Missing TV kids

Factual Questions
1

On HAPPY DAYS, Ritchie and Joanie Cunningham had a basketball-dribbling older brother named Chuck. Whatever happened to Chuck, yo?

On THE JEFFERSONS, whatever happened to the Willis’ son, Alan? Jenny’s brother.

On FAMILY MATTERS, Laura and Eddie Winslow had a younger sister named Judy. Whatever happened to Judy?

Flaky Buppie Denise Huxtable disappeared from THE COSBY SHOW but leaving behind a daughter. Whatever happened to Denise?

On FRIENDS, Rachel Green had a sexy younger sister named Jill who was introduced and disappeared in a two-part episode story arc. Whatever happened to Jill?

On MURPHY BROWN, Murphy’s kid Avery virtually disappeared after a big to-do about his birth. And on FRASIER, I’m not sure what, if anything, is the relationship between Dr. Crane and his son.

Oh, yeah – whatever happened to the tow-headed kid from MARRIED WITH CHILDREN? And Oliver from the BRADY BUNCH?

Am I missing any?

2

Cousin Oliver was brought in for the final season of The Brady Bunch (I don’t remember what happened with his parents). He never disappeared, AFAIK; the show ended with him still there.

Seven (yes, the number), the kid from Married With Children, was simply deleted; he went upstairs and never came back (from what I hear, he was never a very popular character). Later in the show, some jokes were made about his disappearance (Peg picks up a milk carton with his face on it, for example).

Denise Huxtable? Well, in the first episode of the Cosby Show, Cliff states very clearly that he and Claire have only 4 children (“because we do not want 5”). A few years later, a fifth child, Sondra, comes home from college. This sudden materialization of a new sibling caused severe instabilities in the TV space-time continuum, until at last poor Denise simply vanished in a puff of neutrinos, and balance was restored once again.

–sublight.

3

What happened to Chuck is apparently the #1 most frequently asked Happy Days questions.

From http://www.sitcomsonline.com/diduknow.html

4

One learns a lot from watching VH-1. For example, I learned that:

  1. The Winslows’ missing Daughter on Family Matters was written out of the show because the producers wanted to save money by firing an actor. They figured she was a minor character, so she simply walked up the stairs to her bedroom one day and never returned. The producers hoped no one would notice. Apparently they were wrong ;).

  2. Cousin Oliver on The Brady Bunch: There were rumors that he had gotten into porn or that he was now Nitro from American Gladiators. The truth is that he’s an overweight, shaggy-beard, Generation-X slacker who plays drums in a garage band. He also free-lances as a producer. He said that sometimes he’s rich and sometimes he’s broke; more often than not he’s broke.

As for Rachel’s sister on Friends; you’re thinking of Jill, played by the adorable Reese Witherspoon. She probably got on the show simply because her agent was trying to capitalize on her popularity from her recent successful movies (Cruel Intentions, Election) and scored her a guest spot on Friends. She was there as a love interest for Ross in a two-part story arc.

From a philosophical standpoint, Jill was also a metaphor for Rachel’s journey from spoiled rich girl to Independant Woman. You’ll remember in the first season that Rachel was so sheltered that she couldn’t even do her laundry. Well, Jill embodies all that Rachel had left behind; she was spoiled, she was immature, and she was wwwaayyyy too dependent on Daddy. Rachel tried to teach her about maturity but then realized that she couldn’t be a mom to an 18-year-old, and Jill left the show.

5

[ul]
[li]Alan Willis - IIRC, played by a white actor with curly hair. (can’t get the name, IMDb is down.) Gave me the impression that an interracial couple’s children can be of either color. Truth is that they just are more coffee-and-cream colored.[/li]
I believe he was much older, so he was on his own. Maybe he lived in a different city, hence the guest appearance status.

[li]Denise Huxtable - She started as the core of “A Differnt World”, which is part of why she left “The Cosby Show”. But the other characters soon were more popular.[/li]
Lisa Bonet wanted to get into movies too, hence her eventual departure from both shows.

[li]Judy Winslow - So that was her name. I always saw the actress in the credits until a certain point, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember any significant plot involving her. I guess Urkel swamped her part.[/li]
[li]Chuck Cunningham - aforementioned basketball scholarship to Outer Mongolia. :D[/li]
[li]Jill Greene - IIRC, she just appeared last season. Give her time, she may re-appear.[/li]
There have been lots of family cameos, but only the Gellers (Elliot Gould and Christina Pickles) are regular guests. Morgan Fairchild is Chandler’s mom (can we say Oedipus?), and Teri Garr is Phoebe’s true mom.

[li]Cousin Oliver - He appeared in (I think) two episodes, one of which was the last one made (about the hair tonic that turns hair orange :rolleyes:). So he disappeared when the show did.[/li]
Robbie Rist went on to a Saturday morning show, “Big John, Little John”, about a teacher who drank from the fountain of youth, and keeps morphing from his older self (played by the same guy who played Bea Arthur’s ex-husband on “Golden Girls”) to his 12-year-old self, played by Rist. He also premiered the role of Dr. Z on “Galactica 1980”.

[li]Seven Bundy - It quickly became clear that the fans were not happy with the new direction or the new character. The writers at first wrote fewer lines for him, and then wrote him out altogether. His disappearance was never explained in the show, although “Rock Of Ages” (NOT his last show) hints at an explanation.[/li]
Also Peg’s pregnancy the prior season was written out. The actress that played her, Katie Segal, was pregnant, but lost her child. She was willing to continue with the story line, but the producers decided against it. Her and Marcy’s pregnancies were explained as “dream episodes”.

[li]Avery Brown - Dunno. Quit watching after Murphy gave birth.[/li][/ul]

6

More on missing TV kids:
[list]
[li]Allan Willis was played by Jay Hammer. His latest work was on “The Guiding Light” as Fletcher Reade.[/li][li]Lisa Bonet (Denise Huxtable) has put her acting career on the back burner to raise her family.[/li][li]Jaimee Foxworth (Judy Winslow) has done no TV or movies since being phased out of “Family Matters”. (Ironic title, it seems that family doesn’t matter.)[/li]Haley Joel Osment (the last Avery Brown) is doing just fine, being the youngest actor to be nominated for an Oscar.