...And They Were Never Seen Again.

[Sterling Holobyte]

This thread should have some ominous music that goes along with it as you read the title of it.

Anyway, the subject of this thread is people who are lifelong residents of Walnut Grove(or newly arrived and made to look like they live there for a long time after), yet you only see them on one episode and then... *cue ominous music* They Are Never Seen Again!

I know alot of them but I will only post two of them, to give others a shot at it, if you wish to.

Eric Schiller(and family) - The boy, and son of German immigrants, who loses the spelling bee because Mrs. Oleson makes him nervous(I can understand that though, she'd make anyone nervous). And then, he(they) is(are) Never Seen Again! They actually showed this episode today.

My unofficial explanation as to why they were never seen again: The Schiller family were so embarrassed by their son's loss at the spelling bee that they lived for the rest of their lives as hermits, holed up in their house, going outside only to gather firewood and to dig up worms to make crude, and rather disgusting, sausages they called "worm-wurst". Mr. Schiller used to joke, "They were the "wurst" worms I ever ate."




Elmer Miles: The overweight boy who becomes Nancy's lackey for a short time, doing her bidding, and while he tries to lose weight. The last scene shows him keeping up with his exercise, running and telling Nancy she has to solve her own problems from now on. After he found more self-esteem, He Was Never Seen Again!

Once again, my speculation on why he was never seen again:
Elmer made good on his promise to Doc Baker and to himself to lose weight. Unfortunately, he became so overzealous in his workout routine, that he lost so much weight he eventually whittled himself down to nearly nothing and could not even be seen anymore.

[Madame X]

So many people disappeared, I'm surprised they could maintain a town.

What happened to Tinker Jones? He united the town by making the bell for the church as if he was going to "stay," but was never seen again. My conclusion: The ringing of the bell brought back his hearing, he heard Harriet's voice and threw himself into his own foundry.

What about Joseph Coulter? He went for the seed corn and returned with a broken leg. He and Trudy decided to "stay" when his neighbors finally helped him out. He was never seen again. My conclusion: The seed he brought back turned out to be marijuana and he was run out of town.

What about the Widow Thurman? Charles did all that work for her remodeling her house as if she was going to "stay." My conclusion: She had to leave because Charles took all her dishes and she got tired of eating off the floor. No one really liked her anyway because she wouldn't wear a scarlett "W."

And Abel McKay? He was "just dumb Abel," but his dad ran a business milling flour, as if they were going to "stay." Abel was never seen again. My conclusion: After Caroline taught him his ABC's, he wandered into the woods, stumbled onto a stagecoach, ended up in Washington, DC and became the next president of the United States.

[Ireneparalegal]

OLGA NORDSTROM the girl with the leg that was shorter than the other.

Jonah the boy who thought he and Laura discovered gold in the stream.

Don't know the girl's name, but she played the Sunday school teacher for the kids in the episode where Laura and Mary are in charge of buying a gift for Rev. Alden's birthday. This was the one and only time that Sunday school was ever shown/mentioned. All the other times the kids attended church ONLY.

JASON the boy in the episode abt the Talking Machine. Laura had a crush on him.

WIDOW THURMAN...what the hell happened to her? Did Caroline kick her a$$ to the curb or something?

Mrs. Whipple's son, GRANVILLE...he was addicted to pain medication.

GINNY, HER MOTHER AND MR. MAYFIELD in the episode abt the play LITTLE WOMEN.

[catlover79]

There was the deaf boy who had a crush on Laura after she taught him sign language. Was American Sign Language even invented back then??

Almanzo's former dates/girlfriends. You'd see them once, then you'd never see them again!

Rev. Alden's one-episode wife.

The boy who was smoking the pipe with Albert when the blind school burned down.

That big boy who tortured Laura, Albert and the rest in "The Werewolf Of Walnut Grove".

Sylvia's (Olivia Barash) way-overprotective father. He looked uncannily like Alice Garvey's first husband. (Both roles were played by Royal Dano.)

Too many more to mention! Those are just the ones I remember off the top of my head.

[Sterling Holobyte]

Originally Posted by Madame X

So many people disappeared, I'm surprised they could maintain a town.

What happened to Tinker Jones? He united the town by making the bell for the church as if he was going to "stay," but was never seen again. My conclusion: The ringing of the bell brought back his hearing, he heard Harriet's voice and threw himself into his own foundry.

What about Joseph Coulter? He went for the seed corn and returned with a broken leg. He and Trudy decided to "stay" when his neighbors finally helped him out. He was never seen again. My conclusion: The seed he brought back turned out to be marijuana and he was run out of town.

What about the Widow Thurman? Charles did all that work for her remodeling her house as if she was going to "stay." My conclusion: She had to leave because Charles took all her dishes and she got tired of eating off the floor. No one really liked her anyway because she wouldn't wear a scarlett "W."

And Abel McKay? He was "just dumb Abel," but his dad ran a business milling flour, as if they were going to "stay." Abel was never seen again. My conclusion: After Caroline taught him his ABC's, he wandered into the woods, stumbled onto a stagecoach, ended up in Washington, DC and became the next president of the United States.

Nice conclusions, Madame X! I especially like the Tinker Jones one.

[TJL]

Funny stuff guys.

[Sterling Holobyte]

Originally Posted by Ireneparalegal

JASON the boy in the episode abt the Talking Machine. Laura had a crush on him.

Jason was actually in another episode(if you want to get technical about it ), "Bunny", the one where Nellie falls off of Bunny and tricks everyone into thinking she is paralyzed. I only remember him at the end of that episode. Laura had just finished talking to Nels, and starts riding off with Bunny when Jason rides up and asks her if she wants to go fishing.

The other one with Jason of course is the talking machine one. But yeah, after those two he was never seen again.

Originally Posted by Ireneparalegal

Mrs. Whipple's son, GRANVILLE...he was addicted to pain medication.

Granville died at the end, didn't he? I seem to recall Charles riding up in a wagon with Mrs. Whipple, and finding him with his arm sticking out from behind a log or something.

[Sterling Holobyte]

I just thought of another one. One they happen to be showing as I write this(amazing how I thought of it then, huh?! ).

Gideon - the boy who felt rejected by the class because he stuttered, and especially by James who was supposed to be his friend, and later accepted the gift of that wolf-dog that James brought home to him.

Now, what I think happened to him, because of course he was Never Seen Again: Gideon ran away again, mostly because everyone, even his family, started referring to him as "Gidiot".
Gidio... er, Gideon started living in the wild with his wolf-dog friend and some other wolves. There Gideon learned how to do important wolf stuff like how to bring down a deer with your teeth, and how to howl. Unfortunately, since he never got over his stuttering, his howls of "A-a-a-a-awhoooooo" were less than acceptable to the other wolves, and they, along with wolf-dog, started teasing Gideon with taunts of "woof woof, grrrr"(wolf language) and he once again ran away.

A little known tidbit is that Gideon eventually reentered modern society as Lon Chaney, who made a name for himself playing a werewolf in The Wolfman. What nobody knows is he took this part to get revenge on the wolves who taunted him and to give them a bad name. And it worked. Pretty crafty, Gideon!

[Sterling Holobyte]

They just showed another one. The episode with Lou Bates, the dwarf(or for you pc people, little person) who couldn't get a job because Mrs. Oleson stuck her nose into his life and prevented him from getting one. Mrs. Oleson recants after Lou saves Nancy from the well she had fallen into(thanks alot, Lou! ) and lets him get the banker job he wanted.
Of course, he was Never Seen Again, but that's not due to any bad thing that happened to him or anything.
What REALLY happened was that Lou lived to a ripe old age in Walnut Grove. He just was Never Seen Again because..., well, because he was a dwarf, and the camera rarely shot anyone below the waist. Besides which, no one could see him behind the bank counter, much like Mrs. Oleson couldn't see him from behind the store counter.

Technically, Lou did visit Walnut Grove once before, in the episode where the circus comes to town and Nels sees his sister, Annabelle. Even though his name was Owen in that ep, he could be the same person as in the later episode(if you want to stretch it a bit(no offense, Lou) and say that Owen was his circus name or something ) because Lou did say he was a circus performer in his past.



One conclusion I've made about this ep is that Lou would have had the banker's job straight off if Mr. Sprague were still in charge of the bank. I don't think he would have been intimidated by Mrs. Oleson's threat that she would take her money out of the bank if he hired Lou, like Mr. Anderson was.
I think Mr. Sprague would have looked her in the eye, with that smirking scowl of his, and told her, "Fine, you do that, Mrs. Oleson. There is a bank about 50 miles away in Sleepy Eye that I am sure would be happy to have you as a customer. Now, Good Day, Mrs. Oleson." After which Mrs. Oleson would storm off indignantly(but with her money still in the bank), "Well!!"

[schoolmom]

Don't forget Maddie & Caleb Ladeoux(probably didn't spell that right)
the African-American Doctor that promised to "stay." Of course, they
are NEVER SEEN AGAIN!

[catlover79]

The little boy that baby Grace kissed at the end of "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not Part II". The episode ended with the little boy saying, "I love her" and the words, "To Be Continued...In 15 Years".

[ThomasE]

Originally Posted by schoolmom

Don't forget Maddie & Caleb Ladeoux(probably didn't spell that right)
the African-American Doctor that promised to "stay." Of course, they
are NEVER SEEN AGAIN!

I always wondered about them. You would think that they would have had recurring roles. Don't make a storyline and have the viewers thinking that people will return.

Also Hester Sue was written out without explanation which I did not like at all. Where did Joe go as well? Jonathan and Andy were phased out to another town gradually which is more believable to me.