Disappearing TV Characters

Hello once more members of the blogosphere! I apologise for my brief blogging hiatus, I've just been ridiculously caught up with school work lately. Yep, you read that right, I'm once again back at school. Gone are the days of lazily getting up at 12 and living on a diet predominantly consisting of grilled cheese sandwiches, and in are the 7:30am wake up calls and heavily shoulder-padded blazers. However, that doesn't mean I can't keep blogging about the things that pique my interest whenever I get a free moment. Today, I'm going to pay homage to those TV characters who seem to have miraculously disappeared without a trace or any semblance of an explanation over the years. Where are they now? What happened to them? These questions are yet to be addressed. Just think of this as one massive missing persons add jam packed with colloquialisms and TV references. So without further ado, here they are . . .

Tiger from 'The Brady Bunch'

I think everyone's familiar with this groovy 70's family sitcom, and if you're not, I seriously don't even know what your childhood was. We all got acquainted with Mike and Carol and all the kids, even Sam the butcher was held close to us! But one person we've always been a bit unsure about is they're family dog, Tiger. In the pilot episode, this canine plays a massive part in causing chaos at Mike and Carol's wedding, however after season 1, he is never seen again, no questions asked. Why? Well in actuality, original Tiger went to the little dog kennel in the sky after getting caught up in an unfortunate car accident just before the first episode of season 2 (don't worry, he wasn't driving). So, naturally, they found a Tiger replacement as soon as possible to fill his shoes (despite the fact he doesn't wear any), however he didn't exactly have the acting chops (or basic training) to continue on with the role. So how did Sherwood Schwartz decide to address this? By never mentioning it again and hoping no one noticed. Well sorry, I noticed. 

Coach Tanaka and Matt Rutherford from 'Glee'

Although these are both very different characters and wouldn't ordinarily be lumped together in the same category, I felt the need to merge these two into one given their shared place on hit TV show 'Glee'. Remember way back in season 1, before Coach Beiste came into the picture, there was another football coach who was at one point engaged to Emma? And remember that guy in the Glee Club who hanged with Mike Chang and had about two lines? As soon as the first episode of season 2 aired, both of these guys were never seen again. To be fair, they were at least formally written out of the show, however this was done using a total of 2 words for each character, in the lines 'nervous breakdown' and 'Matt transferred'. Will they ever make a cameo appearance? I guess only time will tell.

Dr Grace Miller from 'Scrubs'

Are we all familiar with the little medical comedy 'Scrubs'? Well I bet you don't remember who the hell Dr Grace Miller is. Don't feel bad, I've seen nearly every episode and had absolutely no idea. While she was on the show, she acted as a snarky female counterpart to Dr Cox. Maybe she annoyed everyone so much that people just decided to boot her off the show? Or perhaps she was just too forgettable and took up much-needed space on set? Whatever the reason, she randomly disappeared from the series with absolutely no explanation.

Chuck Cunningham from 'Happy Days'

There's no way that all of you haven't at least heard of the massively popular 50's esque 70's sitcom 'Happy Days' (and if you haven't, seriously, what is wrong with you?). Despite it having stopped well before I was born, I've always been able to watch the constant re-runs on TV1 (and boy, have I ever). Once you watch it, I think pretty much everyone gets invested in the gang always hanging at Al's - there's Mr and Mrs C, Joanie, Richie  and of course, the Fonz. However, this wasn't always the case. Believe it or not, there was another member of the Cunningham clan - Chuck. Throughout the entire first season, you would always see Richie and Joanie's older brother hanging around, however as soon as season 2 rolled around, he was nowhere to be seen. Not only was there no explanation for this, but it seems his own parents forgot he even existed. In fact, in the last ever episode of 'Happy Days', Mr Cunningham says that he's so proud of his 'two kids', way to be forgotten (and he wasn't even the middle child!). This has become such a popular lapse in continuity that now, when a character disappears without any explanation whatsoever (like all of the ones on this list), it means a series is suffering from the 'Chuck Cunningham Syndrome'. You have to admit, that's quite an achievement.

Dr Goodman from 'Bones'

Everyone loves a good detective show, and nothing fits the bill like 'Bones'. For anyone who's seen the first season, you'll notice that there's a guy, Dr Goodman, who's a former archaeologist and current director of the Jeffersonian Institute. Throughout the show, he often acted as an enforcer of the rules and sometimes was an obstacle in Bones and Booth cracking the case, however by the end of the episode, he'd always come around. However, once the second season started, these little interactions were never able to occur again, as it was announced that he had gone on a three month sabbatical. However, the show's 10th season is airing in September, and we've never seen him since. Well then, that's the longest three months I've ever experienced in my life!

Coach from 'New Girl'

Okay, I guess this one doesn't really matter that much anymore seeing as Damon Wayans Jr's character made a reappearance in season 3 and has now become a series regular, however before this happened, it was still a pretty odd and notable occurrence. For those of you who watch the show, you may remember in the pilot episode of 'New Girl', there was a guy living with Jess, Nick and Schmidt who went by the nickname 'Coach'. However, after this episode, he mysteriously left the series, to be replaced in the second episode by Lamorne Morris in the role of Winston. It was super weird at the time, as the character we got to meet and learn about initially had randomly vanished, however now that he's returned, all is right with the world. That is officially the best case disappearance scenario!

So that's the end of my little blog post honouring the characters we shall most likely never see again. At least now they can rest in peace. I hope you vaguely enjoyed it, and perhaps learnt something new about the shifty, deceptive world of television. I promise I will continue to blog regularly, and will try not to keep you all hanging for too long. Til' next time . . .

Annabel xx