39,327
edits
Cousin Oliver: Difference between revisions
update links
(rm excess ungrammatical words) |
(update links) |
||
Line 6:
Cousin Oliver is that inexplicable kid added to the show's roster, usually in an attempt to liven up an aging cast with a character the younger demographics can ([[Totally Radical|supposedly]]) relate to. However, such a character is likely to upset the dynamic of the show. And since their only character trait is to be cute and innocently wisecracking, it's far too easy for them to become overbearing and annoying to viewers, especially the ones who have followed the series for a while, making Cousin Olivers very susceptible to becoming [[The Scrappy]].
Sometimes they're introduced at the end of a character's season-long pregnancy arc. Once the new baby hijinks are up, they are then afflicted with [[Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome]]. This doesn't always make it better. Compare [[Kid Appeal Character]], who is generally there from the beginning. If the addition is a literal cousin, also [[Nephewism]].
Often a form of [[Jumping the Shark]].
Line 53:
* Andy and Pippa on ''[[The Facts of Life]]''.
* In ''[[Family Matters]]'' the Winslows adopted 3J, a streetwise little orphan. Since there already was a kid in the show, little Richie, they merged into a single split-personality Cousin Oliver ("Maybe we shouldn't do this." "Oh, come on, it'll be fun!").
* Joey Lawrence for ''[[Gimme A Break]]''. The Lawrence kids made a cottage industry of being a Cousin Oliver.
* Penny from ''[[Good Times]]''. Introduced to give Willona someone to care for, since the Evans kids weren't really kids anymore.
* ''[[Growing Pains]]'' had two: Chrissy, the youngest Seaver daughter, and then later Leonardo Dicaprio's homeless-kid character.
* ''[[Little House on the Prairie (TV series)|Little House On the Prairie]]'''s final seasons featured a hilarious number of random "adorable" orphans shoehorned into the Little House after the original kids left home. Albert (adopted off the streets of the Big City), James and his sister Cassandra (parents killed in a wagon crash), Jenny (left on Laura's doorstep by her dying brother-in-law), etc. This is despite the show ''already'' having two younger Ingalls sisters in Carrie and Grace. Oddly enough, as more than one fan has remarked in alarm, Pa Ingalls never did build an addition onto his two-room shanty.
** Not to mention the Olesons' adoption of street urchin Nancy, [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute|who just happens to look and act a lot like Nellie]]. This is a mild subversion, in that Nancy is added to be the ''[[Alpha Bitch]]'' as opposed to a beacon of cuteness. Even more interesting, this is an invoked example—Harriett Oleson deliberately adopted the brattiest, most misbehaved child in the local orphanage to replace Nellie.
*** Incidently, Jenny, introduced a year after Nancy, may have been made the age she was in order to have a little girl around Nancy's age to butt heads with.
* ''[[Married... with Children]]'' had Seven, who started as a Cousin Oliver (since both "children" were college-aged). The character proved so unpopular with viewers that after one season he became a [[Brother Chuck]] when he was removed with absolutely no explanation (though he had his [[Face on a Milk Carton]] for [[Lampshade Hanging]] effect).
Line 65:
** For some reason, the creators find it necessary to shoehorn young kids into their movies. The aforementioned Justin was introduced in the ''Turbo'' movie, but he has a predecessor in Fred from the ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' movie, who got nearly the same amount of screentime as the Rangers themselves, doing next to nothing and being all around useless until the very end of the movie.
*** ''[[Gosei Sentai Dairanger]]'' with Ko fits, except he is a bit of a pervert and relies on his [[Empathic Weapon]] to help him out.
*** In all fairness, Cousin Olivers were not uncommon in the original series and were arguably a useful proxy for the younger fans. Also, Fred had a [[Hot Dad]].
*** For some, such as [[Atop the Fourth Wall|Linkara]], Justin wasn't hated because of his youth, but because he was only competent Ranger in the bunch, despite being a Cousin Oliver. Even in his early days, he was probably the smartest Ranger and one of the strongest (despite guys like [[Memetic Badass|TOMMY]] still being around), such as when he managed to kick Elgar's ass in one of the first episodes ''unmorphed'', which would be the equivalent of one of the original Rangers handing Goldar his ass in the first episode with no sweat (something that generally didn't happen even AFTER his [[Villain Decay]]).
* The diner in the ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' episode "[[Jump the Shark]]" is called Cousin Oliver's... and the plot is about a possible younger brother turning up. Subverted though, when it turns out that the character in question {{spoiler|''was'' actually their half-brother, emphasis on "was" because he was already dead before the start of the episode}}.
Line 74:
* It's questionable whether this is played straight or not. Oliver [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute|replaced]] Jeff in ''[[Coupling]]''. Considering how the [[Trope Namer]] is [[The Brady Bunch|Cousin Oliver]], it could be done as a parody. However, in one episodes after season 3, Jeff is actually '''''removed''''' from a clip of a dinner party.
* April on ''[[Gilmore Girls]]''. Even more annoying in that she is basically a science-and-math-oriented version of Rory in response to viewer complaints that they missed the younger Rory.
** And Rory had great taste in music which kept her from being a total spaz, April was all nerd with very few(if any) redeemable traits.
* Done in ''[[The Donna Reed Show]]'' when the family adopts a homeless child after their eldest daughter leaves for college.
* Jamal's younger cousin Casey on ''[[Ghostwriter (TV series)|Ghostwriter]]''.
* Gloria on ''[[Touched By an Angel]]''. The Valerie Bertinelli character.
* Little Nicky in ''[[Fresh Prince of Bel Air]]'', though he's a bit of a [[Subverted Trope|subversion]] since he managed to avoid becoming the show's [[The Scrappy|scrappy]]. Partly because his [[Intergenerational Friendship|friendship]] with Will was amusing and he was not a [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad|spotlight stealer]].
* Ricky, the kid next door who liked to sing with ''[[The Partridge Family]]'' (often seen as a [[Dueling Shows|Dueling Show]] to ''[[The Brady Bunch]]'').
* Arthur McArthur, also known as "the little fat kid", from ''[[Hey Dad..!]]!''.
* Billie Jenkins was an extra witch added onto ''[[Charmed]]'' who came out of nowhere and became like a sister to the Halliwells.
* Guppy in ''[[iCarly]]'', although another example of [[Tropes Are Not Bad]], plus averts elements of the trope in that the series is not on its last legs by any means at the time of Guppy's introduction, the addition of Guppy was necessary to replace elements of older brother Gibby's character as Gibby matured, and Guppy has proven to be just as popular as Gibby.
** Not to mention he wasn't shoved down our throats like some of the other aforementioned examples of this trope, having appeared in only five episodes. However, they were all in the same year and that could be evidence that the writers stopped before he got a chance to become a [[The Scrappy|scrappy]].
* Nicky and Alex in ''[[Full House]]''.
* Dale from ''[[Law and Order SVU]]''.
Line 95:
== Video Games ==
* Robots don't age, but Capcom added the rookie Axl, who acted all of 13 to the cast of ''[[Mega Man X]] 7'' to contrast with veterans X and Zero.
* Joey MacAdoo, Samantha Pearce, and Arthur Chen in the ''[[Backyard Sports]]'' series, replacing the much more mature Jocinda Smith, Sally Dobbs, Kenny Kawaguchi, and Billy Jean Blackwood. Joey is easily becoming a [[Creator's Pet]] now.
Line 104:
== Web Original ==
* Parodied by ''[http://www.theonion.com/content/news/cousin_oliver_to_join_white_house The Onion]''
Line 110:
* [[The Scrappy|Scrappy-Doo]], from ''[[Scooby Doo]]'' .
** Parodied in ''[[Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated]]'', where when Daphne noticed his statue, Fred was quick to cut her off and mention that they promised that they would never speak about the incident ever again.
** There's also Flim-Flam, the [[Ethnic Scrappy|ethnic kid]] from ''[[The 13 Ghosts of Scooby
** As well as Scooby-Dum, who made appearances in ''The Scooby-Doo Show'' and ''The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour''.
* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' spoofed the idea by adding a teen named Roy for only one episode ("The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show"). This was based on a real suggestion given to the writers by an executive who wanted to add a new kid who had "the genius of Lisa but the attitude of Bart." Marge even [[Lampshaded]] the aspect of adding a character for no reason to a show just before greeting Roy for the first time.
Line 119:
* The animated version of ''[[The Godzilla Power Hour|Godzilla]]'' ([[Godzilla: The Series|not that one]]) added a baby called "Godzooky".
* Hana in Season 4 of ''[[Kim Possible]]''. Fortunately, she played an extremely small role (when she even appeared) outside of two episodes, so her existence did not significantly impact the tone of the show.
* ''[[The Critic]]'' parodied this Trope when Duke Phillips attempted to add a cute kid with an endearing speech impediment to Jay Sherman's show to try to boost his ratings.
{{quote|'''Jay''': Well I find you "wepulsive" and "wepugnant"!
'''Kid''': (suddenly normal-voiced) Hey, that speech impediment shtick is copyrighted. You'll be hearing from my lawyers! ''(cute voiced)'' I mean, ''wawyers''. }}
* Parodied / referenced in ''[[Batman: The Animated Series|Batman the Animated Series]]'', where "Little Cousin Spunky", the new child star added for the last season of Baby Doll's sitcom was also designed to resemble Cousin Oliver. (They even had Cousin Oliver - well, his actor - voicing him.) Also subverted in this episode—Robin watches the entire series trying to find clues; Spunky turns out to be the only enjoyable thing in the show... well, the only thing Robin liked.
* Dil, and later Kimi, in ''[[Rugrats]]''.
* Poof, Cosmo and Wanda's son on ''[[The Fairly
* This trope can be a variation on having a [[Kid Sidekick]] and is very prone to happen when a live-action series is turned into an animated one; this is usually done for Saturday morning TV or the local equivalent, so the thinking is that kids want to watch other kids involved with the heroes. A classic example is ''[[Emergency|Emergency +4]]'', in which the paramedics and fire-fighters from the show ''[[Emergency]]'' were saddled with a bunch of 4 kids who got to chase the grown-ups around in a van labelled "+4". The network that commissioned the ''[[Star Trek: The
* In the season 2 episodes of ''[[Action League NOW]]'' (actually ''[[
* Spike Witwicky and Carly were teenagers in the first two seasons of ''[[Transformers]]''. Then, in [[Transformers: The Movie|the movie]] taking place 20 years later, we're introduced to their young son Daniel.
** ''Every [[Transformers]]'' series has kids who tag along with the 'bots just because network people don't think like humans and believe kids would truly rather see [[Transformers Prime|some kid try to impress some girl with racing]] than ''Autobots vs. Megatron and his robo-zombie horde.'' Daniel is generally considered the worst (with Kicker from ''[[Transformers Energon]]'' a close runner-up) and Sari from ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' was actually ''liked.'' The ''[[Transformers Armada]]'' kids and the ''[[Transformers Film Series]]'' kids are considered mostly harmless if not for the [[Developing Doomed Characters|screentime-hogging]]. The [[Transformers Prime|current batch]]... we'll see. However, it quickly became clear that Miko's being a [[Running Gag]] of "Everything's going fine for the Autobots, but oh no! Miko's snuck along and we have to go save her ''again!''" moments are something the creators are having a lot more fun with than the audience. Over the first season, though, her doing this diminished from "thrice per episodes" to "once every few episodes." In general, though, Transformers fans are [[Just Here for Godzilla]], so every TF human begins life in Scrappy status and must pull himself/herself out.
Line 140:
[[Category:Youngsters]]
[[Category:Characters and Casting]]
[[Category:
| |||