Do you remember a character called Peter Gregory in the first season? He’s the one who had a plan to invest in sesame seeds, because they’re used in most every Burger King product, were only grown in two places in the world and one of them was going to have a weather-related production problem.
Anyhow, he was played by an actor called Christopher Evan Welch, but the actor died after the first season was completed, so the writers had to redirect things. Laurie Bream was brought in as a replacement character, but it’s possible that the show would have been different if Welch hadn’t passed, and Peter Gregory could continue as a foil to Gavin Belson.
The role of Jian-Yang was also expanded to replace TJ Miller’s character.
Big fan of the show though I hadn’t realized the last season was over till I saw this thread a few days ago. Finished watching the final episode and I liked it though the rest of the season was hit and miss. I agree that some of the plotlines like Russfest, the Chilean tycoon were over the top rather than funny. I did like Guilfoyle’s battles with the HR woman and Monica’s attempts to become a feminist mentor. The final episode had the usual finale scenes but also a surprisingly engaging plot. Would have liked a TJ Miller cameo too.
Overall I think this show will go down as a classic and the first few seasons were some of the sharpest funniest television around. The death of Welch was a big loss and the Laurie Bream character always felt like cheap knockoff of Peter Gregory. The departure of TJ Miller was also a blow and I think the show never really recovered from that.