WHAT HAPPENED TO JUDY WINSLOW on Family Matters?!
 

Totally random, but Nick at Nite made me wonder. What happend to the Winslow's youngest child on Family Matters?! She just disappeared from the show and nobody ever said where she went...

I know all about the actress who played her's downward spiral, I just want an explaination about the character and plot of the show.

Ever hear of Google?

Or Wikipedia:

The producers admitted that they did not think audiences would notice Judy's disappearance, which is why her absence was never explained. Later episodes even have the Winslows acknowledging they only have two children, not three. The last time Judy was ever seen on the show was when she went up to her room. But she never came back down. According to Jamiee Foxworth who played Judy, she's "still up in her room putting clothes away".

I'm sorry, this line had me cracking up. It sounds like it has some sort of deeper meaning...or, considering the actress' history, maybe she was just high when she said it.

I heard that she got involved in porn and drugs.

See what getting sent to your room does to you!! he he he!

Wasn't that Jamiee Foxworth on Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew?

She's a mess. Her career never really took off and they passively aggressively killed off her character. Sucks.

I did Google, but nothing gave me a definative answer. I figured maybe someone saw an episode where an explaination was given, but it seems "she's still upstairs putting clothes away". It kind of cracks me up that production never thought to say where this 3rd child in the family went lol.

Didn't they do the same thing with the older brother from season 1 of Happy Days? (Chuck?) Or did they explain his absence?

Maybe I don't remember the show well enough (although I do remember it was part of the dynamite back-to-back combo with "Perfect Strangers), but I don't think it was really the type of show that thrived on continuity of storylines. Besides Erkel being in love with the older daughter, I can't think of any other big storylines.

No, I think he just disappeared as well.

It was kind of the poor man's Cosby Show. Plus, it wasn't as popular the first few seasons as it was in later seasons, so maybe her absence wasn't missed?

She hit the skids HARD.

The show just kind of changed from being about the family (and it spun off as the mom was the elevator operator where Cousin Larry worked at the newspaper) and became all about Urkel, which killed it. Urkel was a great whacky next door neighbor character, but not enough for a whole show.

Mother Winslow was my favorite character, hands down.

In addition to losing her career, Jaimee Foxworth also lost her earnings from the show—her parents went bankrupt due to their over-lavish lifestyle while she was working, and a judge ruled that her trust fund could be used to pay off her parents' debts.

I guess I'd be bitter too if all this happened to me, but at some point you just have to move on.

She was sent to her room like the oldest Cunningham child from Happy Days, Cleveland, Jr. on Family Guy and Seven on Married With Children.

There has to be better protection for child stars from their parents' financial irresponsibility. It's less common now than it was 50 or even 25 years ago, but so many child stars were broke because of their parents. It's really annoying.

What makes it worse is that she probably didn't make that much money on Family Matters.

I thought I heard something concerning this when the John & Kate marital problems originally surfaced. From what I understand, there are laws regarding child actors (the more strict being established in California) requiring that at least a portion of the money child actors make be "held" for them, in a trust (if I'm not mistaken), until they are old enough to do with the money what they wish.

I would look this up now if it wasn't 4am. Maybe tomorrow :)

Wait... found this at least.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coogan_Law

Didn't one of the Cosby Kids disappear too?...Maybe I am just making that up.

ETA: No, just googled. A kid appeared, not disappeared.

Well for alot of the first seasons they didn't show Sandra, they just mentioned her. But at least they acknowledged her existence lol

I never understood the purpose of that character. He just appeared, was on a few episodes, then disappeared without a mention.

It was kind of ratings ploy, but I think some of it might have been emotional. The character was pregnant (Peggy) because the actress was in real life. I've heard conflicting reasons as to why they didn't go ahead with just that baby, from she didn't want her real kid on camera with her to that she miscarried. :(

He served the same point as cousin oliver on the brady bunch and the little girl Raven or whatever on the cosby show and the twins on full house, they needed cute little kids for the ratings, since they were family shows, or so thought the producers.

Wasn't Seven a relative and not a child of the Bundys (something like Cousin Oliver)? I think they were going to bring in a separate child when Peggy was pregnant, but when she miscarried in real life, they made her pregnancy a dream (a la Bobby Ewing).

I also think Olivia and Jessie's twins from Full House were there because the younger children (Rudy and Michelle) had gotten too old to be cute. And that was the point when both shows jumped the shark.

This sounds about right.

The thing with J & K's kids is that there is apparently no verbiage in the Coogan Law to cover children on nonscripted (i.e. reality TV) shows. Writers (yes, reality TV has writers) and editors in the reality sphere are facing a similar problem.

Yea, I found something else regarding that. Obviously this is probably why it came up when the John and Kate scandal hit the news. But I didn't pay too much attention because I really don't care all that much about it.

And again, California has some of the stricter laws concerning this issue. Some states have none. If a reality show that included children were filmed in, let's say Arkansas, I can pretty much guaratee there wouldn't be any laws protecting them.

Ahhhh!!! Now I remember! Thanks!:)


True and true!;)

Actually, I think that in the first episode, they said they only had four children, and then all of the sudden there was a fifth.

/hijack

The directions these threads take are so funny sometimes.

/end hijack