When drama leads to death: 10 TV shows that killed off characters over behind-the-scenes scandals

Rumors have swirled around Jeff Garlin, who portrayed Murray Goldberg on , since at least 2019, when the actor told the he was almost fired for saying “saying some really stupid silly things that I can’t believe that anyone would find offensive.” By the end of 2021, however, it was clear that whatever he had been doing was not going away. Less than two weeks after  published a fairly strange interview with him, Garlin was officially axed from the show. In August, the showrunners confirmed to that Murray would be killed off ahead of the ninth season, with the series focusing on Erica’s child and “looking forward to the future.” [Drew Gillis]

Work anywhere long enough and you’re bound to start some fires. In the case of which starts its 19th (!) season next month, several actors have left the show or been fired since it began in 2005 because of behind-the-scenes drama. While Katherine Heigl and Isaiah Washington walked away with their characters still alive, the same can’t be said for T.R. Knight’s George O’Malley and Patrick Dempsey’s Derek Shepherd. Knight has said he wanted to exit Greys because of communication problems with creator Shonda Rhimes, and Dempsey also had off-screen drama with the cast and crew. Their departure changed the shape of Grey’s permanently. But hey, all’s well that ends well because both of them returned in season 17—so what if it was as part of Meredith Grey’s (Ellen Pompeo) Covid-19 coma-induced dream? If Heigl’s Izzy can have ghost sex, we can have this. [Saloni Gajjar]

On , Chevy Chase made his mark as Franklin Pierce, the token old white guy who was out of touch with the youths and would say staggeringly racist things. Behind the scenes, though, the tension was even more present. Reports emerged of a feud with series creator Dan Harmon, who gave a “fuck Chevy Chase speech,” per , at the season three wrap party in front of the comedian’s wife and daughter. Chase was also reportedly sick of playing a bigot, culminating in an on-set tirade wherein the His character was killed off and, in his final scene, Chase appeared as a hologram, which prevented him from being on set with his costars one final time. [Drew Gillis]

It was the legendary sitcom comeback that studios dream of … until, of course, it wasn’t. The 2018 Roseanne revival was supposed to be a star re-maker for titular comedian Roseanne Barr. But after Barr shared a about Valerie Jarrett, who served as an advisor to President Obama, ABC –and brought the curtains down on Roseanne’s character altogether. Within weeks of the tweet, ABC greenlit a spin-off, , where Barr’s character dies offscreen from an opioid overdose. Since then, the scandal has given inspiration to (definitely) Steven Levitan’s new Hulu series and (maybe) Roseanne’s upcoming . (God, that was a painful four words to combine.) [Hattie Lindert]

If you were alive and had an internet connection in 2011, you’re already well aware of Charlie Sheen’s antics. He had tiger blood and he wasn’t bi-polar, he was bi-winning. (An artifact of its time, Sheen’s infamous interview received an .) Despite the early internet meme, the actor’s drug use was becoming a genuine problem, not just for his family but for the show. After an appearance on The Alex Jones Show—an appearance which has aged even worse than anyone could have imagined—wherein Sheen said he had been “converting tin cans into pure gold” on Two and a Half Men, . When the series returned, , who had unceremoniously died off-screen by falling in front of a train. [Drew Gillis]

The fact that Netflix even made a sixth season of is stunning in retrospect, and it’s a real testament to just how important the prestige drama was to the streaming service. Rather than drop the show after main star Kevin Spacey was, Netflix decided to make one final season—if only out of respect to the cast and crew who otherwise would’ve lost their jobs. Spacey’s Frank Underwood was poisoned to death offscreen, but in an attempt to tell a story without him, they ended up making a story that was all about him.

It turns out that sitcom wives aren’t easily disposable—to audiences, at least. Case in point: the surprising and unceremonious firing of ’s lead actress, Erinn Hayes, which was met with ire by fans. Hayes was let go after only one season on the Kevin James-led CBS sitcom, presumably so KCW could bring in James’ King Of Queens co-star Leah Remini as the female lead. Hayes’ character, Donna Gable, was written off without any explanation. The incident partly inspired AMC’s f, which is an infinitely better viewing experience that dissects sitcom tropes. . [Saloni Gajjar]

At the end of Charmed’s third season, sisters Prue and Piper Halliwell were both critically injured by a demon called Shax—and when the show returned for the fourth season, only one sister had survived the blow. That’s because star Shannen Doherty, who had gained a reputation for being difficult to work with after an early exit from Beverly Hills 90210, announced between seasons that she wouldn’t be returning to the series. Per People, Doherty attributed the exit to on-set “drama;” years later, co-star Alyssa Milano admitted to feeling competitive with her television sister, which contributed to the tension. Doherty was replaced by a new Halliwell sister, Paige (Rose McGowan), and the show ran another five seasons—clearly, the sisters learned to play nice. [Mary Kate Carr]

When Maude Flanders’ voice actor Maggie Roswell—who had been with since the beginning and moved with her family to Colorado in the ’90s—was denied a raise that would help cover the cost of commuting back to Los Angeles for recording sessions, the show. Choosing to make weirdly dark and arguably mean-spirited lemonade from those lemons, the show killed off Maude by having her get shot by a T-shirt cannon and then falling to her death. Roswell has since returned a few times, primarily as Helen “Won’t someone please think of the children” Lovejoy. [Sam Barsanti]

Erlich Bachman’s exit from Silicon Valley was a kinda-sorta killing off, one the writers never fully committed to: the character was abandoned at an opium den in the fourth season finale, and in the fifth season Jian-Yang (Jimmy O. Yang) claimed Erlich was dead in an attempt to gain control of his assets. It was ultimately left open-ended as to whether Erlich had actually died, although the show’s creators told that in an alternate version it was clear that Jian-Yang had murdered him. That might be chalked up to animosity between the team and T.J. Miller, who played Erlich for the first four seasons and parted on bad terms. Sources told he would at times show up to work under the influence, something Miller ; in turn, Miller called series co-creator Alec Berg an “asshole.” Furthering the controversy around Miller, he was later accused of , something he also denied. The show wrapped up two seasons after his exit, and Miller had nothing but nice things to say about it—though his character, , had a few critiques. [Mary Kate Carr]