When an actor leaves a hit show, it can either be a blessing or a curse.
Sometimes, write-outs are worked into a show very nicely, like with the revolving door
on Grey's Anatomy that only adds to the drama factor.
In other cases, though, a character is so essential that their disappearance downright
dooms the series — especially when they're replaced by someone who doesn't have the same
appeal as the original star.
"DUH."
Here are a few TV shows that just couldn't recover from the loss and replacement of a
major cast member.
The Office
Steve Carell was a well-known comic force from The Daily Show and Anchorman before he
got his biggest break with the small screen comedy series The Office.
The show was an American adaptation of the Ricky Gervais BBC sitcom of the same name
and became wildly popular with audiences.
"I made you what you are and I get nothing back."
Carell's film career started to take off shortly thereafter, with starring roles in movies
like The 40 Year-Old Virgin, Little Miss Sunshine, and Crazy Stupid Love, elevating him to household
name status.
So, in 2013, when Carell's contract with The Office was up, he opted to walk away from
the series even though it was still a critical and ratings hit for NBC.
The awkward, lovelorn Michael Scott finally found love with HR director Holly, and they
moved away to Colorado.
But Dunder Mifflin still needed a boss, and that came in the form of oily, unsettling
Robert California, CEO of its parent company Sabre.
"Hahaha, well, I will not be blackmailed by some ineffectual, privileged, effete, soft
p---- debutante."
And it was all downhill from there.
The show's critical favor and viewership numbers took a nosedive, and the series finally came
to a close after two Carell-free seasons.
The X-Files
For its first six seasons, The X-Files was a huge hit for Fox and made its on-screen
pair of paranormal investigators international stars.
But prior to the start of the series' seventh season, David Duchovny sued the network, claiming
that it had sold rights to reruns of the show at a discount to its own affiliates and cheated
the stars out of profits.
While the lawsuit was eventually settled, it was filed right when Duchovny was negotiating
working on future seasons of the show, and neither he nor Fox were keen to continue working
together.
So, a deal was reached: Duchovny's character, Fox Mulder would mysteriously disappear at
the end of Season 7, and would only appear in a handful of episodes in Season 8.
But Gillian Anderson's Agent Scully still needed someone to work with in his absence,
so producers auditioned dozens of actors and eventually settled on Robert Patrick to come
in as FBI agent John Doggett.
Another actress was also hired on in case Anderson decided to leave the show after her
contract ended, too.
It didn't much matter, though, because without Duchovny in his regular role, viewers tuned
out.
"You saved me.
As difficult and as frustrating as it's been sometimes, your goddamn strict rationalism
and science have saved me a thousand times over."
8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter
This ABC sitcom was forced to reformat after the unexpected death of its star.
8 Simple Rules was built around TV legend John Ritter, who starred as a cranky suburban
dad desperately trying to rein in his wild teenage children.
Filming had just begun on the second season of the series when Ritter fell ill on the
set and sought medical treatment.
He died later that day of a heart defect that had never been diagnosed.
ABC announced that the show would go on — and it did, with some necessary changes.
No longer a show about a cranky dad, it became one about a family trying to pick up the pieces
after the death of its patriarch.
Two new stars joined the cast to fill the void left by Ritter: cousin C.J. and Grandpa
Jim.
But without Ritter, the show only lasted another season before being shelved for good.
Blue's Clues
Actor/musician Steve Burns beat out roughly 1,000 other actors in 1996 for the only human
role on Blue's Clues, Nickelodeon's interactive, animation/live action hybrid show for preschoolers.
Burns played the striped-shirted host and owner of the cartoon dog named Blue — he'd
talk directly to the young viewers at home, urging them to help solve each episode's riddle
or mystery by yelling things at their screens.
In 2002, after about 100 episodes, Burns decided it was time to leave the series.
He wanted to take on other roles as well as perform music.
Nickelodeon hired actor Donovan Patton to be the new host of Blue's Clues, playing Steve's
younger brother Joe.
So as not to traumatize or confuse the show's very young viewers, Steve carefully explained
that he was leaving for college, and Joe would be looking after Blue.
Patton as Joe proved to be the gentle and affable host Blue's Clues needed, but he just
couldn't replace someone so closely associated with the role to an army of toddlers.
After around 50 episodes with Patton as Joe, Blue's Clues was canceled.
Scrubs
This comedy about medical interns desperately trying to figure out what they were doing
as they worked in a hospital was a critically-acclaimed, Emmy-nominated hit over its first few seasons
on NBC.
The network dropped the show after seven seasons, only to see ABC pick it up.
The show's writers and cast prepared a true series finale at the end of the year, only
for ABC to unexpectedly renew the series again for season 9.
But star Zach Braff, the focus of the show as young doctor John Dorian, was ready to
move on to other things.
"Onward!"
"Eagle!"
"Oh good god."
So the show was retooled and rebooted, no longer taking place at a teaching hospital
but at a medical school.
Doctor Cox and Doctor Turk were now teachers instead of active surgeons.
"I'm just back to teach some classes."
Replacing Braff as the center of the show and narrator was Dr. Lucy Bennett, but the
big changes were too much to take, and the ninth season of Scrubs was also its last.
Spin City
Michael J. Fox returned to regular series television for the first time since the end
of Family Ties with Spin City.
On the ABC sitcom, he played Mike Flaherty, a wheeler-dealer for a New York City deputy
mayor.
Two years later, Fox announced that he had been battling Parkinson's disease and left
the show to spend more time raising funds for research on the disease.
Replacing him as deputy mayor was a guy named Charlie Crawford, portrayed by Charlie Sheen.
With Fox out, the show became more of a romantic comedy surrounding Sheen and Heather Locklear's
characters, but viewership tanked shortly after the replacement, so ABC cut the cord
on Spin City.
"Guess you guys aren't ready for that yet.
But your kids are gonna love it."
Designing Women
Delta Burke had not been happy on the set of Designing Women for years.
She even claimed that a producer routinely screamed at cast members and told them they
were expendable and criticized Burke when she gained weight.
"Are you serious?!"
CBS grew so tired of Burke publicly trashing the show's producers and the network in the
press that they fired her from the show, and co-star Jean Smart followed her out the door
shortly thereafter.
"Every time I look over at the sofa I kinda miss seeing her."
That meant that Designing Women had lost half of its main cast, but the show was still a
ratings draw, so the network brought in some replacements.
"Now I know our nerves are a little bit jangly because of the silly ol' money situation but
you know what we gotta do?
We've got to look for the light."
Julia Duffy arrived as Suzanne's cousin, and Jan Hooks came in as Carlene, Charlene's sister.
Despite ratings on par with previous years, CBS fired Duffy after her sole season on the
series, and replaced her with Judith Ivey as a rich Texan widow named B.J. Poteet.
It didn't do much good, because CBS moved the show to Friday nights, where it slipped
into ratings oblivion — and then cancellation.
"And that…
Is the night the lights went out in Georgia"
That '70s Show
After seven seasons of riding on a high — ratings wise, at least — two of That 70s Show's
main stars decided to step away from the series.
Topher Grace decided to leave the show in order to more fiercely pursue his blossoming
film career and was written out of the eighth season altogether.
Meanwhile, Ashton Kutcher decided his time in the bell bottoms was done too, but did
appear for a few of Season 8's early episodes.
To replace two very big holes in its cast, producers hired Mad TV veteran Josh Meyers.
His character, Randy, joins Hyde's record store Grooves and has a brief relationship
with Donna.
But Randy didn't have much time to mesh with the ensemble because the decimated cast led
to diminished popularity for the show, and it was ultimately canned at the end of the
season.
"You have the right to remain BURNED."
Community
Even though Community never had a huge audience during its five-year run on NBC, it was still
a critically-acclaimed comedy with a passionate cult following.
Five seasons was ultimately NBC's limit, but internet giant Yahoo! stepped in and renewed
Community for a sixth season, intending to position the comedy as a premiere offering
on its streaming service Yahoo!
Screen.
Original regulars Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Ken Jeong, and Alison Brie followed
the series to Yahoo!, but the show had already been losing cast members and left and right,
and kept losing them as it transitioned to streaming.
Chevy Chase, Donald Glover, and Yvette Nicole Brown were not part of the regular cast of
Community's sixth season.
New actors were added, including Keith David and Paget Brewster.
But it just didn't work out, and there was no seventh season of Community on Yahoo!
Screen — or anywhere.
Not enough people tuned in and the show didn't generate as much advertising revenue as Yahoo!
had hoped.
The revenue was so small that it effectively led to the complete shutdown of Yahoo!
Screen.
"Show may be cancelled and moved to the internet where it turns out 10s of millions were watching
the whole time may not matter.
Fake commercial may end with disclaimer gag which may descend into vain Chuck Lorre-esque
rant by narcissistic creator."
Thanks for watching!
Click the Looper icon to subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Plus check out all this cool stuff we know you'll love, too!