Partly inspired by the "The Lana Lang Effect", this is the thread for main characters/stars of the shows with the worst written storylines on air. If you are the main star (or one of them) of a certain show, and you have the WORST story which makes people hate you, there is something wrong.

Biggest example: Susan Meyer on Desperate Housewives. Last year, she was an important figure in the main mystery. Now, she gets stupid stories which have her falling down all of the time. The latest story has her worrying about a wandering spleen. "Wandering spleen"? The heck? Between that and the lame "who's my father?" story, and it's no wonder that both Susan and Teri Hatcher get no respect. While there are 4 women, she was treated as the star. Now, she is the one with these stories, so no one can buy her as the star.

Another example: Meredith Grey on Grey's Anatomy. As the star of the show, she supposed to have the most interesting story. Instead, she is in one of the worst triangles in the history of television. What the heck?

Dawson Leery belongs here for the reason of his character having nothing to do but whine about his film career and various girlfriends. He was the star of the show (Dawson's Creek), but he also was trapped in a triangle from hell.

Cordelia Chase on Angel. For some unknown reason the writers spent all of S4 dumping on the character. They gave her amnesia, turned her evil, had her sleep with her boyfriend's son, and even more creepy, make out with a hell beast, then they put her in a coma and dumped her in a hospital.

Ross Gellar. First they have him sleep with the copy woman, something that never sat well with me, then he dates a college student.

Xander Harris: I suppose the main queston is "What storyline?". He was given virtually nothing to do for the last 4 seasons of Buffy. Except ditch Anya at the alter, because he can't think of any way out if things go bad. Starts with "Div", ends in "orse". You'll get it any second now.

But they were on a break!

Kerry Weaver from ER. Her last big season was S7 when she came out as gay, and since then she's hardly had a storyline and the ones she does have - break up/make up with Sandy/I'm pregnant...oh no I'm not/Sandy's baby, bye bye Sandy, oh look a crap custody battle, the outcome we could have predicted from the moment Sandy croaked - and even when she does get stories, she still doesn't get screentime.

Kirsten Cohen: This year her big storyline is a matchmaking service with Julie Cooper-Nichol!? Come on. She just got out of rehab, she lost her father, she is trying to reconnect with her family and the writers think it would be interesting for her to be Julie's lame sidekick (notwithstanding Julie tried to frame Ryan for attempted murder. WTF?). The writers have made her into a fragile and purposeless character. What happened to the confident business women who lived for work and family?

One could make the argument that all the folks on Lost belong in this category, except for maybe Waaaaaaaalt, who is comfortably chilling out in the jungle and playing us all.

Crossing Jordan's Jordan- Seriously, when has a show's title character so blatantly become a supporting player on their own series as here?

"Oh, my god! If you say that one more time, I'm going break up with you!"
Sorry, couldn't resist ;-) I agree, though, that they gave Ross crappy storylines.

Another I could add would be Rory Gilmore, what with her dropping out of Yale because someone finally dared to criticize her, then stealing a boat, losing her virginity to her married ex-boyfriend, and generally being a slacker. I could go on, but I won't.

Sayid on Lost. He's such an interesting character, but his storyline is that he falls in "love" with the shallow, spoiled blond girl and then she dies? Seriously, WTF? Also, (with the exception of last week's ep) he's gotten about 5 minutes of screen time total for the entire season. Also, they've given him really boring, stupid flashbacks. They can't come up with anything better for a former Iraqi soldier/torturer? Please.
Maybe that's what the Island sickness is: interesting characters are ignored while we get a disproportionate amount of Jack/Kate/Charlie episodes. Bleh.

Speaking of Shannon, she and Boone had a crap storyline too. Pseudo incest? That actually had some potential to be interesting. But then they both died.

To be fair regarding Sayid/Shannon, I think that aborted relationship was more a result of Maggie Grace getting movie roles and asking to be let out of her contract.

Aforementioned, Dawson? I never watched this show (caught one episode) but from all that I've read and heard, it seems as if he was a supporter rather than the lead. But I may be wrong.

Carrie Bradshaw ... somewhere around the whole Aiden fiasco, she went from relatable-yet-quirky-girl-you'd-always-want-to-be-friends-with to an annoying and self-absorbed bitch who dresses like a crack-whore and is totally out of touch with reality. I don't think it was intentional, but it totally happened. I relish the scene where Stanford calls her out on her bullshit - "I've been listening to you for seven blocks and ... seven YEARS!" Hee.

WORD! His relationships/dates/whatever were just so dumb after awhile it was like, "Enough already."

Which turned out to be a waste since The Fog while not exactly a box office failure, was a bad movie.

Word word word!

Oh yeah, two "words": Dawson. Leery.

Dawson Leery owns this thread. That show really should have been named something else.

Charles Gunn gets my vote. Useful player for the first three seasons, pathetic loser with nothing to do but get super brain surgery for the last two..

The fact that Jetjat could honestly think that Dawson was a supporting character rather than the central locus is IMO proof of how far off-base that show went.

Buffy Summers. We went from feeling her every hope and dream and tragedy to the point where the character's internal life was so ignored that we never knew how she felt about having her ex-boyfriend try to rape her. Instead we see said ex-boyfriend angst and whine and tell Buffy she's a masochist, proclaim himself Buffy's One True Friend and become the savior of all mankind. Bite me.

It is hard to believe how far Susan has fallen this season. Even stories like her finding her father were treated as complete fluff in the framework of the overall episode. I hope they give her some better material soon; the love triangle is a little better than the spleen but Edie vs. Susan is been there/done that territory.

I'd also put in Bree from DH. I think she along with Susan was the 'main' character for Season 1 and this year it has been 101 in character assassination with wildly OOC stories: have her engaged to the weirdo who killed her husband just weeks after his death, raped while unconscious, insulted by her children regularly, turn into an alcoholic, pass out on her lawn overnight, get blackmailed by Betty, etc. it's endless [although Bree/Betty may turn into something really good, I'll admit]. And why? Because Marc Cherry has mother issues and needs to torture her through the Andrew character [aka the ideal Marc Cherry in his own fantasy] and the storyline itself. Pathetic, it is; and one of the reasons why the show has been such a crapfest lately.

Do you mean when George drugged her? Given that her clothing was still in pristine condition when she came to, I wouldn't think that George did anything except sit and wait for her to wake up.

Also from Friends: Joey and Phoebe used to have plots that were the main A- or B- storyline, but later on they became saddled with C-storylines that were profoundly stupid and ridiculous. Joey's hand-twin plot in Vegas for example, and Phoebe's plot about taking headache medicine and being worried about the side-effects.

Seriously, her whole plot was about taking an aspirin! I guess Phoebe eventually got some lead status back with Mike, but her love triangle never ended on a cliffhanger, and they completely dropped all plots about Phoebe and her family--Ursula, Frank Jr. and Alice, the triplets, the birthmom, and the runaway dad Frank Sr. She never got her own clip show either, when others got multiples.

Cress, the reason the triplet story was pretty much dropped was because the actors who played Frank and Alice had become famous, or had a recurring role in another show (That 70's show for Debra). It would have been hard for the writers to incorporate the twins without the parents, although they did try once (when phoebe has to babysit the twins).

Luke Danes, from Gilmore Girls. He has a 12 year-old daughter that he never knew about. He went from being an amazing guy, to a guy who doesn't realize that he's hurting his fiancee. Now many of us want to beat him up.

Except, I never think of Luke as a main character.

Ryan Atwood from The OC. He started the show as a bright, but troubled kid who couldn't control his anger and who struggled to belong in a society that wasn't anything he was used to.

Now...he's kind of a bland cookie-cutter character who's only role is to react off of Marissa, Seth, or whoever else happens to be on screen with him.

While I think the main characters of Gilmore Girls are Lorelai and Rory, Luke has a greater part than other supporting characters such as Sookie. And he as been in like all but two episodes.

Meredith Grey from Grey's Anatomy. Absolutely everyone on the show--even the local bartender and her dog--are more interesting than Meredith. She meets man, she falls in love with man, she loses man and then proceeds to whine about it for a half a season. We don't know what motivates Meredith to be a surgeon, have a life or even get out of bed in the morning.

They call her 'Meh' on the GA thread, and I quite agree. Her show got hijacked by Sandra Oh, Chandra Wilson and Kate Walsh. I honestly forget this is a show about her until the title credits come on.

Phear the Phi, I know that the actors got famous, but they did bring Frank Jr. back once, with the triplets. Also, Phoebe once mentioned Alice having a sister, so they could always cast someone to be Alice's sister dropping off the triplets or whatever.

Phoebe should have at least mentioned the Buffays, or her birth mom, during her wedding, but we got zip. And it would have cost nothing to bring back Ursula for one last reunion.

Ally MacBeal and the daughter from the donated egg. What was that all about? Stupid! Same with Billy getting all wierd, dying his hair, having Robert Palmer girls follow him around and then die of cancer. I know the actor wanted out to pursue other opportunities, but they could have done it differently. I know the show was "quirky", but these were just bad ideas.

I know I had more, but I'm blanking right now. Apparently I can only keep so many things in my brain at once.

The absolute stupidist Friends storyline involving these two was when Phoebe tried to teach Joey French. His stupidity went beyond annoying to cringe-worthy. It was truly embarassing. An F-storyline, to be sure.

I have to say a big fat Word. the size of the Hollywood sign, there Dispatcherbert.

I remember watching that epsiode open mouthed as they repeated the same lame-ass joke something like 5 times within 20 minutes. Awful, awful, awful.

Same goes for the Identical Hand Twin 'joke' that someone mentioned further up the thread.

Eliza Jane wasn't a main character until the end of LHOP the last season especially, but she falls head over heels for a married teacher that couldn't care less about her at all.
Has a pretty nice guy falls for her, but she doesn’t get to go out with him.

Then she falls for another guy who dates her for a little while but then dumps her for another woman.

She was a sad lonely person, and IIRC in real-life she never did marry, but they were terrible to her on the show they drug her emotions all over the place!

The writers changed pretty much everything on LHOP anyway; they could have let her and Mort get together at least.

Nicolette Sheridan owns this thread. I just got word that they are bringing in YET another housewife for a new story next season. It's unfair that she has no story, and yet all these new people are dominating airtime. We know very little about Edie at all.

I would have to say Clark from Smallville. The series is supposed to be about him but from the looks of things, it seems to be more about Lana and her flatter than a pancake parents.

I would have to say Clark from Smallville. I say this because it seems as though Lana gets most of the storylines.

Examples:
-Lana becomes a drug addict to see her dead parents
-Lana gets possessed by a witch ancestor
-etc

I thought Edie was just a supporting character, not even really a 'main' housewife and is there to get the B and C plots.



I agree, Meredith would be cool if they made her be. They should give us a reason to care about her besides everything you listed. The writing people made a mistake by getting her and McDreamy together so quickly. If they wanted to make it about Derek, than maybe this would work. Meredith's basically a cypher (?) on her own show.

Hm, IMO, many of the characters brought up on this thread so far are arguably supporting players, not main characters ( Sayid, Gunn, Xander, Edie, etc).

Are we talking about main characters who just don't get as much as airtime as other ensemble players or main characters with dreadful storylines that take up a lot of airtime and therefore ruin our love of the character? If it's the second, then I have to agree that Susan from DH is my pick so far. They've run her Ally McBeal-esque quirky-cuteness into the ground with this current spleen plot.

Sam and Rebecca's baby storyline on Cheers definitely qualifies for this thread. Here you have two main characters that were slowly fading into the background on their own show, so TPTB give them this ridiculous plot where they agree to have a baby together even though they aren't in love and don't ever plan to be a couple. It was extremely OOC for both of them--Rebecca was such a basketcase that she should never have children anyway, and it seemed like Sam's desire to have a kid just came out of nowhere. Then after torturing the audience for several episodes with this unrealistic and uninteresting story, TPTB drop it, just like that. Then Sam and Rebecca went back to being exactly what they had been before: supporting characters on their own show.

I also hated Rachel's "Joshua" storyline on Friends. She (and the show) wasted all that energy chasing this guy who wasn't interested in a relationship in the first place, when we knew she was really in love with Ross all along. It just seemed like a contrivance to keep her away from Ross until he got engaged to Emily and then she could "realize" that she was still in love with him.

Actually, she married twice in real life. She had a son named Wilder with her first husband. She remarried after he passed away, then later divorced that husband.

Or the other title for this thread: The OC. :-)

Joan, from Joan of Arcadia. In the second season, all she got to do was have an obligatory drawn-out boringass angst-filled relationship with her boyfriend. And, of course, play mentor to the Duff sisters.

vengeful iago: Agreed. Another thing with season 2: wasn't too fond of Luke becoming Grace's new boyfriend, even though it was unexpected and kinda cool at first. From then on, all of Luke's storylines were about Grace. But coming to think of it, his first season storylines were all about being ignored by his family. So maybe he never got that much to do in the first place. Grace was a bit ignored too, but at least she got to have an alcoholic mother etc. There was something that wasn't all about Luke.

Already mentioned upthread, Ally McBeal went from being the centre of the whole show to being, not a secondary character exactly, but only one of the main characters, while Richard and John and the new ppl were given more screentime. I heard that was because of Calista Flockhart's eating disorder and having less energy to participate, but then the show should have been OVER by then anyway because it had gotten idiotic pretty much right after season 2. So I'd say all storylines with all characters were bad by then. But especially the daughter storyline, it just simply didn't work out in any way.

ETA: How could I forget - Lynette Scavo. Her first season storylines were always about her children. Getting a nanny, husband having sexual feelings for nanny, being tired because of the kids, taking their medication, generally feeling like a bad mom, etc. etc. She never got to do anything very exciting, and even her non-child storyline about the old neighbor was really about nurturing someone. Mind you, I haven't seen season 2 yet, so maybe they rectified her in some way, but she really seems like a one-note character to me.

Some of the main characters on Lost have become recurring characters on the show. Heck, some even disappear for weeks on end. Whenever they get episodes, I feel that it's more become the writers have to come up with some reason for why they are still there.

Libby didn't even get a story.

I agree. I just watched him get worse and worse by the end of Angel.



Also agreed. The whole point of Smallville was suppose to be about Clark Kent. Instead we get a story about a girl who's whole existance is to sponge of a town that she wanted to get out of in the first place. "Every story has a beginning" rings true but not for the person that TPTB claimed it was for. Lana has become central to story that was never about her.

ER's Kerry Weaver, who has been regular cast since the third season, was an integral part of the second season.

She now shows up every three episodes to shout for 30 seconds and leaves or alternatively, have two of the most important things about her, her disability and her search for her birth mother pissed away in virtually a single episode each and not even in the same season. These are supposed to be her arcs for the eleventh and twelfth seasons. Arc? Yet right.

Pathetic!

But isn't the reason we don't see Kerry every episode because Laura Innes wanted to do more directing?

My pick is Will, on Will & Grace. He never got any, while Grace slutted around everywhere.

Also, the parents on Family Ties, as they were originally intended to be the leads but got overshadowed by the kids.

I completely agree. In the second season, where was her character going? What were her goals? What was driving her? The answers are no where, nothing, and...nothing. It is hard to get behind a main character when you just watch her drift around aimlessly, not learning anything, not growing, and not even bothering to try.

I agree about Dawson and Clark Kent. True, Dawson was never exactly appealing, but the actor playing him suffered because he had to share the screen with Joshua Jackson, who could out-charm him in his sleep. His character suffered because they writers/producers decided that Joey Potter was the best thing evah and the world should revolve around her. Clark Kent was a lovable duff played by Tom Welling who couldn't quite keep up with Michael Rosenbaum or John Glover in the acting game, but his character was a good-hearted kid and he had enough charm. Then (again) the writers/producers decided that the world should revolve around Lana Lang because she is the bestest thing evah and they turned their "hero" into a shiftless asshat.

True, but its more than that, its when she IS on the screen she doesn't contribute anything and rarely tells a story of her own, which is terribly wasteful, of money and everybody's time.

Chandler & Monica on Friends. They were never seen in season 8 and it was slightly better in S9 and S10 but they still didn't get anywhere near their fair share of stories.

President Bartlet circa Seasons 5, 6, and 7 owns this thread. He was the friggin President of the United States and played by my man Martin Sheen. Yet he was hardly there (probably 4 episodes a season) and when he was there he was shell of the man he used to be.

I know the title of the this thread is Susan Meyer, but she earned her bad storylines, but you know, sucking and being such an unpaletable fame whore that it was impossible to divorce the character from the actress. But, I ask you, how did President Bartlet and Martin Sheen earn that kind of disrespect?