On Screen Manitoba

The following article about the cast of HBO Canada's Less Than Kind (co-produced by OSM member Buffalo Gal Pictures) was written by Rob Salem and originally published on thestar.com website. Less than Kind's third season airs on HBO Canada beginning Jan. 15. A free preview of the first two episodes of the new season will be on the HBO Canada website from Dec. 22 through Jan. 25.

It is not without precedent — comedies have lost their lead actors before, through misadventure, illness and even death.

Charlie Sheen, for example, whose public meltdown cost him his cushy gig on Two and a Half Men.

Most famously, perhaps, Dick York on Bewitched, whose chronic back pain eventually made it impossible to work.

And, more tragically, there was the sudden death of John Ritter, three episodes into the second season of 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter.

Sheen and his character were replaced, for better or worse, by fellow bad boy Ashton Kutcher — ironically, just as Sheen had replaced the ailing Michael J. Fox 11 years earlier on Spin City.

Things were simpler back in the 1960s, when York was simply replaced in the same role by Dick Sargent (who had been originally offered it in the first place). No one appeared to notice.

Ritter’s death was obviously more painful and problematic: the much-loved actor was 8 Simple Rules’ comedic and spiritual linchpin, both onscreen and off. Tribute was paid in following episodes, dealing directly with his and his character’s passing, and though James Garner and David Spade were brought in to try to fill the gap, the show limped along for one more season before being cancelled by ABC.

The sudden death last year of Less than Kind star Maury Chaykin was something else again.

Scripts for the Winnipeg-shot cable comedy’s third season were already being written when the prolific, uniquely charismatic character actor — Brooklyn-born, but Torontonian by choice — succumbed to complications from a heart-valve infection on July 27, 2010, his 61st birthday.

“It came out of the blue,” says Less than Kind executive producer Mark McKinney. “Maury had not been well and we’d sort of gone through the second season with (that). But he was on the mend.

“So when we got the call . . . it was just awful.”

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