Role-Ending Misdemeanor: Difference between revisions

The [['''Role -Ending Misdemeanor]]''' occurs when an actor/presenter is fired in order to protect a project's reputation. This is usually the result of shady dealings in the performer's personal life, or because the rest of the cast simply would not put up with him/her any longer. If this person was the star of a long-running TV show, the character will probably be [[McLeaned]].

See also [[Undermined Byby Reality]], [[Actor Existence Limbo]], [[Contractual Purity]].

* Supposedly, the character of Yuuichi Tate in ''[[MaiMy-HiME]]'' was not recycled into ''[[Mai-Otome]]'' because his voice actor, [[Tomokazu Seki]], spoiled the ending of the first series.

* According to rumors, demands of a higher salary from Yuki Judai's voice actor halfway through the production of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]'' season 4 forced him to be axed and the entire season being cut in half. It's less surprising when you figure that Judai was becoming [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad|way too over focused in the anime]], enough so that a raise demand wasn't out of the question.

* In August 2011, [[Aya Hirano]] was booted from Lantis (her music agency) after they caught wind of her affairs with her (male) co-workers. She must'vevoluntarily realizedresigned her time was up atfrom Space Craft (her seiyuuvoice acting agency) as welland dueswitched to the scandal, so [[Genre Savvy|she had enough foresight to pack her bags before that agency could act]], voluntarily submitting her resignation effective August 20, 2011Grick and switchingUniversal agenciesSigma the day after. It is unknown how this kerfluffle will affect ''[[Haruhi Suzumiya]]'', ''[[Lucky Star (Anime)|Lucky Star]]'', and the third season of ''[[Fairy Tail]]'', but a non-fatal version of [[Actor Existence Failure]] may be in play here.

* Norio Imamura originally played the voice of Emporio Ivankov on ''[[One Piece]]'' (the author, Oda, even commented that he made the character with him specifically in mind). But was arrested for showing off body art on the internet which in Japan is considered indecent exposure. The role wound up being recast as a result.

* Possibly inverted with [[Robert Downey, Jr.]]. Reviewers often mentioned how his experience with alcoholism and drug abuse made him perfect for the role as ''[[Iron Man]]'', the archetypal battling-with-his-own-demons superhero. Still, it was nearly impossible to get insurance for him on the role.

* Jamie Waylett was dropped from the last ''[[Harry Potter (Filmfilm)|Harry Potter]]'' film after being charged with cannabis possession. Instead, Blaise Zabini appears as Draco's sidekick rather than Crabbe {{spoiler|[[Death Byby Adaptation|and Goyle is killed in Crabbe's place]], with Crabbe himself presumably rotting in Azkaban.}}

* This happened to ''[[David Niven|David]] [[Quintessential British Gentleman|Niven]]'', of all people. At some point in the 1930s he was carrying on a torrid affair with Merle Oberon. During this time he accompanied Oberon on a rail trip from New York City to Los Angeles, spending the entire trip doing exactly what you're thinking [[Incredibly Lame Pun|in Oberon's private carriage]]. The only problem was that the US had a law at the time called the ''[http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Mann_Act:Mann Act|Mann Act]]'', which forbade the interstate transport of women for "immoral purposes." Although the law was originally intended to simplify the prosecution of pimps and pedophiles, in practice it was often used maliciously against "undesirables" such as interracial couples, foreigners, or those naughty, nasty movie stars. (Oberon and Niven would have fit all three categories). Niven later wrote that he found himself having to go to ground for a while to avoid prosecution, and lost at least half a dozen parts over the kerfluffle. Note that this was a consensual relationship between two unmarried adults, and that Oberon's career was also tarnished, although she was never targeted by the police (and, as Niven had asked, refused to speak to them).

* Megan Fox was fired from ''[[Transformers (Filmfilm)|Transformers]]'' for comparing Michael Bay to Hitler, among other things. Which, considering that the film's producer [[Steven Spielberg]] [[Berserk Button|doesn't particularly like casual comparisons to Nazism]], [[Idiot Ball|wasn't that great a plan.]]

* The career of film composer Dominic Frontiere (best known for films such as ''The Stunt Man'' and ''[[Hang 'Em High]]'' and TV series like ''[[The Outer Limits]]'') was destroyed when he was jailed for a year in 1986 for scalping $500,000 worth of Super Bowl tickets (obtained from his then-wife, Los Angeles Rams owner Georgia Frontiere) and not reporting it to the IRS. After his jail sentence ended, Frontiere scored just one more film and his marriage ended as well.

*** Through which Prue was then lethally thrown, making the season finale also [[Dropped a Bridge Onon Him|a dropped bridge]]. And, given the show's universe, full of [[Fridge Logic]], rendering all even more obvious.

* Sasha Mitchell's character Cody from ''[[Step Byby Step]]'' was [[Put Onon a Bus]] because of real life domestic abuse allegations from Mitchell's wife.

* On the Dick Van Patten show ''[[Eight Is Enough]]'', regular cast member Willie Aames was fired because of his drinking problem.

* Yancy Butler had to leave ''[[Witchblade (TV series)|Witchblade]]'' because of her fondness for spirits. Since she played title character Det. Sara Pezzini, the show left with her.

* While it had already ended production, ''[[Pee Wees-wee's Playhouse]]'' had its reruns cut short by [[CBS]], thanks to Paul Reubens' indecent exposure. Kinda hard to reconcile that fact with Pee Wee Herman, [[I Am Not Spock|no matter the protests]] [[Contractual Purity|to the contrary]].

** Another ''Blue Peter'' presenter, Peter Duncan, was fired from the show after it was revealed he starred in a soft porn movie (he also had a role in ''[[Flash Gordon (Filmfilm)|Flash Gordon]]''). He has since gone on to star in other children's television dramas.

*** Peter Duncan is actually an aversion - his appearance in a soft porn movie was revealed soon after he joined ''Blue Peter'', but [[The BBC]] stood by him and he remained on the show for several years.

* Isaiah Washington's contract to the popular show ''[[Greys Anatomy|Grey's Anatomy]]'' was not renewed for the show's fourth season as a result of some offensive homophobic remarks he made to T. R. Knight.

* Yeoman Rand, on ''[[Star Trek: theThe Original Series]]'', if [[William Shatner]] is to be believed. While Grace Lee Whitney did have alcohol/drug issues, others say the removal was due to the writers not wanting a love interest for Kirk on the ship, while others claim that she was fired after threatening to expose her sexual assault by a studio executive.

* Allegedly happened twice in ''[[Homicide: Life Onon the Street]]''. First Brody was allegedly written out because Max Perlich had drug and arrest issues. Then, more controversially, it's been rumored that Howard was dropped because of press stories about unpleasant events involving Melissa Leo and her then ex-partner, despite the fact that she was most likely the victimized party in the situation.

** Humorously, Max Perlich played Whistler from the above ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|Buffy]]'' example, and was not carried over to ''[[Angel]]'' because of his issues.

* Alastair Stewart, British newsreader and host of documentary series ''[[Police, Camera, Action!]]'' had his contract terminated in 2003 for a drink-driving offense (his second one, he'd referred to it previously in a November 1994 episode, the show's ''second episode'') and was relegated to intro and outros in the [[Continuity Reboot|Reboot]]ed version of it, which was now presented by Alastair Stewart and Adrian Simpson, as of September 2007. Surprisingly, he was allowed to present the special edition episode ''Ultimate Pursuits'' in September 2007.

* Narrowly averted when the 5th season of ''[[Red Dwarf (TV)|Red Dwarf]]'' was put on hold for 3 years when Craig Charles' ex accused him of raping her. Production went back on once it was discovered she was lying.

* Actor Jim Fitzpatrick, who played Pierce Riley on the U.S. soap opera ''[[All My Children]]'', was abruptly fired in early 1996 after an incident in a New York City bar which involved him groping a woman and attempting to drag her off into an empty hallway where he would no doubt have taken it further had other bar patrons not intervened. Similarly, actor Michael Nader was fired from his role as Dimitri Marick in early 2001 after a ''second'' arrest for drug use. Producers had bought his excuses for a previous arrest for drunk driving and had attempted to make allowances for him to attend rehab, but his second arrest was the last straw for them.

* Initially played straight by actress Melissa Reeves after she quit ''[[Days of Our Lives]]'' in mid-1996. It was later discovered that her husband had walked in on her and her costar having sex in her dressing room and had demanded that she quit the show right then and there if she wanted to save their marriage. The result was a tearful early-morning phone call to the show's producers informing them that she would not be reporting to work that day or any time in the near future. After several years of considerable uproar--alonguproar—along with the personal fallout, ''Days'' sued her for breach of contract--notcontract—not only was their marriage saved (they're still together as of April 2012), but the trope was eventually averted when she returned to the show in 2000 for six years, and returned again in 2010.

* Regular ''[[Around the Horn (TV)|Around the Horn]]'' panelist Jay Mariotti was summarily dropped from his position following a domestic violence arrest.

* After boosting viewer figures for ''[[Ally McBeal]]'', [[Robert Downey, Jr.]] was fired from the show (and his character Larry Paul written out) after being arrested for violating his parole. It soon became apparent that this was actually worse than just a ''Role'' -Ending Misdemeanor as ratings went back down again and the show was cancelled at the end of the fifth season, making the parole violation a ''Show'' -Ending Misdemeanor in the process.

* Oh boy oh boy oh boy, where do we ''begin'' on [[Charlie Sheen]]? Allegations of domestic abuse didn't cut it. Getting arrested and put in jail in Aspen for violating a restraining order didn't cut it. No, for him to get kicked off of ''[[Two and A Half Men]]'', it took: Sheen getting sent to the hospital for suffering a hernia while engaging in what was, by all accounts, a coke-fueled orgy; taking a leave of absence to go into rehab, putting the show on hiatus in the process; calling up [[Alex Jones]] and bitching about the show's executive producer, his co-stars, and the higher-ups at [[CBS]]; and demanding ''$3 million per episode'' once he returned (compared to his previous salary of $1.8 million per episode, already a rather staggering amount) for [[Warner Bros]] to finally say, "Fuck it" and toss him out into the cold, [[McLeaned|killing his character]] ([[Kill It Withwith Fire|and making sure Sheen himself can never, EVER come back to the show]]), and replacing him with Ashton Kutcher.

* Jessica Biel did a racy photo shoot specifically to get out of wholesome family drama ''[[Seventh7th Heaven]]'' because she felt her squeaky-clean image was making her miss out on serious dramatic roles. It didn't quite get her fired, but it did drastically reduce her screen time.

* Averted by Tommy Chong on ''[[That '70s Show]]'' following his DUI arrest and sentencing. The producers told him he was chosen for his role ''because'' he was a stoner when he worried about his future on the show; true to their word, his character was [[Put Onon a Bus]] for the duration of Chong's sentence and returned from a vacation when Chong was released.

* Rip Torn's character on ''[[Thirty30 Rock]]'', Don Geiss, died of a heart attack between seasons after Torn's increasingly bizarre behavior culminated in him [httphttps://web.archive.org/web/20200122083550/https://www.cbsnews.com/8301news/rip-504083_162torn-20001423pleads-504083.html?tag=contentMain;contentBodynot-guilty-in-alleged-booze-fueled-bank-break-in/ breaking into a bank] in 2010. His character in the ''Men In Black'' franchise was similarly [[McLeaned]] in ''[[Men in Black III]]'' for the same reasons.

* Being arrested for possession of cocaine is a big part of why Steven Page left Barenaked Ladies in 2009. Having it happen right before the band was about to play music from their kid's album at several Disney Music Block Party concerts certainly did not help things. (The band canceled the appearances because of this incident).

* Just before he formed [[Motorhead (Music)|Motorhead]], Lemmy Kilmister was kicked out of space rock group Hawkwind following an amphetamine bust; he has joked that he was really fired for [[Mushroom Samba|"doing the wrong kind of drugs"]].

** In a [[Heel Face Turn]] on that issue, Mustaine would then go on to fire Chris Poland from [[Megadeth (Music)|Megadeth]] for stealing and selling the band's equipment for drug money.

* The [[Disney Channel]] [[Girl Group]] [[The Cheetah Girls (Film)|The Cheetah Girls]] broke up after Adrienne Bailon had a nude photo scandal (which wound up being a hoax) and Kiely Williams recorded a solo song about date rape.

* Happens one hell of a lot in [[Professional Wrestling]] - especially now in [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]], due to the Wellness Program. [[Jake Roberts|Jake "the Snake" Roberts]] and Scott "Razor Ramon" Hall are probably the most well-known repeat offenders.

* Serena, of [[CM Punk]]'s [[Smug Straight Edge|Straight Edge Society]], was let go for excessive partying and drinking in public. So not only was she becoming a detriment to WWE's image and acting unprofessionally, she was [[Kayfabe|contradicting the character she played]].

** However, take in mind that weeks earlier, Serena helped save [[CM Punk]] from Kane's wrath by the showing the only thing that would help clear his name: footage of her relapse. It just was legitimate this time.

* In August 2010, Taryn Tarell (WWE Diva Tiffany) was fired after getting arrested for assaulting her husband Drew [[Mc Intyre]]McIntyre.

* From 1941-1948 [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/:C._E E._M M._Joad Joad|C. E. M. Joad]] was a popular contributor to [[The BBC]] [[Radio]] show ''The Brains Trust'', until he was arrested for the heinous crime of fare-dodging on the railway. The scandal ruined his career and may have been a contributory factor in his death five years later.

* Possibly the reason that Billy Zane was replaced as Ansem{{spoiler|nort}} ([[Flashback Withwith the Other Darrin|including in the flashback scenes from the previous games]]) by [[Richard Epcar]] in the ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' series -- Disneyseries—Disney didn't want him on the project anymore due to the fact that, between the games, he'd taken on a major role in the Turkish action film ''[http://www.cracked.com/article_15017_5-kick-ass-action-movies-that-are-pure-propaganda_p5.html Valley of the Wolves: Iraq]''. Said film drew heaps of criticism for portraying American soldiers in Iraq as [[Complete Monster|Complete Monsters]]s, and was called "anti-American propaganda" by many critics. Zane and the other American actors involved faced heavy backlash for appearing in that movie. A shame, because Epcar just can't match his [[Large Ham/Video Games|legendarily hammy]] performance.

* According to [http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Chris_Latta The Transformers Wiki], Chris Latta (the voice of [http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Starscream_%28G1%29 Starscream] in [[The Transformers (Animationanimation)|the G1 cartoon]], as well as Wheeljack and Sparkplug) had to be bailed out of jail so often that his characters were written out of the show in [[Transformers: theThe Movie|the movie]]. He still worked on the show in minor guest spots (such as a [[G.I. Joe|Cobra Commander]] crossover and Starscream's ghost), but not as a regular.

* Chat show host Robert Kilroy-Silk was fired by the BBC after penning a column in a tabloid newspaper which contained -- [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment|to be as objective as possible here]] -- willfully—willfully abusive remarks about Arabic people in general, whereupon he decided to stand for Parliament instead.

** In a similar vein, voice actor [[DCD. C. Douglas]] was canned by Geico after he left an insulting voicemail message for a Tea Party group suggesting that its members were mentally retarded. In retrospect, [[Idiot Ball|leaving his real contact info on the message]] probably wasn't the best idea, to put it mildly.

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