Catastrophic TV cast departures

[The Borgified Corpse]

Word recently came out that Scrubs might be continuing on to a 9th season without Zach Braff in the cast. I've never been a big fan of the show but even I can see how catastrophic that would be. Braff's character is the narrator of the entire series. Without him, the show wouldn't just be limping along. Indeed, removing J.D. would be like amputating both legs and at least one arm.

This got me thinking about other shows which suffered major cast departures and how they coped. Which departures do you think were the most catastrophic to their respective series?

I'm sure a lot of people right off are going to say that Fox Mulder leaving The X-Files was a crippling blow. I disagree. I thought Mulder was overrated and I loved his replacement, John Doggett.

Hex, a little known British series about teenage witches fighting fallen angels, suffered a huge blow when its original lead, Cassie, was killed off in Season 2. It's hard to imagine a series so thoroughly focusing on one lead in Season 1 only to brazenly kill her off 2 episodes into Season 2. (From what I've heard, it wasn't the writers' fault. The actress quit the show when she discovered that her nude scenes hadn't been edited out of a Season 1 episode.) Further damaging things was that, without Cassie, there really wasn't a convincing reason why the ghost of her dead lesbian roommate, Thelma, kept hanging around.

NewsRadio was never the same after Phil Hartman died. But I suspect that had more to do with the way he died. If he'd died of natural causes or even a tragic accident, I think the rest of the cast & crew might have been able to soldier on better. But because he was so senselessly murdered by his own wife, I think it left everyone with a bitterness that pervades the entire final season. (It didn't help that Andy Dick & Jon Lovitz hated each other because Lovitz blamed Dick for Hartman's death.)

 

[Aragorn]

The Dukes of Hazzard -- Bo and Luke being replaced by their clone cousins Coy and Vance.

Homicide: Life on the Street -- the show wasn't the same without Andre Braugher, whose sheer presence made him the star in an ensemble show, but the show was going to get canceled after season seven anyway.

Head of the Class -- when the teacher (Howard Hesseman) is the star, it doesn't matter if you replace him with Billy Connelly. It's just not going to work.

V -- when they killed off the popular Martin, it sure backfired on them, so they had to bring the actor back as the brother, which is always stupid.

Sliders -- Once Jerry O'Connell was gone, what was the point?

Airwolf -- Stringfellow Hawke was the show.

The Agency -- I don't think the show was going to have much of a chance anyway, but replacing the cerebral lead (Gil Bellows) with an action hero (Jason O'Mara) really didn't fit the tone of the show.

Fox Mulder leaving X-Files for the majority of season eight, while sucky, wasn't bad, especially since he became the X-File case. Doggett injected new life into the show and cases were looked at from a different angle, with Scully as the believer and Doggett as the skeptic (though he didn't have a problem believing in "things"). It was season nine that the show deflated -- where they were completely without Mulder but tried to keep Scully around with a really lame plot point. They should've just let them both go.

 

[Samurai8472]

When RDA left physically after season 8 of Stargate SG-1. I say "physically" because he wasn't really there mentally with the show for the past 2 years.

 

[auntiehill]

V -- when they killed off the popular Martin, it sure backfired on them, so they had to bring the actor back as the brother, which is always stupid.

Sliders -- Once Jerry O'Connell was gone, what was the point?

Actually, what did in "V" (er...aside from really crappy writing) was the departure of Michael Ironside's Ham Tyler. He was brutal and dark, with all the great sarcastic lines. They got rid of him, and there was no reason left to watch.

What did Sliders in for me was the departure of John Rhys Davies. His character gave the show some class, as well as a character that didn't look (or sound) like he fell out of central casting. He was a really great character that they did NOTHING with. Once he left, they brought on Kari Wuher, who was just dreadful in the part. The character was a pointless cliche and it completely ruined the character-dynamic of the show.

 

[nx1701g]

I have to add Michael J Fox leaving Spin City and being replaced by Charlie Sheen. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't as great as it had once been. Maybe it was just the storyline of Mike taking the fall for something that could have been spun.

 

[LutherSloan]

John Ritter's show '8 Simple Rules...' essentially died with him. They tried doing the show in the aftermath of his death, but it didn't last long.

One of the first shows on 'Adult Swim', 'Sealab 2021', went downhill fast following the death of Harry Goz, who voiced Captain Murphy.

 

[Sheep]

Richard Coyle leaving Coupling before the fourth season was the first one that came to mind for me. Granted, the fourth season wasn't terrible without him, but it wasn't the same without Jeff, who to this day is one of my favorite characters from ANY television show.

 

[gh4chiefs]

I find myself wondering how CSI is going to do without Peterson. The character of Grissom (IMHO) is what seperates that show from the other CSI's.

 

[Mr Light]

Ivanova being replaced by Lochely on Babylon 5. Boone leaving Earth: Final Conflict after one season. There's Sinclair on B5 but I much preferred Sheridan.

 

[Christopher]

The Dukes of Hazzard -- Bo and Luke being replaced by their clone cousins Coy and Vance.

I wouldn't call that "catastrophic," because it was a temporary change that was soon reversed. I think "catastrophic" only applies if it directly contributed to the show's demise, or at least irreparable damage to the concept of the show, leaving it without purpose or credibility. A cast departure can be undesirable or regrettable without actually causing catastrophe for the show.

When RDA left physically after season 8 of Stargate SG-1. I say "physically" because he wasn't really there mentally with the show for the past 2 years.

I think that's why the show was better off without him. I got sick of his self-indulgent schtick and phoning in of his part years before they finally did the right thing and got rid of him. And bringing in Ben Browder and Claudia Black really revitalized the show. Heck, they should've dropped Christopher Judge and Michael Shanks too. After the Goa'uld were defeated, there was no valid reason for Teal'c to remain with SG-1 instead of becoming the leader of the Free Jaffa as he really should have. And Daniel hadn't had a meaningful story arc since his resurrection.

What did Sliders in for me was the departure of John Rhys Davies. His character gave the show some class, as well as a character that didn't look (or sound) like he fell out of central casting. He was a really great character that they did NOTHING with. Once he left, they brought on Kari Wuher, who was just dreadful in the part. The character was a pointless cliche and it completely ruined the character-dynamic of the show.

Only in the third season, whose back half was written by incompetents. When the show moved to SciFi, it gained a new writing staff which was much more capable, including Bill Dial, Chris Black, and Marc Scott Zicree. Maggie, Wuhrer's character, was completely transformed into someone interesting and likeable, and Wuhrer proved she could actually act when given something decent to work with. The SciFi seasons of Sliders were still flawed, but they're sadly underrated. Heck, compared to the back half of Season 3, even their worst episodes are brilliant.

 

[mic of orion]

John Ritter's show '8 Simple Rules...' essentially died with him. They tried doing the show in the aftermath of his death, but it didn't last long.

One of the first shows on 'Adult Swim', 'Sealab 2021', went downhill fast following the death of Harry Goz, who voiced Captain Murphy.

John Ritter was da-man, it was a great loss when I heard he died of hart attack, at 54 he was rather young, considering current generations would see to be 85-87...

 

[jgdst]

The first one that came to mind was Ashton Kutcher and Topher Grace leaving That 70s Show, but to be honest, I actually enjoyed season 8 more than season 6, but the show definitely wasn't the same.

I just went along with the cast changes on Sliders, but as the stories got more bizarre and more like movie parodies, I eventually stopped watching. Maybe if it was the original cast I might've stuck with it.

Chris Barrie leaving Red Dwarf was quite a blow, but then again Series VII was pretty dire regardless of whether Rimmer was still in it. It was just added salt in the wound with him gone.

To echo LutherSloan's sentiments, David Spade and James Garner never really managed to fill the hole left by John Ritter's death in 8 Simple Rules. Though I think they did the right thing by writing the show (minus the audience) following his death, trying to show the family carrying on following a tragedy.

 

[RevdKathy]

The bbc had this really weird show where the lead just 'regenerated' every time they changed actors. It was called Doctor Something... wonder whatever happened to that?

 

[Ben Sisko3]

While The Dead Zone was amazing for the first two seasons and just very good in the third, it started to go downhill fast in season 4. The final crushing blow came in the sixth and final season, with the complete removal of or lack of regular appearances by Martin Donovan, John L. Adams, David Ogden Stiers and Chris Bruno.

 

[Smiley]

I agree on the Season 5 Babylon 5 departures. Losing Ivanova and Marcus scuttled a lot of my interest in an already struggling season.

I also agree with Richard Dean Anderson on Stargate: SG-1. His charisma and screen presence are unmatched by any of the other actors on the show. Compare "The Shroud" to just about any other episode in the last two seasons, and it's obvious what he brings to the table.

 

[John Picard]

The Dukes of Hazzard -- Bo and Luke being replaced by their clone cousins Coy and Vance.

I wouldn't call that "catastrophic," because it was a temporary change that was soon reversed. I think "catastrophic" only applies if it directly contributed to the show's demise, or at least irreparable damage to the concept of the show, leaving it without purpose or credibility. A cast departure can be undesirable or regrettable without actually causing catastrophe for the show.

Wopat and Schneider wanted more money, but the Suits were convinced that the General Lee was the star of the show so, Wopat and Schneider basically went on strike and walked. Once rating plummeted, guess who came back to bigger paychecks?

 

[ClayinCA]

Well, I am showing my age here, but how about an all-Seventies edition:

Don Knotts leaving The Andy Griffith Show
Ron Howard leaving Happy Days
Gabe Kaplan leaving Welcome Back Kotter
Linda Lavin basically leaving Alice (though, like Kaplan, she continued to be credited for episodes in which she did not appear)

I'm tempted to cite The Ropers and Suzanne Somers leaving Three's Company, but that show was crap to begin with (apart from the great John Ritter). Then again, so was Alice, so I guess I don't know what I'm talking about.

 

[LitmusDragon]

Boston Legal. There were so many changeovers and for the most part they all worked, until the fourth season IMO.

 

[Harvey]

Siskel and Ebert at the movies stopped being good after Siskel died and Ebert left.

People have already listed the ones that would have come to mind, although I'll cite Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's loss of Terry Farrell in the seventh season as problematic. Ezri just wasn't given enough time to come into her own as a character, in my opinion, as loveable as the actress is.

 

[TheGodBen]

John Cleese leaving Monty Python. The fourth season wasn't as satirical and started being weird for the sake of being weird. None of the other writers seemed to be able to handle Chapman's alcoholism, so the writing fell mainly upon the shoulders of Palin, Jones and Idle. Without the balance Cleese provided, the show lost its way, and when he came back for the three films they were back on form again.