The death of Cory Monteith (one of the “Glee” stars) this weekend started me thinking about how TV shows deal with the death of a major character. Probably the worst decision alltime was “Chico and the Man” dealing with the death of lead actor Freddie Prinze. Instead of just cancelling the show when Prinze committed suicide, they
–wrote his character out of the show by saying he was “visiting relatives”
–made an orphaned kid the new lead
–made Charo a cast member because, uh, it was the 70s.
How do other shows deal with actor deaths? And was there ever a case of the show actually improving after such an event?
After Phil Hartman died, “NewsRadio” brought on Jon Lovitz as a replacement. He did his best, and it was a good effort, but the show really just limped along after Phil was gone, and was canceled a year later.
Woody Harrelson and Cheers had a good run after the death of “Coach”.
Sesame Street is famous for its treatment of the death of Mr. Hooper. They just said that the character died, too, and showed us the rest of the cast dealing with that fact.
8 Simple Rules… had John Ritter’s character die, and brought in David Spade.
William Frawley on “My Three Sons” went to Ireland to visit relatives.
Bea Benaderet on “Petticoat Junction” was off visiting relatives.
I don’t think Ward Bond was off visiting relatives on “Wagon Train,” though.
The ones I can think of:
Barney Miller - when Jack Soo died, IIRC, rather than have an “in-character” episode where they discover he’s dead, they did a retrospective of his life and character, and then just went on as if they already heard that Yemana had died.
8 Simple Rules (For Dating My Teenage Daughter) - when John Ritter died, his character died with him; they brought on Jim Garner and Mariette Hartley as two of the grandparents to fill in, but obviously without Ritter’s humor it wasn’t the same show.
Here’s an obscure one - on Phyllis (one of the The Mary Tyler Moore Show spinoffs), when one of the minor characters died, they replaced her with someone who looked nothing like her and went on as if it was the same person (in fact, CBS refused to air any sort of on-show mention that the first actress had died).
And a couple from England:
Dad’s Army - when James Beck (Private Walker) died, his character went off somewhere (I can’t remember where they mentioned) and was never heard from again. I think the reason they didn’t just kill him off in a random air raid was, he was in the first scene of the first episode, which takes place after the war ended.
Are You Being Served? - when James Hayter (who played Mr. Tebbs, who had replaced Mr. Grainger) died between seasons, the start of the first season begins with everybody waving goodbye to him (off-camera) at the end of his retirement party. (Note that when Arthur Brough (Mr. Grainger) died, they never mentioned what happened to Mr. Grainger.)
I think Larry Hagman was very lucky when he died (for certain values of luck). His defining role was JR Ewing in Dallas. Dallas was resurrected on TNT, this time focusing on the new generation of Ewings, but several of the original cast are in the new version. Of course Larry Hagman played a major role in the new show but he died midway through the second season. In show he was given a funeral and a fitting sendoff for both actor and character.
John Spencer died during the production of the final episodes of The West Wing. But because he was a major character, they had to address his death in the series by having his character die.
Hill Street Blues had the character of Phil Esterhaus die when actor Michael Conrad died. He was replaced by a new character.
Night Court dealt with the deaths of both Selma Diamond and Florence Halop (both died between seasons) by having their characters die.
As to the OP how they dealt withit was having Coach die offscreen and Woody came in as the new bartender. I think it may have helped the series by adding a new dynamic to the show.
Spade I believe was supposed to be the wife’s brother. They first brought in James Garner as the grandfather. I was surprised to see that the show went on longer after Ritter than with him.
Mr. Wilson (Joseph Kearns) on Dennis the Menace went back east on business and never came back. The new Mr. Wilson (Gale Gordon) was his brother. Unlike Kearns, Gordon actually resembled the comic character.
Then we have actors who left the show, were replaced by another actor (same on-screen name) without a word, then came back to resume their original roles. Only a few veiled references were ever made on-screen, although the opening montage did show the “transition.”
Think Becky on Rosanne.
Jim Davis (Jock Ewing in Dallas) died (somewhat expected) in a summer hiatus. The writers killed him in a jungle and had several plotlines dealing with his death (his will, an imposter, his legacy).
In South Park, Kenny just comes back in the next episode.
Another variation that interests me is how long-running ad campaigns deal with the death of the spokesperson. Wendy’s lost Dave Thomas, briefly brought in the real Wendy, but quickly switched over to the current hottie, who probably is already the “real” Wendy in some people’s heads.
When Gordon Jump died, I remember thinking, “Man, that Maytag repairman gig is a death sentence.”
That’s gotta be a sweet gig, I bet she’s making some pretty impressive bank for doing a handful of commercials a year,
The plotline had it that Phil had a heart attack while having sex with his girl, Grace (Barbara Babcock) Gardener.
In a moment that was SUPPOSED to be touching (but just seemed stupid to me), Phil was supposedly cremated and all the cops in his precinct took a handful of ashes, to scatter on “the streets” that Phil loved so much.
He was replaced by Robert Prosky.
I’ve seen real-Wendy now and then recently - though maybe they’re re-running old commercials with her - like when they had a commercial that had her talking about her dad’s charitable work for adopted kids, as he was adopted as an infant.
I wonder how many other shows have had to deal with the death of a relatively young star. Other than Chico and the Man, mentioned in the OP, I can’t think of any. Monteith’s character on Glee was major enough that the show will have to provide a real explanation for his disappearance, and young enough (Monteith was 31, but his character was just 19) that a sudden death from natural causes seems implausible.
I’m actually kind of surprised this doesn’t happen more often, as it seems all too easy to think of film actors who died in their 20s and 30s.
Shows you how much I know - I always thought that what had happened was, the actress that played Mrs. Wilson had died, and rather than kill the character off or find someone who looked like her (otherwise the show would no longer match the comics), they replaced Mr. Wilson with his brother (whom I thought was the same actor, instead of replacing Kearns with Gordon) so they could have an excuse to bring in a “Mrs. Wilson” who looked nothing like the one in the comics.
Eight is Enough handled Diana Hyland’s death by having the character die (although there was no “death scene”; she died between seasons, and the only real reference to her death when the show came back was when Tom made a remark about how Joan would do something, and everybody reacted in silence) - and Tom Braden’s wife Joan, the basis for Hyland’s character, was not particularly happy about it, especially when the show brought in Betty Buckley to (eventually) be Tom’s second wife.