Sitcoms are one of the most popular TV formats, thanks to the long-term, family-friendly and light-hearted comedy with broad appeal. These shows follow the lives and misadventures of various casts of characters in different settings, with casts of families, friends and coworkers. The sitcom is one of the most enduring types of show and captures fans for life with high nostalgia value.
The sitcom isn't without its flaws, and many shows have suffered due to small things. Sometimes, just a single controversial character was enough to radically impact whole episodes, seasons and story arcs.
earned a reputation as one of Britain's greatest comedies of all time, thanks to its brilliant on-screen chemistry between its characters. The show followed the small crew of Lister, Rimmer, Kryten, and Cat as they explored deep space millions of years away from Earth.
However, the series took a sharp turn in the seventh season, when Rimmer departed and Lister's old flame, Kochanski, joined the crew. Rimmer had been a brilliant foil to Lister, and his replacement left much to be desired, Kochanski just couldn't fill his shoes, leaving the crew dynamic feeling off.
As a spinoff of , followed Cleveland Brown after his departure from Quahog to his hometown of Stoolbend, Virginia. It focused on his new life with his new family and friends, and the various misadventures he got himself into.
The reality is Cleveland's solo outing left a lot to be desired in both his show and . It wasn't so much that Cleveland himself was controversial, but splitting him off from Peter and the gang was.
followed the Barone family in their Long Island community, where Ray juggled his wife and kids with work and his parents.
Ray's brother, Robert, struggled to find love but later met Amy. Her family, however, made things difficult.
Amy's brother, Peter, annoyed fans from the beginning. The caricature of a comic book fan, Peter came across as a creepy and seedy guy who took his self-loathing out on others. He wasn't a main character, but his presence almost always haunted the episodes in which he featured.
may be one of the most successful animated sitcoms of all time, but it has always struggled with the character of Meg. The eldest of the Griffin children, Meg started out as a fairly bland, unremarkable character whose main problem was mediocre writing.
However, as the series progressed, Meg is often the butt of the joke for no real reason. Each passing season has made Meg a more unlikable character, leaving fans with the question of why she's still a mainstay character at all.
was a mockumentary satirical show made in the same style as . It followed the staff of a small town Parks Department. One of the staff members, Tom Haverford, is remembered as particularly troublesome.
Tom used every opportunity for shameless self-promotion, even to the point of sabotaging his friends just in the hopes of establishing himself as a brand.
There were few instances where Tom showed class, and he would hijack otherwise good scenes with his attempt at self-marketing.
slapstick character, Cosmo Kramer, served as the show's lovable goofball who was always trying to bring Jerry in on his schemes. However, for many fans of the show, the slapstick routine didn't stick the landing.
. An infamous racial remark by Michael Richards at a comedy club quickly overshadowed the actor's iconic role and made his character more difficult for fans to enjoy in the aftermath. For many, the incident was the tipping point in their opinion of the character.
as most controversial character, that distinction actually falls to Amy Farrah Fowler. Although she started out as a clear-cut female counterpart to Sheldon, the show's middling seasons showed her in a different light.
From Seasons 5 to 8, Amy was written closer to Howard Wolowitz than she was to Sheldon, right when Howard's character arc had matured. This left her as the "creepy" member of the cast, and she would do controversial things like be sexually suggestive towards Penny and push Sheldon's boundaries. Many fans found it hard to root for Amy to stick around when she would so often be a source of conflict in the group.
Walden's inclusion in wasn't as much of a problem as what it represented: the loss of Charlie Sheen from the cast. Sheen had been the main pull for the series from the pilot through the next eight seasons, and his break from the show alienated a huge segment of the audience.
For many fans, there are actually two versions of the Charlie seasons and the Walden ones. Walden lacked what Charlie had brought to the table, and traded in the older dynamic of the sleazy brother next to the family man with an awkward and hapless billionaire. Not to mention the fact that Alan's presence in the house became an increasingly unbelievable aspect of the show.
was one of the best TV series of the 2010s, thanks to its great combination of the sitcom and police procedural. As great as the show was, it wasn't without its issues. One of the show's biggest flaws was the character Gina Linetti.
Gina's presence at the precinct was nothing short of irritating. While her job was supposedly an assistant, she contributed very little to either the characters or the story. Instead, she would derail stories through random and quirky humor or ideas, but it almost always fell flat. Having her be the assistant to the no-nonsense Captain Holt began to feel out of place.
, were never mainstay characters on , their arrival in the eighth and ninth seasons completely derailed the show. While Simon's drunken antics annoyed fans, Gertrude's presence pushed them over the edge, making Daphne the only Moon they wanted to stay on the show.
Gertrude became a constant source of annoyance, both for the characters and the audience. Whether it was her shamelessly coming between Niles and Daphne (one of TV's most anticipated couples) or sabotaging Martin's relationships, the Moons ruined almost two full seasons of the show.
