Actors Who Quit a Show/Appear and Disaappear

I started this thread because I've always been fascinated by people who seem to be at their peak on a particular show then leave for whatever reason in the middle of it, usually beacause of compensation issues. Then there are characters that are introduced and pop up every so often in subsequent episodes/seasons and then mysteriously disappear without explanation. Below are examples of this and I'm hoping others here contribute to the list.

John Amos (Good Times). All I remember is Esther Rolle's character getting a wire saying her husband (Amos) was in an accident and was dead. Clever way of explaining him away but why did he leave the show?

On MacGyver around the fourth season there were a pair of black bounty hunters introduced as recurring characters. I say this because they popped up on a few more episodes but then nothing. Was it an idea that just didn't work? Then there was that actor from Timecop who played MacGyver's annoying buddy (I forget his name). The series ended and we never found out who he really was. I really hate loose ends, don't you?

I know Suzzane Sommers left Three's Company because she wanted more money but what ever happened to Cindy? She was there for one season. I thought she was great - why was she dropped?

Sliders. Wasn't there a fifth season? Why did the cute chick leave after the third season and did Jerry O'Connell appear in the fifth season?

Miami Vice. John Diehl was killed off in Season 3. Was he unhappy with the role?
 

Edited by Luisito34 - 8/28/09 at 10:10am

David Caruso on "NYPD Blue" after season 1 and a few eps. into season 2.  Can't remember why he left, but I think it was either money issues or he wanted to do films.

Mclean Stevenson, 'M*A*S*H', for compensation issues, as the OP mentioned, plus I think he thought he could be a 'top-banana'.

Jenilee Harrison was punted to lesser role and replaced with Priscilla Barnes. I believe Jenilee was also working on Dallas at the time.

How about Valerie Harper and the hogan family? They said she died and wrote her out of the script and added in Sandy Duncan.

There are many instances were actors left either because of money or wanting a bigger role. I remember the paramedic in third watch wanted a bigger role, but, that never happen so they had his character die off. I am huge 70s and 80s show and some actors/actresses were replace and the show got better, like the captain in emergency! or Charlie Angels with Farah Fawcett or Julie Mccullough for Chelsea Noble in Growing Pains, etc.

Lusito,

The first name I thought of was McLean Stevenson, who has already been mentioned.

BTW, since you did write 'for whatever reason,' I suppose Dick York's name ought to be mentioned.  I do not know for certain if he wanted to leave, however.

How about some of Charlie's Angels?  (I see that this one has also been mentioned.)

Also, Alexandre Moltke left Dark Shadows around the half-way point.  So did Mitchell Ryan much earlier in the series, although it wasn't necessarily his choice.

Did any stars leave Peyton Place during the run of the series?

The lady that played Kate on NCIS left after the first 2 or 3 seasons.  Never heard from her again.

The guy who played Speed on CSI: Miami wanted to be in movies.  Again,  never saw him in anything again.

Both.  He was the hot guy on the hottest show of that season, and decided he was bigger than his series.  Features beckoned, and he wanted out.  (He was under contract, but no show wants a surly actor who is working under duress, so the producers made cut a deal under which he had to return for the early episodes of S2 so that they could write his character out in dramatic fashion.)  His feature career went nowhere fast and he was lucky to get a second chance on television years later.  Caruso's move was so dumb that "to pull a Caruso" entered the Hollywood lexicon.

Prior to Caruso that term would have been "to pull a Mac Stephenson", after the actor who created the part of Col. Henry Blake on M*A*S*H before walking away from that hit series and promptly falling off the face of the Earth.  He, too, was convinced (probably by his agent) that he was meant for bigger things - in his case a sitcom of his own.  The show, Hello Larry, became one of TV's legendary flops.  Instead of delivering punch lines, Stephenson became one.  His career never recovered. 

More recently Bitty Schram quit her role as Monk's nurse and assistant, Sharona after a few seasons in a salary dispute.  I haven't checked the IMDB lately to see what she's been up to, but the last time I did her post-Monk credits were very thin and I know I've nver personally seen her in anything since she left the show.  She does have on upcoming guest shot that I'm sure to watch though - on Monk, which is in its last season and is bringing Sharona back for a final bow.   

Actor Tony Musante is probably unique in the annals of TV.  A Broadway and soap opera veteran, Musante wasn't really interested in the long-term commitment required by series television.  So when he was offered the chance to play real-life detective David Toma, a cop who used costumes, accents and disguises to create undercover characters, he insisted on a one year contract.  The network and studio agreed, assuming that this was just a ploy to put him in a better negotiating position if the show became a hit.  But it wasn't.  Musante played the character for the contracted year, then walked away from the show because he thought that if it continued the network would turn it into a conventional shoot-out and chase scene cop show.  No amount of money could change his mind. 

The producers salvaged the situation by dropping the Toma character in favor of a fictional cop with the same M.O. and brought a veteran actor - Robert Blake - to play him.  Thus was born Barretta, a conventional shoot-out nd chase scene cop show.  

Babylon 5 also famously switched leading men after its first year, while remaining the same show.   In B5's case it seems a combination of factors was involved.  1)  The series creator had already realized that his original outline had a problem - the main character had too many plot lines centered on him.  It wasn't plausible in telling the story from week to week that the same guy who had been the hero of the Line and the object of the Minbari's attention should also have the personal connection to the upcoming Shadow arc that drama required.  So he decided to bring in a new character, an Aragorn to Sinclair's Frodo, dividing some of the quest elements from the war elements originally combined in Sinclair.  2)  At around the same time Michael O'Hare, the New York stage actor who played Sinclair, was wearying of the series grind and homesick for the east.  JMS has written that the two arrived at a solution:   O'Hare would leave the show, but the Sinclair character would remain "alive" in the story and - when the time was right - would return to fulfill the destiny originally planned for him.  (Albeit under somewhat altered circumstances.)  Some fans insist that this was not or could not have been the case and believe that the studio and/or affiliates insisted on a "name" actor, or at least one with a higher "Q" score than O'Hare's.

 

While it is certainly true that Bruce Boxleitner brought more TV "star" power and a higher "Q" rating than Michael O'Hare (he had recently come off Scarecrow and Mrs. King and several highly-rated Gambler TV movies with Kenny Rogers), I don't think his casting is prima facie evidence that Warner Bros. or PTEN was behind the change.   Apart from Kung-Fu: The Legend Continues with David Carradine, few of PTEN's series had much star power, and none of them was pressured into recasting.    And B5 had done well enough in the ratings to merit renewal for a second season with O'Hare as the lead - the change came during the hiatus after the pick up order had been given.  Also they looked at a number of actors, including James Earl Jones, to play the new captain so there is no indication that the studio said, "Get us 'Scarecrow'." 

In the end there were only three people in the room when the decision was made, and only one of them (JMS) has gone on the record in any detail about what was said there.  And he says it was a mutual decision and an amicable parting.  If Michael O'Hare had a different take he's had years to tell someone, and I'm not aware that he has.   Certainly he continued to support and promote the show after he left, appearing at conventions and the like, and he did return in Season Three for the critical two parter, "War Without End". 

Around the time of the DVD release there seems to have been some serious miscommunication which resulted in O'Hare not participating in the DVD extras and some hurt feeling, but that was years later and completely unrelated to his original departure. 

Finally who can forget Farrah Fawcett jumping ship from Charlie's Angels and then being brought back for a few guest shots as a result of a nasty lawsuit.  I'd say Farrah did OK for herself after that, although she never became the break-out film star she probably could have.

On the other side of the ledger we have John Travolta and George Clooney, who really were bigger than the shows that made them stars, and proved it by moving on and becoming much bigger in movies. (And Tom Hanks who did the same, but loyally stayed with his show until it was thorugh with him, rather than vice versa.  )

Regards,

Joe

Yes, Scott, Mia Farrow left PEYTON PLACE right in the middle of the series. In her autobiography, Farrow revealed that she regretted having signed to play ingénue Allison MacKenzie almost immediately and pleaded with the producers to release her from her contract before the first scene was even shot, but they rejected her request. Rumor has it that her then-husband Frank Sinatra pulled some strings to get her out of the show in the summer of 1966.

Another case that springs to mind is Sherry Stringfield leaving her role as Dr. Susan Lewis on ER at the beginning of Season 3 in 1996 and coming back in Season 8, only to leave again at the beginning of Season 12.

Lecy Goranson was replaced by Sarah Chalke as Becky on "Roseanne", then she and Goranson kind of switched back and forth in the role over the final seasons.  I don't recall the reason Lecy left.

EDIT: Her IMDB profile says she left to attend college.


Edited by Malcolm R - 8/28/09 at 10:43am

Whisper,

Yeah, that's right.  I completely forgot about Farrow.

Another one is Jeremy Gelbwaks (The Partridge Family), who was replaced by Brian Forster.

Bob,

Welcome back!  Hope you're feeling better lately.  Ditto for Gary's "welcome" on the Robin Hood thread.

NYPD Blue: Yep, David C left after S1 because at that time, he hought he was destined to hit it big in movies.  That didn't turn out like he planned but I guess he's been ok back on the small screen in recent years.  Imo, that 1st season role in NYPD Blue was a perfect fit for his acting.

For a lesser known example back on topic: Combat! fans remember that the original "Doc" (Steven Rogers) left early in the series and was replaced by Conlan Carter who portrayed "Doc" for the majority of the show.

Barney Fife leaving The Andy Griffith Show to become a detective for the Raliegh PD.  He did come back a couple of times though as his new character.

Trapper John (Wayne Rogers) leaving M*A*S*H, his character got "sent home", Frank Burns (Larry Linville) left M*A*S*H after going insane.

Big Brother Chuck Cunningham just literally disappeared from Happy Days, never to be heard of, or referred to again.

Dick York replaced by Dick Sargent on Bewitched, think anyone ever noticed?

Bret Maverick (James Garner) just left Maverick without mention ever being made over his disappearance.  Garner left over a salary dispute.

Adam (Pernell Roberts) left his brothers on Bonanza, allegedly because he "joined the Navy".

Chester (Dennis Weaver) left Gunsmoke, why? 

Thanks, Jeff.  Shecky Greene's character was also gone after the end of the first season.

That's funny about Caruso. What was his biggest film role, then? I saw him in an indie horror flick (Session 9) but don't remember anything else. Just goes to show - if you have a strong character in a hit show, best stick with it cause u never know how things are going to turn out. I mean its ok to aspire to bigger and better things, just don't let your ego (or an overzealous agent) get in the way.

If I recall, and please correct me if i'm wrong anybody, but didn't Don Knotts not want to leave The Andy Griffifth Show?  His contract renewal was coming up and his agent already had him signed for multi-picture deals for the cinema that would make him not available to work on the tv show anymore.  I just remember hearing that somewhere that he was heartbroken he basically had to leave the show b/c of his movie career, and was so grateful when he was able to come back and play Barney again. 

He had "Kiss of Death" and "Jade" and "Cold Around the Heart".  I saw all of them, and Caruso wasn't the problem -- just not good films.  Had he chosen different projects, he might have had that big film career.  But as "C.S.I. Miami" is (or was) the #1 show in the world, I guess it all worked out for him.

Dick Wolf shows basically have the built-in revolving door.  In most cases, it seems they like to bring in new actors to keep the show fresh.

My understanding was that he was ready to leave to do movies. I don't believe he was bitter or anything or had a problem playing the part but was just ready to move on. The more surprising thing was that the studio wasn't ready for it. They originally signed him to a 5 year deal and didn't seem to think to resign him to a newer contract sooner as his popularity grew.  If you watch the first few episodes he isn't as prominent a character as he soon quickly became.

On another note, I saw a special on Ron Howard and Happy days. It talked about how he kept pushing the studio to give him a shot at directing episodes, since that obviously was where his passion was. But they just thought he was too young and inexperienced to give a try, not thinking he would ever do anything about it. Sure enough when his contract ended and they approached him for a new one, he said no way. Apparently, they were surprised never thinking he would do that. If they had just given him some opportunities he may have stuck around through the whole series run.

While I didn't see it, I remember when Jade came out. Wasn't that the first one after NYPD Blue? I remember it being a flop.

But before that I remember him from First Blood: Rambo #1 playing one of the police officers.

Dick Wolf?  NYPD Blue was a Bochco/Milch show, while the C.S.I.'s are all Brukenheimer (I thought).

Dr. Beverly Crusher, (Gates McFadden) being gone at the start of Star Trek TNG's second season. Casually explained away as being offered to head up Starfleet Medical and replaced by Dr. Kate Pulaski, played by TOS veteran Diana Muldaur.

I've heard various stories about McFadden's departure. The most factual one seems to be behind the scenes tension with one of the producers. (But not Gene Roddeberry.) And then Crusher is magically back in season 3 with little to no explanation. Pulaski is mentioned once in another episode but never seen again.

Some fans back then seemed to take their frustrations out on Muldaur's character, but I liked the conflict Pulaski brought to the crew. She took a while to accept Data as sentient, and initially rubbed Picard the wrong way, but she had some Leonard McCoy qualities. She even had a nice friendship developing with Worf. I wish they had kept her around as a recurring character.

And there's no truth to the rumor that Pulaski fell down a turbolift shaft either!

Back to Don Knotts for as moment...

I thought that he left because he was originally under the impression that the show would run 5 years, and Andy had even agreed to that. However, CBS offered a boat load of money for the three color seasons, and Andy decided to go on, but it was too late for Knotts to re-sign with TAGS because he had already taken a feature deal elsewhere figuring that season 5 was it for TAGS.

So glad they brought Gates McFadden back by popular demand, though. Nothing against Diana Muldaur, I just love the dynamics between Picard and Crusher, it's one of those "will they? won't they?" things where you just want them to get together but know that the second they do, your show is toast.

Also, I don't really know if this counts for this thread since rumor was she got fired from both shows, but you have to admit Shannen Doherty's exits from BEVERLY HILLS, 90210 in 1994 and CHARMED in 2001 made her a prime candidate for "has been" status, and yet, here she is again almost two decades after originating the role, back as Brenda Walsh on 90210.

Steven Hill left Mission: Impossible after one season due to his religious beliefs not allowing him to work a full work week and didn't work for 10 years.   He got a second big role as Adam Schiff on Law & Order decades later.

Sorry, Dave, I was changing the subject after Caruso and his films.  I meant to add Dick Wolf's "Law & Order" shows to the list of shows where cast members leave, though in his case it is usually planned that way.

I think "Kiss of Death" came out first, though Nicolas Cage was co-star in that and Caruso's next film, "Jade" was his first sole leading man film.  Such a shame on that one, as I really like Linda Fiorentino as well.

In response to some of these (and I think enough time has passed not to need spoiler tags):

John Amos left Good Times to do the mini-series Roots; he was on the outs with Norman Lear after he gave a scathing interview to "Ebony" magazine where he basically trashed the J.J. character as a bad role model for blacks. Esther Rolle gave a similar interview to another magazine, left in 1977 with Florida's remarriage and moving somewhere where her new husband Carl, who had lung cancer, would feel better, and came back in 1978, minus the husband or any evidence he existed (her idea). Maybe he died and she didn't want to talk about it?

McLean Stevenson had FOUR shows while M*A*S*H was still running, all of them bombs:
—The McLean Stevenson Show (1975-1976, NBC)
—In The Beginning (1978, CBS)
—Hello, Larry (1979-1980, NBC)
—Condo (1983, ABC)

It's almost like his agent was booking the worst shows they offered him on purpose to send a message. That is, if they offered him any good ones to begin with.

Also:

—In 1969, everyone noticed the "new" Darren on Bewitched, but Dick York had to leave for his health; he suffered a severe back injury in a car accident in 1959 and became unable to perform the demanding physical stunts.

—Had there been a 6th season of The Brady Bunch, it would have been sans Robert Reed. Sherwood Schwartz got tired of his prima donna attitude regarding the scripts (and the way he approached the serious script problems in what ended up being the show's finale, not saying anything until the day before shooting began, sealed the deal).

—ABC successfully persuaded Nancy Walker to quit Rhoda for her own show, The Nancy Walker Show, in 1976. It flopped, and so did the next show they gave her, Blansky's Beauties. She was back on Rhoda in the fall of 1977.

—Sanford and Son was only cancelled because Redd Foxx had been offered a variety show on ABC that paid more than NBC and Norman Lear would put up. Demond Wilson was also offered a CBS sitcom, Baby I'm Back. Both flopped.

—Susan St. James left McMillan and Wife in 1976, so they renamed its final season McMillan.

—Louise Lasser left Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman in 1977. Without her, they renamed its final season Forever Fernwood.

—John Travolta left Welcome Back, Kotter in 1978 for a movie career that started out successfully, became stagnant in the 1980s, and picked up again in the 1990s. The show he left failed to recover, and his replacement, Stephen Strawbridge, was as un-Sweathoglike as they got. Meanwhile, Gabe Kaplan also got fed up with producer James Komack and left with two more episodes left to shoot in 1979.

—Fred Berry, Rerun on What's Happening!!, went on strike in 1979 for a salary increase, and convinced Ernest Thomas and Haywood Nelson to join him (Mabel King already quit in 1978 because she wanted Raj and Dee to have a mother and a father; her character of Mrs. Thomas was a divorcée). Despite the show's good ratings, ABC had 17 of the top 30 shows that season, and it was the 17th of those (tying at 28th with Monday Night Football), so they deemed it expendable and cancelled it. Seven years later, when the cast was reunited in syndication on What's Happening Now!!, Fred Berry once again demanded a salary increase, and left when the producers refused to meet it.

—Diana Canova left Soap in 1980 for her own unrelated series, I'm A Big Girl Now, which co-starred Danny Thomas. Both her old and new shows were gone next year.

—Suzanne Somers believed she was the reason for the success of Three's Company and demanded part ownership in the show and $100,000 per episode, more than the producers could afford. So she was out.

—A year after Larry Hagman's successful 1980 Dallas contract renegotiation made him a rich man, Don Murray believed he could do the same for himself on Knots Landing. He failed, and his character of Sid Fairgate paid the ultimate price.

—Cindy Williams, who always felt mistreated and unappreciated on set, left Laverne & Shirley in 1982 while pregnant. The name stayed, but the viewers didn't.

—After little more than a year trying to fit into an already established show, Dixie Carter left Diff'rent Strokes because she didn't get along with Gary Coleman, whose health and patience with the way his character was being written were wearing thin; Mary Ann Mobley replaced her in the show's final season, which Coleman had to be paid quite a pretty penny to be persuaded to do. Ironically, the second housekeeper, Nedra Volz, left this show in 1982 for a role on CBS's short-lived Filthy Rich, which Carter also starred in.

—Patrick Duffy left Dallas in 1985, leading to Bobby Ewing's death. The stories' direction in the season that followed so upset Larry Hagman that he persuaded Duffy to return. He did it, but how did they erase a year's worth of story? By making it Pam's dream the night she agreed to remarry Bobby. The show never lived that one down, and when Victoria Principal left in 1987, they refused to kill her off (in spite of the way her character was written off) in case she changed her mind. It never happened, and a revolving door of veterans and newcomers passed through the show's declining years. Meanwhile, the spin-off Knots Landing, whose writers were not consulted about the least worst way to bring back Bobby, refused to push the reset button on its season that coincided with Dallas's now-legendary "dream season", so they basically split their continuities at that point. Bobby was alive in Dallas and dead in Knots Landing.

—Meanwhile, Dynasty saw Al Corley leave when they tried (at ABC's insistence) to tone down Steven's homosexuality, leading to his oil rig explosion, plastic surgery, and recast in the person of Jack Coleman.

—Charlotte Rae left The Facts of Life in 1986 because she believed the girls had grown up enough not to need Mrs. Garrett. The writers must have felt so, too; this was reflected in the dearth of air time she received in her last season.

—Shelley Long quit Cheers, where no one on the set got along with her, for a movie career. That movie career didn't even outlast the show.

—Delta Burke quit Designing Women in 1991 after a very public row (and a string of negative publicity) when the producers tried to get her to lose weight, but she couldn't. Jean Smart went with her. They tried adding Julia Duffy and Jan Hooks as Suzanne and Charlene's respective cousins, but it wasn't the same. Ironically, the 1991-1992 season had the show's highest Nielsen rating ever. Burke mended fences long enough to do a short-lived 1995 spin-off, Women of the House. What was not known at the time (or at least not reported in the tabloids) was that she suffered from severe depression.

—In 1999, Maggie Roswell refused to continue to commute from her home in Denver to LA to record her voices for The Simpsons without a salary increase. Fox refused her, so her most famous character, Maude Flanders, died in a freak accident, yet she has returned infrequently over the past few years to do her other characters.

As for spin-offs:

—Marla Gibbs had a short-lived Jeffersons spin-off called Checking In in 1981. It ran a month, and she got a smooth transition back onto the old show.

—Audra Lindley and Norman Fell weren't so lucky. ABC used the fact that The Ropers, their Three's Company spin-off, technically had 2 seasons, not to bring them back when it flopped.

—Polly Holliday was also denied re-entry to Alice when her spin-off, Flo, flopped, as it technically had 2 seasons as well.

—Lisa Bonet was spun-off from The Cosby Show to A Different World in 1987, but she got pregnant, and there was no way to write around it, so they had her drop out of Hillman College and return to the parent show in 1989. She left for good after two more years.

Edited by MatthewA - 8/28/09 at 5:59pm

It was a bit more than that. Kaplan might have appeared in a half dozen episodes that final season, if that. Most of the time, his TV Wife, Marcia Strassman became Mr. Woodman's secretary, and was substitute teaching for Kotter.

I recall Kaplan in the season premier, and the two part Horshack gets married episode, and that's about it. There were probably a couple more, but the final season of Welcome Back, Kotter was largely Kotter-less.

Dude, save some for us!  

I knew about Somers reasons for leaving, and it's hilarious.  Ritter was absolutely the star of that show.  There's no question in my mind about that.  By the time Somers left, she had turned Crissy into a complete joke.  She started out being very attractive and funny, in spite of being slightly dingy.  When she left, any physical attraction was lost with her ridiculous facial expressions and her oinking.  And, the writers made her too stupid to live.  I've seen her say, "I created the laugh and the walk!"  Gee, thanks.

—Never saw it, but I understand the female star of McMillan and Wife was killed off because she demanded more money.

—Same source, I heard that Ned Flanders' wife was killed off on the Simpsons because she wanted to be able to fly between LA and NYC between voice recording sessions.

—The Amy Allen character disappeared from the A-Team and was briefly replaced by Tawnia.  George Peppard reportedly had no use for either the character or Melinda Culea, and he drove her away.  He was right that a female sidekick wasn't needed and I don't think anyone cared when the idea was ultimately dropped.

—Michael Shanks left Stargate SG-1 for a season and there were other stretches of show where he wasn't around.  I think he thought the character was being underused or misused and wanted out, and then realized he had had a good thing.  It was apparently not too acrimonious of a split, because he guest-starred in his lost season.

Wow, I had no idea about that. I remember watching a "Sitcom Scandals" special 10 years ago where they basically say producer James Komack turned the set into a war zone by turning Kaplan and Strassman against each other. Without actually seeing the episodes (and the prospect of any more season sets growing dimmer each day), I'll have to take your word for it.

Kind of a minor character, but I always enjoyed her, was Megan on NUMB3RS, played by Diane Farr.

She left a season or two ago. IMDB shows she did an episode of Californication this year and has a series on USA called Life UneXpected coming out sometime next year, so hasn't completely disappeared, but not much going on.

Rebecca Gayheart was on a couple episode of Dead Like Me before jumping off for good.