The role of Sam Weir on Freaks and Geeks was played by John Francis Daley. John was an actor, director, musician, and actor. He was also famous for his role on Bones and was nominated for a Prism award for the role.
John asked for time off from filming so he could direct the new National Lampoon movie, but the producers were not thrilled. They believed this was going to be too much time to take away from his character, so they killed him off. It was also said that the producers felt like National Lampoon was going to lead him to other jobs and that he may not return anyway. They could not take the risk, so they wrote him out of the show.
T.J. Miller on Silicon Valley
When it was first announced that T.J. Miller was leaving his loved role of blowhard Erlich Bachman on “Silicon Valley,” HBO it was presented to the public as a “mutual agreement.” But in fact, Miller’s sudden departure may not have been as amicable as producers tried to make the world to believe.
One set insiders told tabloids that Miller would have “explosive” episodes that would make it very difficult to have around, while others claimed that the actor had “demons” from self-medicating with substances.
Steve Burns on Blue’s Clues
Steve Burns was the fun-loving host of the Nickelodeon show Blues Clues for just over 6 years! One day, seemingly out of nowhere, Steve was gone. No one had any idea why and it was not spoken of. Steve was replaced and the show went on, but of course, this left everyone wondering what happened?
Steve had said in an interview that the only reason why he left the show was that it was time to leave. He was getting older and everyone else was moving on to other careers, he felt that it was time and he had to let it go.
Kal Penn on House
On the show House, Kal Penn was eventually written out. He left the show to go do some important work for The White House. On his final episode, they had Kal’s character Lawrence kill himself. Kal was upset to learn that this was how he was going to go and felt really shocked. However, that was the end of Kal’s character.
Kal moved from one ‘house’ to another! Inspired by working with Obama on his campaign, Kal wanted to get involved even further to make sure that everyone's voice was heard.
Lauren Socha on Misfits
The show, Misfits, was a big hit in the UK. The character of Kelly Bailey was played by actress Lauren Socha. They had to write her off of the show because the actress had to do community service. It was sad because she really did love playing the role. She had said the role was brilliant and really lived with her experience.
It was said publicly that the decision was mutual between the production team and Lauren, and she did not return. Reports started to swirl about a US version being created, but Lauren did not think it would be possible for anyone to play the role as she did.