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Post by marianne48 on Jan 26, 2021 2:43:14 GMT
I know My Three Sons did this in 1963--when the actor playing the oldest son had some contractual problems with the producers, he was quickly married off, moved away, and was never seen on the show again; he didn*t even come to his brothers* weddings. In order to keep true to the title, and to bring in a younger, cuter kid, there was a clumsy plot involving a little neighbor boy (Ernie) who was quickly adopted into the family.
Was this the first sitcom to try this? Sometimes the mother in the family would have another baby as the other children outgrew their cuteness, but since shows didn*t really want to deal with infant actors, often there was some prepubescent cousin/orphan/stray neighbor kid who was brought into the family by way of some contrivance. Was My Three Sons the first time this happened?
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Post by Jayman on Jan 26, 2021 3:38:59 GMT
I know My Three Sons did this in 1963--when the actor playing the oldest son had some contractual problems with the producers, he was quickly married off, moved away, and was never seen on the show again; he didn*t even come to his brothers* weddings. In order to keep true to the title, and to bring in a younger, cuter kid, there was a clumsy plot involving a little neighbor boy (Ernie) who was quickly adopted into the family. Was this the first sitcom to try this? Sometimes the mother in the family would have another baby as the other children outgrew their cuteness, but since shows didn*t really want to deal with infant actors, often there was some prepubescent cousin/orphan/stray neighbor kid who was brought into the family by way of some contrivance. Was My Three Sons the first time this happened? I think they did it around the same time on the Donna Reed show when they brought in the other kid. But I don't know that it was ever done before that. I really don't watch too many other sitcoms from the 50's.
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Post by millar70 on Jan 30, 2021 23:04:41 GMT
I always figured The Brady Bunch did it first, which is why every time it's happened since, it's been referred as a "Cousin Oliver" move.
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vrkalak
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Post by vrkalak on Jan 31, 2021 0:14:05 GMT
Chuck, Richie Cunningham’s older brother, was written out of the show after S1.
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Post by bravomailer on Jan 31, 2021 5:36:53 GMT
Perhaps a bit OT but Gunsmoke changed the sidekicks to Marshal Dillon - Dennis Weaver and Ken Curtis. Burt Reynolds was in there too.
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Post by amyghost on Jan 31, 2021 11:55:28 GMT
The worst 'Oliver' move ever, IMO, was when the producers replaced Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers with Danielle Brisebois as spunky 'n' cute lil' Stephanie on All in the Family. Granted, the show trotted in several other lame substitutes to fill the hole in the nest when Reiner and Struthers departed beforehand, but the move of using a child (who was Jewish, so Archie gets to have his prejudices tempered by an adorable moppet, no less) to be adopted by Archie and Edith was just a truly awful decision...AitF pretty much shark-jumped with that move; and it wasn't long after that the series morphed into the mediocre 'Archie Bunker's Place'.
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Post by Prime etc. on Jan 31, 2021 17:59:58 GMT
Chuck, Richie Cunningham’s older brother, was written out of the show after S1. He went up the stairs and never came down. I read that in the reunion special they did-at the very end of it Tom Bosley says in mock bewilderment, "where's Chuck?"
I totally forgot about that replacement character for My Three Sons or the kid on All in the Family.
I remember Archie Bunker's Place had a very different tone. How about Maverick? Isn't Roger Moore a literal cousin Oliver?
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Post by marianne48 on Jan 31, 2021 18:21:32 GMT
The saddest thing about Chuck Cunningham was that in the series finale, Howard mentions that the Cunninghams had two children. So it wasn*t that Chuck just moved away or went into the military or anything else; he just ceased to exist. Unless Howard disowned him for some reason.
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Post by bravomailer on Jan 31, 2021 18:34:52 GMT
There was the "evil twin" routine. The first might have been Serena, sister of Samantha. She looks like Joan Jett.  |
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autumn
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Post by autumn on Jan 31, 2021 19:34:14 GMT
There was the "evil twin" routine. The first might have been Serena, sister of Samantha. She looks like Joan Jett. When she was married to William Asher (of Bewitched), they used to play around, and she'd dress up as Serena and go out to dinner or to hotels, and she'd act as Serena and roleplay for fun. He said she was always a lot of fun to be around.
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vrkalak
Sophomore
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Post by vrkalak on Jan 31, 2021 21:36:56 GMT
Speaking of My Three Sons, the character Dodie (Dawn Lyn), that was added in S10(I believe)was pretty irritating.
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Post by Catman on Jan 31, 2021 22:17:23 GMT
One of the first shows to pull the double ¨Cousin Oliver" stunt: Star Trek: The Next Generation replaced Doctor Crusher (Gates McFadden) with Doctor Pulaski (Diana Muldaur) for season 2, then replaced Pulaski with Crusher for the remainder of the series.
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Post by novastar6 on Feb 1, 2021 0:10:42 GMT
The worst 'Oliver' move ever, IMO, was when the producers replaced Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers with Danielle Brisebois as spunky 'n' cute lil' Stephanie on All in the Family. Granted, the show trotted in several other lame substitutes to fill the hole in the nest when Reiner and Struthers departed beforehand, but the move of using a child (who was Jewish, so Archie gets to have his prejudices tempered by an adorable moppet, no less) to be adopted by Archie and Edith was just a truly awful decision...AitF pretty much shark-jumped with that move; and it wasn't long after that the series morphed into the mediocre 'Archie Bunker's Place'.
I liked Stephanie.
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Post by Jayman on Feb 1, 2021 18:13:10 GMT
Speaking of My Three Sons, the character Dodie (Dawn Lyn), that was added in S10(I believe)was pretty irritating. she was really annoying. I don’t know what they were thinking there |
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Post by amyghost on Feb 5, 2021 16:32:27 GMT
The worst 'Oliver' move ever, IMO, was when the producers replaced Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers with Danielle Brisebois as spunky 'n' cute lil' Stephanie on All in the Family. Granted, the show trotted in several other lame substitutes to fill the hole in the nest when Reiner and Struthers departed beforehand, but the move of using a child (who was Jewish, so Archie gets to have his prejudices tempered by an adorable moppet, no less) to be adopted by Archie and Edith was just a truly awful decision...AitF pretty much shark-jumped with that move; and it wasn't long after that the series morphed into the mediocre 'Archie Bunker's Place'.
I liked Stephanie.
Brisebois herself wasn't bad, it was just that the Oliver move, especially in the context of what AitF had been, was just misplaced and added nothing to the show. Of all the sitcoms that didn't require a cute child fixture, All in the Family had to be right near the top of the list.
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Post by millar70 on Feb 6, 2021 0:03:24 GMT
Another great example of a "Cousin Oliver" stunt was on Family Ties, when they had the Keatons have another baby. I think Jennifer, the youngest child at that point, was just beginning high school when the writers did this.
And not only that, but the "baby" magically aged about 5 years in between two seasons, and was suddenly getting more lines and airtime than Michael J Fox! 😂😂😂
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Post by Jayman on Feb 6, 2021 3:35:59 GMT
The thing is, I don't think it ever works. Also Ricki on the partridge family.
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