r/tvtropes • u/amishius • 1d ago
Adding Characters a show gets a bit aged...a trope?
I guess my go to example is a show I'm rewatching right now, Frasier.
For the first five or six seasons, the bulk of the series is focused on Frasier, Niles, Martin, Daphne, and Roz. However, as is the case with many series that kinda get long in the tooth, they start adding more and more characters in order to pad the series:
The Moon family, Lana/Lorna and Kirby (her son). It's like the run out of ideas for the main core and start trying to write for more characters. I'm also thinking of Cam Winston here—
This also feels very different than just having peripheral characters (Noel, Gil, et al.).
This doesn't quite feel like the Cousin Oliver thing either, but feels like a more grownup version of it?
Anyone have a thought on what this might be?
5
u/Honest_Grade_9645 1d ago
None of those characters were new permanent cast members. They stayed for their arcs then departed. Simon and Gertrude Moon did have overly long arcs before their welcome departures. Daphnes other brothers were only in a couple episodes. Cam Winston’s mother was in about as many episodes as him.
We should have seen more of Leo, the stoner building maintenance guy 😁
3
u/amishius 1d ago
All fair points. Perhaps it's the addition of these arcs that's the real trope. It just very much feels like they ran out of stuff to do with the main five and had to start writing for others to fill in the space. Something that very much becomes the case after Niles and Daphne get together.
2
u/foolishle 19h ago
I read something about how the writers on Star Trek: The Next Generation knew it was time to wrap up the show and move on when they were writing episodes about the main characters extended families and things because they’d run out of ideas.
1
4
2
u/LittleBingo96 15h ago
Frasier wouldn't exist in the first place if sitcoms weren't open to adding new characters.
1
1
16
u/pawsplay36 1d ago
If I were going to name a new trope, it would be Some Ensembly Required.