Sitcoms have been a popular form of entertainment ever since the 1950’s when I Love Lucy started to dominate viewers’ televisions. There’s something comforting about these shows, from the comedic everyday situations, to the well-developed characters, to the romances that always pop up somewhere along the way. That's why audience's love them!

They build a certain trust with their audiences that they will do what's best for their characters. However, there are times when the writers do they exact opposite. They mistreat their characters, ignore their goals and arcs, and leave them with an ending that no one wants to see.

Here are the sitcom characters that deserve better endings.

10 Britta Perry - Community

Gillian Jacobs as Britta in Community
Sony Pictures Television

Britta Perry started out in the first season of Community as a sharp, hard-working feminist. She was the responsible one of the study group and the love interest to Jeff, who she could see right through immediately. She remained this way for a couple of seasons, but soon started to become an afterthought on the show. She was pushed out of the way for Annie to become Jeff's end goal romance and those traits that made her so strong in the beginning just disappeared. She turns into someone who the other characters disrespect for being brainless and irresponsible. She freeloads off of her friends and her parents and becomes a joke to both the writers and the rest of the study group.

In the end, Britta seems to be the only character that doesn't get any closure. She shows growth in her relationship with her parents and her job as a bartender, but her ending is more of an afterthought than the others. However, with a Community movie on the horizon, there's still hope that her character can be done justice.

9 Joey Tribbiani - Friends

Joey-Tribiani-Friends
Warner Bros. Television

Joey Tribbiani from Friends is lovable, charming, and has a genuinely good heart. Throughout most of the show, he's also a womanizer that has negative interest in a committed relationship. He's happy with just his friends and working on his acting career. But when the others start to couple up and get married, Joey starts to take wanting a relationship more seriously. He's ready to have what the other's have and works hard to make it happen. But, in the end, he's alone. It's assumed that Rachel moves back in with Ross, Monica and Chandler move to the suburbs, and Phoebe lives with Mike. The finale focuses on everyone but Joey, who now has a stable acting career, but has a mess of a personal life.

There was an attempt at rectifying his ending with a spin-off show called Joey, but it was short-lived. It ended after two seasons and was considered a huge flop.

8 Andy Bernard - The Office

Ed Helms as Andy Bernard on The Office
NBC

Andy Bernard joined The Office in the third season and is another example of character assassination. He was always a little obnoxious, but over the course of his time on the show, he became more quirky than obnoxious and highlighted some more of his positive qualities. He redeemed himself further with the sweetness of his courtship and relationship with the new secretary, Erin. But when season nine hit, it was like he was a completely different person.

In the last season, he's awful to Erin. He leaves her behind for months on a trip to Florida and doesn't respect her in the slightest as a person. When they break up, which is something the audience is definitely rooting for after everything, he gets even worse and his entitled behavior toward his co-workers is errant and inexcusable. His character is all over the place, even attempting to become an actor and instead becomes a viral joke.

His only saving grace is the finale. He returns to the show as a humbler person with a job at his beloved Cornell, but it seems extremely out of place. His ending felt random after the character that he turned into. Andy deserved a redemption arc and an ending that he earned, as opposed to one that was slapped together.

Related:Gilmore Girls: Does This Show Portray Strong Women or is it Anti-Feminist?

7 Michael Cordero - Jane the Virgin

Jane the Virgin
Warner Bros

Michael Cordero is a police detective and the original love interest in Jane the Virgin. In the beginning, there is an intense love triangle between him, Rafael, and Jane. Eventually, Jane chooses Michael and they get married. There was a lot of build up to their relationship, so it was heart-wrenching when he died from complications due to a gunshot wound he received in the line of duty. Jane mourns him and eventually moves on to a new life with Rafael.

Just when Rafael and Jane are on the cusp of getting engaged, Michael miraculously returns in the biggest plot twist of the show. It turns out that one of the show's villains faked his death and he was living in Montana under a different name and without his memories for four years. Because of her mixed feelings about Michael's return, Rafael breaks up with her, leaving her free to resume her relationship with Michael. She tries, and he even gets his memories back, but she ultimately decides to go back to Rafael. Michael stays in Montana, never to be seen again.

It felt disrespectful to the audience and to the character that after so much emotional turmoil about his death, he just came back with a cheap amnesia trope. Even worse, it amounted to nothing. Jane remained with Rafael, and Michael was just written off again.

6 Rajesh Koothrapali - The Big Bang Theory

Raj
Warner Bros.

Rajesh Koothrapali is one of the sweetest characters on the The Big Bang Theory, and the only one that ends up alone. From the very beginning, he has issues with women, so much so that he can't even talk in front of them. Even after he makes a breakthrough with his selective mutism, his hopelessness with women continues. There is storyline after storyline revolving around how lonely he is and how much he just wants to be with someone. So much so that he's willing to let his parents set up an arranged marriage for him.

He gives it a try, but when his future wife wants him to move to England with her, he realizes that they are not right for each other and stays with his friends. This is huge character growth given how desperate he typically is with woman. However, that character growth is not rewarded by any means. In the finale, all of his friends are paired off and married, earning nobel prizes, and his happy ending is that he scores a "date" with a married Sarah Michelle Gellar.

5 Tracy McConnell - How I Met Your Mother

Cristin Milioti plays the mother Tracy McConnell in How I Met Your Mother
20th Century Fox 

Tracy McConnell is the "mother" part of How I Met Your Mother. The entire show leads up to Ted finally meeting the love of his life and the mother of his children, but she doesn't appear physically as a main character until season nine. During that season, the show really makes the audience care about her and root for her and Ted's relationship. But, in the infamously hated finale, it's revealed that she died from an undetermined illness and that Ted was actually with Robin, despite the entire show displaying how much they don't belong together.

The finale was so disliked that there was a petition going around to re-shoot the finale and have Tracy live, staying happily married to Ted and Robin and Barney having their happy ending, as well.

4 Lane Kim - Gilmore Girls

Gilmore Girls
Warner Bros

Lane Kim is Rory's best friend in Gilmore Girls and is at the center of many of the storylines in the show. She starts out as the rebellious daughter of an overly protective, religious mother. She becomes her own person after she leaves her mother's house and tries to make her goal of becoming a rock star a reality, going so far as to move in with her bandmates. One of her bandmates, Zach, becomes Lane's main love interest and whether the audience liked it or not, they ended up getting married.

It has been drilled into Lane's head by her mother that she couldn't sleep with anyone until she was married, so she was excited to finally have the experience when she marries Zach. But, the very first time they get intimate, she becomes pregnant with twins, much to her chagrin. She ends up staying married to Zach and raising her twins in Stars Hallow, giving up all of her previous dreams of getting out of the town and pursuing her music.

Related: Best Modern Sitcoms, Ranked

3 Haley Dunphy - Modern Family

Sarah Hyland as Haley Dunphy on Modern Family.
ABC

Haley Dunphy is the character with the most growth in Modern Family. She starts out as the irresponsible, motivation-less older sister of the family who drops out of college and lives in the basement. But as the seasons go on, Haley starts her own fashion blog, lands a job in fashion, and does so without losing her personality. She was supported in this by her then boyfriend, Andy, who most viewers thought she should end up with.

Instead, she gets back together with her on and off high school boyfriend, Dylan, who regresses her into that irresponsible girl that she was in the beginning of the show. She winds up becoming pregnant with twins by Dylan and ends up marrying him, ultimately moving into Mitch and Cam's house when they leave at the end of the show. Though she does end up with a job in her field, the finale left viewers unhappy with how her life and character arc ended up.

2 Penny Hofstadter - The Big Bang Theory

The-Big-Bang-Theory-Penny-1
CBS

Penny Hofstadter is the main girl of the group in The Big Bang Theory and Leonard's end game love interest. Throughout the entire series, Leonard and Penny tease their on and off romance until, finally, they get married and settle down.

It was always almost a given that this was going to happen, but the rest of Penny's character arc took a disastrous turn. She rather suddenly gives up her dream of acting in order to take a job as a pharmaceutical sales representative at Bernadette's company. She is now financially stable, but there are multiple occasions when she expresses how much she dislikes her job.

By the finale, she still has the same job, but with a promotion that she didn't really want in the first place. In addition, after many episodes of her fighting with Leonard about not wanting to have children, she is pregnant at the end of the series with no explanation given to her change of heart. It was more of a happy ending for Leonard with no regard for Penny's character in the slightest.

1 Rachel Green - Friends

Jennifer-Aniston-As-Rachel-Green-Friends (1)
NBC

Rachel Green is arguably the most iconic friend in Friends. She begins the series by running away from her wedding and cutting off all financial support from her family. She has no idea how to live on her own and becomes a waitress at the local coffee shop for a big chunk of the earlier seasons. Seeing her struggle financially and emotionally while she tries to find out who she is and what she wants to do makes it all the more satisfying to watch her grow into a successful, independent woman with a thriving career in fashion.

This is what makes it so tragic that she gives up her dream job in Paris for Ross. The will they, won't they relationship of Ross and Rachel was a main draw in the beginning of the show, but it quickly became almost painful to watch how much it became forced toward the later seasons. Ross was a horrible boyfriend, friend, and baby daddy to Rachel. The only reason that they ended up together was that they were meant to from the very beginning, not because she or the audience would have ever wanted it.