Characters leaving, that nearly destroyed a series

[Ome]

I got to thinking about @Emeleez Navidad 's thread and wanted to go a little further.

How about characters leaving a show that caused a decline in your interest or enjoyment of the seasons/episodes that followed?


Brookside - Sheila, Bobby, Heather (albeit leaving at different times) leaving led to them taking away a special bit of magic with them. I also missed Doreen, Paul, Anabelle and Harry.

Blake's 7 - Blake & Cally - I was distraught for quite a bit, though I still enjoyed the show overall.

Prisoner Cell Block H - Bea Smith, Lizzie Birdsworth, Colleen Powell. I also missed Vinegar Tits, but the Freak sure made up for that loss

Game of Thrones - Robb and Catelyn Stark

 

[tommie]

Alison, Melrose Place.

Not because I liked the character but it became blatantly obvious she was needed on the show.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

The Melrose Place Exodus of Season Five: granted MP had passed it's peak by season five but losing Jane, Kimberly, Alison, Jake and Sydney in the space of five months really tore the heart out of the show. Spare parts like Samantha, Jennifer and Coop were pale imitations of those they were brought in to replace and the show limped along in season six and those summer episodes of season seven. Paring down the cast from fall 1998 brought the show back around somewhat but the damage was done.

 

[Justine]

One Tree Hill wasn't the same for me after Lucas and Peyton (especially) left the series.

 

[Michael Torrance]

Downton Abbey's loss of Mathew Crawley (which was actor dictated) in season 3 felt like the end of the show's narrative arc. The following seasons had the aimlessness of Dynasty's later seasons (and some of the craziness also).

 

[Angela Channing]

Falcon Crest - was never as good after the loss of Melissa.
Crossroads - the core characters for me were Meg Mortimer, David Hunter, Jill Chance and Diane Hunter. The show survived losing Meg and David but once Diane went too it went downhill significantly.
Happy Days - How they thought it could continue without Ritchie Cunningham is beyond me but it survived a few more seasons but was pretty dire.
X-Files - Similarly, the X-Files without Mulder? It was never going to work.
Dallas - Many characters left and it continued to be a great show until Pamela was gone and Dallas went into a sharp and terminal decline.

 

[Rove]

Pat the Rat from Sons and Daughters. Once Rowena left the series I was done. Her return - though brilliantly devised - couldn't save the series.

Australian television is desperately lacking a character like Pat the Rat.​

 

[Emelee]

The most obvious case - Stephanie Forrester, The Bold and the Beautiful. I quit watching the day after Susan Flannery's last episode. She was the entire series IMO.

Conrad Grayson, Revenge -- whose "brilliant" idea was it to have Conrad out, David Clarke in?? Conrad was my favorite character. Aiden I could live without, even though I liked him. Even Daniel I could live without. But I quit watching when they killed off Conrad. That was NOT ok, writers!

Pamela Barnes Ewing, Dallas -- not because she was my favorite character, but something changed for the worse when she left. The characters that were introduced after she left never made an impact on me.

Fox Mulder, The X-files -- the episodes without him didn't work.

JD, Scrubs -- The med. school "spin-off" with 4 new main characters wasn't nearly as good.

Kelso and Eric, That 70s show -- they should have canceled instead of doing the last season.

Original Herr Flick, 'Allo! 'Allo! -- just no, no, no to the re-casting of that character!

 

[Michael Torrance]

The most obvious case - Stephanie Forrester, The Bold and the Beautiful. I quit watching the day after Susan Flannery's last episode. She was the entire series IMO.

I loved to hate Stephanie thanks to Susan Flannery, but her character had been a dead end for years. What I hated when she died is that they did not have her favorite son come to the funeral, since Ronn Moss had also left.

The Bold and the Beautiful is also an interesting study of how the way a character is written matters, and not just the actor or actress (which often is the claim made by actors who let it go to their heads, and by their obsessed fans). Joanna Johnson as Caroline had such a Grace-Kellyesque quality and fit the role perfectly, so much so the show was nicknamed "Caroline" in many countries where it aired. When the actress left because she had mental health issues, the ensemble show survived, but when the actress wanted to return to the show years later, they gave her the role of her long-long twin, Karen. But Karen fizzled and had no chemistry with anyone, whereas Caroline had with everyone.

 

[Daniel Avery]

The most obvious to me would have to be when Cindy Williams departed Laverne and Shirley. I still can't believe ABC tried to continue without 'Shirley'. I see these Shirley-less episodes in syndication and I still shake my head, especially the opening titles with Laverne (Penny Marshall) watching some neighborhood kids singing that nonsensical song that L&S always sang together as they marched down the street. The show was about the friendship between the two characters, and trying to continue without half of the relationship was ludicrous. They should have tried to re-tool into a spin-off rather than just continuing to call it L&S.

When Kristy McNichol left Empty Nest, the show had to be re-tooled in two or three ways to compensate. Barbara's rivalry with sister Carol (Dinah Manoff) for the affections of their father was the funniest part of the show at that point. They assumed that they could just bring in the youngest sister Emily (Lisa Rieffel) to fill that role, but that did not work, so they had to bring in several other supporting characters and re-adjust the focus of the show. It was still enjoyable, but nowhere near as funny as the Barbara vs. Carol goldmine they had created. There was always the sense that Barbara was needed around the house, even if they didn't mention her much.

When Delta Burke left Designing Women, it was the culmination of backstage fighting and personal problems. I don't think the producers adequately understood just how much the audience loved Burke's Suzanne Sugarbaker, since they made not-too-obvious attempts to write her into situations where she would come off unlikeable--only to have the audience gravitate to her even more. They wrote in a replacement character who was genuinely unlikeable, backfiring on the producers because they wanted to make people think that the Suzanne phenomenon could be easily replicated. They had to replace the replacement within a year, and then the show ended up cancelled.

 

[Top Jimmy]

Besides the above mentioned Cindy Williams, Ron Howard's departure from Happy Days made it virtually unwatchable. Also, the departures of Polly Holliday and Suzanne Somers drastically affected Alice and Three's Company. Even though those shows ran for several years after, they were never quite the same. The same goes for when Mackenzie Phillips was fired twice from One Day at a Time. She provided the spark to that series.

 

[Emelee]

I loved to hate Stephanie thanks to Susan Flannery, but her character had been a dead end for years.

As opposed to other characters that aren't...? I don't agree. Stephanie was always awesome, always interesting, and always the one I rooted for. They always inserted her in other characters' storylines when they were treading water because Stephanie would add new life to any storyline.

I read spoilers here and there about what happens on the show, and it appears I have missed absolutely nothing in 6 years. Liam still can't decide who he loves more, Ridge and Brooke keep on disagreeing about their daughters, Taylor is still blaming everyone else but pretending to be a good psychiatrist. Time stands still. And there's only Stephanie Junior to root for.

 

[Richard Channing]

 

[Willie Oleson]

Nobody cared that she was killed, and that killed the story - and almost the entire show.

 

[i love jr ewing]

NCIS: Tony & Abby.

 

[Rove]

Shannen Doherty and Charmed. I attempted to continue with this series but it lost its spark without Shannen there.

 

[Ome]

Mathew Crawley

I agree the show lost quite a lot of spark after he left. I also thought the downstairs lost out too when O'Brien.

 

[ChrisSumner]

The Melrose Place Exodus of Season Five: granted MP had passed it's peak by season five but losing Jane, Kimberly, Alison, Jake and Sydney in the space of five months really tore the heart out of the show. Spare parts like Samantha, Jennifer and Coop were pale imitations of those they were brought in to replace and the show limped along in season six and those summer episodes of season seven. Paring down the cast from fall 1998 brought the show back around somewhat but the damage was done.

I'm currently re-watching Melrose and I'm midway through season five which I love. The biggest problem for me wasn't so much the exits but the replacements. Season five is still good because it has a mixture of new and old. Jane had such heavy and dark stories the previous couple seasons so I didn't mind her exit to clear her mind for a bit. Kimberly was also someone that I felt the show was fine without. Jake never worked without Jo and I feel the show had outgrown Shooters so I personally wish he had left in season four with Jo. The biggest problems for me were the exits of Allison and Sydney. Both provided something unique they weren't able to recapture. Sydney should've never left or been killed off. She gave them a great young ingenue to play with and she added fun to the show. As for the new characters, I think Taylor was perfect and I enjoyed Megan. Samantha was good her first season but grew tiresome. Coop, Lexie and the season 7 newbies were too bland and boring for me. I know many think the final season was good, but I found it very bland. I wish Lisa Rinna hadn't left so you'd at least have a sense of fun.

 

[Willie Oleson]

I agree the show lost quite a lot of spark after he left.

It was a deliciously brutal move, my problem with the post-Matthew story was that we had to go through Lady Mary's "will she or won't she" shenanigans all over again, this time with competing candidates.
I'd rather watch Mary and Matthew's marriage falling apart, in a soaptastic way of course.

 

[Ome]

we had to go through Lady Mary's "will she or won't she" shenanigans all over again,

Yes, and it felt like they were trying to capture that love dilemma all over again. It just didn't work for, I never cared any more over Lady Mary and her struggles with love. I can't even remember any of their names or even if Mary was married again, it's all seems to have gone blank. Maybe a re-watch is on the horizon.

I'd rather watch Mary and Matthew's marriage falling apart, in a soaptastic way of course.

After spending whatever time it was over how long they took to get together, watching the union fall apart would have been all that more exciting.