Is there anything more beloved than the humble sitcom? As cornerstones in the world of television, situation comedies are guaranteed feel-good TV. As well as making us laugh, sitcoms have the ability to make us cry, cringe, and generally feel in a way few genres can. Who hasn’t dreamed of owning a stylish NYC apartment like Monica’s from Friends? Or considered a career in local government thanks to Parks and Recreation?
If you’re having a bad day, escaping into a sitcom is the perfect remedy. Still, the actors may not love the shows as much as the fans do. Despite boasting some of the highest salaries in the business, some sitcom stars regret their time on the air. Even if a show launched an actor’s career, the negatives can outweigh the positives, whether due to typecasting, behind the scenes feuds, or that the role just didn’t live up to their expectations.
Appearing on sitcoms can also lead to long-term consequences that few actors can predict. Sitcoms have an extended shelf life, with some running in syndication for years after they’ve finished. This means some actors are only ed for that one legendary role, not allowing them to pursue other opportunities or grow their career’s in a meaningful way. Whereas other shows run for too long, well past their sell by date, turning a once-great sitcom into a sad spectacle nobody wants to watch (The Big Bang Theory, we’re looking at you).
Here are 15 Actors Who Regret Being On Iconic Sitcoms.
Chevy Chase – Community
After taking a seven-year showbiz hiatus, comedy icon Chevy Chase returned to the screen in 2009 for sitcom Community. He starred as millionaire Pierce Hawthorne, who enrolls at Greendale in a lazy attempt at self-discovery. The part revived Chase's flagging career, however, in an interview with The Huffington Post in 2012, he shared his regret at taking on the role.
He cited long hours as the reason, but considering he called sitcoms “the lowest form of television,” his well-documented feud with creator Dan Harmon may also have been to blame.
According to Deadline, after Chase walked off set on the last day of shooting for season 3, their feud escalated to an ugly war of words. At the wrap party, Harmon supposedly gave a speech that included the words “F--- you, Chevy,” to which the actor later responded by leaving an expletive-filled voicemail on the showrunner’s phone.
Chevy supposedly stayed on-board for his castmates, who he described as “not great innovators” but “at the same time are my friends.” Despite all the fuss, Chase did return in a starring role when the show was renewed for a fourth season, as well as returning as a guest in season 5 - wherein his character ed away.
Miley Cyrus – Hannah Montana
Living the life of a pop star is the dream for most preteens, but in reality Hannah Montana was definitely not “the best of both worlds” for Miley Cyrus.
Although Miley Stewart – school girl by day, music sensation by night – was Cyrus’s break out role, her time on the show created a lot of emotional issues for the young star. The Disney Channel show resulted in a huge following for Miley, turning her into a teen icon, but did “extreme damage to her psyche.”
In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning last year, Miley compared her time on the show – for which she donned a blonde wig for her pop star persona – to child pageant show Toddlers and Tiaras, and itted that she didn’t realize the long-term effect Hannah Montana would have on her.
She said: "I liked being in the Disney universe because I didn’t know anything else. I knew I was getting to live what I wanted to do. I think now that I’m older, I realize that’s a lot to put on a kid. I definitely look back on it as a good time. I think what was hard for me was balancing everything.”
Elle Maherson – Friends
Back in 1999, Joey got a hot new roommate for a few episodes after Chandler moved across the hall to live with Monica. Dancer Janine, played by Elle Maherson, stole the sandwich-loving actor’s heart, until it became clear she didn’t get along with his friends and was swiftly dumped.
However, few Friends fans know that Maherson was asked to extend her time on the show beyond the original five episode arc, but turned the offer down.
Maherson said if she’d known the show would become such a cultural fixture, she’d never would have accepted the role in the first place.
The model, who hails from Australia, told TV Week in 2016: “If I'd known how important it was in the U.S. or how long it would be on TV, I may not have chosen to do it. It was a lot of pressure if you look at it in the way that it will be around for 20 or 30 years.”
Apparently, no one re the star for her other roles, which include starring as Julie Madison in Batman and Robin and as Mickey Morse in The Edge. Still, her time on Friends does impress her 15-year-old son Cyrus and his pals, so the role did gain her some cool mom points.
Shailene Woodley - The Secret Life of the American Teenager
Before she was Jane Chapman in Big Little Lies, Shailene Woodley was Amy Juergens in The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Playing a 15-year-old who finds out she is pregnant, Amy was Woodley’s break-out role. The show ran for four years, but Woodley was not impressed with the direction the writers took in the later seasons.
She told Flaunt magazine in 2013: “I didn’t like it because if it started to change, I had no control over it. It’s like anything in life, whether you’re an actor or you work in an insurance office, if you want to be able to leave your job, it’s nice to be able to leave your job. But when you’re in a contract, unfortunately, you can’t do that.”
She also itted that the show’s morals clashed with her own, saying: “Towards the end, morally, the things that we were preaching on that show weren’t really aligned with my own integrity. So that was a bit hard to show up to work every day knowing that we were going to project all of these themes to thousands – millions – of young adults across the country, when in fact they weren’t what I would like to be sending out.”
Issac Hayes – South Park
South Park is known for pulling no punches when it comes to, well, everything. That includes sensitive topics like religion.
That’s why it was so surprising that after 10 years voicing Chef on the show, Issac Hayes upped and quit after an episode insulted Scientology.
In the episode “Trapped in the Closet", Stan is portrayed as the long-awaited reincarnation of the church’s founder L. Ron Hubbard.
The actor said in a statement: "There is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends, and intolerance and bigotry towards religious beliefs of others begins. As a civil rights activist of the past 40 years I cannot a show that disrespects those beliefs and practices."
Of course, creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone were quick to respond, with Stone saying: “This has nothing to do with intolerance and bigotry and everything to do with the fact that Isaac Hayes is a Scientologist and that we recently featured Scientology in an episode of South Park. In 10 years and more than 150 episodes Isaac never had a problem with the show making fun of Christians, Muslims, Mormons and Jews."
After Hayes departure, Chef was kwritten off in a brutal fashion that included being struck by lightning, stuck on a branch, shot, and attacked by both mountain lions and a grizzly bear.
Bella Thorne – Shake it Up
After spending the last few years building a name for herself, Bella Thorne is on track to becoming the next big Hollywood success story. However, like fellow Disney alumni Miley Cyrus, Thorne’s initial foray into child stardom wasn’t all sunshine and roses.
At age 11, Thorne accepted the role of CeCe Jones in Shake it Up! The sitcom also starred teen icon Zendaya. The show ran for three years, but once filming ended in 2013, Thorne found it difficult to get other roles. It seemed the actress had issues convincing casting directors that she wasn’t just another ready-made Disney star.
She told MTV in 2017: “It was really hard to get a job after the show. People didn't want to read me. They didn't want to see me because they were like, 'She's a Disney actress.’ So for me, it was like starting back at the bottom and working my way up all the way again."
Thorne wasn’t keen on the role from the beginning, and only auditioned as her family were having serious financial troubles.
"Do you think that I wanted to be a Disney girl? Did you think I wanted to do that? We were about to live physically on the street if I didn't have that role,” she shared.
However, Thorne has since managed to reconstruct her career and her image, and now stars in the Freeform series Famous in Love.
Allison Williams – Girls
It may have led to better roles, such as her critically-lauded performance in 2017 horror film Get Out, but surprisingly, Allison Williams isn’t a fan of her role on Girls.
Although celebrated for its portrayal of the issues affecting young people today, during its six-year run Girls was also severely criticized for its lack of diversity and questionable depiction of assault, making it a controversial show to love. Still, it wasn’t this aspect that Williams had a problem with, but more the choices her character Marnie Michaels made.
Williams told Buzzfeed in 2014: “Marnie would drive me crazy if we were friends in real life, but I have to put that out of my head in order to play her. Like, sleeping with Elijah (Andrew Rannells) is crazy, sleeping with Ray (Alex Karpovsky) is crazy, furiously hitting on Desi (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) when he mentions his girlfriend in their first conversation is crazy; but I have to be on the couch with her and Elijah hoping they [get together], I have to be in that apartment with Ray kinda wanting it to happen, and I have to her quest for Desi."
Since Marnie was the character Girls fans loved to hate on the most, we can totally understand her pain.
Janet Hubert Whitten – The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Ever wondered why Aunt Viv from the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air went to bed as one person and woke up another? It was all down to a behind-the-scenes feud between Will Smith and Janet Hubert, the original Vivian Banks.
The actress was replaced by Daphne Reid in season 4, after Hubert and NBC couldn’t come to an agreement about her contract. However, Smith wasn’t impressed with her approach, and when the cameras were off the pair clashed regularly.
Discussing their highly-publicized feud in 1993, Smith said: “I can say straight up that Janet Hubert wanted the show to be ‘The Aunt Viv of Bel Air Show.’ She’s mad now but she’s been mad all along. She said once, I’ve been in the business for 10 years and this snotty-nosed punk comes along and gets a show.’ No matter what, to her I’m just the AntiChrist.”
Discussing her exit from the comedy in an interview with omg! Insider, in which she claimed co-star Alfonso Ribeiro (Carlton Banks) also bullied her, Hubert said: “[Smith] said ‘we’re just gonna replace her and act like nothing happened.’
“Well honey, that is not what happened, is it? The world has let me know that my place on that show was very, very, very loved ... I felt demonized and beaten up and crucified for many many years, no one came forward in my defense.”
Charlie Sheen – Two and a Half Men
Let’s be honest, CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men was all about Charlie Sheen. The show followed playboy jingle-writer Charlie Harper (Sheen) after the bachelor agrees to take in his brother Alan during his divorce. Alan also comes with his 10-year-old son Jake, and when the pair move into his Malibu beach house they proceed to complicate Charlie’s hedonistic life.
Although there were plenty of laughs from Alan and Jake, Sheen was the star of the show. This was why it was so shocking when creator Chuck Lorre fired the actor for publicly insulting him in 2011. At the time, Sheen was the highest paid actor on television.
Sheen referred to Lorre as a “clown” and a “stupid little man,” but Warner Bros. officially declared that the actor was let go because of poor on-set behavior and “comments poisoning key working relationships.”
This wasn’t the only time Sheen publicly took on Lorre. The actor made a seemingly real threat to the producer in 2015, after his character was written off in the season 7 finale. In a video obtained by TMZ, Sheen said that Lorre must “feel really safe where he lives” to mock him and that “You picked a fight with a warlock, you little worm. You’re no match for this warlock.”
However, he has since itted that he regrets how things went down between them, possibly because he’s struggled to land any decent work since.
Joe Jonas – Jonas
Teen heartthrob Joe Jonas is best known for band the Jonas Brothers, alongside his real-life siblings Kevin and Nick. However, superfans might also that the trio briefly had their own sitcom, Jonas, which ran from 2009 to 2010.
The show was critically panned and was unceremoniously canceled after two seasons, so it may not surprise you that Joe regrets appearing in it.
He described the writing as “terrible,” and something “only a 10-year-old would find funny." Well, it was on the Disney Channel.
He was also not fond of the “expectations” that came with working for a company like Disney, such as keeping a squeaky-clean public image, and the pressure that came with that responsibility.
He told the New York Times in 2013: “We were just kids. That’s the reality. We were frightened little kids. So you got all this responsibility that’s foisted upon you and you’re expected to be perfect. We didn’t want to disappoint anyone—our parents, our fans, our employers—so we put incredible pressure on ourselves, the kind of pressure that no teenager should be under.”
After the band broke up, Joe formed the funk-pop band DNCE, whose first single “Cake by the Ocean” made it to number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. He is also currently a mentor on the Australian version of The Voice.