Chuck Cunningham Syndrome

A recent one — on the first season of Succession Kendall had an ex-wife who he interacted with regularly, but she vanished in season 2. I don’t know if she was even mentioned.

 

Sam Malone on Cheers had an ex-wife, Debra, who appeared in episode 2, played by Broadway star Donna McKechnie. She never appeared again, nor do I think Debra was ever mentioned again.

 

On Seinfeld, Jerry and George's parents were pretty much regulars but Elaine's father was only shown once and Kramer's mom maybe a couple of times. Elaine was also the only character with siblings as she mentioned having a sister.

 

On the TGIF sitcom, Step by Step, starring Patrick Duffy and Suzanne Somers, Duffy's character's son Brendan was featured in the first six seasons. When the show moved from ABC to CBS for its seventh and final season, Brendan did not appear.

 

Elaine’s dad was played by notorious character actor Lawrence Tierney. By some accounts, the show’s cast and crew really didn’t want to invite him back, due to his on-set behavior.

 

Yup, I read about that somewhere but they could easily have recast like they did Morty, Frank and Newman. Guess they decided two characters with crazy parents was enough.

 

No, they never brought Carver back. Season 1 and he was gone, never to be mentioned again. John Burns was a boring *****. His character traits were naivete, already covered by Tony Banta, and an outsider status, already covered by Alex Rieger.

Reverend Jim was an immense improvement. Though it could be argued that after Jeff Conaway left, the show was a little too weird with Reverend Jim AND Latka. Conaway did do a return episode as Bobby Wheeler.

"John Burns" portrayer Randall Carver did manage to somehow appear in both Midnight Cowboy and There Will Be Blood.

 

Sam also had a brother in the first season. He appeared in the season finale, but you only saw him from behind, and didn’t see his face (similar to Vera’s “appearance,” later on). I don’t think the brother was ever seen or mentioned again, either.

 

Perry Mason (Raymond Burr version) Season 4 brought in a law student for nine episodes, for some reason. Then he was gone. He never had a necessary part of any story.
Perry Mason never explained the case of his disappearing legal aide David Gideon .

 

They eventually reused the idea in the 1980s episodes, where Perry was assisted by law student Ken Malansky.

 

Malansky did take over the investigating role that was originally done by Paul Drake Jr

As for the law clerk in the first series there is speculation Burr was thinking about leaving after five years and they were grooming his replacement. Also they may have tried to get younger viewers with a younger cast member. But you didn’t need a law clerk to explain things to clients and Mason already had a private investigator on the payroll.

 

George also mentions a brother in Season 1/2 but he's never heard of again.

 

Sam Malone didn't have any kids with his ex, so she really had no reason to keep showing up. Sam's brother, yeah, that was not a show highlight at all.

I wish they would have kept Bob Hartley's sister around because it kept them from writing Howard as a complete idiot. But I guess they didn't want to go down that road.

 

That does sound familiar but I haven't watched the early seasons in quite a while so I'm gonna have to check those episodes out to see if there's more information that was later forgotten.

 

On “McHale’s Navy” Seaman Joseph “Happy” Haines (Gavin MacLeod) left after two seasons, not replaced or even referred to. MacLeod, unhappy with a weekly line of “what are we gonna do, Skip?”left to film”The Sand Pebbles”, did guest shots such as various Nazis on “Hogan’s Heroes and must have found a yard full of four leaf clovers as he ended up in “Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “The Love Boat”

 

On the Dukes of Hazzard-- What supposedly happened to the original Duke boys? Didn't both main characters get replaced late in the series? (I assume due to contract issues with the actors)

 

Bo and Luke left to join the NASCAR circuit so Coy and Vance came to live with Uncle Jesse so there was an explanation for their brief disappearance. When the contract issue was resolved Bo and Luke retuned and Coy and Vance left to take care of another relative.

Also in the Dukes of Hazzard Roscoe was gone and replaced by different Sheriffs for several episodes but I can’t remember if there was any explanation on the show.

 

I like the sound of that, the CHUCK CUNNINGHAM SYNDROME. Sounds like a X-Files episode.

 

Or a late ‘70s jazz fusion quartet.

 

Excellent!

 

Which I think destroyed the show but that’s another discussion...

 

I checked the episode list and there was a gap of a few episodes between the one where John got married and his next appearance. I think that's why I thought he made an appearance in the Second Season, at the time it seemed he disappeared then reappeared.

 

Why they dumped her and replaced her with the dull as dishwater Helen Crump is beyond me.

Having said that: in real life it's not uncommon for an old girlfriend (or boyfriend) to never be mentioned again after a break-up. So having Ellie Walker disappear is plausible.

 

I only remember the guy on the left....

 

That was a shame, because Downey was by far the most magnetic actor on the show.