In Television
TV sidekicks usually play a supporting pivotal role to the star. Examples include Ethel Mertz to Lucy Ricardo (I Love Lucy), Ed Norton to Ralph Kramden (The Honeymooners), Screech Powers to Zack Morris (Saved by the Bell), Major Roger Healey to Major Anthony "Tony" Nelson (I Dream of Jeannie), Rhoda Morgenstern to Mary Richards on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Sam Puckett to Carly Shay (iCarly), or even a group of people such as the Sweathogs to Mr. Kotter (Welcome Back, Kotter). Duos of equal importance on TV such as Kate McArdle and Allie Lowell (Kate & Allie), Oscar Madison and Felix Unger (The Odd Couple), Bret Maverick and Bart Maverick (Maverick), Captain Scarlet and Captain Blue (Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons), or Laverne De Fazio and Shirley Feeney (Laverne & Shirley), are sometimes both called sidekicks to each other, although the usual sense of the term denotes inequality.
Many television talk shows make use of a sidekick as a co-host who anchors a show with the main star. Ed McMahon played this role famously to Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show, as did Andy Richter to Conan O'Brien on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and during O'Brien's short-lived tenure on Tonight Show. The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson employs a mechanical robot sidekick named Geoff Peterson (played by comedian/entertainer Josh Robert Thompson). The Sammy Maudlin Show on SCTV famously lampooned the late night talk show format, with John Candy in the role of William B. Williams, the sidekick or "second banana" to host Sammy Maudlin (Joe Flaherty).
Clarence Gilyard informed viewers on a television commercial for Walker, Texas Ranger that he was not Chuck Norris's sidekick, instead humorously saying, "This is Chuck Norris's sidekick," over footage of Norris kicking a villain.
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Famous quotes containing the word television:
“So by all means let’s have a television show quick and long, even if the commercial has to be delivered by a man in a white coat with a stethoscope hanging around his neck, selling ergot pills. After all the public is entitled to what it wants, isn’t it? The Romans knew that and even they lasted four hundred years after they started to putrefy.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“They [parents] can help the children work out schedules for homework, play, and television that minimize the conflicts involved in what to do first. They can offer moral support and encouragement to persist, to try again, to struggle for understanding and mastery. And they can share a child’s pleasure in mastery and accomplishment. But they must not do the job for the children.”
—Dorothy H. Cohen (20th century)