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Final Season Casting: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
Being involved with a [[Long Runners|show for years]], while rewarding, can be tiresome for actors. They might want to move on to different things, or [[Money, Dear Boy|the reduced budget isn't enough to pay their salary]], or they signed up to something else before the show was unexpectedly [[Un Cancelled]], or [[Real Life Writes the Plot|something else happens in their life]] that forces them to leave. Long story short, at some point they [[Opt Out|opt out]] before the show ends and their characters are written off. And more often than not, the show's ratings take a toll, as a part of its fanbase loses interest.
Now imagine what happens to the ratings if the actor in question was the main character. Or if more than one actor quit at the same time. Or both. You're stuck with a show that no longer has a protagonist and/or half of its cast and is steadily losing its viewership. Either you try to bring new characters to fill the void, rewriting the scripts accordingly, or you can try to function with what you have left. Either way, even if you do it right, the show just won't be the same now and the chances to be renewed for another season after this are slim to none.
In a nutshell, a [[Final Season Casting]] is a rather common phenomenon when a show experiences unusual and significant cast changes for its final season. Expect core members of the show's central [[Five
This trope makes no distinction between the seasons that weren't supposed to conclude the show, but turned out to be the final seasons because of low ratings partially caused by the [[Final Season Casting]], and the ones that were supposed to conclude the show, and the [[Final Season Casting]] was either willingly invoked or was a mere coincidence.
A very common effect of this trope is [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks]] and common attribute of a [[Post Script Season]]. See also [[Jumped the Shark]], [[Replacement Scrappy]].
{{examples
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
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* ''[[Welcome Back Kotter]]'' had a big problem with this during its last season. Both the nominal star (Mr. Kotter) and the most popular character (Barbarino) all but quit the show. Mrs. Kotter, of all people, took up the slack for Mr. Kotter, and the show brought in a replacement for Barbarino named Beau. Many viewers found Beau to be a pale imitation of Barbarino, and were not impressed with the "twist" of Beau being a Southerner.
* [[Laverne and Shirley]] is an infamous example. Shirley left and the show continued without her, [[Artifact Title|strangely keeping the title intact]]. The show compensated by bringing on weekly guest stars to assist Laverne in her schemes.
* ''[[Robin Hood (TV)|Robin Hood]]'' deliberately killed off {{spoiler|Marian}} for cheap shock value in series two, and the actors playing Will and Djaq left as well. Furthermore, Keith Allen could only sign on for half of series three, leading to the absence of Vasey for several episodes. To compensate for this loss of the original cast, the show introduced the characters of [[Derailing Love Interests|Isabella]], [[
* ''[[The Practice]]'' replaced half its cast in the final season, at least the replacements were fairly interesting.
** The cast shake-up was mainly a way to shoehorn in a [[Poorly
* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' retired Jack O'Neill and replaced him with Cameron Mitchell for the final two seasons. Vala Mal Doran was also added to the cast, although no one else left.
** Season 9's beginning looked to be this, though, with the arrival of newcomers Mitchell and General Landry, and Mitchell's attempt to 'get the band back together' resulting in an SG-1 consisting of him, Daniel, Vala, and Teal'c. Those familiar with SG-1 looking at the largely new cast with a "who the hell are these guys?" reaction was a [[Running Gag]]. The full return of Carter (who had been written out of the first several episodes due to [[Amanda Tapping]]'s real life pregnancy) and an increase in O'Neill guest spots would come later.
* Ivan Dixon left the cast of ''[[Hogan's Heroes]]'' when his contract expired, leading to Newkirk taking over some of Kinch's duties and Kenneth Washington playing the new communications officer, Sgt. Baker.
* ''[[Saved By the Bell]]'' presents a curious case. The intended final episodes were filmed with the entire regular cast, including a [[Grand Finale]] where the teens graduated. Problem is, afterwards, more episodes were ordered, but no one was under contract. Most returned, but Tiffani-Amber Thiessen and Elizabeth Berkley chose not to. Leanna Creel was hired to play new character Tori and her tenure was interspersed with the previously produced episodes.
* Subverted - twice - in ''[[
* Main character Joel never quite disappeared from ''[[Northern Exposure]]'', but in the last season his role was drastically reduced and the town got a different doctor.
* Prior to the filming of season 4 of'' [[Hannah Montana]]'', Mitchel Musso (who played Oliver Oken) left the series to star in [[Pair of Kings]] and work on his music. He and his character appeared only in a few episodes as a guest, including the series finale. He was replaced by Australian actress Tammin Sursok, who played Jackson's bikini model girlfriend, Sienna.
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