Actors or other TV Personalities Who Walked Off Their Shows

[Mark Giardina]

First one that comes to my mind is Jack Parr when he hosted "The Tonight Show." Parr eventually returned to the show before leaving for good in 1962 when Johnny Carson began his 30 year run.

Redd Foxx also took a (brief) hike from Sanford & Son. I believe his complaint was that his dressing room didn't have a window. :

 

[firepoint525]

Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar walked off the set of The View (but unfortunately, returned! :)

 

[Corky Marlowe]

So many people left hit shows only for their careers to grind to a halt...Pernell Roberts ("Bonanza"), McLean Stevenson, Wayne Rogers and Larry Linville ("M*A*S*H"), George Maharis ("Route 66").

The biggest ones I can remember leaving and then coming back were John Schneider and Tom Wopat (leaving us with Coy and Vance Duke), and Patrick Duffy (Wait...That was just a dream).

On the other hand, every time Dr. Gene Scott walked off his show, the show just got that much bigger.

 

[Ultimajock]

...at different times, both Regis Philbin and Joey Bishop himself staged on-camera walk-offs from The Joey Bishop Show (the talk show, not the sitcom)...

...I recall Johnny Carson staging at least two work stoppages in relation to The Tonight Show; the first was over his having to do a 15-minute segment of the show (during which many NBC affiliates were airing local news), leading to the show shrinking from 105 minutes to 90 minutes each night. That was in 1966. Then, in 1980, Carson demanded a further time frame change, from 90 minutes to 60, and he again was absent from the show during the resulting contract renegotiations...

...IIRC, Redd Foxx's main complaint with Tandem Productions regarding Sanford & Son was that he wanted to be paid $1 more per week than Carroll O'Connor was getting for All in the Family (also a Tandem product). Tandem also saw Esther Rolle temporarily walk off Good Times during its later months because Jimmie Walker's role was being too heavily emphasized in the storylines (the same reason John Amos had left earlier)...

 

[Markxxx]

Carroll O'Connor refused to show up. The multi-part series where Archie was missing was written for that reason. Norman Lear says he was prepared to kill off Archie, but it was revealed that O'Connor when directly to CBS and said "Either Lear or Me," and CBS told Norman Lear if it was a choice between the two Lear would go, so he'd better come to some sort of agreement with O'Connor, which of course he did.

Demond Wilson, who played Lamont also walked off "Sanford And Son," but his absence didn't last long either.

 

[Mark Giardina]

Mike Evans, who played Lionel on the Jefferson, left the show to be replaced by Damon Evans (no relation I believe.) However Mike returned and Damon was gone. I'm not sure if Mike walked off the show or was asked to leave. I have the feeling its the first because he did eventually return to work on The Jeffersons.

 

[therealjm12]

Lionel on All The Family is one of my favorite TV characters of all time. Every time he was in a scene with Archie, you knew it was going to be good. On the Jefferson's I thought he would be George's foil. Instead they turned him into a milk toast, boring character. I stopped watching the Jefferson's because of that. Mike Evans made the show of far as I was concerned.

 

[azumanga]

So many people left hit shows only for their careers to grind to a halt...Pernell Roberts ("Bonanza")...

Though he came back as "Trapper John, MD".

Wayne Rogers ("M*A*S*H")

Wayne Rogers did star with Lynn Redgrave on the CBS sitcom "House Calls", from 1979 to 1982 -- it would've lasted longer if Lynn wasn't fired over breast feeding (her replacement was Sharon Gless, who was later the second half of "Cagney & Lacey").

...I recall Johnny Carson staging at least two work stoppages in relation to The Tonight Show; the first was over his having to do a 15-minute segment of the show (during which many NBC affiliates were airing local news), leading to the show shrinking from 105 minutes to 90 minutes each night.

Actually at first, the 105 minute length was retained -- it was just that Johnny did not appear for the first 15 minutes; only Ed and Skitch.

 

[LKellerIII]

After he quit M*A*S*H, Wayne Rogers starred as a detective in a very good crime drama called City of Angels. It took place in the 1930s or 40s (can't remember), and was patterned somewhat after the Jack Nicholson film Chinatown. Rogers also did a lot of guest star roles in episodic TV during the 1980s.

But he's not hurting for money. Rogers is a very smart businessman and wise investor, and has made millions. He shows up from time to time on the cable news and business networks as a pundit.

 

[Mark Giardina]

Lionel on All The Family is one of my favorite TV characters of all time. Every time he was in a scene with Archie, you knew it was going to be good. On the Jefferson's I thought he would be George's foil. Instead they turned him into a milk toast, boring character. I stopped watching the Jefferson's because of that. Mike Evans made the show of far as I was concerned.

I did a check on Wikipedia and discovered that Mike Evans died a few years ago from cancer. I was shocked!

Also the actress who played Lionel Jefferson's wife is now 70 years old.

 

[Hal Erickson]

Clint Walker walked off "Cheyenne", so Warner Bros. quickly invented a new Clint Walker named Ty Hardin and put him on an every-other-week replacement show called "Bronco."

Robert Cummings walked off "My Living Doll" when it became obvious that Julie Newmar was getting more attention from the scriptwriters than he was. (What did the man expect?)

 

[WMC2006]

I did a check on Wikipedia and discovered that Mike Evans died a few years ago from cancer. I was shocked!

Also the actress who played Lionel Jefferson's wife is now 70 years old.

It would be tough to do a reunion of The Jeffersons, nearly the entire cast has Moved On Up to that huge drycleaning chain in the sky.

Only Sherman Helmsley, Marla Gibbs, Berlinda Tolbert (Jenny) and Damon Evans (Lionel in seasons 2-4) are still alive.

Isabel Sanford died in 2004.
Mike Evans died in 2006.
Roxie Roker (Helen Willis) died in 1995.
Franklin Cover (Tom Willis) died in 2006.
Zara Cully (Mother Jefferson) died in 1978.
Paul Benedict (Harry Bentley) died in 2008.


Berlinda Tolbert is 61, not 70.

 

[bpatrick]

Clint Walker walked off "Cheyenne", so Warner Bros. quickly invented a new Clint Walker named Ty Hardin and put him on an every-other-week replacement show called "Bronco."

Robert Cummings walked off "My Living Doll" when it became obvious that Julie Newmar was getting more attention from the scriptwriters than he was. (What did the man expect?)

Clint Walker did come back, and Warner Brothers eventually had "Cheyenne," "Bronco," and Will Hutchins' "Sugarfoot" rotating in the same time slot as "The Cheyenne Show". James Garner, OTOH, walked off "Maverick" in 1960 and never came back; Roger Moore was brought in as an English cousin of the Mavericks (actually a Texan who, unusual for a Maverick, had been a hero in the Civil War, then moved to England for a time); also Robert Colbert as a third brother. Colbert's episodes are fairly forgettable, but Moore's are almost as good as Garner's.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

How about Dan Rather? Darn overly long tennis matches...

I also remember reading about Walter Cronkite sitting out the CBS Evening News for a month or so around 1967. I know some labor dispute was invoved (AFTRA strike, maybe?)

 

[oldiesfan6479]

...Walter Cronkite sitting out the CBS Evening News for a month or so around 1967.
I know some labor dispute was invoved (AFTRA strike, maybe?)

"Direct from our newsroom in New York, this is the CBS Evening News
with Arnold Zenker..."

No, the pig on Green Acres was Arnold Ziffel.

 

[wbhist]

...Walter Cronkite sitting out the CBS Evening News for a month or so around 1967.
I know some labor dispute was invoved (AFTRA strike, maybe?)

"Direct from our newsroom in New York, this is the CBS Evening News with Arnold Zenker..."

No, the pig on Green Acres was Arnold Ziffel.

Make that, "Direct from our newsroom in New York, in color, this is the CBS Evening News with Arnold Zenker . . . "

The only question is, who would have filled in for announcer Harry Kramer for the duration of that AFTRA strike?

But on a side note, at NBC, Chet Huntley continued co-anchoring The Huntley-Brinkley Report . . . while David Brinkley walked the picket line in solidarity with AFTRA. That was a factor in the once-hot duo falling slightly behind Cronkite to stay from the summer of 1967 through Huntley's retirement in 1970.

 

[mleach]

I did a check on Wikipedia and discovered that Mike Evans died a few years ago from cancer. I was shocked!

Also the actress who played Lionel Jefferson's wife is now 70 years old.

It would be tough to do a reunion of The Jeffersons, nearly the entire cast has Moved On Up to that huge drycleaning chain in the sky.

Only Sherman Helmsley, Marla Gibbs, Berlinda Tolbert (Jenny) and Damon Evans (Lionel in seasons 2-4) are still alive.

Isabel Sanford died in 2004.
Mike Evans died in 2006.
Roxie Roker (Helen Willis) died in 1995.
Franklin Cover (Tom Willis) died in 2006.
Zara Cully (Mother Jefferson) died in 1978.
Paul Benedict (Harry Bentley) died in 2008.


Berlinda Tolbert is 61, not 70.

Tough to do a reunion now but the good thing is that with the exception of Roker & Cully, about ten years ago the cast did get together to do a reunion for E! ( could had been VH1 though ). The most interesting thing to had come out of that get-together was the story Franklin Cover told about one of the last things Roxie Roker had done before her 1995 death was to see her son Lenny Kravitz in concert and watching the crowd go wild over his tune "It Ain't Over 'til It's Over".

 

[Bob1370]

"Wayne Rogers did star with Lynn Redgrave on the CBS sitcom "House Calls", from 1979 to 1982 -- it would've lasted longer if Lynn wasn't fired over breast feeding (her replacement was Sharon Gless, who was later the second half of "Cagney & Lacey")."

Lynn Redgrave unfortunately passed away earlier this year (2010). But I had a chance to talk with her about that show, and about her long film and TV career, when she came to town as a featured speaker at a film festival 18 months ago--and she basically confirmed that story, but it was about more than that. She told me "House Calls" was pretty successful in its first two seasons, but the producers were difficult for everyone to work with and the set was generally unhappy. She was one of a number of female show employees with babies or very young children at the time (1980 or so) and came to them demanding that provisions be made for day care for the young 'uns while their parents were working on the set. She got fired for her troubles (and the show's chemistry was disrupted without her and failed after one last season). But it started a movement in Hollywood that eventually led to most SAG/AFTRA productions making provisions for day care for pre-school age kids of the performers and crew.

And she had nothing but positive things to say about Wayne Rogers, who was supportive of all his castmates...

 

[KyDXIn]

Lionel on All The Family is one of my favorite TV characters of all time. Every time he was in a scene with Archie, you knew it was going to be good. On the Jefferson's I thought he would be George's foil. Instead they turned him into a milk toast, boring character. I stopped watching the Jefferson's because of that. Mike Evans made the show of far as I was concerned.

I think the chemistry between Sherman Hemsley and Marla Gibbs expanded the character of Florence, thus reducing the presence of Mike Evans. Plus IIRC, Mike was a producer of the show.

 

[SteveRichards]

Mike Evans left "The Jeffersons" to work behind the scenes on "Good Times," which he co-created.