TMC
11-09-2025, 04:40 AM
...a TV Series?
https://popculturereferences.com/who-is-the-best-tv-character-who-you-surprisingly-didnt-miss-after-they-left-a-tv-series/
In the newest Pop Culture Theme Time, I want to know who was the best TV character you surprisingly didn't miss after they left a TV series.
https://popculturereferences.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/buffy-and-angel-1024x512.jpg
Today, I want to know who was the best TV character you surprisingly didn’t miss after they left a TV series.
Pop Culture Theme Time (https://popculturereferences.com/category/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.
Obviously, TV series are rife with examples of characters who become breakout characters, and the actor then wants to do other, bigger things, and they leave the series, and the show never quite recovers from their absence. Minor characters leave all the time, of course, but when it’s a really good character, their absence really has a major impact.
However, some shows are good enough that they can weather the storm well, and you surprisingly find yourself not even really missing the departed actor. NYPD Blue, I think, weathered David Caruso leaving well enough, but it never quite got over losing Jimmy Smits. So Caruso is a good choice, as John Kelly was a great character. The West Wing handled the loss of Rob Lowe well, but I don’t know that Sam Seaborn was THAT great of a character. Cheers is definitely up there. Diane Chambers was a great character, and the show did well without her. I, though, am going to go with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the loss of Angel. Angel was clearly a character so great that it seemed obvious that he was big enough to sustain his own series, Angel, but at the same time, as good as David Boreanaz was as Angel, the show replaced him pretty darn well with James Marsters as Spike, so I don’t really find myself watching Seasons 4-6 thinking, “Oh man, this would be so much better with Angel on it.”
Okay, so that’s MY pick! What’s yours?
https://popculturereferences.com/who-is-the-best-tv-character-who-you-surprisingly-didnt-miss-after-they-left-a-tv-series/
In the newest Pop Culture Theme Time, I want to know who was the best TV character you surprisingly didn't miss after they left a TV series.
https://popculturereferences.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/buffy-and-angel-1024x512.jpg
Today, I want to know who was the best TV character you surprisingly didn’t miss after they left a TV series.
Pop Culture Theme Time (https://popculturereferences.com/category/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.
Obviously, TV series are rife with examples of characters who become breakout characters, and the actor then wants to do other, bigger things, and they leave the series, and the show never quite recovers from their absence. Minor characters leave all the time, of course, but when it’s a really good character, their absence really has a major impact.
However, some shows are good enough that they can weather the storm well, and you surprisingly find yourself not even really missing the departed actor. NYPD Blue, I think, weathered David Caruso leaving well enough, but it never quite got over losing Jimmy Smits. So Caruso is a good choice, as John Kelly was a great character. The West Wing handled the loss of Rob Lowe well, but I don’t know that Sam Seaborn was THAT great of a character. Cheers is definitely up there. Diane Chambers was a great character, and the show did well without her. I, though, am going to go with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the loss of Angel. Angel was clearly a character so great that it seemed obvious that he was big enough to sustain his own series, Angel, but at the same time, as good as David Boreanaz was as Angel, the show replaced him pretty darn well with James Marsters as Spike, so I don’t really find myself watching Seasons 4-6 thinking, “Oh man, this would be so much better with Angel on it.”
Okay, so that’s MY pick! What’s yours?