The mismatch between Beverly Garland and Dawn Lyn reminds me how seeing Judith Barsi in her television appearances and commercials where she looks decidedly Eastern European next to people playing her parents or siblings or friends who are decidedly not “ethnic” always stands out to me.
I wrote a transgender transformation story where a man gets sold a mysterious cable tv service and finds he can enter the bodies of tv characters. There’s no tv cameras or studios, this is a “Pleasantville” type scenario. In this first installment, the protagonist enters the Dick Van Dyke show as Mary Tyler Moore’s “Laura Petrie”… and uses the “Character Change/Replace” option on the magical remote control to replace the son, brash, obnoxious Ritchie, with a beautiful little girl.
Sherwood Schwartz’s making Susan Olsen look like Anissa Jones for the first three seasons of the Brady Bunch is very off-putting. It’s creepy and at least one professional television writer said Schwartz had an unhealthy fascination with Anissa Jones that seemed psycho-sexual.
:dubious: Huh. Not what I heard. According to Barry “Greg” Williams’ memoir, Susan Olsen asked her mom to “fix up her hair like Buffy’s” (on Family Affair). Mind you , Schwartz was apparently so enamored of her little pigtail that he wrote it into the theme song. Supposedly, once Olsen has come into audition for the role of Cindy, Schwartz decided he didn’t need to see anyone else.
Somewhat similar to Chuck disappearing from **Happy Days **early in the series. I don’t think anyone missed him much.
Good call. Richie was incredibly grating.
He kept saying “puppy power”, so he’s obviously a child.
I don’t think anyone mentioned Naomi Wildman yet.
I read through the thread…
Stephanie on All in the Family was mentioned, but Joey wasn’t.
On Criminal Minds, JJ had a son Henry, played by her real life son. But he isn’t a main character.
If you want, I can post that segment that I wrote.
There was a sitcom called Davis Rules in the early 1990s featuring Jonathan Winters that rather inartfully plopped a teenager into the cast in an attempt to retool after a low-rated first season. It didn’t work.
I always wondered why My Three Sons never used Dodie to have a Christmas Episode. Red/Green Christmas dress, white stockings, Mary Janes… would have triggered a few Awes in their declining audience…
It’s worth mentioning that the baby-turned-toddler on Family Ties is played by the same actor who played Worf’s son on TNG (some of the time).
It’s like Robby Rist who appeared in the last few episodes of the Brady Bunch and also showed up as the obnoxious Dr. Zee on Galactica 1980
As I mentioned in Post #64.
My apologies.
“Hey Dad…!” was an interesting mix of Cousin Oliver and the Other Darrin - Jenny went from mid-teen to pre-teen when she was recast. Is it unusual to make an existing kid character substantially younger like that?
In the case of I Love Lucy and Dick Van Dyke, the kids played a relatively minor part in the series, trotted out only when they were needed for a plot element. Hell, Little Ricky got left behind all the time when his parents went travelling.
On Bewitched, adding kids was done more, well, organically: the couple were newlyweds after all, and the kids came along in reasonable time - and did not do the Family Ties thing of going from newborn to 5 year old over the summer.
Speaking of Dallas, I don’t think anyone’s mentioned Christopher and John Ross’s growth spurts during the night of Pamela’s “dream.” One morning, Christopher especially was a babe in arms; less than 24 hours later, he was a toddling two-year-old.
Amazing! :eek:
Speaking of Supernatural, in the 12th season they added Jack. Of course, he grew to be a teenager in about 15 minutes, but he’s a younger cast member who still acts like a child most of the time.
Movies sometimes have the opposite problem to SORAS. The movie Bridge of Spies took place over several years, but Tom Hanks’s kids never aged
In Hill Street Blues, Lucy Bates becomes the guardian of a kid of a drug addict, and he’s a thing for a few episodes in season 5 or 6, but then he just disappears. I don’t think he’s mentioned after that.