Whatever Happened to Jennifer Runyon from ‘Ghostbusters’ and ‘Charles in Charge’?
Growing up, The Brady Bunch was just one of those shows that always seemed to be on TV. I always found hanging out with the Brady family to be a fairly pleasant experience, which is why I was excited when the Bradys made their return to network television on CBS in 1988 for a one-shot TV movie titled A Very Brady Christmas. Almost all of the Bradys were back, along with the actors who played them — except for Susan Olsen, who was replaced by Jennifer Runyon.
Olsen skipped the special because she was newly married, and it turns out that her honeymoon conflicted with the shooting schedule … or so they said. Because of that, she took a pass on what turned out to be the second highest-rated TV movie of the 1988–89 television season.
Paramount TV/Everett Collection
And it turns out that Jennifer did a really great job subbing for Susan. So much so, in fact, that I started asking myself, “Where have I seen this lady before?” I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the 1980 Christmas-themed slasher flick To All a Goodnight, with a murderous Santa Claus creating all sorts of mayhem in a private school during their holiday break.
Truthfully, I think the first movie where I really noticed Jennifer was a very small but memorable part that she had in Ghostbusters. Who can forget that scene where a psychically gifted young man receives jolt after jolt of electric shocks during a scientific experiment, all because Bill Murray‘s Peter Venkman is smitten with Jennifer’s character, who has no psychic ability at all?
In a 2016 interview with Marc Nobleman, Jennifer said this about her friendship with the Ghostbusters star,:“I adore Bill Murray. He was so fun to work with. He took me to dinner once, as friends, after the movie came out. We ended up driving an Amtrak train at Union Station in L.A. Bill asked the conductor if we could drive it … only Bill Murray could make that happen.”
Columbia Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection
Later on during the ’80s, Jennifer would be cast as Gwendolyn Pierce during the first season of Charles in Charge. If you’re a fan of this show, let me know in the comment section which family you liked the most: the Pembroke family from season one on CBS, or the Powell family for the remaining four seasons when it transitioned to syndication.
Jennifer also had the honor of appearing in the very first two episodes of Quantum Leap. After that, she made a handful of movies as well as guest appearances on TV during the early nineties, and then just kind of completely disappeared after 1993.
So, what happened, and where did she go? To start, let me introduce you to Todd Corman, a feller who has had an immensely successful career as a women’s basketball coach at the collegiate level. Somewhere along the way during the late eighties and early nineties, Jennifer met Todd, and they fell in love. The next thing you know, they got married and Jennifer decided to semi-retire so that she could focus on family.
Jennifer and Todd have two amazing kids who had the blessing of a mother who dedicated her life 24/7 to them while they were growing up. In the past, Jennifer has talked about how her mother wasn’t able to stay home with her when she was young and how important it was to be there for her children.
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Here’s what Jennifer told The Lady in Red Blog a few years back: “I grew up in a family where my parents worked, and we had housekeepers and nannies, (My mom and dad were radio people,) and I grew up with other people who were there every day. I didn’t want that for my kids, because I know all I wanted was my mom.”
A few years back, with her kids all grown up, Jennifer started entertaining offers again. Because of that, she popped up in a trio of horror-based projects that most likely went straight to streaming: 2015’s Silent Night, Bloody Night 2: Revival, 2016’s anthology movie Terror Tales, and perhaps the best one of them all, 2017’s Blood Sucker Jones vs. The Creeping Death.
I feel like it’s really important to talk about Jennifer’s philanthropic work as well. She’s friends with the co-founder of the retailer Tilly’s and has lent her support for the Tilly’s Life Center (TLC), which focuses on the mental health struggles that many teens face. As a father of three young men, I truly appreciate endeavors such as this one, and I am happy to see Jennifer helping out with it where she can.
’80s Where Are They Now
March 2023
Who can forget all the great TV shows, movies and music of the ‘80s? See what your favs are up to now!
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