and i think there was, along with all of the other crazy pressures of fame, kind of a sibling resentment. narrator: in addition to behind-the-scenes squabbles, diff rent strokes viewership was eroding. in an attempt to right the ship, producers interjected new characters, a move that backfired almost immediately. weiss: mr. drummond metly. dixie carter s character. he ended up marrying her, and sam, dixie carter s character s son from another relationship, became the, like, third the third son all of a sudden, and, you know, he became the center of all the plot lines. they basically brought in, like, a new cute ringer that everyone could just kind of like coo over, and that s sad because arnold obviously didn t posses the charms that he did when he was a couple of years younger. i think the show probably jumped the shark with sam. don t you step on my blue suede shoes yeah