Critical Characters

CC are people that are a part of a show that one identifies with or sees the show through their eyes. It could be the star but more likely a side character. For example...

All in the Family- Mike
House- Wilson
Star Trek- Spock
Dexter- Deb
TNG- Data
Night Court- Kinda iffy on this one. Bull or Dan
Cheers- Dianne
Farscape- John Crichton- Yeah the lead character but everything else is foreign.
Big Bang- Penny

As with all things not mathematical these are open to interpretation. But you get the idea. A yin to the sows yang. If they are removed the show suffers. With them there's spice. All shows need spice. Deb in Dexter is a good example. Once she changed, became aware of his proclivities the show, which was slipping, went to hell. There was no yang.

Thoughts?

Soap- Benson

But does the theory work on non-American shows?

Skins- sid
Family guy- stewie

E.T. every government agent...

2018 Lost in Space (Netflix)
Critical character (for me!)..... Judy Robinson

The audience surrogate. The character that is basically the viewing audience. The stand in for the viewers, who asks all the questions that the viewer would ask, and gets everything explained to them.

"Why are we explaining the intricacies of our future society to someone born into it."

"They are an android with a broken logic chip who has been in a coma for the past 300 years"

"Mr. Holmes why are you narrating out loud your every inner thought on how the crime was committed"

"Because I have this nincompoop Watson tagging along and I need to explain everything in detail so his little brain will understand."

originally posted by: DISRAELI
Soap- Benson

But does the theory work on non-American shows?

Red Dwarf and Kryten perhaps?

originally posted by: DISRAELI
Soap- Benson

But does the theory work on non-American shows?

Yup. Farscape was Aussie.

Just wait until NCIS doesn't have Abby. I don't even watch the show, but I'm fully aware she's like one of the most liked characters of all time.

I think Sheldon is much more critical to Big Bang Theory though... Really, the whole cast, but it wasn't always so. Before the gals came along, the show was still a hit, and you could replace Penny with a new love interest as long as you didn't lose the core 4 guys. Not that I don't love Penny though....

Cheers is an interesting case too. So many great cast members, that even when the show was without Dianne, as long as there was some foil for Sam, it still worked.

I also love the characters that were intended to be short-lived, but ended up becoming integral to the show. Bernadette and Amy from Big Bang, Norm and Cliff from Cheers, for example.

Caitlyn from Airwolf was a real victory....hard to do on a "babe of the week" show....(pretty much what I called shows like A-Team, Riptide, BJ & The Bear, Dukes of Hazzard, etc. where they saved a damsel in distress that week. Catherine Bach is a far cry from Daisy Duke these days...but in person, she's funny crazy. The two Dukes are still handsome as hell...the bastards.