darkrage6

Well the sad part is some places really ARE like that, Abstinence-only education in high schools was a real controversy at the time the show was airing(and it's attempting to make a comeback under the current administration) and i'm sure the school principal character was the show's way of taking shots at that sort of thing. I thought the principal was over-the-top until I heard about Rick Perry. The way Kyra was written felt realistic to me. I disagree on Kyra, it made sense how she was written. Part of her attitude stemmed from stress over Barbra Jean and Brock fighting. Kyra already had to live through seeing her parents split up, so I can see how her dad and step-mom then fighting and separating had a negative effect on her.

She did do some acting before this series, most notably in the first Tremors film, she was pretty funny there.

To be fair he does get considerably smarter as the show goes on(though he still has has blunders), and honestly Cheyenne's often not that bright herself, so I think they make a perfect couple. I caught season 6 when it originally ran, and I remember being shocked when it ended, cause before watching it, I wasn't aware that episode 13 of that season was the final episode as I was used to the previous seasons having 22 episodes.

I was always kind of bothered that season 5 went on without her, it struck me as more then a little disrespectful for the execs to not even try to work around her rehab so she could still be on the show. I just couldn't imagine them doing that with any of the adult characters on the show if one of their actors happened to be dealing with anorexia. I get the sense the writers were running out of ideas for Kyra and the execs saw Scarlett's anorexia as a get-out-of-jail free card to not have to write her character anymore. For the few times she did show up in season 5, I could sense that her character was starting to go the same route as Carmen did in season 5 of George Lopez, where she stopped getting her own subplots and only showed up for a joke or two per episode. So even if Scarlett hadn't had her battle with anorexia(or the show hadn't nearly gotten cancelled and then delayed before season 5 started production, as Scarlett mentioned in interviews how that was a major factor in her extreme weight loss, so nice going there execs!) I still get the feeling Kyra would've largely faded into the background, only showing up every once in a while for the occasional joke or two.

So while reading some old articles about Scarlett Pomers battle with anorexia, something jumped out at me-she mentioned how one of the reasons she lost weight so drastically was because she was stressed when the show came close to being cancelled, resulting in production delays. I wasn't aware of the show almost being cancelled after season 4 and i'm curious as to what exactly caused the show to get nearly cancelled and then delayed that time. I always did suspect that WB resented having to air a show it did not own(it was created and owned by FOX as opposed to WB, and networks tend not to treat shows they don't own very well) and actively tried to sabotage the show because of it. Interestingly it wasn't the only FOX owned show aired by another network to get that treatment, George Lopez also got mistreated by ABC because of that(it was frequently put up against American Idol). I also began to get suspicious that there was executive meddling in season 5 of both shows, as in both cases the teenage girl characters(Carmen and Kyra) largely faded into the background. With Carmen after the season 5 premiere, she never got any of her own subplots again, she would pretty just show up for one or two jokes per episode and that was it, seemed like things were headed that way for Kyra as well before Scarlett's anorexia forced her into rehab. But I couldn't help but suspect that the network execs used her anorexia as a convenient excuse for to ignore her character and instead focus more on other characters(cause apparently someone thought Jake needed more screentime), I always wondered why the execs thought it would be easier to cut her out of most of season 5 altogether instead of working around her rehab. True she was in a residential facility, but only for two months, surely the network could've made arrangements with the facility to have her do filming a couple times of week(Keifer Sutherland did have such an arrangement for 24 while he was in jail for his D.U.I. where the jail would've let him out once a week to do filming for season 7, the only reason that didn't end up happening is because the writers strike led to season 7 getting delayed, so he opted to do all his jail time at once) and if that wasn't possible, surely they could've delayed the season some more until she was out of the facility, seeing as it had already been delayed once before. I think what happened was the writers were starting to run out of ideas for Kyra and they saw Scarlett's anorexia as the perfect opportunity to move on with the show without her character, and that was something that always bugged me about me season 5(don't get me wrong I still enjoyed that season, but Kyra's absence for most of it was very noticeable for me. On a related note I was thinking of doing another topic where people could make suggestions for what Kyra would've said in the episodes where she didn't appear). I just somehow imagine if it had been one of the other actors who was suffering from anorexia, that the network execs would've been willing to work with them so they could still be in the season. The fact that the network was not willing to work with Scarlett(the execs apparently forced her off the show, while the cast and her parents certainly wanted her to get help, I can't imagine they were happy that the show was going on without her) tells me that the execs thought so little of Kyra as a character that they could just continue season 5 like normal without even acknowledging her absence, and that really rubbed me the wrong way. I remember all the suspense of whether the show was cancelled or not after season 5, and I was pretty angry at the prospect of never getting any further developments for Kyra as a character, so I was delighted when she returned in season 6 and openly acknowledged Scarlett's disorder. Though I did feel like Kyra was somewhat underutilized in that season too, as she only had a handful of subplots compared to previous seasons. Sorry for my long rambling post, this is just something I wanted to get off my chest and this forum seemed like the best place for it since TV.com's communities are barely active(god I miss the old TV.com forums so much, there was one guy on the Reba forums who did really damn good fan-fiction, he seriously could've been a writer for the show).