Byron Purvis/AdMedia/Sipa USA
Some TV shows have all the fun.
A year after Two and a Half Men cut Charlie Sheen loose for rants unbecoming its top-paid star, the sitcom is dealing with Angus T. Jones and his plea to be liberated from the CBS "filth" purveyor (and his subsequent apology).
A look at other shows that have dealt with multiple personnel problems:
1. Grey's Anatomy: Let's see, first, you had T.R. Knight and Isaiah Washington scuffle on the set. Then you had Knight, who is gay, but at the time wasn't out, reveal that Washington had called him an anti-gay slur. Then you had Washington deny the accusation by repeating the word before reporters at the Golden Globes. Then you had Washington fired. Then you had Knight and Katherine Heigl grumble about storylines. Then you had Knight's character run over by a bus, and Heigl's… You get the idea.
2. CSI: TV casts have frequently banded together in the name of more money: the stars of Modern Family, The Simpsons, and the non-Jerry Seinfeld players on Seinfeld come to mind. What's rare is for off-season talks to result in the hammer being brought down on not one star (á la Suzanne Somers in her dispute with Three's Company), but two stars, in CSI's case George Eads and Jorja Fox, who were both fired before being rehired. Fox left for good a few years later, explaining she'd "struggl[ed] with the [show's] violence." Add in the persistent griping from William Petersen, who complained so often about so many things castmates called him "Grandpa," and the sad saga of Gary Dourdan, who was arrested on drug charges a month before his character was fatally shot on camera, and the Las Vegas crime lab has not always been the happiest place on Earth.
3. Diff'rent Strokes: This was the TV clan that took the fun out of dysfunction. In the space of little more than one year, Gary Coleman underwent a kidney transplant that his body ultimately rejected, while Dana Plato, an unmarried young woman in a pre-Teen Mom world, had a baby and (basically) lost her job. More troubles, of course, awaited. Following the show's 1986 cancellation, all three of the sitcom family's siblings, including Todd Bridges, faced arrest.
4. Gossip Girl: No mass horror stories here, but the exit interviews for this retiring show have been interesting. Chase Crawford said (or maybe he was joking?) that the soap cost him his "dignity." Blake Lively said (and probably was not joking) that she played "a caricature of [herself]," and that the series was not her "best quality of work." At least Taylor Momsen, whose work ethic was once bashed by guest-star Tim Gunn, didn't have anything juicy to say, possibly because the former series regular was graciously invited back for the series finale.
5. The View: Almost any reality and/or talk show could make this list. You name it—American Idol, Jersey Shore, The Real World—and producers likely went to great lengths to ensure that, by virtue of their casting, personalities would clash. Barbara Walters' daytime creation gets the nod for numerous awkward-slash-firework moments with Debbie Matenopoulos, Rosie O'Donnell and, of course, Elisabeth Hasselbeck.