Something I always wondered about season 5

[darkrage6]

So I was reading up about what exactly happened with Scarlett when she was losing weight and there's something i've always wondered-how come the execs didn't try to make arrangements so she could still be in season five. Why not work around her rehab schedule and have her show up for filming once per week? Or if they wouldn't work, why not wait until she was out of rehab? She was only in there for like two months.

Making my way through the series(up to season 6 right now) and I noticed that in season 4 Kyra started showing up a lot less and only got a handful of subplots compared to previous seasons, most of the time she was just there to make jokes and that was it, and it seems like season five was going to be more of the same, after watching the episodes I tried to imagine where Kyra would possibly fit into the episodes and it didn't seem like there was any room for her to have any subplots(though I do get the feeling some of Jake's dialogue in that season was originally supposed to be Kyra's, as it sounded a little out of character for him).

So I got the feeling the writers were running out of ideas for her character, as it reminded me a lot of what happened with Carmen in George Lopez. In season 5 after Jason left her, Carmen didn't get any of her own subplots anymore and only showed up once or twice per episode for a joke, it wasn't until the season finale where she got any focus at all. So I can't help but feel that the network execs used Scarlett's anorexia as a convenient excuse to not have to write her character, i'm sure the cast wasn't happy at the idea of being forced to do the show without Scarlett.

It always rubbed me the wrong way that the network execs thought it would be OK to just continue the season without her and it came off as rather disrespectful to me that they didn't even attempt to work around her schedule(and yes they could have done it, after all Kiefer Sutherland got a DUI and he had an agreement with the jail that they would let him out a few times a week to do filming for the next season of 24, the only reason that never came to pass was because of the writers strike delaying production on the next season). From the interviews i've seen and read with Scarlett, I learned that one of the things that drove her to start losing weight was the show almost getting cancelled after season 4 and production for season 5 getting delayed, so thanks a lot for that execs!

[JO Sweet Heart]

^^^ I don't know what the deal was. What I hated was when they acted as if she never existed when Reba was in the hospital. Her not being at Van and Cheyenne's renewal ceremony made sense considering how self centered she thought Cheyenne was, but when Reba went to the hospital, Kyra and Jake both should've been there.

God bless you always!!!

Holly

[Lorimar Television]

I think they wanted to make sure she was better and gave her time off to recover. She remained in the intro still