Actors Who Quit a Show/Appear and Disaappear (1 Viewer)

[cineMANIAC]

I was never a fan of Family Matters but I'm intrigued nonetheless about the third child character. What exactly does "sent upstairs" mean? How does a show just drop characters all of a sudden and don't bother to explain what happened to them? I have a problem with that, so much so that it actually alters my view of the show regardless of how deep I may be into it. I guess it may have something to do with getting to like someone and then they're gone and you don't know why you bothered to get to know them in the first place. Anyway, I'm glad I started this thread - I've gotten to learn a good deal of interesting facts about why people leave shows and apparently many of you also find this to be interesting. I'd like to thank everyone who contributed info and, please, keep the tidbits coming!

 

[Richard V]

77 Sunset Strip - Roger Smith (Jeff Spencer), Edd Byrnes (Kookie) both got canned at the end of the 1963 season as the show underwent a complete format change, only Effrem Zimbalist, Jr. survived.

Hawaiian Eye - Anthony Eisley (Tracy Steele) left after the 1962 season allegedly over a contract dispute.

Route 66 - George Maharis left midway through the 1963 season over a contract dispute and the fact he contracted hepatitis in real life. No mention was ever made of his disappearance, just suddenly Todd Stiles (Martin Milner) was in his Corvette by himself. Lincoln Case (Glenn Corbett) took Maharis's place a few episodes later until the end of the series run.

 

[michael_ks]

Vintage sci-fi tv fans will recall that Terry Becker left "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" two-thirds of the way into S2 ("The Sky's of Fire" being his last episode that season) following a salary dispute. Efforts to replace him proved fruitless and Irwin Allen thankfully brought him back at the start of S3. Now who could replace ol' "Ethelbert"?

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

What exactly does "sent upstairs" mean?

Greg didn't say "sent upstairs" he said that the character "...literally went upstairs." And he meant what he said. This isn't a metaphor. In one episode the character was shown walking up a flight of steps (presumably to a bedroom) and was simply never seen or metioned again.

And shows used to be much more cavalier about this sort of thing. They were seen (by both the producers and the audience) as disposble ways of killing a half hour or an hour, the episodes were all stand-alone by design and there was little or no thought given to continuity. If a character wasn't working out or an actor wasn't happy (or doing the job) they'd be gone the next week and no one felt any need to "explain" anything.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Scott_F_S]

Originally Posted by Greg_S_H

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

She also filmed a few scenes for the pilot of "Firefly" before Joss Whedon decided he didn't like her and replaced her with Morena Baccarin, reshooting that character's scenes.

 

[Scott_F_S]

Originally Posted by Joseph DeMartino




Greg didn't say "sent upstairs" he said that the character "...literally went upstairs." And he meant what he said. This isn't a metaphor. In one episode the character was shown walking up a flight of steps (presumably to a bedroom) and was simply never seen or metioned again.

And shows used to be much more cavalier about this sort of thing. They were seen (by both the producers and the audience) as disposble ways of killing a half hour or an hour, the episodes were all stand-alone by design and there was little or no thought given to continuity. If a character wasn't working out or an actor wasn't happy (or doing the job) they'd be gone the next week and no one felt any need to "explain" anything.

Regards,

Joe

That practice has pretty much disappeared. Most times now, the writers at least try to resolve a character's departure with a spoken line in passing. But Boston Legal was notorious for having characters disappear with no explanation. I recall that in the second season, two new characters were introduced in the season opener, both actors appeared in the opening credits, and both characters just disappeared a few episodes into the season. One of them remained in the opening credits long after the last time we saw her character.

 

[Charles Ellis]

The Rebecca Gayheart story reminds me of the bizarre case of Perry Mason's William Talman: apparently he was attending a somehat wild party in Beverly Hills (everyone was in the nude!) that got crashed the the vice squad for alleged marijuana use, a la Robert Mitchum's 1948 arrest. CBS demanded that he be fired, so for the first half of the 1960/61 season there was no D.A. Hamilton Burger! However, both the viewers and star Raymond Burr felt that Talman was given a bad break and he was rehired after a few months.

Family Matters just didn't get rid of some kid actors, it also got rid of its leading lady! Jo Marie Payton left after a disagreement with the producers (it was either over money or the show becoming 'Urkelized'- I'm not sure), and she was replaced in the final season (the CBS one) by a Judyann Elder who simply lacked the sass Payton brought to Harriette Winslow.

The whole 'kid that went upstairs never to return' trick is much older than Happy Days or Family Matters: when All My Children premiered on ABC in 1970, widower Dr. Joe Martin (played by Ray McDonnell, who is still on the show after nearly 40 years!) had three children: premed student Jeff, highschooler Tara, and preteen Bobby. Well, creator Agnes Nixon realized there was no real use for little Bobby, so after a few episodes he went upstairs to get a pair of skis and- you know the rest! It's been something of an inside joke on the show ever since.

In my book, the most unusual handling of a character's disappearance was the absence of matriarch Kate Bradley for the final two seasons of Petticoat Junction. Star Bea Benadaret had died of cancer in late 1968 though she had done a few episodes in early 1968 before she got too sick to work. In the middle of the 1967/68 season, Kate went away to visit relatives, but came back early in the following season for the birth of her first grandchild. Since Miss Benadaret was too ill to actually appear onscreen for that October 1968 show, the producers cleverly used a body double shot from behind and in longshots while Benadaret's actual voice was used for the dialogue (recorded from her home), along with flashbacks from previous episodes to complete the illusion. Sadly, the episode aired only days after Bea died.

The producers now had to address the passing of its central character- or did they? The next thing you know, June Lockhart joins the cast as Dr. Janet Craig, a new 'mother figure' on the show and Kate Bradley was never mentioned again! It was as if she had never existed despite being the lead character on the show for the previous five and a half years!!!

 

[Scott_F_S]

Originally Posted by Charles Ellis
Since Miss Benadaret was too ill to actually appear onscreen for that October 1968 show, the producers cleverly used a body double shot from behind and in longshots while Benadaret's actual voice was used for the dialogue (recorded from her home), along with flashbacks from previous episodes to complete the illusion. Sadly, the episode aired only days after Bea died.

That reminds me of the awful CGI the Sopranos used to superimpose archive clips of Nancy Marchand's head on a body double after the actress had died. It was creepy.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

I recall that in the second season, two new characters were introduced in the season opener, both actors appeared in the opening credits, and both characters just disappeared a few episodes into the season. One of them remained in the opening credits long after the last time we saw her character.

This would have been a contract issue. The actor was probably guaranteed "x" episodes for the season. Even after she was let go, the producers would have to credit her for the remaining episodes on her contract because payments and residuals (and union auditing thereof) are based on screen credit. When Babylon 5 was renewed for a fifth season at the 11th hour, they had a problem: The final episode of the fourth season was the series finale, set 20 years after the main action of the show on the assumption that the fourth season would be the final one. So they wrote the first episode of the fifth season production schedule as a new S4 finale, and simply swapped the two episodes: the original episode 422 went into the 522 slot, and the episode shot as production # 501 became 422.

Shortely before the deadline to uplink the new episode 422 to the satellite for distribution to the affiliates, someone at the studio realized they had another problem. Claudia Christian had not renewed her contract and didn't return for the fifth season. But they were using the fourth season credits - which included her. If the show aired that way, she would be due an additional episode payment for an episode she didn't appear in, plus residuals for that episode for as long as they were payable. (She was being properly credited in the series finale, which would air much later, so it wasn't like she was losing any money. In the course of seasons 4 and 5 she appeared in a total of 22 episodes and was paid for 22. Had 422 aired with her credit, she would have done 22 and been paid for 23 - plus residuals.) So they removed her credit and dropped an extra FX shot into the opener for that episode and saved themselves a few bucks.

That reminds me of the awful CGI the Sopranos used to superimpose archive clips of Nancy Marchand's head on a body double after the actress had died. It was creepy.

Creepy and unconvincing. It has been so long I don't remember - was there anything really vital that Livia had to be seen doing or saying at that point? Anything that altered the plot? Or could have just have had her pass away off screen? If the stuff was really needed I think they should have given the work the time and the money it needed to do a better job. The whole thing made my skin crawl.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Dave B Ferris]

Several earlier posts have mentioned David Caruso (NYPD Blue). At least in Caruso's case the fans knew why the character was written-out (because of a contract dispute with the actor).

However, there was also at least one NYPD Blue character who really did just disappear - one season she was in the show, the next season she was gone (without any explanation).

The character was Adrienne Lesniak, played by Justine Miceli.

On his fine web site dedicated to the show, Alan Sepinwal basically said the writers made such a mess of the character, they just threw up their hands and made her disappear.