Sitcoms where the main character left and the show went on
 

with the season finale of that 70s show and eric (topher grace) leaving, it got me thinking... i can't think of any other sitcom where the main character left the show and the show kept going... by main character, i don't necessarily mean the star, but the character that the show revolves around i.e. jerry seinfeld on senfield, JD on Scrubs, Richie on Happy Days, etc

I would say Diane (Shelly Long) was as pivotal to Cheers as Eric is to That 70's Show. Cheers went on for several sucessful seasons after she left. Also there was Michael J. Fox on Spin City.

John Ritter 8 Simple Rules
Shelley Long Cheers
Ron Howard Happy Days (he was only on Seasons 1-7, meaning 4 seasons without him)

didn't realize the Happy Days thing

Lisa Bonet on A Different World

Valerie Harper on Valerie (which was then renamed The Hogan Family)

David Caruso on NYPD Blue

Didn't Dr. Joel Fleishman(Rob Morrow) leave Northern Exposure before it ended?

David Duchovney: X-files

It's questionable how much X-Files actually "went on" after Mulder left. :lol:

Good point. :)

for half a season...

John Schneider & Tom Wopat on Dukes of Hazzard

How about Michael J. Fox in Spin City? he didn't totally leave the show though

NYPD Blue and ER had lots of main actor leaving as well.

Didn't John Goodman leave Roseanne before that garbage dump of a last season?

How about when Tripp died on Enterprise...oh wait... ;)

Doctor Who of course is an ongoing replacement of a main character...

Becky Left Rosanne...

Law and Order has had many characters come and go...

(but that is not a sitcom....)

I don't think of Shelley Long as the lead in Cheers. At most, she was the co-lead.

John Amos from Good Times. The show was supposed to revolve around him and Florida but when that didn't work out he got killed off. Really killed the whole premise of the show IMO.

He was still a cast member, but his appearances were drastically reduced.

Just re-read the title. Sitcom

Chrissy on 3's Company.

What about Charlies Angels. I beleive there was some replacements there.
Don Knotts on the Andy Griffith Show.
Michael O'Hare on B5

All in the family lost Rob Reiner
Barney Miller had a lot of cast changes
MASH the character trapper,I beleive left the show as did Colonel Blake.

So I quit watching Roseanne around that last season, but did John Goodman die? I remember something about the last episode where everything was a story she was writing or something.

Hope thats not a spoiler for anyone.

Surprised nobody mentioned Phil Hartman and NewsRadio yet.

Quite a few M*A*S*H characters (of various importance) left the show during its run. Major characters that left:

Trapper John
Col. Blake
Frank Burns
Radar

Boone on Lost

oh.. you meant main characters ...


edited to fix something or other

I don't think many posters have seen that adjective in the title. ;)

Yeah, writing was her therapy for coping/dealing and everything that had happened over the past season(s) was reversed: they didn't win the lottery but were still dirt poor, Darlene and Becky really married each other's spouses, Dan didn't recover from his heart attack but had actually died, Mull and Willard weren't a couple but were actually like a lawyer and an accountant handling their affairs. EVERYTHING was turned around......

EDIT: two biggest for OP are Valerie Harper and David Caruso (IIRC, Blue was supposed to be his show with Franz as the second or maybe even third lead).