# Great TV Mysteries... Never solved **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 3, 2013, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-tv-mysteries-never-solved/659996 "2013-06-03T02:51:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-tv-mysteries-never-solved/659996/41 "2013-06-04T00:01:56Z")
Star Trek: TOS 1. Just how many offspring does James T. Kirk have? 2. How much child support does he pay? ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-tv-mysteries-never-solved/659996/42 "2013-06-04T00:09:06Z")
My Three Sons also had an older son who disappeared after a season or two, and then they adopted Ernie. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-tv-mysteries-never-solved/659996/43 "2013-06-04T00:23:16Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > What was going on in Twin Peaks? I’ll see your Twin Peaks and raise you John from Cincinnati. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-tv-mysteries-never-solved/659996/44 "2013-06-04T01:37:40Z")
What was the deal with [Chance Harper](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_Luck)? ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-tv-mysteries-never-solved/659996/45 "2013-06-04T02:13:49Z")
> [@zamboniracer](#): > > Star Trek: TOS > > 1. Just how many offspring does James T. Kirk have? > 2. How much child support does he pay? Back when I was turning wrenches for a living, William Shatner was a customer. One of my coworkers always wanted to ask him “So what’s it like to screw a chrome chick?” ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-tv-mysteries-never-solved/659996/46 "2013-06-04T02:26:50Z")
**jack** -I had heard that the Russian version did answer! Thanx. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-tv-mysteries-never-solved/659996/47 "2013-06-04T03:14:51Z")
> [@Don\_Draper](#): > > **Star Trek: The Next Generation** - the s.1 bug-like things that crawled into people’s mouths and then mind-controlled them. After killing off the small infestation that infiltrated Starfleet, it’s said at the end of the episode that they were sending a homing beacon signal out to some distant point in the Delta Quadrant. Everyone looks gravely and somber and there’s the “Dun-Dun-DAH!!!” incidental music to indicate that _more will be coming!_ But none of them ever came to my knowledge. Starships may be able to have FTL, but homing beacons tend to be radio signals. It’ll be a couple of thousand years before the Delta Quadrant folks get the message. P.S. I just made that up; it probably bears no resemblance whatsoever to the physics of the TNG-verse. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-tv-mysteries-never-solved/659996/48 "2013-06-04T03:17:26Z")
Pretty sure it was a subspace signal. Might need to watch it again to be sure, if I can find enough tequila to deaden the pain… ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-tv-mysteries-never-solved/659996/49 "2013-06-04T03:40:37Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > 😕 > > How can the answer be anything other than “Heaven” and “through the intervention of Athena (or, as the vulgar call her, God”)", respectively? I understand why you don’t LIKE the resolution of the series – I don’t either – but the whole set of mysteries is pretty nakedly divine design/intervention. That just doesn’t work for me. It probably never will. ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-tv-mysteries-never-solved/659996/50 "2013-06-04T08:37:36Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > Cheers series finale: Who were that last phone call, which Sam didn’t pick up, **and that last patron, whom Sam turned away, saying that the bar is closed?** Maybe it’s the kid from the [first scene](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssOlz3NXsOk) of the pilot. I imagine he’d be 21 by then. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-tv-mysteries-never-solved/659996/51 "2013-06-04T08:47:29Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > _King of the Hill_ - while “nobody ages” applies to pretty much every cartoon series, this is different; how did Luanne age from 18 to 21 while Bobby (and Connie, so don’t say “Bobby kept being left back in school”) never get any older? Bobby and Connie and (most noticeably) Joseph did age. They all went from about 11/12 to 14/15, so it’s consistent with Luanne’s aging. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-tv-mysteries-never-solved/659996/52 "2013-06-04T08:52:53Z")
> [@BwanaBob](#): > > My Three Sons also had an older son who disappeared after a season or two, and then they adopted Ernie. No mystery there. The oldest son, Mike, got married and moved out of the house. The real-world explanation was that the actor, Tim Considine had a falling-out with the shows producers. He did appear in one final episode where his character and his fiancé, played by Meredith MacRae, had a wedding. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-tv-mysteries-never-solved/659996/53 "2013-06-04T08:53:23Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > That just doesn’t work for me. It probably never will. Perhaps, but sticking your fingers in your ear does not, technically, constitute a mystery. ---
**Author:** ![MickNickMaggies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/59ef9b/32.png) [@MickNickMaggies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MickNickMaggies)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-tv-mysteries-never-solved/659996/54 "2013-06-04T11:40:02Z")
> [@davidw](#): > > From\* Homicide: Life On the Streets\*, who killed Adina Watson? We’ll never know, because the [real case](http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1991-01-11/news/1991011101_1_pellegrini-latanya-girl) remains unsolved/open. In the real case, the prime suspect was ‘the Fish Man’ who correlates with the Araber of _Homicide_ . And who, like the Araber, was interviewed several times and then died before any significant case could be made. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-tv-mysteries-never-solved/659996/55 "2013-06-04T11:46:51Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > I’ll see your Twin Peaks and raise you John from Cincinnati. Not every detail has been annotated, but the essential idea behind the series is documented. John is basically one of many lower level angels or other sort of divine agent sent by god or the universe after 9/11 to reopen people’s eyes to see things from a greater perspective in order to steer us away from the path of genocide, and also help the surfer kid attain his special destiny. ---
**Author:** ![gus28](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6de8d8/32.png) [@gus28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gus28)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-tv-mysteries-never-solved/659996/56 "2013-06-04T13:31:16Z")
Maybe I missed it, but what ever happened to Seven in Married with Children? ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-tv-mysteries-never-solved/659996/57 "2013-06-04T14:06:25Z")
> [@gus28](#): > > Maybe I missed it, but what ever happened to Seven in Married with Children? His picture showed up on the back of a milk carton on the Bundy’s table (“Missing - have you seen this child?”). True fact! ---
**Author:** ![chargerrich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chargerrich/32/5399_2.png) [@chargerrich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chargerrich)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-tv-mysteries-never-solved/659996/58 "2013-06-04T14:26:25Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > Did Jason Gideon take his own life? this thread would be much more interesting if you put some context/background on your questions for those of us that may not be aware. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-tv-mysteries-never-solved/659996/59 "2013-06-04T14:34:35Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > That was originally supposed to be foreshadowing for the Borg, who were originally intended to be insectile. But they found they couldn’t make non-stupid-looking insectile baddies, so they went with the cyborg Borg we all know, and the mysterious signal just ended up as an unresolved plot point. I misrembered. [Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borg_(Star_Trek))backs you up. > [@](#): > > In the text commentary to the [Collector’s Edition](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_edition) of _[Star Trek: First Contact](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_First_Contact)_, Michael Okuda revealed that _[Star Trek: The Next Generation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation)_ writers began to develop the idea of the Borg as early as the first season episode, “[Conspiracy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation))”, which introduced a coercive, symbiotic life form that took over key Federation personnel. It was thwarted by the _Enterprise_ crew and presumably never heard of again (the ‘alien conspiracy’ plotline itself was scrapped when it became clear that the concept was too grim for Star Trek’s target audience). Plans to feature the Borg as an increasingly menacing threat were subsequently scrapped in favor of a more subtle introduction, beginning with the mystery of missing colonies on both sides of the Neutral Zone in “[The Neutral Zone](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Neutral_Zone_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation))” and culminating in the encounter between Borg and the _Enterprise_ crew in “[Q Who?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_Who%3F)”. ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-tv-mysteries-never-solved/659996/60 "2013-06-04T14:48:38Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > The Sopranos… > > During the “ **Pine Barrens** ” episode, Paulie and Christopher take a Russian into the woods to bury him, but he manages to get away by smacking Christopher on the head with a shovel and smacking Paulie in the balls. The two chase the Russian through the woods, shooting at him as they run. One bullet appears to hit the Russian in the head, and it loos like he falls, however he gets up, and runs away.. When Paulie and Christopher get to where he was hit, there are some blood stains in the sonow, but the foot prints seem to end and they can’t find him. > > My question: what happened to the Russian? It was never revealed in the show, and basically it was dropped from the plot. Dang! You too huh. That has bugged me for years. I spent the next 40 episodes waiting…just knowing the Russian “interior decorator” was going to come back for Paulie. Story lines were so subtle and lengthy in the Sopranos that surely that day had to come. But nope. Nadda. Not a sausage. In fact Tony’s Russian mafia connection seemed to fade away after the Pine Barrens which also bothered me because it was a rich vein for more complex stories. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-tv-mysteries-never-solved/659996.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-tv-mysteries-never-solved/659996.md?page=4)