Why did denise crosby leave the show?

Television, Movies Games and Books Star Trek
#1

Do any of you know the “real” story of what happened with denise levaing the show. I mean , I thought Tasha sucked ass. Densis is an good actress, but Tasha was a weak character. ( I did like her as Sela) I always felt that she played at being a strong woman… she wasn’t actualy a strong woman and I didn’t miss her. PLUS Worf is better at security than as a science officer anyway.

But do any of you guys know the real story of her getting fired and have a link… or what have you heard. I have heard many things but have never heard the real story, i don’t think. I don’t think Gene fired her over the playboy pics.

#2

heard she pulled a “David Caruso” and thought she could do better. But dont knwo the facts on that one

#3

I thought she literally left to spend quality time with (or have?) her family.

#4

I thought it was because they weren’t giving her character enough screen time so she bailed.

#5

well she got too muchscreen time. She had a lot in farpoint. She had an entire episode about the african planet’s king wanting to marry her. She had her “return home” episode. She never missed an opprotunity to whine about her childhood. She got as much to do as Geordi.

#6

I also thought it was because she wanted to pursue different projects.

#7

Excerpt from an interview with Denise on Startrek.com:

Q: Why did they kill off your character?
Megan

DC: I wanted to leave the show. Although it was Gene’s idea to have the character die. He thought it would be so shocking. I wanted to leave as I was struggling with not being able to do much with the character. I had all these ideas and couldn’t do them. I was just stage dressing. I chose to leave instead of just being satisfied with that.

Q: Denise, I really missed you when you left as a regular on The Next Generation. Do you ever regret your decision to leave the show? (PS Will you marry me???)
TomK

DC: I never regretted my decision. It’s ironic my favorite episode was “Yesterday’s Enterprise.” I had to die and leave the show in order to do. There is some irony in that. And as far a marriage, I’m currently happily married but my mother is available.

Link for whole interview: http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/community/chat/archive/transcript/1120.html

#8

I always thought it was because they killed off her character.

:stuck_out_tongue:

#9

“It’s just a sentient puddle of tar. What’s the worst that can happen?”

#10

“Yes, I’m the Chief of Security. But we wear GOLD now. I’ll be fine…”

#11

Yes, Skin Deep was a classic.

#12

Don’t forget Mutant Species. She had a bigger role…

#13

Are you thinking of “Legacy” for the “return home” episode? Because that’s in the 3rd season and features Yar’s sister, not Yar herself. After “The Naked Now” and “Code of Honor”, Tasha pretty much disappeared into the background. I think that’s what Ms. Crosby was upset about. In the official NextGen Companion, she says that if more scenes had been written like the one between her and Worf in the beginning of the episode “Skin of Evil”–when she died–she’d have stayed on. It’s a nice scene, too, just a little bit of banter between the two of them. It wouldn’t have taken much more than that for the writers to flesh out her character and keep her from wanting to leave the show.

But I suppose with a cast of nine characters, and a TV show struggling in its birth pangs, there was bound to be a casualty. Switching to a gold shirt didn’t save her.

#14

I never knew why she left the show… I just figured it might had been the same reasons Gates McFadden was kicked off for a season.

Personally I think the show was better for it, if for no other reason the drams that happened and the spin off episodes because of her death like Yesterday’s Enterprise and so forth. That is not to say she was a bad actor or that I didn’t like her personally or anything, in fact to be honest I always liked Tasha Yar.

#15

After frakking Data, there was no where else for her character to go.:rolleyes:

#16

Zing! Although I’m glad they did that, even if it took them several more seasons to follow up.

Wait, what is the scuttlebutt there? Why did my beloved Gates get replaced with that awful hag of a Dr. Pulaski?

#17

I saw the episode where Tasha died last night for the first time ever :frowning: I was expecting something to happen to her since she wasn’t there for any of the movies, but I wasn’t expecting that.

Also, WHAT? Don’t tell me that Dr. Crusher leaves, too! She’s my favorite character right now!

#18

Here’s what Wikipedia has to say on the subject, but it lacks a citation so take as you will…

In 1987, McFadden was cast as Dr. Beverly Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation. The Crusher character was slated to be Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s love interest, and this aspect of the character is what attracted McFadden to the role. Another important aspect of the character was being a widow balancing motherhood and a career. McFadden left after the first season, in part because series executive producer Gene Roddenberry was never enthusiastic about casting McFadden in the first place. Roddenberry also wanted to give the role of ship’s doctor to actress Diana Muldaur, with whom he had worked on the original Star Trek series and other occasions. Muldaur’s character, Dr. Katherine Pulaski, proved very unpopular with fans and left the show after the second season. McFadden was approached to return for the third season.[1] At first she was hesitant, but after a phone call from co-star Patrick Stewart, McFadden was persuaded to reprise her role.