 This is the SF Productions podcast network And I'm mark you can check out our audio podcast how I got my wife three comics on iTunes or on our website SF podcast network comm As the new fall TV season approaches we're hearing of a change on one of the sitcoms Kevin can wait The hot wife to James's dumpy husband played by Aaron Hayes is not returning to the series And the network decided to write her out by killing the character Yes, and this got us thinking about other shows where a character or an actor died during production Now we're excluding soap operas and they're my time and yeah, and they're modern cousins the genre series sci-fi fantasy superhero horror because killing characters are pretty much their bread and butter Yeah, we're also skipping characters that just disappeared looking at you Chuck Cunningham Or where the actor changed but the character remained right aka the Darren effect In 1962 during the third season of Dennis the menace mr. Wilson Joseph Kearns passed away Gail Gordon was brought in as his brother to end the season out And then he was just referred to as mr. Wilson for the rest of the series with no mention of him actually being a different character It's a kid's show that yeah, nobody noticed. Yeah in 1963 Larry Keating of mr. Ed passed and his character the neighbor Was replaced without explanation in 1966 Alice Pierce mrs. Kravitz of bewitched past and her sister-in-law took over played by Mary Grace Canfield With the explanation that Kravitz was off seeing her mother and the next season Sandra Gould was brought in and Became mrs. Kravitz again. Okay, so she they didn't even say Again a new neighbor or anything just just like they did with Darren Another bewitched switch was due to the death of Aunt Clara who was played by Mary and Lauren She was replaced by Alice ghostly as as morel'd up, but basically the same role. Yeah Petticoat Junction had an older cast which caused havoc over the seasons Smiley Burnett played Charlie Pratt the train engineer who passed away He was replaced by roof Davis as Floyd smooth who then he died and he was replaced by Byron Folger as Wendell Gibbs Which makes for some really interesting things. There was one Christmas episode that they just basically Redid in a later year. Yes, they went for it It was the black and white they did it again in color and when they did it the first time They had those two engineers and when they did it the second time it was the other two engineers It was the same script though same script The star of the show be benedirate died in 1968 although she mostly disappeared earlier that year and They referred to her as being out of town and then when she died they only indirectly reference her death There's a Kate Bradley memorial suite at the shady rest June Lockhart moved into a similar role of the mother type figure as dr. Janet Craig Dan blocker who played Haas on bonanza passed away, and they attempted to replace him with David canary Didn't really work the show was canceled shortly after that McLean Stevenson asked to be released from mash and they did so by having his character killed in a plane crash while finally going home Freddie Prince got his big break on Chico and the man, but died in 1977 at first They said he was just away, and then a 12 year old kid replaced his role on the show And he was prayed played by Gabriel Melgar Diana Highland died after the first season of eight is enough and a new character replaced her played by Betty Buckley Yeah, I thought that was very strange. I actually was watching the series at that point in time I and you know keep in mind that was like before the internet and you maybe didn't know That these people died in real life, right? And it was just like why is there not there and now the dad who was just married is dating somebody else, and you know Yeah, it's just weird. Yeah during the Waltons Run will gear who played the grandfather died and the seventh season premiere addressed it in the plot Jack Sue of Barney Miller passed in 1979 and an episode with the other characters speaking out of character addressed it. Yeah Michael Conrad passed during the Hill Street Blues run with his character killed off while making love So like off-screen. Oh, he's dead John Eric Hexham killed himself while playing around with a gun with blanks. Mm-hmm. So his character on the cover-up was replaced Nicholas Colosanto died during the Cheers Run and his role as bartender was replaced by Woody Harrelson Speaking of Cheers Jay Thomas's character Eddie LeBak was killed off after he made a snide remark about costar Rhea Perlman on a radio show And then to the old Bayless on night court played by Selma Diamond and Florence Hale up past during the show's run in succession And then they went with 32 year old Marcia Warfield to resolve the issue that way, you know She probably wouldn't die right Now Valerie is a very interesting example of this The star Valerie Harper and her husband slash writer Walked out trying to get a pay increase now She had done this on Rota in 1975 and she did get a pay increase The negotiations dragged on and Brandon Tartikov head of NBC at the time got tired of the whole thing Meanwhile NBC had just a signed a deal with Sandy Duncan problem solved They shot around Harper for a few episodes and then Duncan arrived as an aunt who took over the family After Harper's character died in a car accident The show couldn't be called Valerie of course. No, so it became Valerie's family and then finally the Hogan family it ran from 1987 to 1991 with Sandy Duncan including a switch from NBC to CBS so that show went all over the place Yes, now Red Fox passed during the run of the royal family and Jack K. Harry was brought into help out the family, right? Phil Hartman was killed during the run of news radio and his friend John Lovitz took over a similar role for the final season And then one that I was never fond of Dan's character on Roseanne left when John Goodman wanted to exit the series It was revealed in the final episode that his character actually died and that the season was essentially a dream sequence Yes, which may or may not apply when it comes back. Yeah David Strickland of suddenly Susan hung himself the character just disappeared from the show with no explanation Madeleine Conn of Cosby passed during its run and that was the CBS Cosby not the NBC Cosby show And like Barney Miller an episode was aired with the cast out of character giving her tribute John Ritter passed during eight simple rules and his character was killed off in the same manner as he died With a heart condition James Garner was brought on as a new character to replace him And if you remember that series was first called eight simple rules for dating my daughter Yes, and it went to eight simple rules when he died. Yes, because you know no longer his daughter You're right in a similar manner John Spencer and his character on the West Wing died of heart attacks His running mate Matt Santos who was played by Jimmy Smith's went on to win the election Cal Penn's character on house was killed off for a good reason in 2009. He got a job at the real White House under Obama In 2011 after Charlie Sheen's personal life imploded and he asked for a huge raise on two and a half men His character was killed by a train. He was run over by a train, but in the last episode. He somehow returned from death. Yeah And finally the unseen Debbie Wallowitz on Big Bang Theory Which was the voice of Carol Ann Susie Passed when the actress did and they had a tribute episode where the cast eats her dishes from the freezer I thought that was a really good one. Mm-hmm There are probably more examples of that I can actually think of two right off the top of my head that I didn't remember until just now Okay. Oh, you want one? Yeah, why not on Seinfeld the Susan episode. Oh, yeah Yeah died from the making the envelopes Apparently there was at at the time there was some Issue that maybe she didn't get along well with the rest of the cast Okay, then they later Jason Alexander later came out and said no, no, that wasn't the case, but So that that was one where they just killed off the character to get rid of the actor, you know Yep So if you think of any you can always let us know and you can check out our audio podcast How I got my wife to read comics on iTunes or on our website SF pod netcast network calm from the pop culture bunker I'm Indy and a mark. Thanks for watching. If Mark's killed off. I won't replace him