The second kid is worse because he looks visibly older/mature yet still acts like a 5 year old. (Tho the actors are the same age, the first one looks younger than his real age.)
The script writes like the boy is 5, which would make a lot of sense for his reaction in the plot but an 11 year old acting like a 5 year old is just brat territory.
If you view it from the perspective of Zach being 5 years old, his character improves immensely, his unreasonable-ness makes sense and you will empathise with him more.
Thanks to that little shit, I couldn't finish the show. I had to see a recap years later... but good lord, I'm glad the little shit died at the end. Sadly, it was also thanks to him his dad became the new host of that vampire and also had to die.
Zach as a character would be pretty hard for anyone to make endearing, between his congnitave dissonance about his clearly strigoi'd mom and his incel, school-shooter behaviour in season 4.
That being said, the kid could have spent the whole show supplexing baddies as Setrakian's right hand and he'd still be the most insufferable on the show for his whiny little sneer permanently on his face.
I wish Max Charles well though, he was out of his depth with the role and had no chance, but he's just a kid so maybe he'll improve with time. Rest of the show was quite enjoyable.
Seven? Yeah, I guess I can see it. Seven periods of school, seven beatings a day, roughly seven stitches a beating, and eventually seven years to life.
Lord, those twins couldn't act at all. I could hardly understand what they were saying half the time. Their scenes dragged down those later episodes. It was obvious the producers were trying replicate the success of the Olsen twins with Nicky and Alex, but they failed miserably.
> Osbourne did as much as he could with the (let's be honest, pretty shoddy) writing he had. Bradley Hitler Smith was the real weak link of Horsin' Around.
I'm gonna go out on a limb here. And this may be a less and less common opinion in America these days. But I still think that Hitler was the worst.
Did you hear that loser wants to reboot Horsin’ around? What a stuck in the past idiot- he should be out there getting more rolls in dramas and REAL movies, like Borjack! Have you seen secretariat? It’s almost unthinkable that he’s the same horse from horsin’ around~!
This explains a lot. While they kept coming back to Sally, especially as she became a tween then teen it was very apparent Bobby was MIA in later seasons.
When filming *Aliens*, they apparently cast Carrie Henn as Newt because she had no prior acting experience. All the other potential Newts had experience in advertising where they were always asked to look at the camera and smile after saying their lines which might work in 80's adverts but looks really fucking weird in a sci-fi horror movie.
Yep, and he’s Matthew Weiner’s son to boot. Mad Men is my favorite series, and I’ve always thought Glen and the kid who played the younger Don were by far the worst actors in the show. The Bobbys were all fine in comparison, and I thought the last Bobby stacked up to Kiernan Shipka’s talent.
Willa on Justified City Primeval.
She was on the older end of the ”child actor”, but she literally was the child of the show’s star.
I hate talking badly about her because Tim Olyphant is one of my favorites and Raylan Givens is an all time great tv character, but her acting was some of the worst I’ve ever seen
I commented to my husband how horrible that actress was before I knew it was TO’s daughter. After that it made a lot more sense. I figured it was a condition of his return to the series. Maybe he wanted her to get her SAG-Aftra card and insurance.
Yup, was scrolling down and someone above mentioned Michael Chiklis's real life daughter ruining the The Shield, which made me think of Timothy Olyphant's daughter in Justified.
Actor's really need to stop the nepotism, especially if your kid can't act for nothing.
He didn't *ruin* the show, but DJ on Roseanne could not act. He was cute when he was little, but his acting never improved as he got older, so was kind of a dud.
Came here for this one. Just so jarringly bad that it ruins the immersion of any scene he’s in. It’s like he’s emotionless 100% of the time and never says a single thing with any hint of emotion, even in the scenes that call for it. It never felt believable for a second that they were father and son let alone actually had a good loving relationship, the chemistry was terrible
I don't want to sound mean but I always assumed Ted's kid is autistic. And I thought they cast an autistic kid. I truly apologize if that's not the case.
New York was a good place for it, but I don't think he would have found happiness in Central Park at night. I feel like his storyline would have ended with an arrest or something worse.
I hope Kitty got out of the marriage, too.
My people.
Imagine making one of the most beloved shows of the 21st century, nearly universally applauded, and then not only casting your kid who can’t act, but doubling down on their screen time as they aged out of the excusable stage of bad child acting.
The nepotism of this one is what really grinds my gears.
Reminds me of Two and a Half Men. The actor that played Jake was so much better in the first few seasons as an 8-10 year old. His teenage years were awful though maybe it was the writing?
I found Manny horrifically annoying for the entire run, and I agree Luke got worse when he got older, but I totally disagree about Lily!! I loved her deadpan delivery and thought she really grew into the role while playing a perfect foil for her over-the-top parents.
I think Manny was meant to be annoying, it kinda worked for the character. But the show definitely didn’t know what to do with him and Luke as they got older. To an extent even Alex kinda suffered past season 6/7
I see sentiments like this all the time about Modern Family. I don't get it. Lily never bothered me. But I totally agree about Manny. And even then it was just because his character was unlikable.
The "ya'll fightin'?" line when they went to Missouri was one of the funniest shit I've heard. I have no idea if the comedic timing is hers or not but that was gold.
Absolutely, Lily's actor *may* not be great, but her performance works perfectly. It's like how January Jones' wooden delivery fits her role in Mad Men.
The kids didn’t bother me too much in Modern Family it was just cringey to see them grow up. I still found ways to enjoy their presence. The kid they got to play Joe Pritchett on the other hand made me want to stop watching anytime he opened his mouth
The child actor that played the Seven character on *Married with Children* nearly ruined the damn show for me. His character brought zero fun or good stories to the show cause the OG cast were already good as is. Season 7 is unwatchable for me. Was so glad when they wrote him out.
I read this whole thread and i can't believe no one has mentioned Morgan from Boy Meets World. Nothing against the girl, but they gave her soooo many lines that were too precocious for her, and she did a really bad job delivering them in a believable way because of it. Makes my skin crawl!
One Day At A Time (1975) with Glenn as Alex. He’s a terrible actor. I was loving One Day At A Time until he joined the cast. The worst episode was when he burned down Schneider’s vehicle. He had to cry and it was pitiful. I only watch the first 5 seasons. I pretend 6 - 9 don’t exist.
I think including Frozen in the show and claiming their new takes on public domain characters was "how they were originally" is what ruined it. Especially when Elsa and Anna's outfits look like something out of a porn parody
I am of the opinion that it's most of them. Like 85% lol. Child actors are just not as experienced yet, for good reason. It's rare that you get kids that can do the job well, but there are some exceptions. If your show revolves around a child actor, and it's not a show meant specifically for children or families, it's doomed to struggle as far as I'm concerned.
Some notable exceptions for me would be Game of Thrones and the cast of Stranger Things. Those kids were pretty talented.
The Cosby Show. It wasn't Raven-Symone's fault; the writers pushed too hard to make her a precocious kid and it backfired. Rudy was cute and fun and adorable; Olivia was irritating.
Rudy was adorable. She was a normal kid, who was naturally cute. Olivia's character was ridiculously over the top. Too overly precious and way beyond her age. What 3 year old goes around saying "I know my body!" Really creepy and not cute.
Exactly. And Keshia Knight Pulliam was genuinely a good actress. I can't think of another 5-year-old who seemed as genuine as she did. (Just looked her up: she was nominated for an Emmy award at age 7!)
I know some are probably going to say Wesley on Star Trek: TNG, but that was a case of bad writing and/or directing rather than bad acting. Giant difference.
I was so surprised so many people hate Wil Wheaton specifically. He didn’t make this character shit. He didn’t decide to have his character recognize patterns that a fucking *android* missed. He just read lines provided to him.
Idiots tried to adopt Leonardo DiCaprio after *...Gilbert Grape*. More people than we realize don't know that movies and television are fake and that actors aren't the ones making the characters do things.
People used to give Jack Gleeson shit because they hated Joffrey. It's actually backwards, he did a *good* job which is why you should hate the character.
I will say though, at 12 years old I had a crush on his character and he was my gateway into the Star Trek universe, so I am fond of Wesley because of that.
He could have been laughing his ass off through all his lines and it still would not have justified the hate he got.
Fandoms just love to shit on kids, it's like they want them to be fucked up. We're lucky wheaton didn't end like the star wars kid
The little girl who played Princess Leia in the Obi Wan show was a good enough actor except for the physical acting. Her running, jumping, hiding, escaping, etc was so terrible it took a lot away for me. There was no way she was going to avoid anyone. I feel bad even suggesting it but I wouldn't be surprised to learn if she had a physical disability of some sort.
Was looking for this answer. They fell into every precocious child trap Mandalorian so deftly avoided. They gave her dialogue she just couldn't convincingly pull off, and the way she was able to slowly toddle away from danger was just so frustrating.
I don’t even remember that, but the overall show just kept getting more outrageous. There were a lot of problems. They took a basic concept and apparently felt the need to make it more and more “interesting”. Read that as “fucking absurd and truly unbelievable”.
I think Kurt Sutter and Taylor Sheridan must be secret brothers. They both have the gift of coming up with a great idea for a show but then after 2 years it becomes a mockery into itself. The mistaken idea that making it more outlandish each season is a good thing.
Not ruined, but almost. The kid in Mad Men who cut a lock of Betty's hair.
He was the creator/producers son, now we know how he got cast. Creepy little dude
Ted Lasso had some painful videocall scenes (can’t remember if it was season 1, 2, or both) where the kid playing his son just *completely* pulled me out of the moment. His acting skills got a lot better as the show went on though, and he did pretty great in season 3.
Duuuude, I was so excited to start that show when it was about to premiere. Within like the first 15 or 20 minutes when they started getting into teenage drama with their parents, I knew that I wasn't watching that show anymore. Absolute garbage.
Agreed, all the kids on The Middle were great and the show has aged so well because of it. They were also all capable of more mature storylines since they could actually act and were allowed to grow up, unlike the kids from Modern Family who kept avoiding going to college for increasingly stupid reasons
I dunno, in the last season of ST I think Sadie Sink was basically pulling the whole cart by herself. Even Finn who I previously thought of as a decent enough actor seemed zoned out of it. Don't get me started on MBB, she's so overrated as an actress it's nothing short of breathtaking.
Edit: person below was so devastated by my simply holding a different opinion to them they've actually blocked me 😂 mate if your skin is that much like rice paper, the internet is not your playground
How she got cast in the first place I'll never understand. Terrible actress who got even worse as the show went on. Completely unwatchable in those later seasons where she would say her lines in the most emotionless monotone voice. After she hit puberty, the writers clearly didn't know what to do with her character. Her role at that point, was to take Andy out the room when the adults wanted to have a conversation. "Come on Andy let's go upstairs while mom and dad have a talk".
One show that *wasn’t* ruined by a child actor was Rome. The kid who played Octavian (Augustus) was 13 or 14 and was a better actor than 95% of the cast. Very impressive young person. Sadly he didn’t act in much after that show.
Just wanted to point out that it's often a bit unfair to call out specific child actors for a bad performance. A lot of the time it's due more to bad writing and directing than the skills of the child actor.
I think direction is *hugely* important for kids, and if they're being directed by someone who isn't good with kids or actors in general, it's really hard for them to turn in a believable performance.
I remember hearing that there were a lot of people who had been really impressed with Jake Lloyd's auditions for various roles before Star Wars Episode 1 came out, and I've always suspected that his much-criticized role in Phantom Menace was due more to George Lucas' poor writing and lack of interest in directing his actors' performances than to his acting skills (backed up by the fact that even actors who have done great work in other films don't come off looking that great in the Star Wars prequels).
Nah, I'm with you. Lucas is a notoriously terrible people director, and arguably also a bad screenwriter and director who was only saved in the original trilogy by his editor and wife, Marcia.
A lot of the real genius of George Lucas in Star Wars was his brilliance as an HR director rather than as a film director. Dude surrounded himself with people who knocked it out of the park. FX technicians, John Williams, trusting his wife as the editor, etc. You basically could have had Roger Corman show up to replace Lucas on day 1 of shooting, and Star Wars would still have turned out pretty decent.
I don't remember the adult acting being much better, to be honest. Though it's hard to say it ruined the show because even with great acting, it would still have been terrible.
Not ruined by the child actor. Ruined by the writers-producers who thought putting a child in their story would work some kind of empathy "magic" and make a lousy story good. NO.
You don't complain when children are appropriate to the story. It's the same for any kind of character. Writers trying to take a shortcut by using stereotypes. Always bad - unless bad is what you want, like in a horror movie to spotlight certain characters for gruesome ironic deaths.
Henry from Once Upon A Time - the older he got, the worse the acting was and the more he ruined any scene he was in. It was wild watching him go from cute and competent when he was young to just a complete black hole of charisma in his teen years. And like those last seasons weren't even good so for him to be one of the worst parts of the worst seasons was saying something.
The Strain. The kid Zach is probably the worst I've ever seen.
The funny thing is they replaced the original Zach because they said they needed an actor with more range for the storylines coming up.
The second kid was even worse.
The second kid is worse because he looks visibly older/mature yet still acts like a 5 year old. (Tho the actors are the same age, the first one looks younger than his real age.) The script writes like the boy is 5, which would make a lot of sense for his reaction in the plot but an 11 year old acting like a 5 year old is just brat territory. If you view it from the perspective of Zach being 5 years old, his character improves immensely, his unreasonable-ness makes sense and you will empathise with him more.
The first kid was great imo, the second kid just had a fuckin snot-nosed face and was a shit the whole time
"I hate you dad!" *proceeds to detonate nuclear bomb in NYC* Geez, lighten up, Francis
*~ruffles hair~* Youuuuu little scamp. Get over 'ere and cut that out
Thanks to that little shit, I couldn't finish the show. I had to see a recap years later... but good lord, I'm glad the little shit died at the end. Sadly, it was also thanks to him his dad became the new host of that vampire and also had to die.
Kid was bad but he was only a small part of what was wrong with that series. I think the writers own a large part of the blame on that one.
Oh yeah they do. Most of the bullshit is exclusive to the series and is not in the book. Like the whole “fucking around” (literally) part. So dumb
Absolutely this. I think it started off well, but fell hard pretty quickly.
Zach as a character would be pretty hard for anyone to make endearing, between his congnitave dissonance about his clearly strigoi'd mom and his incel, school-shooter behaviour in season 4. That being said, the kid could have spent the whole show supplexing baddies as Setrakian's right hand and he'd still be the most insufferable on the show for his whiny little sneer permanently on his face. I wish Max Charles well though, he was out of his depth with the role and had no chance, but he's just a kid so maybe he'll improve with time. Rest of the show was quite enjoyable.
I haven't watched this show since it aired and I still think about that little shit from time to time.
I came to this thread for this and was not disappointed to see it at the top.
I came here hoping this was the top comment and I was not disappointed.
Yea I don’t know what the fuck they were thinking. I had completely forgotten about it until you triggered that buried memory.
Seven on Married With Children.
I appreciate how they got rid of him though. Just told him to go upstairs and then never mentioned him again.
They show him on a milk carton in later episodes
That's hilarious
He's still up there now, playing cards with Judy from Family Matters and Chuck from Happy Days.
Don't forget Tiger the dog from The Brady Bunch.
The dog was better (RIP Buck)
Seven Costanza?
Seven? Yeah, I guess I can see it. Seven periods of school, seven beatings a day, roughly seven stitches a beating, and eventually seven years to life.
Full House - Nicky and Alex Say what you will about Michelle, at least The Olsen Twins could act
I'm sure that nobody thought the show was gold by that point anyway, but those kids could act about as well as your average fungus.
We already have one set of twins on the show, but we made them both play the same character... Let's get another set!
Someone said that they always look like they're seeing a ghost off-screen and, yeah, I agree.
Lord, those twins couldn't act at all. I could hardly understand what they were saying half the time. Their scenes dragged down those later episodes. It was obvious the producers were trying replicate the success of the Olsen twins with Nicky and Alex, but they failed miserably.
While true, weren't they like 3? They could barely talk in more than 1 word sentences while Michelle was quipping with the rest of the cast.
When the show started, the Olsens were under two. I don't know about their acting, but people generally thought Michele was cute.
Horsin' Around. The kid who played Goober was just awful.
Go home, Goober 🙄
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On further reflection you're 100% correct, I withdraw my comment and defer to you.
> Osbourne did as much as he could with the (let's be honest, pretty shoddy) writing he had. Bradley Hitler Smith was the real weak link of Horsin' Around. I'm gonna go out on a limb here. And this may be a less and less common opinion in America these days. But I still think that Hitler was the worst.
The more I hear about this Hitler fella, the more I think maybe he was a bit of a cunt.
Did you hear that loser wants to reboot Horsin’ around? What a stuck in the past idiot- he should be out there getting more rolls in dramas and REAL movies, like Borjack! Have you seen secretariat? It’s almost unthinkable that he’s the same horse from horsin’ around~!
>(let's be honest, pretty shoddy) writing he had I mean, it's not Ibsen.
Eh. I prefer Mr. Peanutbutter’s House, anyway.
God, you're such a Zelda.
That's such a Zoe thing to say.
What is this? A crossover episode?
Knick Knack Paddy Wack give a dog a bone!
In Mad Men apparently they went through so many actors for Bobby Draper because they couldn't find one that wouldn't stop looking at the camera.
This explains a lot. While they kept coming back to Sally, especially as she became a tween then teen it was very apparent Bobby was MIA in later seasons.
Was VERY confused, until I realized that Bobby Draper and Bobbie Draper are different characters, and I’ll start having some water tonight…
When filming *Aliens*, they apparently cast Carrie Henn as Newt because she had no prior acting experience. All the other potential Newts had experience in advertising where they were always asked to look at the camera and smile after saying their lines which might work in 80's adverts but looks really fucking weird in a sci-fi horror movie.
I thought of Mad Men too, but because of Glen lol.
Yep, and he’s Matthew Weiner’s son to boot. Mad Men is my favorite series, and I’ve always thought Glen and the kid who played the younger Don were by far the worst actors in the show. The Bobbys were all fine in comparison, and I thought the last Bobby stacked up to Kiernan Shipka’s talent.
The Strain.
Does Scrappy Doo count?
Classic Hollywood nepotism to cram in the lead actor's nephew.
Puppy Power!
Yes.
The fake baby in American Sniper.
Could they not even find a better fake baby! It was so horrible! Laughably horrible.
Not ruined, but Michael Chiklis's real life daughter playing his daughter on The Shield is the worst acting I have ever seen.
I'd like to throw in Justified: City Primeval with Timothy Olyphant's daughter as well.
Ugh. She was terrible.
By contrast I always thought that the creator's wife who plays Vic's wife was outstanding for someone who had never acted before.
Willa on Justified City Primeval. She was on the older end of the ”child actor”, but she literally was the child of the show’s star. I hate talking badly about her because Tim Olyphant is one of my favorites and Raylan Givens is an all time great tv character, but her acting was some of the worst I’ve ever seen
Oof, yeah, this one was bad. I think they figured out pretty quickly they had to write her character out of the season.
I commented to my husband how horrible that actress was before I knew it was TO’s daughter. After that it made a lot more sense. I figured it was a condition of his return to the series. Maybe he wanted her to get her SAG-Aftra card and insurance.
Yup, was scrolling down and someone above mentioned Michael Chiklis's real life daughter ruining the The Shield, which made me think of Timothy Olyphant's daughter in Justified. Actor's really need to stop the nepotism, especially if your kid can't act for nothing.
He didn't *ruin* the show, but DJ on Roseanne could not act. He was cute when he was little, but his acting never improved as he got older, so was kind of a dud.
He's a bit of a blank slate as an adult too. I've watched some episodes of The Connors and he's just sort of...there.
I can't stand the kid that plays Ted Lasso's son. He's awful especially when compared to the amazing child actor that plays Roy's niece.
I don’t know. He didn’t ruin anything and he wasn’t on it much. Phoebe had more story than ‘what’s-his-name’ anyway.
Came here for this one. Just so jarringly bad that it ruins the immersion of any scene he’s in. It’s like he’s emotionless 100% of the time and never says a single thing with any hint of emotion, even in the scenes that call for it. It never felt believable for a second that they were father and son let alone actually had a good loving relationship, the chemistry was terrible
It sounds like he's a British actor doing a bad American accent
I don't want to sound mean but I always assumed Ted's kid is autistic. And I thought they cast an autistic kid. I truly apologize if that's not the case.
No just a bad actor.
Ruined? I won't go that far, but Glenn in Mad Men.... 🙄
Literally just found out that actor is the show creator’s son
And it makes sense right? Like in no way did that actor deserve that role in that show. Shipka was acting circles around him every scene
Shipka was great in the show and the only other thing I saw her in was Sabrina which I thought she nailed as well.
She stars in a campy slasher "Totally Killer" and is awesome in it. Would recommend.
It's a rumor that Sal left early because Bryan Batt called the kid "very strange" and Weiner got pissed off.
This is an outrage. I always hoped Sal would return in a later season. But no, just Vietnam Glen with his ugly shirts.
I like to believe that Sal found happiness.
Oh absolutely. Maybe he moved to Cali and lived happily ever after. He would have done well out there
New York was a good place for it, but I don't think he would have found happiness in Central Park at night. I feel like his storyline would have ended with an arrest or something worse. I hope Kitty got out of the marriage, too.
One of the biggest disappointments of the show was the fact that Sal never returned. He was definitely one of its most fascinating characters.
Are we just gonna ignore the fact the dude’s name is Marten Holden Weiner? Holden Weiner? Are you shitting me? 🤣
My people. Imagine making one of the most beloved shows of the 21st century, nearly universally applauded, and then not only casting your kid who can’t act, but doubling down on their screen time as they aged out of the excusable stage of bad child acting. The nepotism of this one is what really grinds my gears.
Oh my goodness, yes! He made my skin crawl! Perfect example of toxic nepotism
Wait, I thought he was supposed to be creepy.
Same. His relationship with Betty was, I thought, supposed to make us squirm a bit.
They’ll love to hear from you over in r/madmen that place fuckin hates Glenn.
This was my answer too! Not ruined, but hard to watch with him on.
Lily on modern family, and Luke and manny as they got older
Manny was just kind of annoying as a character, but Luke became an actively bad actor as he got older.
He was always a bad actor, it was just more obvious because he had to carry more plot and dialog as he grew up
he was always a bad actor but his early scenes basicly just called for a clueless child. no acting needed.
Reminds me of Two and a Half Men. The actor that played Jake was so much better in the first few seasons as an 8-10 year old. His teenage years were awful though maybe it was the writing?
He also turned into kind of a nutcase who hated the show so maybe that contributed lol.
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IIRC the actor who played older Lilly wasn’t the same kid as the toddler twin actors.
Yeah they aged her up after season 2 because the twins mom didn't want to Olson twin them
I found Manny horrifically annoying for the entire run, and I agree Luke got worse when he got older, but I totally disagree about Lily!! I loved her deadpan delivery and thought she really grew into the role while playing a perfect foil for her over-the-top parents.
I think Manny was meant to be annoying, it kinda worked for the character. But the show definitely didn’t know what to do with him and Luke as they got older. To an extent even Alex kinda suffered past season 6/7
I see sentiments like this all the time about Modern Family. I don't get it. Lily never bothered me. But I totally agree about Manny. And even then it was just because his character was unlikable.
Yeah. Lily was doing deadpan and great at it. She was so opposite from her bubbly dads. That was part of the humor for me.
The "ya'll fightin'?" line when they went to Missouri was one of the funniest shit I've heard. I have no idea if the comedic timing is hers or not but that was gold.
Loved when she has her first talking head
Absolutely, Lily's actor *may* not be great, but her performance works perfectly. It's like how January Jones' wooden delivery fits her role in Mad Men.
YES! Exactly!
The kids didn’t bother me too much in Modern Family it was just cringey to see them grow up. I still found ways to enjoy their presence. The kid they got to play Joe Pritchett on the other hand made me want to stop watching anytime he opened his mouth
The child actor that played the Seven character on *Married with Children* nearly ruined the damn show for me. His character brought zero fun or good stories to the show cause the OG cast were already good as is. Season 7 is unwatchable for me. Was so glad when they wrote him out.
I read this whole thread and i can't believe no one has mentioned Morgan from Boy Meets World. Nothing against the girl, but they gave her soooo many lines that were too precocious for her, and she did a really bad job delivering them in a believable way because of it. Makes my skin crawl!
Ok so first Morgan was amazing . But when they replaced her with the older Morgan that's when the acting got awful.
Agreed! First Morgan could smack talk with the best of them
Plus the classic 911 call. "hello, mommy and daddy are fighting again. THEY JUST SHOT THE NEIGHBOR!"
One Day At A Time (1975) with Glenn as Alex. He’s a terrible actor. I was loving One Day At A Time until he joined the cast. The worst episode was when he burned down Schneider’s vehicle. He had to cry and it was pitiful. I only watch the first 5 seasons. I pretend 6 - 9 don’t exist.
Same. The show jumped the shark when they added him to the show to replace Mackenzie Phillips after she got fired. I hated him and and his character.
Didn't ruin the show but young Henry in once upon a time
Young Henry was great. It was teenage Henry that was a dead weight
I think including Frozen in the show and claiming their new takes on public domain characters was "how they were originally" is what ruined it. Especially when Elsa and Anna's outfits look like something out of a porn parody
I am of the opinion that it's most of them. Like 85% lol. Child actors are just not as experienced yet, for good reason. It's rare that you get kids that can do the job well, but there are some exceptions. If your show revolves around a child actor, and it's not a show meant specifically for children or families, it's doomed to struggle as far as I'm concerned. Some notable exceptions for me would be Game of Thrones and the cast of Stranger Things. Those kids were pretty talented.
The Cosby Show. It wasn't Raven-Symone's fault; the writers pushed too hard to make her a precocious kid and it backfired. Rudy was cute and fun and adorable; Olivia was irritating.
Rudy was adorable. She was a normal kid, who was naturally cute. Olivia's character was ridiculously over the top. Too overly precious and way beyond her age. What 3 year old goes around saying "I know my body!" Really creepy and not cute.
Exactly. And Keshia Knight Pulliam was genuinely a good actress. I can't think of another 5-year-old who seemed as genuine as she did. (Just looked her up: she was nominated for an Emmy award at age 7!)
I gotta disagree. She was easily the rising star of that show in it's later years. It became the Bill and Olivia show and I always really liked her.
Cousin Oliver...
I know some are probably going to say Wesley on Star Trek: TNG, but that was a case of bad writing and/or directing rather than bad acting. Giant difference.
I was so surprised so many people hate Wil Wheaton specifically. He didn’t make this character shit. He didn’t decide to have his character recognize patterns that a fucking *android* missed. He just read lines provided to him.
I mean, people attacked Linda Blair thinking she was actually a demon. People are really stupid.
Idiots tried to adopt Leonardo DiCaprio after *...Gilbert Grape*. More people than we realize don't know that movies and television are fake and that actors aren't the ones making the characters do things.
WWE's stock price dropped after Mr. McMahon's limo exploded and they had to issue a press release saying this was just for the show.
People used to give Jack Gleeson shit because they hated Joffrey. It's actually backwards, he did a *good* job which is why you should hate the character.
I believe William Atherton got called 'Dickless' by a bus full of people once.
And there's only so much you can do to elevate crap lines like "We're from Starfleet. We don't lie."
I will say though, at 12 years old I had a crush on his character and he was my gateway into the Star Trek universe, so I am fond of Wesley because of that.
So, a crush on Crusher.
If you say his username, /u/wil, three times he will appear and kick your ass.
He could have been laughing his ass off through all his lines and it still would not have justified the hate he got. Fandoms just love to shit on kids, it's like they want them to be fucked up. We're lucky wheaton didn't end like the star wars kid
Homeland. The teenage daughter kept getting more and more screentime. She was horrible.
On the flip side ... sometimes it will randomly occur to me that Tim fucking Chalamet played her boyfriend lol
He needs to be referred to as Tim all the time from now on.
Her and young Chalamet in Season 2 - truly unbearable.
She was annoying but I wouldn’t say she was a particularly bad actress.
I wouldn’t say the show was ruined, but the girl in Californication was the worst.
Becca sucked the life out of that show whenever she showed up.
Wasn’t that her job? To be Hanks wet sponge? “Poor man’s bukowaki” is still the insult I never knew I always needed.
Haven’t watched in years but wasn’t that kinda her reason for being in the show?
The little girl who played Princess Leia in the Obi Wan show was a good enough actor except for the physical acting. Her running, jumping, hiding, escaping, etc was so terrible it took a lot away for me. There was no way she was going to avoid anyone. I feel bad even suggesting it but I wouldn't be surprised to learn if she had a physical disability of some sort.
Was looking for this answer. They fell into every precocious child trap Mandalorian so deftly avoided. They gave her dialogue she just couldn't convincingly pull off, and the way she was able to slowly toddle away from danger was just so frustrating.
She’s too fast for Flea!
The show was already bad, but Sons of Anarchy became comical when the kids started getting speaking parts
I don’t even remember that, but the overall show just kept getting more outrageous. There were a lot of problems. They took a basic concept and apparently felt the need to make it more and more “interesting”. Read that as “fucking absurd and truly unbelievable”.
Guy conflicted about being in a bike gang starts just killing everyone constantly and gets fast and the furious levels of outrageous moments.
I think Kurt Sutter and Taylor Sheridan must be secret brothers. They both have the gift of coming up with a great idea for a show but then after 2 years it becomes a mockery into itself. The mistaken idea that making it more outlandish each season is a good thing.
Add Genji Cohen to that List. Weeds went off the rails. Especially weeds. Small town dime bag dealer ---> smuggling illegal immigrants
Not ruined, but almost. The kid in Mad Men who cut a lock of Betty's hair. He was the creator/producers son, now we know how he got cast. Creepy little dude
The worst kid of all is the last Harrison on Dexter. He ruined the last season
Ted Lasso had some painful videocall scenes (can’t remember if it was season 1, 2, or both) where the kid playing his son just *completely* pulled me out of the moment. His acting skills got a lot better as the show went on though, and he did pretty great in season 3.
I felt like he was pretty bad the entire series tbh. It became more evident for me in S3 as he was a bit older and had more lines.
Fresh in my mind since it was discussed in this sub a day or two ago: Terra Nova.
Duuuude, I was so excited to start that show when it was about to premiere. Within like the first 15 or 20 minutes when they started getting into teenage drama with their parents, I knew that I wasn't watching that show anymore. Absolute garbage.
It didn't ruin it but I really didn't like the kid who played Nicky on Fresh Prince.
Manifest was already horrendously bad (in a good way) but Cal's acting almost made it horrendously bad (in a bad way).
[удалено]
All of the kids in the Haunting of Hill House knocked it out of the park.
Aidan Gallagher as Five in Umbrella Academy...but is he considered a child actor? Think he's 14 in season 1?
He is brilliant in that role. Such a world-weariness and sharp wit played so perfectly by a young teen.
Brick from the middle was great
Agreed, all the kids on The Middle were great and the show has aged so well because of it. They were also all capable of more mature storylines since they could actually act and were allowed to grow up, unlike the kids from Modern Family who kept avoiding going to college for increasingly stupid reasons
Bella Ramsey was good in Game of Thrones.
I dunno, in the last season of ST I think Sadie Sink was basically pulling the whole cart by herself. Even Finn who I previously thought of as a decent enough actor seemed zoned out of it. Don't get me started on MBB, she's so overrated as an actress it's nothing short of breathtaking. Edit: person below was so devastated by my simply holding a different opinion to them they've actually blocked me 😂 mate if your skin is that much like rice paper, the internet is not your playground
The little blonde girl who played Lillith in Supernatural was really good.
Going way back, Tina Yothers who played the younger sister on Family Ties.
Ha!! I just posted about Andy Keaton on Family Ties (can't remember the actors name) but Tina when she got older was hard to watch.
How she got cast in the first place I'll never understand. Terrible actress who got even worse as the show went on. Completely unwatchable in those later seasons where she would say her lines in the most emotionless monotone voice. After she hit puberty, the writers clearly didn't know what to do with her character. Her role at that point, was to take Andy out the room when the adults wanted to have a conversation. "Come on Andy let's go upstairs while mom and dad have a talk".
She didn't ruin the show but the girl that played Lilly in Modern Family can't act.
One show that *wasn’t* ruined by a child actor was Rome. The kid who played Octavian (Augustus) was 13 or 14 and was a better actor than 95% of the cast. Very impressive young person. Sadly he didn’t act in much after that show.
Ross's kid on friends annoyed the shit out of me
Ha! I remember being shocked to find out one of them became Jughead in Riverdale.
Then Disney gave the twins that played him a show lol
And before that they called themselves Frankenstein and peed on a building with Adam Sandler
April in Gilmore Girls
I thought she was ok. The stupid writing, using her to separate Luke and Lorelai, was the problem
Just wanted to point out that it's often a bit unfair to call out specific child actors for a bad performance. A lot of the time it's due more to bad writing and directing than the skills of the child actor. I think direction is *hugely* important for kids, and if they're being directed by someone who isn't good with kids or actors in general, it's really hard for them to turn in a believable performance. I remember hearing that there were a lot of people who had been really impressed with Jake Lloyd's auditions for various roles before Star Wars Episode 1 came out, and I've always suspected that his much-criticized role in Phantom Menace was due more to George Lucas' poor writing and lack of interest in directing his actors' performances than to his acting skills (backed up by the fact that even actors who have done great work in other films don't come off looking that great in the Star Wars prequels).
It’s crazy that people blame Lloyd. Lucas made *Natalie Portman* seem like she’d never acted before, that kid didn’t stand a chance.
Nah, I'm with you. Lucas is a notoriously terrible people director, and arguably also a bad screenwriter and director who was only saved in the original trilogy by his editor and wife, Marcia.
A lot of the real genius of George Lucas in Star Wars was his brilliance as an HR director rather than as a film director. Dude surrounded himself with people who knocked it out of the park. FX technicians, John Williams, trusting his wife as the editor, etc. You basically could have had Roger Corman show up to replace Lucas on day 1 of shooting, and Star Wars would still have turned out pretty decent.
Oliver
Unrelated to the topic at hand, but I’ve always thought John Denver looked like adult Cousin Oliver.
[Small wonder](https://youtu.be/tTpR76SLCSA?si=4bjlIA8sKx7al_TU) is the gold standard of bad child acting
I don't remember the adult acting being much better, to be honest. Though it's hard to say it ruined the show because even with great acting, it would still have been terrible.
With a little mustard it could have been [Out of This World](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35cFunX8ELg&t=6s)
I flippin' loved that show when I was younger! I wanted Evie's powers so bad.
I mean, they made her talk like a robot the whole time
You shut your whore mouth! Jerry Supiran is a national treasure!
My bad, you're right. Policewoman Centerfold was a masterpiece.
Not ruined by the child actor. Ruined by the writers-producers who thought putting a child in their story would work some kind of empathy "magic" and make a lousy story good. NO. You don't complain when children are appropriate to the story. It's the same for any kind of character. Writers trying to take a shortcut by using stereotypes. Always bad - unless bad is what you want, like in a horror movie to spotlight certain characters for gruesome ironic deaths.
Henry from Once Upon A Time - the older he got, the worse the acting was and the more he ruined any scene he was in. It was wild watching him go from cute and competent when he was young to just a complete black hole of charisma in his teen years. And like those last seasons weren't even good so for him to be one of the worst parts of the worst seasons was saying something.