Four years ago I did a short list of some of my favorite sitcom retcons. You can see that article here:
http://nostalgiarush.blogspot.com/2013/08/a-look-at-retcons-in-sitcoms.html
Retcons of course is when established continuity is disregarded or
even changed to further the current story line. They often piss people
off, but I find them fascinating. The way a show will so blatantly
disregard something that has been established in the past like we’re
supposed to forget it. Sometimes they work, let’s be honest isn’t
forgetting “The Brady Bunch Variety Show” ever happened a good thing?,
and other times they can be aggravating like the Everybody Loves Raymond episode that brought up the fact Ray and Debra had a maid when they were first married, a fact which was never mentioned before and make no sense in context with the series.
Here are some more I just love. Some small and others a little more problematic:
Will & Grace
Gee, I wonder what brought this idea up? Yeah Will & Grace
returned to network TV the other week but there was one little problem.
The show had a firm final episode which closed the book on Will &
Grace’s lives. How do you get around it? Make it a dream of course! Well
a drug induced one that Karen had anyway. Final episode basically never
happened in fact they also retconned Grace being pregnant so basically
that whole final season never happened.
This wasn’t the only retcon for Will & Grace. Besides the others I
mentioned in the other article we also had Karen’s mother. Karen
commented a couple time she’d had her mother committed and when we
finally met her she said “she was only joking” about that. Also Jack had
said he made a vow to his mother when he came out that he would never
deny who he really was. Which was a lie when we find out he never told
his mother he was gay in one memorable episode.
Mad About You
This one is infuriating because it was so unnecessary. It was
established in the episode where Paul and Jamie got married that Ira’
band mate Lenny was ordained. And in that episode Paul and Jamie ask him
to do a ceremony privately (long story). In the series finale, we find
out that was just a lie and he only performed the wedding to be nice.
Lenny writes this off by saying he had told Paul that at the bachelor
part, at a strip club, to impress the ladies. Even though it was Ira who
brought it up first. Thus making Paul and Jamie’s marriage invalid…for
some reason which made no sense really.
Mama’s Family
This was a spin-off based on the popular Family sketches on The Carol
Burnett Show. When the show was on the network Vint and Naomi had two
adult kids. Which made no sense really, and the two disappeared into the
void when the show went to syndication. There were no kids and the two
would have their first child late in the series run. Bubba was also
added but the characters wasn’t quite the juvenile delinquent he’d been
established as back on the Carol Burnett Show (never seen but often
referenced). And Mama was retconned for the whole series, she was toned
down because the more hash character from the sketches would have been
intolerable in a half hour sitcom.
Cheers
Ok a very small one but I love it. In one episode Rebecca wants to
celebrate the 100th anniversary of Cheers. Problem is that this was
around 1989, and the sign in the front clearly says est 1895. The
excuse? That number was made up by Carla when she was in a numerology
phase. Sure, why not?
Night Court
The Wheelers were a couple of wacky defendants who appeared in an
episode and were so much fun they were returned. The problem is that in
order to explain how they could return with the backstory given in the
first episode, their story was changed. Bob Wheeler simply saying they
had lied the first time. Dan Fielding had tweaks to his backstory for
instance it had been implied he was always girl crazy but one episode
firmly established he was naively innocent till after college.
Seinfeld
Sometimes a retcom is just plan stupid. In “The Gymnast” George
explains that he always takes his shirt off when he goes to the
bathroom, even at other people’s homes. Except we have seen him dart out
of the bathroom before and the shirt was indeed on. Other Seinfeld
changes include Jerry saying he hadn’t vomited in years even though in
an earlier episode it was clear George and Elaine have seen him vomit
recently. Finally, it took the a few episodes to decide what apartment
Jerry lived in.
Big Bang Theory
Tried to come up with one but this show is very tight with its
continuity. In fact one episode established Sheldon had incandescent
paint on the floor in case of a power failure. When a later episode had a
power failure, and the light was not there, they remembered to explain
it. So instead here is a small one. This is a small one but worth a
mention. In one early episode the guys mention that the elevator hasn’t
worked in a couple years. To which Sheldon asks if they should call
about that. Buy we later find out the cause of the elevator being broken
and it happened a lot longer. By the way, what is up with tat broken
elevator on that show?
The Cosby Show
This show had a funny way of retconning the boyfriends who came
around. Elvin went from being a jerk to a decent guy though you could
argue that was as character development. Others weren’t so lucky. For
example, when we first meet Robert he’s “the coolest guy in school” and
Vanessa has a major crush on him. By the end of the first episode they
are “going steady” a term which no one in the 80’s used but I digress.
By the next season, not only had Vanessa moved on but Robert’s
reputation had changed. Suddenly he was more of a loser who immediately
went steady with any girl who’d give him a second look.
Friends
Yeah I know as I mentioned I covered a bunch of these last tine.
Here’s a fun one I missed. The problem with birthdays. Ok first Ross
says he is 29 three times over three seasons. Sure that makes sense. The
biggest problem however comes with the episode “The One Where They All
Turn 30”. This episode aired in season 7. It’s Rachel’s birthday, even
though in season 3 Chandler clearly says that Rachel is 29. While the
rest of the birthday’s are flashback most of the timeline’s dont add up.
The worst is Monica who says she is 26 in Season One. The flashback to
her 30th she and Chandler are living together and her parent know so
that would put it at Season 6. She should have been 30 back in Season 4!
Birth dates were an issue, was Ross born in January or not? And
Phoebe’s birthday was on Halloween one episode even though there no
indication of that in either the Halloween episode the year before or
the episode where they celebrated Phoebe’s birthday (set in Feb!) in
Season 1. I could be here all day.
The New Old Friend
I talked before about how in the classic Family Ties episode “A My
Name is Alex”, we meet a friend of Alex’s named Greg. Who we’ve never
seen before even though they were close friends. Making his death has
less impact since we never met him. This sort of thing happens a lot in
sitcoms, a new character is introduced who already has a history with
one of the main characters. That we’ve never or heard of before. Usually
what they do is have another character be aware of this history so it
doesn’t seem so blatant. Like on Seinfeld, when we first meet Sue Ann
Mishkie, Elaine explains that she was her rival for years and Jerry
comments that “she’s mentioned her before”. I guess it was when we
weren’t watching. There is also Phoebe’s roommate Denise on “Friends”
who Phoebe insists she has mentioned many times though none have heard
of her (and in fairness she was probably made up). And Golden Girls was
horrible with this as every week it seemed yet another old friend or
relative we’ve never heard of would pop up out of the woodwork. In fact
in the spin-off “The Golden Palace” we meet another brother of Blanche’s
we’ve never head of, which the episode has Rose openly acknowledge. The
reason he was never mentioned was because he is slow and Blanche was
ashamed of him. Still, he never came up??? And even Star Trek did this
with the Cardassians. Apparently the Federation had been at wear with
them but we never heard a mention of this until Season 4, after the war
had ended.
Speaking of Star Trek…
Let’s go thru some Star Trek Retcons
Amazingly in the previous article I didn’t cover these. Where do I begin?
Klingon-This is the classic head scratcher. The Klingons in the
movies didn’t look much like the Klingons in the TV show. There have
been tons of explanations for this, some more canon than others, but it
still remains one of the biggest retcons ever.
The Borg-Yeah there was some tinkering here too. In their first
episode they only assimilated technology, not people. This was changed
in “Best of Both World’s” with no explanation given. I always assumed
that Q just didn’t explain it well that first time (chances are there is
a non-canonical reason out there I am not aware of). Also in the first
episode it’s clear that Borg begin as biological beings with cybernetic
enhancements and grow into being Borg. Of course the assimilation angle
would become the only way Borg “reproduce” (made clear on Voyager). Oh
and do I even need to mention the Borg Queen???
Trills-When we first meet a Trill he is very different than what
Jadzia would be later. He can’t transport, he doesn’t have dots on his
face, and it seems that trill’s are a more common thing here than they
would be later when only the best and brightest can become one.
The Ferengi-It’s clear if you watch the pilot for TNG that the
original idea for the Ferengi didn’t quite become the characters we’d
get. And in that episode the Ferengi’s are mysterious unknown aliens but
later on we’d establish that the Federaton has know about them for
while.
Dr Bashir-When it was revealed that Dr Bashir had been genetically
engineered as a child it caused all kind of things to be inconsistent in
earlier episodes.
Spock’s Brother-We meet Sybock in Star Trek V and learn that Sarek
had another kid with another woman, and that he and Spock are half
brothers. Funny this had never been brought up before.
Oh, and what about the retcons that Star Trek:Discovery are making?
Well…I hated the pilot and refuse to pay CBS to watch it. So it’s of no
interest to me.
There are lots more but I’d be here all day. One last favorite comes
from TNG’s “The Royale”. In the teaser Picard is trying to solve
Fermat’s Last Theorem. If you don’t know it, it involved a mathematical
formula left by Pierre De Fermat when he died in the 17th century, and
there is no way I can explain it. Point is that Picard says it is still
unsolved in their time. This episode came out in 1988. A proof was,
however, found by Andrew Wiles and published in 1995! This little error
was retconned in an episode of DS9 when it’s claimed that people still
try to find their own interpretations.
Course these are just the few I could think of. There arr plenty more
times when a back story for character is suddenly changed to fir the
needs ot the story tat week. Did I miss your favorite? Comment and let
me know.
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