SOUNDTRACKS/SCORES, FILMS, BOOKS AND MORE!

D - Disappeared Without Explanation

15 TV Characters That Disappeared...
 Without Explanation

Happy Days - In the first season of happy days the lovable and adorable Ritchie had a brother named Chuck. He wasn't really a part of the integral cast like the "Fonz" or Ralph Malph, but hey he was definitely there. One episode he went to his room and apparently never came out. Interestingly enough this phenomenon of disappearing cast members has come to be known as "Chuck Cunningham Syndrome".


Family Matters - Judy Winslow on "Family Matters" was the adorable little sister who's departure from this prime time show was never mentioned by its cast. The writers could have at least told us that she got hit by a car, or that she joined a traveling circus, but her mysterious disappearance has always left viewers dumbfounded. This is perhaps exacerbated by the fact that her father (Carl) was a cop, and should have had the resources available to find a missing adolescent. By the way, Jaime Foxworth (Judy) has since went into making adult films under the stage name CRAVE.

Saved By The Bell - "Saved by the Bell" might have been one of the worst offenders for this sort of thing. Apparently the turnover rate at Bayside was so fast that they were only able to hang onto students and teachers for several days at a time. But, somehow the same six were the only regulars. Notable is Max from The Max, the gang's local hang out. Early on he gave advice and performed magic tricks for the kids, but suddenly Max was gone (insert making himself disappear joke). Additionally, Tori Spelling showed up a few times as a nerdy character only to vanish without explanation.

That 70's Show - On "That 70's Show", you may remember Eric Foreman had a sister named "Laurie" who was originally on the show quite a bit. Eventually she was re-cast with a different actress and slowly lost all of her camera time. This is too bad, because her ditzy character really was Fez's only chance at getting a dumb girl drunk enough to get laid.

The Simpsons - Waylon Smithers on "The Simpsons" hasn't disappeared, but on the first incantation of the show he appears to be black, or brown, or something - at least not yellow like most of the characters. Who knows why they changed it, maybe the nation just wasn't ready for a black, closeted homosexual character. But with the recent election proving the US to be more progressive than the world thought, maybe Smithers can un-Michael Jackson himself and go back to his true ROOTS.

Step By Step - While this examples is one everyone can be thankful for, but whatever happened to Cody on "Step By Step"? One day he was a fun-loving adorable goofy character who was dumber than a brick. Basically he was Joey Lawrence's character from "Blossom", but with a flat top. Eventually Sasha Mitchell beat up some girl in real life, and was unceremoniously kicked off the show. The show then replaced him with a campy hairdresser played by Brosnan Pinchot (Balki), for no apparent reason.

Friends - "Friends" is unashamedly guilty of trying to pull the wool over the viewers eyes. You may remember Giovanni Ribisi as Phoebe's crazy half-stupid brother - not that far of a stretch really. Well, the crazy thing was that he was on the show a few seasons earlier, and played a weird teenager that left a condom in her guitar case. Wouldn't she recognize her own brother, I guess not. Also what is Foreman's mom doing there?

Fresh Prince of Bel Air - Another move that shows are guilty of is replacing actors without any explanation. "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" had aunt Vivian's character replaced after only the second season. Apparently the original actress violated her contract by getting pregnant in real life. To whoever she is, "it's the only paying acting job you'll probably ever have, and it's in YOUR CONTRACT. Have the dude slip on a rubber or get on the pill. Whoops, now you're in the unemployment line. Congrats." In the end, uncle Phil got the good end of that deal, the old Vivian kind of looked like Scottie Pippen.

Rosanne - Becky on the white trash sitcom "Rosanne" also went through an interesting switch, which in a way was referred to on the show. The family is sitting around watching "Bewitched" and Rosanne makes a comment about it being crappy when shows change actors. They then zoom out to reveal a new Becky. But wow what an upgrade, the old one was beat up from the feet up, but the new one was at least an 8.5. Later in the series, the old Becky would return for the rest of the show's run. And when she first appears on-screen, Rosanne simply says, "Where the hell have you been?"

Boy Meets World - "Boy Meets World" is another show with more than one disappearance. Most notable is the not-so-lovable nerd, Minkus. He was an integral part of the first seasons of the show, but once Cory got to high school he simply vanished into thin air. Also disappearing was Morgan who was Cory's little sister. She left sometime in season 2 and mysteriously reappeared in season 3 played by a different actress. The writers did give her a nod by her saying, "...that's the longest time out I ever had". Slow clap, brilliant explanation.

Can you think of anyone else who suddenly disappeared from your favorite shows?
-Jeremy [Retro-Zombie]

-------------------------

-------------------------
Check out the latest reviews, music and scores/soundtracks at Howlin' Wolf Records: On-Line Magazine or find the latest horror sites over at Horror Blogger Alliance. Or last but not least visit My NEATORAMA Store at [Retro-Zombie] there is always something going on and it is one click away!
-------------------------

40 comments:

  1. How about Yeoman Janice Rand from Star Trek. Yeah - I missed those legs when she left. Great post!

    ReplyDelete
  2. When I was a teenager, I used to watch soap operas all the time - so much drama, you know, ideal for a teenager! But they pulled swtiches like that all the time. One week a character would have a toddler, the next week the toddler was all of a sudden a hot teen with a hot mess of troubles!

    Honestly, I didn't watch many of the shows you listed except Fresh Prince and for some crazy reason Boy Meets World (when I was in my late 20s (no less) and both changes were just plain weird!

    ReplyDelete
  3. In Friends, Phoebe had never met her brother yet at that point, so it's fair to say that she really didn't recognize him then. :)
    It still cracks me up when I remember that she didn't even know who her father was and her granny led her to believe that he was the guy on the default picture on the picture frames! Haha.

    ReplyDelete
  4. When I first started reading, I was totally thinking of "Roseanne" too. Glad to see you included it.:)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Its so sad that I remember all these shows.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I didn't realise the youngest girl from Family Matters just disappeared from the story! Obviously I wasn't paying attention.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Chuck never did come out of his room, did he?
    The Rosanne switch was odd though. Yeah, ashamed to say I used to watch that show.
    Bewitched switched Darrins as well.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wow, lots of lost cast members. Are we sure Hollywood isn't the Bermuda Triangle?
    Dani & Jax @ Cover Girls

    ReplyDelete
  9. How about the Darin switch on Bewitched. The first Dick York was replaced by Dick Sargent. Dick York had a back injury on season three and the tried to work around it but by season six he was replaced y Dick Sargent.

    Came by from Tales Of The Reborn Crafter
    http://talesofthereborncrafter.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  10. Chuck went off to college like Richie did.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I always feel like I'm watching a bad soap opera when shows do that.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Moira Kelly's character Mandy Hampton. She was there for almost all of season one, and then, quite suddenly...wasn't there in season two, which was clearly a direct continuation after that hiatus. She was never mentioned again.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I really hate it when a character disappears, but I hate it more when they replace an actor with another actor, and we're just supposed to pretend it's the same person. I'm really into "Shameless" now. If they replace any of those actors with other actors, I'm going to be pissed.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I loved Giovanni in FRIENDS.
    STAR TREK had tones of actors in almost unnoticeable roles which later on became huge stars :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. I remember the one in Friends and aunt Vivian. I also wondered what happened to them. I didn't like the second Vivian.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I hear the actress who played Yeoman Rand developed a drug problem. I hope that is not true. Fun post, Jeremy!

    ReplyDelete
  17. OMG I always wondered what happened to the youngest sister on Family Matters. I didn't like the second Vivian too much. That was Tim Reid's wife.

    ReplyDelete
  18. One day we will find the island of misfits.
    Dani @ Entertaining Interests
    #warriorminion

    ReplyDelete
  19. I remember most of these shows, especially the Aunt Viv switcheroo! Very obvious...

    ReplyDelete
  20. Okay, the apparel you've got going on is killer. I saw a mug shot of the girl from the 70's show recently. It seemed like she's going through some rough times. It's kinda sad. Cool post.

    ReplyDelete
  21. "In the end, uncle Phil got the good end of that deal, the old Vivian kind of looked like Scottie Pippen."

    "But wow what an upgrade, the old one was beat up from the feet up, but the new one was at least an 8.5."

    Both great lines that had me laughing my ass off. Great post!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  22. I remember wondering about Giovanni in Friends ! Hopped over here from A to Z challenge !

    ReplyDelete
  23. I hate when shows do this...like suddenly bring in a sister just for a next episode...oh that drives me crazy! I always loved Mingus though....

    ReplyDelete
  24. Christ I remember some of them.....very irritating!

    ReplyDelete
  25. LOL! I love this topic for "D"! I remember all of those. So annoying.

    ReplyDelete
  26. This is awesome Jeremy and I missed Laurie a lot from 70s Show. She was hilarious, but underused.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Sasha Mitchell was slandered. And he deserved so much better.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Love this topic! They do something like this with soap operas too. They send the kids up stairs and when they come down the next day, they are 10 yrs older! Crazy! It's like we're not supposed to notice when a character leaves, is replaced or suddenly a teenager when they were six yesterday. Too funny!

    Karen

    ReplyDelete
  29. this is such an important topic! I spent way too much time watching TV as a teen and the disappearance of Chuck Cunningham did not go unnoticed. Thank you for shining some light on this.

    ReplyDelete
  30. I love this post. Sometimes you don't notice the character is gone till you are watching re-runs. Then it's "Hey, where did Chuck go?!"
    Connie #133
    Checkin' in from the A to Z Challenge.
    Peanut Butter and Whine

    ReplyDelete
  31. Whoa....I think I might have watched too much TV in the 80s and 90s. I knew all of those disappearing characters.

    Another one I thought about: Larry Mondello from Leave it to Beaver.

    Speaking of Saved by the Bell, I remember when the show first came out, it took place in Indiana. Ms. Bliss was their British-speaking teacher. Then suddenly, she disappeared and they were in California.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Great post! I can't think of any others off the top of my head. Have to admit that Chuck is one that always bothered me.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Hilarious post! On a completely unrelated note - I have to ask your what you thought of Isaac Marion's "Warm Bodies" - loved the book = check
    - loved the movie = check
    - Thinks Isaac is pretty damn funny = check

    ReplyDelete
  34. "Grounded For Life" was on from 2001-2005,they had three kids and the last season the youngest child (Henry) was never seen? It was so odd. This was a fun post :)

    ReplyDelete
  35. Ha! I remember most of these. The Roseanne one was the best. At least they could make fun of themselves. And I loved how they used both Beckys (Beckies? lol) in the beginning when they morphed everyone's faces over the years.

    Laurie was one of the best characters on That 70s Show. I don't think her replacement was trashy enough.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Hey Jeremy, I remember you from last year. Thanks for this post, it should add to the power of my threat that I could sell my kids to the gypsies or the circus if they don't behave. They know I'm joking but you gave an amazing list of folks that just vanished of the tv. Sadly I was probably not paying nearly enough attention because I only remembered a few of the. My boys are older teens now so I may start just warning them of falling prey to the "Chuck Cunningham Syndrome". Wonder how long it will take them to figure out what it is.

    Have a great A-z

    Margot at A Devotional Mosaic and Spark My Creativity

    ReplyDelete
  37. Jerry Seinfeld's original dad in the show changed. Never knew what happened to him but I like the 2nd Morty better.

    ReplyDelete
  38. I'd forgotten about Smithers!
    And I remember the Becky switch - I'd gotten so used to the old one I was a bit unnerved...
    Oh yes, good one Powedered - they switched Jerry's dad!

    ReplyDelete
  39. Haha...Awesome post! I used to love Roseanne and I remember it being super weird to me when they switched Becky, but then the show kind went downhill and I stopped watching so I never realized they brought the old Becky back.

    I thought a bizarre character switch (and I'm most DEFINITELY showing my age here) was in Little House on the Prarie, when Caroline has a flashback episode to when her and Charles first met. The actor who played little Charles eventually (like a season or two later?) is cast as Albert, Laura's adopted little brother. It was just kinda bizarre. it was like...oh. Wow. Laura's adopted little brother looks exactly like her father as a child. How odd. haha

    ReplyDelete
  40. I remember all those shows but I in no way remember Chuck Cunningham.

    ReplyDelete

[Retro] Love the Comments, not so much the Spam... so I have enough man-pills, fake gold watches and link-back options that I need. Thank you!

No More Anonymous Monkeys to much of the above mentioned, sorry sometimes I get some nice things.