>>149051842I'm honestly not sure. In many interviews I've seen Hartman bring Tootie up, he often mentions she's Timmy's "True love". Hard to gauge if he's just being cheeky, but a good amount of the early Timmy/Tootie/Trixie love triangle was the going with the idea that the real girl is the one who cares for you, he even had an episode written in the pitch bible. Despite all the autism about her stalking jokes, Butch himself often took care to write Tootie as a low-key heroic character.
I've always thought focus testing and executive meddling did them in, kids (esp K-12 boys demo) wanted more jokes and screaming and less sappy love plots.