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When Tom Hardy last left us in the first season of the final season MobLandHe was lying in a chair with a butcher knife sticking out of his chest.
Turns out more than a few people on this show probably had a reason to leave it there.
Hardy, of course, plays Harry Da Souza, the reluctant fixer of mob boss couple Conrad and Maeve Harrigan – Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren – in the gritty underworld drama from Paramount+ in London. Or at least he did. Hardy reportedly exited the series shortly after the conclusion of its upcoming second season, following long-running friction with showrunners over delays, disputes over the script and clashes over the series’ shift toward a more team-based approach. He will not appear in a third season, assuming there is one.
This leaves Mobland’The creators of the problem are faced with a problem – what to do with the body.
It’s a strange place, but TV has been here before, many times. Typically, when an actor in a major role slips into a series mid-air — due to firings, disagreements, contract battles, health crises, or creative interruptions — the show finds a way to keep going. Sometimes they simply kill off the character by shoving him in front of the train (Bend Down, Charlie Sheen), sometimes they pull Darren out (looking at you, Dick Sargent), and sometimes they send them upstairs never to be heard from again (remember Gavan O’Herlihy?).
Below, a brief history of emergency exits.
Kill them and continue
When a star gets into a lot of trouble, television’s most time-honored solution is also its most satisfying: kill them. on Two and a half menCharlie Harper, who plays Charlie Sheen, is pushed in front of a Paris train by his stalking girlfriend. on ValerieValerie Harper’s character was killed in a car accident — and after that, the show was just renamed. Hogan family Sandy Duncan moved into her home. on ConnersRoseanne Barr’s Roseanne Conner died of an opioid overdose — about five minutes after Barr fired off a racist tweet. When McLean Stevenson decided it was too much for him to handle mash After the third season, Colonel Henry Blake’s helicopter is shot down over the Sea of Japan on his way home from the war. Stevenson went on to star in a series of failed sitcoms. The show ran for eight more seasons.
Meet the new Darren
Then again, killing isn’t for everyone. The gentle option: keep the character, replace the actor, and trust that the audience won’t notice—or won’t care. Dick York spent five seasons in the role of Darren Stevens fascinated Before a spinal injury and addiction to painkillers took him out of the group; Dick Sargent stepped in without any explanation, a move so brazenly unacknowledged that it coined its own television phrase – “pulling Darren”. The Fresh Prince of Bel Air I tried the same thing when Aunt Viv went from Janet Hubert to Daphne Maxwell Reid mid-run.
They went upstairs
Remember Chuck Cunningham? Nobody does either. That’s because during the second season episode of Happy daysRichie’s older brother – played by Gavan O’Herlihy – goes upstairs and is never heard from again. There’s no explanation, no farewell episode, and no acknowledgment that a human being has just been vaporized from the cast. Even Henry Winkler, when asked about it fifty years later, could only shrug his shoulders and say: “He went upstairs and never came down… It’s a mystery.” Family affairs She did the same with Jody Winslow, who disappeared after season three. And on West wingMoira Kelly’s Mandy Hampton was a full series regular in the first season and was no longer present in the second season.
Who needs a star?
David Caruso was so sure he was too big for television that he quit NYPD blue After the first season to become a movie star. His subsequent film career continued with two films. Jimmy Smits got into the zone and many viewers decided they preferred the new arrangement. The show ran for eleven additional seasons. The office Steve Carell was lost after Season 7 and continued to push forward for two more seasons, buoyed by a group that was steadily lifting weights throughout. and Gray’s Anatomy It has now outgrown so many of its leads — Patrick Dempsey was killed off in Season 11, and Sandra Oh was gone a season ago — that it’s essentially become a different show that happens to share a name with the original. It is still on the air.
