This has always been a big question I've had about the series. It's weird if they just dropped him and forgot about him. He was engaged to Nell, so I wonder if fans caught on once he was not around anymore come season 4. You would assume after "Knock Three Times" that he'd be back frequently in scenes with Nell and taking her places/going to special occasions with her.

He was in several episodes in season 3, mostly in romantic/dramatic scenes with Nell, and he was engaged to her. He was in:


The Way To A Man's Heart: Asked Nell out/she found out he was married.

James Returns: Nell finds out James got divorced/goes with him to Santa Barbara

Knock Three Times: It is revealed James proposed to Nell and she accepted, then they decide to postpone the engagement a while longer, once the girls grow up.




Then in Valentine, he is not shown, but Nell does call him on the phone.



The question is, why was he never mentioned again?


Nell was engaged to him. The writers skipped showing him proposing to Nell, but they mentioned he did that in "Knock Three Times," but never again, not even in the un-edited episodes, did Nell mention James ONCE after the episode "Valentine". There were a few episodes left in season 3 after Valentine, but I don't recall Nell dating anyone in them.

Big Apple Pt I/II
Rodeo
Katie's College
The Center
Class of '84

Those episodes that came after "Valentine", I don't believe Nell mentioned James once. She went to NY with Addy, went to visit Grandpa in the hospital when he had Pneumonia, tried to talk Katie into going to college, briefly was in 2 scenes with Grandpa the night he went to the senior citizen's center, and then she graduated from night school. She never was in a scene with James on the phone in any of them, even if he was not shown. James wasn't even invited to her graduation, which also made no sense. Wouldn't she have invited him if they were engaged/still going together?




In the premiere of season 4, Nell went to New Orleans with Joey to see her old partner on the road, Charlie Johnson, so we all assume then, she was not with James anymore, and she didn't even mention it in the premiere of season 4 that she was single again.



So does anyone know the real reason why this happened?


Was it just the "Tiger Brady" syndrome, where the character was written out without returning again, yet was mentioned speaking on the phone with Nell.

Or was it something else? Did the actor get another part on a TV series/movie? Did he want out of contract? Was he given a contract for more episodes? Or did the writers/writers who wrote the rest of season 3 and especially the first 2 episodes of season 4 just completely forget Nell was engaged several episodes before season 3 ended?

What you call "Tiger Brady Syndrome" I call "Chuck Cunningham Syndrome". However, it all amounts to the same thing. The police chief's brother Ed suffered from the same thing. From season three on, it was as if the Chief had always been an only child! Now I would like to elaborate a little on the episode "Knock Three Times". In this episode, Nell revealed pieces of dirty laundry of all three Kinisky girls. This is very similar to how Peter Brady revealed pieces of dirty laundry of three of his siblings in "Private Ear". It is amazing how TV history repeats itself!

It was stupid if they did that. Eddie leaving the show I believe was because they wanted to change the direction by adding Joey and dropping Eddie/Maxine/Grandma. But the Chief was definitely looked at as an only child from seasons 3 and on.


With James, he was engaged to Nell, but there was never an explaination or anything of a fight/breakup, unlike there was with Grandma passing away sometime that fall of 1983, after Grandpa was at the house when Julie went to see Andy Gibb and when he and Joey put soap in the fountain, it happened after that point. Eddie just disappeared with Maxine, and it seems like they just up and moved away after they married. In fact, Grandma was referred to several more times in the series as "Mildred" after she didn't return. In Grandpa's Will she was Mildred Wulchelski or something like that, before she married Grandpa.


Nell's friend Angie was seen very few times on the series, too, but over the course of 4 seasons, and her sister was in 1 episode of season 5. So Angie was always around in some way every once in a while. They could have done more with her character, too.


But I doubt Eddie and Maxine and Grandma would have made it into the opening for season 3, had they kept them. They probably would have done an episode here and there as they did when they were on, and that's probably why they got rid of them. Grandpa visited the house by himself a lot, and that's why they kept him I bet, because he didn't need a wife on the show anymore. Eddie just did some jokes and that was it. Had they kept Grandma and Eddie, I am pretty sure Maxine would have returned, too, for a few episodes, like A Kanisky Christmas and Class of '84, maybe even Samantha's Protest, since the Chief arrested his whole family and maybe they would have been there, too, had they kept those characters. It would have been really interesting had they kept those 3 characters in season 3.

Wildchats you are truly a fan of this show because you notice everything. I called myself a fan of this show but I might have found an even bigger fan. That could also be becase I was born in 88 and this show ended in 87 so when it was on I did not watch it until it came on a local station. The whole Jame Roland thing could be a whole behind the scenes drama like he did not get along with the cast or he had better things to do or the writers just opted to get rid of him either way writers have been doing shows with unexplained dissaperances of cast members for years