A royal rumble of bit players
By Jim Caple
Page 2 columnist

If you were eagerly looking forward to the Tonya Harding-Amy Fisher bout, there is some bad news. Fisher has bowed out of the fight. The Long Island Lolita may have shot her lover's wife in the head but she does have some standards ... or, to be more precise, her parole officer does. Fortunately, Paula Jones does not.

Danny Bonaduce, Barry Williams
Danny Bonaduce, left, and Barry Williams spark a national tournament of notorious characters.
Thus, Jones is replacing Fisher on the card, which is probably for the best. This means the fight will reunify all the different councils and give us one clear, undefeated and undisputed scandal skank champion.

Besides, it's the undercard that is the real attraction here -- Danny Bonaduce versus Barry Williams, Danny Partridge versus Greg Brady in the Bomb of Sitcom.

And if you think that's over the top, consider the latest bout added to the card, Vanilla Ice vs. Willis from "Diff'rent Strokes."

Some see this as a desperate network sinking to new lows. And perhaps it is. But who are we to say? After all, our partner network, ABC, gave us "The Battle of the Network Stars" a couple of decades ago. And that classic piece of trash was brilliantly parodied by SCTV with "Battle of the PBS Stars," featuring an unforgettable bout between Mr. Rogers and Julia Child.

So, this Greg vs. Danny fight isn't that strange at all. In fact, there is an entire tournament of bouts we would like to see among TV has-beens and scandal-ridden wretches.

Here's how the first round matchups look. Fill out your own tournament bracket, then click here to see how it compares to the first-round results and the second-round matchups.

East region

ROUND 1 ROUND 2 ROUND 3 ROUND 4
Play-in game:

H.R. Puff n Stuff
vs.
H.R. Haldeman

(Puff n Stuff wins)
     
Puff Daddy

vs.

H.R. Puff n Stuff
 
 

 
Arnold Horshack

vs.

Ralph Malph
Mr. Roper

vs.

Mr. Furley
 
Monica Lewinsky

vs.

Divine Brown
Sgt. Schultz

vs.

Frank Burns
 
 
Gary Condit

vs.

Gary Hart
Lenny and Squiggy

vs.

Wally and the Beaver
 
Tootie Ramsey

vs.

Denise Huxtable

Midwest region
ROUND 1 ROUND 2 ROUND 3 ROUND 4
Mr. Belvedere

vs.

Mr. French
 
 


 
Marcia Brady

vs.

Jan Brady
Mork

vs.

Alf
 
Jessica Hawn

vs.

Donna Rice
Dr. Bellows

vs.

Dr. Bombay
 
 
Ruben Kinkaid

vs.

Sam the Butcher
Gary Coleman

vs.

Steve Urkel
 
John-Boy

vs.

Boy George

Southeast region
ROUND 1 ROUND 2 ROUND 3 ROUND 4
Malcolm in the Middle

vs.

Eddie Corbett
 
 


 
Dick York

vs.

Dick Sargent
Rob, Chip and Ernie

vs.

The Olsen twins
 
Laura Ingalls

vs.

Punky Brewster
Gennifer Flowers

vs.

Lucy Mercer
 
 
Maude

vs.

Granny
Morticia

vs.

Lilith
 
Lumpy Rutherford

vs.

Rerun

West region
ROUND 1 ROUND 2 ROUND 3 ROUND 4
The Skipper and Gilligan

vs.

Capt. Stubing and Gopher
 
 


 
Jethro

vs.

The Fonz
Barney Fife

vs.

Fish
 
Goober Pyle

vs.

Gomer Pyle
Kato Kaelin

vs.

Lorena Bobbitt
 
 
Fred Sanford

vs.

George Jefferson
Mimi

vs.

Aunt Bea
 
Eddie Haskell

vs.

Jack Tripper

Jim Caple is a senior writer for ESPN.com.





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