Sometimes you have to know when to hold them and when to fold them. These actors didn’t know how to hold them and jumped the gun by walking away from a hit show.
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Tisha Campbell
Martin Lawrence cut his teeth as a stand up comedian and made a name for himself as the host of Def Comedy Jam club before he was given his own show. Tisha Campbell was cast to play his girlfriend on his sitcom “Martin” and the two had a working relationship that went all the way back to 1990’s House Party. But by the fifth season, Campbell was suddenly gone from the show. Soon after her departure, she slapped Lawrence and the show’s producers with a sexual harassment lawsuit alleging verbal and physical assaults. The suit was settled out of court so Campbell could appear in the season finale with the condition that she not appear in any scenes with Lawrence.
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Alicia Goranson
Comedian Roseanne Barr was given her own show based on the character created in her stand up routine. “Roseanne” debuted in 1988 and Barr played the married mother of three. Alicia Goranson was cast as the oldest daughter, Becky, as a teenager but by the fifth season Goranson was accepted into Vassar College. Producers allowed her to attend college while working on the show part-time but that agreement didn’t work out for too long. Actress Sarah Chalke was brought in to play Becky. But Goranson rejoined the show in the eighth season and having two actresses to play the same character became a running gag on the show.
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George Clooney
George Clooney had small roles on television playing a handyman on “The Facts of Life,” a detective on the “Golden Girls” and Jackie’s boyfriend on “Roseanne” before his big break came as Dr. Doug Ross on “ER.” He stayed on the long-running show for five seasons and earned two Emmys along the way before he left to pursue a career on the big screen. That decision paid off big time. Clooney has gone on to star in a multitude of movies and has even directed a few films himself and is one of Hollywood’s highest paid actors.
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Katherine Heigl
Katherine Heigl began her career in film but she transitioned to television early on. After starring in the TV drama “Roswell,” she landed the role of Dr. Isabel “Izzy” Stevens on “Grey’s Anatomy.” While on the show, Heigl would still take on movie roles and after six seasons it was apparent she had her eyes set once again on the silver screen. Her departure from the show was solidified after she didn’t show up for work when she was supposed to and creator Shonda Rhimes agreed to release her from her contract immediately.
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Michael J. Fox
In the mid 80’s, Michael J. Fox starred in a hit sitcom and a blockbuster movie franchise. Once the Family Ties and Back to the Future days were behind him, Fox went on to star in the hit show Spin City, but his health caused him to walk away during the height of the show. Diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1991, he didn’t reveal the news until 1998 and he walked away from his role on the show soon after due to complications from the disease. Hollywood bad boy Charlie Sheen was brought on to fill in for Fox and he remained on the show until it went off of the air.
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David Caruso
Sometimes an ego can be a person’s downfall and that was certainly the case with actor David Caruso. After starring in just one season of NYPD Blue, Caruso deemed himself bigger than the show and left to pursue a career on the silver screen. His next two movies, Jade and the aptly titled Kiss of Death, were major flops at the box-office and after learning a very valuable lesson, the red-headed actor made a beeline back to television. He landed a role on CSI: Miami and stayed with the show for 10 seasons until it went off of the air.
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Jimmy Smits
After David Caruso walked away from “NYPD Blue,” actor Jimmy Smits was brought in as his replacement. Smits joined the show at the beginning of season two and although he stuck around a lot longer than his predecessor, after a while, he too had enough of “NYPD Blue.” Smits split after four years on the show and blamed his departure on the grueling schedule. “It’s a lot of a workload doing an hour dramatic show. It’s just incredible what little time off you get,” Smits said. “Variety is the thing for me to be able to work in theater and be involved in more films and TV movies that say something.”
T.R. Knight
“Scandal” is all the rave now but before Shonda Rhimes created that show starring Kerry Washington, she had “Grey’s Anatomy.” The show debuted in 2005 and in no time T.R. Knight’s character George O’Malley became a fan favorite. That’s why when he was unceremoniously hit by a bus and killed in the premiere of the sixth season, audiences were shocked. Behind the scenes, Knight and Rhimes had “trust issues” and he was upset he only appeared in a total of 48 minutes in the first nine episodes of season five. So instead of asking Rhimes why his character was getting so little airtime, he made his feelings known that he wanted out.
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Sherry Stringfield
George Clooney certainly wasn’t the only actor to leave the popular show “ER.” Sherry Stringfield was on the show since the first season but as the show went along, she craved to have a more “normal life.” Stringfield left the show after season three even though she was contractually obligated to stay on through season five. Her departure sent a small shockwave through Hollywood because she left just as the executive producer secured a syndication deal that would bring the cast millions in future earnings. Not caring that she was literally walking away from a fortune, Stringfield picked up small parts in television and movies before returning to “ER” a couple years later for another four seasons.
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Shannon Doherty
When “Beverly Hills 90210” debuted in 1990, it was an instant hit. Fans couldn’t get enough of the show and its cast but all good things must come to an end and the show became known for its revolving door of actors coming and going. The first to go was Shannon Doherty. She played Brenda Walsh for four seasons but friction on the set grew to be too much for Doherty to handle. Her character went off to college in London during the fifth season and Doherty never returned. She did however appear on the spin-off series “90210.”
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Delta Burke
For five seasons Delta Burke played the ex-beauty pageant winner Suzanne Sugarbaker on the hit show “Designing Women.” Things were great around the set until Burke started to gain some weight. She alleged the higher ups were unhappy with her packing on the pounds but executives of the show disputed this claim. However, they were unhappy with Burke talking to the media saying they didn’t approve of her new appearance and tensions on the set ran so high, she left. Burke would make up with the creator of the show several years later and star in the spin-off “Women of the House” but that lasted for just one season.
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Steve Carrell
We loved him as the bumbling boss on NBC’s hit sitcom “The Office.” For seven seasons Steve Carell played office manager Michael Scott. The show helped Carell become a Hollywood box-office star as well and in 2011, he sang his swan song on the show and left to focus full time on his movie career. The show remained on the air for two more seasons and Carell reprised his role as Michael Scott one last time for the series finale.
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Courtney Thorne-Smith
Being on a hit television show can be pressure enough but add in two co-stars who are super thin and the pressure doubles. That was the case for Courtney Thorne-Smith who starred in “Ally McBeal” alongside Calista Flockhart and Portia de Rossi. Thorne-Smith struggled to keep her weight down and was dieting too much, working out all the time and pushing herself to the point of exhaustion. Choosing her health over the show and what it took to be wafer thin, Thorne-Smith left the show at the end of the third season.
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David Duchovny
We loved him as Fox Mulder on the hit sci-fi show “The X-Files.” And for much of the show’s run, Duchovny loved his job, but that soured towards the end of the seventh season. Duchovny ended up walking away from the show partly due to a contract dispute after appearing in a handful of episodes during season eight. Finding a new home on cable television, he now stars as the lovable and women-loving author Hank Moody on the Showtime series “Californication.”
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Farrah Fawcett
Her feathered hair and petite figure helped her become an icon. So did leaving the show “Charlie’s Angels” after just one season. Farrah Fawcett’s reason for leaving the role of private investigator Jill Munroe behind was because the scripts were too fluffy and she had bigger plans of being a movie star. That dream never fully materialized and after a legal dispute, America’s favorite poster girl signed another contract that saw her return to the show that made her famous for a total of six more episodes in seasons three and four.
