Opposite of breakout characters on hit TV Shows

[roadman65]

We all have heard of JR. Ewing on Dallas, Steve Urkel on Family Matters, Dr. Smith on Lost In Space,  and even Fonzie on Happy Days.  All were once supporting cast members, but broke out into the main set of characters on their respective shows.  Urkel and Smith both came to their shows as guest stars but ended up staying.  However, what about popular characters that once were and then faded out?

Anson Williams Potsie on Happy Days was a supporting star for 7 seasons, but after the 8th season of HD was put onto the back burner as Ron Howard left the show at the start of Season 8.  As Williams was supporter for Ron Howard's Richie Cunningham character, the character never developed a good interaction with other cast members except for Ralph Malph who's actor Donnie Most also left the series the same moment as Howard at the start of Season 8. Therefore Potsie was seen less and less as writers could not come up with story lines that could build up good interaction with the rest of Happy Days, with the rise of also breakout characters of Joannie and Chachi who was the show's now main focus in addition to the life of Fonzie developing into a HS auto shop teacher.

Then there was Dack Ranbow who was Jack Ewing on Dallas.  Intended to replace Patrick Duffy during Dallas' Dream Season, after Duffy returned Jack Ewing had no place in the ensemble.  The story line he had previously had to be dropped as everything that happened in the year without Patrick was not real do to it being dreamed by Pam Ewing.  Though Jack made good among the cast, his story line could not be carried over for obvious reasons, and therefore was put in the back burner and eventually dropped.

Cindy Snow, who was a short term replacement for Suzanne Sommers on Three's Company was popular during her two third's of season 5 of that sitcom, was risen and then slowly let go.  Plus Chrissy (Sommers' character )you could also say was one popular and then gone (due to her not getting along with show's producers in real life), but she did not fizzle from the scene like her successor did.  After Jenilee Harrison (the actress portraying Cindy Snow was replaced by Priscilla Barnes) was risen to popular status, she was then given less storylines to stay on.

What other characters did the opposite of breakout that you can think of?

[KeithE4Phx]

Robert Colbert as Brent Maverick was supposed to replace James Garner, but only lasted for a couple of shows.  IIRC, he replaced Roger Moore (Beau Maverick) as the Garner replacement when the latter quit the show.

[jp the roadgeek]

Damon Evans as the second Lionel on The Jeffersons.  During the first season, the original Lionel, Mike Evans (no relation) left to focus more of his energy on Good Times, of which he was a co-creator.  People never warmed up to the new Lionel, and he was eventually written out.  Eventually, Mike Evans returned to the cast when Good Times ended, and the Lionel character was revived for a couple seasons before being written out again, only to return for a cameo in the show's final season. 

[sparker]

After the husband-and-wife team of Martin Landau and Barbara Bain left Mission Impossible in 1969 over a salary dispute with Desilu, the producers, Leonard Nimoy was brought in as a substitute "disguise specialist".  However, he always seemed somewhat "wooden" in the role (it didn't seem to be in his "wheelhouse", so to speak) and after two seasons he and the producers agreed to part ways.  Coincidentally, Nimoy and Landau were the "finalists" for the role of Spock in the original Star Trek, which premiered the same time as M.I.; after Nimoy landed the part, Landau agreed to his stint on M.I., which was supposed to have been a few guest shots but instead turned into an effective co-lead with Steven Hill, the "team leader", Dan Briggs, in the first season.  But Hill's insistence on strict observation of the Sabbath (he was a practicing Orthodox Jew) disrupted the schedule to the point where he missed a few episodes of the season, at which time Landau's character Rollin Hand was functionally "promoted" to team leader for those episodes.  At that time the standard yearly complement was 26 episodes rather than the current maximum of 22, so schedules were exceptionally "tight", and regardless of reason, Hill's priorities irked producer Bruce Geller.   But Hill's contract specified that he would get top billing, so Landau, essentially "added" at the last minute, was billed as a series of "special guest appearances" for that season.  At Geller's insistence Desilu bought out Hill's contract at the end of the season and replaced him with Peter Graves for the remainder of the series' run; Landau got co-lead billing for seasons #2 and #3 of the show.  But even today, those with recollections of the show tend to associate Graves and Landau (and Bain to a lesser extent) with the show's prime years; the last four years featured characters that never "clicked" with the viewing audience:  Nimoy's "Paris" and the Lesley Ann Warren female lead from 1970-71.  That was followed by the dropping of the "disguise specialist" character and the addition of Lynda Day George as the female lead for the last two years until the series' 1973 cancellation.  Incidentally, a M.D. character, played by a very young and mustache-less Sam Elliott, was an occasional featured player in the '70-'71 season.       

[Takumi]

Charlie on That 70's Show was supposed to be the season 8 replacement for Eric, but the actor who played him got an offer for a starring role on another TV show so the character was killed off. The character of Randy (played by Josh Meyers, the younger brother of Seth Meyers) eventually was written into the show for the last season.

[Mapmikey]

Lisa Bonet's character on The Cosby Show (Denise) who was spun off onto her own series (A Different World) then was let go from that because she was pregnant (Cosby didn't want the character portrayed as an unmarried pregnant student) and also possibly because of the R-rated stuff she was doing outside the show.  She did end up back on the Cosby Show as a recurring character but was fired before the series ended.

Sorta related to this thread are Coy and Vance Duke on the Dukes of Hazzard who appeared when the actors playing Bo and Luke were in a contract dispute and did not appear in one of the seasons.  Once the dispute ended Coy and Vance were never heard from again...

[jon daly]

Lisa Bonet's character on The Cosby Show (Denise) who was spun off onto her own series (A Different World) then was let go from that because she was pregnant (Cosby didn't want the character portrayed as an unmarried pregnant student) and also possibly because of the R-rated stuff she was doing outside the show.  She did end up back on the Cosby Show as a recurring character but was fired before the series ended.

Sorta related to this thread are Coy and Vance Duke on the Dukes of Hazzard who appeared when the actors playing Bo and Luke were in a contract dispute and did not appear in one of the seasons.  Once the dispute ended Coy and Vance were never heard from again...

But the actors who played Coy and Vance are likely doing better than Tom Wopat.

[abefroman329]

According to TVTtropes, there was serious talk of keeping Coy and Vance after Bo and Luke returned.

The Golden Girls also had a gay cook named Coco who was written off after a few episodes.

I recently saw an ep of Welcome Back, Kotter that only had Washington, Horshack, and (I think) Epstein.

[KeithE4Phx]

Cynthia Watros replaced Christa Miller as the female co-star on The Drew Carey Show for the last 2 seasons (Miller had joined the cast of Scrubs, which was produced by her husband).  To say the chemistry was gone is an understatement, but it wasn't the only reason that show died.

Charlie Sheen replacing Michael J. Fox as the star of Spin City was another "jump the shark" moment, although it was unfortunately necessary due to Fox's Parkinson's Disease forcing him to leave the show.  He and Heather Locklear, two of the biggest whack-jobs in Hollywood, on the same set had to be "interesting," to say the least. 

[abefroman329]

Didn't The Drew Carey Show also cast Kaitlin Olsen as some sort of Mimi-esque character? I think I quit watching when Drew and Christa Miller broke up. Definitely didn't make it to the seasons where some dot-com took over the former Winfred-Louder space.

[jon daly]

Seinfeld's pilot had a waitress who was replaced by Elaine once the series was picked up.

[inkyatari]

In the first season of Happy Days, Richie had a brother.  He was never heard from again after season 1

[jon daly]

Chuck Cunningham.

[jon daly]

I bet it was the thead I gave up on after a while. I edited my post.

[abefroman329]

It might have been. I deleted my post too.

[Rothman]

Regarding Dukes of Hazzard, John Schneider showed up in a small role in Glee as one of the students' fathers.

[Rothman]

Lisa Bonet's character on The Cosby Show (Denise) who was spun off onto her own series (A Different World) then was let go from that because she was pregnant (Cosby didn't want the character portrayed as an unmarried pregnant student) and also possibly because of the R-rated stuff she was doing outside the show.  She did end up back on the Cosby Show as a recurring character but was fired before the series ended.

Sorta related to this thread are Coy and Vance Duke on the Dukes of Hazzard who appeared when the actors playing Bo and Luke were in a contract dispute and did not appear in one of the seasons.  Once the dispute ended Coy and Vance were never heard from again...

But the actors who played Coy and Vance are likely doing better than Tom Wopat.

Well, given his court case a couple of days ago, certainly, but he has had a few country singles rise to the middle of the charts (40s, 50s -- something like that).

[US71]

IIRC, Johnathan Harris (Dr Smith) was a regular, but his contract specified he was a "guest star" . He and Bob May (Robot) didn't appear in the LiS Pilot episode.

Speaking of LiS stars, remember Guy Williams as Will Cartwright?

Grace Whitney/Yeoman Rand was supposed to be Capt Kirk's girlfriend on the original Star Trek, but was jettisoned when they decided the good captain would be more of a womanizer.

[Stephane Dumas]

Chuck Cunningham.

And that name become a trope/cliche for mentionning a major character dissapearing called "Chuck Cunningham syndrome".

And that could apply in animated series too. Lunch who was once a major character in the Dragon Ball saga, disseapeared without a bang.

[KeithE4Phx]

Didn't The Drew Carey Show also cast Kaitlin Olsen as some sort of Mimi-esque character?

She played some kind of talented-but-snotty executive for the online company that took over Winfred-Louder.

I think I quit watching when Drew and Christa Miller broke up. Definitely didn't make it to the seasons where some dot-com took over the former Winfred-Louder space.

The beginning of the end was the bigamist bit, where Drew was married to Kate (Christa Miller) and Nicki (Kate Walsh in a ridiculous-and-obvious fat suit) at the same time.  That changed the Drew Carey character from a regular guy with a schlub job to a truly pathetic loser.  The show went straight downhill from there.  The cast and job changes just made matters worse.

[KeithE4Phx]

If you want to include movie series' that had long runs on TV, how about Joe Besser as a member of The Three Stooges (1956-58) after Shemp Howard's death?

[jon daly]

Chuck Cunningham.

I used to like Jump the Shark back in the old days before the internet was as commercialized. I don't remember who owned it, but the site jumped the shark itself when TV Guide bought it. Prior to that, they had some interesting comment sections for some of my fave old shows.

And that name become a trope/cliche for mentionning a major character dissapearing called "Chuck Cunningham syndrome".

And that could apply in animated series too. Lunch who was once a major character in the Dragon Ball saga, disseapeared without a bang.

[abefroman329]

Didn't The Drew Carey Show also cast Kaitlin Olsen as some sort of Mimi-esque character?

She played some kind of talented-but-snotty executive for the online company that took over Winfred-Louder.

I think I quit watching when Drew and Christa Miller broke up. Definitely didn't make it to the seasons where some dot-com took over the former Winfred-Louder space.

The beginning of the end was the bigamist bit, where Drew was married to Kate (Christa Miller) and Nicki (Kate Walsh in a ridiculous-and-obvious fat suit) at the same time.  That changed the Drew Carey character from a regular guy with a schlub job to a truly pathetic loser.  The show went straight downhill from there.  The cast and job changes just made matters worse.

Wasn't there also some storyline about Lewis and Oswald sharing Diane Farr?

As painful as the ep where Nikki dumps Drew was, the opening of the next ep, where his friends lull him to sleep by singing food jingles, man that still hits me right in the feels.

[roadman65]

According to TVTtropes, there was serious talk of keeping Coy and Vance after Bo and Luke returned.

The Golden Girls also had a gay cook named Coco who was written off after a few episodes.

I recently saw an ep of Welcome Back, Kotter that only had Washington, Horshack, and (I think) Epstein.

That is cause in the final season John Travolta only appeared in four episodes.  He left to pursue his movie career.  Mr. Kotter was promoted to Vice Principal while Woodman became Principal.  However, with that Kotter never appeared in the classroom to teach and he was hardly seen at the end.  I think Gabe Kaplan and Jimmy Komack had a dispute and he was silently not allowed to act while still being billed.

[jp the roadgeek]

The multiple girls that were cut after season 1 of The Facts of Life, including a young pre-Brat Pack Molly Ringwald.  Production decided that they had too many students and decided to pare it down and focus on Blair, Tootie (who, along with Mrs. Garrett, made the cross over from Diff'rent Strokes), and Natalie, with Jo added as a new character.


I remember the Dukes of Hazzard Saturday morning cartoon used Vance and Coy rather than Luke and Bo, even though the actors' strike was over and Tom Wopat and John Schneider had returned.