The rule of 1 + 3

2 thoughts on “The rule of 1 + 3”

1. I feel the Star Trek one is a bit of a stretch. That’s really a 1 + 2 (Kirk + Spock and McCoy). If Scotty, then why not Uhura, Checkov, or Sulu?

   The Big Bang Theory certainly started as you described, but grew much more dynamic, starting with Penny transitioning from a McGuffin to an actual character.

   1964 Gilligan
   Skipper
   Professor
   Mary Ann
   (and the rest! 😉

   1967 Carol
   Vicki
   Harvey
   Tim

   1974 Holly
   Marshall
   Will
   Cha-Ka

   1993 Fraiser
   Niles
   Daphne
   Roz

   2017 Trump
   Bannon
   Spicer
   Pence
   (Sorry)

2. Good points — and great additions! I was wavering on Gilligan (because the dynamic between Ginger and Mary Ann complicates things) and on Frasier, because Dad is so central.

   The reason I mentioned Star Trek is that as a kid all I cared about was the psychological dynamic of those “four boys on a pirate adventure”. I think it was written that way from the start. Sulu, Chekov and Uhura were there to create the 1966 version of “look how diverse we are” (complete with a Russian as a “minority” in the midst of the Cold War).

   Yet the real tension was always in that core nuclear family — McCoy as the favored troublesome child, Scotty as the taken-for-granted dutiful child, Spock as the responsible dad, and Kirk as the main character — a powerful and beloved yet volatile matriarch.

   I’ve just started rewatching The Big Bang Theory from the very beginning, so I’m influenced by my current experience. From episode 1, it is already clear that Penny is Leonard’s important love interest. But Sheldon, Howard and Rajesh are his family.