It may seem incomprehensible that a TV character we know and love is absent or
replaced from a series. But every now and again, an actor refuses to film something for a show.
Here are some of the reasons why stars have said “no” to an episode.
Anyone who's seen an episode of Family Guy knows the show doesn't shy away
from wildly offensive humor. The animated hit regularly features jokes about race,
sexual orientation, religion, and a myriad of other topics — Vice noted the bits are, quote,
"often so repulsive that watching can be painful." Patrick Warburton, who voices Joe Swanson,
has had his share of crude lines, but one joke crossed the line for the actor, who said in
Digital Spy that some bits were so objectionable he, quote, "can't repeat" them today, sharing only
that the episode, quote, "had to do with Christ on the cross." The actor felt it had no humor in
it and was, quote, "so, so horribly offensive." Warburton told Digital Spy that the incident was
the only time in the series' decades-long run that he felt he couldn't participate.
"In 20 years, there's only been this one episode. We have great communication all the time. They
are all great and listen to you. They know I'm a team player. They know how offensive that was."
Singer Isaac Hayes voiced the beloved character of "Chef" on South Park from 1997 until 2006 — when
he suddenly quit the show. Where does a voice actor finally draw the line in a series
as infamous as South Park? For Hayes, the show apparently crossed the line in Season 9,
when an episode aired mocking Scientology. Hayes, a devout Scientologist, caused a media
firestorm when he left South Park. The episode — which Today described as featuring the character
of Stan being "hailed as a reluctant savior by Scientology leaders" — portrayed Scientology in
a less-than-flattering light. At the time, Today reported that showrunner Trey Parker told the AP
that he, quote, "never heard a peep" out of the actor when the show was mocking other religions.
Years later, Hayes' son Isaac Hayes III came to his father's defense in an interview with The
Hollywood Reporter, insisting that his father wasn't "hypocritical." According to Hayes III,
Hayes had a stroke in January 2006, and, quote, "was in no position to
resign under his own knowledge." Hayes III suspected that his father was manipulated.
Shannen Doherty played Prue in the original iteration of Charmed, which ran from 1998 to 2006.
However, Doherty was only in the first three seasons. At the top of Season 4,
the show revealed that Prue had been killed by a demon. Fans wondered why the star made
such an early and abrupt exit from the roster, and one of the theories was centered around the
rumored feud between Doherty and co-star Alyssa Milano. However, Doherty revealed at Comic Con
2015 that she wanted to leave because she was often bored and that, quote, "playing the same
character all the time was extremely difficult." Doherty was invited back to appear in the 2006
series finale of Charmed, but declined the role. She told fans in a 2015 Q&A,
"Honestly, the way that they wanted to bring Prue back into it was just not authentic, and there
was nothing interesting and good. And it wasn't true to the character. That's why I said no."
Prue's character, instead, received a one-line acknowledgement in the final episode.
As the first actor cast as the Doctor in the modern reboot of Dr. Who,
Christopher Eccleston has earned his place in television history, despite
his short time in the role. Eccleston played the Ninth Doctor for just one season in 2005,
until he left the show after his relationship with the showrunners, quote, "broke down irreparably,"
as he put it to the Radio Times. Eccleston was also frustrated with the show's tone,
as he was not the, quote, "natural light comedian" the role required.
Unsurprisingly, Eccleston turned down an opportunity to join the other Doctors for
the show's 50th anniversary special. He told fans at the 2019 New York Comic Con
that while there were "political" reasons that he did not reprise the role, he also, quote, "didn't
feel like the narrative was strong enough" to justify the Ninth Doctor's return,
especially considering the so-called "abuse" he endured after leaving the show.
In May of 2021, Eccleston reprised his role as the Ninth Doctor — just not on television this
time. Eccleston voices the role of the Ninth Doctor in Big Finish Productions' The Ninth
Doctor Adventures, a new series of twelve full-cast audio adventures. Rejoice, nerds.
Now that years have passed since the series finale of Friends, folks are finally speaking up about
one of the show's more problematic characteristics — namely, its near-constant need to make the
LGBTQ+ community the target of homophobic jokes. While Friends was groundbreaking in some ways —
according to Pride, it was only the second network television episode to feature a gay wedding,
airing just weeks after Roseanne made small screen history with Leon and Scott's wedding — it had a
frustrating habit of creating LGBTQ+ storylines that were far more hurtful than helpful.
"How does it feel to have a huge gay fanbase?"
“Really? Me? Wow, I don’t even know any huge gay people.”
The show, which Out aptly described as having a, quote, "tendency toward gay panic for cheap
laughs," had a notably painful episode in which neurotic funnyman Chandler Bing
visits Las Vegas to invite his drag queen father to his wedding. According to Saul
Austerlitz' book Generation Friends: An Inside Look at the Show That Defined a Television Era,
actor Matthew Perry nixed another potentially homophobic Friends episode
in which Chandler frequents a gay bar because of his obsession with the bar's tuna melts.
As Metro wrote, "Presumably, a straight man in a gay bar [is] the butt of the joke."
It's unclear whether Perry's objection to the script was because he found it embarrassing to
play or because he found it offensive, but let's just count our blessings and be thankful that
"Friends" didn't get yet another opportunity to make a mess out of an LGBTQ+ storyline.
Luke Grimes, who played James in True Blood, is another actor that refused an
LGBTQ+ storyline. In 2013, TVLine reported a statement from HBO announcing that, quote,
"the role of James is being recast due to the creative direction of the character."
At the time, the reason for Grimes' sudden exit was unclear, but BuzzFeed later reported that a
confidential source revealed that Grimes was uncomfortable with playing a gay character.
According to BuzzFeed's tipster, Grimes became upset when he realized that his character was
going to be romantically involved with the character of Lafayette.
The tipster noted that in an attempt to negotiate,
"He countered that he would be willing to play the role if Lafayette were attracted to him,
but not if the attraction was mutual." BuzzFeed's source also claimed that Grimes, quote,
"also did not want to do any same-sex kissing or sex scenes" and that his negotiations fell flat
when, quote, "the writers were unwilling to change the scripts on his behalf."
In May of 1990, Saturday Night Live cast member Nora Dunn made the bold
and controversial choice of boycotting an episode in protest of that week's host, edgelord comedian
Andrew Dice Clay. In an interview with Salon, Dunn said she refused to perform with Clay because
"The Diceman" character he took on in his stand-up act, quote, "was an abuser of women"
and a "homophobe" with"terrible" material. The move garnered flak from viewers,
the press, and fellow cast members. Cast member Jon Lovitz famously derided
Dunn for her decision. In a 2014 episode of The ABC's of SNL, Lovitz said that the
whole cast was angry with Dunn and gave her the "cold shoulder" when she returned to the set,
quote, "because she just made us look like we were sell-outs for doing the show."
The addition of Danny DeVito to the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
cast has brought us some truly horrendous, and horrendously beautiful, moments in television.
And the character of Frank has plenty of cringeworthy screen time. Evidently, DeVito
will do nearly whatever it takes for the role — a theory that showrunners have put to the test.
In a Reddit AMA, Glenn Howerton said that the team once gave DeVito a script that
featured the character of Frank being sent to prison, joining a gang of white supremacists,
and being assaulted multiple times. According to Howerton, this was the first time DeVito ever
called the showrunners to say he couldn't do an episode. The storyline was never in serious
danger of airing as the script was apparently sent to DeVito as an April Fool's Day joke.
Charlie Day told a slightly more dramatic version of the story
in an interview with Conan O'Brien, sharing that the team, quote, "freaked Danny out."
"This time, we almost killed him."
Katherine Heigl rose to fame playing Dr. Izzie Stevens at the height of the Grey's Anatomy mania
in the mid-2000s. But just three years after she won an Emmy for her work on the series,
Heigl suddenly parted ways with the roster. She told EW that her decision to leave Grey's Anatomy,
18 months before her contract was up, stemmed from her wish to spend more time with her family,
saying that adopting her daughter, quote, "changed everything" for her.
She said, "I felt it was the right thing to do; we
just didn't quite know how to do it appropriately, gracefully, and respectfully to the audience."
In a 2021 interview with People, Heigl reaffirmed she didn't regret leaving the show.
She did express that she wished she'd learned how to mitigate her anxiety earlier in her career.
Heigl added that she harbors no ill feelings towards her time on Grey's Anatomy.
When a character is written off a TV show, viewers expect that some sort of resolution or explanation
will be written into the script. That was not the case for one of the characters on Weeds.
As ET recalled in a 2019 interview, actor Elizabeth Perkins quickly became a fan
favorite on the series while playing the role of Nancy Botwin's so-called "frenemy,"
Celia Hodes. However, when Perkins left the show after Season 5, the character's fate was
punctuated with a question mark. Perkins told the outlet,
"We never really knew what happened to her. She didn't die; she wasn't killed. Personally,
I think they should've pushed her off a cliff. That would've been, like,
a proper goodbye to Celia Hodes." Although she was offered a chance to
reprise her role for the season finale, Perkins declined, telling Yahoo! Entertainment that she
ultimately could not do it because she was, quote, "busy shooting a new show". Perhaps she
would have found some time if the character was given a more climactic or violent end.
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