19 TV Shows That Basically Started Treating A Side Character Like The New Protagonist
Recently, I asked the BuzzFeed Community which side characters they think overshadowed the protagonist, basically becoming the main character themselves.
Here are 19 of their top answers:
1.Steve Harrington from Stranger Things
"Despite at first being the typical, douchebag high school boyfriend, he definitely made a place for himself in Stranger Things and became one of the best characters in the entire series!"
2.Cassie Howard from Euphoria
"She kind of became the villainous protagonist of the series since Season 2."
3.Pacey Witter and Joey Potter on Dawson's Creek
"Yes, they had focus on other characters in the first couple of seasons, but it was still clearly mostly about Dawson and his POV. But from Season 3 on, it became more about Pacey and Joey and their story, which was honestly for the best."
4.Grogu (Baby Yoda) from The Mandalorian
"Everyone fell in love with this little green baby. You couldn't get away from him when the show first came out. It seemed like no one cared about the actual Mandalorian himself or anything pertaining to his people/planet, etc.
Grogu completely took over and he can't even frickin' talk!"
5.Santana Lopez, Kurt Hummel, and Blaine Anderson from Glee
"Thankfully, the writers saw that Rachel Berry got on people's nerves, and the audience was more interested in literally anyone else!"
6.Regina Mills from Once Upon a Time
"Honestly, as much as I hate to say it, Regina was kind of a main character, but the actual main character is Emma Swan. We got a full on redemption arc for Regina, and it’s fantastic."
7.Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother
"Barney overtook Ted."
"Thankfully! They had to keep adding negatives to Ted Mosby until he became a caricature of himself. I loved well-rounded Barney!"
8.Mon-El from Supergirl
"Supergirl started as a show about the relationship between Kara and Alex, but once Mon-El joined, a lot of focus was pulled from the sisters in favor of him."
9.Ben Stone on Manifest
"The original central character was Michaela, but over time, Ben — and by extension, his wife and kids — became the central character.
The writers didn't think it through. Michaela's love interest had to cheat on his wife, who was Michaela's ex-best friend, to show persistent love to her. Mick's own side distraction in the show, Zeke, was a fan favorite because he's cute, and like many side characters, was too perfectly good. Then, it's suddenly revealed that Ben's son is the Holy Grail, and the rest of the family are good actors.
The show was doomed from the start."
10.Iris West from The Flash
"The Flash can, at times, feel like it should be called Iris, given the prominence given to her storylines at the expense of the Scarlet Speedster himself."
11.Troy Barnes and Abed Nadir from Community
"Community was very Jeff-focused in the beginning, but it became more of an ensemble show, with Troy and Abed ending up as the focal point of a lot of episodes."
12.Michelle Tanner on Full House
"It pretty much became The Michelle Show."
"She was my least favorite character, so I definitely wasn’t a fan of the show in the last few seasons."
13.Seth Cohen from The O.C.
"Seth pulled the show's focus from Ryan, and I think for good reason. Seth was funny and charming, and he also had that dramatic storyline with Summer. Seth was a lot more fun to watch than Ryan's sad story."
14.Darlene Alderson and Dominique Dipierro from Mr. Robot
"I am not one of their shippers, but while I was focused on Elliot and his arc, my feed was filled with a lot of 'Domlene' tweets and fan stuff. It was almost like they were made into the main characters of the series."
15.Felicity Smoak from Arrow
"For a time, Arrow tried to make Felicity just as important as Oliver, to the detriment of the character."
16.Kramer from Seinfeld
"Seinfeld originally started as very Jerry and George-centric, but it incorporated Elaine and Kramer as larger focal points as the series went on. Kramer, specifically, went from a side character to one who was frequently the lead in a particular storyline."
17.Ichabod Crane (and his family) from Sleepy Hollow
"Abbie and Crane were clearly designed to be a platonic duo, but the showrunner and writers believed the audience was more interested in Crane, his estranged wife, and their petulant adult son.
They revolved the series around this triangle, which effectively sidelined Abbie. It got to be so much that she once got to speak only one line in an entire episode: 'Anyone want coffee?'"
18.Hawkeye from M*A*S*H
"Trapper (Wayne Rogers) and Hawkeye (Alan Alda) were billed as equal characters in M*A*S*H, but Hawkeye outshone Trapper. He started getting more and better dialogue, and they even made Hawk a thoracic surgeon, which differed from the book and movie where Trapper was the only thoracic surgeon. That which made Wayne Rogers feel like he was stripped of his title."
19.And finally, Elmo from Sesame Street
"I have preschool-age kids, and it seems like Elmo fully took over Sesame Street sometime between when I was watching in the late '80s/early '90s and now. We watched Muppet Family Christmas (from 1987) back in December, and my kids kept asking why Elmo wasn't doing anything. It was before he made it big, kids!"
Did we miss any side characters that took over your favorite TV shows? Share your own examples in the comments!
Some responses have been edited for length/clarity.
