Characters you liked that were "Chuck Cunningham"'d

Wouldn’t you know it, I say that and he was in yesterday’s strip and will be there all week.

A half-Chuck example.

Maggie Simpson seems to be absent from a lot of episodes where she should be there, with no mention of day-care or even letting her run free in the back yard.

She’s probably serving week day prison dates for the attempted murder of Mr. Burns.

We know no prison can hold her!

cue Great Escape music…

I felt they missed a big opportunity on the show. In the final episodes, when other past characters were reappearing, they should have had Moira Kelly back on the show - and have nobody make any special mention of it. Just act like she’s been working there in the West Wing alongside the regular characters all these years but just happened to always be doing things in another room.

Maybe it’s because there might have been some ill will between Kelly and the remaining people on The West Wing.

On a related note, the bottom really seemed to fall out of Moira Kelly’s career once she was canned. Granted, there have a few guest shots and roles on TV shows less prominent than West Wing but for nearly a decade before that, she had lead roles in movies and always looked to be on the verge graduating to the A-List. Did she have a reputation for being difficult or piss off too many people in Hollywood?

I specifically remember Dr. Annie Cavanero on St. Elsewhere being Chucked (i.e. removed and never referred to again, unusual for that show) mainly because the actress refused to do an upcoming storyline where she experimented with lesbianism.

rather childish and unprofessional of her.

An actress on the soap “One Life to Live” quit because her character would have to be accepting of her son’s nonexistent gayness. The son actually wasn’t gay, but the show wanted his mother to think he was, and tell him it was all right. The actress refused to do it.’

They did replace her in-mid-story line with a new actress.

Maybe you’re heard something I haven’t. I thought Kelly got dropped from the show because they couldn’t find anything interesting to do with her character. Allison Janney ended up being the breakout actress. Bradley Whitford and Janel Moloney ended up having chemistry together so that killed off any potential for Kelly to play a love interest.

And Kelly doesn’t seem to have done too badly. She did a movie the year after leaving The West Wing and then became a regular on One Tree Hill the year after that.

A few years later, the character of Abby Michaels tentatively explored a lesbian relationship with C.J. Lamb on L.A. Law. Two episodes later Abby was made a partner in the law firm but then was never heard from or mentioned again.

I guess you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.