Shark Bytes

Wow. I'm glad I'm not the only one who is bothered by that Kathy character.

Dishonorable mention goes to redoing the theme song during the last season.

Gordon Jump's character was just trying out some "different strokes" of his own.

The main question I have is - What in God's name was the late, great Gordon Jump thinking????

Was he hard up for money? Did he not read the script? Did he not think he'd be remembered for GENERATIONS for this one role?

I mean, he was Arthur "Big Guy" Carlson for God Sake!!! He was the Maytag repair man.

I'm convinced this role ruined this man's career. I mean, other than the Maytag commercials, what did he do after this?

I remember him as George's Play Now boss on Seinfeld, but even then, my friends would say - "Isn't that the guy who molested Arnold???"

RIP Gordon, you deserved better.

The 2-parter where the bicycle shop owner is all about some Arnold and Dudley is on BET right now. I've never seen it but heard so much about it that I just had to check it out...Seriously, are kids this stupid? Some random fat white guy trying to get them wasted and take pictures doesn't set any warnings off in their heads? I mean, if they were 5, sure...but these kids are like 10 or 11.

This was a messed up show to say the least. Some do-gooder white dude takes in a couple of black kids from the wrong side of town and lets them enjoy the privileged life. Just another show that exploited the whole stupid white guilt complex.

Jumped the shark? How could it? It couldn't get any worse than it already was.

"They should have done a Very Special Episode in which a certain wheelchair gets “accidentally” nudged into oncoming traffic."

Wow! -snort-

You can only have so many VSE's in a series...

Ok, number 1, Conrad Bain (Mr. Drummond) is not gay. The guy's been married to, gasp, a woman for 60 years!!!

2 - He was the only cast member on the show who could act. The real reason the rest of them never had careers after this show was because they couldn't, and it was obvious.

3 - Kathy the wheelchair girl was annoying, but wasn't paralyzed - in one episode, she walks on small crutches.

Whoever played the father (Conrad somebody) had EVERYBODY'S "gaydar" going off especially with his nasty too short tennis shorts. Still feel nausea thinking about it.

Thank you NickAtNite (June 17). Your post was hilarious and right on. It was good to laugh that hard. Somehow I think you and I would be good friends! Thanks again.

I have to admit that I am a huge DS fan, but that bicycle man episode was creepy. And hearing a laugh track during a scene involving child abuse was even more creepy!

Man, NickAtNite is right on! That Kathy character was so mean AND annoying it's a wonder her own mother didn't roll her into an open man-hole. And would you believe it, Arnold actually claims that Kathy is his "best friend". What patronizing crap!

Upon further refinement of the peril factor, the following entry needs to be changed from this:
-Arnold and Willis subdue a burglar holding the entire family at gunpoint 4x1-> 4
to this:
-Arnold and Willis subdue a burglar holding the entire family (including Pearl) at gunpoint 5x1-> 5

The cumulative pereil factor now stands at 46.5.

Where do we begin? (1) Kathy, the wheelchair-bound frump whose mouth muscles, sadly, were not as paralyzed as the rest of her. She must be the most miserable character I’ve ever seen on any TV show! She only made two or three appearances but all her character ever did was get mad and insult everyone (and rev up her chair like she was going to mow them down). I remember one episode where she was nervous about attending Arnold’s junior high school. Willis tells her not to worry because she’ll be okay and, for some reason, she snaps at him, “Willis, go suck a brick!” Yep, that’s some high-end comedy from a heartwarming character, all right. What I learned from Kathy is that people with a physical disadvantage have license to take out their anger on every other person on the planet. They should have done a Very Special Episode in which a certain wheelchair gets “accidentally” nudged into oncoming traffic. (2) Did we really need the parade of live-in housekeepers? Mrs. Garrett was original and funny, but Adelaide was a snooze (the only comic relief she provided was the realization that she looked exactly like the old lady with the bun in her hair who owned Tweety Bird in those old Looney Tunes cartoons), and Pearl was more of a mixed bag of awkward smiles and cheesy one-liners than an actual character. Also, someone as hulking as Pearl would have made a better bodyguard than cleaning lady. She should have moonlighted. (3) Sam. What kind of unholy monster would unleash this insufferable moppet upon innocent viewers? When the guy who kidnapped Sam almost reduced him to tears by telling him he’d kill his parents if he tried to escape, I was siding with the death threats. “Oh, thank you, kind sir! Make that child so upset that he quits show business and spares us all! Tell him you’ll take out Santa Claus next!” (4) Nancy Reagan’s anti-drug wank session is one of the most unintentionally hilarious things ever committed to tape. I’ll never forget her standing in front of Arnold’s class, telling a story about a young, drug-addled boy in the most stilted manner possible. “And he went... to his sister to get the drug money.... And when she said no... she was... [Chokes back tears] BRUTALLY BEATEN...” Looks like Nancy should have exercised a little “Just Say No” when NBC asked her if she’d like to marginalize the drug epidemic on national television. (5) When the jaunty, simple theme song of your favorite TV show gets a dance remix, kiss it goodbye. (“The Facts of Life” cast knew from this subject, too.) To this day I’d love to ask the DS producers why they felt the music from a show about growing pains and race relations that airs on ABC deserved the synth-bass treatment. (6) Dana Plato -- the best thing about the show, in my opinion -- getting unceremoniously fired in season six was bad enough, but when they brought her back for the final season (the ABC one), they simply added insult to injury! Her name wasn’t included in the opening credits, making her a guest star on her own series, and she would go entire episodes without a single line! I remember one episode where the gang was running around organizing some party or something for Mr. Drummond. Kimberly was on screen the whole time yet the only line I remember her saying was, “Arnold!” Gee, way to endear the character to us all over again, ABC. But then again, when episodes featuring your character revolve around a half-hour long, now-you-have-it-now-you-don’t struggle with bulimia, maybe being written out of the script isn’t so bad. (By the way, isn’t doing an anti-eating disorder episode after you’ve had Nancy Reagan on your show a tad hypocritical?) (7) Mary-Ann Mobley: What, exactly, was her appeal? So, to summarize, the only thing that “Diff’rent Strokes” got exactly right in its entire eight-season run is that Abraham is a not-bad name for a goldfish.

Jumped when I found out that Gary Coleman was 22 or something like that...

Poor Gordon Jump...

He will always be remembered as the creepy molester...

To me he will always be the hilarious "Arthur Carlson" from WKRP!!!!!!!!

This show jumped during the last two seasons when Maggie and the annoying red-head kid moved in! Maggie was annoying because she was bossy and overbearing and that kid was annoying because he screamed all his lines, had that annoying accent and always held his head down whenever something didn't go his way. But watching all the episodes from the first seasons makes me happy because the best seasons were the earlier ones, right up until Maggie was brought in. This morning I was watching "No Time For Arnold" - the one where Arnold pretends to wet his bed in order to get attention - and this was a prime example of how much better the first season was than the third one. Arnold's bed-wetting was alot funnier because 1) Arnold had some zingers in there and 2) unlike in the Sam bed-wetting episode, you didn't see the pee stains on Arnold's PJ's! I know Sam really was wetting his bed, but did we really need to see it on his pajama bottoms?! NOOOOO!!!!

I remember this episode, and the episode where Kimberly and Arnold were abducted and Arnold was duct-taped bound in a back room. Cheesy as these episodes were, they put a strong foot across boundaries while still achieving audience appeal. I can honestly say these episodes saved me. They stuck in my mind, and when a man tried to lure me in and touch me once behind a building, I elbowed him in the crotch and escaped. If anything these and other shows of the era (Facts of Life, Punky Brewster) that dealt with these issues, (unlike almost all of todays shows) were the bees knees and should be revisited. As for it jumping the shark..

With the addition of any new character, like Sam for instance, kind of shows a certain desperation on the part of the show, because maybe arnold's cuteness wasn't enough any more.