Chuck Cunningham Syndrome

Then there was Coco, a character featured in the broadcast pilot episode of the popular 1980s sitcom The Golden Girls, portrayed by actor Charles Levin. Coco, a gay man — the fancy man in the kitchen” as Sophia takes to calling him — was employed by the girls as a cook and acted as a quasi-best friend, yet only appeared in the pilot episode.

Per Wikipedia:

And thus it was decided that Estelle Getty’s character Sophia — originally scripted as a intermittent visitor to 6151 Richmond St. — would move in permanently. Subsequently, Coco was no mo’. The fifth Golden Girl had disappeared without a trace by the second episode, never to be mentioned again.

 

Joanna Moore was great - beautiful, with a great voice and genuine Southern charm. She also had good chemistry with Andy and Opie. I believe she became pregnant and was no longer available to appear.

 

Levin was heartbreakingly effective in his episodes on Hill Street Blues. Probably played a tad broad (it was the 80's) but still...

 

Not quite a sitcom, but a drama with sitcom roots: LOU GRANT. The series' first three episodes featured a young cub-reporter-female named Carla Mardigian, played by Rebecca Balding.



Shortly thereafter, she totally disappeared without a mention or a trace, and the character was replaced with Billie Newman played by Linda Kelsey, who stayed for the rest of the series.

 

Yeah, Carla never had a chance, did she? Well at least Billie did get an episode to show how she got to be a "real reporter". Those scenes with Lou telling the head of the "Home" section how worthless they were pretty cringy, even back then. The show really hadn't gotten its bearings yet at this point. Of course, Billie would turn out to be a fantastic character, Kelsey brought so much to the role.

 

IIRC, Rebecca Balding had signed on to do another show, so MTM had to let her go.

 

Actress Lynette Mettey appeared in the first four episodes of Quincy, M.E. as Quincy's girlfriend, Lee Potter; Quincy began as part of the 90 minute NBC Mystery Movie wheel series along with Columbo, McCloud and McMillan. When Quincy became a 60 minute weekly series, the character of Lee Potter disappeared with no explanation.

 

As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, Jemima was still around in season 2 before being dropped from the cast...

One first season character from "Daniel Boone" that didn't make the cut to season 2 was Boone's friend/sidekick Yadkin (played by Albert Salmi).

 

I think Aneta Corsaut actually was having a real-life affair with Andy Griffith while the show was going on, so she stayed to the end of the series. Stuff happens in Hollywoo.

These 'Andy Griffith Show' Actors Were Lovers and Everyone in the Cast Knew

 

The year Donna Reed replaced Barbara Bel Geddes on Dallas was pretty poor casting IMO. But, of course, that wasn't the weirdest casting change on that show (dream, Gracie?).

 

I'd go with Christina Ricci personally...

 

Elinor Donahue left on her own. She and Andy decided the chemistry was not working and she wanted to leave the show.

 

There was one woman in between them, wasn't there? A nurse, I think.

She was a little too attractive to be dating a sheriff of Mayberry.

 

Joanna Moore as Nurse Peggy, a fan favorite. Apparently Andy Griffith had a real-life relationship with her, too.

 

Oh, I don't know. Who was Andy's competition? Barney? That goofball mayor? Gomer? OTIS????

Now Barney and Thelma Lou might exemplify a bit of a mismatch.

 

Beat me too it. By two years. Lol

 

Then there's Barney's replacement on the Andy Griffith Show, Warren. He lasted eleven episodes and also vanished without explanation. Jack Burns is very talented but no one could replace Don Knotts on that show.

 

True. But: Anita Corsaut did have an affair with Griffith for 3-4 years, which was my point. I wasn't talking about Donahue's reasons for leaving.

 

Speaking of Barney's dating life, I seem to recall him mentioning a waitress (whom I believe lived in Mount Pilot) by the name of Juanita... Did they ever actually show her, or was she strictly one of those folks that are mentioned but never seen?

 

Yeah that is sad. Katey Segal was great in that show. I was quite surprised how gorgeous she really was.

 

Master of the house, tryin to catch her eye...

 

I don't think it applies. One of the factors with The Chuck Cunningham Situation is that the character disappears without an explanation. They simply there one episode and then they are gone. The thing about Chuck Cunningham in Happy Days is that not only did he suddenly disappear, but his entire existence was deleted from the show. In one episode Howard Cunningham mentions his two children, Chuck wasn't one of them.

With your two examples, a similar one is the departure of Mike in My Three Sons. His departure was explained that he moved away (this is what I've heard, I've never seen any of the black-and-white My Three Songs episodes). His character still maintained a presence in the series via phone calls.

An extreme example of this is (I think it was) The West Wing where the season ended with a scene of some kind of attack. Several people are standing around in the scene. In the first episode of the next season it picks up literally in the next instant...but one of the character is gone without explanation.

 

It has always fascinated me how little the creators of TV sitcoms cared about continuity. It's different nowadays, when many shows have a story arc than runs over several episodes or even throughout a season, but back when I was a kid I remember discussions with my friends where we tried to make sense of the continuity in series where looking back it's obvious that the writers and producers simply couldn't be bothered to be consistent. In the case of Happy Days, why on earth didn't the writers just say that Chuck was away at college, or something like that?

 

I believe Chuck Cunningham was already a college student on the show, so they would have had to have him transfer to Madison or some other college not near Milwaukee.

 

One other character that didn't make it to season two of "Daniel Boone" was Israel's pet goose, Hannibal...

Rebecca must have cooked him up for Christmas dinner or something.