Today, I want to know which TV show did the best job explaining why a written-out character didn’t return for a major moment that they really should have returned for.
Pop Culture Theme Time is a feature where I put a question to you to see what you think about a particular theme. I might later revisit the theme for a future Drawing Crazy Patterns or Top Five.
I’ve written before about how one of the awkward things about writing a character off on a TV show when the actor leaves the show is, if you don’t kill the character off, it makes it awkward to explain why the character wouldn’t then return to the show for major moments in the lives of their family and friends. That’s why a lot of shows essentially just retcon the character out of existence, as that’s easier than explaining why Robby Douglas’ older brother and grandfather skip his wedding, ya know?
Sometimes, though, shows WILL pay lip service to the absence of the written-off character, and I want to know which show you think did the best job of explaining away the absences of written-off characters.
My pick is Mark Greene’s wedding on ER. His wedding day occurred in the middle of a huge storm that kept flights from occurring that day, so his best friend, Doug Ross (George Clooney) and Doug’s partner, Carol Hathaway (Julianna Margulies) couldn’t make the wedding, which was addressed in the episode itself. That worked nicely, I think.
Okay, that’s my pick! How about you?
And feel free to suggest future Pop Culture Theme Time topics to me at brian@poprefs.com!
I really didn’t care for the original 90210 show, but my better half considered it must see TV, so I ended-up watching it on occasion.
I will give them credit that the final wedding of (I think) Donna. The Dylan and Brenda characters were noted as being sailing transatlantic. The characters had been previously a couple and had owned a boat. So the explanation seemed realistic and almost offered a concluding the story for those characters.