r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Liquid_Pestar • 10d ago
Characters Character is written off in either the most over-the-top or comedically underwhelming way possible
- Reynholm (IT Crowd): - With his actor wishing to pursue other projects, the big boss of the IT Crowd commits suicide in the most sudden and hilarious way possible. Some police arrive about ‘irregularities in the pension fund’ and he walks to the window and jumps out without a second thought in the first scene of the episode.
- Yuko Minami (Ultraman Ace): - Ultraman Ace was unique for having two protagonists making up the Ultra hero, which made scripts harder to write. Combined with some unfortunate sexism on seeing a female main hero, Yuko was scrapped halfway through Ace. Does she die or give up her power?
No. She is suddenly revealed to be an alien queen of the moon whose planet got destroyed by a rabbit monster that conveniently just arrived on earth now. After Ace defeats the beast, she leaves to go back to her moon people in space and is randomly just gone. To make matters more frustrating, her actress wasn’t aware of the character’s departure until she read the script the day before shoot.
Kendrix (Power Rangers Lost Galaxy): - Probably one of the best episodes of all Rangers. Kendrix’ actor was undergoing cancer treatment and unable to continue, so they made Galaxy Pink one of the only main rangers ever killed off in the franchise. Not only that, but she goes out like an honourable warrior and fights to her own death to take out Psycho Pink.
Susan (Seinfeld): - With some complaints how her acting wasn’t suiting the on-screen chemistry too well and some other complications, Susan is killed off…..by unknowingly licking some toxic glue on cheap envelopes and then dropping dead. One of the most sudden deaths in all sitcom.
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u/juniunie 10d ago edited 10d ago
Chevy Chase got fired from Community because he had been an asshole throughout the show's life, which culminated in him using the N-word in a rant about his character's writing.
Following his exit, they did an episode where his character Pierce's will is read out after his mysterious death. In his will, he bequeaths his friends a canister of his sperm each. At the end of the episode, it's revealed at the end that he died to dehydration from filling all of the sperm canisters.
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u/Helepoli 10d ago
Calling Chevy Chase a terminal wanker is cold blooded but justified
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u/PandaBear905 10d ago
Chevy Chase was always an asshole. Even back in the 80s people didn’t like him. There’s a reason he’s not in Only Murders despite being one of Three Amigos. I do feel a little bad for him now because he has dementia.
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u/IvanNemoy 10d ago
He has dementia? I know he has memory problems from that heart attack.
Past that, yeah, he's always been an asshole. He's the only SNL alum who is banned from the show unless Lorne Michaels invites him. Perfect example of where he ranks, he was allowed to be a red carpet guest and given a front row seat to the 50th anniversary special, and got zero stage or skit time. Michaels invited him back to rub it in his face.
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u/Kitselena 10d ago
Jeffrey, To you I leave this bottle of fine scotch
so you're less tempted to drink this cylinder of equally fine sperm.626
u/drake3011 10d ago
Had to rewatch this scene the other day, after stumbling into a Table Read with Pedro Pascal playing Dr Stone
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u/dreamshoes 10d ago
I don't know why but I love older Donald's reading of "I've never been to Legoland... I just wanted you guys to think I was cool."
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u/Adventurous_Ad6698 10d ago
Donald is so fucking talented that it is both awesome to witness but also kind of (unseriously) unfair.
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u/NuclearSun1 10d ago
And sometimes it’s the small things. “Dude can moonwalk.”
Or “Neal…” when they are explaining D&D.
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u/onebatch_twobatch 10d ago
Pedro losing his shit laughing each time is one of my favorite things ever
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u/AlarmedAd4803 10d ago
This is one my favorite episodes of Community, from the cold open to the credits scene.
"Mr. Nadir, did you know nothing you said ever made sense to me." "Yep." "Here's your sperm."
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u/invaderaleks 10d ago
I love that the lawyer pronounces abed's name the same way that pierce does
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u/Stunning_Put_9189 10d ago
There are many infamous lines from the Roast of Chevy Chase due to how disliked his was by his peers, but one that reportedly really took the wind out of his sails was when a then-unknown Stephen Colbert said to the audience to think about this if a day comes where you feel real bad about yourself: “I hope you’re cheered up by something that Mr. Chase so famously said: ‘He’s Chevy Chase and you’re not.’ And if that doesn’t cheer you up, I don’t know what will.”
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u/IvanNemoy 10d ago
The Friar's Club Celeb roast motto is "We only roast the ones we love." The only people he actually knew who showed were Paul Shaffer, Lariane Newman and Beverly D'Angelo. Newman and D'Angelo both openly hate him.
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u/Stunning_Put_9189 10d ago
Yeah, Newman’s jokes are especially cutting as well. It does say a lot about him that they could only find comedians who hated him and up-and-coming comedians who didn’t know him to do the roast.
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u/Sonofbluekane 10d ago
It'll never happen but I'd love the Community movie to reveal that Pierce faked his death
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u/ksn0vaN7 10d ago
If he ever got his head out of his ass and reconciled with the cast, I'm sure Dan would've found a way to bring him back for the movie by having him fake his death again.
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u/AndreZB2000 10d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/3oEjI2MgDNPFHRaOVa
TJ Miller's character Erlic Bachman - Silicon Valley
in typical Miller fashion, he pissed off the show's crew and they parted ways. in the show, he gets stranded in Tibet, gets his identity stolen, and is never seen again.
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u/GallifreysChildIs 10d ago
What do you mean he turns up in the last season
Sure he sounds a bit more asian than usual and clearly lost weight but still
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u/BDMac2 10d ago
I’ll preface everything I’m about to say with his mental health is not his fault but it is his responsibility.
TJ Miller was diagnosed with a brain malformation in like 2010 that was causing him to have all sorts of issues, even the corrective surgery had a decent chance of killing him on the table. Sure he had the operation to prevent the active brain bleeds but if you talk to anyone who has had or knows someone who has had any kind of neurological issue there is no 100% better and it causes issues for the rest of their lives. He might have still been an asshole without it but his medical condition is a massive asterisk that gets left out when people talk about it. People can still decide to not like him (even I still think he’s kind of a dick, but that was always his schtick anyway) but there’s context people should have before they write him off. I mostly feel pity for a guy who’s been having to actively fight his own brain for his whole life.
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u/djm9545 10d ago
He did have to have part of his frontal lobe removed, which is associated with personality and impulse control
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u/Pinwurm 10d ago
Which was a huge factor in the legal cases when he called in those bomb threats.
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u/AdvancedSandwiches 10d ago
It's really horrifying. In terms of "not his fault but his responsibility", that's such a complex ethical question when you remove a portion of someone's brain. The thing that was him before is not the same thing as the him after.
In the sentence "not his fault but his responsibility", the word "his" changes meaning in the middle.
It's just sad.
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u/Lexi_Banner 10d ago
I have a friend who has a traumatic brain injury (and the whole situation was horrendous - she was hit by an oncoming car at highway speeds and was assumed dead at the scene she was so horrifically injured). She has never been the same, and it can be hard to talk to the stranger inhabiting her body when I do see her.
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u/Roller_ball 10d ago
Peter Gregory also got written off after the actor that portrayed him died. He got startled by a gunshot during a safari and started to run, but his heart gave out since he never ran before.
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u/Membership-Bitter 10d ago
Just want to add some info on the Power Rangers one. Even though her character was killed off and replaced, the actress still appeared in the credits for the rest of the season. This was so the production company could still pay her for episodes she did not appear in as a way to pay for her cancer treatment
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u/FoxBluereaver 10d ago
She also eventually recovered at the end of the series, so Kendrix comes back to life in the finale and even returns for the team-up with Lightspeed Rescue in the next season.
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u/MichealRyder 10d ago
I headcanon that the Green Morphing Master from Dino Fury resurrected her or something
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u/Stepjam 10d ago
Man, a production company doing the right thing for their crew? That's heartwarming.
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u/the_real_papyrus99 10d ago
Similar to the IT Crowd example, Sam Witwer's character in Riverdale takes a dive out of absolutely nowhere with no buildup
From interviews with Sam as well as comments from Riverdale's writing team, it seems to have been done out of spite, with Sam asking too many questions about the script, and Riverdale's writing team being impressively bad at taking criticism
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u/balmut 10d ago
He does strike me as a stickler for continuity and lore X'D
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u/Kain_713 10d ago
Yeah he's corrected directors on lore and shit in the past, wouldn't surprise me if someone less enthusiastic didn't want to bother with his questions.
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u/CKinWoodstock 10d ago
Specifically, he’s corrected Dave Filoni on Star Wars, astonishing his co-actors.
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u/NinjaBreadManOO 10d ago
Nah, he's not a stickler for it. The lore just needs to be correct and he correctly knows that.
Love his work. Like the dude's been so influential on on sci-fi for the last 20 years that it's practically criminal that there's not an award or something named after him.
Like seriously Battlestar, Being Human, Star Wars, Smallville, hell he's such a standard of sci-fi that they made him the tank zombie in TWD in case they wanted a prequel.
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u/Front_Bend_4983 10d ago
How do you question a script that starts with a teenage boy joining the football and ends with multiverses and time travel and sorceresses. It’s just pure genius
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u/LaLloronaVT 10d ago
I had no idea Starkiller was in that show, Jesus riverdale was a weird show
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u/Mcelvaca 10d ago
In Family Guy, Joe's son hasn't been seen in a while. Peter asks Joe what happened and he replies flatly "he died in Iraq"
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u/Fragrant-Jellyfish13 10d ago
jesus thats dark
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u/wandererico 10d ago
I Can't find a Gif of it but there was a character in the loooong running show ER. Cast members would always be leaving after a few seasons but one of the longest tenured was this character that was an asshole, and fans really hated. I think he is just stepping outside for a second when a helicopter crashes over his head and lands directly on top of him, in a burning heap. Almost as iconic as Poochie for me, considering I've never even seen the episode of ER and its burned in my head
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u/Unclehomer69420 10d ago
Rocket Romano!
I felt a little bad for him, he yearned for a real human connection but constantly stood in his own way through arrogance and cruelty. Then he dies, and nobody really misses him. A remark, "Hey, where did Doctor Romano go? He missed all the commotion," then nothing. Not even a memorial.
Ah well, the actor who played him - Paul McCrane by the way (pictured below) - will always hold a special place in my heart, unless he does something crook in which case I never liked him.
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u/Phylanara 10d ago
He did get a memorial. They named a new hospital wing after him. A wing dedicated to treating LGBT people. Romano was homophobic.
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u/PrettyPoison93 10d ago edited 10d ago
Helicopters had it out for that dude too, if I recall correctly he had already lost an arm to one before that one finally killed him
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u/plannapus 10d ago
What makes it even more insane: a season before, the character loses his arm in an helicopter accident. And a season later he died by having *again* an helicopter accident.
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u/Spasay 10d ago
I know The Pitt won’t do it, but I wish it could be around as long as ER to go off the rails in more bizarre ways. My sister loved dr Romano and was actually upset about the helicopter crash. I couldn’t stop laughing
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u/Drapidrode 10d ago
M*A*S*H (TV)
Trapper John... He disappeared, Season four Episode one he's gone
Hawkeye: “Where’s Trapper?”
Radar: “He’s gone.”
Hawkeye: “Gone where?”
Radar: “He got his discharge. He’s on his way home.”
and that's that....
Colonel Blake had a full explanation and a goodbye, and Trapper John, left and was just "welp, he gone"
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u/ManoSilence 10d ago
From what i remember there was a pretty big disagreement between the main actors. Mostly because the show was getting soft canceled until Alan Alda started doing things to keep in going. Instead of staying and fighting to be a co star, that guy left for another series "Trapper, John, MD" or something to be the main.
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u/Drapidrode 10d ago
trapper john, MD that show , was set in the 1970s (80s), er, contemporaneously with the times , so they needed an older actor, Pernell Roberts
it would be weird for Wayne Rogers to not age from 1952 to 1980
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u/ToasterOwl 10d ago
It's still underwhelming it you wanted Trapper to appear, but you make it sound like there's two lines about Trapper leaving and they're done - after Radar tells Hawkeye that, Hawkeye spends the rest of the episode trying to catch Trapper at the airport to say goodbye, that's the entire plot of the episode until BJ arrives. In terms of a send off episode, it's as good as you can get when the actor isn't there.
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u/kingftheeyesores 10d ago
Dr. Drake Ramoray walking into an open elevator shaft after his actor pissed off the writers
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u/ReddyKilowattz 10d ago edited 5d ago
This was actually a parody of something from LA Law. Diane Muldaur played a lawyer on the show, and chose to leave following a contract dispute. The producers decided to write her out by dropping her down an elevator shaft.
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u/powerful_p1608 10d ago
In Marvel’s Transformers comics during “The Underbase Saga”, a superpowered Starscream wiped out droves of Autobots and Decepticons and many wouldn’t come back. This happened because most of their toys weren’t on toy shelves any more so they had to be written out for new products, which is why newer stuff like the various ‘Masters and Pretenders survived during the battle.
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u/RizzoTheRiot1989 10d ago
Transformers both kickstarted my love of comics and crushed my child soul so many times over. To this day I still feel the death of Optimus Prime.
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u/novelaj 10d ago
Poochie (The Simpsons)
After the focus groups hated him, the showrunners just got rid of Poochie in the laziest, funniest way possible.
In the middle of an episode, a still image of Poochie floats up and off the screen while a cheap voiceover says, “I have to go now, my planet needs me.” Then a handwritten title card appears that reads: “Note: Poochie died on the way back to his home planet.”
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u/briellejs 10d ago
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u/suckitphil 10d ago
Its the same episode where the 6th Simpsons, Roy, moves out. But nobody even talks about Roy anymore.
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u/Asheyguru 10d ago
It's not even just a still image: they literally lift his animation cell out.
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u/quangtran 10d ago
Is This Because I'm A Lesbian?
The seemingly out-of-nowhere declaration was due to Elisabeth Röhm being written out of Law And Order. When discussing her exit, Dick Wolf gave her the option of having a typical exit or a more splashier, dramatic exit. She chose the latter, hence her one mention of being gay was thrown in at the literal last minute.
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u/Pathetian 10d ago
They wrote out those assistant DAs in some wild ways. I think one just died in a car crash at the end of a season and no one ever speaks about it. Then one gets abducted and murdered.
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u/FragnificentKW 10d ago
Claire’s death was actually referenced a few times. Briscoe joins AA and doesn’t drink again as a result of it and McCoy references her death while violating his ethics to convict a drunk driver of murder a few seasons later
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u/Substantial-Force-50 10d ago
Bergman (Space 99)
The main character of the first season, he wasn't brought back for Season 2.
He dies off-screen, and the others say, "Oh, poor Bergman—he had a problem with his spacesuit and had a heart attack. Oh my, what bad luck." The end.
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u/RagingDemonsNoDQ 10d ago
The main reason Bergman was written out because Space 1999 wasn't going to get a second season. Unless they had to do a lot of budget cuts and changes.
So the set was restructured into something like Star Trek and they had to fire the guy.
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u/andronicuspark 10d ago
Jason Todd-Dick Greyson’s replacement, in The Batman comics.
Apparently some fans hated him so much DC gave them a poll via phone to see whether or not he should stay on or go away.
People paid ten cents to put their two cents in and voted him gone.
DC handled it by having him beaten to death by the Joker. Not you, know….something normal like furthering his education, deciding fighting crime wasn’t for him, joining the Peace Corps. Nope, die motherfucker die.
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u/AtomTrapper 10d ago
Well, we got Red Hood out of it. One of the most genuinely compelling stories of Batman’s rare failures. So… I guess it worked out? lol
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u/Ayotha 10d ago
Doesn't help that there is pretty good evidence the vote was compromised by cheating later.
But yeah, there were a number of options besides "murder and torture the teenager"
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u/DireDaibhidh 10d ago
I mean, by the time that poll was up not really. He was already captured
The poll being asked for was:
"Robin will die because the joker wants revenge but you can prevent it with a telephone call"
Opt 1: "The joker fails and Robin lives"
Opt 2: "The joker succeeds and Robin will not survive"
Like very little wiggle room for him to leave and join the peace Corps from that. They could have but it would have been a cop out
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u/chimp-pistol 10d ago
People always ignore that the Joker was an ambassador to iran at the time and used his diplomatic immunity to get away with it
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u/Icehellionx 10d ago
Reynhold walking out that window is one of the most hilarious moments in television history.
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u/The-Soilworker 10d ago
Fathhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeerrrrrrr!
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u/cavscout55 10d ago
One of the funniest moments in television history being almost immediately topped by the same story line in the same show is absolutely mental. IT crowd is so damn underrated, I’m going to watch it again.
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u/Euphoric-Cucumber609 10d ago
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u/sharkbait-oo-haha 10d ago
Also one of the rare instances where a replacement character was as good or better than the original.
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u/ChuckRingslinger 10d ago
"When I started this company I had just two things. A dream...A dream and six million pounds. To start a company the like of which, no one has ever seen the like of which"
As much as I love Douglas, Denholm is one of my favourite characters.
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u/GothEvangeline 10d ago
Whenever I watch itv i think about the "ITV? I'd forgotten about ITV!" line
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u/Quietuus 10d ago
The bit that's missing from the description is that, just before his secretary comes in to tell them the police are here, he's been boasting to the rest of the board about how insanely profitable and successful the company is thanks to his leadership, and about how bright and glorious their future is.
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u/DoitsugoGoji 10d ago
"I see, could you make them a cup of tea please, Stephanie?"
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u/riding_writer 10d ago
That straight arm, feet first plummet is hilarious. I use that gif a lot and love it when someone recognizes it.
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u/baby_blobby 10d ago
The killing off of denholm and the introduction of Douglas is probably one of the best things to happen to it crowd. As over the top denholm was, Douglases character is much more entertaining but that’s Moreso to do with Matt berrys comedy
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u/Atillawurm 10d ago
This roll is why I can pick Matt Berry out of and line up, especially if it's just his voice.
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u/Willkill4pudding 10d ago
The best way I can describe Matt Berry's voice is that he talks in the same manner as opera singers sing. It's so unique!
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u/fabi7059 10d ago
How hasn’t anyone mentioned one of the most egregious examples? After being a liability for the show and having a whole lot of personal issues Charlie sheen was written out in favor of Ashton Kutcher.
Their explanation? He was pushed in front of a train in Paris offscreen and we just pick up with the aftermath.
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u/SpiderFox525 10d ago
Then come to find out in the very last episode he’s still alive only for a random piano or something to drop out of the sky and crush him right outside his house
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u/TheMilkiestShake 10d ago
Don't forget that it then pans over to Chuck Lorre sat in a directors chair who says "winning" before a piano drops on him too. Imagine how petty you have to be to run a show for that long and to end it like that. The vanity card for that episode makes it even more pathetic too.
"I know a lot of you might be disappointed that you didn't get to see Charlie Sheen in tonight's finale. For the record, he was offered a role. Our idea was to have him walk up to the front door in the last scene, ring the doorbell, then turn, look directly into the camera and go off on a maniacal rant about the dangers of drug abuse. He would then explain that these dangers only apply to average people. That he was far from average. He was a ninja warrior from Mars. He was invincible. And then we would drop a piano on him. We thought it was funny. He didn't. Instead, he wanted us to write a heart-warming scene that would set up his return to primetime TV in a new sitcom called The Harpers starring him and Jon Cryer. We thought that was funny, too."
Charlie was right that would have somehow been worse than what they actually did.
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u/tomahawkfury13 10d ago
They were fine with his personal issues for the majority of the run time. He actually pissed off the show runner and they booted him for it with them publicly clashing a lot.
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u/KujaroJotu 10d ago edited 10d ago
Between seasons 2 and 3 of Pair of Kings, Mitchel Musso got a DUI and Disney fired him from the show. So in the season 3 opener, they had his character leave the island to “mature” and revealed that he and Brady had a long lost triplet brother in Boz, who is the actual other king of legend.
From a meta perspective, it felt like they were telling Musso to grow up (ironic when you consider his replacement got arrested for armed robbery).
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u/Strict_Salt_5689 10d ago
And then about a decade later Musso got arrested which led to him being replaced as the voice of Jeremy on Phineas and Ferb and the character basically being demoted to extra.
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u/WhosThatDogMrPB 10d ago
Launch from the original Dragon Ball series.
When asked, Toriyama just said "i forgor".
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u/StriderKitsu 10d ago
Launch was written off because her actress was going abroad, so she asked Toriyama a favor to write her off since she can’t voice her.
Whether Toriyama forgot because of this is debatable.
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u/IAmBabs 10d ago
To be fair, he did forget about animal people on Earth, which is why they were phased out.
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u/Fantastic-orgen 10d ago
He remembered in DB Kakarot and explained why they were phased out. It was a trend at the time where people took pills to turn into animal hybrids
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u/Sonchay 10d ago
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u/PickledDildosSourSex 10d ago
Maybe my favorite piece of the Rock's acting because he actually pokes fun at himself. He could do so much more if his ego wasn't also juiced up
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u/LiamtheV 10d ago edited 10d ago
Susan didn't lick some toxic glue on a cheap envelope, nor did she "instantly" drop dead.
George cheaped out on the the envelopes, and then flaked on helping her write and send out the invitations. she licked all the toxic envelopes, we see her starting off healthy, and declining over the course of cutaways through the episode.
edit: the implication is that she would have survived had George not flaked out, as she would have only licked half as many envelopes if they split the work.
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u/nieveviiento 10d ago
His stinginess causing her slow decline made the ending iconic
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[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Huck_Bonebulge_ 10d ago
“I would describe his reaction as… restrained jubilation”
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u/Zombeedee 10d ago edited 10d ago
I haven't seen Seinfeld but incrementally worsening sounds even funnier than a sudden dropping dead.
I've tried 4 times to watch Seinfeld because, much like this, people always talk about certain moments that sound absolutely hilarious to me. But every time I try I just cannot get into it. I make it halfway through season1 each time and get bored. I want to get into it so much though, it sounds rewarding.
Eta: so you guys are saying I should skip season1?
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u/FunCryptographer3476 10d ago
It's underappreciated how much my generation knows/loves certain shows simply because we had to watch whatever was on TV and they played 3 episodes of Seinfeld and 3 episodes of the Simpsons every day, so we just absorbed the shows via osmosis
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u/javerthugo 10d ago
Skip season 1, start with “the Chinese restaurant” in season 2
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u/No-Distance4675 10d ago
In the (terrible) season 2 of "Heroes," Peter Petrelli has an Irish girlfriend. So, Peter accidentally teleports himself and Caitlin into a terrifying, post-apocalyptic future where a deadly virus has wiped out most of humanity.
While in that future timeline, Peter goes to the present day, accidentally leaving Caitlin stranded behind in the desolate future. And nobody ever talks about her again.
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u/lsshlp 10d ago
I like the implication that this is somehow the girlfriend's fault for being Irish
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u/OverHaze 10d ago
Some of the worst Irish accents I have heard. I remember Dominic Keating saying they deliberate didn't hire Irish actors because real Irish people "didn't sound Irish enough."
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u/ChrisDewgong 10d ago
I loved Heroes, and obviously the recent tragedy with Hayden has got me thinking about it again.
But yeah, this is the sort of crap that makes it so easy to criticise. And I could give them some leeway because it was right in the middle of the writer's strike, but that doesn't excuse what they did after that when they had plenty of time to correct things that were rushed in the second season.
I do wonder if they had left it at the end of the first season and never touched it again, whether it would be considered one of the best pieces of television of all time.
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u/RaynbowZFTW 10d ago
Isnt the 4th one why some ppl are still paranoid about licking envelopes? I know my parents didn’t want me to and im not even American
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u/PrettyPoison93 10d ago
I don’t know if it started it, but it certainly didn’t help
I used to hear urban legends about people getting paper cuts on their tongues and having bugs hatch from it, claiming this all happened from licking “contaminated envelopes”
Snopes even debunked this one
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u/Less-Image-3927 10d ago
Oh, God. Core memory unlocked. shudders “the cockroach eggs hatching in your tongue after the paper cut from an envelope” urban myth… it’s all coming back to me now.
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u/gh0stwrit3r32767 10d ago
I'm glad Valerie Vernon survived leukemia. fun fact: they kept crediting her in the show so she can pay for her cancer treatment!
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u/Throw_away_1011_ 10d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/3KVSB0dZyffZNKraXB
The Man of Steel - Jonathan Kent
When a tornado hits Smallville, he insists Clark does not intervene to not reveal his powers so he is the one who goes from car to car to help the people get to safety. He goes back one last time to rescue a dog and accidentally injures his ankle. Unable to run away and get to safety, as he is about to be swallowed by the tornado, Clark decides to intervene to save him but Jonathan raises his hand, signaling him to not do it. He consequently dies, swallowed by the tornado.
His entire character and his death were a stain on the good name of Jonathan Kent. I'm still mad after 13 years.
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u/CommunityFan_LJ 10d ago edited 10d ago
it's not the worst super hero movie ever but this scene alone, along with the let the children die scene are some of the absolute worst story choices I've ever seen that they bring the quality down so much when it comes to this movie.
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u/NeroIML 10d ago
So weird to have Pa Kent try to teach Clark that sometimes he shouldn't save someone instead of preparing him for when he can't save someone.
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u/ladydmaj 10d ago
And when you thi k about it, the latter is way darker if you want to go that route with Superman. Superman could be haunted by all the screams of people he couldn't save because he couldn't be in two places at once, if you want a darker movie.
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u/MABQuestAcc 10d ago
Are there any Superman comics that tackle this issue? Cause it absolutely has to happen all the time for him.
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u/CommunityFan_LJ 10d ago edited 10d ago
Exactly, you put it into words more succinctly than I ever could. And that's why Pa Kent dying in the og superman works so well. But never forget the people behind MOS are Ayn Rand fans
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u/PositivelyIndecent 10d ago edited 10d ago
I saw the OG one when I was little with my dad and it struck a big chord with me because it’s actually a perfect example of this trope done positively.
Young Clark spends the morning avoiding using his powers except when he won’t be caught (like running next to the train), and asks Jonathan why he won’t let him use them for things like sports, and he just reiterates to him that he believes he’s meant for more when he’s ready in a father-son bonding moment. It cheers Clark up and he jokingly says he’ll race his dad to the house.
Jonathan smiles as he watches him run and makes to follow, suddenly has a shortness of breath, clutches his chest with enough awareness to say “Oh no”, and then collapses. It then cuts to Clark lamenting over his grave to Martha how he couldn’t save him, but there are people he still can.
I may be misremembering minor details, but it struck a chord watching next to my dad hoping that wouldn’t happen to him. Life is fleeting, and can end at any time without warning, spend it well, and spend it doing good.
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u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 10d ago
I headcanon that after Pa Kent's heart attack, Superman always has his hearing tuned to hear the heartbeats of his mother and other family and close friends
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u/StableSlight9168 10d ago
The other issue is that Clark is invulnerable. Pa Kent could have easily let him rescue the dog because the tornado can't hurt him and nobody would know Clark had powers. They would think Clark was lucky, or never hit by the tornado
Pa Kent went in himself for absolutely no reason got stuck and died.
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u/Half_Man1 10d ago
Yeah that bit pissed me off the first time I watched it.
The Kents in comics are foundational to Clark’s morality and his belief in HELPING PEOPLE regardless of how hard it is.
This Jon Kent really says “nah son, you don’t owe people shit, saving people would be such a headache. Let me die so you don’t have to be inconvenienced by the potential of public scrutiny.”
Man of Steel Superman ends up being hero despite everything Jon tells him. Not because of it.
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u/Unclehomer69420 10d ago
Clark coulda super-speeded in there and saved him without anyone looking and then, after the tornado passes, the shock and terror of it all gives Pa Kent a heart attack and he dies.
Have your cake and eat it too, a cool tornado scene and Costner biting it on screen to motivate Clark. PLUS it's a better means of teaching the lesson, "You can't save everyone".
Richard Donner already perfected it on screen, don't try and beat it - just copy it.
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u/civilised_chat 10d ago
It’s crazy that grown adult people wrote this death scene and grown adult people acted it out. It’s stupid on so many levels.
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u/ShiftlessBridgrKid 10d ago edited 10d ago
Josie - Twin Peaks
Gets turned into a door handle
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u/MisterTamborineMan 10d ago
Would that make any more sense if I watched Twin Peaks?
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u/scrotbofula 10d ago
One of my favourite things about David Lynch's work is how it ties together while watching it, and there is a vague feeling of "yes, this feels connected," but any attempt to explain any of it just comes across sounding like absolute madness.
Like it feels congruent that David Bowie's character is now a giant kettle as punishment for trying to warn the FBI about the Black Lodge, but if you haven't watched it, it just sounds like schizophrenic mad libs.
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u/plannedobso 10d ago
“Actually Eraserhead is my most spiritual work.”
“Can you elaborate on that?”
“No.”
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u/ThatWasFred 10d ago
Chef in South Park. After Isaac Hayes quit the show due to their negative portrayal of Scientology (which later turned out to not actually have been his decision), Matt and Trey put out a farewell episode for Chef, in which he is brainwashed by a group of pedophiles. Then he is struck by lightning, falls down into a ravine, is impaled by a tree branch, and wild animals tear him apart and savage his body. Finally, he shits himself.
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u/ActuallyNotANovelty 10d ago
Alex Kamal from The Expanse (show only), cause the actor turned out to be a teeny tiny bit of a complete shitstain.
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u/SutterCane 10d ago
He might be the closest to a Poochie-ing in real life. Since they wrote him off after the shoot finished, they just used CGI on some frames he already filmed to make a death scene.
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u/BrandonLart 10d ago
I believe they brought him and Bobbie Draper back in for exactly one reshoot to do ADR for that scene.
Could you imagine that set
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u/Non-NewtonianSnake 10d ago
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u/Mel0805 10d ago
Jadzia Dax - Star Trek DS9
Terry Farrell wanted to lessen her episodes so she could pursue other projects and the show runner fought her so hard that she ended up getting fired. Her character was killed in the season finale by a possed Gul Dakat in a Bajoran temple in the most unserious way
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u/Lvcivs2311 10d ago
It really added to the tension and made Dukat even more of a personal enemy to Sisko. And it deepend Worf's character by having him go to mourning and overcoming his resentment of Ezri. But the fact that it was simply done because the showrunner couldn't handle Farrell having a will of her own is so nasty.
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u/Oddly-Parsley 10d ago
Edie Britt in Desperate Housewives. There were rumours of on-set issues between Nicollete Sheridan & the producer leading to her departure from the show.
Said departure? Electrocution after escaping her crashed car and stepping into a live power line.
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u/Hildy_Von_Brookly 10d ago
This was the first one I thought of. And the car crash is her escaping being murdered. Marc Cherry HATED her.
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u/TourretsMime 10d ago
Doesn't Kendrix dying in a meaningful and honorable way kind of goes against the "over-the-top or comedically underwhelming" part of the prompt?
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u/ChaoticAquar1us 10d ago
It absolutely does, and by the way the meaningfulness of that scene is revoked when she gets revived at the end of the series
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u/firebreath2012 10d ago
Holy shit 4 people said poochie
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u/Spellcaster_Fred 10d ago
Which is crazy because he's a pure gag character made for that episode, while Maude Flanders is the actual answer for the Simpsons
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u/Loaf235 10d ago edited 10d ago
It's definitely a shame Yuko left, needing two people to transform is just really unique for an Ultraman and reminds me of Alien X from Ben 10 to an extent where two entities confirm the actions of one being. At least she does return in some later entries but she doesn't transform with her male host.
Also Lunatyx, the rabbit monster looks sick af and twists the whole rabbit on the moon mythology of that episode.
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u/drake3011 10d ago
Similar but not exactly the trope, was Elena Gilbert in the Vampire Diaries
I can't recall the controversy, If any, but Nina Dobrev wanted out of the show. The issue was her being the Lead Actress (And also playing several Identical characters), they continued anyway, and spent the last season with her "Being in Stasis, locked in a coffin"
If I recall she did return briefly for the finale, but since her Character effectively was reduced to a box to be stolen or fought over, I guess she wasn't exactly "Written Off"...
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u/Dontunderstandfamily 10d ago
She left because after that many seasons they still refused to pay her as much as the two male leads
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u/iammoussteryes 10d ago
The character of Terry, one of the anchors / neighbour of the main character in American Dad had to be written off the show and off his relationship with his partner Terry when the co-creator of the show, Mike Barker, leaved (due to a potential cancellation from AD and a new staff of writer when they switched from Fox to TBS.)
The way he was written off ? Off screen, he went on to follow the tour of the group 311.
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u/Additional_potential 10d ago
Babylon 5: Commander Sinclair the main character of season 1 after tons of build up about how he was the special prophecy human. Randomly gets reassigned at the start of the second season and has to be replaced with another special that they clearly scrambled to cook up. It would later come out that the actor was having serious mental health issues and it was done out of respect not malice. It was only revealed after the actor's death at his request.
He would later return briefly to finish out his character arc
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u/Zahkhy 10d ago
Later in "The Lost Tales" we get a line asking "where's dr Franklin? I thought he'd be here to?" To which, Sheridan gets the response "didn't you hear? He's gone travelling with G'Kar." Both the actors for Stephen Franklin and G'Kar had died in the years between Babylon 5 and The Lost Tales. Personally I thought it was a sweet line that implies they're off having new adventures.
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u/halflngs 10d ago
But have you considered poochie from the Simpsons? I don't think anyone's mentioned him yet
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u/Hopeful_Emu849 10d ago
Mark Brandaniewicz on Parks and Rec. City government shuts down and Mark takes a 'buyout' (? something like that?) and leaves his job permanently. Still presumably living in the same area, but nonetheless never seen again. Apparently, he wanted out by that point, as the show was sort of going in a different direction.
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u/Aggravating_Poet_675 10d ago
"I cant believe Vanessa, the love of my life, was a fembot...wait a tick...that means Im single again!"
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u/moonp70 10d ago
Andy in the office was so stupid. Sorry guys im going on a boat trip and pretty much almost dying. (The actor was off filming the hangover or something)
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u/Bearawesome 10d ago
Tasha Yar Stat Trek. The actress wanted to move on ...so she stepped in a pile of tar and died
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u/project-shasta 10d ago
Fun fact: you can see Denise Crosby waving goodbye in the background of her last filmed scene while the doors close in the episode Symbiosis, which was filmed after Skin of Evil but aired before it.
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u/AmaranthWrath 10d ago
Tbf, it was sentient tar, and it actively killed her. She didn't just foolishly step in it.
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u/kaiser_charles_viii 10d ago
In House, the actor who played Kutner got a job working in the Obama Administration (he'd apparently gotten invited to speak at the inauguration proceedings and his agent made sure to mention to the Obamas directly that Kal Penn [the actor] had applied for a job but not heard back which made the Obamas look into it and find a job he was the perfect fit for). This meant his character had to be very abruptly written off, so they had the character commit suicide. So they spent an entire episode on his suicide and trying to "solve it" somehow like they did their regular medical cases.
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u/ColdCruise 10d ago edited 10d ago
In Grimm, Viktor Beckendorf (played by Alexis Denisof) had been built up over the whole series as the ultimate big bad. In episode 16 of season 4, an obvious double is seen from behind and being taken to a car. It's then announced that the car crashed and he died. They also reveal in the same episode that he is infertile and couldn't have ever had a child.
Rumor is that Alexis Denisof was so tired of how shit the writing was that he just walked off set and never came back.
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u/Independent_Plum2166 10d ago
To add to the Power Rangers one, Valerie Vernon is still alive (51) and, as far as I know, has remained Leukaemia free for over 25 years.