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TV Characters Who Suffered from
Chuck Cunningham Syndrome
by Patrick Hildebrandt
Why do we watch TV? Yes, because we’re lazy, or because our couch is just too comfortable or because that darn gym is just too far of a drive. But more intrinsically, we watch TV because we like and identify with specific characters. Shows really are the sum of their characters. You can have snappy dialogue and sharp production values, but unless you create indelible characters that keep viewers coming back for more, your show will probably fail.
What happens, though, when certain characters on an otherwise successful show just don’t connect with an audience? They’re often written out and given a dignified and acknowledged farewell. But some characters are so unlucky that they are sentenced to the grimmest of all TV deaths: Chuck Cunningham Syndrome, where a character simply disappears, and their absence is never acknowledged and the other characters continue on as if nothing has happened.
Let’s take a look at some prominent examples of this phenomenon—starting, naturally, with the character who started it all.
Happy Days – Chuck Cunningham
If ever there was a poster child of TV character disappearances, it would be poor Chuck Cunningham (Gavan O’Herlihy / Randolph Roberts). Before Al Molinaro ran Arnold’s, before Joanie loved Chachi, and before the Fonz jumped over a fake shark and into television lore, there was Chuck. He was originally the third and eldest child of the Cunningham brood, a basketball player at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Chuck was supposed to be the series’ older brother, but unlike siblings Ritchie and Joanie, he was generally superfluous to the series happenings, and he usually only appeared while en route to someplace else, such as basketball practice. His character never caught on the way Arthur Fonzarelli did, so when producers decided to focus more on the Fonz, the unimportant Chuck was written out of the series.
His removal certainly didn’t hurt the show, as Happy Days ran for nine more years and earned its place as one television’s greatest sitcoms. But Chuck’s disappearance was never explained, and aside from a few passing comments, he was never mentioned again. His departure was so shocking and confounding to fans that they named this TV phenomenon after him. He wasn’t the first, but he is the most prominent example.
Family Matters – Judy Winslow
Remember when Family Matters was a solid show about the working-class Winslow family in Chicago? Neither do I, because that original premise was quickly hijacked by Steve Urkel. The obnoxious, accident-prone, cheese-loving, nasally-voiced antagonist quickly became one of the biggest stars of the 90s, and the show began to focus on him and his exploits, much to the detriment of other family members.
One of those members was Judy Winslow (Jaimee Foxworth), originally the third and youngest of the Winslow clan. As the show moved towards Urkel, Judy, who was never that popular and was rarely featured, was given the axe after the fourth season. Family Matters continued to run for four more seasons, but Urkel’s increasingly strained and improbable antics eventually sank it. As for Foxworth, she later ended up broke and became a porn actress. She seems to have rebounded somewhat; during a 2006 appearance on Oprah she spoke openly about her experiences and her desire to help other young women avoid her mistakes.
That ‘70s Show – Tina Pinciotti
Most fans of That ‘70s Show would consider Donna Pinciotti, Eric Foreman’s formidable friend/love interest, to be an only child. And they’d be mostly correct, since that’s how she was portrayed for most of the series’ run. But in the first season, Donna had a younger sister, Tina (Amanda Fuller). She appeared in one episode and was promptly never seen or heard from again, aside from a cliffhanger-like voiceover ending to a season two episode: “And whatever happened to Midge’s daughter Tina? Confused? You won’t be, after the next episode of That ’70s Show!”
That ‘70s Show has drawn a lot of comparisons to Happy Days, and it’s been suggested that Tina’s disappearance was an intentional homage to Chuck Cunningham. The producers apparently weren’t satisfied, because Donna also at one time had an older sister, Valerie. She was mentioned once, but never seen on camera, and never mentioned again. Donna’s suddenly sister-less existence has provided ample fodder for hardcore fans. And, for some of us, a desire to do that to our own siblings.
Saved By the Bell – Too numerous to mention
Yes, even our favorite pantheon to high school isn’t immune. In fact, Saved By the Bell’s sins are more plentiful than any other show on this list. In the first season, junior high schoolers Zack Morris, Screech Powers and Lisa Turtle played second fiddle to a teacher character, Carrie Bliss (Hayley Mills). When the characters graduate to full-fledged high school, Bliss is gone, along with fellow teachers Tina Paladrino (Joan Ryan) and Milo Williams (T.K. Carter). And the additions of A.C. Slater, Jessie Spano and Kelly Kapowski resulted in unexplained demises for former friends Nikki Coleman (Heather Hopper) and Mikey Gonzalez (Max Battimo).
It’s not simply a matter of changing schools, since ever-vigilant principal Mr. Belding remained on board. The real explanation is a fascinating case study of television production. The junior high/Carrie Bliss episodes were actually from a completely different show: Good Morning, Miss Bliss, created in 1988 and seen on the Disney Channel. The show was canceled after 13 episodes, but NBC thought the idea had merit and repackaged it as Saved By the Bell, shifting the focus to the teens and tinkering with the cast.
This wouldn’t even be a matter for debate if NBC didn’t consider Miss Bliss part of the Saved By the Bell canon; they even brazenly include those episodes in the syndication package, re-titling them Saved By the Bell and using the same classic theme song. The result is a show that’s promoted as one seamless whole, but features some jarring character and continuity problems between the first season and the other four—most notably, the inexplicable location switch from dreary Indiana to sunny California. We’ll save The Tori Paradox for another weekend.
Surely there are other characters who went missing that escaped our attention completely. Do you know of one?
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Comments (18)
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Battlestar Galactica (new version) – Boxy
In the pilot mini series, Boomer and Helo rescue a young boy named Boxy from the surface of Caprica after the Cylon attack. This character was included because there was a similar recurring character in the original series. However, after the pilot, Boxy never appeared again in the new series, aside from in some DVD-only deleted scenes.
posted by Tappet on 3-16-2008 at 12:23 pm
The West Wing – Mandy. Mandy was an integral part of the West Wing cast for the entire first season, even appearing in the cliff-hanger season finale. When the second season picked up at the cliff-hanger, she wasn’t there, and was never mentioned again.
posted by H2OHen on 3-16-2008 at 7:30 pm
Every Soap Opera has done this at least once. They are also known for SORAS. Soap Opera Rapid Aging Symdrome.
posted by Patrick B on 3-16-2008 at 8:17 pm
Weeds – Quinn Hodes only made it through the pilot before being sent away to boarding school in Mexico, never to return.
posted by Tim on 3-17-2008 at 7:12 am
My family and I call Mandy the 3rd victim of the shooting (in West Wing)… that is how we explain her absence – not that it really hurt the show. Her character deserved to be cut.
posted by Sarah on 3-17-2008 at 7:55 am
Well there’s always Three’s Company’s whole Chrissy debacle. After a year she fell of the face of the earth. And also, thinking back to my childhood, He-Man’s buddies like Moss Man never made it past more than one appearance, lol!
posted by Mike on 3-17-2008 at 9:31 am
The little sister in “Boy Meets World” disappeared! Her name was Morgan, and she was sent up to her room one episode, but then seasons later, they brought her back with no explanation. Later, she even made a joke about it, when her mom told her to go to her room, and she refused because she said the last time she was sent to her room, they forgot about her.
posted by Mandy on 3-17-2008 at 9:58 am
Fun Fact: Judy Winslow later became a porn star, after she allegedly reported that her parents squandered her money.
For saved by the bell – what about Jesse’s brother lol. Glad that you made that the #1, the sharp move from Indiana to California was abrupt and just happened as they progressed from middle school to high school.
posted by TeleVision Spy on 3-17-2008 at 10:09 am
Paul’s best friend in Mad About You also disappeared. Though you could almost sense the end coming with all the discussion of Ira the cousin who had a band that played at Paul and Jamie’s wedding.
posted by Marti on 3-17-2008 at 10:58 am
On “My Three Sons,” Robbie was not the eldest brother. (I believe his name was Mike.) The character went away to college fairly early on, prompting the quickie adoption of Ernie.
posted by Lori L. on 3-17-2008 at 12:05 pm
Maybe not the same thing but my fav one that is along the lines of these is when they replaced the actress who played Becky, twice, on Roseanne. The second time she was replaced with the original actress and when she walked in Roseanne said “Where the hell have you been?” and they also showed a flashforward future-DJ sitting in a psycologist’s office and saying “They say she’s the same but she’s not the same…they say she’s the smae but she’s not the same”)
posted by Rob on 3-17-2008 at 1:04 pm
It was a short-lived show, but there was a brother on Covington Cross (1992) who disappeared after the pilot episode. They kinda explained that he was sent to fight in the Crusades, but they never mentioned him again. It always bothered me.
posted by Nat X on 3-17-2008 at 2:56 pm
Seven from “Married with Children” went upstairs one episode and never came down again. He was a pretty central character for the season, and a pretty good one too. They never explained where he went.
posted by Grandpajoe on 3-17-2008 at 3:42 pm
The two I remember are Bernice and Murphy on Remington Steele. They were only on for the first season and then removed. A little was said in the season two opener about where they went, but they were never really mentioned again. And unlike some people, I liked the introduction of Mildred to replace them.
posted by Michelle on 3-18-2008 at 8:07 am
H2OHen is quite correct and actually what this entry dubs as “the Chuck Cunningham Syndrome” is, in Hollywood circles known as “going to Mandyville.” The urban dictionary defines it as: ” [the] Mythical place where smaller characters from The West Wing are sent when writers don’t bother explaining where they’ve gone.
Named for the character ‘Mandy’ who survived series one and then disappeared, never to be heard from again.
But it does not pertain only to WW characters, folks in the business have used this moniker widely.
Other famous instances of “going to Mandyville” are as follows (from factbug):
All in the Family: At the start of the 1976-77 season the Bunkers took in a Puerto Rican boarder named Teresa Betancourt. She was featured in several episodes, but did not return the following season. No explanation was ever given regarding her departure.
# The Facts of Life: Originally the show centered around Mrs. Garrett and seven young girls. After the first season, most of the girls, including Nancy, Cindy, Sue Ann and Molly (played by Molly Ringwald), were dropped from the show. They appeared in a few subsequent Season 2 episodes, but were not seen or mentioned again until Season 8.
# M*A*S*H: Spearchucker Jones appeared during the first season as a doctor at the 4077th and the fourth tent mate in the Swamp. He quietly disappeared during the first season when the producers were made aware that in fact, there were no Black surgeons in United States Army M*A*S*H units during the Korean War.
Later on in the first season, the anesthesiologist Ugly John Black, who played a rather prominent role in the series, also dissappeared. No explanation was ever given for his departure. However,the character of BJ Hunnicut was scripted to reference Ugly John in a much later episode, but the line was cut out of the final cut. BJ was scripted to write a letter to home, in which he told his wife that “It seems like they’re all leaving us. Even Ugly John got shipped home.”
# The Simpsons:
* The therapist Dr. Marvin Monroe was dropped from the series with no explanation because the cast all hated the sound of his voice (Harry Shearer has also said it was hurting his throat). The first reference to the character’s departure was the appearance of “Marvin Monroe Memorial Hospital” in one episode. In an episode about the show’s anniversary, it claimed that Marvin Monroe was one of two characters that died at the time (the other character was Bleeding Gums Murphy). However, he reappeared in a later episode claiming he had been “very sick” during the time he was missing.
* After guest voice actor Phil Hartman was murdered in 1998, his 2 characters, Lionel Hutz & Troy McClure were dropped from regular appearances, without explanation. They both have made appearances in clip shows and in crowd scenes, but never in major roles. As a tribute to Hartman, 2 pages in the Simpsons episode guide Simpsons Forever! were used as a tribute to McClure’s career in entertainment, but nothing is explicitly said about his fate.
Star Trek: During the first season, Janice Rand was a regular, serving in the capacity as the captain’s yeoman and potential love interest for Captain Kirk. She mysteriously disappeared halfway through the season and, although she has appeared in four of the Star Trek movies and an episode of since, no explanation has ever been given for her departure (William Shatner claims that Grace Lee Whitney was let go because of serious drug and alcohol problems; while that was true, the producers have said that they just didn’t think it was a good idea for Kirk to have a love interest on the ship).
posted by Matty on 3-19-2008 at 2:51 pm
On All My Children, very early in the season, Bobby Martin went to the attic to get his skis. He was never seen again.
About 25 years later, 2 characters get locked in the attic of the Martin home. In the background, there is a skeleton (the Martins are a married DR and Nurse), with a pair of skis propped beside it, wearing a hat with the name Bobby on it.
posted by Neal on 3-16-2009 at 7:49 pm
Heroes has done this alot. Possibly the worst case is Molly Matt & suresh’s adopted daughter. she just disappeared and has never been spoken of again.
posted by Shaggy13 on 3-16-2009 at 10:57 pm
The saved by the bell thing might be explained that half the cast apparently moved from the midwest (indiana? can’t be arsed to look it up) to California.
posted by anaximander on 3-17-2009 at 12:51 pm