Four Sitcom Pets That Disappeared Without Explanation
“Never work with children or animals.”
As old and clichéd as that Hollywood adage may be, countless sitcoms have learned this lesson the hard way — especially when it comes to animals.
Time and again, TV shows will go through a bunch of trouble to introduce an animal as a permanent addition to the cast, only for producers to realize they need to include this unruly critter in every episode or explain where they are every time they’re not around. Then, before you know it, the show just disposes of the pet without explanation, hoping that no one notices (and to be fair, much of the time, they don’t).
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Here are four sitcom pets who just disappeared without explanation. Please tell us if you know of their whereabouts.
Ralph from ‘Seinfeld’
Originally, Kramer (Michael Richards) was never supposed to leave the building on Seinfeld, which is why he’s left out of episodes like “The Chinese Restaurant.” To keep him company though, he originally had a golden retriever named Ralph. According to Richards’ recent memoir, the dog was difficult to work with, and even one time ran off the set during taping. It was just the one infraction, but it was enough for Larry David to decide that the dog was, in David’s words, “Too much of a hassle.”
While he was only in the one episode, Ralph did have a lasting impact on the show, as Richards explained in his memoir, “If I can’t have a dog, I’ll be a dog! This is how the new character will start off. I’ll play the guy as a dog coming into Jerry’s apartment as playful, friendly dogs do, a dog spirit bounding through the door, sniffing, curious, wondering what’s going on in here. What’s everyone doing? What’s everyone talking about? Who wants to play? Where’s the meat? Let’s eat!”
Poochie from ‘The Honeymooners’
Technically, the dog from The Honeymooners never had a name, but Ed Norton (Art Carney) briefly calls him “Poochie,” so that name will suffice.
Poochie was adopted by Alice Kramden (Audrey Meadows) without the knowledge of her husband Ralph (Jackie Gleason), so when Ralph comes back from work and discovers the dog, he returns him to the pound. However, when he finds out the dog will be put down if he isn’t adopted, Ralph gets the dog back as well as two other dogs who are about to be put down, too. At the end of the episode “A Dog’s Life,” the Kramdens own three dogs, but by the next episode, they mysteriously don’t have any.
Stanley from ‘The King of Queens’
The first season of King of Queens saw a couple of characters disappear without explanation. One was Sara (Lisa Rieffel), the sister of Carrie (Leah Remini), and the other was the beagle Stanley, who belonged to Doug (Kevin James) and Carrie. Stanley was introduced as the noisy dog of the neighbors, but Doug and Carrie took him in since their neighbors were doing such a poor job of caring for him. However, after this happens, Stanley only appears a couple more times before he — and his doggy door — disappear altogether. With no behind-the-scenes information on the dog’s removal, the missing dog is something that King of Queens fans have reached out about online, only to be answered with jokes like, "Carrie’s sister took it with her obviously, c’mon.”
Interestingly, in the show’s ninth season, Doug adopts another dog and remarks that he’s never had a dog. Why lie, Doug? Why lie?
Tiger from ‘The Brady Bunch’
Ralph, Poochie and Stanley disappeared so quickly that we never got too attached to them, but that wasn’t the case with Tiger, the dog that belonged to the Brady family. His appearances spanned the first two seasons, and he played a major part in several episodes. Halfway through the second season, though, he vanished — despite his doghouse eerily remaining in the Brady backyard.
If that weren’t sad enough, the true story of what happened to Tiger is even worse. The original Tiger — who was actually named Tiger — was killed by a flower truck. Then his replacement was so poorly trained they couldn’t control him on set. After that, Tiger got the boot.
Tiger’s impact was so substantial that when the Brady kids reunited on Today in 2024 — 50 years after the series ended — they were asked what happened to Tiger. Eve Plumb, who played Jan Brady, gave the glib answer, “That’s TV. Stuff comes and it goes.” Barry Williams, who played Greg Brady, was equally dismissive about Tiger, explaining, “Continuity was not one of the strong points of our show.”
Maybe it had to do with losing their beloved pet so early in life, but man, those Brady kids got cold in their old age.
