TV arcs that made you think the writers must hate the actor

Diana Muldaur

Suzanne and Noel.

That storyline on Knots Landing when they made Val go crazy after hitting her head in an accident. They put her in a proto-Kate Gosselin wig, had her dress like an extra from a Michael Jackson video, and then had poor Val fry up her kids’ pet crabs.

Joan Van Ark has gone on record saying she hated the storyline and didn’t like the direction the show was going-she quit the show the next season.

Samantha on SATC. She went from sex loving to being an actual sex addict to the point of nueroses.

^^I thought that was kind of realistic. And it gave Cattrall more to do.

They had to get rid of Andrea because the actress who played her had distracting nostrils. Might as well send her out with a bang.

That was such a shitty show. I can’t believe I stayed with it for several seasons.

Charlie Sheen 2 1/2 men.

Killing off Andrea on TWD was a big mistake, and a departure from the graphic novels. The show was good (albeit formulaic) up until the arrival of Negan. That season destroyed the show for me, but I kept watching for another year or two hoping for a turnaround that never came. Then I threw in the towel. They continually killed off the likable characters and then introduced insufferable bores to replace them.

True Blood. They could have given Tara a better arc.

Emma Samms on The Colbys and her alien abduction story.

Joss Whedon was furious at Charisma Carpenter for getting pregnant and ruining his story plans on Angel. So he had her character become possessed by an evil entity, do some really unforgivable, disgusting things, then wrote her off the show by putting her in a coma. The next year, he asked her to come back for one episode to tie up her story lines. She didn't want to, but agreed on the condition that they wouldn't bring her back just to kill her off. They agreed. She came back for the one episode, and they killed her off.

What an interesting topic. I've not watched most of these shows, but I've never really considered the idea of purposely torturing an actor with a bad storyline. Carry on!

Sharon Case on Y&R has had some pretty lousy plots to play in her 30 years on the show.

I've come to view her character Sharon Newman as the "poor Val" of saytime soaps.

Agreed OP. I really liked Andrea in the first 2 seasons. She was fearless, strong willed, an all-round badass. What she became after she met the Governor made zero sense. But again, anything after season 4 with TWD made zero sense.

How Edie Britt was killed off.

Marc Cherry clearly loved putting Nicolette through this.

[quote]Joan Van Ark has gone on record

Her lack of professional discretion is much appreciated.

Joan, in Mad Men. They made her whore herself to an automobile executive as I recall, and it felt out of character and punitive. Maybe she knocked back a show runner, she was hot stuff.

Didn't Ryan Murphy punish Chord Overstreet on Glee for wanting a raise or regular cast credit or something? I can't remember why but they did put him in humiliating situations on the show for awhile

Deanna Troy (Marina Sirtis) on Star Trek, the time when her arc was boobs + tortured look on her face + "I'm sensing something"

Shannen Doherty in her last episodes of 90210 when all the gang hated Brenda for one reason or another.

Lucy Ricardo in the wine vat stomping grapes. You know Lucy must've pissed off Desi.

[quote]They made her whore herself to an automobile executive as I recall, and it felt out of character and punitive

I think it was well established that Joan was not above using her sexuality to get ahead and didn't seem out of character at all. She became a partner and made millions.

I do think the treatment of Betty Draper, going from sympathetic 'lost little girl in a world of grown ups' and wronged wife in season one to bitter, selfish (and for one season, tubby) in subsequent seasons would be an example of what OP refers to.

R15 - Nicolette again, but on Knots Landing when they hooked her character up as a sexy 20-something with that wizened, unwashed 50-something Greg Sumner. I loved Bill Devane on the show, but just ewwww.

Nicolette might have a proclivity for pissing off the wrong people. They also bounced her ass pretty fast from the Dynasty reboot.

Mary Ingalls (Melissa Sue Anderson) in various unpleasant storylines on Little House on the Prairie, including at least two hostage situations, rape attempts, and her baby being burned alive.

Fifi suddenly getting three baboons as roommates. Helen Lawson must've really pissed the writers off.

[quote] Nicolette again, but on Knots Landing when they hooked her character up as a sexy 20-something with that wizened, unwashed 50-something Greg Sumner. I loved Bill Devane on the show, but just ewwww.

They did that pretty early on, but also, Greg and Paige were a very popular couple and their pairing pretty much made Sheridan on that show. I doubt she was complaining.

Lindsey has one of those jammed up her cunt.

Dump enjoys zapping her pussy while she’s on the air on Sunday morning, that’s why she’s so erratic.

Betty on Mad Men.

[quote] Agreed OP. I really liked Andrea in the first 2 seasons. She was fearless, strong willed, an all-round badass. What she became after she met the Governor made zero sense. But again, anything after season 4 with TWD made zero sense.

She was a Frank Darabont loyalist, along with Jeffrey DeMunn.

We all know how that ended up.

Darabont was at war with AMC at the end of season one, so AMC fired Darabont (who actually brought the Walking Dead to television), and DeMunn sided with Darabont. So DeMunn's character Dale got his guts ripped out by a Walker at the end of season two.

Andrea got eaten by zombie Milton at the end of season three.

Both Laurie Holden and Jeffrey DeMunn were brought to the show by Frank Darabont at the very beginning of season one.

But I feel the character the writers REALLY hated the most was Sarah Wayne Callies who played the Lori Grimes, Rick's wife.

In season one, she was a whore who slept with Rick's best friend Shane. When she discovered that Rick was alive, she then turned on Shane and treated him like shit for the rest of season one.

Then in season two, it was found out she was pregnant (probably with Shane's kid).

So they made her try to abort her baby (which we know will turn the audience against her), and she sent Glenn (one of the most loved characters) to get the abortion pills for her and he almost got killed by a zombie because of it.

She also acted like the Queen Bee around camp, ordering the other campers around, while doing jack shit.

Then Lori tried to turn Rick against Shane, to get him out of the picture. This led to Rick killing Shane at the end of season two, ALL BECAUSE OF LORI.

When Lori found out that Rick killed Shane, she then turned against HIM at the end of season two!

Her whole story arc was so confusing, because it seems like they purposely made her character the absolute WORST person in the world.

Read the online comments about Lori Grimes. The fans HATE HER.

They call her a whore, they call her manipulative, they call her lazy, etc.

And so what happens in season three?

Early in the season, a very pregnant Lori is forced to give birth early because of a pregnancy complication.

At the same time, they are being chased by zombies in a surprise attack.

So while hiding in one area of the prison, Maggie is forced to cut the baby out of her stomach with a dull knife (no anesthesia), the baby is yanked out from her, at which time she dies from blood loss.

And the coup de grace is when 11 year old Carl has to shoot his mom in the head so that she doesn't turn into a zombie.

Oh, wait. There's one more final insult to her character.

When Rick goes searching for her later, he finds that a zombie ate Lori, all the way down to her bones! The zombie is sitting next to her bones, and he can't stand up because his stomach is too full after eating all of Lori.

Lol, I seriously think that the writers did all of this on purpose.

The actress Sarah Wayne Callies seems cold and aloof, and I can only guess that they didn't like her, and purposely made the audience hate her.

Sorry that was meant for the Kristen Welker thread, although it sort of works here.

Jesus, R29, that sounds BRUTAL. I was not a fan of the pilot for TWD so I never bothered to watch past the first episode, but your description was more savage than actually watching a horror movie. Nice job.

Jan fucking Brady

Every single one of the characters on And Just Like That.

R24 Also her being blind. In her book, Alison Arngrim mentions how bitter Melissa Sue was about being given that storyline.

The real sister of Laura Ingalls did go blind, IIRC.

In the soap world it had to be Laura Weber........ The actress/character that brought soaps back to life and they ended up treating the actress/character like shit.

Jessica Biel on 7th Heaven

Supposedly Julian Fellowes (Downton Abbey) was upset that the actors who played Matthew and Sybill did not renew their contracts.

Matthew's last scene was with his dead, bloody head under the wheel of car.

Sybill (pregnant, sweaty, and in bed) looked absolutely horrible in her final episode. She was actually the most conventionally good-looking woman in the cast and he managed to make her look horrible.

[quote] Supposedly Julian Fellowes (Downton Abbey) was upset that the actors who played Matthew and Sybill did not renew their contracts.

I feel like if you really have plans for characters, you shouldn't let an actor leaving derail them. Why not just recast? It's not like either one of those actors was a big star, and audiences these days are far less attached to a particular actor than they were years ago.

My first thought upon reading the thread title was Betty Draper. I had the feeling Matt Weiner loathed January Jones. That gross storyline with his creepy son! Betty calling the housekeeper the N word! BETTY BECOMING FAT.

Yeah, somebody despised the actress, all right.

[quote]Samantha on SATC. She went from sex loving to being an actual sex addict to the point of nueroses.

Was that a case of the writers hating Kim, or just Secretariat—er, Sarah Jessica Parker doing so?

Nancy's on-the-run season (4 ?) On Weeds. It was really weird that for three seasons her intimate scenes were relatively tame and there was no really nudity, then we have her getting spanked in a really aggressive way in the back of a limo, and the worst, the scene where her brother-in-law sucks milk out of her breasts in a public restroom. Just really bonkers plus that seemed to indicate someone wanted to humiliate Mary Louise Parker.

[quote] I feel like if you really have plans for characters, you shouldn't let an actor leaving derail them. Why not just recast?

That's a good point. I think that the Downton audience may have had a hard time with a new Matthew. The actor wasn't famous, but I think it was a good love story between him and Mary. The Sybill character was kind of superfluous (1 of 3 sisters) except that she was married to a popular character (driver/servant who snagged Lady Sybill). I guess she could have been re-cast.

I vaguely remember that too, R18. Chord Overstreet had been on for a while, and they were setting up a Sam & Quinn pairing. When Sam returned, he was working as an underage stripper to support his family, then they moved him onto Mercedes. I'm still not quite sure what was going on there. Was it to keep Chord in line? Or Dianna Aragon? Was it to ensure that Lea Michele and Cory Monteith would remain the romantic faces of the show?

I don't think Mary Louise Parker was humiliated by getting her tits out or pretending to fuck hot actors, r42. That says more about you and your attitude towards sex than anything else. It's not like they gave Nancy Botwin a raging scat fetish.

Kim Cattrall got sick of SJP never having to go topless. Meanwhile, Kim was always tits-out.

On the Sopranos, the more esteemed actresses never had their tits out (EG, Edie Falco was never shown topless). The lesser-known actresses were always topless (e.g., Tony's girlfriend in the last season or so, Valentina).

[quote]I don't think Mary Louise Parker was humiliated by getting her tits out or pretending to fuck hot actors

Didn't MLP get to have a hot sex scene with Mark Paul Gosselaar? Talk about loving your job. Plus she had a smoking body herself so she had nothing to feel shame about.

[quote] Kim Cattrall got sick of SJP never having to go topless. Meanwhile, Kim was always tits-out.

DL would have a complete melt down if SJP went topless. She’d be ripped to shreds and then the jokes…🐴

Rumor has it SJP was keen to show off her implants and performed the first sex scene topless (where some ex is eating her box). Word is that as soon as they saw the rushes, the producers were so horrified they demanded a reshoot and hastily added a no-nudity-ever stipulation into her contract!

I heard she always had no nudity in her contract.

Sarah never wanted to do nudity. She even discussed her no nudity rule on Howard Stern’s show.

SJP made that up afterwards to save face. Word is he boob job was botched and her nips look like they were seen on by a drunk epileptic

You can always tell by the way Shonda "writes" a character out of a show what she really thinks about the actor. Sometimes I didn't blame her for the pettiness even enjoyed it. Other times it was like WTF.

The way she wrote off Katherine Hiegel was just laughable. but somewhat deserved. I don't think the Izzy character had any fans left after she had Izzy cheat with George, get cancer, have sex with a ghost while married to Alex, and then leave Alex with a Dear John letter.

Oh and Don't get me started on how she just fully stopped writing for TR Knight for basically an entire season and then have his character join the military and get hit by a bus and die all in the span of one episode.

She pulled similar stuff with Patrick but if I am not mistaken he admitted he was being an ass after the fact.

Priscilla Presley on Dallas.

[quote]Priscilla Presley on Dallas.

Pardon me but that would be Priscilla BEAULIEU Presley.

Thank you.

Shirley on her last season of Laverne and Shirley.

In context at the time this episode aired, KH was acting a bit full of herself about her movie career and had only shown up to work sporadically. It was obvious to me that this speech Alex gave was Shonda speaking directly to KH.

Brad Carlton's (Don Diamante) character arcs on The Young and the Restless. He was very hot when he came on the show. Somehow, Victor Newman could be the only "attractive" guy on the stupid show. Even handsome (but wooden actor) Jack Abbott had a shitty arc due to Victor Newman. Was Eric Braeden fucking somebody?

I wanted to eat Don's ass more than anything. Especially during his thick ass daddy days.

Reba

Former restaurant worker here. I served Don Diamante a drink. He was very nice. He was sitting down, but I remember thinking he was smaller than I thought he'd be. Small head. Very handsome.

[R24], I came here to post the same thing. It began in the first Christmas episode when everyone received beautiful gifts, and Mary, in contrast, received a quilted pelt shawl made from the fur of local varmint. It was then and there I thought someone on LHOTP had it out for MSA. When an older MSA appeared onscreen in that horrendous wig it confirmed my belief. Someone was out to play down her looks

Apparently, Michael Landon was got involved with an 18-year-old on set that he later married. The teen grew into a full-fledge, bleached-blonde bimbo.

Maybe Mary had a "bad attitude" about that.

[quote]Kim Cattrall got sick of SJP never having to go topless. Meanwhile, Kim was always tits-out

Not to derail the thread and turn it into another Sex and the City Kim vs SJP debate but one of the HBOs was running the complete series last week and so I watched for the first time in years. Especially in the early seasons it looks like they digitally altered Kim’s nude scenes so she wasn’t nude anymore. In the episode where she goes to the plastic surgeon and he marks up her body wasn’t she fully nude when she opened her hospital gown to look in the mirror? In the version they aired it looked like they had (badly) CGI’d a black bra and panties on her. I noticed the same thing in several of her sex scenes although not all of them. This was HBO, not the edited syndication episodes; there was still nudity from Cynthia Nixon and other actors and actresses. It was specifically Kim Cattrall’s scenes. Did she have some clause that they would edit her nudity out or is HBO or SJP just being overly cautious about not upsetting her?

R23 I never believed that story about Nicolette leaving Dynasty of her own accord. It sounded very PR. What about contracts? I believe there were rumours that Liz Gillies didn’t like her and wanted her written off. If true, that makes Liz playing Alexis post-surgery with a dead-on Nicolette impression even more juicy!

R64, I'm guessing HBO wanted to change the rating of the show to PG.

I suspect Cattrall would NOT want to have her nude scenes altered. This is why - she looked fabulous! But as she got older, it was probably more and more difficult to keep her body up, so to speak.

Thus, she wanted to stop doing nude scenes.

R64, I thought I remembered she had a bra and panties on in that scene, so I went to my old DVD set and put in the episode. She was definitely not nude in the scene.

R67 she was topless in her final scene of SATC where's she's riding former hottie Smith's cock. She didn't go fully nude in the movies though, bar the sushi scene

Like I said it’s been year since I watched but a number of those shots just looked altered to me. Since it was just the Cattrall scenes I wondered if they had made changes for some reason. Eldergay faulty memory is more likely

How did Kristin get away with so little nudity, when Cynthia and Kim had their boobs out often?

[quote]Oh and Don't get me started on how she just fully stopped writing for TR Knight for basically an entire season and then have his character join the military and get hit by a bus and die all in the span of one episode.

Oh, I feel quite sure Shonda misplaced her anger and frustration onto Knight when her bigotry-spewing favorite clown trippled down in public and forced her to write Burke off the show.

It seems that the relentless level of jokes about Dorothy's appearance which only increased and grew crueler as the series progressed (and new writers joined the fold) spoke to some latent hostility by some of the writers on the GG toward Bea.

Tara Reid on Scrubs. Bill Lawrence said that he didn't think she was believable as anything other than Tara Reid so the character eventually became a chain smoking slutty party girl. I thought that was an unfair assessment and that she was actually pretty good in the role as originally conceived.

Who is that hot man at R57?

when Lucy got her ass beat by that kangaroo in a leather jacket

Ana-Akicia & Susan Sullivan on FALCON CREST. Really stupid to be rid of them.

Yeah, I used to cringe at some of the jokes made about Dorothy's appearance. Some of those had to hurt.

R73 Are you referring to the Big Ugly Man outside my bedroom window?

If you type in " Big Ugly Man Golden Girls" on YT this pops up LOL=

The writers were kind enough to have Sophia say a young Dorothy looked like Fess Parker. She could have said Ernest Borgnine.

R78 - Which is odd when you think of the perpetual comments made on Maude about how ravishing and gorgeous she was. Arthur was not a troll, she was simply what was once called a handsome woman. Generally attractive, but a not a beauty queen.

When they killed Tasha Yar (Diane Crosby) in the first season of Star Trek Next Gen with that mud entity - to say nothing of the fact they didn't make the character a lesbian. It was bad enough they had her use Data like a walking sex toy.

Michael Weatherly on Dark Angel. They put him in a wheelchair at the end of Season 1 and brought in a young Jensen Ackles.

Bill Bell must have hated Y&R actress Pam Peters when she made her 2nd run on the show in the early 80's. He had her locked in a shack by a crazy Moonies type cult, with live rats - dozens of them - running all over her. It was as gross as it sounds. Shortly thereafter he had her character ditch her groom at the altar and she left town for good. I think Brenda Dickson is right about what a sick fuck he was.

JFC of course the sad soap losers have to pollute this thread. Grown men who watch soaps and still discuss plotlines from decades ago are just pathetic.

Yeah, lots of jokes at Dorothy's / Bea's expense. I hated the Rose character and they should actually have been meaner to the Rose character. Rose / Betty was just plain boring, irritating, and one-note.

I once read that the writers on 30 Rock hated Jane Krakowski so much they started writing in exaggerated examples of her own behaviour and her character thus became more and more ridiculous, but she was too lacking in self-awareness to realise.

R88 Jane is a great gal

JFC of course the sad soap losers have to pollute this thread. Grown men who watch soaps and still discuss plotlines from decades ago are just pathetic.

Are soaps not TV shows? Why are you imposing your bias and clear mental instability on the rest of us? Honey, I know no one wants to fuck you but for JFC take the stick out of your ass.

R88 is that true?

Jane was one of the funniest actors among a talented cast on a really funny show. Not a fan of Baldwin, but he was way better at comedy than I would have ever imagined. I just thought of him as a dramatic actor, but his scenes with Elaine Stritch are hilarious. I can't really think of any major weak links in the ensemble -- maybe Dean Winter? But at least he was eye candy.

Tina Fey get a lot of credit for often making herself the butt of jokes and not being portrayed flatteringly (both personally and physically) on 30 Rock. 99% of actresses with any control on a project would never allow that.

Dean Winters WAS perfect as Dennis Duffy. He reminded me of all my Irish-American male cousins.

Putting Suzanne on the phone for her last season. We ALL hated her by then!

They put Delta Burke in a lot of unflattering situations on Designing Women. Although it was was funny seeing her with a pet pig I always thought it was probably an intentional dig at her weight gain.

Delta Burke. God love you Datalounge, this is the only place where anybody knows who she is.

Delta had the pig long before she got fat. The Dorothy cut I remember the most is when she was asking clothes advice from Blanche and Rose. Something like this: "but the long chain will highlight her wide hips..." shit like that. It went on and on seemingly.

Oh lest I forget Shonda killing off Tim Daly by having him die alone in a ditch to the side of the road with nobody finding him for days.

The last season of the Will & Grace reboot, the episode about Grace taking a dump.

Oh Smitty! Keep going!

Big Pussy’s exit from Sopranos. Horrible actor and the actor sermed like a blowhard in real life.

For those who dont know, Pussy was an FBI informant in an early season, got taken out to sea, shot, and dumped:

[quote] Oh lest I forget Shonda killing off Tim Daly by having him die alone in a ditch to the side of the road with nobody finding him for days.

Has anyone notified the police? I hope Tyne kicks Shonda's ass for killing her brother.

Edith on Downton Abbey always had sad plot lines.

Left standing at the altar. (Jilted by a much-older, growing infirm, seemingly-gay man.)

Being duped by the soldier (badly burned and unrecognizable) who claimed to be a long, lost family friend (and possible heir?).

Marrying her off to the Marquess was just throwing her a small bone.

HOWEVER, someone in wardrobe must've loved the actress because she had the nicest costumes / fashions. She actually had a beautiful figure to show off all that clothing.

Her acting style didn't help matters. She had a whiny undertone to everything.

Edith was Jan to Lady Mary's Marcia and Sybil's Cindy...

Mike and Gloria on All in the Family. Specifically Gloria. By the end of her run she was nothing but a stomping, steaming, clown.

Marrying her off to the marquess meant that she outranked her cunt sister. Winning!!!

The Star Trek Voyager folks gave their two youngest cast members several warnings in scripts it seems over their partying ways =

Garret Wang was killed off in one episode (blown out to space) & replaced with an alternate universe version at the very end with no one mourning the "real" Harry Kim who died. He was also at death's door in a 2-part cliffhanger when his co-star Jennifer Lien got the axe instead. He seemed to straighten up after that "near death experience".

Jennifer Lien was separated from her onscreen love Neelix in an evil Warlord possession story & wasn't reunited with him at a later date which made getting her off the show 1 step easier in the end when her Kes contract wasn't renewed.

I loved Jennifer Lien on Voyager. Was she really such a monster?

^ Lien showed up several times late to work it seems. She might've offered some folks on the lot some reefer which may have got her into some trouble.

She had an allergic reaction to the chemicals for her fake ears (but that was fixed with a new hairstyle which covered them).

Wang being the only Asian (not just Asian male) on a network cast list at the time seemed to have spared his departure on the show in favor of the Kes character.

I heard TPTB wanted her to sign a multi-year deal where she would be a "special guest star" on the show when it was a medical related episode but otherwise, she wouldn't be a part of the regular crew & her people told her to reject that off for a big film career (which she almost had). Mulgrew stated in an interview that she didn't know why Lien came back to the show to reprise her Kes character for her final scenes in the Fury episode. Sounds like it was a real shocker she came back at all.

The Voyager set was tense. None of them really got along with each other.

The most I ever heard negative about the Voyager set was Mulgrew would get irritated when the rest of the cast didn't lick her shitter. The end of the show was the end. No one stayed for a wrap party or gave hugs or anything. They were out of there.

Hurley on Lost. Everyone else stuck there ages, speeds through puberty, gets their cancer cured. But Fattie Hurley can't lose weight and is shown hoarding food. He's a loser even though he won the lottery.

[quote]Jennifer Lien was separated from her onscreen love Neelix in an evil Warlord possession story

That was a great episode and Lien acted the hell out of it.

I thought she was great in it.

R11 Everyone got along during the Lien years except they hated on Wang for being late & not being prepared at least on one occasion. It seemed like Lien was the cast favorite to stay over Wang. Kate blew her cool over her firing & never accepted 2 of Breasts.

R112 STV did had a wrap party & I'm not certain if Lien went but it seemed like everyone else did.

At Voyager's end, the only one who said goodbye to Kate was Picardo (who said goodbye to everyone) as the rest had their fill of her drama.

I saw another longer wrap party interview with the Paris & Torres actors (being interviewed separately) & it did seem awkward at times.

^ That should say R111 not R11.

Mulgrew resented Jeri Ryan because she thought Ryan being hired was a cynical attempt to get T&A on the show. As it turned out, Ryan was an excellent actress and Voyager was a better show with her on it.

Mulgrew eventually came around and she and Ryan patched up their differences.

Mary Ryan has always been a very mean person. 👹

They also saddled Edith with a very ugly baby.

R117 Kate patched things up only after Lien had her very public meltdown & Ryan/Wang exposed her as making 2 of Breasts time on the show a living Hell.

It's called damage control.

I ended up watching the episode of Grey's Anatomy in which Shonda got rid of Patrick Dempsey. He died because a surgeon in another hospital didn't speak up to make sure they did a CT scan of his brain after a severe car wreck.

A death seemed appropriate today.

Coincidentally, I'm having a CT scan of my brain tomorrow morning.