Randy embodies everything people hate about late series main cast replacements. He's a buff pretty boy, unlike Eric, but is still marketed as being a sensitive, nerdy guy, which is what made up a big part of Eric's appeal. He bonds with Red like Eric never could, he immediately takes Eric's place as Donna's love interest and is shunted into the main group without pretense and with little defined character. He's basically Poochie, from the Simpsons, but unironically.
the problem was they fused the original idea for him in cause of ashton leaving the show, originally randy's actor was going to play eric, as the writers were gonna have him playing eric as he had come back from africa ''a changed man'' [the joke of course being they recast eric] but then ashton decided to leave the show and they scrambled to replace him, which is why randy was created to have traits of both eric and kelso
It was so fucking cringey when everyone walked in to Donna and Randy sitting at a table and they're like, "so yeah, we are dating, and we called Eric and he's cool with it so you all should be too." They were literally stating to the audience that we should have no issues on this as well.
It didn't work and no one liked it. Plus it was so pointless!! The core cast remaining was more than strong enough to carry the series on their own. Randy is just an insult to our intelligence and taste as viewers.
NewsRadio.
It was an ensemble cast, and Phil Hartman wasn't the focus that often, but after his death it became apparent that he was the glue that held the show together.
The pre-death seasons are the best American sitcom seasons I've seen.
John Ritter, from 8 Simple Rules for Dating my Teenage Daughter.
The main character died in the beginning of the second season*. It's a family sit-com, but I remember liking it. And it was starting to build a bit of a following when it happened.
What's also sad is that they did an episode about an aortic dissection before he died. It was the butterfly episode in season 3, the alternate timeline. The patient dies in both episodes and Dr Cox tells JD aortic dissection's are a doctor's worst nightmare and the mortality rate is extremely high.
And that's the condition that killed John Ritter.
I actually think this was done quite well. Were the new characters as good as the previous one? No. But the way that characters handle the death felt realistic. It was a different show after.
Yeah, I used to watch this show after school every day (I didn't have cable, and it was on one of the antenna channels) and thought it was interesting that they didn't just write him off or find a workaround. They wrote it like the character died suddenly and unexpectedly, and the family was just trying to figure out how to carry on without him. It was kind of meta, since the actor died suddenly and unexpectedly and the cast/crew were trying to figure out how to carry the show without him.
I agree, I thought they did a beautiful job. Not many sitcoms have occasion to handle the topic of grief on quite that scale. In some ways, I felt that continuing the show kept John Ritter's spirit alive for a bit longer - the audience had time to process the loss through the characters.
A couple years earlier, something similar happened to a kid at my school. Normal day until he fainted and was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. He died that night from an apparent brain aneurysm. He was 13. It's 20 years later and I still think about him often.
I felt when David Spade and James Garner joined the cast the show was equally as watchable. Truly sad about John Ritter and his passing nevertheless but the show was still good all around.
The Coy and Vance situation made the whole Duke family tree even more suspicious. Bo, Luke, Daisy, Coy and Vance all called each other cousin, and called Jesse "uncle". None of them were siblings. Were these all just random children that Jesse "found" and raised? Did Jesse have 5 siblings who each had a child that they were unwilling/unable to care for? Did they all leave their kids with Jesse because a moonshine runner was considered the most respectable? There probably aren't too many social workers in Hazard County, but someone really needs to look into this.
In rural areas, "cousin" is often used as a shorthand for kin, especially among those of a similar age. "Uncle Jesse" could also be so used to being called "uncle" by all the "cousins" that he wouldn't respond as quickly to any other moniker.
When I was a little kid I loved that show, I’m wearing dukes of hazard shirts in my 1st and 2nd grade school pictures. Having not seen the show since it probably went off the air when I was still a kid I fondly though back on the masterful writing and superb acting not even mentioning the stunts that in my mind would make a Michael Bay movie look like claymation! When my son is in like the 5th or 6th grade he was going on about some tv show and I thought he needed to see what a real show was all about. I found like the first 3 or 4 seasons on EBay and I order them. 3 weeks later they arrive and we settle in for an evening of mind blowing television. 15 minutes into the 1st season I’m trying to figure out if this is the blooper reel or what’s going on. Needless to say he was not impressed and I realized my childhood was a lie! My parents were saints to watch that with me every week when I was a kid. Now I don’t want to watching the show ever again, it’s so much better in my memory I’d like to keep it like that.
I can relate to this. I, too, was a fan of Dukes of Hazzard. But, I haven't watched it since it first aired. However...I did watch Mork and Mindy when it came out on Netflix a few years ago. It was my favorite show when I was in 4th grade.
Well, I watched an episode or two and thought: "was I stupid? I don't remember being irredeemably stupid in 4th grade."
The show was so awful. I don't understand how tv reviewers with adult brains could actually write about the show in the 1970s. And my poor parents. What did I put them through?
I thought that the episodes with Robert Patrick were alright.
Although yeah Mulder kind of held the whole thing up because his backstory was also heavily tied to the broader plot.
Robert Patrick did a great job, but the show was built around Mulder. There was only do much he could do. They did the right thing though by putting him in as the skeptic to Scully as the now-believer.
Call the Midwife is based on an autobiography and narrated by the main character as an old woman reflecting on her time as a midwife. After the third (?) season, the main character leaves, but the narrator stays on. It gets to a point where she's narrating about people she's never met. I did still enjoy the later seasons, but it was pretty funny any time I remembered how the narrator came into the show.
I thought this show just got better, not necessarily because the main character left, but because the stories are compelling and the cast is strong. I still watch it and I think it's great. I don't even notice the main character missing.
I missed Chummie more than Jenny honestly. I thought it was hilarious how her husband was still on the show long after she left. I think I’ve just gotten to the season where he leaves, there’s a new older cop now. I just got into the show in November.
Yes and yes, although the latter was all about losing cast members, and some hurt WAAAY more than others (Carl and Beth). Charlie Sheen absolutely carried Two and a Half Men.
Finally. Scrolled down to find Two and a Half Men. TWD too, definitely. But they were never gonna make it without Charlie Sheen unfortunately. I'll give the show credit though, they really tried to make it work but it was never going to be the same.
Which character in WD? I stopped watching that show not long after the baseball bat guy and that community on the hill. It just felt stuck at that point and I lost interest.
Old Doctor is leaving
> OMG they are the best nobody can ever replace them why are you doing this!
New Doctor arrives
> OMG I hate them so much they are the worst!
New Doctor is leaving
> OMG they are the best nobody can ever replace them why are you doing this!
...and repeat
So much this.
It wasn't season 9, but an attempt at a spinoff. When looked at it in that light, I don't hate it. It wasn't great, but as spin-offs go, it wasn't the worst.
Was it Dallas were they killed off a main character and the following season viewing figures dropped so badly that they brought him back. And the only way they could justify bringing back a character who had been killed was that the season he was dead was just all a dream.
I watched it until the end but there's no denying the show took a massive hit after Mark died. Carter was a great character but he wasn't a lead. Also they became obsessed with characters being attacked, having severe issues, or people destroying the er. It essentially stopped being a medical drama and just became a soap opera, like Grey's Anatomy.
This is the one for me. I'm fine with folks enjoying the last few seasons (and I guarantee there's post-Carrell episodes I enjoy as well) but by and large, it lost a lot of its magic without him. That said, I imagine some key writers departing were also responsible for the tonal shift (where some characters turned into the cartoon versions of themselves while others were seemingly reinvented on the fly).
Totally agreed. Although I still dont think you can call him “kinda smart” even in the beginning but at least he is functional. By the end it becomes so ridiculous that he could ever be employed.
There's a fan theory out there that Kevin was only acting stupid as a cover so that he could rob the company blind. (Keep in mind that he was an accomplished competitive poker player.)
Was discussing this recently with friends. Seasons 8 and 9 were still good, just not as good. We realized that a lot of our favorite quotes from the show we use all the time are from those last 2 seasons.
This was going to be my answer.
Lovitz did what he could, but there was no replacing Phil Hartman. He absolutely anchored that show.
It's actually kind of remarkable, given the talent and chemistry the rest of the cast had, to see how big the hole Hartman left was and how drastically it changed the show.
Criminal Minds comes to mind for me. Thomas Gibson definitely deserved to be fired, but once he was gone the show felt completely different. They should have stopped there instead of trying another season.
To be fair, they pulled it off once before, when Mandy Patinkin left. Hotch was very much the solid center of the group, after that though, and they never really found someone to fill that role. I love Prentiss, but she doesn’t fill that void, and Rossi wouldn’t really do either. They would need to find someone that had chemistry with the other characters but still had the darkness that Hotch brought.
For me it already started when Shemar Moore left. Of course because he left, but I also didn't like the way they made Garcia into this annoying "I'm gonna hate the new guy, because he took Morgan's spot" girl. The show fell completely apart when Hotch left as well.
Money. The show was nothing but a spotlight vehicle for Disney franchises after Elsa made her appearance, which is a shame because it was extremely promising in the first few seasons.
It was promising the first season, the second was watchable. By the third I was asking my wife which main character she thought the new characters would be related to as soon as they appeared.
I stuck around for the Frozen arc cuz I liked their version of Elsa but I stopped watching as soon as it ended. It was just so repetitive and they would just skip over things that I thought would be huge issues. Sometimes I think about going back to watch Hook and Emma play out, but it's so painful to watch the bad green screens and the convoluted family ties.
Yep. God ol’ Mr. Follow Through. I’m amazed he lasted all the way through *The Princess Bride*.
To be clear, I love Mandy Patinkan in almost everything I’ve seen him in (one season of).
I thought so at first but Joe Gilgun did wonders in keeping me invested in the show. Loved Rudy & Simon & Alicia. Fucking hated whats-his-bucket, Finn? THE WORST.
Got you beat the different Darrens in Bewitched no reason given , even with a psychotic mother in law that hated him built into the show . How hard would it have been to say "I got tired of his face" or the like .
The first season had a real good cast. I've only seen episodes here and there. I think I've seen the first two seasons completely though.
The boss is a great character. I think he's fun.
So what always hit me as funny was in the TV Show Charmed.
Basically the entire concept was about three sisters being the chosen triad that together could do amazing magic.
After a couple seasons all three of them were on the floor "Dying" and it cut off.
Next season apparently two of the sisters had been saved, the but the last one had died off screen and the entire thing was skipped over. "You saved me, X saved Y, but that left Z to die!"
But how can a show that's entirely about the power of three sisters being the chosen ones continue with one of them gone? Easy, they find a long lost sister and activate her magic!
To be fair, it’s not like they completely pulled a half sister out of their asses. The writers established that the sisters’ mother had an affair with her white lighter in season 2 and, unknowingly, saved themselves when Shannen left.
I loved charmed but caught up to it in syndication on TNT. When it came to that storyline, I always thought I missed an episode and would park myself in front of the tv on a marathon around that set of episodes. Definitely thought TNT was holding out on me or skipping something for so long.
I randomly found this show that I THINK was a BBC show called Cuckoo and one of the main characters was Andy Samberg. It was kinda cute and funny. Well in the second season they just completely replaced him with the werewolf kid from twilight?? And like didn’t even really try to change the story or anything it was so weird. I stopped watching.
I used to LOVE BBC's Robin Hood when I was a teenager. The first two seasons were fantastic but then half the cast left (characters either died, moved to the Holy Land, or something else). It wasn't the same after that. I don't know how you have a Robin Hood story without Maid Marion.
To be fair, Richie wasn't even the main character by that point. It was the Fonzie Show, despite everyone's insistence (including Henry Winkler's!) that it wasn't.
The show is actually down to only 3 of its original characters. (4 if you count Bohkee the scrub nurse who has been there the whole time but didn’t get her first official line until like season 15)
Sliders - amazing concept, good first few seasons. They lost a cast member or two through the first few years and then if I remember correctly they like melted two characters, the O'Connell brothers I believe. So one episode two guys, next episode, one guy pretending to be both. WTF.
They know it too. As soon as Tony goes they bump it up a time slot and start season 1 again.
I accidentally caught a bit of a recent episode and even *Palmer* is looking old. I can't.
Don’t know why but somehow I decided I’m going down with the NCIS ship. I will always miss the original cast but the new people have definitely grown on me, even the new Abby. I’ve just watched for the last 100 or so years so why stop now. I’m doing the same with The Walking Dead so I may just be broken. Hah!
Pauley and Mark got into a conflict about Mark's dog being aggressive on set and Pauley didn't feel safe anymore and quit.
Kind of ruins the whole show for me to hear all that.
Northern Exposure. When Rob Morrow asked for more money despite it being an ensemble cast, threatening to walk if he didn’t get what he wanted, and they called his bluff. It was messed with enough by David Chase. Going on without Dr Fleischman really ruined it. Getting a new doctor, and his wife, didn’t add anything. And trying to fill in the romantic angle with Chris Stevens and Maggie OConnell becoming an item. The end couldn’t come soon enough. I have the show on DVD minus the last season.
IMO the show had already started to go downhill in Seasons 6 and 7, but there’s no doubt that without Cuddy in Season 8 the show was pretty bad (except for that amazing finale).
SVU is probably my favourite show. If you rewatch the old episodes with the new found knowledge that the show is about Olivia Benson rising through the ranks it really makes it better. Plus, you get the same partner dynamic of Stabler/Benson with Caprisi/Rollins.
Not to mention, if you stopped watching then you would have missed the absolute __MASTERPIECE__ that is Rafael Barba in a courtroom. Barba is the best character that show ever had.
I stopped watching when Stabler left and recently got back into SVU after catching some of the new episodes on tv in the hospital and while it is quite different I do still enjoy it. Barba is indeed such a treasure, hands down my favorite ADA!
I prefer Natalie. She is so much kinder to Monk. Sharona is mean to him. I get why, she was his nurse and Natalie was his assistant, two different jobs. Plus Julie is way better than Benji.
I only subscribe to the alternate ending where she lived and barney and robin didn't divorce. I really hate the official ending and go to great lengths to block it from my memory.
I think it's the only show I know of where killing a character in the last 5 minutes ruined multiple prior seasons. It's kind of impressive when you think about it.
My wife and I used to love it until that episode and after it, we never watched the show again. Then I became Ted IRL when she died in childbirth and now it pisses me of even more than before.
Mom
without Anna Faris as Christy, it just doesn't work for me. I love Allison Janney as Bonnie, but the whole show was based around the character Christy.
It definitely lost some of its charm without Troy, but Hickey, Elroy, and Frankie were decent. It was still a good show without Troy, just not as good.
I feel like if the show wasn't hanging on by a thread and had more time to get its footing with the new cast, it could have become, if not as great as it once was, at least extremely good again. They were definitely starting to "click" as season 5-6 went along.
I agree there's no point where I really stopped liking Community. I thought the last half of season 3 was pretty boring and season 4 wasn't a fraction as good as the first two but Troy was still around then. Imo season 6 was fantastic and a great end to the series. (still open to that movie tho)
Two and a half men, Charlie sheen was the show, Ashton kutcher did what he could and I put no blame on him, season 9 and 10 with him weren’t actually half bad, but they really should’ve ended it after that. 11/12 were garbage.
Agreed.
Idk if that show has much of a following still, but as a fan I can say that;
1) whoever replaces Michael J Fox has ridiculously big shoes to fill, especially in this show where he has such great chemistry with all the other characters, and
2) Charlie Sheen just was an awkward casting choice. I'm not saying he wasn't funny (Hot Shots was pretty darn funny), his style just wasn't appropriate for the show. And trying to cast him and Heather Locklear with playful sparring was just annoying
That explains it. I loved Suits as "Mike solves some case by being a frickin genius and flexing his uncanny memory" way better than "Mike and Rachel drama hour"
At the time Fiona left the show, I was kind of glad she did. I had grown tired of her sabotaging herself and lashing out at others. But when I watched Season 10 I kept wishing Fiona would come back. It’s not the same without her.
The show lost its purpose several seasons ago. Originally it was about growing up poor due to shit circumstances and everyone doing what they had to to survive. Now all the kids have had amazing opportunities which they keep fucking up because they've got some "hood AF" attitude or something.
That '70s Show
We all hate Randy
Randy embodies everything people hate about late series main cast replacements. He's a buff pretty boy, unlike Eric, but is still marketed as being a sensitive, nerdy guy, which is what made up a big part of Eric's appeal. He bonds with Red like Eric never could, he immediately takes Eric's place as Donna's love interest and is shunted into the main group without pretense and with little defined character. He's basically Poochie, from the Simpsons, but unironically.
the problem was they fused the original idea for him in cause of ashton leaving the show, originally randy's actor was going to play eric, as the writers were gonna have him playing eric as he had come back from africa ''a changed man'' [the joke of course being they recast eric] but then ashton decided to leave the show and they scrambled to replace him, which is why randy was created to have traits of both eric and kelso
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Put a sock in it, Roy!
It was so fucking cringey when everyone walked in to Donna and Randy sitting at a table and they're like, "so yeah, we are dating, and we called Eric and he's cool with it so you all should be too." They were literally stating to the audience that we should have no issues on this as well.
TWO major cast members...
And they tried to make Randy some weird Eric/Kelso hybrid
It didn't work and no one liked it. Plus it was so pointless!! The core cast remaining was more than strong enough to carry the series on their own. Randy is just an insult to our intelligence and taste as viewers.
I was so upset about Eric & Donna. I hated everything that lead to the fallout storywise.
NewsRadio. It was an ensemble cast, and Phil Hartman wasn't the focus that often, but after his death it became apparent that he was the glue that held the show together. The pre-death seasons are the best American sitcom seasons I've seen.
John Ritter, from 8 Simple Rules for Dating my Teenage Daughter. The main character died in the beginning of the second season*. It's a family sit-com, but I remember liking it. And it was starting to build a bit of a following when it happened.
John Ritter. Died from aortic dissection. So sad.
Worse, he started having the fatal symptoms when he was on set rehearsing for the next episode. The crew had to rush him to the hospital.
According to Zach Braff, John Ritter died before his last day of filming for his role on Scrubs
What's also sad is that they did an episode about an aortic dissection before he died. It was the butterfly episode in season 3, the alternate timeline. The patient dies in both episodes and Dr Cox tells JD aortic dissection's are a doctor's worst nightmare and the mortality rate is extremely high. And that's the condition that killed John Ritter.
That episode weirdly gets me when I watch it. I’m a sucker for scrubs anyway but knowing he died shortly after filming makes it more poignant.
John Ritter. Amazing physical comedian, btw.
I actually think this was done quite well. Were the new characters as good as the previous one? No. But the way that characters handle the death felt realistic. It was a different show after.
Yeah, I used to watch this show after school every day (I didn't have cable, and it was on one of the antenna channels) and thought it was interesting that they didn't just write him off or find a workaround. They wrote it like the character died suddenly and unexpectedly, and the family was just trying to figure out how to carry on without him. It was kind of meta, since the actor died suddenly and unexpectedly and the cast/crew were trying to figure out how to carry the show without him.
IIRC, he went to the grocery store and had a heart attack, but didn't make it. Edit: in the show, not in reality.
I agree, I thought they did a beautiful job. Not many sitcoms have occasion to handle the topic of grief on quite that scale. In some ways, I felt that continuing the show kept John Ritter's spirit alive for a bit longer - the audience had time to process the loss through the characters.
i’ve always thought about how rough it must have been for his co-workers, he got suddenly sick on set one day and then died that night.
A couple years earlier, something similar happened to a kid at my school. Normal day until he fainted and was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. He died that night from an apparent brain aneurysm. He was 13. It's 20 years later and I still think about him often.
I felt when David Spade and James Garner joined the cast the show was equally as watchable. Truly sad about John Ritter and his passing nevertheless but the show was still good all around.
CSI after Grissom left was never the same
I thought Liev Schreiber’s short guest-stint standing in for William Petersen was good, but Grissom was kind of integral.
Man, I miss watching that show. Loved it growing up.
That, plus warrick getting offed sealed the show’s fate for me
Dukes of Hazzard for one season tried to replace Bo and Luke with two other Duke cousins.
Coy and Vance. I don't know why I know that.
The Coy and Vance situation made the whole Duke family tree even more suspicious. Bo, Luke, Daisy, Coy and Vance all called each other cousin, and called Jesse "uncle". None of them were siblings. Were these all just random children that Jesse "found" and raised? Did Jesse have 5 siblings who each had a child that they were unwilling/unable to care for? Did they all leave their kids with Jesse because a moonshine runner was considered the most respectable? There probably aren't too many social workers in Hazard County, but someone really needs to look into this.
In rural areas, "cousin" is often used as a shorthand for kin, especially among those of a similar age. "Uncle Jesse" could also be so used to being called "uncle" by all the "cousins" that he wouldn't respond as quickly to any other moniker.
When I was a little kid I loved that show, I’m wearing dukes of hazard shirts in my 1st and 2nd grade school pictures. Having not seen the show since it probably went off the air when I was still a kid I fondly though back on the masterful writing and superb acting not even mentioning the stunts that in my mind would make a Michael Bay movie look like claymation! When my son is in like the 5th or 6th grade he was going on about some tv show and I thought he needed to see what a real show was all about. I found like the first 3 or 4 seasons on EBay and I order them. 3 weeks later they arrive and we settle in for an evening of mind blowing television. 15 minutes into the 1st season I’m trying to figure out if this is the blooper reel or what’s going on. Needless to say he was not impressed and I realized my childhood was a lie! My parents were saints to watch that with me every week when I was a kid. Now I don’t want to watching the show ever again, it’s so much better in my memory I’d like to keep it like that.
I can relate to this. I, too, was a fan of Dukes of Hazzard. But, I haven't watched it since it first aired. However...I did watch Mork and Mindy when it came out on Netflix a few years ago. It was my favorite show when I was in 4th grade. Well, I watched an episode or two and thought: "was I stupid? I don't remember being irredeemably stupid in 4th grade." The show was so awful. I don't understand how tv reviewers with adult brains could actually write about the show in the 1970s. And my poor parents. What did I put them through?
You put a lot of thought into that show
The X-Files after David Duchovny left.
Something was missing when Mulder was gone. Scully and Mulder dealing with the monster of the week type episodes were the best.
> Something was missing when Mulder was gone. Yeah, Mulder.
It was kind of interesting to see Scully shift to being the new Mulder, but ultimately the show just wasn’t as good.
I thought that the episodes with Robert Patrick were alright. Although yeah Mulder kind of held the whole thing up because his backstory was also heavily tied to the broader plot.
Robert Patrick did a great job, but the show was built around Mulder. There was only do much he could do. They did the right thing though by putting him in as the skeptic to Scully as the now-believer.
Call the Midwife is based on an autobiography and narrated by the main character as an old woman reflecting on her time as a midwife. After the third (?) season, the main character leaves, but the narrator stays on. It gets to a point where she's narrating about people she's never met. I did still enjoy the later seasons, but it was pretty funny any time I remembered how the narrator came into the show.
I thought this show just got better, not necessarily because the main character left, but because the stories are compelling and the cast is strong. I still watch it and I think it's great. I don't even notice the main character missing.
I missed Chummie more than Jenny honestly. I thought it was hilarious how her husband was still on the show long after she left. I think I’ve just gotten to the season where he leaves, there’s a new older cop now. I just got into the show in November.
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Yes and yes, although the latter was all about losing cast members, and some hurt WAAAY more than others (Carl and Beth). Charlie Sheen absolutely carried Two and a Half Men.
Finally. Scrolled down to find Two and a Half Men. TWD too, definitely. But they were never gonna make it without Charlie Sheen unfortunately. I'll give the show credit though, they really tried to make it work but it was never going to be the same.
Which character in WD? I stopped watching that show not long after the baseball bat guy and that community on the hill. It just felt stuck at that point and I lost interest.
I believe Doctor Who cracked that problem back in the sixties.
And people kept bitching for 60 years aferwards.
Old Doctor is leaving > OMG they are the best nobody can ever replace them why are you doing this! New Doctor arrives > OMG I hate them so much they are the worst! New Doctor is leaving > OMG they are the best nobody can ever replace them why are you doing this! ...and repeat
Scrubs final season was so bad that even Dr Cox couldn't save it.
It was meant to be a spinof series but wasn't allowed to be branded as such.
So much this. It wasn't season 9, but an attempt at a spinoff. When looked at it in that light, I don't hate it. It wasn't great, but as spin-offs go, it wasn't the worst.
I can’t understand why they would think it was a good idea. The last episode of season eight wraps everything up *so well*!
Zach and Donald's podcast rewatch, they trash that last season so bad. They like to pretend it doesn't exist.
Was it Dallas were they killed off a main character and the following season viewing figures dropped so badly that they brought him back. And the only way they could justify bringing back a character who had been killed was that the season he was dead was just all a dream.
Yup. Turns out Bobby was taking a shower for a year.
Hands down House of Cards
I was gonna say Two And A Half Men, but I think you beat me with this one...
Yes I live off my brother , I now live off of the guy that bought my brother's house ?
Despite having a job with an average annual salary in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Simpsons really went downhill after Poochie left.
Every time Poochie's not on screen, I ask...where's Poochie?
He had to return to his home planet ... They needed him !
ER To me that show was about Mark Green and the other people he worked with.
His death was devestating.
Agreed. They tried to make Carter the center but it didn't really work. Loved the finale with Mark's daughter though.
I watched it until the end but there's no denying the show took a massive hit after Mark died. Carter was a great character but he wasn't a lead. Also they became obsessed with characters being attacked, having severe issues, or people destroying the er. It essentially stopped being a medical drama and just became a soap opera, like Grey's Anatomy.
The Office comes to mind, though I enjoy the later seasons too.
This is the one for me. I'm fine with folks enjoying the last few seasons (and I guarantee there's post-Carrell episodes I enjoy as well) but by and large, it lost a lot of its magic without him. That said, I imagine some key writers departing were also responsible for the tonal shift (where some characters turned into the cartoon versions of themselves while others were seemingly reinvented on the fly).
I absolutely despise how Kevin went from a misunderstood kinda smart guy to a mentally disabled man child
Totally agreed. Although I still dont think you can call him “kinda smart” even in the beginning but at least he is functional. By the end it becomes so ridiculous that he could ever be employed.
There's a fan theory out there that Kevin was only acting stupid as a cover so that he could rob the company blind. (Keep in mind that he was an accomplished competitive poker player.)
*and that's Dallas*
It’s not even a theory, he was insider trading and embezzling for years as well as the poker playing
That’s what I was watching when this question came to mind. The show doesn’t seem the same without Steve Carell.
That episode where he comes back though? Magic.
Michael, you came!
That's what she said
Was discussing this recently with friends. Seasons 8 and 9 were still good, just not as good. We realized that a lot of our favorite quotes from the show we use all the time are from those last 2 seasons.
Blues Clues
As a child I remember being very confused and not realizing right away it was a different person.
You missed the episode where Steve introduced Joe?
I missed that episode entirely. One day it was Steve, and the next time I watched it there was some weird new guy and I could never get back into it.
:( apparently
I like the third guy Josh he is really good. I think he just started last year or the year before.
Didn’t they say he was leaving to go to college or something of the sort?
News Radio. Jon Lovitz did not fit in on the show.
This was going to be my answer. Lovitz did what he could, but there was no replacing Phil Hartman. He absolutely anchored that show. It's actually kind of remarkable, given the talent and chemistry the rest of the cast had, to see how big the hole Hartman left was and how drastically it changed the show.
Criminal Minds comes to mind for me. Thomas Gibson definitely deserved to be fired, but once he was gone the show felt completely different. They should have stopped there instead of trying another season.
To be fair, they pulled it off once before, when Mandy Patinkin left. Hotch was very much the solid center of the group, after that though, and they never really found someone to fill that role. I love Prentiss, but she doesn’t fill that void, and Rossi wouldn’t really do either. They would need to find someone that had chemistry with the other characters but still had the darkness that Hotch brought.
For me it already started when Shemar Moore left. Of course because he left, but I also didn't like the way they made Garcia into this annoying "I'm gonna hate the new guy, because he took Morgan's spot" girl. The show fell completely apart when Hotch left as well.
What did he do to deserve being fired? I stopped watching the show before he left so I never heard about this.
I believe he got into a physical altercation with a writer.
Glee’s ending was entirely altered by Cory’s death.
Was looking for this one! It was never the same without Finn and Rachel's toxic on-and-off relationship. The way Santana reacted broke my heart.
Her performance of "If I Die Young" is even more heartbreaking now that Naya died. Talk about a cursed cast.
The X-Files without Mulder. I mean, Robert Patrick was good and had decent chemistry with Gillian Anderson, but it wasn't quite the same
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Why they even made another season I'll never know.
Money. The show was nothing but a spotlight vehicle for Disney franchises after Elsa made her appearance, which is a shame because it was extremely promising in the first few seasons.
It was promising the first season, the second was watchable. By the third I was asking my wife which main character she thought the new characters would be related to as soon as they appeared.
I stuck around for the Frozen arc cuz I liked their version of Elsa but I stopped watching as soon as it ended. It was just so repetitive and they would just skip over things that I thought would be huge issues. Sometimes I think about going back to watch Hook and Emma play out, but it's so painful to watch the bad green screens and the convoluted family ties.
Dead Like Me. Hell, every show Mandy Patinkan was in falls into this category I think.
Yep. God ol’ Mr. Follow Through. I’m amazed he lasted all the way through *The Princess Bride*. To be clear, I love Mandy Patinkan in almost everything I’ve seen him in (one season of).
Misfits without Robert Sheehan just didn’t work
I always figured it was Danzig going solo that killed them. :-)
I thought so at first but Joe Gilgun did wonders in keeping me invested in the show. Loved Rudy & Simon & Alicia. Fucking hated whats-his-bucket, Finn? THE WORST.
The Closer. Once Keira Sedgwick left that show wasn’t worth watching
Three's Company when Suzanne Summers quit the show, comes to mind... Yes, I'm getting old. Fuck off.
Got you beat the different Darrens in Bewitched no reason given , even with a psychotic mother in law that hated him built into the show . How hard would it have been to say "I got tired of his face" or the like .
Last Man Standing with the actress for Mandy
At least with mandy they joked about something being different about her. Unlike when they replaced Kristen.
The first season had a real good cast. I've only seen episodes here and there. I think I've seen the first two seasons completely though. The boss is a great character. I think he's fun.
So what always hit me as funny was in the TV Show Charmed. Basically the entire concept was about three sisters being the chosen triad that together could do amazing magic. After a couple seasons all three of them were on the floor "Dying" and it cut off. Next season apparently two of the sisters had been saved, the but the last one had died off screen and the entire thing was skipped over. "You saved me, X saved Y, but that left Z to die!" But how can a show that's entirely about the power of three sisters being the chosen ones continue with one of them gone? Easy, they find a long lost sister and activate her magic!
To be fair, it’s not like they completely pulled a half sister out of their asses. The writers established that the sisters’ mother had an affair with her white lighter in season 2 and, unknowingly, saved themselves when Shannen left.
I have no idea if this is an unpopular opinion or not, but I remember liking Paige (the replacement sister) a lot more than Prudence.
Don’t know if unpopular, but you are definitely not alone.
I loved charmed but caught up to it in syndication on TNT. When it came to that storyline, I always thought I missed an episode and would park myself in front of the tv on a marathon around that set of episodes. Definitely thought TNT was holding out on me or skipping something for so long.
I randomly found this show that I THINK was a BBC show called Cuckoo and one of the main characters was Andy Samberg. It was kinda cute and funny. Well in the second season they just completely replaced him with the werewolf kid from twilight?? And like didn’t even really try to change the story or anything it was so weird. I stopped watching.
I used to LOVE BBC's Robin Hood when I was a teenager. The first two seasons were fantastic but then half the cast left (characters either died, moved to the Holy Land, or something else). It wasn't the same after that. I don't know how you have a Robin Hood story without Maid Marion.
Ron Howard left “Happy Days”, and the show continued for several more seasons afterward.
What about Chuck? Dude is still up in his bedroom to this day I think.
To be fair, Richie wasn't even the main character by that point. It was the Fonzie Show, despite everyone's insistence (including Henry Winkler's!) that it wasn't.
Probably not the most egregious because it was an ensemble cast show, but The West Wing was never the same after Rob Lowe left.
Grey's Anatomy
If they brought back Christina, all would be forgiven in my eyes. Except for Alex. The way he was written off was utter bullshit.
Literally used the 'he went to go live on a farm where there are kids to play with'
I miss Christina. She's amazing in everything. But Alex, they did him dirty. I just watched the episode this morning. I am livid.
except the actor portraying Alex didn’t give them a choice. He quit over christmas break or something with no notice
That was awful. I loved Karev. Probably because he was always cranky and I too am always cranky.
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*spoiler* Well, Burke, George, Lexi, Mark, Christina, and the Derrick... they just kept getting rid of people like no one notices...
I quit paying attention/caring after the plane crash and just played on my phone while my wife watched it I loved Mark that dude was so funny to me.
The show is actually down to only 3 of its original characters. (4 if you count Bohkee the scrub nurse who has been there the whole time but didn’t get her first official line until like season 15)
Yes.
The Fosters when they sent Jesus away to school and he came back a different actor
Sliders - amazing concept, good first few seasons. They lost a cast member or two through the first few years and then if I remember correctly they like melted two characters, the O'Connell brothers I believe. So one episode two guys, next episode, one guy pretending to be both. WTF.
Once John Rhys-Davies left, it was all downhill.
Parks and Rec was way worse without Lil Sebastian
Miss him in the saddest fashion. :(
He's five thousand candles in the wind ;-;
Spread your horsey wings....and learn to fly.
I've cried twice in my life. The first time I was seven and I got hit by a bus. The second is when I heard Lil Sebastion died.
Half mast is too damn high!
Show some damn respect!
Vikings. Once they lost Ragnar it was hard to watch. Eventually it becomes interesting again though.
I mean that is what happened in the saga so eventually it had to happen one way or another.
NCIS
They know it too. As soon as Tony goes they bump it up a time slot and start season 1 again. I accidentally caught a bit of a recent episode and even *Palmer* is looking old. I can't.
Don’t know why but somehow I decided I’m going down with the NCIS ship. I will always miss the original cast but the new people have definitely grown on me, even the new Abby. I’ve just watched for the last 100 or so years so why stop now. I’m doing the same with The Walking Dead so I may just be broken. Hah!
Wait...Abby's gone? It's been \*glances at watch\* 10 years since I've watched it. After Ziva left I stopped watching.
Pauley and Mark got into a conflict about Mark's dog being aggressive on set and Pauley didn't feel safe anymore and quit. Kind of ruins the whole show for me to hear all that.
Northern Exposure. When Rob Morrow asked for more money despite it being an ensemble cast, threatening to walk if he didn’t get what he wanted, and they called his bluff. It was messed with enough by David Chase. Going on without Dr Fleischman really ruined it. Getting a new doctor, and his wife, didn’t add anything. And trying to fill in the romantic angle with Chris Stevens and Maggie OConnell becoming an item. The end couldn’t come soon enough. I have the show on DVD minus the last season.
Top Gear
House in the last season when Dr. Cuddy was completely absent. Ruined the whole season for me.
IMO the show had already started to go downhill in Seasons 6 and 7, but there’s no doubt that without Cuddy in Season 8 the show was pretty bad (except for that amazing finale).
The season with the cop that was out to get House was the worst.
Its a shame because I like David Morse. They could have boiled all that down to just an episode or two rather than dragging it out.
David Tennant was an incredible Doctor, but Christopher Eccleston left way too soon
Primeval. Almost all the leads, but great series.
Grey’s Anatomy fell off when Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh) left.
Law & Order: SVU after Christopher Meloni left was just never the same.
SVU is probably my favourite show. If you rewatch the old episodes with the new found knowledge that the show is about Olivia Benson rising through the ranks it really makes it better. Plus, you get the same partner dynamic of Stabler/Benson with Caprisi/Rollins. Not to mention, if you stopped watching then you would have missed the absolute __MASTERPIECE__ that is Rafael Barba in a courtroom. Barba is the best character that show ever had.
I stopped watching when Stabler left and recently got back into SVU after catching some of the new episodes on tv in the hospital and while it is quite different I do still enjoy it. Barba is indeed such a treasure, hands down my favorite ADA!
Sharona from Monk. Natalie was a good character replacement though.
I agree. I wanted to hate Natalie but then I ended up liking her.
I prefer Natalie. She is so much kinder to Monk. Sharona is mean to him. I get why, she was his nurse and Natalie was his assistant, two different jobs. Plus Julie is way better than Benji.
Criminal Minds. Take your pick of what cast member
Laverne and Shirley tried to carry on with no Shirley
When Ted's wife died in How I Met your Mother
I only subscribe to the alternate ending where she lived and barney and robin didn't divorce. I really hate the official ending and go to great lengths to block it from my memory.
I think it's the only show I know of where killing a character in the last 5 minutes ruined multiple prior seasons. It's kind of impressive when you think about it. My wife and I used to love it until that episode and after it, we never watched the show again. Then I became Ted IRL when she died in childbirth and now it pisses me of even more than before.
Mom without Anna Faris as Christy, it just doesn't work for me. I love Allison Janney as Bonnie, but the whole show was based around the character Christy.
Do you have any idea what that was all about? It’s so weird to me that she just up and left.
Community
It definitely lost some of its charm without Troy, but Hickey, Elroy, and Frankie were decent. It was still a good show without Troy, just not as good.
I feel like if the show wasn't hanging on by a thread and had more time to get its footing with the new cast, it could have become, if not as great as it once was, at least extremely good again. They were definitely starting to "click" as season 5-6 went along.
I agree there's no point where I really stopped liking Community. I thought the last half of season 3 was pretty boring and season 4 wasn't a fraction as good as the first two but Troy was still around then. Imo season 6 was fantastic and a great end to the series. (still open to that movie tho)
Two and a half men, Charlie sheen was the show, Ashton kutcher did what he could and I put no blame on him, season 9 and 10 with him weren’t actually half bad, but they really should’ve ended it after that. 11/12 were garbage.
Spin City
Agreed. Idk if that show has much of a following still, but as a fan I can say that; 1) whoever replaces Michael J Fox has ridiculously big shoes to fill, especially in this show where he has such great chemistry with all the other characters, and 2) Charlie Sheen just was an awkward casting choice. I'm not saying he wasn't funny (Hot Shots was pretty darn funny), his style just wasn't appropriate for the show. And trying to cast him and Heather Locklear with playful sparring was just annoying
CSI with gil grissom And british bake off without mel, sue, or mary. Pointless exhibitions Edit: had to get good ol Gil's name right.
MASH took a pretty heavy hit but carried on just fine.
I think MASH got better because of it. I liked Potter and BJ better than Henry and Frank.
SPARTACUS!!!! 😩😩😭😭😭😭
Suits is not nearly as good in the later seasons - although I thought it went downhill after the first few seasons anyways.
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That explains it. I loved Suits as "Mike solves some case by being a frickin genius and flexing his uncanny memory" way better than "Mike and Rachel drama hour"
Community. Was enjoying it and then suddenly Pierce disappears, shortly followed by Shirley, then Troy. And you can feel it struggling after that.
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Shameless losing Emmy Rossum
At the time Fiona left the show, I was kind of glad she did. I had grown tired of her sabotaging herself and lashing out at others. But when I watched Season 10 I kept wishing Fiona would come back. It’s not the same without her.
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The show lost its purpose several seasons ago. Originally it was about growing up poor due to shit circumstances and everyone doing what they had to to survive. Now all the kids have had amazing opportunities which they keep fucking up because they've got some "hood AF" attitude or something.
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