# Short timespans in TV series **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 18, 2005, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-timespans-in-tv-series/331668 "2005-11-18T17:58:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-timespans-in-tv-series/331668/21 "2005-11-19T08:26:18Z")
“South Park” - I know they graduated to the next grade once. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-timespans-in-tv-series/331668/22 "2005-11-19T10:32:37Z")
The Simpsons characters have never aged, yet still celebrate holidays like Christmas and Holloween every year. King of the Hill’s characters age one year for every two on the air. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-timespans-in-tv-series/331668/23 "2005-11-19T13:44:28Z")
Just popping in to say I misread the thread title as “Short thespians in TV series” and I was going to offer Michael J. Fox and Danny DeVito. [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-timespans-in-tv-series/331668/24 "2005-11-19T14:55:48Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > Perhaps the oddest example of “Soap Opera Kid” syndrome wasn’t on a soap but on _Growing Pains_. Between seasons the newborn daughter suddenly became like seven years old while no one else in the family aged. That exact thing happened on _Family Ties_, too. They had that fourth kid, Andy, and he was a baby for one season and then the next season he was about six years old. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-timespans-in-tv-series/331668/25 "2005-11-19T15:01:17Z")
> [@BiblioCat](#): > > That exact thing happened on _Family Ties_, too. They had that fourth kid, Andy, and he was a baby for one season and then the next season he was about six years old. Fresh Prince ditto. Nicky went from newborn to five in one season ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-timespans-in-tv-series/331668/26 "2005-11-19T20:21:53Z")
The quick-aging infant phenomenon sounds to me like a device on the part of the writers to avoid a lot of episodes with a character that doesn’t really do anything. The infant carries with all sorts of pregnancy, parenthood and family storylines and the jump to 5 or 6 allows for the precocious child storylines. Also, I don’t think a lot of shows stay on the air long enough to age kids at any reasonable pace. ---
**Author:** ![Threadkiller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aca169/32.png) [@Threadkiller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Threadkiller)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-timespans-in-tv-series/331668/27 "2005-11-19T20:57:48Z")
> [@Inner Stickler](#): > > The quick-aging infant phenomenon sounds to me like a device on the part of the writers to avoid a lot of episodes with a character that doesn’t really do anything… It’s also to avoid a _really_ difficult actor–they don’t call them the ‘terrible twos’ for no reason. The Simpson’s have pulled off a lot of weird stuff: Apu’s litter was born, walking and talking while Maggie stayed a perpetual 1 year old. ---
**Author:** ![Menocchio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-timespans-in-tv-series/331668/28 "2005-11-19T20:57:58Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > If you ever really want to go nuts, try and reconcile the storylines of long-running comic books with the real world. Heh. Of course, there are exceptions. For example, DC is soon jumping the continuities of all its books ahead by one year. Then they’re releasing a weekly series called 52\*, in which the events of the missing year are revealed, one week at a time. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-timespans-in-tv-series/331668/29 "2005-11-19T21:09:49Z")
The show **Duet** did the “kid grows up fast” bit, though with some justification: The baby was born at the end of one season, and the next season began five years later had passed. **Flying Blind** – a vastly underrated comedy best known for the first starring role for Tea Leoni – did some interesting things. It went week by week, pretty much following the time the show was broadcast. Then, on the final episode, the final scene was captioned “Six months later,” putting the events in the future and making it a science fiction show (by some definitions). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-timespans-in-tv-series/331668.md?page=1)