Television has engrained itself into the fabric of America. People grew up watching iconic characters for year after year, almost feeling like they personally know the characters from the TV shows they watched. When you break down each decade in America for the past 70 years, one of the first things you think of when you look at each decade from a cultural aspect is the TV shows that aired during these decades. The problem is a show would run for a limited amount of time and even though each hit series had a finale, it would leave you with the question...what happened to (insert character name here) after the show ended.
A recent trend in television and now Netflix is to continue these series years later. Disney Channel has Girl Meets World which continues the storyline of Cory and Topanga from Boy Meets World. Netflix has Fuller House which continues the hit show from the '80s and now surrounds DJ, Stephanie, and Kimmy's storylines who were originally the kids in Full House. Frasier sort of filled this "what happened to" scenario with Frasier Crane. Even though it was a spinoff, it took place for 11 seasons after Cheers ended.
But what about all those other characters out there that we all loved or hated that we never got an answer to the "what happened to..." question? Well I present to you a short list of hit characters and what I think may have happened to them. Not everyone of them has a peachy-keen story after their show ended.
1. Steven Urkel (Family Matters): Though socially awkward throughout the show and obsessed with the Winslow family, Urkel was a genius when it came to science. He in invented the Urkel Bot that actually displayed feelings and could be said to have reached sentience because it feel in love with Laura. He invented Boss Sauce which would work with his Transformation Chamber to change someone into someone socially different and even eventually led to the clone of Stefan Urquelle. He had entered negotiations to sell his invention of exploding veggies to the US Military and even invented a teleportation pad that zapped him to Paris.
So what happened to the genius? Well my take is that he did indeed eventually marry Laura Winslow. Happy ending right? Wrong...
Diving deeper into working on his inventions Urkel uses his previous military contacts to invent new types of weapons for them to use. He probably had something to do with that ray gun that when fired at people would give them the sudden urge to poop. I imagine since this gun is similar to the gun that makes you vomit, he probably had a hand in this too. Over time, he secretly amasses a fortune as the lead scientist for a weapons manufacturer. Being a pacifist and rarely seeing him anymore, Laura eventually divorces Urkel when he's not there for her when Carl Winslow is killed in a police standoff in Chicago. Laura takes half his fortune and Urkel dives deeper into isolation and the last we heard, he's working on a bomb that makes the nuclear bomb look like a spit-wad gun.
2. Norm Peterson (Cheers): Famously known as Norm! from the hit show Cheers, he was the most famous customer of the bar of the same name. Running tabs that ran into the thousands of dollars, Norm would often banter back and forth with Cliff Clavin and Frasier Crane. The last appearance of Norm on a television show was the spinoff of Frasier when Cliff Clavin is having a retirement party and Frasier along with his family fly to Boston for a conference, running into the outgoing postal worker.
So what happened to the lovable bar patron? Well he's dead.
How drastic you say! Yes, but take into account how much he drank, his diet, his weight, his lack of physical exercise, and his general outtake on life, he certainly drank himself to death by the time he hit his mid-60's. How did he die? Sclerosis of the liver. Not being able to give up his beer drinking habit, no doctor in their right mind would put him on the donor list unless he changed his habits. Unfortunately Norm couldn't and he passes away in St. Eligius Hospital, famously nicknamed St. Elsewhere which was another '80s show that George Wendt also guested on as Norm Peterson. In his will, he leaves a small amount of money to help pay off his bar tab with Cheers.
3. Balki Bartokomous (Perfect Strangers): The distant cousin of Larry, Balki intrudes on Larry's kindness and the pair become roommates in Chicago. The twenty-two year old is naïve and Larry is the one that takes it upon himself to help Balki adjust to the new settings of America which are far beyond that of the primitive country of Mypos. Originally the two work as clerks at the Ritz Discount Store, but by the time the series ends, Larry is a news reporter and Balki draws a weekly comic strip based on his stuffed sheep. Larry marries Jennifer and they have a kid named Tucker. Balki rushes into marriage with Mary Anne and the two have a kid named Robespierre.
So what happened to the lovable foreigner? Well he's now in charge of his own rebel group looking to overthrow the Myposian government on behalf of Islam.
Yes, I went dark on you. During his years in America, Balki tried his hardest to become more American-like, but never quite gets it. As many people do when they age he becomes more conservative and he reverts back to the teachings of his family while he grew up on the Mediterranean island just between Turkey and Greece. A culture that often is referred to being centuries in the past (so much so that it is alluded that pterodactyls are still alive there), the country has self imposed a ban on sciences and modern day electronics. Only one phone exists on the island for example. What is never said is that the island is under the control of an Islamic group that restricts technology within the country.
After 9/11 and other terrorist events, Balki starts becoming more fanatical with the cries of the people on his island to overthrow American values that he leaves his wife and child and returns to his homeland. Through his knowledge of American culture and his early weapons training as a child on Mypos, Balki rises among the ranks of the Muslim rebel group and overthrow King Ferdinand. Balki has resented the king since season 2 because the king tasked Balki in selling land to an American corporation to turn a large chunk of the island into a toxic dump. After seizing control of the government, Balki personally condemns King Ferdinand to death and rises quickly on the American most wanted list.
4. Vicki Lawson (A Small Wonder): A robot created by Ted Lawson, Voice Input Child Identical (V.I.C.I.) was engineered to help children with physical handicaps. Ted brings the robot home to mature within a real family and as a cover, gives her the name Vicki to blend in with the rest of the family. She is 10 years old in appearance and during the shows 4 season run, Ted provides her with upgrades to continue to pass a human girl.
So what happened to this monotone robot? She's been dismantled by her evil twin Vanessa.
As the son, Jamie Lawson grew up, he found himself becoming more interested in the prospect of having a human-looking robot always around him and willing to do whatever he said. By the time they reach their college years, Jamie moves across the country to a small one bedroom apartment and takes Vicki along with him. At first Vicki gives him trouble because she no longer wishes to live in a closet, but Jamie refuses to share his personal space with him. He suggests that they could "share" a bed if she agrees to his sexual advances, but she rejects him. Remembering that his father also created Vanessa, Vicki's evil twin that was more human-like and spoke without the monotone voice, Jamie has Vanessa reactivated and sent to his apartment.
As the evil twin who is to take Vicki's place, Vanessa blindsides Vicki and deactivates her. Vicki is disassembled and Vanessa lives out the rest of her robot life as Jamie's servant/lover under the guise of Vicki.
On a side note, Jamie is the ancestor to a robotics expert named Noonian Soong who uses the V.I.C.I. plans to be the foundation of the three androids he creates, Data, Lore, and B4.
5. Bud Bundy (Married...With Children): Son of the famous Al Bundy, Bud was supposedly college educated, but never displayed this in the real world. The one thing that motivates him is sex. Maybe this is because of the women that his older sister, Kelly, would bring home and hang out with (played by actresses such as Lisa Boyle and Jennifer Lyons). When we last see Bud, he graduated college and worked for the Illinois DMV.
So what has Bud been up to since then? He became a porn producer, but is on the downside of his career now.
Married...With Children left off in 1997 at the end of the VHS era and going into DVD's. This was the perfect time for electronically inclined Bud Bundy to have a brain storm to shoot soft core porn starring Kelly's friends. This actually would work for a while since in previous episodes they don't require a lot of money to be motivated to do things that most people think would be overstepping their sexual boundaries. Also Bud is able to put on a good act and pretend that things are nicer/better than they really are or at the very least a professional quality like when he directed the workout video starring Kelly.
During this time, it would even be possible to believe that he might win an Adult Video News (AVN) Award and come into some minor fame.
The kick-in-the-head is with the free porn available on the internet, Bud's career will eventually crumble when he has a hard time making money from video sales. He'll glide by for a little by selling his clips online, but eventually this too will lead to a decline in sales, especially when Kelly's friends get older.
6. Sabrina Spellman (Sabrina, the Teenage Witch): After growing up and learning to be a witch with the help of her aunts Zelda and Hilda, Sabrina eventually graduates college and moves back into her childhood home along with her best friends Roxy and Morgan. From there she went to work for an entertainment magazine called Scorch and left her fiancé at the alter in favor of Harvey, her high school sweetheart.
So what happened to the good hearted witch? She tried to take over the world, only to be thwarted.
A couple of years after the television show ends, Sabrina will catch Harvey in bed with Roxy, who was about the only friend of Sabrina's he didn't date during the television show run. Furious, Sabrina's hair darkens instantly from blond to brunette and she cast a spell on them. The spell placed on Roxy places her on a stake and she is burned alive like a witch during the Salem Witch Trials. Harvey on the other hand instantly finds himself thrown into a dark room and is now transformed into the pet dragon underneath the staircase of a family called the Munsters.
With her fragile psyche now snapped, Sabrina decides to rule the world, appearing before a UN meeting and declaring that if they don't all pledge allegiance to her she will launch all the nukes in the world, thus killing off every living thing.
Displeased that she revealed that she was a witch to the mortal world, Drell (Penn Jillette) appears in front of the UN and throws Sabrina into the Other Realm. Once there the two of them battle, but it is apparent that being such a young witch, her powers are nothing like Drell's. He tosses her into a dungeon, where she is locked in a pillory for the rest of her eternal life for her indiscretions. Hilda and Zelda are thrown into the same cell with her, chained to the wall and voiceless since they are still considered responsible for Sabrina's tutelage.
7. Ross and Rachel Gellar (Friends): After years of pining for Rachel, Ross finally dates her on and off for the entirety of the 10 seasons of the show. At one point they even marry each other, although by drunken accident in Las Vegas. Toward the end they have Emma and Rachel must choose between being with Ross, the man who is willing to do anything to be with her, or her dream career in the fashion capital of the world, Paris. She chooses Ross and it is alleged that they will spend the rest of their lives together in New York while Monica and Chandler have moved out of the city, and Joey has moved to California to advance his Hollywood career. Sadly no one seems to care about Phoebe.
So what happened to Ross and Rachel after the show ended? Nothing.
After a couple of years raising Emma and Ross' son from his first marriage, Ben, Rachel snaps after Ross brings home another dinosaur bone and starts talking about the history of the particular dinosaur it belongs to. She hated dinosaurs, let alone science and has had enough of his geekiness. What makes matters worse is that she just rented the movie Captured at her local Red Box which starred Joey Tribbiani. This is when she comes to the realization that she played it safe--too safe--and settled for Ross. On a whim, she has Phoebe come over to her apartment to watch the kids and in the same fashion as when she flew out to London to stop Ross' second wedding, Rachel flies across country to declare her love for one time boyfriend Joey.
Finding him at his beach front apartment, she realizes that he is in a serious relationship with his neighbor Alex Garrett. Rachel pleads with Joey to leave Alex for her. Realizing that the two of them could be a power couple, the famous actor and his fashion mogul girlfriend, and also thinking back to how serious his feelings were for Rachel when he lived in New York, Joey accepts her plea and the two move into together...and live happily ever after.
*All photos are publicity photos or screencaps used in this post are from each character's respective TV show
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