Isn’t it weird how some of our favorite TV characters suddenly stop showing up on their series? Take a look at 15 characters who were written off their shows for the most bizarre reasons:
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1. The sole reason why Steve Carell left THE OFFICE was that no one ever asked him to stay. Carell was on a seven-season contract and was perfectly happy to keep on playing the character of Michael Scott. However, NBC’s new higher-ups didn’t know much about The Office and never bothered to sign Carell up for further seasons.
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2. The head writer of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION got Dr. Beverly Crusher fired. Maurice Hurley didn’t care for Gates McFadden and asked producer Gene Roddenberry to kick her out after the end of Season 1. McFadden joined back the show as soon as Maurice Hurley left.
3. Maude Flanders was killed off from THE SIMPSONS Fox studios were reluctant on spending their fortune. Actress Maggie Roswell demanded a pay raise- from $1,500-$2,000 an episode to $6,000. However, Fox offered her $150 which was not even enough for Roswell to commute from Denver to Los Angeles to record her lines. Hence she quit and they killed off Maude.
4. Steve Burns left BLUE’S CLUES only because he was turning bald. “I refused to lose my hair on a kid’s TV show” he explained in a 2014 interview.
5. Leo went missing from THAT 70s SHOW because Tommy Chong was sentenced to prison over pot. Tommy Chong was a huge stoner and was caught selling bongs. He spent nine months in prison due to which he couldn’t appear in Season 5 and 6 of the show.
6. The BLUE POWER RANGER quit Power Rangers after he faced on-set homophobia. David Yost walked off the set one day after getting tired of the abuse he got for being gay. “I was called ‘f-‘one too many times,” Yost said. “I had just heard that several times while working on the show from creators, producers, writers, directors..”
7. Eddie Lebec was killed off in CHEERS because his actor dissed Rhea Perlman. According to Cheers writer Ken Levine, Jay Thomas was asked in a radio show about how it was to be on the show and he called it ‘brutal’. “I have to kiss Rhea Perlman,” he said.
8. According to Bill Cosby, Lisa Bonet wasn’t wholesome enough for THE COSBY SHOW. With time Dennise Huxtable started appearing less and less until Cosby fired her altogether.
9. Detectives Kelly and Kalakaua went missing from HAWAII FIVE-O because of pay inequality. Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park were paid less than their white co-stars CBS’s final offer after negotiation was 10-15% lower than what they paid Alex O’Loughlin and Scott Caan. By season 8 both detectives quit the show.
10. Kal Penn left HOUSE because he wanted to work in the White House. Under the Obama administration, Penn served as the principal associate editor in the White House Office of Public Engagement.
11. Michelle Rodriguez was shown the exit gates of LOST because of rumors that she was driving under the influence of alcohol. Damon Lindelof however stated that she had signed up for just one season.
12. Mandy Patinkin wasn’t comfortable playing Jason Gideon in CRIMINAL MINDS. According to him, the show was full of violence, particularly against women. He simply stopped showing up on set.
13. Jeffrey DeMunn voluntarily chose to be eaten by zombies in THE WALKING DEAD. A long-time collaborator of Frank Darabont, DeMunn was upset when AMC fired Darabont as showrunner. So he went to the producers and said, “it’s a zombie show. Kill me. I don’t want to do this anymore.”
15. Col. Blake left the sitcom M*A*S*H because McLean Stevenson overestimated his own popularity. He asked to be written off the show to do his own series thinking that M*A*S*H‘s success would follow him around.
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