When the Sidekick is Better Than the Hero
- Thread starter auntiehill
- Start date
Entourage: Johnny Drama is more interesting than Vince (Ari isn't Vince's sidekick (but then i've only seen 1.5 seasons))
Seinfeld: George and Kramer are more entertaining than Jerry
Seinfeld: George and Kramer are more entertaining than Jerry
Easy. Here's a perfect example.
Jensen Ackles as "Alec" on the second season of Dark Angel completely overshadowed Michael Weatherly's boring Logan. For heaven's sake, the DVD package of season two only has pictures of Jessica Alba and Jensen Ackles on it, as if they were the two leads instead of Alba and Weatherly. Hell, for that matter I thought Ackles' Alec became more interesting than Max. "The Berrisford Agenda" was easily the best episode of season two.
Jensen Ackles as "Alec" on the second season of Dark Angel completely overshadowed Michael Weatherly's boring Logan. For heaven's sake, the DVD package of season two only has pictures of Jessica Alba and Jensen Ackles on it, as if they were the two leads instead of Alba and Weatherly. Hell, for that matter I thought Ackles' Alec became more interesting than Max. "The Berrisford Agenda" was easily the best episode of season two.
A selection of sidekicks I have preferred to the hero:
Squints to Booth and Brennan - Bones
Al to Sam - Quantum Leap
Illia to Napoleon - UNCLE
Felix Leither to Bond - Bond
Alan Carter, Tony Verdeschi, Victor Bergman to Koenig - Space: 1999
Foster, Freman to Straker - UFO
Dale Gribble to Hank Hill, King of the Hill
Bones to Kirk - TOS
Rudy Wells to Steve Austin - Bionic Man
Garibaldi to Sinclair/Sheridan - B5
Avon to Blake - B7
Angel, Spike to Buffy - Buffy
Wesley to Angel - Angel
There are more, but they'll do for now. Generally speaking I've always preferred the sidekick to the hero. I think the hero is often bound by restraints and the need for hero-ness that the sidekicks aren't subject to. Sidekicks often have a quirkiness that a straight-laced hero lacks.
Squints to Booth and Brennan - Bones
Al to Sam - Quantum Leap
Illia to Napoleon - UNCLE
Felix Leither to Bond - Bond
Alan Carter, Tony Verdeschi, Victor Bergman to Koenig - Space: 1999
Foster, Freman to Straker - UFO
Dale Gribble to Hank Hill, King of the Hill
Bones to Kirk - TOS
Rudy Wells to Steve Austin - Bionic Man
Garibaldi to Sinclair/Sheridan - B5
Avon to Blake - B7
Angel, Spike to Buffy - Buffy
Wesley to Angel - Angel
There are more, but they'll do for now. Generally speaking I've always preferred the sidekick to the hero. I think the hero is often bound by restraints and the need for hero-ness that the sidekicks aren't subject to. Sidekicks often have a quirkiness that a straight-laced hero lacks.
Jensen certainly has that "Star quality".
Still hard to believe he was the runner up to Welling for the Clark Kent role. 
Not that I'm unhappy with him getting Supernatural instead. Much better role for him. 
Not that I'm unhappy with him getting Supernatural instead. Much better role for him.
With how stagnant the characters seem to be on Smallville, I suppose he should be glad about that.Still hard to believe he was the runner up to Welling for the Clark Kent role.
No lie about that. I was just posting in the Smallville thread on the sci-fi fantasy forum about that very thing. It was lamenting how much more interesting all the supporting characters on Smallville are/were than poor Clark, because Welling gets no chance for growth with his character being forever tied to and moping over Lana. 
Lex is more interesting. Lionel in more interesting. Chloe is more interesting. Martha is more interesting. Every sidekick on the show is more interesting than Clark. I commented on how Ackles turn on Smallville was the only part I've seen him in where he didn't seem charismatic. He had the same problem as Welling; his character was stuck mooning over the eternal Lana. 
Not that there's been a great deal of growth for anyone on Smallville, like you said, but at least the other characters are allowed to change a little bit. Not much, but a little bit. Then again, they aren't hamstrung by Lana love. Give me the Winchester brothers any day.
Lex is more interesting. Lionel in more interesting. Chloe is more interesting. Martha is more interesting. Every sidekick on the show is more interesting than Clark. I commented on how Ackles turn on Smallville was the only part I've seen him in where he didn't seem charismatic. He had the same problem as Welling; his character was stuck mooning over the eternal Lana. Not that there's been a great deal of growth for anyone on Smallville, like you said, but at least the other characters are allowed to change a little bit. Not much, but a little bit. Then again, they aren't hamstrung by Lana love. Give me the Winchester brothers any day.
Jerry was definitely the least interesting and funny of the Seinfeld quartet.
Entourage is more of an ensemble, IMHO, as befits the name. I know that in the show, Vince is the famous one, but I'm not sure he's meant to be the lead character of the show. For one thing, the actor playing Eric gets top billing, IIRC. But I would agree that Drama is more interesting than Vince.
Yeah, people seem to forget that Dennis Franz was second-billed for the first five seasons of NYPD Blue; by the end, it was as much the "Andy Sipowicz Show" as M*A*S*H had become the "Hawkeye Pierce Show" by its last seasons. Even though Franz was second-billed through the end of Jimmy Smits' tenure, the popularity of his character and the awards recognition (Franz did win four Emmys, while both Caruso and Smits came away empty-handed) helped make the Simone-Sipowicz partnership a bit more even-keeled than the Kelly-Sipowicz partnership.
Also a lot of people aren't aware that Sipowicz was originally supposed to die in the pilot. He was never intended to be an ongoing character.
Slightly off topic, but IIRC, so was Nurse Hathaway, the Julianna Marguiles character, in the ER pilot.
And Lloyd gives even scene-stealing Ari a run for his money.
I think Vince and Eric were intended as the lead characters of that show. Great example of a show that's been taken over by the sidekicks.
I agree, and I don't even watch Supernatural. What little I've seen, it's immediately apparent that Ackles pretty much takes over any scene he's in, unless his co-stars are some really heavy hitter like Edward James Olmos, I suppose. I wouldn't have minded Ackles having been the choice for Kirk.
If Moore hadn't been determined to change the character to a female, Ackles would have been a perfect Starbuck in nuBSG.
Dusty Ayres
Commodore
And it's a tragedy that unlike the original story, Herc couldn't die off at the end like he was supposed to, and leave Iolaus to carry on in his stead, like Gaby did on Xena.
As for the topic? I'm not so sure. But I'd say that 99 is a lot better than Maxwell Smart (especially the movie version) and Shego is more exciting than Dr. Drakken. And I find that Willow Rosenberg is a lot more prettier and smarter than Buffy-I'd love to get into.....her shoes.
As well, I find Velma Dinkley to be very attractive, especially when played by Linda Cardelini in Scooby-Doo II: Monsters Unleashed (if only she could have kept on wearing that red suit, sandals, and glasses)! Moreso than Daphne Blake.
So true, it irks me everytime I see Padalecki get top billing because I think Ackles is the better actor... and way cooler of course.
I'd like to see him achieve more mainstream success really.
Can't believe I forgot this earlier (though maybe someone else listed it), but IMHO Niles Crane was always much funnier than his brother Frasier. Not only in the episodes where he was clearly in a supporting role, but when he was in a storyline written round him.
The most fun characters on that show were Trance and Harper. Anything with those two was something I looked forward to.
