I was just watching the first season of Hazel on dvd, and observed that Don DeFore (Mr. Baxter) was in an arm and hand cast for several episodes. Obviously the actor broke his hand in real life and it had to be explained in the storyline.:eek:

Can you think of other shows where an actor was visibly injured, where it had to be explained in the storyline?


Lucille Ball had broken her leg during the run of Here's Lucy, and was in a cast for 6 or 8 episodes.

Anissa Jones (Buffy) on Family Affair, broke her leg and was seen in a cast for a short period.

Even though these people were in body casts for a few weeks of their lives, they're forever immortalized in them in syndication or on dvd! :lol:

This is kind of a rare situation, but can anyone think of other examples? (Exclude, of course where the character is injured fictionally)

Jodie Sweetin injured her arm in real life and appeared on Full House with a cast for a few episodes.

Matt LeBlanc suffered a shoulder injury and appeared on Friends with a sling on for an episode or two.

Doug Porter (Brandon Crane) on The Wonder Years had his arm in a cast after he fell out of a tree. The script called for him to fall out in the episode "Odd Man Out", so it wasn't an accident.

Michael Moriarty (Law & Order) broke his wrist playing tennis in 1992, and had his arm in a cast and sling. His injury was written into the show (EADA Ben Stone had also broken his wrist playing tennis). You can see this clearly in the S2 episode, "Severance".

There was one episode of Night Court, I cannot remember which one at the moment, where Harry Stone has a cast over his wrist throughout the episode, obviously because of IRL injury. It's never explained what he did to his wrist/forearm in context to the story, it's just there.
I'll try to remember exactly what episode it was, I see it often in my tape rotation.

Good post! I can't think of any body casts, but I do remember when Greg Brady had a band-aid on his lip in one episode. It was explained that "he cut himself shaving," but in reality, the actor was in a car accident.
Erin Murphy (Tabitha from Bewitched), also had a band-aid on her chin for one episode.

In Supernatural Jared broke his wrist doing a stunt, and the wrote it into the script and he wore a cast for about 4 or 5 episodes.

With that show having the leads get into serious fights (basically) every week it added a level of realism to the show.

Also on The Wonder Years was an episode in which Winnie had her leg in a cast. It was the episode in which the cast graduates junior high. Check the scene with her and Kevin under the moon. She was in a car crash in "The Accident" two episodes prior, but it took place off camera, and nothing happened to Danica McKellar in real life.

These actors and actress are so professional with there work,dont matter what is happening in their life,they have to record their and entertain people by their talent,hats off all these actors and actress:) :)

While working on Season 3 of the series Bonanza in Feb. 1962, Dan Blocker (Hoss) had a horseriding accident resulting in a "broken collarbone and shoulder." He is seen with his arm in a sling for a while, in the eps that aired that May (around episodes 98-100).

Oh, and Hal Linden (Barney Miller) broke his foot in 1976, while filming a TV music special. So the injury was written into the show - Barney had broken his foot changing a lightbulb in the bathroom and fell off the ladder into the toilet (he thought the lid was down). They really had no choice but to write the injury in because Hal Linden was hobbling on both a cast and a cane!!