I saw Julie Cobb(Jill Pembroke) on an episode of Home Improvement. She looked the same, just older. She was like a friend of Wilson's or something like that. I forget. But I was like excited to see someone from the show. Does anyone know why they replaced Julie Cobb with that other lady for the first show of the Powell season?

I think maybe it was becuase she either was not avaiable or more than likely was just not interested. I mean I can understand. If I had worked my butt off during the 1st season and helped lauch the show and then they called and said hey we are doing a spinoff of the show and you are not included but we would like you to help lauch it anyway I would be a little insulted myself. I think that Jason was the only one that was cool with it. I mean it seems to me if they had not been interested in bringing any of the cast members back then why show Jason in that 1st show and if they could have gotten them all they would have. The answer probably is that the rest just said nope. Maybe we should try get Al Burton (the creator and producer) to do a few posts!

My reasoning, just because I like Jason so much, is that the producers and Charles and the fans all seemed to like Jason the best, and so they brought Jason and his mom back so they could get them out as quickly as possible.Jason would also have the most emotional goodbye to Charles, and the fans would like that! My reasoning why they didn't bring Julie Cobb back is that maybe there was no real saga, but she just had previous plans or something like that.

You bring up an excellent point about Julie Cobb possibly having other plans. Does anybody know whether or not replacing the Pembrokes with the Powells was intentionally planned? What I mean is, in the hiatus between when the first incarnation of the show aired and when it began production again could it just have been that Julie Cobb, James Widdoes, or some of the children got other roles and were therefore unable to do the show? It very well could have been that the producers were just trying to completely revamp the show, but could it also be possible that since maybe they couldn't get the entire family back they decided it would make more sense to get an entirely new family? I was also wondering if that might have something to do with why they didn't keep Gwendolyn? Maybe Jennifer Runyon had gotten other work by then?

Interesting points. That's very well a possibility.

Jennifer Runyon-More than likely. She was in several movies in the 80's.
Julie Cobb-Possible.
James Widdoes-More than likely as well.
April Lerman-Definitely no. She hardly did any acting anyways. Her first role was as Kate the orphan in Annie (1982 movie, that is)
Jonathan Ward-More than likely too. He was a busy actor. (I saw him in Steel Magnolias (which I LOVE) He was Julia Robert's sister)
Michael Perlman-Since he showed up, he probably wasn't busy.
For more information for the CIC cast and their other roles, go to www.imdb.com/ (http://www.imdb.com/)


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"How Rude!"~Stephanie Tanner
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Blair:"Oh my word."
Jo: "What?"
Blair: "I can't believe it."
Jo: (in a louder voice) "What?"
Blair: "There's a hair in my menu."
(Jo blows it out)
Jo: "Not any more!"
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"There are two things in this world we do not laugh about. The Yankees, and what Roy did to me!"~Jo Polnizchek
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Sarah: "It's just like Little House On The Prairie!"
Jamie: "Yeah, no wonder Michael Landon got a new series!"
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I saw Julie Cobb yet again! She was on Growing Pains as one of Jason's patients. She had longer, darker hair!

Jonathan Ward did a short-lived show on ABC called "Heart of the City" (co-starring Christina Applegate!) during the 86-87 season, and wasn't available to do CIC, whether they wanted him or not.

My guess is the reason they went with a new family was a mixture of some cast members being unavailable, and wanting to start over with younger kids.

As far as the first syndicated episode goes, I'm sure they didn't want all the former cast on (remember, syndicated shows have much tighter budgets than network ones). They probably selected a couple of cast members, and I'm guessing Julie Cobb turned them down.