RIP Cindy Williams

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Realize that I'm in the vast minority here, but I loved the sequel. Just how all the stories played out.
I loved American Graffiti it's in my Top 10 profile, take a look. I also really like More American Graffiti, it's quite different than the first one but hey it not only has Cindy Williams and she's married to Ron Howard. It also has Cindy's sister, Carol Ann Williams who looked a lot like Cindy only she had blonde hair in the film.



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The truth is in here
I just couldn't stand how bitter and spiteful Cindy and Ron's characters became towards each other. It was like just because they're married they now have to be fighting constantly. Acting-wise they still were great, but not the biggest fan of the writing.



Anyone recall how the "Shirley Feeney" who originally appeared on Happy Days was a far different character than she was on Laverne & Shirley?

In their first appearance the girls were presented as friends of Fonzie's (some quick "dates" he managed to scrounge up) and Shirley seemed a very loose woman. With the production of their own series, Shirley's character was made the direct opposite of what she first appeared: the new Shirley upbeat, positive, highly moral & innocent... an honest, hard-working, girl next door type.

I don't believe there was ever any explanation provided for her radical change (just as there was never any explanation as to what happened to "Chuck").
I remember the change of Shirley's character. I don't know if they were still playing with the formula of Happy Days at the time (it was Season 3) but oh yeah, Shirley was definitely a girl who did "foh-dee-oh-doh-doh" (sp?) as Laverne would later put it in their own series. They were smart to change it on L&S so the two characters could play off each other as pretty opposite, but still good friends.

As for Chuck, I remembered he was played by Gavan O'Herlihy, who would go on to a long career after his character "disappeared" off of Happy Days. I remember the last episode of HD, where Howard Cunningham is giving some kind of speech and he mentions the great things in his life, including his TWO kids! Poor Chuck! O'Herlihy, who passed away in 2021, did lots of TV and films after that, including the one I remember him most for, Death Wish 3 (1985) as this guy:



There's a film Cindy Williams did in 1985 called UFOria, co-starring Fred Ward and Harry Dean Stanton that I've always wanted to see, and I noticed that it's on YouTube so I need to catch that.
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I remember the change of Shirley's character. I don't know if they were still playing with the formula of Happy Days at the time (it was Season 3) but oh yeah, Shirley was definitely a girl who did "foh-dee-oh-doh-doh" (sp?) as Laverne would later put it in their own series. They were smart to change it on L&S so the two characters could play off each other as pretty opposite, but still good friends.

As for Chuck, I remembered he was played by Gavan O'Herlihy, who would go on to a long career after his character "disappeared" off of Happy Days. I remember the last episode of HD, where Howard Cunningham is giving some kind of speech and he mentions the great things in his life, including his TWO kids! Poor Chuck! O'Herlihy, who passed away in 2021, did lots of TV and films after that, including the one I remember him most for, Death Wish 3 (1985) as this guy:



There's a film Cindy Williams did in 1985 called UFOria, co-starring Fred Ward and Harry Dean Stanton that I've always wanted to see, and I noticed that it's on YouTube so I need to catch that.
It's "voh-dee-oh-do-do"



@Gideon58 Sorry. I must have been blinded by her beauty, and it affected my hearing, as it will. Plus, no captioning back then you know and I haven't re-watched the series since the first go-round.

A SECOND Chuck!?! Holy cow, it's almost like two sons were forgotten! Oh well, I think Gavan was the more memorable one...to be forgotten.

Man, I'm getting raked for not knowing my stuff here! Where's Fonzie when you need him?



@Gideon58 Sorry. I must have been blinded by her beauty, and it affected my hearing, as it will. Plus, no captioning you know.

A SECOND Chuck!?! Holy cow, it's almost like two sons were forgotten! Oh well, I think Gavan was the more memorable one...to be forgotten.

Man, I'm getting raked for not knowing my stuff here! Where's Fonzie when you need him?
From Wikipedia:

Gavan O'Herlihy played Chuck Cunningham in a few episodes of season 1 and the role was recast with Randolph Roberts for season 2. Roberts played Chuck starting in season 2's first episode "Richie Moves Out" and ending with "Guess Who's Coming to Christmas". Chuck was not seen again but was later mentioned in a few other episodes ending with "Fish and the Fins" later in the season. After that, Chuck was written off the show completely with later episodes depicting the Cunningham family with only two children with Richie as the elder.

The character gave rise to the pejorative term "Chuck Cunningham Syndrome", referring to characters who disappear from TV-shows without an In-Universe explanation and are later retconned to have never existed.



I believe you. You didn't have to prove it...unless you wanted to. I kid! I joke!

"Chuck Cunningham Syndrome" I love this! I wish I could think of some series that did that to some of their characters but nothing comes to mind right off the bat. Anybody?



I believe you. You didn't have to prove it...unless you wanted to. I kid! I joke!

"Chuck Cunningham Syndrome" I love this! I wish I could think of some series that did that to some of their characters but nothing comes to mind right off the bat. Anybody?
Yeah, I can't think of any off the top of my head either, but I did compare it to "Shirley's" extreme change in character between her introduction on Happy Days and her regular role on Laverne & Shirley - maybe we could write it off that in her first appearance she had given in to Laverne's influence (to date Fonzie's friends) and got drunk... (some people take on an almost opposite personality when consuming too much alcohol). Maybe the experience left such a bad taste in her mouth that, by the time L&S debuted, she decided she would not go down that path again.

(And if this were Marvel Comics, I'd ask for a No Prize for my suggested resolution to a plot hole!)

Oh wait... I just thought of another one... "Mike" the eldest son on My Three Sons (played by Tim Considine). He got married & moved away as the Douglas family adopted "Ernie" as the youngest son. Shortly after Ernie's adoption, Mike was never mentioned again as if he'd never existed. (Same with "Bub" on the same show played by William Frawley... he disappeared and was replaced by William Demarest as "Uncle Charlie", but never mentioned again).

I don't don't know if this counts, but "Tiger" the dog on the Brady Bunch... disappeared from the show in the middle of its 2nd season and was never referred to again (the 1995 Brady Bunch movie made a joke about this fact).



Yes, the Mike/Bub conspiracy! When I first got into My Three Sons, Uncle Charlie was there and there was no Mike. So when TVLand or whichever network started with reruns years ago, I saw William Frawley as Bub and Tim Considine as Mike and I wondered how many years exactly I had missed!

As for Tiger the dog on The Brady Bunch, I think he bit Alice the maid and had to be put down but they didn't want the kids to know, so told them he went to "live on a farm" where he could run around and chase the pigs. Yeah, that's it!

Then, suddenly there was the "Cousin Oliver" debacle that was never fully explained, was it? The trauma is still felt, though.



Yes, the Mike/Bub conspiracy! When I first got into My Three Sons, Uncle Charlie was there and there was no Mike. So when TVLand or whichever network started with reruns years ago, I saw William Frawley as Bub and Tim Considine as Mike and I wondered how many years exactly I had missed!

As for Tiger the dog on The Brady Bunch, I think he bit Alice the maid and had to be put down but they didn't want the kids to know, so told them he went to "live on a farm" where he could run around and chase the pigs. Yeah, that's it!

Then, suddenly there was the "Cousin Oliver" debacle that was never fully explained, was it? The trauma is still felt, though.
Same thing here with My Three Sons... when I first saw the show I thought Ernie was the youngest & Robbie was the oldest. I had no idea that Ernie was adopted and there was an older brother named Mike. I was sure confused when I first learned of the older episodes (with Fred Mertz being their housekeeper no less - and where was Ethel?)

I also used to make believe I was Robbie and I married Katie (hey, I guess there are worse fantasies)... but that's too much information.

P.S. Was watching one of those behind the scenes shows (about the Brady Bunch) and they said that Sherwood Schwartz always intended for Carol to be divorced as opposed to widowed!
It was established in the first episode that Mike's wife had died. But due to the era, they didn't feel comfortable announcing Carol's situation on the show - sponsors might have dropped it if they did. All this lends some credence to the plot of A Very Brady Sequel (1996) where Tim Matheson shows up claiming to be Carol's first husband.



Ooh, yeah...Katie. Tina Cole. I, too, admired her beauty, um, acting abilities! Yeah, that's it! Seriously though, she was a beautiful lady. Yeah, Robbie, Chip, and Ernie. I thought that was the lineup and it said, My Three Sons and there were three so what did I know?

Wow, times were kooky on TV---they didn't want Carol to have an ex-husband, so they made him DEAD! Nice, huh?

And yeah, I loved the Brady bunch movies---the ones with Shelley Long and Gary Cole (who was perfect as Mike, BTW), not the various ones like A Very Brady Christmas. I don't know if they were good or bad but I think they were previewed as being too serious so I didn't want to go that route.

And just to keep this on-topic, I still haven't watched UFOria but I will, definitely. You know, the one starring Cindy Williams.