When Television Characters Leave

Since the introduction of television, one of the most important things that keeps people coming back for more each week is the great, well written characters that many connect with and become huge fans of. One common thing that shows, especially well written ones that have run for a long time and with memorable characters, is that a few or more characters are expected to go, either leave the show as a regular and maybe come back later and/or be killed off over the course of the show. This can be for a number of reasons such as an actor deciding to leave the show or maybe their contract expiring and unable to make a new one, introduce a new character by getting rid of older ones, the actor dying for real and wanting to be sincere and not recast, and/or many numerous differences. A famous example of a character never being seen again is Chuck Cunningham from the popular 1970s and '80s sitcom Happy Days who appears in the first two seasons and then never appears for the rest of the show's ten year run, not even mentioned by anybody. Doctor Who is a show that thrives on the idea of characters leaving, as it has been running for over fifty years and has had nearly hundreds of characters appearing throughout the show either as The Doctor's companions or recurring enemies and/or friends, as well as The Doctor changing his appearance and personality and becoming a new person overtime he's near death. Of course, every once in a while some characters in the sci-fi show end up killed as well, but either way a new companion is introduced soon after. Two popular modern shows that are well known for killing off characters due to the settings their in rather than just leaving are Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead, where the death of a character will immediaetly start a frenzy online. Sadly, this can backfire as a character that might have been loved by many might be the one thing that kept them watching that show, leading to less people watching a show that character left and thus might cause cancellation.