In the wake of sexual harassment allegations against Transparent star Jeffrey Tambor, Amazon is reportedly looking into reworking the show without him.
According to Deadline, “writers have contemplated” moving forward with the fifth season, which was ordered by Amazon ahead of the season-four premiere, without Tambor’s character, Maura Pfefferman. There’s no word on how Jill Soloway’s series, which has followed Maura, a trans woman, throughout her coming-out and transition, would refocus the story. The Pfefferman family is full of flawed and complex characters, but while the show has certainly worked as an ensemble, Maura has been the heart of it. So however the writers decide to proceed, they face a difficult task.
This is also the thinking over at Netflix, where Kevin Spacey was recently booted from House Of Cards after multiple actors, including Anthony Rapp, said he’d sexually assaulted or harassed them. The drama was set to begin production on its sixth season but was put on hold when the allegations against Spacey broke. The HOC team has considered killing off Frank Underwood, as well as looked into the possibility of spin-offs. The future of Wisdom Of The Crowd is similarly up in the air after multiple actresses accused Jeremy Piven of sexually assaulting them. CBS is currently mulling over the back order on the first season, but it’s not as if Ted Humphrey’s drama was going over well with critics or audiences before the allegations, which could ultimately help make up the eye network’s mind.
Deadline also notes that, in addition to firings and rewrites, the flood of harassment and assault disclosures could lead to the expanded use of morals clauses, which have reportedly not been insisted upon by every studio and network.