TV Series That Continued On After They Lost Their Star

TV is a flexible business. With shows that can go on for years, actors often come and go as they explore other career and personal opportunities. However, most TV shows keep their main characters the same, giving viewers a familiar face to come back to every week. Some, though, are not so lucky, losing their stars to other things before they're ready. While many series just get the axe after their lead departs, others go on. Here are some television shows that continued even after losing their lead.

Many people thought that The Office wouldn't be The Office without Michael Scott, and depending on your feelings on seasons eight and nine, some fans may still believe that to be the case. However, the show proved that it could go on without its star when Steve Carell departed at the end of season seven so that he could tend to his burgeoning movie career and spend more time with his family. 

Carell earned one Golden Globe win and an additional five nominations for his time on The Office, along with a slew of Emmy nominations. Although he started out on camera, he also made inroads behind the camera on the show as well, becoming a producer in season three as well as writing two episodes and directing three more.

Because of his strong and varied work on the show, Carell's loss was felt strongly by the show's fans. However, executive producer Greg Daniels said that there wasn't much talk of ending the show after Carell left. "If we hadn't thought of some good ideas, we might have gone that route," he said. "But it wasn't like anybody wanted to end it."

Although Carell hedged on whether or not he would ever return to the series, Michael did end up making a brief appearance in the finale. Carell's movie career has since taken off in an unexpected direction, with the actor earning an Oscar nomination in 2014 for the drama Foxcatcher and Golden Globe nominations for Foxcatcher and The Big Short.

Charlie Sheen has never been a very family-friendly figure, which is what made him perfect for the role of Charlie Harper on Chuck Lorre's foul-mouthed Two and a Half Men. However, it's also what led to his downfall on the show, as the star became embroiled in scandals and started to badmouth Lorre and his fellow castmates, resulting in his character being killed off at the end of the show's eighth season. 

The saga of Sheen's meltdown is fairly long and extensive. In 2011, Sheen headed to rehab after pleading guilty to domestic violence against his then-wife Brooke Mueller, putting Two and a Half Men on hiatus with 16 of the planned 24 episodes of the eighth season filmed. While in rehab, Sheen did an interview with Alex Jones in which he said that Lorre had an "un-evolved mind," among other inflammatory comments.

CBS quickly suspended the rest of production on season eight, but Sheen wasn't done. He continued making the rounds in the press, introducing his now well-known catch phrase, "Winning." Sheen was officially fired from the show in March of that year; he later went on to sue Warner Bros. and Lorre for $100 million, which he later settled. 

Sheen isn't the only star Two and a Half Men lost throughout its run. Angus T. Jones, the titular half man, left after season 10 after going through some controversies of his own, which included referring to his status on the show as that of a "paid hypocrite" then begging people via a YouTube video to stop watching the series. Unlike Sheen, though, Jones did return for a cameo in the finale.

In spite of all of the above, the show still went on, with Lorre bringing on Ashton Kutcher as the new lead. The Sheen controversy and Kutcher's casting led to a 13 percent ratings increase over Sheen's final season. Although it still wasn't a favorite with critics, the series went on to four more seasons with Kutcher.

Michael J. Fox was an '80s favorite as teenage Michael P. Keaton of Family Ties, and he continued his successful career as he grew and some years later led ABC sitcom Spin City. However, as he played New York's deputy mayor Mike Flaherty, Fox was dealing with secret struggles off camera with Parkinson's Disease.

Fox revealed partway through the show's run that he had suffered from Parkinson's for seven years and that it had flared up before big events like the Golden Globes and an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman. However, even after going public with his diagnosis, Fox stuck around with the show another two years.

Eventually, dealing with both his health and the series became too much for Fox, and he decided to leave. He was replaced with Charlie Sheen's Charlie Crawford; the show was canceled after two more seasons.

Fox returned for a guest role in season six. He since appeared on shows like Boston Legal and The Good Wife, not to mention his one-season NBC sitcom The Michael J. Fox Show. He also runs the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which researches cures for Parkinson's, and has released multiple books about his career and his struggles with the disease. 

Like many teen shows, The Vampire Diaries was built on a love triangle, in this case between the vampires Stefan (Paul Wesley) and Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder) and the human (at least, for a while) Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev). Although the adventures of the trio anchored the show throughout the first six seasons, the show was able to go on for two more seasons after Dobrev announced her departure. 

Dobrev said that it was always the plan for her to leave the show after her six-year contract was up, to help her maintain the fire that comes from wondering if she would ever get a job again. Rumors at the time of Dobrev's departure suggested that it may have something to do with having to work with her real-life ex Somerhalder, although she has shot that down, saying that she and Somerhalder, along with his now-wife Nikki Reed, remain friends.

Dobrev also made a stop back in Mystic Falls before the show went off the air in 2017, appearing in the final episode as both Elena and her doppelganger Katherine. Dobrev also appeared as another doppelganger, Tatia, in a season two episode of The Vampire Diaries spin-off The Originals.

8 Simple Rules had a simple comedic premise, focusing on the strict rules set by Paul Hennessy, played by John Ritter, for dating his teenage daughters, played by Kaley Cuoco and Amy Davidson. However, the series took a turn when Ritter died at the age of 54, shortly into filming of the show's second season.

Ritter is said to have had heart pains during a rehearsal for the fourth episode of the second season. He was at first misdiagnosed with a heart attack, but doctors later discovered that he had an aortic dissection, or a tear in his heart's main artery. However, it was too late to help him and Ritter passed away later that night. (His family later filed a wrongful death lawsuit, and although a jury ended up clearing the doctors involved, they are still said to have received more than $14 million in settlements.) 

The show went into hiatus following Ritter's death, but they went back into production after two months to film a one-hour goodbye episode to his character. (The two-part episode is among the show's highest-rated on IMDb.) The show ran for three seasons total before being canceled.

That '70s Show lost two of its core gang members after season seven, but it still managed to go on for another season before getting the axe. Topher Grace and Ashton Kutcher decided to leave the long-running sitcom before the end of its run, with Grace's Eric leaving to teach in Africa and Kutcher's Kelso leaving to take a job in Chicago.

Neither gave an official reason for their departure, although both had budding movie careers to tend to. Shortly after leaving the show, Grace would go on to star as the villain Venom in Spider-Man 3, while Kutcher, who had appeared in movies like Just Married and Dude, Where's My Car during the show's run, had roles in The Guardian and Bobby. 

Both stars made appearances in the show's final season, with Kutcher popping back to series locale Point Place five times and Grace returning for a small role in the finale. Rumors have it that Grace left the show because he didn't get along with his cast mates, although he has on numerous occasions tried to put those to rest, sharing pictures with his former costars and saying that they "all love each other." 

Katherine Heigl was one of the prominent cast members of the ABC medical drama Grey's Anatomy, playing surgical intern (and later resident) Izzie Stevens through the show's sixth season. Although Heigl earned two Golden Globe nominations and an Emmy win for her role on the series, there was a lot of drama on set, which included Heigl refusing to submit herself to the Emmys in 2008 because she thought the material didn't warrant awards consideration. This reportedly angered the show's producers, who felt that it was an insult to the writers, who were already upset by the fact that Heigl had referred to a storyline featuring Izzie's affair with the married George as "a ratings ploy."  

Rumors abounded throughout the latter part of her tenure as Izzie that Heigl wanted out of her contract to further pursue her film career, which had been launched with 27 Dresses and Knocked Up. Heigl has since said that she left the show to spend more time with her family, although her costars have offered other reasons, with Ellen Pompeo saying she left over "hurt feelings" and the "huge paychecks" her movie career brought. Heigl, for her part, has said she was so upset over the drama and the scrutiny it brought that she entered therapy. 

There were a lot of rumors flying around when Hilarie Burton and Chad Michael Murray decided to leave One Tree Hill after the show's sixth season. The pair, who played central couple Lucas Scott and Peyton Sawyer on the teen drama, were said to have departed over failed contract negotiations. Murray caused quite a stir when he said that he wasn't being brought back because "they want to save money," although Burton said at the time that "money isn't necessarily a big motivator for me."

Burton's decision to leave the series became a lot more clear in 2017, when she and other female costars came out to accuse showrunner Mark Schwahn of sexual harassment. Burton alleged that Schwahn created a hostile environment for women working on the show, saying that he was verbally abusive and forcefully kissed her on two separate occasions.

Schwahn's alleged harassment caused Burton to turn down a substantial raise to return for season seven after her original contract was up. After leaving the show, Burton ended up losing her agent because she didn't want to sign on to a long contract on another series where she did not know the showrunner. However, she has still managed to book some big roles, appearing in recurring parts on White Collar, Grey's Anatomy, Hostages, Extant, and Lethal Weapon. Murray, for his part, has come out in support of his female costars, saying he will "stand by them every step of the way."