Stars that Walked Off a Show in Dispute

[McGillicuddy]

How many instances can you think of where a star walked off a show usually over a contract dispute.

Farrah Fawcett- Charlie's Angels
Suzanne Somers Three's Company
John Schneider & Tom Wopat Dukes of Hazard
Carroll O'Conner All in the Family
Robert Reed The Brady Bunch
Gabe Kaplan Welcome Back, Kotter ???
Redd Foxx Sanford & Son ???
John Amos Good Times

[Marvo301]

Spencer Milligan - Land of the Lost
Dixie Carter - Diff'rent Strokes
Fred Berry - What's Happening Now

[ThomasE]

Esther Rolle- Good Times
Renee Goldsberry- One Life to Live

[gidgetgrape]

Janet Hubert-Whitten - Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Tisha Campbell-Martin - Martin


This tactic doesn't seem to work well. :lol:

[catlover79]

Speaking of the Dukes, Ben Jones (Cooter) and James Best (Rosco) walked off the show temporarily as well. Only 2 cast members, Denver Pyle (Uncle Jesse) and Sorrell Booke (Boss Hogg) appeared in every single episode. Catherine Bach (Daisy) only missed one episode, because she was filming a segment of Circus of the Stars (or something).

[Dusty's Fan]

Cindy Williams - Laverne & Shirley
Pernell Roberts - Bonanza (not happy with script quality)
George Maharis - Route 66 (I don't recall the reason)

And how about McLean Stevenson and Wayne Rogers leaving M*A*S*H? (And later on, Larry Linville and Gary Burghoff also left.)

[JT]

Cindy Williams - Laverne & Shirley
Pernell Roberts - Bonanza (not happy with script quality)
George Maharis - Route 66 (I don't recall the reason)

And how about McLean Stevenson and Wayne Rogers leaving M*A*S*H? (And later on, Larry Linville and Gary Burghoff also left.)
Maharis didn't leave because of a contract dispute. He was very sick at the time and his doctors told him not to continue with the show. He actually really wanted to stick around, but alas...he couldn't.

Farrah didn't leave CA because of a contract dispute either. She just wanted to try other things, but her decision to leave made her break her contract, and so they threatened to take her to court. They chose to just have her do some guest appearances, instead.

[catlover79]

Cindy Williams - Laverne & Shirley
Pernell Roberts - Bonanza (not happy with script quality)
George Maharis - Route 66 (I don't recall the reason)

And how about McLean Stevenson and Wayne Rogers leaving M*A*S*H? (And later on, Larry Linville and Gary Burghoff also left.)
Cindy Williams left because she was pregnant and they were making her work extremely long hours. She wanted them to back down a little, and when they didn't, she walked. Such a shame that they pushed her to the limit instead of putting her health and her child's health above all. If they'd loosened up, L&S might have ended up much better...and Shirley and Carmine would've gotten married!! :(

[Torgo]

KITT- Knightrider(But they replaced him with the exact same year and model of car, so no one even noticed.)

[factsoflife]

Esther Rolle- Good Times
Renee Goldsberry- One Life to Live

Renee Goldsberry didn't quit OLTL she was FIRED because she asked the producers to raise her salary. And it wasn't even an unfair request considering that Evangaline had become the default female lead on the show for sometime.


Other stars that left because of contract disputes:

Valerie Harper- Valerie/The Hogan Family

Shannen Doherty- Beverly Hills, 90210 (although it hasn't really ever been confirmed) as well as Charmed

Joan Collins- Guiding Light-- She had a brief role as Alexandria Spaulding on the show in 2003 and then quit abut two months into her contract because she couldn't keep up with the filming pace.

[Dusty's Fan]

Carroll O'Conner All in the Family
Robert Reed The Brady Bunch

Was either of these a permanent thing? O'Connor stayed on to eventually do Archie Bunker's Place.

Was Robert Reed really done? How many Brady Bunch episodes did Reed skip, aside from what turned out to be the series finale? Would he have come back for another season?

[browneyes106]

I kind of think T.R. Knight on Grey's Anatomy is an example.

[TJL]

KITT- Knightrider(But they replaced him with the exact same year and model of car, so no one even noticed.)

:lol: Good one.

[McGillicuddy]

Was either of these a permanent thing? O'Connor stayed on to eventually do Archie Bunker's Place.

Was Robert Reed really done? How many Brady Bunch episodes did Reed skip, aside from what turned out to be the series finale? Would he have come back for another season?


When I started this post, I was including examples of stars walking off wheather it was permanent or not. (Suzanne Somers case resulted in her being fired). I just know that Carroll O'Connor missed several episodes one season over a contract dispute, but eventually returned.
As far as Robert Reed, he was known for getting very angry with scripts and being at odds with Sherwood Schwartz, that he would walk off the set. He also was not in the episode where the Bradys, Alice and Oliver take a tour of the Hollywood Studio set.
I thought Gabe Kaplan walked out on the set of WBK, and Redd Foxx walked off the set of S&S at one time, but I'm not sure.

[TJL]

I thought Gabe Kaplan walked out on the set of WBK, and Redd Foxx walked off the set of S&S at one time, but I'm not sure.

Kaplan was having disputes with the show duriing the last season, and although he didn't leave the show, he wasn't in a lot of episodes. The show made Julie the defacto star of the show for most of the final season.