Was there a more useless character in a hit sitcom than Carla Tortelli in Cheers?

I watched Cheers some when it was on. Never found any of it particularly funny. Maybe Norm

Disagree

A buffer between just Sam and his love interests...especially Diane, Norm and Cliffs bromance that she broke up constantly with her zingers and the only waitress in the bar that served drinks.

She was the only person on the show that we knew what kind of life she had outside the bar...she talked about it. Vera was some mythical wife for Norm...Sam and Diane were at the bar...Cliff probably lived at home.

Carla was a needed grounding rod for just make believe shennanigans. She kept everyone in check...the show in check. Its not remotely a bar without Carla. Everybody else is just playing Seinfeld like mind problems...

Sorry,she added nothing to the ensemble
and her lines along with her story lines were painfully predictable and even worse if add-libbed.

Who cares if Cliff lived at home? The writers did a great in developing his character (he was pretty much an afterthought the first couple of seasons) his lines were better and better along with his delivery.

Her character never developed and any attempt to do so was rather awkward and made little sense...Eddie LeBec? WTF?

quote:

---

Her character never developed and any attempt to do so was rather awkward and made little sense...Eddie LeBec? WTF?

---

To be fair, I believe Jay Thomas was to become a regular on the show until he said during an interview how gross it was to kiss Rhea Perlman. The writers promptly killed off Eddie in a zamboni accident.

Carla actually got over her crippling superstitiousness just to marry him, and finally had a stable home life in the show. Unfortunately it was impossible to continue making her a less cynical character after Eddie was gone.

IIRC, Bobby from Taxi was so worthless they managed to write him out by splitting up his dialogue amongst other characters.

This was necessary due to Jeff Conoway’s drug issues making him unreliable.

they needed someone to check Diane/Rebecca.

quote:

---

A buffer between just Sam and his love interests...especially Diane,

---

Came here to say this

quote:

---

Was there a more useless character in a hit sitcom than Carla Tortelli in Cheers?

---

Loni Anderson in WKRP

Totally pointless aside from her rack. She read every line in the same boring monotone

quote:

---

There was almost no need for the character and her "zippy" one liners weren't particularly funny and very predictable

---

She was funnier/more interesting than Woody

quote:

---

Was there a more useless character in a hit sitcom than Carla Tortelli in Cheers?

---

Too many to name. She was great.

quote:

---

Bobby from Taxi

---

A struggling actor driving a cab was an interesting aspect of the show.

Conaway admittedly did little to enhance the character. But in Conaway's defense, the writers took little advantage of the character's potential.

They could have made Bobby a pretentious intellectual (like Diane on Cheers), always pontificating about the Thea-tuh and contrasting that with the reality of his driving a taxi. This incongruity was barely hinted at on the series.

The really superfluous character on Taxi was Burns in the first season. The writers had no idea what to do with him; desperately they married him off, and he got even duller. He was predictably dumped for season 2 in favor of Reverend Jim, one of tGOAT sitcom characters.