# When TV shows break continuity: The Chuck Cunningham Syndrome **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 12, 2010, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-shows-break-continuity-the-chuck-cunningham-syndrome/539207 "2010-05-12T19:14:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-shows-break-continuity-the-chuck-cunningham-syndrome/539207/81 "2010-05-18T10:23:00Z")
It’s not a strong implication, however, IMO. He’d been divorced from Laverne for some time, he’d been in Korea since before they actually got married, and it wasn’t a good breakup (cheating with his best friend), so it doesn’t stretch credulity too much to assume he’s simply ignoring her and looking toward the future to save himself the ulcer from thinking about her. (Not to mention that given the show’s compressed timeline, the marriage probably lasted for mere weeks.) ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-shows-break-continuity-the-chuck-cunningham-syndrome/539207/82 "2010-05-18T11:28:26Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Same actor/different character is an institution on the Law & Orders. **I Love Lucy** did that alot; Lucille Ball had a habit of casting close friends of hers in bit parts and recurring roles. **Golden Girls** also did that with Harold Gould;… I think the winner in this category is probably _The Rockford Files_. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-shows-break-continuity-the-chuck-cunningham-syndrome/539207/83 "2010-05-18T11:37:34Z")
> [@Jormungandr](#): > > In the series finale, Fox’s character, Mike Flaherty, becomes a lobbyist and mentions an annoying Congressman from Ohio named Alex P. Keaton. Apologies for nitpicking… it wasn’t the series finale - it was just Michael J. Fox’s last episode. They continued the series with Charlie Sheen. (And Fox makes a few guest appearances.) ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-shows-break-continuity-the-chuck-cunningham-syndrome/539207/84 "2010-05-18T15:52:53Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I think the winner in this category is probably _The Rockford Files_. I didn’t think these were discontinuity issues, since most of these didn’t involve actors playing characters of the same name (GG/Harold Gould would be). Similaryly, on _The Cosby Show_, there was a guy who came to pick Sandra up for a date in the second season (a one-off); later on, when Denise returns from Africa, married to a Marine she met there named Martin Kendall, it’s Joseph C. Phillips, the same guy who’d showed up at the door for a date with Sondra. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-shows-break-continuity-the-chuck-cunningham-syndrome/539207/85 "2010-05-18T16:08:42Z")
> [@](#): > > I think the winner in this category is probably The Rockford Files. Naahhh – not even close. Try the 1960s incarnation of _Dragnet_. Or the A&E production of _Nero Wolfe_, which was generally excellent, but seemed to be committed to re-using the same rotating cast of supporting players. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-shows-break-continuity-the-chuck-cunningham-syndrome/539207/86 "2010-05-18T16:25:51Z")
Something I posted in another thread recently, but I’ll mention it again. The “Doctor Who” (new series) episode “Dalek” from the 2005 series/season - the Doctor (#9) and Rose visit a Utah bunker in 2012. The bunker belongs to internet trillionaire Henry Van Statten, and it houses his collection of scavenged alien artifacts from all over Earth. The one single living alien in the collection is a Dalek - supposedly the single Dalek left after the Time Wars. Van Statten and his private army of cutting-edge techies are incapable of getting any information out of the creature that they refer to as a ‘metal-tron.’ They know nothing about it. But the Daleks have made two very visible invasion attempts on the Earth _before_ 2012. In the series/season two finale, they battle the Cybermen in Canary Wharf, and in the series/season four finale, they _steal the whole damn planet Earth!_ At least the second invasion is well-known enough that it becomes a historical event. In the “Water of Mars” special, set in 2032, Adelaide Brooks recalls the “Stolen Earth” invasion and knows that the name ‘Dalek.’ How then does Van Statten’s team of premiere sci/tech experts not know anything about a Dalek? And then, there’s the infamous [UNIT dating controversy.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIT_dating_controversy) Also from the original series, there are at least three contradictory explanations for the origins of life on Earth (re: “Death of the Daleks”, “Image of the Fendahl” and “City of Death”) as well as two widely different accounts as to how life on Earth ends (“the Ark” and “Trial of a Time-Lord - the Mysterious Planet”). ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-shows-break-continuity-the-chuck-cunningham-syndrome/539207/87 "2010-05-18T19:24:43Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I think the winner in this category is probably _The Rockford Files_. > [@CalMeacham](#): > > Naahhh – not even close. Have you looked at the filmography of one [Jack Garner](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0307715/filmoseries#tt0071042) recently? ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-shows-break-continuity-the-chuck-cunningham-syndrome/539207/88 "2010-05-18T19:30:01Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Have you looked at the filmography of one [Jack Garner](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0307715/filmoseries#tt0071042) recently? True enough, but Jack’s brother Jim just wanted to keep Jack employed. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-shows-break-continuity-the-chuck-cunningham-syndrome/539207/89 "2010-05-18T20:00:53Z")
Minor, but annoying – on _Two and a Half Men_, Charlie’s fiance Chelsea shows good taste (at least in fashion and home decor, if not in men). The bedroom in her apartment was modern with muted colors and nice fabrics – like something Candice Olson on _Divine Design_ might have designed. When she moved in with Charlie, she brought a cheap jungle print bedspread and garish pillows, and she put tons of kitsch in the kitchen. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-shows-break-continuity-the-chuck-cunningham-syndrome/539207/90 "2010-05-18T21:26:23Z")
> [@descamisado](#): > > I didn’t think these were discontinuity issues, since most of these didn’t involve actors playing characters of the same name (GG/Harold Gould would be). > > Similaryly, on _The Cosby Show_, there was a guy who came to pick Sandra up for a date in the second season (a one-off); later on, when Denise returns from Africa, married to a Marine she met there named Martin Kendall, it’s Joseph C. Phillips, the same guy who’d showed up at the door for a date with Sondra. The Marines can really change a man. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-shows-break-continuity-the-chuck-cunningham-syndrome/539207/91 "2010-05-18T21:34:29Z")
On _Will & Grace_ early episodes Karen mentioned her kids a few times. Later they made her childless, then they mentioned stepkids, but in later episodes dealing with Stan’s death and estate the kids were apparently disinherited. They also mentioned Rosario working for Stan long before Karen but later her meeting Karen at a bar where Karen was a drunk partier and Rosario was the cigarette lady is shown. Similarly Jack mentions his father several times, then there’s a mini-plotline about how he never knew his father, then Beau Bridges appears a couple of times as his stepfather- basically retconning as they went. _Good Times_ was technically a spin-off of _Maude_ but pretty much all back story on Maude for Florida and her family was changed including the name of her husband (Henry on _Maude_ and James on _Good Times_ but played by John Amos on both). Also the family was working class on _Maude_ but indigent and in the projects on _Good Times_, implying that Florida should perhaps have gone back to work for the Findlays. TV movies have some of the worst problems. In the _Beverly Hillbillies_ reunion movie it’s revealed Granny’s ma is still alive even though she’s the last of her family on the show; Tom Brady (Dick Van Patten) on _Eight is Enough_ celebrates his 50th birthday in a reunion movie several years after the show which would make him about 12 when his oldest child was born, and the _Waltons_ reunion movies must have been written by somebody who’d never seen the original; a child born before Pearl Harbor on the series is in high school in 1970 and the Baldwin Sisters live to be 120. ---
**Author:** ![Monstera\_deliciosa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monstera_deliciosa/32/109_2.png) [@Monstera\_deliciosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstera_deliciosa)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-shows-break-continuity-the-chuck-cunningham-syndrome/539207/92 "2010-05-18T22:22:00Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > _Good Times_ was technically a spin-off of _Maude_ but pretty much all back story on Maude for Florida and her family was changed including the name of her husband (Henry on _Maude_ and James on _Good Times_ but played by John Amos on both). Also the family was working class on _Maude_ but indigent and in the projects on _Good Times_, implying that Florida should perhaps have gone back to work for the Findlays. That would have been kind of difficult, since the newly imagined Evanses of _Good Times_ lived in Chicago and the Findlays lived in Tuckahoe N.Y.! ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-shows-break-continuity-the-chuck-cunningham-syndrome/539207/93 "2010-05-19T00:54:51Z")
> [@](#): > > a child born before Pearl Harbor on the series is in high school in 1970 That’s cuz folks are a little slow here on the mountain. ---
**Author:** ![MsChilePepper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MsChilePepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsChilePepper)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-shows-break-continuity-the-chuck-cunningham-syndrome/539207/94 "2010-05-19T05:33:50Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > … the _Waltons_ reunion movies must have been written by somebody who’d never seen the original; a child born before Pearl Harbor on the series is in high school in 1970 and the Baldwin Sisters live to be 120. Hey, Papa’s Recipe was some good shit! ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-shows-break-continuity-the-chuck-cunningham-syndrome/539207/95 "2010-05-19T15:02:58Z")
> [@zamboniracer](#): > > True enough, but Jack’s brother Jim just wanted to keep Jack[Garner–multiple roles on The Rockford Files] employed. 😃 And how lucky are we to be here, right at this exact moment in time, to witness the intersection of **The Chuck Cunningham Syndrome** and **The Clint Howard Syndrome**. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-shows-break-continuity-the-chuck-cunningham-syndrome/539207/96 "2010-05-19T16:38:29Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Dallas changed the house in which the Ewings lived. One was a monster of a place with ugly dear antler chandeliers and rooms you could land a plane in and with the grown sons living in guest houses that were actually important to the plot in a couple of episodes. The next was a still stately but much more ‘homey’ place. It was very clear the first was an actual rented ‘over the top’ mansion while the other was mostly a sound stage with some exterior shots cut in. They constantly changed the back story on how the Ewings and the Barnes families were connected (they were always consistent on Jock Ewing and Digger Barnes having been partners but details varied on when and why they broke apart). > They also committed incest due to changing the backstory: in an early episode Ray Krebs is shagging the Ewings teenaged granddaughter Lucy, and it’s mentioned that Ray grew up with the Ewing boys after his parents who worked for Jock died. In a later season it’s revealed that Ray’s father isn’t dead but a ne’er do well grifter who was really his stepfather- his biological father is actually Jock Ewing, which means he was shagging his half-niece. I don’t know about the interior, but they did change the house they used for exterior shots between the first and second seasons, with the second house becoming the “official” South Fork ranch (they still give tours of the place, which is outside Dallas). Also they did produce a made-for-TV prequel at some point during the series. I’ve never seen it myself, but it apparently does explain how the rift between Jock and Digger started. And speaking of prime time soaps, there’s another continuity problem I just thought of regarding Melrose Place. In the original series Sydney gets killed on her wedding day when she is run over by Samantha who is fleeing her jailbird father. It’s clearly an accident. But on the new series, when it’s discovered that she actually faked her death, she makes it sound like she was done in by people who were deliberately out to get her. Also on the original series, when Sydney get killed, Michael is recuperating from when Peter flung him through the window. But in the new series he appears at Sydney’s side as she comes into the hospital, and he seems well enough to give her medical attention and help her fake her own death (even though by that point in the series they weren’t very close). ---
**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:** [May 19, 2010, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-shows-break-continuity-the-chuck-cunningham-syndrome/539207/97 "2010-05-19T17:14:46Z")
In the first season of The Nanny, her sister Nadine and BIL Barry make an appearance. They are never mentioned again. ---
**Author:** ![ScatteredFrog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@ScatteredFrog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ScatteredFrog)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-shows-break-continuity-the-chuck-cunningham-syndrome/539207/98 "2010-05-19T18:43:57Z")
Thought of a minor thing…in one episode of _What’s Happening!!_ Mrs. Collins’ name is written on the blackboard as “W. Collins,” but in another episode when the guys are talking to her husband, he refers to her as Gertrude. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-shows-break-continuity-the-chuck-cunningham-syndrome/539207/99 "2010-05-19T18:51:45Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > In the first season of The Nanny, her sister Nadine and BIL Barry make an appearance. They are never mentioned again. The Nanny also had a different set design for the pilot. So did **Still Standing**. ---
**Author:** ![melodyharmonius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/melodyharmonius/32/21310_2.png) [@melodyharmonius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/melodyharmonius)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-shows-break-continuity-the-chuck-cunningham-syndrome/539207/100 "2010-05-19T19:28:57Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > On _Boy Meets World_, the main character had a younger sister in the first, and possibly second, season. She vanished a la Chuck Cunnignham, only to return three or four seasons later. Someone asked where she had been, and she goes, > “I was in my room…I was in my room a _long_ time.” > > They also bought back a side character that left. In the first season, there was the stereotypicaly nerdy kid in the class who vanished when they went to junior high/high school…and was brought back for the high school graduation episode where we see him get his diploma. Actually, Morgan Matthews was played by 2 different actresses as well - so she had The Other Darren syndrome too. I believe the actual quote was: Cory:“Long time no see!” Morgan: “That was the longest time out I’ve ever had!” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-shows-break-continuity-the-chuck-cunningham-syndrome/539207.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-shows-break-continuity-the-chuck-cunningham-syndrome/539207.md?page=6)