Cousin Oliver Syndrome is the well worn TV sitcom trope of introducing a younger character to the cast of a show in it’s later years as a desperate attempt to add life to a show that had grown a bit long in the tooth. This addition can be successful (like with the addition of Olivia to THE COSBY SHOW) or it can be disastrous like the list that I have put together after the jump. This sitcom trope gets it name from the character introduced in the last season of THE BRADY BUNCH. Cousin Oliver was a horrid addition to the show and never contributed anything of value, instead serving to drive a dagger into the heart of a show that was already on life support. Don’t believe me? Click onward and take a look for yourself.
Just terrible.
Now on to the characters I consider to be the worst of the worst.
Great idea for a post & v. cool clips – thanks 🙂
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Thanks for stopping by!
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I enjoyed the story. I would have had it that girl on All in the Family. By the way possessive pronouns don’t have apostrophes. Should be its instead of it’s.
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Let’s not forget Scrappy Doo…yes a cartoon character, but single handedly ruined one of the greatest cartoons ever 🙃
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Scrappy Doo was indeed the worst.
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Let’s not forget Chrissy on Growing Pains. She was a pee poor excuse of a child actor and adding her brought down the show. She was one of the worst sharks ever jumped.
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April on Gilmore Girls, total Cousin Oliver
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I never watched Gilmore Girls (its on my list of shows to catch up on) so I did a quick YouTube search and watched the a couple April scenes and you are right. The character was awful and fit all of the Cousin Oliver criteria.
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Gilmore Girls was popular with the girls in the first place guys watched it to keep the peace
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This one is a tad bit recent, out of all the 90’s TV hubbub, but…Kimi from Nickelodeon’s Rugrats. Dil’s addition was cool and all, but once they went off to Paris, the show went off the deep end.
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THat is a good one. I should probably start researching more recent examples…I might have a sequel to this post just waiting to be written.
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I didn’t like Kimi on Rugrats, either. This isn’t exactly COS, but hated it when Lily was born on Step by Step. I felt like her being born was the show giving up. Cody getting booted and Jean-Luc showing up as a replacement was the final nail in the coffin for me. If it’s not someone showing up to keep the show alive, it’s a baby being born.
Completely agree about 3J on Family Matters, but that show jumped the shark long before then. Seven is rightfully #1 on this list, too.
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I doubt there will ever be any character that will surpass Seven when it comes to disastrously bad idea casting on a TV show.
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Easily Married With Children’s roughest patch. I was watching the whole series, then abruptly stopped shorty after his introduction.
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You are right. I don’t get what the folks behind the show were thinking with the addition of Seven. Married With Children was not a conventional sitcom so to try and shoehorn a conventional sitcom gimmick into the show was just dumb.
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Dodie – “My Three Sons”
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Oh you are going back! LOL!
I didn’t have many problems with Dodie though.
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Except M3S lasted tree seasons with Dodi … turns out she wasn’t a Cousin Oliver after all. That show even tried triplets and kept on keepin’ on – nothing could kill it.
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The author needs to learn how to use apostrophes.
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The author would accept the grammar lesson if you would care to point out where the apostrophe’s were misused.
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I don’t believe anyone noticed or cares if there was any grammar
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How about Sam McKinney from Diff’rent Strokes? To me he was the 2nd worst example of COS behind Ricky from The Partridge Family, maybe worse because he lasted for the last 2 1/2 seasons of the show, where Ricky was gone after 10 episodes.
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Ricky was the spawn of hell though. His few appearances felt like hundreds.
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Scrappy Doo
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Even as a little kid I hated Scrappy Doo. He may be the most unnecessary character ever created.
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Actually before Scrappy was created ABC was going to cancel Scooby Doo, so Scrappy saved the show, but the creators overused his character, so to keep the fans happy, they made him a villian in the Scooby Doo movie. Honestly, Scrappy was my favourite, I have no idea why so many people hate him.
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I totally agree…even as a little kid I despised him…I want to punch him right in his stupid face 🤓
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Nicky from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
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I checked out of Fresh Prince pretty early on so I don’t even know who Nicky is. Was that Uncle Phil and Aunt Viv’s kid?
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Yes. He was a baby for a season, then they felt they needed to do a time jump so he suddenly became 5 years old. He ruined the show for me.
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I still don’t understand the TV show mindset that adding small children to an existing show somehow makes things magically better.
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Randy on that 70’s show in the last season, just awful.
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Was he the Eric replacement? I bailed on the show when Topher Grace left so I missed all of the post-Eric awfulness.
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No Stephanie from All In The Family?
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I used to watch All In The Family reruns when I was a young lad and I developed quite the crush on Stephanie. Plus All In The Family was losing its luster before she showed up.
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Dodie on My Three Sons was, oddly enough, Lief Garrett’s sister. Don’t think about it too much. Cuzzin Oliverism goes all the way back to I Love Lucy. Also it hit All in the Family twice, Gloria and Meathead had a baby, then later Stephanie showed up. But she turned out cool and had an album, Arrive All Over You. Think about it.
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Cool bit of TV history. Thanks for sharing!
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Both “Family Ties” and “Growing Pains” had new babies at the same time, one a boy and the other a girl, who aged rapidly so they could be cutesie-pie quicker. Same with “Step by Step.” One of the worst was “My Three Sons” addition of step-daughter Dodie, as bad an actress as Seven was an actor.
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Your comment made me run to Youtube to see just how awful this Dodie character actually was and I have to agree with you. She was terrible and her insertion into the 3 episodes I watched seemed to be incredibly forced. It was painful to watch.
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Cara Lynn, on Big Love too.
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I only watched the first season of Big Love so I must have missed that character.
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Joey on ” All in the Family” was never an instance of COS. It was a logical progression. I mean, was he ever even old enough to speak?
Stephanie, however…retch.
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Penny on “Good Times” and Alex on “One Day at a Time”
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I actually have fond memories of Penny on Good Times.
Alex on One Day At A Time was pretty bad though.
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Penny on Good Times was played by Janet Jackson, I believe. I just watched some Dixie from My Three Sons….I remember the show, but fortunately missed her. Painful lol
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Dodie
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Even though it’s a movie franchise, BB8 is nothing but COS.
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