Yes I thought or saw this on a e-Tv special behind the sceens??
They might of done it that way as "Spearchucker" could be too racist??
And I thought it was mentioned that Chuck Cunningham had gone off to collage or to the Army??
The "Chuck Cunningham" Syndrome
- Thread starter TGTheodore
- Start date
They might of done it that way as "Spearchucker" could be too racist??
And I thought it was mentioned that Chuck Cunningham had gone off to collage or to the Army??
'Tina' makes an appearance in the episode 'Eric's Burger Job', I believe.
I don't know if they're especially bad at this, but the ones that really vanished with no explanation are:
Terri: Put into a coma by Rick. I think we actually did get a scene of her coming out of her coma, but after that, nothing.
Kendra: What the F happened to Spinner's sister? Not even Spinner getting ball cancer could earn her a reappearance.
Hazel: Friends with Paige, dated Jimmy, was a secret Muslim, totally evaporated into thin air.
and last but not least
Joey Jeremiah: Craig's stepdad, the heart and soul of Degrassi Old School- Totally wiped out of existence when Craig left.
Yes, that is why they dropped the character. (EDIT: Oops, no, it wasn't. See The's post below -- he got it right.)
Maybe his departure was explained away at the time, but what defines "Chuck Cunningham Syndrome" is that afterward, his existence was forgotten completely and even explicitly contradicted. There was an episode toward the end of the series where Howard Cunningham said something that made it explicit that he and his wife only had two children.
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The official reason Spearchucker was written out was because the producers found out that, in reality, there were no black surgeons in the Korean War. However, it could just be that PC caught up with them, and no one else outside the show understood the "joke" behind the name (the character was an professional-level javelin thrower...thus, the nickname "Spearchucker").
- From Wikipedia
Captain Oliver Harmon "Spearchucker" Jones or Captain Oliver Wendell "Spearchucker" Jones was portrayed by Fred Williamson in the movie and by Timothy Brown (who had played the corpsman Corporal Judson in the film) in the television series. Spearchucker was shown during several episodes during the first season of the series.
Dr. Jones was one of the original Swampmen, along with Trapper, Hawkeye, and Frank Burns. The TV show producers decided to drop the character after the first few episodes deciding they wouldn't be able to write enough meaningful episodes for Spearchucker if they were concentrating on Hawkeye and Trapper, and because they were made aware that there is no record of African-American doctors serving in Korea.[4]
"Spearchucker" Jones was also a character in both the novel M*A*S*H (and its sequels) by Richard Hooker and Robert Altman's movie. In each, the Spearchucker character, who was a stand-out collegiate athlete ("Spearchucker," ordinarily a racial slur, ironically referred in this case to his javelin-throwing prowess) as well as a surgeon, is transferred to the 4077th to help them win a football game against a rival outfit. It is established in the novel that Jones is from Duke Forrest's hometown of Forrest City, Georgia, and knew Duke's father. Also, according to the movie, he played professional football with the San Francisco 49'ers prior to the war in Korea breaking out.
In the sequel novels, Jones joins the other doctors in their own practice in Maine, becoming a highly successful doctor and prominent citizen.
As for Ugly John and the mentioned Duke Forrest (as well as the dentist Painless Pole), I always assumed--given the concept of the series--that they had been shipped home, their time served. Just because we didn't see them go doesn't nullify the departure. I mean, look at Trapper John...
....god how I wish Trapper had remained for the series...same with Frank and Henry...
Heartbeat makes a specific point of being set in the 1960s. It has been going on now for 18 years!
In the first episode of "Space: 1999", the chief computer technician is a character called Benjamin Ouma, played by Lon Satton. He disappears without trace after that, and for all subsequent episodes of the first season, his role is filled by an almost identical character called David Kano, played by Clifton Jones. Everyone acts as if Kano has always been there, and they never mention Ouma again.
Of course, for its second season, Space: 1999 lost around half its regular characters without the slightest onscreen explanation (although I believe a reference to Professor Bergman's disppearance was scripted but cut at editing stage). At the same time, several new lead characters turn up, including the Chief of Security who'd never been in the first season at all.
Of course, for its second season, Space: 1999 lost around half its regular characters without the slightest onscreen explanation (although I believe a reference to Professor Bergman's disppearance was scripted but cut at editing stage). At the same time, several new lead characters turn up, including the Chief of Security who'd never been in the first season at all.
The Hogan Heroes one made me laugh. They could never get away with some of these changes in these days of fans combing over every show's detail. Hogan's radio operator and electronics expert disappears without a word, but an electronics expert and radio operator - another black army staff sergeant coincidentally enough - gets captured and sent to Stalag 13 so they don't miss a beat. Talk about luck. What are the odds?
I have read somewhere (not sure where now) that the reason Kano was brought in to replace Ouma was that Lon Satton was hard to get along with.
The first episode of NewsRadio featured an electrician named Frank, as opposed to Joe Garelli, who was the regular WNYX electrician for the rest of the series. (The first episode also featured a different actress playing Catherine but she ended up not having any lines in the final version of the episode anyway. You can only barely see her standing on the steps outside the broadcast booth during Dave's speech at the end of the episode.)
I believe the original cast of Step by Step included both a grandmother & an aunt who worked in the hair salon that Suzanne Sommers' character ran out of their guest house. But by the end of the 1st season, the aunt, the grandmother, & the hair salon were all gone. (Maybe cousin Cody ran them over with his van or something?)
Which wouldn't have been such a big deal had they not done quite so many Christmas episodes to more definitively mark the passage of time. (Although, IIRC, another poster here actually came up with a timeline that reconciles this with the actual dates of the Korean War. It somehow involved Radar being locked away doing paperwork for several episodes and an ongoing battle of wills between B.J. & Col. Potter regarding B.J.'s mustache.)
I believe the original cast of Step by Step included both a grandmother & an aunt who worked in the hair salon that Suzanne Sommers' character ran out of their guest house. But by the end of the 1st season, the aunt, the grandmother, & the hair salon were all gone. (Maybe cousin Cody ran them over with his van or something?)
Which wouldn't have been such a big deal had they not done quite so many Christmas episodes to more definitively mark the passage of time. (Although, IIRC, another poster here actually came up with a timeline that reconciles this with the actual dates of the Korean War. It somehow involved Radar being locked away doing paperwork for several episodes and an ongoing battle of wills between B.J. & Col. Potter regarding B.J.'s mustache.)
Joe Swanson's son Kevin on "Family Guy" disappeared after the first year or two, and is not referenced or seen after that (even when Bonnie finally gives birth after being pregnant for ten years). We'll probably get a fourth-wall gag reference to him some day, I'm sure, but if Seth MacFarlane says that Kevin was too boring to ever do anythign with again, he's toast.
Mark
Mark
Yeah, that's what I heard too. But of course, there's no in-story explanation of what happened...
Darren Stevens Syndrome.
Discuss.
Discuss.
Nope
St. Elsewhere was one of those shows that usually made sure no character was "Chucked" e.g. "I sure miss Dave ever since he transferred to Boston General"...
...with one notable exception. Dr. Annie Cavanero, played by Cynthia Sikes. In the fourth season, Annie was going to have a dalliance with a lesbian, questioning her own identity as a hetero, etc. Sikes was having none of it. She basically threw a major wobbly and, citing her Deeply Held Personal Beliefs, quit the show. The producers threatened to sue her for breach of contract, but in the end let her go.
Next season, Annie is gone. No mention is made of her. Ever. Believe me, I keep both ears peeled. Nada.
...with one notable exception. Dr. Annie Cavanero, played by Cynthia Sikes. In the fourth season, Annie was going to have a dalliance with a lesbian, questioning her own identity as a hetero, etc. Sikes was having none of it. She basically threw a major wobbly and, citing her Deeply Held Personal Beliefs, quit the show. The producers threatened to sue her for breach of contract, but in the end let her go.
Next season, Annie is gone. No mention is made of her. Ever. Believe me, I keep both ears peeled. Nada.
Buffy's Dad pretty much vanished from the show (no that he was ever a big part of it). Even after Joyce and Buffy both die (only a few months apart) 15 year old Dawn is left to be raised by Buffy's early 20's, lesbian, witch friends.
M*A*S*H was notorious for that kind of stuff.
Originally, Hawkeye had a wife back stateside, Mary Pierce. She mysteriously disappeared halfway thru the first season, and confirmed bachelor Trapper John suddenly gained a stateside wife.
The idea there being that the network objected to the main character being unfaithful, but didn't much care if a secondary character exhibited such character flaws. And the show's producers and writers felt it was important to deal with the issue of war-time infidelity, so the swap in marital status between Hawkeye and Trapper seemed the obvious solution.
Unfortunately, at around the same time, a number of other radical changes were made, with central characters from the book and film version suddenly being dropped from the television version. Duke, Spearchucker Jones, and Painless Pole all disappeared without a trace, without explanation, and were never comment on again.
Then there's the case of "My Three Sons", where oldest brother Mike was written out, and a new, younger brother, Chip, was "adopted" so that the show's title would still make sense. Like Chuck Cunningham, Mike Douglas simply disappeared without a trace, and was never spoken of again.
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