There was a rumor going around recently that everyone's favorite television doctor (well, second favorite doctor after Dr. House...screw that McCheesy guy from 'Grey's Anatomy') was getting voted off the island. With LOST, one can never be too sure which rumors are true or false, yet the rumor was shot down by both Damon Lindelof and Matthew Fox, so the rumor appears to be untrue. And to that, I say, "Thank god!" LOST has a whole slew of characters that are ripe for the picking off, so I'm glad that (for now) Dr. Jack Sheperd is safe. LOST would change so dramatically in the event of Jack's death, that I can't really imagine how the show would be able to go on without him.

So with Jack safe for now, I got to thinking about tv and movie characters that could leave a show/movie, and how those characters leaving would change their respective shows/movies.

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Jack on LOST

I'll start with the unclosed thread and say that in it's current form, LOST would not be able to function without Matthew Fox. First and foremost, I think they'd lose a lot of their audience if the main of source of LOST eye candy were not there (right Anya?), but beyond that, killing off Jack at this point would be like killing off Luke Skywalker in the middle of "The Empire Strikes Back." In its currrent form, LOST cannot lose either Locke or Jack. I can see LOST without Sayid, Sawyer, Jin, Sun, Charlie, Hurley, et al), yet I don't know how the show would function without both the Man of Faith and the Man of Science.

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Han Solo

Killing off Han Solo was one of the earliest ideas the powers that be had for "Return of the Jedi." The original thought was that there really wasn't much more for his character to do and that killing him, most likely in a self-sacrificial way to benefit his friends, would be a great way to show how far his character had come from his Han Solo-shoots-first/"I'm not in this for your revolution" days of Ep. IV.

I actually like this idea. It would have added a little extra umph to the final chapter of the SW saga, and would have been a nice way to wrap up his character, instead of him running around Endor fussing to Leia about how unloved he feels. Han Solo's death would have taken the SW saga a little closer into LOTR style of epic, instead of the zip-bang-gee-wiz epic that we were given.

But you know, it worked. Maybe Luca$ was right on this one.

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Speaking of the LOTR saga...

Does anyone here agree with me that at least one of Fellowship members should have met their demise in the LOTR movies? I haven't read the books, so I don't know if they all survived the books or not, but it just seems weird that NO ONE died after the war to end all wars. Like Han Solo, I think one of those self-sacrificial deaths would have done the trick. Maybe Gimli jumping in front of an arrow for Legolas (or vice versa), or Merry taking one for Pippin. If self-sacrificing isn't your thing, then maybe Frodo or Sam could have died on top of Mt. Doom, driving one to finish the mission in honor of the other.

Say what you will about the last two installments of the Marix trilogy, at least they had the balls to kill off two of their main characters.

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The shitty thing about television is that on a long enough timeline, the actors always "move on." George Clooney left "ER," David Duchovny left "The X-Files," ummm...Shelley Long left "Cheers." I wonder if that phenomenon is in the process of changing, considering that in many regards, television has eclipsed movies as the entertainment source of choice for a lot of people.

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The Untouchable Actors

As much as I'd hate it if Jack or Locke left LOST, the show could conceivably continue without them. "ER" has managed to stay afloat without George Clooney, Juliana Margulies, Anthony Edwards, and Noah Wylie, though I'm not entirely sure the same could be said for those stars, with the obvious exception of the two-time Sexiest Man Alive...No, not you, Noah.

So I thought I'd make a list of untouchable stars. Without these characters, the shows they were on would not exist.

Dr. House from "House" - It goes without saying that any show named after the main character owes its existence to that main character. See "Veronica Mars," "Joanie Loves Chachi," etc

Tyra "Oprah for 12 year olds" Banks from "America's Next Top Model" - Although, I guess the show would work if they somehow managed to get another supermodel to take her place. I could see Kate Moss step up to the plate if she ever got desperate enough for more cocaine money.

I've seen very little of "The West Wing," yet I can't really imagine the show sans Pres. Bartlet. From the stuff I've been hearing, the show didn't work as well when they tried to take it in a different direction with Alan Alda and Jimmy Smits. But as I said, I don't really know too much about this show.

"The Mary Tyler Moore" and Mary Tyler Moore - Maybe Ted McGinley could work on his hat toss.

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So yeah. I've put in my two cents. Now it's your turn. Can't wait to hear back from you all.

namaste