming close friends. Then Picard took center stage more often, pushing Riker into the background. In seasons 3's Sins of the Father, Worf chooses Picard to act as his second on Qo'noS, when in the first two seasons it would've been Riker. Picard also steals Data from Geordi in the movies when they become the Stewart/Spiner show.

[Kid Montana]

With all this Happy Day's talk, I am suprised no one mentioned Richie's older brother Chuck. Talk about a blow to continuity, they just pretended he never existed after the first season. Mr and Mrs C were pretty bad parents to forget their oldest son!

[Mormel]

In television, perhaps another good example would be 'Saved By The Bell', where they introduce Screech as a supporting character in 'The New Class' (second season) after 'College Years' ended. I guess because of Screech's popularity, while, at that point he had already become a caricature of the sensitive dork he was in the very first season, they didn't want to let go of him even though they were focusing on new teenaged characters. Heck, one could argue Screech was stealing the show even in 'The New Class'. And that couldn't have been the original intention.

As for the comments Omar made on Oz in 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer', I'm of yet a different opinion on the character than most fans. I personally think that Oz NEVER came into his own on the show. In the 3rd season, when he had been promoted from guest star to main character, there were many episodes in which Oz would show up at the end of the episode and say "So, you guys, looks like I missed quite a bit". Even beyond his lycanthropy, they could have done more with his character, I feel. He was supposed to be one of the 'cool' kids, he was a musician, and yet I feel I know so very little about him. Don't get me wrong, I love Seth Green, and I was fond of Oz when he appeared in the 2nd season, but I think he was underexposed in the 3rd. In my opinion, they failed to integrate him into the group at all. His interactions with core characters Buffy, Xander, and Giles felt flat and uninspired to me from the beginning of season 3. This in contrast with Angel, who shared something of a rivalry with Xander over Buffy's affections and could level with Giles as his peer on the knowledge of the mystical; while Cordelia was a fun addition to the Scoobie gang because she purported to despise each of them, but couldn't help but stay away from them whenever demons hit Sunnydale High. Oz, in my opinion, lacked an attachment to anyone but Willow. That was the main weakness of the otherwise strong third season: the inter-character relationships regressed to romantic pair-ups in which Oz and Cordelia were reduced to little more than love interests.

In the first half of season 4 Oz did feel like the fifth wheel on the wagon, but only because he had been the fifth wheel for pretty much the entirety of the third season. It should therefore be ironic that Seth Green gave his best performances of the character in the two send-off episodes 'Wild At Heart' and 'New Moon Rising'. I honestly never cared more about Oz than in those two episodes.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

With all this Happy Day's talk, I am suprised no one mentioned Richie's older brother Chuck. Talk about a blow to continuity, they just pretended he never existed after the first season. Mr and Mrs C were pretty bad parents to forget their oldest son!

Pretty much really. He went upstairs with his basketball and never came down. They to me had issues where they at 1st tried 2/3 actors as Chuck. Then realized by the end of the 1st season Fonzie was gonna become the "big brother/Best friend" to Ritchie so they dropped the character. We have to remember they turned the living room set to what we became used to as well ...as far as changes go as well.