#22. New Girl
We’ve been all rooting for Nick and Jess to get together since the very moment that New Girl first aired. But when Zoey Deschanel was temporarily written off, there was a storyline as long as a season where Nick is dating Megan Fox’s character, Reagan. And it’s a little hard to forgive.
Turns out, Jess needed a reason to be absent from the show when Zoe left for maternity leave, and that was she was sequestered for jury duty. When Deschanel’s daughter was delivered and Jess finished her civic service, everything on the show was back on track.
#21. Friends
During the filming of “The One Where No One’s Ready”, on a scene where Joey and Chandler had to dive for the same empty armchair, Matt Leblanc dislocated his shoulder. So now, the writers had to justify out of LeBlanc’s sling.
Everyone was gonna notice the sling when Joey enters the scene. So they justified it in a way it made so much sense for Joey. Well, as Joey explained it: He was jumping up and down on his bed, but he ended up tumbling and tweaked his shoulder.
#20. Law & Order
This is the story of Sergeant Olivia Benson, the criminal justice system’s member who stands above the rest absence in the eighth season of Law & Order: SVU. Even though it may seem like it is within her character when she does a stint undercover, there is actually a catch.
Mariska Hargitay was actually on maternity leave while Benson was helping the FBI as an undercover cop. It is usual that shows try to hide pregnancies with oversized accessories or flowy tops, but for Olivia Benson that wouldn’t work, so she just goes off-screen to fight New York City’s criminals.
#19. Xena: Warrior Princess
Xena: Warrior Princess, was leading armies into battle way before badass Daenerys from Game of Thrones. Unlike her character on TV, Lucy Lawless, the actress who played Xena, was mortal. Lawless was laid up for some time after she got thrown off a horse during a stunt on The Tonight Show.
You might be wondering how did the writers work in an injury in a show that entirely revolves around a warrior princess fighting. Well, besides some ation-lite episodes, On Xena: Warrior Princess, there was even an entire plotline in which Xena happens to inhabit a different body because of Lawless’ injuries.
#18. 8 Simple Rules
When the lovable and maybe a little overprotective dad on 8 Simple Rules, Paul passed away suddenly when buying some milk at the corner store, it was probably one of the saddest moments of any sitcom.
But what made it all the more painful was the real-life tragedy. Actor John Ritter from Three’s Company and 8 Simple Rules was beloved by almost everyone. Since the reality of Ritter’s passing was wrote-in on 8 Simple Rules by the showrunners, all the emotions that were displayed on the screen were honest.
#17. Breaking Bad
The best description for Walter White from Breaking Bad might be just this: a pork pie hat, black sunglasses, and a goatee. And probably is just Bryan Cranston the one who could pull this kind of outdated look off. But we have to wonder, why the pork pie hat in the first place?
Probably it’s better if we keep thinking it was all for stylistic choices or maybe even character development, but in reality, the hat has a specific purpose. Turns out, as we all know, Bryan Cranston had shaved his head for this part. And the costume department handed him the hat to keep his head safe from the hot Albuquerque sun.
#16. Malcolm in the Middle
As we mentioned before, we often have seen pregnancies hidden on sitcoms, either masked by bulky sweaters, large tote bags or even conveniently placed furniture. But why not put another kid into the mix, since Malcolm in the Middle is already a show about two parents and their several sons…
And so when during the shooting of season 4, Jane Kaczmarek, the actress who played Lois announced she was pregnant, the writers decided that was what they were going to do. And this way, when baby Jamie was born in the show, Malcolm became the real middle child.
#15. Friends
Yes, another pregnancy story. The crew behind Friends didn’t have to work around the clock at all when trying to figure out a plausible storyline to cover up a real-life pregnancy. When Lisa Kudrow was pregnant with her son, they had a different idea and wrote the pregnancy in, but in a weird way.
The weirdest friend Phoebe Buffay had also weird relatives, like her brother Frank, who wanted to have children with his older wife, but they weren’t able to. And so they asked Phoebe to be their surrogate. This provided some hilarious jokes, like the iconic line: “My sister is gonna have my baby!”
#14. Married… With Children
The writers of Married… With Children tried to write Katey Sagal’s pregnancy in for her character Peggy Bundy. Even though this was a plotline, when Sagal suffered a miscarriage, the pregnancy ended up being written off as a dream Al Bundy had. And they ended up approaching it differently when Sagal was pregnant again some seasons later.
That time they didn’t try to write Sagal’s pregnancy, they ended up making Peggy travel all over the world while trying to get her split parents back together. And of course, Katey was tending to her child when Peggy was off- screen.
#13. Dallas
Everyone sure loved to hate those Ewings from TV drama Dallas. Well, all except the only redeemable character Bobby Ewing. The actor who played Bobby, Patrick Duffy, decided he wanted to pursue other projects when he had been seven seasons playing Bobby, and so Bobby was killed off.
He tried for a year to find the parts he wanted but failed. So Dallas offered Patrick the chance to come back. And he did, but how did they explain his absence for a whole year? They decided it was a dream, yes an entire season was a dream, but well, it brought Bobby back!
#12. Frasier
When actor Kelsey Grammer, the focus of the show checked himself into rehab to recover from some unfortunate family trauma, the writers of Frasier had to think what to do when the star, whom the entire show is built around, can’t film.
While in the real world, Grammer was taking his time to recover, in Fraiser the star radio psychiatrist had to go to a convention for radio psychiatrists. And luckily Niles, Frasier’s brother was also a psychiatrist, so he filled in.
#11. The Big Bang Theory
The actress Kaley Cuoco loves horses. One time she had an equestrian accident, and while this didn’t affect her passion for horses, it did change a plotline on The Big Bang Theory for her character Penny.
When Cuoco broke her foot after being thrown from a horse, her character Penny who was a waitress, became a bartender. On the show, blocked by the bar while her foot is healing, Penny is shown studying mixology.
#10. All In The Family
Almost anyone can imagine All In The Family without Archie Bunker but it turns out it almost happened. After Five seasons being Archie, Carrol O’Connor decided to threaten Norman Lear, the show creator, to quit. But Archie was written out of All In The Family since his plan backfired.
The creator came up with a way to keep the show on the air without Archie Bunker. For two episodes, Archie was lost at a conference in Buffalo. And before the third episode, where Archie was going to be killed off, was aired, O’Connor came back on board.
#9. Criminal Minds
Even if the character arc ends in seconds off-screen, It is a nice way to go for a character to exit the series without being carried away in a body bag, since the mortality rate on Criminal Minds is so high.
It was very likely that BAU Chief Aaron Hotchner was going to end up dying when actor Thomas Gibson had in incident on-set that led to his dismissal from the series. But in the end, it is briefly revealed that Hotchner joined witness protection.
#8. Law & Order
DAs resign with some regularity on Law & Order and its spinoffs, but the truth behind Assistant District Attorney Ben Stone’s resignation on Law and Order is rather dramatic. It wasn’t that actor Michael Moriarty wanted to pursue other projects the reason for Sonte’s exit, it was actually because Moriarty moved out of the country.
When US Attorney General Janet Reno met Moriarty, they had a heated debate because Reno was trying to limit portrayals of violence on television, and she accused Law & Order of promoting said violence. And so he moved to Canada to express his disagreement and express his protest.
#7. How I Met Your Mother
How I Met Your Mother employed a perfect plotline just to hide an actress’s pregnancy. The writers came up with a surprising and kind of silly solutionwhen the actress who played Lily, Alyson Hannigan announced her pregnancy to the producers.
One of the many times the gang was hanging out at McClaren’s Pub, Barney Stinson, played by Neil Patrick Harris, told everyone a dirty joke. Since she found the joke very offensive, Luly excuses herself so she can calm down and forget about the joke. And she just comes back a few episodes later.
#6. Parks and Recreation
Thanks to its great actors and their joke deliveries, we can watch sitcom Parks and Recreation over and over again and not get bored. Turns out, Chriss Pratt’s blockbuster breakthrough happened while he was still being goofy Andy Dwyer in Parks and Rec.
The writers had to do everything they could to try and explain Andy’s absence when he was filming Guardians of the Galaxy. One of these plotlines is when the Parks and Rec’s crew forget Andy back in Pawnee. when they go to London for a tour.
#5. Seinfeld
In a show “about nothing” like Seinfeld, sometimes the best solution is the simplest. Like when Julia Louis Dreyfus lost her voice because she had to do multiple takes of a screaming scene and the solution to her hoarseness was very Seinfeld-like.
Elaine yells out of her window at a dog that won’t stop barking in the night at the start of the episode. Then we can see a tired Elaine complaining to Jerry and Kramer. Elaine was just trying to get some sleep, not to ruin her voice, but Dreyfus’ sore throat ended up being fitted into the script.
#4. Dr. House
No one could play Dr. House better than Hugh Laurie, and lucky for him, playing this kind of character paid off when he showed up to set with a black eye.And Dr. House was able to radiantly make that black eye convincing.
Contrary to his character who has a limp, Laurie is actually in fighting shape. And one time he got a black eye while he was boxing in his spare time, and instead of covering with makeup, they made it so the doctor was just punched by a patient.
#3. Doctor Who
It is emotional and exciting every time that a new doctor is inaugurated on the cult classic Doctor Who series. Doctor Who can just “regenerate” from a human body to another one. Like he did from David Tennant into Matt Smith, and later into Jodie Whittaker.
When one doctor dies, he takes up life in another body. This is an essential part of the “Whoverse”, but as you might expect this wasn’t original to the show’s world. Since the show is running from 1963 until this day, it’s obvious that the lead actor has to be recast eventually. But since the doctor is an alien, let’s just say he regenerates.
#2. Supernatural
Supernatural is the longest-running hour-long sci-fi series on television. And it shouldn’t surprise that the series’ stars got a couple of injuries in 300 episodes of battling demons and ghosts.
Since they’ve all been filming since 2005, Supernatural’s cast members are all best friends. One time during a fun hotel room wrestling between Jared Padalecki (Sam), Jensen Ackles(Dean), and Misha Collins(Castiel), Padalecki ended up getting a rug-burn on his face. So his character had a head injury in the next episode, and his rug-burn was covered by fake blood.
#1. Lost
According to the writers, if Walt Lloyd hadn’t sailed away so early into the series, he would’ve had supernatural powers. We bought it when acto Malcolm David Keller was cast as a 10-year-old, but when puberty hit by season 2 it was a little hard to believe.
There is a dilemma when an actor grows up faster than their characters. In this case, Malcolm David Kelley’s character Walt Lloyd was just written off the island. And this was probably for the best given the way all went down later.