Speaking of, Angel's another show to wind up on this list. This time it was a little... meatier, lets say. First, there was the first season send-off of main character Doyle, Angel's original right-hand man. Err, half-man, half-demon, to be exact. Played by Rosanne alum Glenn Quinn, he was killed off less than half-way through the very first season of Buffy's successful spin-off. Why? Well that's the real question. Mutant Enemy and Joss Whedon have always stuck to the line that Doyle's death had always been planned, but rumours of drug use by Quinn ran rampant. In 2000, writer David Fury was quoted as saying "Joss has bandied about, 'I love the idea of putting a character in the main credits as one of the stars of the show and then kill him right off the bat.' But in the case of Doyle, he didn't want to kill off Doyle. It just became a situation. The work situation became difficult... It's hard enough to make a television show without the headaches." However, Quinn's untimely death in 2002 gave credence to the drug rumours, as he passed away at age 32 from an accidental heroin overdose. Then there was the issue of series star Charisma Carpenter, a member of the Mutant Enemy family since the first season of Buffy. After Buffy's third season, she jumped over to Angel as the female lead, and her character, Cordelia Chase, became a huge part of the show, and one of the most fun characters to watch develop on TV, moving from air-headed valley girl to legit hero over the years. However, by the fifth and final season of the show, she was gone, returning for just a single episode that year. What happened? Well, the rumours at the time were that Mutant Enemy and Joss Whedon were upset that Carpenter hadn't informed them of her pregnancy (with a son) until the last minute, forcing them to make plans on the fly for the show's fourth season. There's speculation that Carpenter needed time to raise her son which would have eaten away from her commitment to a fifth season. Carpenter and Whedon seemed to be on good terms at the show's 100th episode cast party (which she returned for), however, in an interview with TV Guide Online that took place during the show's fifth season, when asked about whether things ended on good terms with Carpenter, he said only "Yeah, but that's also stuff between us and not stuff that I would talk about in an interview." Clearly there was something between them at least at one point. Finally, there's the matter of how the show ended. Renewal for a sixth season was talked about for quite some time, until the decision was finally made to end the series. However, after the fact, the WB hinted that it had changed its mind - however the show's core had already moved on to other things. Way to blow it, WB. This is why you're not a network any more (not counting the CW).
Primarily covering the sport of MMA from Ontario, Canada, Jay Anderson has been writing for various publications covering sports, technology, and pop culture since 2001. Jay holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Guelph, and a Certificate in Leadership Skills from Humber College.
