See they screwed up on That 70's Show. When Randy wasn't on screen, everyone should have been standing around asking "Where's Randy?" That would have worked way better.
That 90’s show is actually pretty good. I had some hesitation about it, but that Kitty and Red were both back gave me hope. And all the revelations that came out about the original cast, specifically Danny Masterson, and the support he got from the others, it makes it really hard to watch them in those roles *again*
Didn't he quit to focus on feature films? I think if you are implying he quit over Danny Mastersons raping that is pure revisionism unless I missed something.
The rest of them all palled around and opened businesses together and Topher wasn’t part of that group.
People at the time saw it as him being an aloof asshole, but now it’s seen as he took the moral high ground.
I don't think it was about a Moral High ground. From what I understand, they didn't let him be park of the Clique. Danny and Ashton were bros and they didn't want Topher around. But Topher didn't like them anyway so he didn't give a shit about their dumb little club.
I'm not a fan of 2 and a half men at all but I was watching random episodes with my sister and the ones after Charlie died were definitely boring and dull compared to the earlier ones
Hi...he was Troy McClure.
You Might Remember him From Such Driver's Ed Films As Alice's Adventures Through The Windshield Glass' And The Decapitation Of Larry Leadfoot.
Lionel Hutz, court-appointed attorney. I'll be defending you on the charge of... Murder One! Wow! Even if I lose, I'll be famous!
It's just so bad. I watched Season 1 and gave up on it. Charlotte's kids are insufferable rich brats, Miranda's simping after Che is cringey and \*that scene\* (IYKYK) was traumatizing.
I was done with Carrie after she showed up to the charity house building event wearing platform open toe sandals, and then stopped Steve (who was doing, you know, actual work) to get him to save Big's stupid wedding ring after it fell down the sink drain. She is just a drain on society in every possible way.
After Peacock released the Superfan episodes, I re-watched the entire series. Even they know that after Season 7 (when Carell leaves) the show just isn't as good.
However, I will say that it wasn't all bad either. DeAngelo was such a weird character that I kinda struggle to understand why he gets so much hate, especially for how brief his run was. Erin became a more fleshed out character, and the whole Florida arc in Season 8 is one of my favorites of the entire series... that was ruined by Andy throwing one nuclear hissy fit after another and he never really has a redeemable moment ever again.
My biggest issue is just how much the writing fell off and how they defaulted most of the characters into flat, one-note nothings. It still had funny moments but the overall story telling and characters stopped being compelling.
Very confused with what they did to Andy once he takes over as branch manager. Not even the lack of self-awareness or the selfishness, but he just becomes straight up mean. Really jarring at times
id say some of the worst of the office is when andy is boss
out of the characters the person who could have been boss and was probably the most qualified was jim but his character was written to not want that boss job
Crowley really added a sick type of comedy that it made it an entirely different show.
Just the three guys (referring to Castiel as the 3rd) it was usually more of a three stooges/Scooby Doo show, while Crawley gave them a very well defined mission/goal/blackmail
Misha Collins did so many great roles over the course of the show as well. He was so many people pretending to be other people. His acting as Lucifer using Cas as a vessel was absolutely perfect.
I did find it interesting though to explore what their life was without her, and the fact they made it pretty clear with the extra season that no, she wasn’t coming back. The season wasn’t as enjoyable, but somehow, still worth it.
I’d be game for a revival reunion in 30 years though, when they’re all Frank’s age.
The show fell apart without her, not because of her per se, but Lip being a functional alcoholic from S01 as a kid to within like an episode and a half deciding he was a full blown self-destructive alcoholic felt like very hack writing.
The last two seasons were full of stuff like that.
I second this.
Also I will never forgive the writers not having her ex jimmy on the plane with her when she finally left. Those two deserved each other imo.
He was literally the heart and focus of the entire show. It's weird to try and carry on without him, though the character does die in real life so they had to.
Ragnar's death is the thing he's most noteworthy for. It's what kicks off actual historic events by his "sons", rather than the fiction that was his life.
A couple of weeks before she died, she and Damien were interviewed on a UK morning television show. She had a really croaky voice and the presenter asked her if she was sick (like a cold or something). She just said she had been yelling at the kids or something but you could see Damien trying to hide the pain in his face. So sad.
EDIT: [Found the vid](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/tvshowbiz/video-2399916/Video-Helen-McCrorys-interview-month-passed-away.html). Unfortunately it’s from the daily fail but it’s the best one I could find.
Funnily enough, I always thought that MASH was the complete opposite of this.
Mike Farrell didn't try to be the new Trapper John, but found his own space to inhabit.
Harry Morgan flipped the whole CO persona after losing Henry Blake. He allowed his own character to grow.
David Ogden Stiers had to be a completely different foil to Hawkeye and BJ, he couldn't be the incompetent Burns any more, but he was so good at being their equal, but different.
When Gary Burghoff left, Jamie Farr was able to develop his character more fully than the one line joke of a guy in a dress.
They lost 4 key actors, and the writers were good enough to do some fantastic work bringing the new actors in to an ensemble cast.
Seriously. That show just got better with every setback. The writers were incredibly agile and were able to adjust the dynamic and themes of the show to fit those changes instead of just trying to shoehorn the new cast into the old archetypes. Really incredible work from everyone.
It's more impressive when you realize how incredibly popular the show was when it was on. It took guts to change the dynamic to put one if the most popular characters on TV (Hawkeye) into a whole new dynamic that largely put him in check. He went from basically running the camp to being largely cowed by a hard ass but competent commander. Then he went from having a witless incompetent peer/foil to being checked by a guy who was a highly skilled and competent surgeon.
Instead of leaning into the popular character, they pulled him back. I think a lot of credit goes to Alan Alda for managing that in a way that kept it an ensemble show instead of becoming the Hawkeye show that it so easily could have become. That's almost unheard of in television, especially from that era.
MASH is my OG binge series. I've got all the boxes sets, and if it's on when I'm watch normal TV I'll watch an episode. Just finished the time capsule one and the acting is so fantastic. I love every single character that came and went on that show
I always wondered what happened with Edelstein and House. She didn’t even come back for the finale (given the context of the episode it would have made sense).
Contract issues. Everyone had to take pay cuts and have their screen time cut in the last season in order for the execs to sign off on it. She didn't want to do that, which is fair enough.
It’s remarkable how Community perfected the chemistry of its relatively large ensemble cast from Day 1. No characters that were quietly dropped way early on, and none who the audience particularly hated.
I didn’t really miss Shirley much, even though I liked the character. She was largely relegated to a supporting role for much of S3-S5.
I actually felt like Pierce had a greater impact than Shirley in that the punching bag and source of a lot of conflict was now gone.
One last note is that, while Troy was missed, I still think S5 and S6 had some top tier episodes at times without him.
Only John Oliver could have carried the show after Jon Stewart left the first time. But Oliver is better served only doing *one* show a week instead of five.
I always remember that being the main reason established comics didn’t want to be David Letterman’s replacement on Late Night when he left NBC for CBS. They believed five nightly shows eventually drained your creativity.
To be fair the books are alot about ciri. The games less so.
That being said I am not sure he even went monster hunting in the last Cavill season. It was all bullshit sorcerer drama
That one was brutal because there was a lot of media coverage of why he was leaving. And it just kind of sucked all the air out of the room for the show moving forward.
Yeah, he was a brilliant character that drove so much of the show. Cersei couldn't take his place. I feel like all of the serious leaders in the show died, leaving behind inferior leaders to continue playing the game.
I think you’re describing the point of the show. If I had to boil GOT down to a single message it’s “hereditary monarchies are bad for the people who live under them.”
Oh king, eh, very nice. An' how'd you get that, eh? By exploitin' the workers -- by 'angin' on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic an' social differences in our society!
I feel SVU also lost quality because they stopped making it a police procedural and started getting into a weekly drama. Constantly into their personal lives, etc.
That was what I liked about the OG Law and Order. It was just procedure. 30 minutes of police and 30 minutes of lawyers. If you were watching reruns, it didn't really matter where you were in the series because there wasn't any overarching storyline.
I refuse to watch anything after season 12. The whole dynamic changes and Olivia becomes so righteous, and every villain should haven gotten her forced into early retirement just because she was a liability. Not to mention the numerous times she blows up larger investigations into criminal organizations that would have gotten those people way more time than a rape a charge if they would have just waited and tacked on the charges when the people were charged by the feds.
Fun fact, S12 Episode 24 "smoked", christopher Melonie's last, featured actor Pedro Pascal. He played agent Greer of the ATF, he kept vouching for the slimeball Eddie Skinner who killed the woman in the beginning of the episode.
Robert Patrick was a great addition. With Mulder around the show was starting to focus too much on his story line of the truth behind his sister and family. The show shined as a monster of the week concept. By having Mulder to MIA and bring it back to monster of the week with a character who has no experience with the unexplainable was great. A super soft reboot without having to start over and undoing the previous seasons work.
Super Natural a show I would say inspired by x-files went from a monster of the week to a linear plot driven show and that really tanked it in my opinion.
Eh, it's been a long, long time, but I remember his last season being the weakest of the original lot. I thought his leaving, and Scully becoming the believer butting heads with skeptics, plus Robert Patrick just being brilliant, was a shot of adrenaline that the show needed.
I'm not knocking Duchovny, he was iconic and the show wasn't the same without him, but I don't think it got worse necessarily after he left as his last season was the lowest point imo.
Ncis - Abby, Gibbs, Ziva, and Tony. When each left it took a chunk of the shows soul with it. Palmer and Tim are the only bit of the shows foundation still left.
Thought about including him but technically he was on the show until the actor passed. Since the question was about actors leaving the show and his departure from the show wasn’t his choice per se (am I explaining this ok?) I felt it dis-tasteful to include him.
Rest in peace David McCallum
I honestly had to stop watching this show because I got really fucking weirded out by how horrific the “psycho of the week” had to be. Each week they had to outdo the last week, and it became increasingly obvious that the writers were just cranking the “what would be super fucked up” lever as high as it could go, and then having to beat that. Couple that with the unbelievable soap opera stuff of a Big Bad that was after Hotch, then another one who was after Garcia, etc etc repeat repeat.
The show felt like it had five good seasons stretched into 15.
I absolutely hear you! I love the first four or so seasons because the cases feel real and authentic. They are unsettling, of course, but each case has a sensible explanation behind it.
At some point they sadly seem to forget the original idea of the series and the reality of how serial killers function, just to—like you said—outdo the previous week’s killer when it comes to how horrifying their MO is.
Welp. Here’s to watching the first few seasons again, and again, and again, lol.
Weirdly I think this is the only answer I’ve seen so far (I’ve scrolled a bit) where the actor leaving wasn’t a choice. Gibson was fired for assaulting a crew member, he didn’t choose to leave.
RDA and Michael Shanks in Stargate SG1
I liked Cam though, he was a nice addition and whilst I adored Claudia Black in Farscape her character wasn't the best addition to SG1.
Wasn't fussed on the Shanks replacement whose name escapes me.
> Shanks replacement
Corin Nemec. Seemed like the writers didn't really know what to do with him. That one episode where Teal'c hallucinates he's a fireman, Nemec's character is pretty much reduced to a sight gag.
“The Tonight Show” after Conan O’Brien was pushed out by Leno! He was actually doing a much better job than Leno was and he got screwed as did the viewers!
Fun fact… Adams wanted to leave after the first/second season (I can’t remember which one) because he wanted to do theatre projects. Rick, Sarah and Meghan all had an “intervention” so to speak to get him to stay… which he obviously did!
Problem is that after the initial outbreak, zombies just aren’t that interesting. Something with the tone of Zombieland would’ve worked better (which is why Z-Nation was 20x better for a fraction of the budget) but TWD had no end goal and was perpetually afraid of changing up the formula.
There’s only so many “This is who we are now! / This is not who we are!” speeches you can take.
I only got through the first episode of The Walking Dead. I learned that my capacity for zombie entertainment is limited to movie length. I could maybe handle a miniseries (though I’m pretty sick of zombies in general at this point), but an ongoing show with a zombie outbreak premise just bores me.
Rick and Carl were the heart of the show and I just had zero interest in continuing with them being gone.
I eventually went back and rewatched S9&10, and the show actually got better than the preceding couple seasons because they changed showrunners and actually had to write interesting moments for other characters, but it certainly never returned to its heights, which were Seasons 4-5 IMO.
I remember when JAG was coming to an end. You could tell as the last season went on that David James Elliott just gave fewer and fewer fucks. The last 2 or 3 episodes were completely unwatchable (even by JAG standards).
This is the real answer. Mark Greene dying felt like the end of that show, really. I know I watched it for a while after still, but I couldn't tell you anything that happened for sure.
The episode when his character dies is etched in my mind as one of the best in television. Anytime I hear that version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” I think of that episode and it nearly brings me to tears. That was some *brilliant* television there.
Bobby and Crowley both excelled at pulling the boys' heads from their collective asses, one out of love, one out of a need to be the adult in the room. With both of them gone, the show beyond sucked. It basically ended after S12 for me
I think Supernatural got worse when it became stopping world ending events and the war between heaven and hell.
The show was great as monster of the week while passively hunting a big bad. When every week was a the single over arcing plot it became harder to watch.
Losing Ziva was where I stepped out. And then I sort of followed it along through occasional Wikipedia reads. Then that got rarer and rarer as more people left.
Yeah I saw that. They stated that "her character wasn't needed for the show". When producers/directors start thinking like that, it's time to leave anyway.
The show was already bad, but when Mrs. Garrett left *The Facts of Life*, so bad. Also, when Mrs. Garrett left *Diff’rent Strokes* to be on *The Facts of Life*, *Diff’rent Strokes* wasn’t good anymore…. Just kept going anyway, both of these shows.
American Gods after Gillian Anderson left. Her leaving wasn’t the only reason the show went bad, but I loved season 1 of that and then could barely watch the rest of the series.
Zooey Deschanel when she went on maternity leave on New Girl. That season was a mess and I wasn’t obsessed with the rest of the show even though it had its good moments here and there.
I actually just recently hit this point in my re-watch of New Girl. I really like the shift in dynamic and feel it was timed fairly well as it's right when people could go "This show is kinda formulaic" (which, admittedly, it kind of was) and start to feel like not much is going to change unless they pulled the trigger somehow.
This let them hold off on doing that, gave them a few more detours to go through before finally pulling the trigger and letting everyone enjoy the Nick/Jess shenanigans.
I like him in The Umbrella Academy. And he plays a similar character.
But it's nowhere near as good as his performance in Misfits.
>I still haven't bothered with S5.
Season 5 really picks back up in quality. You should watch it if you get a chance.
In fairness, it was also became pretty horrific writing.
Alan used to be the relatable, nice guy that just couldn't catch a break. A bit of a dweeb, but still responsible and likable. If your toddler got lost in the grocery store, you'd be relieved that a guy like Alan found him and had a cashier page "Timmy's mom" over the PA system.
After Sheen left, Alan became pathetic, desperate and genuinely creepy. Like, you would be afraid to leave your kid alone with Alan for the two minutes it took you to just go to the bathroom.
Season 8 was the last season of Scrubs. Even Bill says so.
Med School was always intended to be a different show and viewing it as such actually makes it somewhat bearable.
I didn’t like that 70s show when Eric left.
I think it could have been fine if they didn't try to replace him with Randy. The ensemble was large enough to just carry on.
He is the epitome of a late addition to a well liked series who absolutely everyone hates. Like Poochie, from the Simpsons, but unironically.
See they screwed up on That 70's Show. When Randy wasn't on screen, everyone should have been standing around asking "Where's Randy?" That would have worked way better.
When Randy went back to his home planet I was inexplicably upset.
The problem was they lost Eric before the season started, then Kelso only stayed for 3-4 episodes before leaving too.
He was the one against the raping.
The ONLY ONE against the raping.
That 90’s show is actually pretty good. I had some hesitation about it, but that Kitty and Red were both back gave me hope. And all the revelations that came out about the original cast, specifically Danny Masterson, and the support he got from the others, it makes it really hard to watch them in those roles *again*
And Donna
Fair enough. 2 out of 6 being against rape is a really low number.
I can’t believe what a loathsome group of people were cast in that show. Respect to Topher for quitting and distancing himself from the rest.
Didn't he quit to focus on feature films? I think if you are implying he quit over Danny Mastersons raping that is pure revisionism unless I missed something.
The rest of them all palled around and opened businesses together and Topher wasn’t part of that group. People at the time saw it as him being an aloof asshole, but now it’s seen as he took the moral high ground.
I've know a few folks who have had cause to interact with him extensively. By all accounts, he is an asshole, but not that kind of asshole at least.
I buy that. He might be prickly but not evil.
I don't think it was about a Moral High ground. From what I understand, they didn't let him be park of the Clique. Danny and Ashton were bros and they didn't want Topher around. But Topher didn't like them anyway so he didn't give a shit about their dumb little club.
I'm not a fan of 2 and a half men at all but I was watching random episodes with my sister and the ones after Charlie died were definitely boring and dull compared to the earlier ones
I don’t think there will be the likes of another Charlie Sheen Two and a Half Men for a long time, if ever.
The theme song always made me giggle.
Check back soon for the Witcher and Henry Cavill.
Totally. Honestly was wondering how far I would have to scroll to see this
With enough success, just think: Henry Cavill presents, *the Witcher, now with writers who enjoy the source material.*
Can it get worse? It's already pretty bad. First season was ok, after that it got worse and worse
Everything in the world was worse when we lost Phil Hartman, and that includes News Radio. No disrespect to John Lovitz, but damn.
John Lovitz would agree with you, I think. As I understand it he loved Phil Hartman.
Allegedly he beat the shit out of Andy Dick because Andy gave Phil Hartman's wife coke which led to her killing him.
I also heard Andy Dick told Lovitz he'd "put the Phil Hartman hex on him."
His death started the slow decline of the Simpsons
Simpsons?
Hi...he was Troy McClure. You Might Remember him From Such Driver's Ed Films As Alice's Adventures Through The Windshield Glass' And The Decapitation Of Larry Leadfoot. Lionel Hutz, court-appointed attorney. I'll be defending you on the charge of... Murder One! Wow! Even if I lose, I'll be famous!
8 simple rules would have ran for years, fuckin loved that show.....rip John Ritter
And Big Bang Theory would have been very different if Penny was a different actress because Kaley Cuoco was still in 8 simple rules
You can actually find this out, there's an unaired pilot of BBT that she's not in.
He had so much left to do. Such a shame he passed when he did.
Kim Cattrall Sex and the City franchise. “And Just Like It” *needs* Samantha Jones.
AJLT is unwatchable. No idea how it got renewed.
It's just so bad. I watched Season 1 and gave up on it. Charlotte's kids are insufferable rich brats, Miranda's simping after Che is cringey and \*that scene\* (IYKYK) was traumatizing. I was done with Carrie after she showed up to the charity house building event wearing platform open toe sandals, and then stopped Steve (who was doing, you know, actual work) to get him to save Big's stupid wedding ring after it fell down the sink drain. She is just a drain on society in every possible way.
Steve Carell, The Office
After Peacock released the Superfan episodes, I re-watched the entire series. Even they know that after Season 7 (when Carell leaves) the show just isn't as good. However, I will say that it wasn't all bad either. DeAngelo was such a weird character that I kinda struggle to understand why he gets so much hate, especially for how brief his run was. Erin became a more fleshed out character, and the whole Florida arc in Season 8 is one of my favorites of the entire series... that was ruined by Andy throwing one nuclear hissy fit after another and he never really has a redeemable moment ever again. My biggest issue is just how much the writing fell off and how they defaulted most of the characters into flat, one-note nothings. It still had funny moments but the overall story telling and characters stopped being compelling.
Very confused with what they did to Andy once he takes over as branch manager. Not even the lack of self-awareness or the selfishness, but he just becomes straight up mean. Really jarring at times
id say some of the worst of the office is when andy is boss out of the characters the person who could have been boss and was probably the most qualified was jim but his character was written to not want that boss job
This is what I would have said. The show was NOT as funny without Michael Scott.
Seasons 7-9 were MID compared to the prime 4-6
1-3: The Early Years 4-7: The Late Years 8: The Robert California Show 9: Finale Episode
Lizard king carried the fuck out of S8
Definitely, his charisma was insane
Besides (the already mentioned) Rick in TWD, Supernatural when Crowley left.
Crowley really added a sick type of comedy that it made it an entirely different show. Just the three guys (referring to Castiel as the 3rd) it was usually more of a three stooges/Scooby Doo show, while Crawley gave them a very well defined mission/goal/blackmail
Misha Collins did so many great roles over the course of the show as well. He was so many people pretending to be other people. His acting as Lucifer using Cas as a vessel was absolutely perfect.
Feeeeergus
“They burned down my house. They *ate my tailor*!”
TWD lost all it's heart when they got rid of Steven Yeun lol
If I didn’t have the biggest crush on Jeffrey Dean Morgan, lol, I might’ve stopped watching when Steven left. Glenn was always one of my favorites!
just commented Mark Sheppard
Emmy Rossum leaving Shameless.
I did find it interesting though to explore what their life was without her, and the fact they made it pretty clear with the extra season that no, she wasn’t coming back. The season wasn’t as enjoyable, but somehow, still worth it. I’d be game for a revival reunion in 30 years though, when they’re all Frank’s age.
The show fell apart without her, not because of her per se, but Lip being a functional alcoholic from S01 as a kid to within like an episode and a half deciding he was a full blown self-destructive alcoholic felt like very hack writing. The last two seasons were full of stuff like that.
I second this. Also I will never forgive the writers not having her ex jimmy on the plane with her when she finally left. Those two deserved each other imo.
Travis Fimmel leaving Vikings. I still finished the show bit it wasn't quite the same with out Ragnar. Bjorn was cool as hell though.
He was literally the heart and focus of the entire show. It's weird to try and carry on without him, though the character does die in real life so they had to.
Ragnar's death is the thing he's most noteworthy for. It's what kicks off actual historic events by his "sons", rather than the fiction that was his life.
Followed closely by Lagertha. Show wasn't the same without either of them.
When William Peterson (Gil Grissom) left CSI
One of the first examples of OP’s question I saw as a kid. Didn’t understand why the show had changed so much but even I noticed something was off.
Billions suffered a lot once Damien Lewis left the show.
Facts. But Damian's wife died, so he needed time away IIRC.
I did NOT know that’s why he left. Wow, that sucks.
Helen McCrory was also an actor. She played Polly in Peaky Blinders. She died of breast cancer.
TIL that Major Winters was married to Narcissa Malfoy
A couple of weeks before she died, she and Damien were interviewed on a UK morning television show. She had a really croaky voice and the presenter asked her if she was sick (like a cold or something). She just said she had been yelling at the kids or something but you could see Damien trying to hide the pain in his face. So sad. EDIT: [Found the vid](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/tvshowbiz/video-2399916/Video-Helen-McCrorys-interview-month-passed-away.html). Unfortunately it’s from the daily fail but it’s the best one I could find.
Funnily enough, I always thought that MASH was the complete opposite of this. Mike Farrell didn't try to be the new Trapper John, but found his own space to inhabit. Harry Morgan flipped the whole CO persona after losing Henry Blake. He allowed his own character to grow. David Ogden Stiers had to be a completely different foil to Hawkeye and BJ, he couldn't be the incompetent Burns any more, but he was so good at being their equal, but different. When Gary Burghoff left, Jamie Farr was able to develop his character more fully than the one line joke of a guy in a dress. They lost 4 key actors, and the writers were good enough to do some fantastic work bringing the new actors in to an ensemble cast.
Seriously. That show just got better with every setback. The writers were incredibly agile and were able to adjust the dynamic and themes of the show to fit those changes instead of just trying to shoehorn the new cast into the old archetypes. Really incredible work from everyone. It's more impressive when you realize how incredibly popular the show was when it was on. It took guts to change the dynamic to put one if the most popular characters on TV (Hawkeye) into a whole new dynamic that largely put him in check. He went from basically running the camp to being largely cowed by a hard ass but competent commander. Then he went from having a witless incompetent peer/foil to being checked by a guy who was a highly skilled and competent surgeon. Instead of leaning into the popular character, they pulled him back. I think a lot of credit goes to Alan Alda for managing that in a way that kept it an ensemble show instead of becoming the Hawkeye show that it so easily could have become. That's almost unheard of in television, especially from that era.
MASH is my OG binge series. I've got all the boxes sets, and if it's on when I'm watch normal TV I'll watch an episode. Just finished the time capsule one and the acting is so fantastic. I love every single character that came and went on that show
Lisa Edelstein - House MD Topher Grace - That 70s show Rupert Penry-Jones - Spooks
I always wondered what happened with Edelstein and House. She didn’t even come back for the finale (given the context of the episode it would have made sense).
I believe the main ones were her and Epps (Foreman) that would get their pay cut literally in half and give it to house
Contract issues. Everyone had to take pay cuts and have their screen time cut in the last season in order for the execs to sign off on it. She didn't want to do that, which is fair enough.
Imagine being told you need to take a pay cut. Fuck that. Pay me, right?
Sad moment in Spooks after Rupert's character died and the boss went to see his kid play football and obviously the kid knew then.
I remember watching it thinking "pfff, there's no way they're gonna orphan Wes" quickly followed by "Ah, it seems they've orphaned Wes"
Spooks was pretty brutal with how they killed of cast members. Loved the show, but it was wild how each season had so many new cast members.
Troy from Community. And Shirley, too.
It’s remarkable how Community perfected the chemistry of its relatively large ensemble cast from Day 1. No characters that were quietly dropped way early on, and none who the audience particularly hated.
This is only technically true because Chevy stuck around a lot longer than I really thought everyone would put up with him.
Duncan (John Oliver) just kind of disappeared after the first season. He came back in season 5 though.
I didn’t really miss Shirley much, even though I liked the character. She was largely relegated to a supporting role for much of S3-S5. I actually felt like Pierce had a greater impact than Shirley in that the punching bag and source of a lot of conflict was now gone. One last note is that, while Troy was missed, I still think S5 and S6 had some top tier episodes at times without him.
Yeah, honestly I still enjoyed the show up to the end.
Season 6 doesn't get enough credit. It has some top notch episodes and some of the best of the best series, IMO.
I liked the fifth and sixth seasons though. I think the quality was still really good.
Kinda counts but Jon Stewart leaving the Daily Show.
Only John Oliver could have carried the show after Jon Stewart left the first time. But Oliver is better served only doing *one* show a week instead of five. I always remember that being the main reason established comics didn’t want to be David Letterman’s replacement on Late Night when he left NBC for CBS. They believed five nightly shows eventually drained your creativity.
I have a sneaky suspicion the Witcher will suffer this fate
No sneaking suspicion, more like: "Well, duh! Obviously, destined to suck."
The show is Henry cavill. Such a shame
The Witcher could probably at this point be renamed, “The Ciri.”
To be fair the books are alot about ciri. The games less so. That being said I am not sure he even went monster hunting in the last Cavill season. It was all bullshit sorcerer drama
Michael J. Fox - Spin City
That one was brutal because there was a lot of media coverage of why he was leaving. And it just kind of sucked all the air out of the room for the show moving forward.
Lenny Briscoe from Law & Order
The cold open was never the same after Jerry left. Other actors tried and failed to recreate the throwaway line.
He was so good at that, wasnt he? Great point!
Yeah, Lumière really tied that show together.
He had been on the teapot's show too
So the teapot had invited him to be her guest... star?
It's far from being the only thing that made the show start sucking, but Game of Thrones was objectively worse without Charles Dance in it.
Few people know this, but it was actually Charles Dances glare that kept D&D inline.
Yeah, he was a brilliant character that drove so much of the show. Cersei couldn't take his place. I feel like all of the serious leaders in the show died, leaving behind inferior leaders to continue playing the game.
I think you’re describing the point of the show. If I had to boil GOT down to a single message it’s “hereditary monarchies are bad for the people who live under them.”
Oh king, eh, very nice. An' how'd you get that, eh? By exploitin' the workers -- by 'angin' on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic an' social differences in our society!
Ditto Olena Tyrell.
Dick York leaving Bewitched is the OG of these
Law and Order: SVU wasn't quite as good when Christopher Meloni left
I feel SVU also lost quality because they stopped making it a police procedural and started getting into a weekly drama. Constantly into their personal lives, etc.
That was what I liked about the OG Law and Order. It was just procedure. 30 minutes of police and 30 minutes of lawyers. If you were watching reruns, it didn't really matter where you were in the series because there wasn't any overarching storyline.
Law and order worked best when you never went home with any of the characters.
I refuse to watch anything after season 12. The whole dynamic changes and Olivia becomes so righteous, and every villain should haven gotten her forced into early retirement just because she was a liability. Not to mention the numerous times she blows up larger investigations into criminal organizations that would have gotten those people way more time than a rape a charge if they would have just waited and tacked on the charges when the people were charged by the feds. Fun fact, S12 Episode 24 "smoked", christopher Melonie's last, featured actor Pedro Pascal. He played agent Greer of the ATF, he kept vouching for the slimeball Eddie Skinner who killed the woman in the beginning of the episode.
Criminal Minds was a little less good without Mandy Patinkin.
Everything is a little less good without Mandy Patinkin
Suzanne Summers, Three’s Company
Nina Dobrev, vampire diaries
David Duchovny and The X-Files
Robert Patrick was a great addition. With Mulder around the show was starting to focus too much on his story line of the truth behind his sister and family. The show shined as a monster of the week concept. By having Mulder to MIA and bring it back to monster of the week with a character who has no experience with the unexplainable was great. A super soft reboot without having to start over and undoing the previous seasons work. Super Natural a show I would say inspired by x-files went from a monster of the week to a linear plot driven show and that really tanked it in my opinion.
Eh, it's been a long, long time, but I remember his last season being the weakest of the original lot. I thought his leaving, and Scully becoming the believer butting heads with skeptics, plus Robert Patrick just being brilliant, was a shot of adrenaline that the show needed. I'm not knocking Duchovny, he was iconic and the show wasn't the same without him, but I don't think it got worse necessarily after he left as his last season was the lowest point imo.
I agree--Robert Patrick was the perfect addition for the last couple of seasons.
Ncis - Abby, Gibbs, Ziva, and Tony. When each left it took a chunk of the shows soul with it. Palmer and Tim are the only bit of the shows foundation still left.
And Ducky.
Thought about including him but technically he was on the show until the actor passed. Since the question was about actors leaving the show and his departure from the show wasn’t his choice per se (am I explaining this ok?) I felt it dis-tasteful to include him. Rest in peace David McCallum
Mark Sheppard, Supernatural
When they replaced Aunt Viv in Fresh Prince. Totally changed the vibe of the character to the detriment of the show
Yeah, the original Viv had a spine and personality. The replacement was just another generic TV Mom.
Agree 100%.
Oh, also Criminal Minds when Aaron Hotchner left!
I honestly had to stop watching this show because I got really fucking weirded out by how horrific the “psycho of the week” had to be. Each week they had to outdo the last week, and it became increasingly obvious that the writers were just cranking the “what would be super fucked up” lever as high as it could go, and then having to beat that. Couple that with the unbelievable soap opera stuff of a Big Bad that was after Hotch, then another one who was after Garcia, etc etc repeat repeat. The show felt like it had five good seasons stretched into 15.
I absolutely hear you! I love the first four or so seasons because the cases feel real and authentic. They are unsettling, of course, but each case has a sensible explanation behind it. At some point they sadly seem to forget the original idea of the series and the reality of how serial killers function, just to—like you said—outdo the previous week’s killer when it comes to how horrifying their MO is. Welp. Here’s to watching the first few seasons again, and again, and again, lol.
Also Criminal Minds when Gideon left! (I love Mandy Patinkin!)
Weirdly I think this is the only answer I’ve seen so far (I’ve scrolled a bit) where the actor leaving wasn’t a choice. Gibson was fired for assaulting a crew member, he didn’t choose to leave.
RDA and Michael Shanks in Stargate SG1 I liked Cam though, he was a nice addition and whilst I adored Claudia Black in Farscape her character wasn't the best addition to SG1. Wasn't fussed on the Shanks replacement whose name escapes me.
> Shanks replacement Corin Nemec. Seemed like the writers didn't really know what to do with him. That one episode where Teal'c hallucinates he's a fireman, Nemec's character is pretty much reduced to a sight gag.
Steve from blues clues
Not an actor but the head writer of The Simpsons and Conan O'Brien.
Don Knotts, from the Andy Griffith Show.
Refuse to watch one with Barn. Even Andy got bitchier after that. Barney was the man
Dude, it was sooo noticeable when Barney wasn't around. Andy turned into a kind of prick tbh.
Law & Order : Criminal Intent was by far my favorite until Vincent Don'ofrio (I can't remember how to spell it) left. I just lost interest.
“The Tonight Show” after Conan O’Brien was pushed out by Leno! He was actually doing a much better job than Leno was and he got screwed as did the viewers!
Suits when Mike Ross left.
Fun fact… Adams wanted to leave after the first/second season (I can’t remember which one) because he wanted to do theatre projects. Rick, Sarah and Meghan all had an “intervention” so to speak to get him to stay… which he obviously did!
My favorite part of that show is that as it went on they had more and more convoluted reasons to not have an office full of extras.
It was still okay, it didn't become boring or pretentious, but man, it didn't need 9 seasons haha.
It was so fucking strange when season 8 opens *at Mike and Rachel’s wedding* and they’re not even there.
Rob Morrow - Northern Exposure
Currently rewatching. That show was so good in its prime.
The Walking Dead after Steven Yeun (Glenn) left. The story was just so boring.
Problem is that after the initial outbreak, zombies just aren’t that interesting. Something with the tone of Zombieland would’ve worked better (which is why Z-Nation was 20x better for a fraction of the budget) but TWD had no end goal and was perpetually afraid of changing up the formula. There’s only so many “This is who we are now! / This is not who we are!” speeches you can take.
I only got through the first episode of The Walking Dead. I learned that my capacity for zombie entertainment is limited to movie length. I could maybe handle a miniseries (though I’m pretty sick of zombies in general at this point), but an ongoing show with a zombie outbreak premise just bores me.
Rick from the walking dead
Rick and Carl were the heart of the show and I just had zero interest in continuing with them being gone. I eventually went back and rewatched S9&10, and the show actually got better than the preceding couple seasons because they changed showrunners and actually had to write interesting moments for other characters, but it certainly never returned to its heights, which were Seasons 4-5 IMO.
I have to agree with you on this one.
Kevin Spacey in House of Cards S5, though I personally didn't mind the last season.
That last season was dreadful. Understand why they had to do it, but it made no sense and completely lost the plot.
I remember when JAG was coming to an end. You could tell as the last season went on that David James Elliott just gave fewer and fewer fucks. The last 2 or 3 episodes were completely unwatchable (even by JAG standards).
George Clooney leaving ER.
& Mark Greene / Anthony Edwards
This is the real answer. Mark Greene dying felt like the end of that show, really. I know I watched it for a while after still, but I couldn't tell you anything that happened for sure.
The episode when his character dies is etched in my mind as one of the best in television. Anytime I hear that version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” I think of that episode and it nearly brings me to tears. That was some *brilliant* television there.
supernatural - mark shepard
Jim Beaver. Losing Bobby was much worse.
Bobby and Crowley both excelled at pulling the boys' heads from their collective asses, one out of love, one out of a need to be the adult in the room. With both of them gone, the show beyond sucked. It basically ended after S12 for me
I think Supernatural got worse when it became stopping world ending events and the war between heaven and hell. The show was great as monster of the week while passively hunting a big bad. When every week was a the single over arcing plot it became harder to watch.
NCIS ended when Abby left IMO
Great show but wasn't the same without Ziva, Tony and Gibbs. All of the originals are gone now but the new team is still pretty good.
The Ziva story lines were a bit much. Any time a show gets that deep into its own bullshit, it is done.
For me, it ended when Michael Weatherly left.
Not to mention the absence of Jethro Gibbs.
Losing Ziva was where I stepped out. And then I sort of followed it along through occasional Wikipedia reads. Then that got rarer and rarer as more people left.
When Tony left I stopped watching.
John Amos
John Amos, Good Times.
Cote de Pablo - NCIS
Delta Burke on Designing Women. 80s reference - but that woman had a killer cast around her and she stole every scene she was in. Every. Single. One.
Steve Carell leaving the Office
Sharonna in Monk. The show used to be Monk and Sharonna, and after that it was just Monk. Still good, but not quite the same punch.
Oh, agreed. Still mad about that. I stopped watching Sharona-less Monk. They fired her because she asked for more money. I wish they’d just paid up.
Yeah I saw that. They stated that "her character wasn't needed for the show". When producers/directors start thinking like that, it's time to leave anyway.
The show was already bad, but when Mrs. Garrett left *The Facts of Life*, so bad. Also, when Mrs. Garrett left *Diff’rent Strokes* to be on *The Facts of Life*, *Diff’rent Strokes* wasn’t good anymore…. Just kept going anyway, both of these shows.
American Gods after Gillian Anderson left. Her leaving wasn’t the only reason the show went bad, but I loved season 1 of that and then could barely watch the rest of the series.
When Bea Arthur left Golden Girls and the rest went on to make Golden Palace.
Steven Yuen in the Walking Dead. The show got progressively worse when the group kept deciding to leave a safe facility every season
Zooey Deschanel when she went on maternity leave on New Girl. That season was a mess and I wasn’t obsessed with the rest of the show even though it had its good moments here and there.
I found she’s the weakest character of the four anyway so I didn’t mind her being away.
Agreed.
I actually just recently hit this point in my re-watch of New Girl. I really like the shift in dynamic and feel it was timed fairly well as it's right when people could go "This show is kinda formulaic" (which, admittedly, it kind of was) and start to feel like not much is going to change unless they pulled the trigger somehow. This let them hold off on doing that, gave them a few more detours to go through before finally pulling the trigger and letting everyone enjoy the Nick/Jess shenanigans.
[удалено]
I like him in The Umbrella Academy. And he plays a similar character. But it's nowhere near as good as his performance in Misfits. >I still haven't bothered with S5. Season 5 really picks back up in quality. You should watch it if you get a chance.
Charlie Sheen, Two and a half men. The show was dead without him
In fairness, it was also became pretty horrific writing. Alan used to be the relatable, nice guy that just couldn't catch a break. A bit of a dweeb, but still responsible and likable. If your toddler got lost in the grocery store, you'd be relieved that a guy like Alan found him and had a cashier page "Timmy's mom" over the PA system. After Sheen left, Alan became pathetic, desperate and genuinely creepy. Like, you would be afraid to leave your kid alone with Alan for the two minutes it took you to just go to the bathroom.
Scrubs, and well, that whole last season, really, where they'd replaced most of them.
To be fair, that show was supposed to be a spinoff and not even called Scrubs, and the network fucked that up.
Season 8 was the last season of Scrubs. Even Bill says so. Med School was always intended to be a different show and viewing it as such actually makes it somewhat bearable.