Actor On Board
From Tv Tropes
You know those nasty Executive Meddling people that don't do anything creative for the show, except for, you know... meddle? Well this is the second worst (right before Ascended Fanboy: an actor who thinks directing or producing is his line of work. As not any good football player can become a great football coach, neither a good actor can become a good director or producer. There are exceptions, of course, which should go in the examples section too.
But for the most part, an actor's involvement in the creative process will turn... bad. This is generally because the actor has a certain vision on the character, which is different than the director's or the character's creator. In success shows because of one ore more characters, the actor tends to forget that the character creator's vision is what made the show and the character a great success in the first place. Pretending to know the character better than the creator is asking for trouble and these tend to end up in Ruined Forever or Out Of Character moments.
- Examples
- Star Trek movies suffer from this, either from William Shatner or Leonard Nimoy. It's arguable how good or bad they turn(ed) things.
- Dexter season 5 and 6 have been at the whims of Michael C. Hall, Dexter's character. Again, arguable if it works: Hall tries to make the character more "human", the author of the book is content with portraying Dexter as an asocial anomaly (possibly possessed).
- Supernatural has Padalecki meddling often too.
- Detective John Munch given the content of his books and stand-up comedy act. Read "UFOs, JFK, and Elvis: Conspiracies You Don't Have To Be Crazy To Believe" for a good example.
- As Alyssa Milano got more creative control of Charmed, Phoebe went from a likable, well-meaning ditz to a self-obsessed, selfish Jerk Sue. It's even been said that Cole's Batman Gambit-revealing guest return episode in Season 7 had Cole interacting with Piper rather than Phoebe because Julian had it put into his contract not to work any scenes with Alyssa.
