Don't leave us hanging! Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for classic sitcoms whose cliffhangers or plot holes left us desperate for answers!
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 "But I'm still, I'm mad at you. I know. I'm mad at me too."
00:05 Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for classic sitcoms
00:10 whose cliffhangers or plot holes left us desperate for answers.
00:13 "This test is wrong! It's impossible! I remember everything that happened that night."
00:18 Number 10. Phoebe's family. Friends.
00:22 Phoebe Buffay's wedding on Friends was memorable for a number of reasons.
00:26 "And so there's no one to walk me down the aisle. And, um, well,
00:30 I would just really love it if you would do it."
00:32 For starters, it featured a ton of established sitcom tropes,
00:35 while also remaining endearing enough to retain its emotional connection with the audience.
00:40 "What do you think?"
00:40 "I think I want to get married to you today."
00:44 It also took place during a fierce blizzard,
00:47 which brings us to our first unanswered sitcom question.
00:50 Where was Phoebe's family? Friends made it a point to show over multiple story arcs how
00:54 important it was for Phoebe to reconnect with her parents.
00:57 "Okay, look, see? This is him! My mother gave me this picture before she died. Same guy!"
01:02 Why, then, are the actors that portrayed them not present during their daughter's big day?
01:08 We know it was snowing hard and all,
01:09 but wouldn't Phoebe have at least invited her mom and dad to be at her wedding?
01:12 Number 9. Jackie from Philly. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
01:17 Will Smith had a few well-established love interests throughout The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
01:21 "Jackie?"
01:24 "Oh my god, Will!"
01:25 Jackie Ames was one of the most well-developed of these romantic partners,
01:33 an old flame from Philly who seemed poised to be a recurring character throughout season 4.
01:38 However, their potential romance fizzles out after a fight,
01:41 and although they reconcile, Ames is never mentioned in subsequent seasons.
01:45 "Look, if this is over me, you can just stop it right now, all right?"
01:48 "This is bigger than you, baby. It's a man thing."
01:52 "Oh, excuse me."
01:55 The same went for Will's one-time fiancé in season 5, Lisa Wilkes.
01:59 The Fresh Prince really knows how to love 'em and leave 'em, huh?
02:02 "Yes! I got a big plus! I'm Will, call me."
02:07 Number 8. Who is Nicole's real father? My Two Dads.
02:11 The intrinsic nature of sitcoms is that each episode introduces a comedic situation that's
02:16 wrapped up within roughly 22 minutes.
02:18 "Now that we're gonna be fathers, why don't we become adults, too?
02:21 "Meaning what?"
02:22 "Meaning why don't we finally admit that she loved us both?"
02:26 What happens then when the overarching situation presents a mystery that's never revealed?
02:30 It's never made clear who Nicole's father is on My Two Dads.
02:34 "Michael and I aren't comfortable anymore.
02:36 We want to know which one of us is your real father with two different people."
02:38 "Both!"
02:39 "We wanna know."
02:41 There is an episode where a paternity test is taken,
02:44 but Nicole destroys the results without looking.
02:47 Ultimately, fans may say that it doesn't really matter who Nicole's real father is.
02:51 What's important instead are the loving and caring roles they have in her life as part of her family.
02:56 "Boils down to this.
02:57 You're the best thing that ever happened to me in my whole life.
03:01 And I ain't never letting you go."
03:04 Number 7. Earl's List and Earl Jr.'s Paternity.
03:08 My Name is Earl.
03:09 Not every show is lucky enough to have a fulfilling and satisfactory finale.
03:14 "Do good things and good things happen to you.
03:16 Do bad things and it'll come back to haunt you."
03:19 "That's deep, Earl."
03:21 My Name is Earl was one of those well-remembered sitcoms that ended on a cliffhanger,
03:25 the bane of every television fan's existence.
03:28 "Unfortunately, I had forgotten about Chubby's final ritual."
03:32 "Let's get out of here."
03:33 Earl Hickey never gets to finish his list atoning for all the bad things he did in the past.
03:37 Additionally, the paternity of young Earl Jr. is never revealed to the audience.
03:42 This was all because My Name is Earl was unceremoniously cancelled after the fourth season,
03:46 leaving that final cliffhanger unresolved to this day.
03:50 "Now, everybody just calm down."
03:53 Number 6. Did the Bundy Family Find Success? Married With Children
03:58 Speaking of unexpected cancellations,
04:00 here's one that also thwarted viewers from getting a satisfactory conclusion.
04:04 "Thanks, Dad. I went my last chance at unlimited wealth."
04:08 The cast of Married With Children was used to certain characters,
04:11 like Al's many shoe-selling protégés, coming and going without much explanation.
04:15 "I'm pouring out my heart here."
04:18 "I'm sorry, I thought you were done."
04:20 "No, I'm not!"
04:20 However, the show was unexpectedly cancelled prior to what would have been its 12th and final season.
04:27 As a result, the only main takeaway from season 11's final episode
04:31 is Kelly's comedically botched attempt at a wedding.
04:33 "Okay, that's it. This wedding's off."
04:36 "Well, good. I still have time to make the Edelstein funeral."
04:42 Fans never received any closure as to whether or not the Bundy family would ever find any
04:47 real success after years of coming oh-so-close.
04:50 Number 5. Was Moesha Pregnant? Moesha
04:54 There were a number of unresolved cliffhangers at the end of Moesha's sixth season run.
04:58 One of them was the result of a pregnancy test found in the title character's dorm room.
05:02 "Ducky, ducky, look what I found in the trash. A pregnancy test."
05:07 Fans were dying to know whether or not Moesha was pregnant,
05:10 but sadly, those fans are still waiting for an answer.
05:13 That's because UPN, disappointed at Moesha's ratings during its final season,
05:18 decided to cancel the show, despite said cliffhanger.
05:21 "Dorian, where's daddy? We have something we need to talk to him about."
05:23 "Yeah, look, something very, very important."
05:25 "No, look, I need y'all help right now. I'm in really big trouble."
05:29 The cast of the show, as recently as 2017,
05:32 are still talking about how they'd like some closure.
05:35 So, maybe we'll find out what happens someday down the line.
05:38 "We ended, like, on a cliff."
05:39 "Yeah."
05:40 "Exactly."
05:40 "We need to do a movie."
05:41 "Miles was coming."
05:42 "Or Miles."
05:43 "We don't know who was pregnant."
05:44 "Miles is..."
05:44 Number 4. What Happened to Carol Brady's First Husband? The Brady Bunch
05:49 Pilot episodes often present characters that appear only in said debut,
05:54 never to be seen or heard from again.
05:56 Such was the case with a cat Fluffy that belonged to Carol Martin and her three girls.
06:00 Fluffy aside, there's a more glaring question from the original run of The Brady Bunch.
06:04 "I'm sure the future Mrs. Brady is cool, calm, and collected."
06:08 Specifically, what happened to Carol's first husband?
06:11 It's established during the show that Mike Brady is a widow,
06:14 but societal standards of the day prevented creator Sherwood Schwartz
06:17 from his true desire to present Carol as a divorcee.
06:20 "Well, aren't you gonna kiss the bride?"
06:21 "You bet I am."
06:24 The non-canonical parody movie titled A Very Brady Sequel pokes gentle fun at this notion,
06:30 but the actual fate of Carol Martin's first marriage prior to Mike Brady
06:34 is never answered on the show.
06:35 "Roy? But you were lost at sea so many years ago, I thought you were-"
06:42 "Dead."
06:43 Number 3. Where are the Tanners?
06:45 Elf
06:46 This one is sort of a cheat, since the made-for-TV Project Elf gave a half-hearted answer to this
06:51 question, albeit six years after the Elf sitcom was cancelled after just four seasons.
06:56 "The ravings of a lunatic, they said, but I knew differently, oh yes.
06:58 I knew very differently.
07:03 And I made up my mind I would seek the truth."
07:06 Elf ended on a cliffhanger, whereby the Air Force kidnapped Gordon Shumway before he made
07:10 it home to Melmac. However, the Project Elf explanation that Shumway's adopted family,
07:15 the Tanners, moved to Iceland under witness protection is simply there to justify the
07:19 absence of any returning actors from the show.
07:22 "Safe home, my friend."
07:23 "Hey, no problem."
07:25 Since Project Elf is supposed to take place shortly after Shumway's capture,
07:29 why would the Tanners simply up and leave, abandoning their family member to face his fate?
07:33 "Can I stay in my room?"
07:35 "No, no, this thing is not staying in anyone's, it's not staying."
07:40 Number 2. Did Mork & Mindy Make It Home?
07:43 Mork & Mindy
07:44 Here's a question. Why would the sitcom partially responsible for making Robin Williams a household
07:49 comedic name not give his title character a proper send-off?
07:52 "Mint, oh mint mint, put away those groceries and do something wonderful to your hair. Put
07:57 some magnetic beads in because tonight we're stepping out with a terrific couple."
08:00 Well, season four was meant to end with the three-episode arc "Gotta Run" in order to set
08:05 up a time-traveling story in the following season. But unfortunately, the show was canceled. So,
08:10 the episode "The Mork Report" was aired after "Gotta Run," despite being filmed beforehand,
08:15 to serve as the series finale.
08:17 "Why bother, Mork? It all seems like such a hassle."
08:20 "Oh, sometimes it is, sir. The work is hard, the hours are long, but every time I look at
08:25 Mork & Mindy, I see warmth, I see love, I see someone who makes me feel like I matter in this
08:30 vast, lonely universe."
08:32 As a result of the cancellation, the canonical ending of Mork & Mindy has the characters lost
08:37 in prehistory, but happily married at least.
08:39 "I think if you think about what you're doing here, you could be altering the course of history."
08:43 Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified
08:47 about our latest videos. You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.
08:53 If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications.
08:57 Number 1. Where is Judy Winslow? Family Matters
09:03 It's referred to colloquially as "Chuck Cunningham Syndrome."
09:06 "Fozzie, why don't you stick around? We'd like to have you."
09:08 This is a reference to the sitcom "Happy Days," where Richie Cunningham's older brother Chuck
09:13 simply disappears after season two, never to be mentioned again by his family.
09:18 This also applies to the Winslow's youngest daughter on Family Matters, Judy.
09:22 "Hey, Judy." "Hi."
09:23 "What's the matter, sweetheart?"
09:26 The long-running joke is that Judy went up to her room in season four and just never came back.
09:30 The show continued without any mention of her character for five more seasons.
09:34 Reportedly, she was axed due to budget cuts. But if the network hoped no one would notice,
09:39 they were sorely mistaken.
09:41 "Judy, are you still stuck up there in your room? Where are you?"
09:44 "Judy! Judy!"
09:46 Do any of these unanswered sitcom questions still keep you up at night?
09:50 Do you demand closure or have any theories? Let us know in the comments.
09:53 "Why don't you stay here tonight, even if it's not as good as your cousin's house?"
09:58 Do you agree with our picks? Check out this other recent clip from Ms. Mojo.
10:01 And be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.
10:05 [MUSIC]
10:15 (upbeat music)