When I was a child, my family loved watching "Valerie," an NBC sitcom starring Valerie Harper as a mom dealing with her job, three sons and their busy, absent dad. Described by Harper in an early trailer as "the most fun you can have with your TV on," the story quickly went through some revisions (and title changes, becoming "Valerie's Family: The Hogans" and "The Hogan Family") after Harper was fired following Season 2. In the show, her character dies. Sandy Duncan, of "Peter Pan" fame, replaced her as Valerie's sister-in-law and the aunt of the boys (including a young Jason Bateman) and we kept watching. For four more seasons.
Stars leave. Shows change. While some leads may like to believe they're the reason for the show, that's often not the case. Or, the reason changes. Did we watch "Angel," the "Buffy" spin-off, even though it didn't have the blond slayer herself, except for a very brief guest appearance? Yes. Did we watch "The L Word" and "The L Word: Generation Q" even after best character ever, you-love-to-hate-her Jenny was weirdly murdered? Yes. Would I have watched the rumored spinoff, which never came to fruition, of a character in prison for the crime? Absolutely.
