< The Scrappy

The Scrappy/Live Action TV

  • Babe Carey Chandler from All My Children. Oh my God, Babe. She started as the slutty gold digger playing two brothers, then the writers decided to make her a heroine, without actually changing her in any way. One of the worst things was when she knowingly kept Miranda, Bianca's daughter, away from her, letting everybody believe Miranda was dead. Oh, but she wasn't totally heartless, she let Bianca be Miranda's godmother! And she told Bianca at least once that Bianca was lucky to not be a mother because she had all this time for herself, while Bianca was grieving her daughter's death. And then, after Bianca got her daughter back, not thanks to Babe, and gave her a very deserving slap, the writers actual had Bianca said that everything Babe did was out of love, for others, with total sincerity... Yeah.
  • In-series example: The Amazing Race season 20. As of this writing, there are 5 teams left. 3 of them hate Brendon & Rachel, one (Bopper & Mark) seems to be apathetic, and the last constantly acts like they're the best team ever. That last team is Brendon & Rachel. It mostly seems to be directed at Rachel, who alternates between being snide and hostile towards the other teams and crying over every little inconvenience (and playing the victim if another team is involved), and manages to switch between the two modes more frequently than Super Princess Peach on PMS with manic depression. (Even Phil Keoghan himself tweeted "It just wouldn’t feel right if @RachelEReilly didn’t throw a fit".)
  • American Idol:
    • Try to find a commentator who likes Kara DioGuardi and/or doesn't blame her for everything he or she finds wrong with the show. Good luck.
    • When Ellen DeGeneres was announced as the host that would replace Paula Abdul, she immediately gained Scrappy status, due to everyone complaining about how she's not even connected with the music industry and will likely be a Yes-Man just like Paula. However, those complaints have mostly subsided since she started hosting, thanks to her shocking knowledge of music and the fact that she's just hilarious.
    • Sanjaya Malakar from season 6. He was regarded as the least talented singer from the top 12 and not even liked by the judges. His prolonged stay was widely suspected due to the Anti-Fandom site Votefortheworst and the fact that little girls seemed to like him.
    • Of course Sanjaya is still a better singer than Phillip Phillips of Season 11. He was criticized for having a very limited range and being a Suspiciously Simulalar Substitute to Dave Matthews. He already won based on being Mr. Fanservice
  • Angel:
    • Wesley started out like this on , but he got better. Part of it was his replacing of Doyle, who was popular for the Irish accent and likable personality, only to be kill in the 9th episode "Hero" to ensure the show has an Anyone Can Die reputation.
      • That was actually Real Life Writes The Plot -- the actor who portrayed Doyle was revealed to have a drug addiction problem, and had to be let go. Wesley was an improvised replacement, and his catching on and becoming a mainstay of the show was in nobody's plan.
      • Ironically, Wesley's continued existence is an aversion of this trope -- he was originally planned to die several episodes into his tenure on season 3 of Buffy, but fans actually liked seeing him be the Chew Toy so the show writers kept him around to pratfall some more. So he only lived long enough to become a Scrappy because he wasn't originally a Scrappy, and then he grew out of being a Scrappy again in the exact opposite direction.
    • Connor, during the fourth season of Angel. Apart from actually behaving remarkably like Scrappy-Doo in battle, Connor was generally despised by fans for making Angel unhappy (moreso). His personality boiled down to "hateful" and "gullible", and refused to see Angel as a good person and didn't question Cordelia's change in personality, culminating in a scene where he helps Evil Cordelia murder an innocent girl, even after his dead mother told him not to. Connor was not universally hated, though, and his popularity has increased significantly since the publication of the Joss-blessed "Angel: After the Fall" comic, in which he straightens up a lot.
      • The differing fan opinions on Connor are largely a function of time. For most of season 3 and his appearances on season 5, fans generally liked him because he was mostly doing likeable things. The season 3 finale and season 4, on the other hand, had Connor being universally loathed because he was not only an unbelievable Jerkass during that plot arc but he actively betrayed the team.
  • Any replacement for Mr. Grainger in Are You Being Served?, although fan opinions differ as to exactly when the replacement characters became intolerable. Few would argue that the wooden and taciturn Mr. Grossman was anything but horrible. There's no question over Old Mr. Grace, though.
  • While there are probably several characters in Babylon 5 that are considered a Scrappy by some, the one who almost certainly falls into this trope is Byron. Introduced in the 5th season, which many fans consider]] to be inferior to the other four, Byron is a rogue telepath and former Psi-Cop who dreams of founding a colony of telepaths. He's broody, introspective, a devout pacifist, and managed to rub the fans in entirely the wrong way. He and his telepaths are just plain creepy, the way they dress like Anne Rice characters and never speak (one character Lampshades this by saying they look like a flock of crows). He also comes dangerously close at times to being a Marty Stu. Most fans prefer to pretend that his brief character arc never occurred.
  • Even among kiddie show characters, Barney is one of the most hated characters in television. So much, that there is an entire website dedicated to making fun as him known as the Jihad To Destroy Barney and that there are entire videos and fan fics depicting him being a Complete Monster. Many of the characters on his show are hated as well.
  • The Big Bang Theory:
    • Many fans would argue that this is what Leonard has become over the course of the third season. The greatest irony? His character started out as somewhat of a Woobie -- and was originally intended to be the central character of the show before the Ensemble Darkhorse emerged.
    • Wolowitz is a Broken Base case - half of the fans find his Casanova Wannabe antics hilarious, while the other half never found it funny in the first place and wish he gets less screentime.
    • Priya Koothrapali, Raj's sister, is hated by most fans. Nicknames for her include (but are not limited to) "bitch", "slut", and "whore".
    • And more recently, there's Amy Farrah Fowler. She was originally introduced as Sheldon's Distaff Counterpart, however, the writers seem to be increasingly taking more and more liberties with her. Her growing intimacy with Sheldon and willingness to "taint" his Asexuality really doesn't help either.
    • Let's be honest...the REAL reason Leonard and Amy are hated, just look at what part of that fandom stems from...go on look. That's RIGHT! Big shock! The Sheldon/Penny fandom!
  • Big Brother 11:
    • Natalie. Where people merely dislike her for playing the game a different style. [1] Natalie meanwhile is one of the few almost universally hated/disliked players simply because of her play style. Natalie was just bad on many levels...Not only did she lie like a rug throughout the entire game (She said she was 18 at the start, she was really 24!), but went off on personal tangents against Lydia [2], had Kevin and Jessie fight all her battles for her (An egregious head of household shows her not even trying to beat Michelle and Jordan!), backstabbed Kevin with Pandora's Box, acted incredibly entitled and egotistic when she finally won a Head of Household by herself, then threw even more responsibility on him at the end with Pandora's box, all the while insisting she was the master manipulator and had the most integrity in the house. Even her former allies in the Jury House deserted her and decided that Jordan and Kevin were the lesser evils and better players.
    • From the same season, we also have Ronnie, who is still a popular target of hatred on Jokers Updates.
  • Big Wolf on Campus:
  • Bones:
    • Brennan's graduate assistant Daisy Wick.
    • And to a lesser extent, Dr. Sweets. Which made it all the more infuriating when the spares were paired...
    • Dr Sweets was disliked because he replaced Zach, but after some character development specifically giving him the backstory of being a foster kid who's real father used to whip him, he is seen by some as more of a Woobie.
      • Dr. Sweets is a bit hard to like when the writers use his spectacular lack of professional ethics (he's constantly manipulating his patients to achieve his desired outcome for their personal lives to fulfill his own emotional needs) as the main mechanism for keeping Booth and Brennan apart. Bizarrely, it just makes everybody love him more, and Dr. Gordon Gordon, himself an FBI psychiatrist, actually suggests to Booth and Brennan that Sweets' emotional instability is a reason for them to keep the kid around.
    • Earlier, Agent Sullivan. So much so that after he sailed off on his boat, fans kept coming up with cruel and painful deaths for him. In that case, it was totally a shipper thing; they were Booth/Brennan shippers who saw him as getting in the way.
  • The Brady Bunch's Cousin Oliver. Nuff said.
  • Skyler on Breaking Bad. In a show filled with murderers, drug dealers, corrupt cops and lawyers. Her Moral Event Horizon is taking up smoking again, whilst pregnant. Even before that it was pretty obvious all she cared about was herself.
  • With Dawn from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the writers insisted on sticking her into various spin offs that take place before season 5 despite the fact that she didn't exist yet in-canon. Admittedly, since Dawn's creation in-setting was part of a big ball of wibbley-wobbley timey-wimey stuff, its not implausible to say that she retroactively existed in earlier years. Dawn's Scrappy status is also a bit of a Broken Base, as while a strong plurality of fandom considers her this an equally strong plurality is adamant that she is The Woobie.
    • Willow's new girlfriend Kennedy is this, and not just because of her replacing Tara, although introducing a new love interest for Willow so soon after her death was questionable. Not only did she seem a major case of tokenism - there had to be another lesbian on the show - but she came across as bratty, egotistical, selfish (she lied to get Willow to date her, never behaved sensitively re: the Tara issue, talked about nothing other than herself and being gay, etc), and indirectly caused the suicide of one of the Potentials with her Drill Sergeant Nasty act (It was the First Evil that actually caused it, but Kennedy at least scores an assist). In the Season 8 comics, the writers finally wised up and had Willow break up with her as she just wasn't over Tara.
      • A characteristic snapshot of fan opinion re; Kennedy can be found in this line from the fanfic 'Idiots In Love':

Dawn: (writing in her diary) Willow broke up with Kennedy! I don't know how to write down a high pitched squeal of happiness, but imagine that's what I'm doing.

    • Riley receives a good deal of hate from Buffy fans, whether they belong to the BuffyxAngel or BuffyxSpike camps. It's not too surprising - Riley was introduced during a season considered to be one of the show's weakest, never had much of an identity established, is the only boyfriend Buffy had who ever actually cheated on her[3], and was an integral part of the loathed Initiative.
  • Charmed:
    • An especially obvious example in its eighth and last season with Billie "Sue" Jenkins, the main reason why the large majority of fans dislike the last season of the show.
    • Phoebe also was hated after her treatment with Cole. Many fans called post Season Five Phoebe 'Phoe Me'
  • Coronation Street:
  • Olivia and Pam in The Cosby Show's waning years.
  • Criminal Minds:
    • Elle Greenaway is fairly unpopular with most people, for varying reasons. David Rossi started out as an example of this (and probably is still counted as The Scrappy by some people) due to replacing Jason Gideon, and occasionally coming off as uptight ass.
    • Ashley Seaver is now the most hated character in the entire show's history. She prompted a mixed reception in her debut episode (some liked her, some didn't, with a leaning toward the negative), but after her 3-episode arc was complete, the hatred solidified. When the news came out that Seaver would become a regular cast member, the fans were not happy. It didn't help matters that Seaver was brought in place of TWO fan favorite characters that were supposedly let go because the show couldn't afford their salaries anymore. And considering that this was really done to free up funds for a spinoff, it may end up with a whole Scrappy SERIES. How much did the fanbase hate Seaver? During "Lauren" when Prentiss was forced between choosing Rossi or Seaver for Doyle's sniper to kill, the fans watching the episode wanted Prentiss to choose Seaver (which didn't happen). When a fanbase calls for the death of a Scrappy like Seaver, you know something's wrong. Luckily, she's Put on a Bus now since season 7.
  • CSI:
    • Sara Sidle. So much so that when she finally left the show, people who disliked the character couldn't resist taking parting shots at the actress for "turning her back" on the rest of the cast.
    • Langston sadly has become this to many fans. He was actually a fair character, but the writers overused him, making him the Creator's Pet.
    • Actually, Sara probably qualifies more along the lines of love or hate or a Base Breaker. She has a rather large fandom that probably eclipses her hatedom.
  • CSI New York:
    • For some reason, the writers decided that what season 3 really needed was Reed; an annoying, Too Dumb to Live internet journalist who was the son of Mac's dead wife. A wife who was dead before the series begun. That's right. They thought viewers would embrace this character because he was related to a character we'd never actually met. A collective cheer went up when he was kidnapped by the Cabbie Killer at the end of season 4. A collective groan went out when he was rescued the next episode.
    • Lindsay Monroe/Messer gets a lot of this treatment as well from a portion of the fandom. There's a big Base Breaker element, but she gets a lot of hate for pairing up with Danny, altering his character too much and restricting his development as his own character. Unfortunately, it often extends to the actress and her abilities as well.
    • Mac's girlfriends, almost certainly ship-related. Peyton was extremely disliked, Audrey didn't fare well, and now Christine is already starting to get disliked by a portion of the fans. Most likely, it's due to the three most popular Mac ships: Fans want him to hook up with Jo, go off to New Orleans and marry Stella, or stay forever alone because Claire was his soul mate and no one can be like her.
  • Degrassi. There are so many...
    • At first it was Emma, for being the creators' favorite character and always putting her opinions in everything and nobody called her on it!
    • As sesaon 3 came around, a large section of the fandom decided Manny was a slut because she slept with one guy, who just happened to have a girlfriend.
    • In season 4, Craig became The Scrappy for Spotlight-Stealing Squad reasons, though this had been going on since he first came on the show.
    • In season 5, Peter, whose motto appears to be Screw the Rules, I Have Money. In the very first episode, a two-parter, he films drunk!Manny stripping (Yes, some said this was because she was a slut.) and when she won't date him because Emma wants to, he sends everyone this video. As season 6 rolls around, he gets Darcy to do this as well. And he puts pot in Sean's locker because Sean's interested in Emma.
    • Speaking of Darcy, Darcy! The fundamentalist Christian talk tended to turn people off and made people say "This isn't 7th Heaven!"; and the Christian motif made Spinner seem less Spinner and more self-righteous. Other fans saw her and Spinner as The Fundamentalist.
    • Sean, but only in season 6. Fanon is that this Sean is straight out of the Uncanny Valley, with the Detractor Name "Seanborg" or "Seandroid". Bad enough that the Double Standard is in full force: Manny's a slut, but Sean helps Emma cheat on Peter and is being subversive and heroic.
    • Mia for quite a few reasons.
    • Just write that you think Jenna from is not so bad, or even goodness forbid that you like her and see what happens.
    • Leia was also despised by many for being useless. Thankfully the writers finally took the hint. Oddly enough, Blue was even more useless than Leia, but didn't garner such hate, thanks to being eye candy.
    • Imogen Moreno is shaping up to be this way for Season 11. Most of the hate coming from Eclare fan girls, the fact that she's been shoved down our throats before she was even introduced formally on the show, and just generally annoying.
    • KC, once he left Clare for Jenna the writers seemed to forget he was ever in the school’s gifted program, then when Jenna gets pregnant he abandons her, then they get back together but after Tyson is born he leaves her at home with the full burden of raising the baby while he has at least an emotional affair with Marisol (coincidentally this made Jenna more sympathetic to some fans), then when Jenna realizes she can’t handle being a teen mom KC nearly sabotages Tyson’s adoption, not because he gives a crap about his son, but as a last ditch effort to stay with Jenna.
  • Joseph Quinn of Dexter His appearance in season three smacked of "NEW SEASON NEW CHARACTERS" if not Remember the New Guy?, his purpose from the beginning seemed to be to provide sexual tension with Debra (not fulfilled till season five,) and by season four he took hold of the Idiot Ball and refused to let go, between constantly leaking department information to his reporter girlfriend and constantly niceing up to Dex so he wouldn't rat on him for taking money from a crime scene.
  • Doctor Who:
    • Adric. Apparently, the purpose was to create a character who reflected their prime fan base, so the production team came up with a snotty, pompous, whining, arrogant and almost entirely unbearable maths geek, and then gave the part to a Promoted Fanboy who had only acted in television once and (to speak generously) failed to distinguish himself in the role. It doesn't help that, despite being incredibly arrogant about his intelligence, he has a tendency to either screw up the Doctor's plans or, as in one notable case, gets suckered into helping the bad guy's Evil Scheme, despite it being very transparently evil, thus making his reported intelligence something of an Informed Ability.
    • To a lesser extent (in that no one appears to have written fiction actively killing her), Mel also suffered from this, largely due to perceived miscasting, as the actress playing the character (Bonnie Langford) was known primarily from on-stage pantomime and her acting style (and character) was seen as contrary to the show's strengths. It didn't help her case that the two seasons she appeared in are generally considered the worst in the show's history, either. To be fair though most fans agree that she was Rescued from the Scrappy Heap in the recent Big Finish audio plays where her character received some much needed Character Development.
    • Donna especially got a lot of heat for being a scrappy at first. Her first appearance was composed of her mostly shouting and slapping the Doctor, and her abrasive personality was a major turn-off for a lot of people. She was also played by Catherine Tate, and people who didn't like her comedy show felt they'd dislike her on principle. When she returned as the official companion in series 4, people were not happy. However, she soon became a crowning example of Rescued from the Scrappy Heap; writers mellowed her personality, put her through some major character development, and Tate showed of her acting prowess, being both very emotional and also comedic gold with David Tennant. Also, her controversial fate of having her memory wiped boosted her popularity magnificently.
    • The Doctor himself hasn't escaped Scrappy-dom, either; the Sixth Doctor (as played by Colin Baker) is considered a Scrappy by certain parts of fandom. These fans find him to be obnoxious, abrasive, and an empty attempt by the producers to make the show Darker and Edgier... not to mention his costume. This mainly applies to his television portrayal, however, which debuted in a particularly difficult era of the show's history which affected the way he was introduced and presented. It's widely agreed that the various Expanded Universe media featuring Six (along with a less gaudy suit) has largely contributed to him being Rescued from the Scrappy Heap.
  • Drake and Josh:
    • Megan is hated by pretty much everyone. She's a Villain Sue in a show without any heroes, so all her schemes target her two brothers, Drake and Josh. Megan never gets caught, never gets punished, and there are quite a few examples of her benefiting from her schemes, just plain coming out on top in an episode she's barely in. The writers tried to balance this out by giving Drake and Josh a few Kick the Dog moments towards her, making her schemes more Disproportionate Retribution than anything, but by then Drake and Josh's pranks were seen as justified revenge for everything she had done to them so far.
    • Sam in the Spiritual Sequel iCarly is a very base breaking version of this. Half the fans hate her, and wish she'd either get more of a comeuppance, or she'd get some Character Development and stop being such a huge bitch to everyone. The other half love her and think she's the greatest character ever.
    • In addition to Sam, there's Guppy, when he got added to the show along with his brother Gibby. That whole upgrade has been horribly done, with boring sub-plots, and a complete lack of funny. How is saying "Happy Birthday" at random events funny?
  • Entourage:
    • Ashley has only been in four episodes so far, and she's already this. Being crazy, creepy and annoying will do that to you.
    • The character of Dom, introduced in the third season of Entourage, was intended to become a main cast member. But he was so hated by fans of the show that his character was quickly written out.
  • Everybody Loves Raymond:
    • Debra was so this trope. Aside from being a Jerkass (and a bit of a Mary Sue in episodes where she is shown to be hyper-competent, and a Possession Sue for her fans), Debra was mainly a Karma Houdini who began using Double Standard Abuse (Female on Male) continuously throughout the series, physically beating Ray (shoving him into bookshelves, smashing Ray's crotch when he tried to warn Robert that she and Marie were lying to him, etc) and encourages his kids to make fun of him. She is arguably the character who jump-started the modern trend of Double Standard Abuse (Female on Male) being used in sitcoms.
    • Debra was the Scrappy at the best of times in the early days, she eventually devolved into equal parts hen-pecker stereotype and sociopath. It doesn't help that she's shilled, particularly in one episode where she upsets Frank by saying she never expected to be able to have fun interacting with him and he replies that he always thought it was a case of him and her versus the rest of the "loonies". Never mind that he watches her routinely put Ray--his own son--through worse treatment than that which Marie puts him through (Marie's controlling, but Frank can shrug it off) and regularly watches as she verbally emasculates Ray at every opportunity.
  • Frasier:
    • When Daphne's brother Simon and her mother started appearing quite frequently, the terms 'annoying', 'obnoxious' and, most critically, 'not very funny' began to be heard applied to them very quickly.
    • Also, Lana's son Kirby was introduced as a young, everyman character and totally upset the show's character dynamic.
  • Fresh Prince of Bel Air:
    • Nicky, who was a complete annoying idiot, even for a kid.
    • Some fans have this with Carlton.
  • Michelle Tanner from Full House, mainly in the later seasons when she is a mouthy, spoiled brat who faces no consequence whatsoever for her actions, is as definitive of a Scrappy as the trope namer himself. Fans of the series universally hate her and feel that she makes the later seasons all but unwatchable.
    • This is reconigized by the writers of the series, who made one episodes subplot about D.J. and Stephanie trying to convince Danny to be tougher on Michelle, who they feel is given much more leniency then them.
    • Michelle IS punished or at least given a lecture when she usually does something wrong most of the time, though. And she IS basically a good kid. And she does have at least a few fans.
  • 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 for those reasons. It does not help that in the first two episodes of season 2, she has had more screen time than Daenerys Targaryen, a major/POV character from the novels.
    • However, fan reaction to Ros' brutal torture-murder by Joffrey in season 3 was largely 'Okay, wow, even Ros didn't deserve that.'
  • April from Gilmore Girls is despised for being a Suspiciously Similar Substitute for Rory, and essentially a brainy know-it-all. The only reason she existed was to get on the nerves of Luke and depict how bad he is with children. By this point in the show, of course, things may have been beyond repair anyway.
  • Glee:
    • While many of the characters are pretty much love them or hate them, there are very few fans who like Will, and even most of those who do seem to agree with the general consensus that he is clueless, naive and generally a pretty bad teacher, yet the characters (and by extension, the writers) often treat him as if he can do no wrong.
    • The same can be said of Post-Flanderization Finn, especially with his actions toward Santana in "Mash-Off" and his relationship with Rachel turning into a Romantic Plot Tumor.
    • Rory is also headed in this direction, mostly due to, again, being completely unnecessary and a bit of an Ethnic Scrappy.
    • While Will and Finn had moments when they were more popular, or at least Base Breakers, Terri Schuester, Sandy Ryerson and Jacob Ben-Israel have pretty much always been universally unpopular among the Glee fanbase. Luckily, the writers understood this and decreased their appearances as the show went on, with Terri and Sandy particularly rare outside of season one's front thirteen. It became obvious by the second season that Terri's occasional appearances were only to fulfill the fact that Jessalyn Gilsig was still a series regular.
    • Possibly the biggest Base Breaker on the show now is Blaine who has been on the show for more that a year now with ridiculously little character development, but has somehow managed to have a solo or a lead in a duet in virtually every episode in Season 3.
  • In the Disney show Good Luck Charlie, Amy Duncan gets this from a lot of people because she acts very selfish and egotistical. While each character was at least somewhat relatable and draws humor for their quirks. Her 'quirk' is being 'crazy' and 'wanting to be famous', but there's a little TOO much emphasis on the "crazy" part.
  • Gossip Girl:
    • Vanessa Abrams was/is thoroughly despised by a vast, and vocal, majority of the show's viewers. Although just as shallow, manipulative and self-serving as Blair Waldorf, she kept putting herself up on high horses, lecturing and mastering others, in addition to being the Distaff Counterpart to Dan and thus serving no real purpose on her own. The showrunners seemed to be quite aware of how unpopular she was - despite being credited as a main character Vanessa was missing from several episodes each season (including the season three finale), and hardly ever got any storylines of her own - and she was eventually Put on a Bus in the season four finale (called, ironically for Vanessa haters, "The Wrong Goodbye").
    • Jenny Humphrey is either this or well liked.
    • Dan Humphrey is slipping into Scrappy territory as well.
  • Lizzi from Greek. The attempt was to create a sorority consultant so markedly different from the sorority she's consulting. And it worked: the super-hyper, passive-aggressive, rule-enforcing, and overall annoying Lizzi went from zero to borderline X-Pac Heat-like in less than an episode.
  • Holly from Green Wing definitely has some Scrappy elements, mostly by deliberately splitting up Mac and Caroline by lying and saying her four-year-old son Mackenzie was the child she had previously told Mac she aborted, (I Lied he wasn't) plus making subtley undermining remarks to Caroline and then being totally unapologetic about it when found out.
  • Grey's Anatomy:
    • Izzie Stevens has been one right from the first episode, and consolidated through the second season with the whole Denny debacle, and the whole stealing Gizzie debacle in season 3. Now is exceptionally hated, so much that a lot of fans are cheering and hollering for her to die from the tumors she found out she had in the fifth season.
    • Also Meredith Grey's half-sister Lexie, whose first scene involved flirting with McDreamy and became a series regular right after (yet-another) Meredith/Derek breakup.
  • Happy Days:
    • Chachi. He was popular when Happy Days was running; this is an example of hindsight, given that Chachi used to regularly get the female audience screams upon entrance that the Fonz used to get.
    • From the same show, Roger, as played by Ted Mc Ginley.
  • Heroes:
    • Maya, the Too Dumb to Live plague-creating "heroine" who was introduced to us in Season 2 became The Scrappy of the show in record time. Her entire lengthy story was a Trapped by Mountain Lions plot and had fans begging for her death at the hands of Sylar even before the two characters met. Here's a hint for the writers: If a character dies and is brought back to life almost immediately afterwards, and the fandom is angry that the character is still alive... you know you've got a Scrappy on your hands.
    • Another Scrappy on the show would not so much be a character but multiple characters played by the same actress. These would be the multitude of Ali Larter clone characters. Once the first character ran her course fans were happy to see her character's storyline come to a close and Ali Larter to be done on Heroes, but WAIT Heroes fans were introduced to a concept that no matter how many characters played by Ali Larter die, there could always be another one in hiding. In the promos for season 4 it is shown that Ali Larter's many characters have become a Creator's Pet as the next season centers around her. Unless she is in a whipped cream bikini there really isn't a reason to keep her around, her acting is horrible. The only good thing about this Scrappy is you actually get to watch her die multiple times on the show and though each one is exciting for the fans, it is bittersweet because the fans know she'll always return as Gina, or Brenda, or Cookie, or Lanora, or any other name and random power you can put on her.
    • To a lesser degree, Mohinder fits this bill as well. While he's always been a relatively useless character - not because of his lack of powers but because of his amazing ability to consistently trust the wrong people - he truly became Too Dumb to Live in Season 2 when (he joined The Company to act as a deep-cover operative and help bring it down from the inside and then turned traitor on Noah Bennet despite having seen countless examples - both in Season 1 and Season 2 - of The Company being hopelessly corrupt and self-serving.)Worse, Season 3 has paired Mohinder and Maya, which almost everyone can agree is a match made in Hell. EVEN WORSE, Mohinder suddenly gains Spider-Man like abilities and an inexplicable compulsion to steal people and encase them in cocoons. Maya missed an opportunity to pull herself out of the Scrappy heap when she found out about Mohinder's new "habit." She almost killed him with her ability but Mohinder somehow talked her out of it. What an Idiot!!
    • Monica Dawson who appeared in the show's second season. Micah's cousin who was a Katrina victim with the power to imitate any movement she saw. Her storylines were considered some of the worst in the show's history and people are also upset that she lived while more popular characters died. She was written out after the season.
    • Claire's flying boyfriend West was also not well liked.
    • Basically Season 2 only introduced 2 well-liked characters: Adam and Elle who are both sympathetic characters who are both potential Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds characters. Of course both characters were killed but Heroes had a thing for killing well liked characters and keeping the Scrappys
    • You be hard pressed to find anyone who likes Bob Bishop. What he did to Elle before the series alone is enough reason to hate him.
  • Both Richie and Tessa got this treatment from a portion of the Highlander fandom. It was a sort of Broken Base situation, with some fans liking them, but just as many giving them the Scrappy treatment.
    • Richie arguably becomes Rescued from the Scrappy Heap after his multiple badass leveling, the same cannot be said about Michelle from Rite of Passage. The typical whiny, spoiled teenage girl gets immortality. You can picture what happens next.
  • Homicide: Life on the Street:
    • Detective Paul Falsone gets some of this treatment, with many finding him a bit smarmy and repellent. He wasn't helped by the fact that his character arc in the first season that he becomes a regular led to fan-favourite Detective Mike Kellerman's departure from the show. A 1998 essay on TeeVee.org effectively summed up why this character was so disliked.
    • Laura Ballard and Rene Sheppard also receive some of this treatment, both being seen as indicative of the production team's caving into Executive Meddling by putting two 'supermodels with guns' in the show, in contrast to the show's more down-to-earth depiction of women in the police force prior to their introductions.
  • House:
    • Tritter. While House was his normal assy self in the clinic, tripping up a crippled man wasn't exactly the best way to get sympathy or likeability points with the audience. And let's not even get into his behaviour after the thermometer incident...
    • Speaking of House, Thirteen certainly fits this by now. She started out as a Mary Sue already but her involvement in season five's Romantic Plot Tumor pushed her right into Scrappy territory.
    • House himself to some. His jerkassness and karmic immunity gradually grew less amusing and more reprehensible. The writers seem aware of this and trying to correct this by highlighting his dependency issues and mental instability.
    • Cameron. She was supposed to be a sort of Morality Pet for House, but instead she comes across merely as a whiny, stuck up, holier than thou hypocrite.
  • Human Target's Ames. Basically, she's supposed to be a thief that can steal anything. Or at least that's what they introduced her as, oh, and she has no concept of fighting or weapons while working for a team that has two assassins and a retired cop. The most useful thing she did in season 2 was translate for Guerrero. The dumbest thing she's done was sneak a kid out to a party whose house was just attacked a few hours previous. And while that's stupid enough on it's own, she can't even protect him when he's nearly kidnapped. Had she been used sparingly, then it might've been okay. However, the writer's attempts to shoehorn her into most episodes without serving a real purpose only served to highlight how useless she really was.
  • Jeopardy!'s "Clue Crew", first introduced in 2001, has been this trope and a Creator's Pet to many fans, criticized for being an completely unnecessary addition to the show, slowing down the actual game and distracting people from it.
  • Kyosuke Kiriya from Kamen Rider Hibiki. He was part of an unpopular Retool of the show and seemed to exist primarily to pursue a tiresome and one-sided rivalry with the likeable Asumu. His fate in fandom was sealed forever when, in the show's finale, Kiriya becomes an Oni and Asumu does not - the production team later confirmed that they were both supposed to have become Oni, but it was ultimately decided that Asumu would not, and his suit was scrapped for parts to enhance Kiriya's. His actor, Yuichi Nakamura, later redeemed himself by going on to play the more popular Yuto in Kamen Rider Den-O.
    • Kamen Rider Fourze has three in the form of minor characters Yukina Takamura, Ran Kuroki and Misa Toriizaki. Yukina is disliked for being a Clingy Jealous Girl who tries to stop Gentaro being a Kamen Rider and is not his previous love interest, the well-liked Nadeshiko from Movie Wars Megamax (with Yukina going as far as to steal the Fourze Driver and not give it back when Libra Zodiarts was about to kill her), Ran is unpopular because she was hostile and violent to almost everyone (including Ohsugi-sensei, and even he didn't even deserve being flipped into the air), and so pushy towards her supposed best friend that he was driven to become a Zodiarts, to the point that some consider her Catch Phrase being, "I'll protect you Haru!". Lastly, Misa was pretty much hated for being a complete bitch to another character Norio Eguchi (who was also Cygnus Zodiarts, aka the reason Rumi created her special Ugly Ducklings Cult) and went as far as to force poor Norio to activate his switch while the other members of the Ugly Ducklings trap him down. Made even worse because Norio created a Split Personality when he activated the switch for the first time but Misa didn't care at all; once Cygnus was revealed, she got on her knees and acted like Cygnus's high priestess.
      • It should be noted that three of the Kamen Rider Club members were also hated early on (Miu being an Alpha Bitch, JK a Dirty Coward and Shun being a Jerk Jock) but the second episode of their arcs made them much, much nicer. The show pretty much makes you hate a character's guts in the first half, and then like them in the next when we see them become nicer people. Yukina decided to let go of her feelings for Gentaro--even pushing Libra out of the way to hand Gentaro the Fourze Driver--and only asked for a picture in return. Ran decided to ask Haru for forgiveness and promised to never utter her Catch Phrase ever again. Misa, however, only gets spooked on how Cygnus Zodiarts stated that she wasn't her toy and all she gets was news that she disbanded the Ugly Ducklings group and becomes a Karma Houdini because the viewers don't see her get her just desserts.
    • Masato Kusaka from Kamen Rider Faiz has a strong claim to being the most hated character of the entire franchise. To the point where fandom gave a collective cheer when Kiba kills him by breaking Kusaka's neck.
  • Kindred: The Embraced is a rare example of a lead scrappy. The poor writing for main character Frank Kohanek, combined with C. Thomas Howell's less than stellar acting, resulted in him being intensely disliked by both fans and critics, the latter describing him as "something out of a bad cop show". His character was due to be written out in season 2, and the lead role given to supporting character Julian Luna]]; but Mark Frankel's untimely death resulted in the show being cancelled after 1 season.
  • Dale Stuckey on Law and Order Special Victims Unit was written to be one in-universe, which made him obnoxious to the viewer, too. Unusually for the trope, the rest of the squad and CSU were just as annoyed by him as anyone would be, leading to his psychotic breakdown.
  • Lost:
    • Nikki & Paulo were introduced in the third season because the producers of the show were often asked what some of the other survivors of the crash were doing. Viewers and TV critics wasted no time flaming them to hell and back.
    • Some other Lost fans hated Ana-Lucia when she was introduced to the cast, but she had shown a slightly more likeable side right before Michael (yet another disliked character) killed her.
    • Widmore's henchman, Zoe, in season 6, is widely hated for being a pointless, annoying character, eating up valuable screen time...and also for the actress claiming that she's the key to all the show's themes and is on "every page" of the series finale. In the penultimate episode, Flocke kills her by slitting her throat quite violently, pleasing everyone who hated her.
    • Kate could also qualify. Her constant swapping between Jack and Sawyer did her no favours whatsoever.
  • Jenny Schecter in The L Word, who comes off as the living incarnation of pretentious, snotty creative-writing characters. Just click around any site either dedicated to the show or sapphic-sticated ladies in general, and you're likely to see long anthems of loathing come up. It's difficult to tell whether she's a badly conceived Author Avatar or supposed to be purposely annoying, but either way, many fans hate her guts. As the show went on, she and her hideous excuse for writing skill got more and more screen time, turning this one into a bit of a Creator's Pet as well. Eventually she became the outright antagonist and was Killed Off for Real; nobody missed her.
  • Michael Ginsberg of Mad Men.
  • Seven on Married... with Children became one of these quickly, just like good old Cousin Oliver. What made it especially galling was how Peg actually tried to be a responsible mother to the little snot by giving him food, instead of the lazy, self-centered Jerkass the fans all knew and loved.
  • Merlin:
    • Agravaine ended up being this, especially as he was already something of a Replacement Scrappy to King Uther and a Suspiciously Similar Substitute to Morgana (being the smirky new Mole within Camelot's walls). It didn't start out that way; he was initially presented as a cunning, enigmatic villain, and the audience took it on faith that the writers would eventually explain his motivation and his long-term plans for Morgana and Arthur (his quasi-niece and nephew, respectively). Except...they didn't. Although a huge amount of screen-time was spent on this character, there was never any clear understanding of who he was or why he allied himself with Morgana[4] and he was unceremoniously killed off without really achieving anything or affecting the long-term Story Arc in any way.
    • Furthermore, his presence turned Arthur into an idiot who took his advice despite his obvious role as a villain, basing his trust on the fact that Agravaine was his uncle that he had known all his life, even though he'd never been seen or mentioned before series four. It was grating to see Arthur take consistently bad advice from an obvious creep over that of Merlin and Guinevere, his best friend and future wife.
    • Tristan and Isolde weren't very popular either, on account of the former being a Jerkass, the latter being a Faux Action Girl, and the both of them being fairly pointless. They had nothing whatsoever to do with the legendary Tristan and Iseult and took up valuable screentime in the series four finale that could have been better spent on characters the audience actually knew. However, since they were only around for two episodes, they were gone before they could rile the audience into anything beyond mild apathy.
  • Guido from My Parents Are Aliens who was introduced in Series 8 (the last series, perhaps not surprisingly).
  • Marley And Lindsay on The New Adventures of Old Christine they're Rich Bitches who seemingly have no purpose other then to make jokes about how ignorant and "poor" Christine is, they're not the least bit funny, they're just incredibly irritating.
  • Kirk DeVane on Newhart was a painfully unfunny Jerkass for the show's first 2 seasons. Midway through the second season, the writers desperately tried to save him by giving him a sweet, likeable girlfriiend. It only worked part way. She herself was quite likeable and appealing, but it was impossible to understand what the Hell she saw in Kirk. Fortunately, around the same time, a new, hilarious Jerkass, Michael Harris, made his debut on the show. At the start of the third season, Kirk and his new wife were Put on a Bus, Michael took his place on the show, and Newhart grew the beard.
  • Gina Russo from Nip Tuck. She started as a minor foil for Christian Troy when he began attending SA Meetings, but she quickly became a semi-regular, showing up at the most inopportune times to cause Christian and Sean grief, such as forcing Christian to wait on her hand and foot as she prepared to give birth to a baby she thought was his (It wasn't)). She was annoying, verbally abusive ("asshole" being her favorite insult,) mildly psychotic, and manipulative, and thanks to Ryan Murphy's inability to let plots die, she kept coming back.
  • Nikki from Numb3rs. She's got a 4 year degree from the streets of Compton, yo!
  • A Vocal Minority of The OC fans loathed Marissa Cooper passionately, mostly because she tended to be a self-destructive drama magnet (and on a soap opera, that's saying something) who became the center of attention of any scene she was in and tended to treat people like crap...but everyone around her continued to like her and put up with it. The third season ends with her finally getting Killed Off for Real.
    • On the flipside, Malex fans hate her mother and Ryan for getting in the way of the two girls relationship.
  • Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue:
  • Power Rangers Operation Overdrive:
    • It had even less popular Rangers (save for Mack, Ronny, and Tyzonn). Of all the rangers, Dax seems to sit on top of the list.
    • Will has become a Scrappy these days, mostly due to his actor being seen as an egotistical Jerkass in the eyes of a significant portion of the fandom. And for stealing a banner in the first Power Morphicon -- which was supposed to be auctioned off for charity!
    • Norg is also seen as a Scrappy by the majority of the fanbase, but for a different reason.
  • Power Rangers SPD has Sam, the Omega Ranger, because he was just a ball of light and we really don't know anything about him. And when he finally appeared out of costume for all of three seconds -- in the finale, no less -- it was seen as a huge insult to the fanbase.
    • Linkara has alerted us of another scrappy: Piggy. He was ugly, disgusting, and could not remain on one side for long: He started out as a friend to Z, but he gave a device that Z gave him to Grumm in the first episode. Yes: A character first seen as a friend to one of the Rangers turned traitor in the very first episode!
  • Power Rangers Turbo:
    • Justin, the quintessential example of a kid's dream gone horribly, horribly wrong.
    • Alpha 6, also of Turbo, could qualify. While Alpha 5 was dorky-but-lovable, Alpha 6 was an attempt to make Alpha cool by using forced-hip slang ("Yo, Rangers!"). It's likely no coincidence that as Turbo ended, he was damaged, and his voice chip needed to be replaced with one of Alpha 5's.
    • Dimitria completed the trifecta for the series. Her insistence on asking questions really grinded on fans' nerves. Plus, she's just no Zordon.
    • Divatox is this due to the fact she replaced The Machine Empire and whining all the time when she loses. She also likes to set explosions all over the place and ALWAYS setting them for an hour, enough time for the Rangers to get rid of them! She is also seen as Rita-lite most of the time!
    • Tommy Oliver has a bit of a hatedom. This appears to be in hindsight, though, since if you ask anybody who grew up in The Nineties their favorite Power Ranger, only those who still watch the show will most likely not say Tommy. Those who insist he is The Scrappy say so for all the usual reasons: Spotlight-Stealing Squad, Mary Sue, Creator's Pet...
  • Power Rangers Wild Force:
    • Cole, the Rookie Red Ranger who stole the team from Taylor, and became instantly the leader for no reason. He would constantly talk about how he could read a beings "heart," which didn't help the fact that many fans think Wild Force was too preachy.
    • Also, Princess Shayla, who is basically a really useless Princess who sings. She also tends to be kidnapped a lot!
    • Merrick, the Lunar Wolf Ranger, could count as well. Even Linkara deemed him one of the lamest Sixth Rangers ever, citing his goofy choice of weapon and the fact that the production crew have no clue what to do with him.
    • No hate for Kite (AKA Animus), who was the embodiment of annoying preachiness.
  • Alternate Kochanski from Series VII of Red Dwarf is one of these. For starters, she replaced Rimmer, second, she was played by a different actress than the original Kochanski, and third, while the original Kochanski seemed to be a fun, down-to-earth gal who was perfect for Lister (if still sufficiently out of his league to make his initially unrequited pining for her realistic), the new Kochanski was a cold, stuck-up snob whom it was difficult to see an easy-going slob like Lister being attracted to.
  • BBC's Robin Hood:
    • Kate was brought into the show in order to replace Maid Marian (killed at the end of season two). It's astonishing that nobody on the writing staff realized that trying to replace an iconic Love Interest with an Original Character was a terrible idea, and that it would have taken a screenwriting miracle to pull it off. Already pegged as a Replacement Scrappy to a beloved central character, It Got Worse when Kate was introduced as a Clingy Jealous Jerkass, Faux Action Load and Too Dumb to Live Damsel. Not only an egregious Canon Foreigner into the mythos of Robin Hood, completely irrelevant to the Story Arc, and the Designated Victim that complained every time someone rescued her from her own stupidity, the real problem stemmed from the fact that she was completely and utterly useless. Her pre-outlaw occupation was to sell hideous pots to a village that was undoubtedly more concerned about where their next meal was coming from, her attempts to “save” her brother from enforced conscription lead directly to his death, and she never did anything to justify her place amongst the outlaws (at best she stood and watched, at worst she got captured and criticised them on how they handled her rescue). Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong with the writing of this character, to the point where you wonder if it was done on purpose.
    • Tuck wasn't that popular either. Though he had least had the advantage over Kate of actually being in the legends upon which the show was based, it was abundantly clear that the writers introduced him without really knowing what they planned to do with him. After the first episode of the third series (in which he convinces Robin to return to the fight against injustice) he really doesn't do anything substantial. It might not have been so bad except that the writers would often focus on Kate and Tuck at the expense of the other outlaws (Much, Allan, John) who had been around since the beginning of the show and were now being shoved aside in order to accomodate the newcomers. Thus Kate and Tuck not only got two character-centric episodes revolving around them, but were made out to be the two most important and trusted members of Robin's gang (Tuck taking John's place as The Lancer, and Kate nudging out Much as Robin's Sidekick, as well as his new Love Interest) with no justification whatsoever.
  • Alberto Vermicelli from the Belgian kiddie show Samson And Gert, a very popular show in Belgium (and the Netherlands partially). The blame is on the creators themselves for actually Flanderizing the character. In the very first seasons (1990-1993), Alberto was simply a Ted Baxter-looking barber-opera singer who only liked to eat very much, yet he never hurt anyone with it. In fact, he even helped the others many times. But then came the Flanderization in 1994, which ran all the way until the series' end in 2005. He became an very dumb (if not retarded) Adult Child Eric Cartman-like Jerkass with almost no respect for his friends, or other civilians from the same fictional town. His Small Name, Big Ego became over the top and now he thinks he is God, demanding everything he wants, and then rants like a child if the others refuse to do it. His Big Eating also became exgarrating, he constantly talks about food, even during a discussion to help one of the characters who has problems (a typical plot in the show). Many episodes shows him plotting jerkish schemes to snatch food from others. Some episodes even portrays him as a complete Jerkass who delights in causing misschief and madness and bullying people; and on top of that he gets away with most of it, mostly because the others just stupidly let him go. It's very hard to think of why the titular characters and the other friends are still friends of him while he's abusing them, or the creators/writers didn't put him on a bus yet, or at least have the main cast break up with him and demote him to a recurring villain, so he still would be in the show.
    • From the same show: The Minister's Assistant/Delegate (in original Dutch he's called "de afgevaardigde van de minister"), an goverment inspector checking out status in the fictional town. He used to be a normal, neutral recurring character, but after too many actors left the show, the writers (rather than creating new characters or hiring other Darrins) Flanderized into a main character for the last five seasons. He also became the Creator's Pet, since many of these season's episodes went directly about him. And the man has almost never contact with the other characters, or screen-time. His only appearance is to snarl at the main cast for not doing his job properly. And keep in mind that only two of the cast (excluding the Minister's Assistant) are goverment workers (The Mayor and his assistant Eugene), so this guy comes off as a dictator to his people.
    • Unlike the two above example (who got to stick around), Frieda, a character so despised, the writers had to write her out after only three seasons.
  • On The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Riley has attained this status in almost record time. The fandom does not like her, especially the perception that she gets in the way of the popular John/Cameron ship.
  • Tori Scott from Saved by the Bell is widely despised for jumping into the series, replacing Kelly and Jessie out of nowhere, and being a general Mary Sue by besting everything anybody does, and ends up with the rather popular Lisa begging to be her friend. Oh yeah, and did I mention she and Zack become a couple later in?
    • It should be noted that the only reason for the introduction of Tori is that at the last minute NBC ordered more episodes to be filmed for the final season, just as the series was wrapping up and all the cast's contracts had expired. Cast members Elizabeth Berkley and Tiffani Amber-Thiessen (Who played Jessie Spano and Kelly Kapowski, respectively) simply wanted to move on and refused to resign. As a result, the character of Tori was hastily created to fill in the roles left by the absence of the two aforementioned characters, and especially in the case of Kaposwki's absence, serve as a love interest for Zack Morris.
    • The Tori episodes were filmed after the series finale and the made-for-TV movie that were supposed to wrap up the plot of the series, but were inserted into the middle of the season, as their storylines take place at the high school, in the usual canon of the series. This has lead to a series of gigantic plot holes that fans call the "Tori Paradox": Out of nowhere, Jessie and Kelly unexplainably disappear; Tori starts as a new student at the school and instantly befriends the main cast, who are carrying on as if Jessie and Kelly never existed; She is established as some kind of hybrid of Jessie and Kelly, thus she is beautiful and athletic while being smart, snarky and feminist; Zack begins a romantic relationship with her with absolutely no mention of his relationship with Kelly and showing no remorse for the fact that he is potentially cheating on her with Tori; Zack and Tori break up and all of a sudden, she is gone with no explanation of her fate; Jessie and Kelly reappear and everything reverts back to how it was before Tori appeared, Zack and Kelly get engaged and everyone graduates with no mention of Tori whatsoever, as if she was never there in the first place.
    • It has been noted that Tori Scott both resembles and shares personality traits (most notably her strong feminist attitude) with singer/pianist Tori Amos, who had come to fame around the time the "Tori" episodes were filmed and aired. However, no evidence exists that the character is based off the singer, and thus any similarities between the two are simply a hilarious coincidence.
  • Sesame Street:
    • Elmo. Some parents only show their children old pre-Elmo episodes and movies and DVD.
    • Also Abby Cadabby the Fairy, mainly for replacing Prairie Dawn as the main female.
    • Interestingly, Zoe is seen as this by the people who made the show, as she was almost engineered to be marketable to young girls in a way that the other characters were not. Even Abby was created more organically (like the other characters on the show), and so is generally more liked by the crew.
  • Lana Lang from Smallville. Many people who watch the show also consider her a Creator's Pet, because the writers seem to refuse to do anything interesting with her character that contributes positively to the story.
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine had Ezri Dax, the seventh season's Replacement Scrappy, who filled in after Jadzia was killed.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation: Dr. Pulaski:
    • She replaced Wesley's mother as the ship's doctor for a single season before fan outcry got them to bring Dr. Crusher back. Not only was she a Replacement Scrappy, but the writers made a major miscalculation in their attempt to make her a Distaff Counterpart of Dr. McCoy from the original series. Since McCoy's arguments with Spock were such a fan favorite aspect of the character, the writers tried to duplicate it by having Pulaski take a dislike to Data and toss him similar insults about being so logical all the time. Unfortunately, unlike Spock (who routinely gave as good as he got, and seemed to actually enjoy the battle of wits as much as a Vulcan would allow themselves to enjoy anything), Data couldn't even really understand that he was being insulted and never responded in kind, so Pulaski came off as a bully who kept picking on Data because he couldn't fight back.
    • Further, while it's still sorta rude (or, rather, it would be entirely rude if Spock ever actually chose to take offense) it's not horrible for McCoy to insult Spock because McCoy's seriously punching uphill here. Vulcans are the co-dominant species of the Federation, and for that matter helped found the Federation. Also, nobody would cite Spock's being a Vulcan as a reason to remove him from command given that Vulcans are the second-most common species in Starfleet after humans. And on an individual level, Spock outranks McCoy and Spock's father is Vulcan's ambassador to the Federation High Council, meaning Spock is in absolutely no fear of political or career consequences to anything. Data, on the other hand, is not the Enterprise's First Officer and so doesn't have seniority on the Chief Medical Officer. Furthermore, he has no influential relatives, routinely goes through genuine prejudice over his status as an android, and actually has officers questioning if Data can do things like make command decisions or care for small children. At the time in which Pulaski was on the ship, Data wasn't even being recognized as a sentient being, and thus had none of the rights that would entail. In short, the target of McCoy's jibes is not only entirely indifferent but is also in a position where the only person McCoy could get in trouble is himself. Pulaski, meanwhile, is dumping crap on someone in no position to defend themselves, and who arguably lacks the mental capacity to deal with it emotionally at all. Keeping all this in mind, Pulaski's slamming of Data's cold logic making him inferior to humans just makes her look like a bigot.
    • Making all of the above even worse is the fact that an elderly Admiral McCoy actually met Data briefly (in the TNG pilot, "Encounter at Farpoint")... and was entirely respectful and polite to him. Furthermore, in his conversation with Data he actually compares him to a Vulcan and in the process of doing so emphasizes that Spock was an honored and beloved friend 'even if he was damned annoying at times'. A more direct contrast to Pulaski's bullshit would be harder to imagine. That this was also DeForest Kelley's final appearance as McCoy, the note he chose to exit the series on, only underlines it yet again.
    • Pulaski was also regularly cited by other characters as having a very kind and compassionate personality. Her treatment of Data says otherwise. On that note, it should be mentioned that she didn't only insult him directly; in her earlier appearances, she repeatedly talked about him in the third person while he was in the room and ran a scanner over him the same way one would run a scanner over an indistinct object, chemical, or other substance. Oh, and she called him "it." This is basically the most rotten and degrading thing you can do to someone without actually resorting to physical violence; her implication was that she considered him to be no more worthy of respect than the matter replicator.
    • Not even getting into the political status/power argument, Vulcans are capable of emotions, though they control/suppress them, and can be a bit haughty about it. Data, however, was physically incapable of feeling emotion, and not only didn't have any issue with others feeling emotion, often wished that he could experience it himself. So Pulaski was basically tormenting a disabled person for her own amusement. Maybe she should have been on Voyager.
    • And that's just her treatment of Data; she constantly interrupted everyone else, including the captain of the ship, threw her opinions out without thinking of the consequences, practically bullies the crew into doing what she wants, even at the risk to herself, them, and/or the ship...let's just say that if she isn't related to Janeway, in some capacity, it would be a profound shock.
    • A major problem with her portrayal was that the writers seemed to think that all you needed to make a TNG version of Dr. McCoy was to make the character abrasive. They missed the fact that Bones was also a very close friend of Kirk and Spock, was loved and respected by the entire crew, and had served with them for years. In other words, he'd earned the right to occasionally act like a jerk. No one would ever question his loyalty or respect for the crew, even if he was curt with them much of the time. Whereas Pulaski, as the newest member of the TNG crew, came off as an arrogant newcomer who had never proven herself yet expected others to instantly think the world of her.
    • McCoy also leavened his moments of abrasiveness with moments of strong friendship and emotional support -- both to Kirk and to Spock. In McCoy's case, being compassionate and empathetic was not an Informed Attribute. In Pulaski's case... see above.
    • And, of course, there's Wesley Crusher. See the Creator's Pet page for more.
  • Star Trek: Voyager:
    • Neelix.
      • It's no surprise that when Tuvok is struggling with homicidal impulses, his means of testing his self control is trying, (and failing), to keep himself from strangling Neelix-- sadly, it turned out to be a holodeck simulation. No jury in the world would've convicted him, either. Type in "Tuvok" into a Youtube search and let the auto-fill menu come up - the number one recommendation is "Tuvok kills Neelix"
      • A youtube clip on how Neelix should have been handled in the series.
    • Seven of Nine, for the usual Die for Our Ship reasons and for being Ms. Fanservice.
    • Chakotay has this among American Indian Trekkies for Ethnic Scrappy reasons.
    • The entire Kazon species basically constituted one of these on the first two seasons of Star Trek: Voyager; while nearly every other alien species on Star Trek gets some measure of character development, the Kazon were never depicted as anything other than moustache-twirling badguys. And in spite of the fact that the entire species seemed to be rock-stupid and technologically backwards, Voyager somehow managed not only to keep running into them, but to keep running into the same ones. Later in the series, the writers themselves took shots at the Kazon by revealing that the Borg took a pass on assimilating them on the grounds that doing so would undermine their perfection. Their role as a major power in the Delta quadrant seems an Ass Pull as well. On the first episode they are shown, they are depicted as a small nomadic slave-trading tribe always on the move to find vital water supplies... but the minute Neelix pisses them off, out comes the armada of Voyager-level warships always on the Voyager's tail. It's almost like refusing change to a bum on the subway only to find you pissed off Don Corleone.
  • Supernatural:
    • Here's a fun exercise: Go to a forum and casually mention that Bela may not be so bad. Hilarity Will Ensue.
    • Ruby is fast becoming this for a lot of fans. Think about it: She's supposedly a demon who's good, she's manipulating Sam into using his demonic powers more, there are plenty of consent issues with the bodies she possesses and, more often than not, her meatsuit is usually a crappy actress. However, Ruby's exact motives are still vague, so whether her lack of positive qualities is intentional is yet to be confirmed. There have also been some issues with The Other Darrin. Season 3 Ruby is considered by some to be more tolerated than Season 4 Ruby. Also complicating things is the fact that Jared Padalecki married S4 Ruby's actress.
      • The Season 4 finale reveals that Ruby was working for Lucifer the whole time, and was manipulating Sam into using his demon powers to kill Lilith, thus breaking the final seal and setting Lucifer free.
    • Unfortunately this seems par for the course for any major female characters introduced on the show. The Fan Hypocrisy is legendary for this.
    • Lisa and Ben. For Die for Our Ship reasons (since Lisa interferes with the Incest Subtext), as Dean's Morality Pet (On this show, the heroes need one.), and because most fans saw the beginning of their relationship as unrealistic. Alas, Poor Scrappy is averted, though; at the end of season 6, despite everything that happens in the finale, Lisa's still alive. Oddly, the Ensemble Darkhorse just became the new Big Bad. Go figure.
    • The problem with Lisa and Ben was that they were only brought back as a way to give Dean a semi-happy ending when season 5 was planned to be the end of the show... And then, when season 6 was greenlighted, they brought them back anyway. Most fans expected them to be Put on a Bus or Stuffed Into the Fridge early in the season, but for some reason the writers kept them around even though they didn't have anything to contribute to the plot.
  • TeenageMutant Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation had one - Venus, the female turtle trained in the art of Shinobi who was deliberately not related to any of the boys so that a relationship wasn't out of the question. It didn't stop her being so hated that her entire existence has now been denied. Reasons include:
    • The power of magic - shinobi - so she never really got into any fights, making her The Chick, and using said power to single-handedly save the day or appear amazing solely for knowing about magic, way too often.
    • Her creation for the apparent sole purpose of Ship Tease, by pointedly making the other turtles Not Blood Siblings, and then aiming her at Leonardo and Raphael, which would surely have had them fighting over her.
    • Her convoluted introduction with the obvious and yet unanswered question of 'why didn't anybody say something about this sooner?'
    • On the part of the original creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird... Peter Laird took the stance that Venus never existed in the first place to such a degree that nobody could even make jokes about her around him, while Kevin Eastman is quite willing to discuss the character.
    • The detail that the creators hated her so much that there has never been a recurring female mutant since. Apparently the only reason writers can think of to have a female mutant would be to get romantic with the turtles, rather than say, adding a new personality or a new skill to the team.
  • Randy Pearson in That 70's Show, for being Eric's Suspiciously Similar Substitute and a Replacement Scrappy while trying to replace Kelso at the same time.
  • If YouTube comments are anything to go by, Tommy's first girlfriend August is really, really hated by fans of 3rd Rock from the Sun. Basically, it's because she is shallow and manipulative while acting like she is so far above that kind of thing. This is played for Hypocritical Humor and Comedic Sociopathy, but it still makes her The Obstructive Love Interest.
  • Torchwood:
    • Owen, an apparent attempt to create a Jack-the-Lad type character that failed dismally. In the story world he's supposed to be some kind of love god, but the actor playing him is strangely froglike and charm-free. It doesn't help that when we first see him he's getting women to sleep with him by using a special spray he nicked from Torchwood supplies that made him irresistible (which more than a few fans saw as essentially Owen raping unwilling sexual partners). However, in the second series, the writers acknowledged all of this and early on took constant digs at him. His popularity increased with his character arc through the second season, only for him to be killed off in a heartbreaking final episode.
  • Kim Bauer from 24, owed heavily to her irrelevant plotlines that only take time away from the main story than anything she actually does. Of course, in the early seasons, she was Too Dumb to Live too, to the point that she was the original Trope Namer for Damsel Scrappy.
  • Victorious:
    • Robbie can be considered this, as he is widely considered to be the most useless of the seven main characters, and sometimes annoying, known to butt into random situations in the weirdest ways possible. Sometimes his puppet Rex can be the source of his annoyance factor to others.
    • That is to say nothing of Tori, who in season 1 has done some pretty bad misdeeds and hostilities, even if by accident. Because of episodes like the pilot, "Beck's Big Break" and "Cat's New Boyfriend", some viewers seem to just want to see her suffer a terrible fate, and certainly not for nothing. However, Season 2 has been attempting to improve her attitude.
    • Let's not forget Jade, whose smug attitude, complete jerkassery to everyone else, and the fact that she's a Karma Houdini have started to rub many fans the wrong way.
    • Trina is yet another. She's meant to be annoying and untalented in an attempt to be funny, but it worked too well, and many fans can't stand her.
  • Mandy in The West Wing. She disappeared without a trace from Season 2 onward. A lot of Mandy's Scrappiness was her inability to fit in with the compassionate, quirky, slightly bumbling, bleeding-heart, idealistic senior staff. In her first appearance, she ran a red light while talking on a cellphone, then continued to talk on the cell phone as a cop pulled her over and tried to ask her questions. Unlike most TV shows, every single main character on The West Wing was a member of one single unified, close-knit team, and Mandy, being the only exception and not a very important one at that, was left floating.
  • Joxer from Xena: Warrior Princess, at least between seasons 2 and 4 for hogging screentime. When the fans finally started to tolerate him around season 5, the writers killed him off.
  • Despite being the main reviwers on the show, Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb could qualify. Post-Seasonal Rot, they suffered from massive Flanderization that made them seem to worship Microsoft, no matter how bad their games are, as well as massive backlash from the He Panned It, Now He Sucks train of thought (though to be fair, many of these are fueled by the fact that they have massive Bias Steamroller going in regards to certain genres of games, and in some cases, Did Not Do the Research).
Back to The Scrappy
  1. ↑ For example, there are people who think Dr. Will has a deplorable playstyle while others think he really knows the game.
  2. ↑ Not a good idea since she was in her alliance!
  3. ↑ While both of Buffy's famous vampire beaus have attempted to murder her repeatedly, that was when they were broken up or not dating yet, and also while their souls were not in their bodies. The infamous Parker, of course, is not even being counted as a 'boyfriend'.
  4. ↑ A deleted scene suggested that he was in love with Morgana, though this was never clarified in the actual show, and the fact that there was no background on how they met or why he was so devoted to a woman that treated him like dirt (over his own nephew who accorded him respect and a powerful position in Camelot) only opened up more questions concerning what the heck he was trying to achieve
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