The following was gleaned from a variety of MAS*H sites. All agree on this:
Name: Oliver Wendell/ Oliver Harmon ‘Spearchucker’ Jones
Performer: Timothy Brown
Rank: Captain
Function: Just like Pierce & McIntyre, he was a surgeon.
Seasons at the 4077th: Season 1
Left because The writers found out that there were no coloured/black surgeons in the Korean war, so they got rid of his character after only the 5th episode.
Episodes with him
MAS*H – The Pilot Episode (J-301) September 17, 1972
Funny thing about the “Happy Days” disappearing son…in the episode where Joanie and Chachi got married, the father was making a toast and said something about his two wonderful children, Joanie and Ritchie…no reference at all to Chuck!
As for cousin Oliver on “Brady Bunch”, he wasn’t written out, the series was just canceled. The final episode was the one with Greg’s graduation, where Bobby is selling hair tonic, and turns Greg’s hair orange, requiring a trip to the dreaded Beauty Parlor, and ends with Cindy and Bobby and Oliver pouring the hair tonic on Cindy’s rabbits so they can re-sell them to the pet store at a profit. Oliver was Bobby’s assistant and then Cindy’s assistant, as they both tried “get-rich-quick” schemes. It is in the “Growing Up Brady” book. Sorry, I am a Brady trivia expert.
Also, the short-lived “Jeff Foxworthy” show. The first season, one actress played his wife, and the kid from “Sixth Sense” played his son. At the end of the season, she gave birth to a daughter. When the second season started, the wife was a different actress and they suddenly had 2 boys, close in age, rather than one boy and a newborn girl!
As for “Roseanne”, the first actress playing Becky left to go to college full-time, and did come back, then left again, I think. The 2 actresses switched more than once, IIRC.
On the Happy Days reunion show (or whatever it was) where they got the cast together to talk about filming the series, Marion Ross starting calling out “Chuck, Chuck, where are you?”. I thought it was funny.
I’m not a big soap opera fun, but I did hear that many years ago, a character on All My Children went upstairs to wax his ski’s and was never heard from again. Not killed off or anything. Presumably he’s still up there, polishing away.
If you’re talking about actresses switching, don’t forget the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. The mom changed. The only comment from the cast was something like “gee mom, you look different”.
Does anyone who watches “Frasier” know what happened to the character of Bulldog? I was watching a rerun the other night and it occurred to me he hasn’t been on the show at all in the past year. Has he been written out? Did they have an episode I missed where he left?
Since a bunch of people mentioned MASH, I also thought of the character of Major Burns. I can’t remember at all how they wrote him out of the show. I do remember a few episodes when Hotlips had dumped him to get married, but was there ever an episode where he left? What did happened to his character? They must have had some explanation for his leaving.
Didn’t the Jeff Foxworthy show switch networks? That would explain the change between seasons. Also, lolagranola, you just beat me to the thing about the Fresh Prince’s Mom!
Burns goes insane at Margret finally getting married. He runs off to Toyko to harass her, lots of hijinks ensue, and he’s arrested. Ends up getting promoted to Lt Colonel and shipped states side to manage a Hospital (I think, on that last detail). You don’t see any of this tho. Takes like two episodes to finish him off.
Major Burns went crazy and got sent back to America, I think, for psychiatric evaluation. Apparently he could handle it when Potter came and totally trashed him and such.
As I understand it, the producers of Frasier wanted to have Bulldog in something like half the episodes each season, but the actor’s (Dan Butler, I think) other commitments have limited the amount of time he can appear. I think it’s no hard feelings – they’d like to have him back.
Let’s not forget that there were two Lionels on The Jeffersons.
As long as we’re on missing characters, did Homer actually leave his job at the power plant on The Simpsons? I miss Burns and Smithers, and the show needs a good villain.
fat angel–Bulldog was fired from KACL-AM. I think the actor just wanted to go on and do other stuff; he’s a big theatre performer. As for Maj. Burns, Larry Linville left between seasons. The first episode had Hawkeye and BJ hearing all these stories about how Burns went nuts on leave. The punchline was, he got sent home and got a job as chief of staff at some big hospital.
Other disappearing characters:
Yeoman Rand, “Star Trek”–disappeared after Season 1, didn’t show up until the movies.
Jay Selby, “Mad About You”–Paul’s best friend, only made it through season 1. Ira was funnier.
How about Ellen’s original friends, back when the show was called “These Friends of Mine”? That show changed directions more than drunk driving the wrong way down the freeway.
Tasha Yar, “Star Trek: The Next Generation”–killed at the end of the first season.
Terry, the original owner of Central Perk, “Friends”–played by Max (“ALF”) Wright. He just faded out, to be replaced by the less interesting Guenther.
The original Mr. Constanza, “Seinfeld”–one episode only! Played by John Randolf. Don’t go looking for him; for syndication, they reshot this episode with Jerry Stiller as Frank Constanza.
The original Chris, “The Partridge Family”–as chronicled on recent VH1 shows, Jeremy Gelbwacks was a little terror. When his family moved to Virginia, the producers quickly recast the role with Brian Forster. No comments were made on the show.
Aside: it will be interesting to see how the X-Files handles not have David Duchovny around as much next season. I’ve heard that Mulder may be played by a different actor. I really hope that’s not the case and Scully gets a new partner. I hate when shows change actors and re-use the same characters.
I seem to remember Law and Order having a different DA (not Schiff) in the early expisodes that disappeared without a trace. Also, on Law and Order, what happened to Claire Kincaid (the first female assistant DA)? I never saw any explanation about why she disappeared.
They do have a new actor hired, Robert Patrick from Terminator 2, but he will not be playing Mulder. Nor will he exactly be a new partner because early press releases indicate that he is a police officer. However, he will be partner-like for Scully.
Speaking of MASH, no one seems to have noted that for the first few episodes Father Mulcahey was NOT played by William Christopher, but by someone else (forget who).
Trivia point – Gar Burghoff was apparently the only actor from the movie who went on to recreate his character on the TV show – although his character changed pretty significantly through the years. The Radar O-Reilly who left would never have DREAMED of stealing a jeep piecemeal, the way Radar did in one of the first season shows.
Guy P: Aren’t you thinking about JERRY’S parents, not George’s? I do believe one (or both of them) got the ol’ “Hollywood facelift” after the first episode or two.
Also, Jerry’s apartment goes through some big-time unexplained “renovations” too. In the early episode(s) it’s got some solarium-type window thing going on in the left corner.(Hey, maybe they needed it for the girls’ apartment in Friends – that’s got one too.) Anyway, the “new” apt. does look truer to a real Upper West Side shoebox.
And speaking of Friends, Ross’ lesbian ex-wife did the old actress-switcheroo after her first (very minor) appearance.
Total trivia…the actress who played Ross’s ex-wife in the one episode is the same actress who played Jeff Foxworthy’s wife for just the one season…Anita Barone.
DO NOT ask how I remember useless crap like this…my brain is full of totally useless trivia!
Yes, MASH sucked all the guts out of the Radar character as the show went steadily downhill after its early seasons. The early seasons are dreadfully sexist, but that was certainly truer to the book (I never saw the movie). The sanctimoniousness that flawed the show from the beginning looms ever larger as it goes on, and IMHO it’s unwatchable once Potter arrives. MASH is the best example I can think of what happens when good shows stay on too long. (Second-best example is L.A. Law.)
Claire died after she got hit by a car. I DO remember that one.
Here’s another old t.v. switcheroo that always puzzled me – on “Bewitched” of course Darren was recast. But wasn’t there two (or even three) Mrs. Kravitz’es? I’m not surprised people don’t comment on that because they were all kind of annoying. I just wondered what the story behind that was.
The original DA on L&O appeared in the pilot only. The pilot for the series was shot in 1988, I believe, but the show wasn’t picked up until the 1990 season. By the time that happened the original actor was no longer available.
Fortunately Steve Hill (Adam Schiff) was available. Unfortunately, Hill has decided that being 78 does not mix well with weekly TV and has decided to leave the show.
As for Claire Kincaid, she was in killed in a car accident by a drunk driver. Lenny Briscoe was driving. On her way to meet up with McCoy for dinner (IIRC). There is some slight debate as to whether she is actually dead as it was never explicitly stated.
Claire Kincaid died in a car accident between seasons. It was explained in either the first episode of the season after she left or the last episode of her last season (sorry–I watch the reruns on A&E so the season timelines are kinda confused in my head). You go to see all the characters dealing with her death.
I read a biography of Mary Stuart (wasn’t thinking or paying attention to the spelling and thought it was the author) who was an actress on some of the really early soaps on tv. She said they once got a fan letter asking where so-and-so was and noone could even remember who that character was. They looked at some old scripts and they realized they had put their child to bed 3 years ago and he had never woken up since!
