11 outlandish ways characters were written off TV shows

LeBec, played by Jay Thomas, didn't appear that often in the "Cheers" universe, but his death by Zamboni in 1989 remains one of the wildest deaths in sitcom history.

Reportedly, Thomas was written off "Cheers" after he made some unsavory comments about his on-screen wife, Rhea Perlman, according to GQ. He maintained that he was speaking about her character, Carla, not the actress herself, but either way, Eddie was killed off the show.

To add insult to injury, at the character's funeral, it was revealed that Eddie had an entire other family, complete with a wife and kids, that he was juggling. Tough stuff.

Edie, played by Nicollette Sheridan, was killed off in the middle of the fifth season of "Desperate Housewives" in 2009 — creator Marc Cherry said it was to cut costs, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Sheridan ended up suing for wrongful termination of contract, among other things, reported Deadline, but a judge later threw out the case.

Either way, Edie met a bitter end. After escaping a murder attempt from her husband, she drove into a telephone pole and stepped into a puddle that had a live wire in it, fatally electrocuting her.

Charlie Sheen's character was originally written off for the season 9 premiere in 2011 after his off-screen blow-ups insulting the show and its creator, Chuck Lorre, as People reported. In the premiere, his on-screen wife, Rose, pushed him in front of a subway after she caught him cheating on her.

However, in the 2015 series finale, it was revealed that she had faked his death and was keeping him prisoner in her basement. He escaped, and right as he was about to reveal his return to his family, a piano came out of nowhere and crushed him.

Yes, "The Simpsons" is, generally speaking, a ridiculous show. But Maude's untimely demise remains one of the more bonkers moments in the show's 35 (and counting) seasons.

Maude dies in the show's 11th season in an episode called "Alone Again, Natura-Diddily," which aired in 2000.

While the Simpson and Flanders clans are at a stockcar race, Homer demands a T-shirt from one of the cheerleaders operating a T-shirt cannon. However, at the last second, Homer bends over to pick up a bobby pin, causing Maude to get hit with a barrage of T-shirts, lose her balance, and fall off the bleachers and into the parking lot.

According to Maggie Roswell, the actor who played her, Maude was killed off the show after Roswell asked Fox for a raise. When she was offered a raise of just $150 an episode, she quit, she told the Los Angeles Times in 2000. Fox said Roswell was dropped from the show because she no longer wanted to commute to Los Angeles from her home in Denver.

Marissa, the troubled girl next door, met her end during the third season finale of "The OC" in 2006 after many other near-death experiences. But her ex-boyfriend Volchok (played by Cam Gigandet), who had previously gotten her addicted to cocaine, was responsible for her eventual death.

After getting (rightfully) dumped, Volchok dangerously followed Ryan and Marissa on the highway, before causing a giant, explosive car crash. Marissa died dramatically in Ryan's arms, forever altering the course of "The OC."

But before that episode even aired, Barton spoiled her character's death on "Access Hollywood," saying, "My character has been through so, so much, and there's really nothing more left for her to do." It was a rough day for "OC" fans.

Variety revealed in 2017 that actor TJ Miller wouldn't be returning for the fifth season of HBO's "Silicon Valley." His character, Erlich, wasn't exactly a nice person — and so he got a fitting send-off.

He was last seen in an opium den in Tibet, and when season 5 rolled around, another character, Jian-Yang, tried to prove that Erlich was dead so he could inherit his money and stake in Pied Piper (the company at the center of "Silicon Valley"). He also compared him to a "bloated carcass of a fat, pale pig." Ouch.

At the time, it was rumored in outlets like Page Six that actor Christopher Abbott left the show in 2013 because he disagreed with creator Lena Dunham's vision for the character — but the outlandish component of his exit didn't come until a bit later.

Charlie returned two years later in one of the best episodes of the show, "The Panic in Central Park," a stand-alone episode about one of the show's more reviled characters, Marnie.

Marnie and Charlie were engaged, and dated for five years before he unceremoniously dumped her before season 3 began.

Throughout the course of the episode, it's revealed that Charlie quit his job at an up-and-coming tech startup, his father died by suicide, he lives in an apartment with garbage bags for shades, has become a drug dealer, and is addicted to heroin.

He was never seen again after this episode. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

In 2018, Dunham offered her perspective on why Abbott left during an episode of "Watch What Happens Live."

"I would say our difference is that I was amazing at my job, and he couldn't handle it," she told host Andy Cohen. "He just didn't want to do it anymore."

She added, "But he's a real true artist, and we've come to a great place."

Chef, one of the show's mainstays, was killed off in the 10th season's premiere in 2006. As NME described it, he was "struck by lightning, impaled on a branch, shot, mauled by a mountain lion, had his legs ripped eaten by a bear, his face bitten off, and his corpse told it would 'have made a good child molester.'"

Behind the scenes, it seemed that Isaac Hayes, the voice behind Chef, was opposed to the way the show was satirizing Scientology and its followers, of which he was one. But Hayes' son said the singer and actor didn't quit the show at all. During a 2016 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, his son said Hayes had been hospitalized for a stroke and someone involved in Scientology quit the show on his behalf.

Nikki and Paulo, played by Kiele Sanchez and Rodrigo Santoro, were introduced in the somewhat maligned third season in 2007, stemming from a common viewer question: What are the rest of the plane crash survivors up to?

However, fans hated Nikki and Paulo.

So, the writers of the show gave them a properly cathartic send-off. They were done in by their own scheming and tricks and were mistakenly buried alive after getting bitten by venomous spiders — the venom conveniently paralyzed them for eight hours, wearing off just as sand fully covered them.

Gary, played by Michael Rapaport, appeared in four episodes of the hit show's fifth season in 1999, and Phoebe even moved in with him.

But their honeymoon phase didn't last long, as Gary shot a bird right in front of Phoebe, a passionate vegetarian ... while they were lying in bed!

The thought of an actual New York City resident doing that is preposterous.

"Friends" pretty frequently poked fun at the melodramatic nature of soap operas, and Drake Ramoray's exit from "Days of Our Lives" definitely fits that bill.

After making an offhand remark during an interview that he wrote his own lines during season two of "Friends" in 1996, the writers struck back at Joey, and killed his character by having him try to enter an elevator, only to fall down the empty shaft.

Of course, Joey was later invited back to "Days of Our Lives" after his character got a brain transplant — soap operas!