# Angel's Sidekick **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 8, 2007, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angels-sidekick/387099 "2007-01-08T00:46:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angels-sidekick/387099/1 "2007-01-08T00:46:29Z")
I hope you’ll all forgive me for bringing up ancient history, but I have just seen the Angel TV series for the first time and I was wondering if anyone knew why Glenn Quinn’s character, Doyle, left the show midway through the first season? ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angels-sidekick/387099/2 "2007-01-08T00:54:36Z")
[QUOTE=Ronald C. Semone] I hope you’ll all forgive me for bringing up ancient history, but I have just seen the Angel TV series for the first time and I was wondering if anyone knew why Glenn Quinn’s character, Doyle, left the show midway through the first season? [/QUOTE] Real World answer: Quinn was a drug user and that was causing problems on the set, so they wrote him out. In Show answer: He sacrificed himself to save a bunch of half-demons some pure-blooded demon Nazis were going to murder. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angels-sidekick/387099/3 "2007-01-08T01:05:22Z")
The rumors of his drug addiction were never seriously refuted, although Joss and his castmates tried to keep it respectfully vague. But Quinn’s death by heroin overdose in 2002 sort of retroactively verified the rumor. [wikipedia on Glenn Quinn](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Quinn) ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angels-sidekick/387099/4 "2007-01-08T01:44:59Z")
[QUOTE=Tengu] Real World answer: Quinn was a drug user and that was causing problems on the set, so they wrote him out. In Show answer: He sacrificed himself to save a bunch of half-demons some pure-blooded demon Nazis were going to murder. [/QUOTE] Also, Joss had wanted to include Eric Balfour in the opening credits of _Welcome to the Hellmouth_ and _The Harvest_, the first two episodes of _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_, and then kill his character off to shock viewers but wasn’t able to due to budgetary constraints and it seems to be accepted fan folklore that Doyle was his chance to do that four years later on a new show although I can’t find a quote from Whedon himself saying as such ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angels-sidekick/387099/5 "2007-01-08T02:35:03Z")
[QUOTE=Aesiron] Also, Joss had wanted to include Eric Balfour in the opening credits of _Welcome to the Hellmouth_ and _The Harvest_, the first two episodes of _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_, and then kill his character off to shock viewers but wasn’t able to due to budgetary constraints and it seems to be accepted fan folklore that Doyle was his chance to do that four years later on a new show although I can’t find a quote from Whedon himself saying as such [/QUOTE] It’s also worth nothing that the character of Doyle wasnt even supposed to be on the show. Originally the character of Whistler (he was introduced in flashback as a sort of an AA sponsor for Good for Angel) was in the role of sidekick. I assume they couldn’t get the actor and created Doyle for the part. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angels-sidekick/387099/6 "2007-01-08T02:56:52Z")
[QUOTE=Push You Down] It’s also worth nothing that the character of Doyle wasnt even supposed to be on the show. Originally the character of Whistler (he was introduced in flashback as a sort of an AA sponsor for Good for Angel) was in the role of sidekick. I assume they couldn’t get the actor and created Doyle for the part. [/QUOTE] In the Wikipedia entry for the show, the actor in question – Max Perlich – is quoted as saying they didn’t contact him. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angels-sidekick/387099/7 "2007-01-08T04:09:57Z")
[QUOTE=Snooooopy] In the Wikipedia entry for the show, the actor in question – Max Perlich – is quoted as saying they didn’t contact him. [/QUOTE] That always disappointed me. Doyle was cool, but I really liked Whistler in the flashbacks on Buffy’s own series, and Max Perlich was a good actor on Homicide. But of course nobody is more awesome than Wesley! ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angels-sidekick/387099/8 "2007-01-08T13:42:23Z")
[QUOTE=Aesiron] it seems to be accepted fan folklore that Doyle was his chance to do that four years later on a new show although I can’t find a quote from Whedon himself saying as such [/QUOTE] That was actually why he included Amber Benson in the opening credits of her last ep, as a callback to that, and also as a tribute to her. I have never heard that he intended Doyle to be a reference to that situation. Of course I also always heard that Doyle was intended to die when he did and that Glenn Quinn’s drug use was independent of that. Personally I’m glad that Whistler wasn’t on it, whether the actor was contacted or not. I found Whistler quite irritating in his two Buffy eps.