Author Existence Failure: Difference between revisions

* ''[[The Sandbaggers]]''' creator Ian Mackintosh died in a mysterious plane crash halfway through the third season. The season was finished with three episodes written by other writers, and the show wasn't continued after that.

* A particularly sad example with ''Chico And The Man'': Freddie Prinze [[Driven to Suicide|killed himself]] towards the end of the third season. They wrote it into the script that Chico was visiting family in Mexico and then later stated that he died, and they tried to [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute|replace him]] with [[Cousin Oliver|Raul]], but ratings dipped in the final season and it was canceled. [[Tear Jerker|All the more disturbing and sad]] because he killed himself a few ''hours'' after taping his final episode, "Ed Talks to God."

* ''Pitchmen,'' a [[Discovery Channel]] show about finding (and shilling) unknown-but-great products and inventions, had as one of its costars [[No Indoor Voice|legendarily loud]] huckster [[Billy Mays]]. After Mays' death, the show floated in limbo for a while, until it was eventually revealed (almost two years later) that his son would start doing the show.

* The 1985 TV series ''Lime Street'', starring Robert Wagner and essentially devised for Samantha Smith after her letter to Yuri Andropov brought her worldwide attention, ended even before it aired - with just eight episodes produced, the 13-year-old and her father were killed in a plane crash not long before the series premiered. Rather than recast her role, the series simply ceased production.

 

== Tabletop RPG ==

* Carl Sargent, a popular module writer for TSR, disappeared suddenly in the late '90s, leaving many D&D fans wondering what happened (according to a fellow module writer and friend of his, Sean K. Reynolds, the truth is that he was involved in a car wreck in 1997 and has been unable to write due the severity of his injuries).

* Dream Pod 9, the Publishers of ''[[Heavy Gear]]'' and ''[[Jovian Chronicles]]'' nearly suffered from this; most of the company's artists and writers left in short order, leaving both storylines in the lurch. ''Heavy Gear'' was picked up by Steve Jackson Games in 2008, nothing happened, and in August 2010, SJ Games handed the franchise back to DP9.

* Similarily averted with ''Battletech'' - Twice; when Decipher shut down FASA (who they owned at the time), the Battletech fame franchise was inhereted by Wiz Kids who, in turn, leased them to Fan Pro, a German company who had been publishing localized Battletech material for years, resulting in the game being picked up in short order. Following the shutdown of Wiz Kids, the Battletech rights (as well as most of the writing staff) went to Catalyst Gaming Labs. Most fans feel that the Fanpro-Catalyst years have been some of the best the franchise has ever had. ''Shadowrun'' experienced the same fate moving to the same companies (though fan opinion as to the quality of post-FASA releases is far from a concensus).

* Scott Kuehner passed away in January 2009, leaving the world of ''[http://www.lookwhatibroughthome.com Look What I Brought Home]'' with a bunch of unanswered questions. Now we'll never know what happens with Bess or Kunky.

* [http://captainn.net/main.html N-Fans: The Series] began to flounder in 2007, when creator Webster Swenson passed away unexpectedly. The people who inspired the other characters made a few attempts to revive the series and keep it going in his memory, but the entire website has stagnated since early 2008.

* [http://www.wolfiespack.com/wordpress/ Bad Bunny] After doing a reprint of a classic set of strips for Pennsic, it looked like the author Wolfie was going to get back to the original strip's storyline of pants too tight (this is a strip where the mundane becomes insanely funny). Unfortunately Wolfie - real name W. Michael Dooley - contracted H1N1, and died aged 41 in December 2009.

* Tom Siddell, of ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'', joked that due to his strip buffer, if he were to keel over and die this instant, we'd still get about three months worth of strips.

* Tony Jay was the voice of Megabyte, [[Re Boot]]'s [[Big Bad]]. The series ended on a cliffhanger with Megabyte in the Principal Office, and then Tony Jay died. Who knows what Rainmaker will do if they continue the series.

** Long John Baldry was the voice of guest star Captain Gavin Capacitor, and he died as well.

** Also, Wheezy the penguin doesn't feature in the film: both his speaking (Joe Ranft) and singing (Robert Goulet) voices had died by the time the film was made.

* Lyricist Howard Ashman died in the middle of the production of ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'', leaving Tim Rice to supply lyrics to "One Jump" and "A Whole New World." Tim Rice was called on for the [[Screen to Stage Adaptation]] of ''[[Beauty and the Beast]]'' for the same reason.

** [http://www.planetmule.com/ Enter Planet M.U.L.E..]

* ''Robotech: Crystal Dreams'' became [[Vaporware]] due to the folding of Gametek.

* Thucydides' history of the Peloponnesian War breaks off abruptly partway through the eighth book. Fortunately Xenophon picked up where Thucydides left off, so we know how the war ended. Athens lost.

* WWE superstar Michael "Hawk" Hegstrand appeared with his partner Joe "Animal" Laurinatis on the May 17, 2003 ''WWE RAW'' and despite his history of severe drug and alcohol abuse, performed exceptionally well, as he had finally gotten completely clean. According to those who knew him, Hegstrand had dedicated himself to staying drug-free for the rest of his life; unfortunately, his years of drug abuse had taken such a physical toll on his body that he died of a heart attack six months later.