Do You Think The Writers Were Playing With Our Minds When it Came to...

[GCW]

the disappearance of the Rachel character? At least with Judy it was consistent. Here are some examples:

I remember an episode when Harriette had an interview and told Carl he had to watch Richie. Then Carl proceeds to say Laura, Eddie or Mother Winslow can watch him with no mention of Rachel or anything. Didn't the writers think that the audience would question where Rachel was? The writers could have explained why Rachel could not watch her own son.

Season 6 - she reappears out of nowhere with no explanation of where she had been all season 5. Another episode when Harriette told Carl they would have the house all to themselves. She explains why Laura, Eddie and Richie won't be there but she does not even mention Rachel.

Season 7 IRS episode Carl mentions that Rachel still lives with them and is not seen or mentioned again in that season.

Season 8 - an episode when Carl and Harriette wanted to go to a New Edition concert but had to watch Richie and 3J. Harriette and Carl go on about how they did not expect to raise kids at this point in there lives. Again where is Rachel? and why can't she watch her own son.

Season 9 - They finally explain what happened to her? and by then alot of people lost interest in the show. Why wait all this time to explain?

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by GCW

the disappearance of the Rachel character? At least with Judy it was consistent. Here are some examples:

I remember an episode when Harriette had an interview and told Carl he had to watch Richie. Then Carl proceeds to say Laura, Eddie or Mother Winslow can watch him with no mention of Rachel or anything. Didn't the writers think that the audience would question where Rachel was? The writers could have explained why Rachel could not watch her own son.

Season 6 - she reappears out of nowhere with no explanation of where she had been all season 5. Another episode when Harriette told Carl they would have the house all to themselves. She explains why Laura, Eddie and Richie won't be there but she does not even mention Rachel.

Season 7 IRS episode Carl mentions that Rachel still lives with them and is not seen or mentioned again in that season.

Season 8 - an episode when Carl and Harriette wanted to go to a New Edition concert but had to watch Richie and 3J. Harriette and Carl go on about how they did not expect to raise kids at this point in there lives. Again where is Rachel? and why can't she watch her own son.

Season 9 - They finally explain what happened to her? and by then alot of people lost interest in the show. Why wait all this time to explain?

I guess since she didn;t live in the Winslow House they didn;t feel the need to explain why she wasn't on the show

[LecyGoransonfan]

I always just took it that in season 5 she was just an off screen character then after season 6 that's when she had to take care of the sick aunt. But sometimes the writers just feel there's no need to explain things on a show. Look at Judy's disappearance that was never explained and they show continued to do well. For Judy I always felt her to be an offscreen character in season 5 as well then she got in so much trouble as a teenager that by season 6/7 she was sent to a discipline school then lived with Mother Winslow and helped her out.

[Mr. Monitor]

I take it that Rachel was probably looking for a good paying job being that she was a single mother and all. So she probably left Richie with his Aunt and Uncle because she was struggling financially.

With Judy, I have absolutely no explanation. I guess they should've saved us all the headache by just having two Winslow kids in the beginning instead of three.

[Dennis Dubois]

Telma Hopkins probably would have stayed with the show after Season 4. However, she got her own show during S4. I think she appeared in 3 episodes in the 1993 half of S4. I think the show thought maybe she would return at some point, but she didn't, and by Season 6 she showed up about 3 times and then disappeared.

As for poor Judy, this was the most unprofessional thing a show can do to a character. After watching the first 2 eps of Season 5 today, it was weird and unbelievable that Judy was just no longer on the show. But, then we have Myra and the others that steal the show at this point.

No matter what, I try to overlook it.

[GCW]

Originally Posted by Mr. Monitor

I take it that Rachel was probably looking for a good paying job being that she was a single mother and all. So she probably left Richie with his Aunt and Uncle because she was struggling financially.

With Judy, I have absolutely no explanation. I guess they should've saved us all the headache by just having two Winslow kids in the beginning instead of three.

Well Rachel did own her own resturant and even that disappeared along with her character like it never existed-lol.

[Scrooge McDuck]

Originally Posted by LecyGoransonfan

For Judy I always felt her to be an offscreen character in season 5 as well then she got in so much trouble as a teenager that by season 6/7 she was sent to a discipline school then lived with Mother Winslow and helped her out.

Haha, I love that explanation! Especially now knowing what kind of real world situations Jamie Foxworth got herself into a few years ago.

Come to think of it, turning her into a "trouble maker" kind of character wouldn't have been a bad idea. They could have explained her change as a result of the attention Richie was stealing from her. There also would have been some great story potential as the "bad" girl started becoming a woman... it beats not mentioning her ever again and pretending she never existed.

[Daffyfan2004]

That would make sense. Heck, I read somewhere that if there had been a tenth season, Judy would have returned played by Bianca Lawson. Remember, she played that nasty girl Rhonda on "Sister, Sister." I guess they thought she would be a good choice for troublemaker Judy. Lol.

Well Rachel did own her own resturant and even that disappeared along with her character like it never existed-lol.

Yeah. I often wondered about that. "Rachel's Place" was replaced with "Mighty Weinie" in season 4 just before Rachel left. I guess she couldn't handle the competition.

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by Daffyfan2004

That would make sense. Heck, I read somewhere that if there had been a tenth season, Judy would have returned played by Bianca Lawson. Remember, she played that nasty girl Rhonda on "Sister, Sister." I guess they thought she would be a good choice for troublemaker Judy. Lol.



Yeah. I often wondered about that. "Rachel's Place" was replaced with "Mighty Weinie" in season 4 just before Rachel left. I guess she couldn't handle the competition.

I don't know about Bianca Lawson being a good choice for Judy but she would have been a good choice to be my wife-lol Damm she was HOT

[GCW]

Originally Posted by Daffyfan2004

That would make sense. Heck, I read somewhere that if there had been a tenth season, Judy would have returned played by Bianca Lawson. Remember, she played that nasty girl Rhonda on "Sister, Sister." I guess they thought she would be a good choice for troublemaker Judy. Lol.



Yeah. I often wondered about that. "Rachel's Place" was replaced with "Mighty Weinie" in season 4 just before Rachel left. I guess she couldn't handle the competition.

That would have been strange to bring Judy back after all those years after acting like she did not exist to the extend of Carl and Harriette saying they have only 2 children. So imagine them bringing back Judy saying they have 3 children again.

[ThomasE]

Originally Posted by TVResearcher

I guess since she didn;t live in the Winslow House they didn;t feel the need to explain why she wasn't on the show

But she did live in the Winslow house. That is what always frustrated me. I wish that she had not done "Getting By".

[Daffyfan2004]

Originally Posted by GCW

That would have been strange to bring Judy back after all those years after acting like she did not exist to the extend of Carl and Harriette saying they have only 2 children. So imagine them bringing back Judy saying they have 3 children again.

Yeah, especially in the Christmas episode where Steve gave Carl and Harriette a picture of Eddie and Laura. Carl said that the only thing wrong with the picture was that Steve wasn't in it. There was no mention of Judy. So apparently Steve is more a member of their family then there own daughter.

I also wouldn't have cared for replacing the actress though. It was bad enough that they had a 'fake' Harriette towards the end of the series. (No offense to any Judyann Elder fans here. She's a great actress and all, but I think we all agree that JoMarie is the Hariette we all know and love.) Anyway, if they had brought Judy back, I'd much rather they had brought back Jamiee Foxworth. She really played that role well. It's too bad, she wasn't given more of a chance.

[Mr_007]

I think they were playing with our minds when it came to writing all those really stupid later episodes that focused too much on Steve and all this wacky science fiction crud.

[Furienna]

Rachel was at least around now and then, while Jody was never mentioned again. And it makes more sense for an aunt of the family to leave the house than for a pre-teen daughter to do so. And keeping Richie but not Rachel was just wrong too.

[GCW]

Originally Posted by TheAnalyzer

I guess since she didn;t live in the Winslow House they didn;t feel the need to explain why she wasn't on the show

Well there was a need to explain why she was not there, mainly because her son was still living there and being raised by Carl and Harriette so the writers must have known that the audience would question the disappearance and non mention of his mother, they could have at least reffered to her.