Whatever happened to Judy?

Remember Judy Winslow? The youngest of Carl and Harriet Winslow's three children in the classic 90's sitcom "Family Matters",  Remember her? Sure, she was never really the focus of any episodes, but she was always there. Then after season 4 she disappeared, vanished without a trace. She didn't die, she didn't run away. She simply disappeared, and no one else on the show seemed to notice or even care. Every episode Carl would be like, "Go home, Steve. You just fell through my coffee table for the sixth time this week and I've had it up to here with you." And I just wanted to be like, "Yeah Carl, but what about your daughter man? What about Judy?"

A quick Google search on this topic will lead you to your answer. It turns out that she was cut from the show due to budget considerations, and seeing as how her character never did anything cool anyway, they probably made the right call.

I just don't know why they couldn't have built a story around her exit though. Like, during dinner one night Laura could've said, "Hey, didn't we used to have a younger sister?" Then Carl would say something like, "Yeah, but she fell down the garbage disposal and died last month, remember?" Then maybe Urkel runs in the kitchen with his accordion, and everyone bursts out laughing.... I don't know. I just wanted some closure I guess.

Then again, I guess continuity wasn't exactly something that 90's sitcoms cared too much about. There was Brandon Lambert, the youngest of Frank Lambert's three kids in the show "Step by Step" who simply stopped existing in the later seasons. Torrie from Saved by the Bell showed up for the last couple months of Senior year, only to exit the day before graduation, never to be heard from again. Vivian from Fresh Prince of Bel-air changed completely one season, and no one noticed. You'd think a smart kid like Carlton would wonder what happened to his original mom, but he must've been preoccupied with trying to get into Stanford.


They could have at least gotten an actress that looked similar.

Then there was Boy Meets World, the biggest offenders of forgetting characters.

• There was the one time Shawn had a sister, but then didn't, then he had a half brother, and then didn't. Then he had a different half brother Jack, who decided to be a main character once they went to college.

 

•  Morgan was allegedly in her room in a timeout for two years, and came back downstairs a different person.

 

• Mr. Turner, the cool guy teacher who basically adopted Shawn got into a motorcycle accident during the season finale one year, and was never seen or mentioned again.  

 

• Topanga had a mom who was named, Rhiannon. Unless she was named Chloe. Unless she was named Miriam, and she was played by like 6 different actresses.

That show didn't have it's shit together.

But God dammit was it amazing!

 

Perhaps it was the lack of continuity on these shows which drew me to them. It was a way to show us that it's OK to have imperfections, but only for a little bit , like the weekend DJ Tanner had an eating disorder, or the time Brad Taylor was a pothead for a day. These shows taught us that it was human to make mistakes, and if you simply ignore the problem it will resolve itself. So what, Urkel broke the coffee table. Let's go out for ice cream and by the time we come back, a new table will have just magically appeared in it's place. I spilled chocolate milk on the carpet once when I was 10, and I heard about it for 6 years. Stephanie Tanner drives a car through the kitchen, and it's forgotten in a day. Imagine living in the sitcom world where there's no consequences for your actions. A world where Shawn Hunter can be wanted for blowing up a mailbox in one episode, and by the next episode he's off the hook. Almost like the cops were all, "Oh, the mailbox thing? That was like a week ago. We're cool now."

The only stipulation to living in this world would be that you have to be interesting, and if you're not, you get written off. Then that's it, you disappear. There's no funeral, no memorial, nothing. You're simply gone forever, because you suck. So live life to the fullest, and don't be afraid to take risks. Otherwise you'll end up like Judy Winslow. Whatever happened to Judy, anyway? I guess we'll never know.