What in then world happened to the actress who played Ellen Powell(the mother) on the show? She appeared in the credits, but we saw her less and less the last 2 seasons. I don't remember seeing her at all the last season. I know the storyline started to focus more on the kids and Charles, but still with her being the mother she had a significant reason to have been there. The episode b4 the last when Sarah come home from mexico, Charles had refered to Ellen as though she were in the house. He told Sarah:
"Your Mom and Sister are upstairs in your room". Sandra Kearns didn't even appear in the last episode. What's up with that?

I feel the same way you do about Sandra Kearns/Ellen Powell getting shafted on the show's latter seasons. I have no idea why they even bothered to keep her in the credits since they never used her on the show! I'm thinking that they just told her to stay home and collect her paycheck, that is, if they even paid her!

The biggest travesty of all was her missing out on the final episode. That's just a total injustice! How can the "mother" of a sitcom family be so consistently absent?! I want to see a "Charles in Charge" E! True Hollywood Story before I die! :lol

If anybody knows why she was seen less and less, let me know.

Yeah, it's too bad that they wrote Ellen out of the show, but the whole premise of Charles in Charge is a little flawed to a degree.

Think about it, the mother and the grandfather live there and they still need live-in help? I realize that Ellen worked in order to support everyone, but what the heck is Walter there for? Why couldn't he be the babysitter? What did they really need Charles for?

It also seems to me that Charles was the real parent around that family. Sometimes, they tried to get Ellen involved with her kids, but if you analyze it, social services would come knocking on that door with how Ellen basically ignored her kids for her job.

And Walter? forget it.

Originally posted by Charybdis:
Yeah, it's too bad that they wrote Ellen out of the show, but the whole premise of Charles in Charge is a little flawed to a degree.

Think about it, the mother and the grandfather live there and they still need live-in help? I realize that Ellen worked in order to support everyone, but what the heck is Walter there for? Why couldn't he be the babysitter? What did they really need Charles for?

It also seems to me that Charles was the real parent around that family. Sometimes, they tried to get Ellen involved with her kids, but if you analyze it, social services would come knocking on that door with how Ellen basically ignored her kids for her job.

And Walter? forget it.
Goooood point!

from what i heard she wanted to leave the show because she was pregnant and wanted to focus on her family instead of the show

Why did her name appear in the credits if that was the case?

i don't know why they kept her on maybe they hoped she would come back to the show or something. Also in my opinon it would look kind of bad to take her out of the credits, because that would mean two teen age girls and a boy living with their grandfather, and a college guy, personally if i had never seen the show before and tuned in to find there were all of these kids and no mom, i would find it kind of weired.

I still think that she should have made a final appearance you know when they did the last episode.

she did leave the show because she wanted to be with her kids more often. that's why she was hardly in any of the episodes to begin with. she wasn't "kicked off" the show. she made the decision not to leave.

as far as the question of why mr. powell lived with them....it was his house! :)

This was something that always bugged me as well. I can understand why the actress wanted to leave the show, but why continue to give her third billing in the credits, and continue to act like she's just offscreen in many episodes?

If memory serves me, Mrs. Powell appeared in only 1 season 4 episode and 2 season 5 episodes. Can anyone confirm this?

They should have just replaced her with a look alike, She wasnt that big of a character anyway.

OMG, lol, even though this is an old thread brought up (thanks Chad!) I was JUST about to post the EXACT same question as ThomasE.

LOL. How weird. It ALWAYS bugged me that Sandra/Ellen wasn't seen more often and there were many episodes she could have at least been mentioned in, or seen for 5 minutes. Even when she was on, it always seemed like she would come home from work, was briefed on the problem of the day before disappearing upstairs.

I always found it a bit weird that when Ellen Travolta joined, that's when Sandra/Ellen was seen less and less. So, Ellen's Lillian was sort of the mother figure and in way more episodes than Sandra/Ellen. Not seeing Sandra/Ellen, for some reason, always bothered me when watching the show, LOL, I kept thinking, shouldn't she be here?

,...........I always found it a bit weird that when Ellen Travolta joined, that's when Sandra/Ellen was seen less and less. So, Ellen's Lillian was sort of the mother figure and in way more episodes than Sandra/Ellen.............


Maybe this is why they brought in Lillian in the first place since they knew that the mother wanted to leave. Just a thought ;)