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  1. #1
    My Face Is Up Here Powerboy's Avatar
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    Default Shows that were not the same after a character left

    Inspired by Caj and his thread about characters introduced late in a show's run that worked.

    In this case, characters/ actors that left and the show just was not as good anymore.

    The first one I think of is the Andy Griffith show when Barney Fife/ Don Knotts left.

    In fairness, two of it's three seasons as the number one show were after Barney left, although one of those can be explained by the viewers knowing it was the last season.

    But most people, including AG himself, mark Barney leaving as the point where it went from having something special to becoming just another sitcom.
    Power with Girl is better.

  2. #2
    Put a smile on that face Immortal Weapon's Avatar
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    Spin City after Michael J Fox left. Charlie Sheen didn't do it for me.

  3. #3
    Ultimate Member Riv86672's Avatar
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    Michael Scott leaving The Office changed the show’s dynamic to something less fun, at least for me.

    Much as I didn’t really like Eric Foreman, his leaving def. screwed up That 70s Show for me.
    Last edited by Riv86672; 07-30-2021 at 09:35 AM.

  4. #4
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    I know I'm in the minority but I still love the color episodes of TAGS after Barney left. Mind you, I loved the Barney episodes but I liked the transition the show made about it being about the townspeople in the color episodes. And I loved Aunt Bee.

    For me, it was Shelley Long leaving Cheers. I still thought the show was funny and it added some great characters. But nothing could replace that Sam and Diane dynamic of the first 5 seasons.

  5. #5
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    James MacArthur's Daniel "Danno" Williams leaving Hawaii 5-0. The show tried a slightly less idealized and more contemporary vibe going forward, but it just wasn't the same again. Presenting the fictional 5-0 something of an almost comedicly uptight organization was one of the series' charms.

    Babylon 5 lost something in replacing Claudia Christian's Susan Ivanova with Tracy Scroggins' Elizabeth Lochley. Now, yeah, there was a lot of stuff besides the cast change going on, as JMS and team were having to patch together a 5th season out of what they dropped from the 4th when they thought there wouldn't be a 5th. Moreover, I had no problem with Scroggins' performance, but it might have worked better had Lochley's characterization been a significantly more different than Ivanova's, or even if they had merely recast Scroggins as Ivanova. The show was forced to work a lot harder to offset the relational context Ivanova's took with her.

  6. #6
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    "Alias" after Will and Francie left. The show was known for big action and having a big special effects budget and they had to save money and cut cast. In theory, Will and Francie (the civilians of the show) were the right ones to cut, but imho, the show was never the same after that. The characters tethered Sydney to the real world and reminded us who and why she was fighting for. The heart of the show was lost, and while it was still a pretty good show, it would never be the same after that.

    That said, Bradley Cooper would go on to become an A-Lister after that, and Merrin Dungey always seems to be working, so being cut from Alias might have inadvertently helped their careers.

  7. #7
    Astonishing Member AndrewCrossett's Avatar
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    Game of Thrones. Heh.

    Northern Exposure, Happy Days, The X-Files, Bonanza. Supernatural lost a lot post-Bobby.

  8. #8
    Not a Newbie Member JBatmanFan05's Avatar
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    X-Files...I stopped watching multiple seasons after David Duchovny left the series' regular cast in season 7. Of course he eventually came back and thus I did, but yeah, really X-Files was never the same after Season 7 I'd say (despite David coming back).
    Last edited by JBatmanFan05; 07-30-2021 at 12:33 PM.
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  9. #9

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    Designing Women.

    When Delta Burke left between seasons, they brought in Julia Duffy as the Sugarbakers' cousin Allison for season 6. And...they did everything to make her so unlikable you might as well consider her the villain of the show. Zero redeeming qualities. A stark contrast between Burke's Suzanne.

    So they wrote out Julia between seasons and brought in Judity Ivy as BJ for season 7 but by then it was too late, season 7 was the last.

    Basically the show was never the same after Delta Burke left. But apparently the show needed Suzanne, and Suzanne needed the show: a couple years after the fact they spun off Suzanne into her own show, "Women of the House", which only lasted one season.

  10. #10

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    Empty Nest, the often forgotten spinoff to The Golden Girls. It lasted 7 years. Widower Harry Weston, a pediatrician, has to deal with his two adult daughters moving back in. Cop Barbara (Kristy McNichol), and neurotic Carol (Dinah Manoff). While not quite as funny as The Golden Girls, it was at least as consistently funny as The Golden Girls. One of the things that worked was the dynamic between the sisters.

    And then McNichol left at the end of season 4. She was credited for the entirety of season 5, though, despite never appearing. And she didn't appear again until the series finale (season 7).

    So to compensate, in season 5 they brought in the until then only mentioned youngest, third daughter, Emily, in the middle of the season. And in the second ep of season 5, Carol's sculptor boyfriend moved in. Emily was gone by the end of the season, the boyfriend early in season 6 (the same ep Carol told him she was pregnant).

    Season 6 they brought in Marsha Warfield as Dr. Maxine Douglas, who ran a clinic that Harry started working in, and Sophia from The Golden Girls moved in...somewhere, not what them, but she was their neighbor and popped up frequently.

    Basically the show kept trying to recover when McNichol left. I think it found its feet when Marsha Warfield joined the show, but the original magic was gone. Barbara and Carol's bickering was one of the things that made the show, and they kept trying to fill that void with different things.

  11. #11
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    Assuming "not the same" can be good or bad, Cheers certainly improved after Diane left, M*A*S*H improved after Frank left, and Barney Miller improved after Fish left (though that wasn't Fish's fault).

    Sorry, just read the first post. Bewitched after Dick York left was not as good, even though that was an actor, not a character. It's actually difficult to think of a show where a character leaving diminished it, but Andy Griffith was certainly up there.

  12. #12

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    Earth: Final Conflict.

    Liam Kincaid (Robert Leeshock) left at the end of Season 4.

    Season 5 was retooled to where the show was basically Renee Palmer (Liam's kinda sorta love interest) vs the Atavus, basically space vampires. In retrospect, not as bad as I felt it was watching the eps as they aired, but definitely not at good as it was when Liam was on the show and it was about the Taelon conflict.

  13. #13
    Boisterously Confused
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    Quote Originally Posted by titanfan View Post
    "Alias" after Will and Francie left. The show was known for big action and having a big special effects budget and they had to save money and cut cast. In theory, Will and Francie (the civilians of the show) were the right ones to cut, but imho, the show was never the same after that. The characters tethered Sydney to the real world and reminded us who and why she was fighting for. The heart of the show was lost, and while it was still a pretty good show, it would never be the same after that.

    That said, Bradley Cooper would go on to become an A-Lister after that, and Merrin Dungey always seems to be working, so being cut from Alias might have inadvertently helped their careers.
    I should have thought of that one. The show was far less interesting when Garner's Sydney Bristo's life lost its tether to any world other than the espionage **** hole.

  14. #14
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    Vikings.

    It just wasn’t the same when Ragnar (Travis Fimmel) died.

  15. #15
    Ultimate Member babyblob's Avatar
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    Richie from Happy Days. I dont know but I was just not interested in any episode after that (The only exception being the Christmas episode where Howard and Joni get trapped in the snow storm and Al goes on and on about The Christmas Lunatics.

    Also When Molly Ephraim Left Last Man Standing. The actress who replaced her was pretty damn bad.
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