Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Top 10 Disappearing Characters

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

This is a category that is up for much debate. For instance, on Saved by the Bell, most of the secondary characters appear on less than four episodes.

10. Chuck Cunningham. The obvious choice, since the idea of missing characters has become synonymous with "the Chuck Cunningham Syndrome." (He was Ritchie's older brother on Happy Days in the event you don't know what I'm talking about)

9. Jenny Kelly. The name probably doesn't ring a bell, but she was a best friend to Sabrina (The Teenage Witch) for the first two seasons. She even co-crushed on Harvey. But she was dropped like a hot potato with no explanation or warning!

8. Judy Winslow. Honestly, I watched Family Matters in original run and it took me a good season or so to realize that she was missing. (Cousin Richie also vanishes, as does Waldo, but that's beside the point...)

7. Bob on Becker. While Reggie's write-off was stupid (she went to travel through Europe for TWO YEARS with friends after sleeping with Becker...), Bob's was practically invisible. Jake mentions at one point that Bob had gone on vacation, but that's the only mention audiences have, with no big departure from Bob at all.

6. Maggie from A Different World. Maggie was Marisa Tomei character's, a military brat who was Denise's roommate during the "sophomore season." Come Season 2, no more Maggie. Probably because she wasn't black, and they were going for realism at an HBCU.

5. Eric, Jessie Spano's stepbrother. He was in two episodes, and in the end he decided to stay in LA, and make a life in California instead of New York. But in the next episode, he's gone without a trace. um, what? I guess he wasn't "Saved" by the Bell.

4. Sara Spooner. You know, Carrie's little sister on King of Queens? She even moved in with Doug and Carrie at the same time Arthur did - she got the office and he got the basement. But, after the sixth episode of this long-running series (207 episodes in all), she vanished. What's worse, it pretty much seems like Carrie is an only child after that!

3. Minkus. He made a good classmate to Cory and Shawn on Boy Meets World, and a good opposite after Topanga became cool instead of dorky. But the weirdest thing about it is the reappearance he makes at the end of the high school years, where he claims he's been there all along, just taking classes in a different hallway.

2. Brendan Lambert. You remember him... the littlest boy on Step by Step. He was cute, but other than sharing his birthday with his dad's wedding, he really didn't get many storylines to himself. What was even more amusing is that they age Lily so she's five years old, yet Brendan gets cut for being just a few years older.

1. Steven Floyd and Ruth Ann Torkelson. Of The Torkelsons five children, two of them disappear and are never mentioned when the remainder of the family moves from Pyramid Corners, Oklahoma to Seattle. Technically the show was then called Almost Home, but it kept the same story idea and such, so it should have included the entire family.

Possibly worth mentioning: Denise, who plays Little Richard's niece on Full House, disappeared as Michelle's best friend. But Teddy is still there (as is Aaron), as are newcomers Derek and Lisa.
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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

A slighty more exhaustive list of Brother Chucking: http://tinyurl.com/a2uroj

Anonymous said...

Forgot to properly link… This should be better.

A slighty more exhaustive list of Brother Chucking.

ProfTVWatcher said...

I though Minkus coming back was genius. It was nice that they made fun of the way he just disappeared. The way he shouts "Mr. Turner! Wait up!" when he walks out of the shot had me laughing, too. Seriously, what happened to Mr. Turner?!?!?