Potsie Weber Syndrome

[Chris Lang]

Pretty much really. He went upstairs with his basketball and never came down. They to me had issues where they at 1st tried 2/3 actors as Chuck. Then realized by the end of the 1st season Fonzie was gonna become the "big brother/Best friend" to Ritchie so they dropped the character. We have to remember they turned the living room set to what we became used to as well ...as far as changes go as well.

Chuck Cunningham Syndrome is something entirely different. That's when a character disappears from a show without ANY explanation at all. Did they leave town? Did they die? Did they get their big break in show business and move on to a more fulfilling career? It's never explained. In fact, for all the talk they do about the character, they might as well have been removed from the continuity, because it's almost as if they never existed. (However, I'm sure somewhere out there in fanfic-land, there's a crossover with M.A.S.H. where Chuck Cunningham ends up a wounded patient in the 4077, and Hawkeye is frustrated because in the end he couldn't save Chuck's life. I've heard 'Chuck died in Korea' as a fan theory).

Potsie Weber Syndrome, on the other hand, involves a character still being a part of the series, but the writers don't know what to do with them. They end up struggling to find ways to work the character into the stories, often putting the characters in strange places just to give that character ANYTHING to do.

It most often happens in television, which involves actors who remain on the series even after their characters' original role is no longer relevant. But as we've seen, it can happen in other genres involving long-running series, too.

[AJBopp]

This is probably going to cause a lot of people to send their fists through the interwebs to punch me in the face, but I think a case can be made that the highest profile example of a character no one knows what to do with is Jimmy Olsen. He's another one who can disappear for years at a time and then show up in some contrived way, usually as an incentive for Clark Kent to do something super without giving himself away. In the latest incarnation, they appear to be trying to give him relevance by making him Clark's roommate. The idea has potential, but I doubt that it has longevity.

[Jeremy A. Patterson]

This is probably going to cause a lot of people to send their fists through the interwebs to punch me in the face, but I think a case can be made that the highest profile example of a character no one knows what to do with is Jimmy Olsen. He's another one who can disappear for years at a time and then show up in some contrived way, usually as an incentive for Clark Kent to do something super without giving himself away. In the latest incarnation, they appear to be trying to give him relevance by making him Clark's roommate. The idea has potential, but I doubt that it has longevity.

I seems good!

J.A.P.

[dupersuper]

This is probably going to cause a lot of people to send their fists through the interwebs to punch me in the face, but I think a case can be made that the highest profile example of a character no one knows what to do with is Jimmy Olsen. He's another one who can disappear for years at a time and then show up in some contrived way, usually as an incentive for Clark Kent to do something super without giving himself away. In the latest incarnation, they appear to be trying to give him relevance by making him Clark's roommate. The idea has potential, but I doubt that it has longevity.

The only times I remember Jimmy not being used were when the Superman supporting cast was being ignored in general.

[Volkditty]

On "Friday Night Lights" any character they didn't know what else to do with became an assistant coach.