Shows that thrived, got better rating, were just better after a main character LEFT. (1 Viewer)

[Radioman970]

Reese is even hotter than Squeaky!

 

[Ockeghem]

Yes, Claire and Kate (from Lost). Cassie and I have been fans of that show for quite some time. Those are our nicknames on another Board.

Radioman,

Some of the members of our family had never seen Pleasantville, so it was fun watching it last night (even if I had to put up with ... commercials!)

 

[TonyD]

scott, are you claire or kate?

 

[Radioman970]

Fun film to watch with the family. But commercials, ugh! That one was circling the DVD dump at Wallys for months.

 

[Radioman970]

I want to be Hurley!

 

[Ockeghem]

Last night, my favorite pop-rock solo artist (Buddy Holley) was interrupted in the middle of one of his songs due to commercials. This was not good!

 

[Cassiopeia]

I should dig out that Kate avatar I had before.

Nice to see you again Claire!

Btw: I have my visitor over now, which is why I haven't kept in touch much. I'll email you soon, I promise.

 

[Ockeghem]

Kate,

Nice that you stopped by. Please drop me a line when you can. We need to talk a bit about Lost and ... Ronald.

 

[JeffO]

I'm not sure about the ratings, but I think Married With Children became a much better show when Steve Rhoades (David Garrison) left and Jefferson D'Arcy (Ted McGinley) came in and married Marcy. Marcy became a bigger foil for Al Bundy, and I think Jefferson fit in well with the NO MA'AM crew.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

In addition to Holadem's suggestion about Angel (even though I liked Doyal but he's no Wesly) I must add that I thought Cordelia started to get extremely irritating in the last 2 seasons. Each episode it seems was beginning to focus more and more attention on her and it became overkill for me a little.

It started with that whole wierd period where she became a higher being and came to a head with the whole Jasmine (Gina Torres) storyline. Thankfully Cordelia got gone for the most part after that. Connor was no picnic, either.

 

[buttmunker]

Eight Is Enough qualifies, I guess, though not through the fault of anybody being bad or good - mostly due to incidentals:

Major shake-up during the 1st season when Diane Hyland, the actress who played the mother, died! She was replaced by Betty Buckley

Also, the actor who played "David," the eldest son (Mark Hamill) quit the show, to be replaced by actor Grant Goodeve.

 

[buttmunker]

There are many who would debate you on that one. Ted McGinley is known as a "show-breaker" (although I did happen to enjoy him a great deal on this particular show - his turn as D'Arcy was pure comedy)

 

[Parker Clack]

I believe that Las Vegas started to drop a lot in the ratings when James Cann and Nicki Cox left the show.

I personally believe that Monk became a better show when Bitty Schram left and Traylor Howard stepped in.

 

[Ockeghem]

This change made me very uneasy at first. I really liked Sharona. But, after a time I have found that I do like the episodes with Natalie Teeger quite a lot. Maybe the writing also improved at this time?

 

[JeffO]

"There are many who would debate you on that one. Ted McGinley is known as a "show-breaker" (although I did happen to enjoy him a great deal on this particular show - his turn as D'Arcy was pure comedy)"


Yes, I know that Ted McGinley is known as the man who defines "Jump the Shark" and he is assumed to be a show killer, but I found him perfect for this show. He actually acted in many more episodes than David Garrison, so he can't be accused of being a show killer for Married with Children.

I agree that many like Steve better than Jefferson, but I liked the more over-the-top Jefferson episodes than the slightly more realistic Steve episodes.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Me too.

I took to Natalie immediately, Sharona was downright mean to Adrian sometimes and had little to no patience towards him.

That said, I still miss that rack of hers lol. But give me Natalie anyday.

 

[Rob P S]

Most people think Newhart improved when they replaced Jennifer Holmes with Julia Duffy, and Steven Kampmann with Peter Scolari.

 

[Kevin Hewell]

Most definitely. I saw a couple of the early episodes on WGN the other day and they were not up to snuff. The switch from video to film really helped as well.

 

[Marty M]

West Wing continued on OK without Rob Lowe. I don't know if they improved the ratings after his departure, though.

 

[Parker Clack]

It started to go download when Rob Lowe left and then they lost John Spencer and Jimmy Smits joined the staff. But what really started the beginning to the end was when Aaron Sorkin left the show.