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Creator's Pet/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions
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** She was kept on way past her usefulness as obligatory love interest from the early seasons. No amount of retooling could save her in the public eye and [[Television Without Pity|some people]] marked her as the greatest reason the ratings were dropping. Nonetheless the writers seemed invested in her, inserting her into every storyline they could, if only so she could keep pulling in the teenage girl demographic, even if much of that demographic wanted to punch her in the throat. The writers' persistence could be chalked up to the fact that Lana is traditionally the girl in Clark's past... if ''Smallville'' hadn't made far bigger breaks with tradition, particularly by introducing Lois Lane.
** What arguably made it even more annoying for fans was that the show constantly had other characters [[Character Shilling|rave about how awesome Lana supposedly was.]] There were plenty of times when Lana did wrong to Chloe, only for us to see Chloe blindly ''praise'' Lana later in the same episode, and times she toyed with Clark's emotions only for him to willingly continue to be her doormat. Even Tess Mercer, a tough-as-nails corporate executive and occasional [[Dark Action Girl]] who is usually the [[Snark Knight]], practically declared her undying love and hero-worship of Lana in Season 8.
** And now she's back for three episodes in Season 8 with faux-Navy SEAL training and superpowers sending her beyond [[
** The saddest Lana arc was in Season 6, when Lana started to show flashes of Luthor-like evil. For a few brief, shining episodes, it looked as if Lana was actually going to achieve the coolness as a villain that always eluded her as [[The Chick]]. But, of course, wonderful kind sweet Lana Lang would never actually [[Face Heel Turn|turn to the Dark Side]]; she was {{spoiler|just trying to protect Clark}}.
* Dylan Hunt in ''[[Andromeda]]'':
** He, from the second half of the second season onwards, came to dominate the plot and had by Season 5 turned into a hero-worshipped [[Marty Stu]], [[The Chosen One|Chosen One]], and Savior of Mankind, to the extent that all other characters were only allowed significant screen time if their scenes also involved Hunt in some way. While Hunt ''was'' the main character, the writers seemed to forget that "main" does not mean "only", and that ''Andromeda'' was supposed to have an ensemble cast.. It got to the point where enormously more interesting characters were [[Not As You Know Them|arbitrarily rendered into drooling idiots]], then destroyed, then written off the show, then brought back and destroyed ''further'', and then literally dropped off a cliff while the entire rest of the cast mocked their former comrade-in-arms mercilessly and metaphorically spat upon his grave, simply because that character was growing to be more popular and interesting than Hunt.
** The rumor was that [[Executive Meddling]] had something to do with it, releasing executive producer Robert Hewitt Wolfe after he refused to accept such meddling and replacing him with someone else who would reformat the show for more "[[Viewers
** Not to mention that Kevin Sorbo was made executive producer, at the same time the Andromeda show pretty much became the Dylan Hunt Hour. Even the actor playing Tyr decided to leave because he got tired of his character derailment to build up the legend of Dylan.
* Megan of ''[[Drake and Josh]]'' is supposedly cast as the antagonist of the show, but a combination of being a particularly grating [[Bratty Half Pint]], the extremeness of her "pranks" (some of which are unambiguously criminal) without any hint of remorse, and [[Karma Houdini|a total lack of any repercussion to her behavior]] rubbed a great many of the viewers the wrong way. The writers obviously loved her, however, and portrayed the very few genuine bad actions to affect her as completely terrible (lying to her to prevent a wrongful jail sentence is bad, but it's okay for her to physically assault them on a regular basis). They were probably aiming to [[Crossing the Line Twice|Cross The Line Twice]] via [[Mood Whiplash]], but they either fell way short of the mark or were trying it on the wrong genre and audience to begin with (she seems more suited for an [[Adult Swim]] [[Sadist Show]] than a Nickelodeon sitcom).
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** And prior to Billie, Phoebe herself, on the grounds of Alyssa Milano elevated to producer status. Even when the character behaved like a [[Jerkass]].
* ''[[Dawsons Creek]]'':
** Joey, especially when all attention was shifted on the Dawson/Joey/Pacey [[Love Triangle]], [[
** To some extent, Dawson ''himself'' is a Creator's Pet, especially for the Joey-and-Pacey fans.
** And to others, Jen. Most of the time it seemed like she was just there to throw a wrench in the plotlines of everybody else.
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** Wonder Twins. Someone high up must have loved them to let them stick around so long, Maya even came back the next season (without her accent) just to help derail Mohinder. It doesn't help that the power is cool in theory but their characters seem to be plucked right out of a Spanish soap opera.
** There were also a number of fans who actually didn't like the focus on Sylar as the series went on, especially after he killed off [[Ensemble Darkhorse|Elle]].
* Kate from ''[[Robin Hood (TV)|Robin Hood]]'', who was introduced after Maid Marian was killed off. As that character's [[Replacement Scrappy]], she was destined to be hated (why the hell would you kill off an essential piece of the legend in favor of a completely irrelevant [[Original Character]]?) and somehow she kept getting worse and worse. Her first appearance consists of her doing [[Too Dumb to Live|one stupid thing after another]], culminating in her [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|brother's death]]. Despite never being officially declared an outlaw and having ''no'' useful skills to contribute to the team, she's [[The Smurfette Principle|inexplicably invited to join anyway]], and spends [[Faux Action Girl|the majority of the following episodes getting captured or injured]]. At one stage she needs to be [[The Load|spoon-fed]] back to health, and yet despite her inherent helplessness she [[Unwanted Rescue|rips into anyone]] who takes the trouble to rescue her. She becomes a [[Clingy Jealous Girl]] the very ''second'' that Isabella turns up, a character who is [[Derailing Love Interests|derailed]] in order to start the pointless [[Romantic Plot Tumour|Robin/Kate relationship]]. She gets a huge amount of nonsensical shilling from the other outlaws (apparently walking through a door is "amazing!") who all fall in love with her, even though she's a complete bitch to Much and Allan, insulting them regularly on everything from their physical appearance to their annoying habit of saving her life every twenty minutes. She never manages to do anything that could not have been achieved just as easily by one of the other outlaws, and ultimately her only purpose on the show is to be the the [[Token Girl]], the [[Damsel in Distress]] and the [[Shallow Love Interest]], all in the most obnoxious ways possible. Throw in a few [[Trapped By Mountain Lions]] plots, the [[Informed Ability]] of ''an imagination'', and dialogue that contained nothing except moaning, crying, whining, screeching and gushing over Robin, and you have a character that seems to have been designed for the sole purpose of being loathed by the audience. Ticking off the last box of this trope, actress Joanne Froggatt gets the coveted "[[And Starring|And]]" before her name in the opening credits, and she's prominently displayed on all the merchandise (her image is even bigger than ''Richard Armitage's'' on the DVD box set).
* Many [[I Carly]] fans feel this way about [[Jerkass Sue|Sam]]. She bullies people, especially Freddie, on a regular basis, and [[Karma Houdini|no one calls her out]]. Carly doesn't bother stepping in with so much as a "Stop It" on the guy who has a canon crush on her, and who was the reason for them starting the webshow that made them famous. Every character enables her behaviour, even Freddie, who has said that it would be 'weird' if she didn't hurt him.
* ''[[Gossip Girl]]'':
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** [[Entitled Bastard|Russell Hantz]] applies, given that he was practically the sole focus of ''Samoa'' and ''Heroes vs. Villains''.
** In ''Tocantins'', this was [[Cloudcuckoolander|Coach]], though the editors seemed to go out of their way to make him look like an idiot at every turn. However, he was [[Rescued From the Scrappy Heap|redeemed]] in ''Heroes vs. Villains'' where he was actually a much better player - and this wasn't because he was alongside Russell; he was actually becoming good at challenges and thinking about the game. He was the Creator's Pet of ''Tocantins'', but you at least wouldn't watch ''Tocantins'' and wonder who the winner was.
** Richard Gutierrez, the temporary host of the Philippines' [[Celebrity Edition]], after the original host [[The Ace|Paolo Bediones]] left the network, also making the former a [[Replacement Scrappy]]. Fans of the show already warned the network since Gutierrez's [[Stage Mom]] uses her [[Screw the Rules, I Have Connections|connections]] to put her son in the job, thus, fans made a [[Big No]] after the announcement. To make him look credible, the network made him host many programs and re-aired his past programs with promotions of his new hosting gig.
** Rob Mariano. It's obvious every time he's on the producers just ''LOVE'' him. For Marquesas, we thought he was interesting. For All-Stars? Yeah he was the star - and the editors even [[
** Depending on what part of the season you're watching, the Pearl Islands Creator's Pet was either [[Large Ham|Rupert Boneham]] or [[Magnificent Bastard|Jonny Fairplay]]. Both men got over the top edits, had more confessionals than almost all the other players, and for years were generally the faces of ''Survivor''. Before Russell came along, Rupert was unquestionably the most popular player ever, and Fairplay was unquestionably the biggest outright villain of the show (Richard Hatch from the first season being somewhat [[Vindicated By History]]). The attention these two got caused a backlash from some fans who preferred the older style of editing where the whole cast got approximately a decent amount of airtime.
* ''[[Eureka]]'':
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* Dr. Zee in ''Galactica 1980'', a [[Teen Genius]] as annoying a plot device as Wesley Crusher would later be.
* Matt joins the cast of ''[[Primeval]]'' in its fourth season to fill the hero role left by Danny (and previously, by Cutter). Within half an hour, he's shown outclassing and humiliating everyone else, all while making smug remarks.
* The Filipino Christian drama "May Bukas Pa" (There's Still A Tomorrow) had the rare case of the main character being the Creator's Pet. Santino is a good kid with healing powers and [[Incorruptible Pure Pureness]] who changes the lives of everyone around him. But later story arcs showed him getting involved in increasingly improbable situations. He averted a civil war by getting himself shot (Don't ask how how that happened), saved the town from the 10 plagues of Egypt, gotten kidnapped by Communist rebels and testified in a Congressional hearing involving corruption in government. When he dies, all the people who met him (a veritable [[All
* Gilly from ''[[Saturday Night Live]]''. A ridiculous waste of Kristen Wiig's talent and widely believed to be her least funny character and one of the least funny sketches the show continues to do. And they keep doing it over and over again! Gilly even got a freaking holiday special! All at the expense of genuinely funny Kristen Wiig characters like hilariously nervous Judy Grimes or competitive Penelope.
* [[Cousin Oliver|Olivia]] in ''[[The Cosby Show]]'' was dangerously close to being this. Lampshaded in the episode "Nightmare on Stigwood Avenue."
* ''[[Degrassi the Next Generation]]'':
** Emma was arguably the first, though Craig shared time with her in this. The difference being that while Craig was always angsty and whiny, but the writers gave him a plurality of episodes in seasons 2, 3, and 4. Then there's Emma, who was always angsty and whiny and [[Author Filibuster|a place to inject the writers' political views]], in addition to being self-righteous and bitchy, and she was [[Tsundere|much more tsun than dere]]. Also, her issues tended to be [[What an Idiot!|things you had to be a moron to do]], like go down on a guy who's already sleeping with [[Over Nine Thousand]] girls, leading to the [[Fanon]] that she just does it for attention. And she got a plurality of episodes in seasons 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6. She's also a black hole who sucks the win out of every character she's around.
** More recently there's been Mia. She's a teen mom, a classic trait for all non-virgin Sues. You're wondering how she can afford to juggle her time between school, a baby, and cheerleading? [[Up to Eleven|She's also a model.]] She also gets close to J.T., and [[Die for Our Ship|cements the split between him and Liberty]]. She's from another school, and [[Unwitting Instigator of Doom|J.T.'s love for her ultimately gets him killed]]. And from season 6 until she leaves, she has a huge role.
* [[Canon Sue|Zoey]] from ''[[Zoey 101]]''. Canon: Popular, Nice, Smart, fun, leader, ANNNNND EVERY SINGLE BOY ON THE SHOW IS ATTRACTED TO HER IN SOME WAY. Fanon: Annoying, Annoyingly Perfect, Sue, Static Character, wish-fulfillment character, and..isn't it obvious that the writers adored her?
* Will Schuester, from ''[[Glee]],'' gets this big time. He takes screentime away from the kids, blatantly plays favorites, refuses to address the kids' bullying problem (even when the bullying takes place ''right in front of him between members of his own Glee Club''), and is, by all accounts, a terrible teacher and role model. Yet the characters (and the writers) treat him as if he can do no wrong. In the New York episode, he leaves the kids ''alone and unsupervised'' to come up with their Nationals performance, only to go off and sing a Matthew Morrison song (available now on iTunes!) and contemplate leaving the kids to go on Broadway. When he ultimately decides not to, the kids all give him a big group hug and act overjoyed, despite the fact that he has literally not helped them ''at all'' through the entire episode and, indeed, much of the season. There's a reason his [[Fan Nickname|nickname]] is [[Mary Sue|Mary Schue.]]
** You know it got bad too when the writers created a [[Romantic False Lead]] to keep him and Emma apart, and much of the fandom was '''[[Fan Preferred Couple|actively rooting]]''' for the False Lead to actually keep Emma in the end.
** For some fans at least, the ridiculous amount of time and attention lavished on Rachel Berry's angst, misery, ridiculously stalkery bad behaviour and obsession with getting a 'do-over' after she choked on her drama school audition in the final arc of ''[[Glee]]'' Season 3 - combined with a completely meaningless Prom Queen win gifted to her by Quinn and Santana who actually campaigned for the crown, several episodes worth of characters from perennial quiet girl Tina Cohen-Chang to rival show choir coach Jesse St James going out of their way to talk up Rachel's talent to the drama school Dean, and New Directions' entire Nationals setlist being framed as 'Rachel's second chance' even by Will Schuester - dumped Rachel firmly into [[
*** Not to mention the fact that they completely shafted the show's original [[Ensemble Darkhorse]], Kurt (who aced his audition), in order to give Rachel a happy ending that most feel she did not deserve.
** Blaine also looks to be heading this way: two important plot points (Dave's suicide attempt after being outed and Quinn's car crash and resulting reliance on a wheelchair) were shoved aside in favour of a badly written filler episode about Blaine's relationship with his Big Brother. Also, several of his actions towards his boyfriend Kurt have been borderline abusive, not to mention highly hypocritical (he picked a fight with Kurt over texting another boy, when in the same season he did the exact same with Sebastian). No matter what Blaine does, someone else is always to blame.
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* In the ''[[Game of Thrones]]'' adaptation of the [[A Song of Ice and Fire]] novels, the creators added the character of Ros, a recurring prostitute whose purpose serves little more than being naked, appearing in awkward and silly "sexposition" scenes, wasting screen time, and is generally hated by all the fans, yet the creators love her so much that they feel the need to give her more screen time than more popular characters such as the Hound and invent more scenes with her.
* In the early seasons of [[Holby City]] the character of Victoria Merrick was often seen by fans as the creator's pet. She was imcompetent in the extreme, supercilious to the nurses, became addicted to drugs and generally whined every single week about how hard it was to be a junior doctor, yet still they kept her on. Even the perfectionist Anton Meyer kept forgiving her. Yet another character, who played a quite competent young female cardiologist was immediately 'sacked' by boss Anton Meyer for a much lesser crime. Fans often wondered if Merrick was his love child and this was [[Lampshaded]] in the first episode of the third series when Merrick was sent off to another department, and one character said 'There goes the theory that she's Meyer's secret love child'. Ironically, the actress who played her, Lisa Faulkner, went on to star in [[Spooks]] as an equally incompetent young spy, but was then dipped head first into a vat of hot oil. Holby City fans, who had often written stories killing off Victoria Merrick in increasingly bizarre ways, cheered (and wished they'd thought of it).
* [[
* Det. Olivia Benson from ''[[Law and Order SVU]]''. Her [[Serious Business]] and [[Straw Feminist]] attitudes have had a long history of rubbing viewers the wrong way, yet Dick Wolf seems to have no problem making her the series' [[Author Tract|primary sociopolitical mouthpiece]] (as opposed to Det. John Munch, whose [[Cloudcuckoolander]] rants usually designate him to [[Butt Monkey]] status). Not only did she gradually replace her more well-received partner Elliot Stabler as the face of the series in both advertisements and the show itself, but with Stabler [[Put On a Bus|now out of the picture]] fans have all the more motivation to throw ire and bile her way.
* ''[[Mad Men]]'':
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Creators Pet]]
[[Category:Live Action TV]][[Category:Pages with comment tags]]
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