The needs of the storyline often overruled what would seem logical for the character.
Absolutely. And, of course, it's not just LNC that suffered from that. It's a feature of almost every TV show out there.
Over the years it appears that part of the fun of this folcdom had been coming up with 'reasonable' explainations for the inconsistant behaviors that were written into scripts for the sake of plot.
It's that aspect from fans - of all my TV favourites, not just LNC - that I enjoy most, I have to say. Fun, indeed!
LabRat