After two years of adventuring with Tod, Buz briefly became ill with an unspecified malady. He missed the final four episodes of the second season. And, although he returned for the premiere of season three, after only a handful of episodes Buz would become ill and disappear from the show again, this time never to return. During the period of Buz's absence, Tod travelled and had adventures on his own. He can often be seen in some of these episodes writing letters to and having one-way phone conversations with an unseen Buz who is said to be hospitalized. George Maharis continued to receive on-screen credit for these episodes although Buz does not appear in them. The last episode to feature Buz Murdock was "A Gift For a Warrior", which originally aired on January 18, 1963 (although it was probably filmed much earlier in the season in relation to the order in which the episodes aired, the last full episode Maharis actually completed filming was "Hey Moth, Come Eat the Flame.") After this episode, the character of Buz Murdock was never so much as mentioned in the series again. Eventually the role of Tod's sidekick was taken up by the character of Lincoln Case (Glenn Corbett), who finished out the remainder of the series.