https://popculturereferences.com/what-was-the-worst-way-an-actor-was-written-out-of-a-tv-show-to-film-a-movie/

In the newest Pop Culture Theme Time (https://popculturereferences.com/category/pop-culture-theme-time/), I want to know who you think was the worst way that an actor was temporarily written out of a TV show to film a movie.

https://popculturereferences.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Andy-Bernard-1024x512.jpg

Today, I want to know who you think was the worst way that an actor was temporarily written out of a TV show to film a movie.

Pop Culture Theme Time is a feature where I put a question to you to see what you think about a particular theme. I might later revisit the theme for a future Drawing Crazy Patterns or Top Five.

One of the tricks with popular TV shows is sometimes the actors on the show become movie stars. That’s good for the TV show to have a cast member become a star, so TV shows will often bend over backwards to make things as easy as possible for the actor to continue their film career (and not, you know, leave the show). So there are often excuses for why a character has to take a break from the main narrative, and I want to know what you think was the WORST explanation given to excuse an actor so that they could film a movie?

I’m going with Ed Helms’ Andy Bernard on The Office, who went on a boat trip for months in Season 9 to give Helms time to film The Hangover Part III. It made Andy look like such a jerk to abandon both his job, but also his romance with Erin, to go on a boat trip. It really hurt his character a lot. He never quite recovered.

Okay, that’s my answer. How about you?

Five Ways TV Characters Were Temporarily Written Out of Series So Their Actors Could Film Movies (https://popculturereferences.com/five-ways-tv-characters-were-temporarily-written-out-of-series-so-their-actors-could-film-movies/)

In a feature looking at recurring themes in pop culture, Brian spotlights five TV characters who were temporarily written out of TV shows so that their actors could film movies
Characters written off on TV shows while they were filming movies
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Today, we look at five ways that shows temporarily wrote characters out of TV shows so that their actors could film a movie.

In Drawing Crazy Patterns (https://popculturereferences.com/category/drawing-crazy-patterns/), I spotlight at least five things from pop culture that fit under a specific theme (basically, stuff that happens frequently enough to be worth pointing it out). Note that these lists are inherently not exhaustive. They are a list of five examples (occasionally I’ll be nice and toss in a sixth). So no instance is “missing” if it is not listed. It’s just not one of the five examples that I chose. You can always feel free to suggest ANOTHER example that fits the theme, if you’d like, but nothing is “missing” from this list.

Earlier this week, I asked you all for your picks for the worst way that an actor was temporarily written off of a TV series so that the actor could film a movie (https://popculturereferences.com/what-was-the-worst-way-an-actor-was-written-out-of-a-tv-show-to-film-a-movie/). Through no fault of your own, it appeared to actually be a thing that not as many people were actually familiar with as a concept. People know actors getting written off PERIOD, but not TEMPORARILY, so I thought I should list a few notable examples (outside of the example I gave in that Pop Culture Theme Time, which was Ed Helms’ Andy Bernard on The Office going on a sailing trip around the world while Helms was shooting the third Hangover movie).

Rhoda and her husband, Joe, got separated, went to marriage counseling, and then he just stopped appearing on the show. It was bizarre.

Also, on the King of Queens, Carrie's sister was living in the house in the first few episodes and then just disappeared, never to be seen again.