It’s no secret that the television industry is run largely by personal relationships. It has also infamously provided cover for literal criminals who hid in plain sight in Hollywood’s biggest studios. Suffice it to say, it is (historically speaking) extraordinarily rare for actors to be held accountable to the extent that they’re fired from productions — and even rarer for them to be asked back after seemingly burning that bridge.
As you’ll soon read, these fires were hardly the worst or most offensive Hollywood has seen. Two of the actors below were objectively right in creating the stir that got them written off, and were seemingly resisting the same racist and sexist professional environments that enabled actual bad actors. As for the rest, we’ll let you be the judge — though at least one of them has since sided with the very producers who forced her to leave. Whatever the case, these firing and rehiring stories account for some of the most unique career moments in TV history.
Linda Gray (Dallas)
Linda Gray was one of the founding members of the “Dallas” ensemble, recurring in five episodes of the first season before being promoted to series regular in subsequent outings. Her character, Sue Ellen Ewing (the wife of Larry Hagman’s iconic J.R. Ewing), had appeared in nearly 200 episodes by the end of Season 8, and had earned the actor a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for outstanding lead actress in a drama series.
When Gray went to the producers to negotiate for Season 9, she didn’t ask them for more money — she asked to direct one of the upcoming season’s 30-plus episodes. It wasn’t an unreasonable ask. Larry Hagman and Patrick Duffy had both negotiated directing clauses into their contracts. Gray, for her part, had even spent a year training with a French woman director beforehand.
According to her, however, producers were specifically reluctant to let a woman in the cast step behind the camera, and were equally concerned that allowing Gray to do so would result in similar requests from her co-stars. Gray claims to have gone as far as confirming with Barbara Bel Geddes, Victoria Principal, and Charlene Tilton that they didn’t want to direct in order to strengthen her case.
The studio refused Gray’s request and let her go ahead of Season 9. Hagman was not pleased. He later told Gray that, when he learned of their decision, he went to the producers and threatened to quit if she was let go. Gray was rehired and given an episode of the season to direct: “Just Desserts.” She got to direct four more episodes of the series before was written off in Season 12.
Dave Hester (Storage Wars)
For the first three seasons of A&E’s “Storage Wars,” Dave Hester was one of the strangest villains in reality TV. The so-called “mogul” was known for aggressively outbidding his opponents in the show’s storage container auctions, most of his bids accompanied by an obnoxious “YUUUUP!” — which became so recognizable as a catchphrase that musician Trey Songz sent a cease and desist claiming Hester had copied him. This was the first time Hester took a “Storage Wars” beef to court — but it wasn’t the last.
Shortly after his dispute with Songz was settled in 2012, Hester filed a lawsuit for wrongful termination and unfair business practices against A&E and “Storage Wars” producer Original Productions (per USA Today). He accused Original of “salting” (adding high-value items to) the containers the cast bid on. For example, he alleged the company had sourced a small BMW Isetta and deliberately hidden it behind the unattractive contents of one container. He further accused them of “manipulat[ing] the outcomes of certain auctions” in part by financially backing bidders who wouldn’t have been able to compete otherwise. According to Hester’s complaint, A&E fired him after he privately brought up these concerns with the network. He sought $750,000 in damages.
The result was a mixed bag. First Amendment protections thwarted Hester’s unfair business practices complaint — but the wrongful termination complaint was strong enough to go forward. Original Productions and A&E opted to settle out of court without conceding wrongdoing, and Hester was brought back for Season 5.
Harold Perrineau (Lost)
When Harold Perrineau was first offered the role of survivor Michael Dawson on the soon-to-be smash-hit NBC thriller “Lost,” he took the role because producers had pitched “Lost” as a truly ensemble-driven show. From his point of view, this pitch was never executed.
By the time Season 2 went into production, Perrineau (as he said in an interview for Maureen Ryan’s book “Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood”) felt that the show was being primarily written for its central white characters. Matthew Fox and Evangeline Lilly were given rich characterizations and overarching storylines week-to-week — Perrineau and other castmates of color were relatively sidelined (sometimes literally, such as when the cast was posed for promotional materials). Perrineau eventually called showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse after reading a script in which Michael seemed less interested in finding his missing son than he was in giving Josh Holloway’s Sawyer space to talk about his past.
Though the note was taken by the writers, Perrineau was fired by Cuse before the Season 2 finale. Multiple sources told Ryan that Lindelof said at the time, “He called me racist, so I fired his a**.” Lindelof told Ryan in 2022 that he doesn’t remember making that remark, though he agreed that it happened based on the recollections of others. Perrineau was rehired in a recurring capacity for Season 4.
Steve Burton (General Hospital)
“General Hospital” made Steve Burton a soap opera institution. His character, Jason Morgan, has been in over 2,000 episodes of the series since he made his debut in the ’90s. Then came the ’20s — and, with them, the COVID-19 pandemic.
When vaccines began to roll out across the United States in 2021, ABC (and essentially the entirety of the mainstream American television industry) began returning to normal-ish production methods, with some lingering or revised COVID safety protocols and vaccine requirements. Burton was among a vocal minority who were refusing to get vaccinated. As the actor stated in a November 2021 Instagram post, he was denied religious and medical exemptions from ABC’s vaccine mandate, and was subsequently fired for refusing to comply. His final episode was filmed in October of that year, just over a month after Burton had contracted the coronavirus.
Prior to Burton’s firing, one of his co-stars, Nancy Lee Grahn, had publicly called on the actors’ union to address lax COVID safety protocols on the set. Another, Ingo Rademacher, had already been fired due to the mandate amid a slew of inflammatory remarks on social media, which included vaccine misinformation. Rademacher later filed (and lost) a civil rights lawsuit against the network. Burton, meanwhile, managed to bide his time by rejoining the cast of “Days of Our Lives” in 2022. He left the Peacock series in 2024 — a day later, he announced that he’d be returning to “General Hospital.” No one was more interested in what that meant for Burton’s vaccination status than Rademacher, who used the development to reopen his suit against ABC.
Mackenzie Phillips (One Day at a Time)
Mackenzie Phillips was about 16 when audiences across the country were introduced to her as Julie Cooper Horvath in “One Day at a Time” in 1975. As Phillips herself shared in recent interviews, she frequently used drugs during the production process, including behind-the-scenes on set. She recalled in an interview with Fox News Digital that she and her on-screen sister Valerie Bertinelli would abuse substances on their lunch break, then return in the afternoon for filming. While Bertinelli was apparently not caught, Phillips’ substance abuse led to her being fired in 1980, after production finished on Season 5.
She was rehired in 1981 for Season 7 as a recurring guest star. Her contract now included a morals clause that specifically allowed producers to demand immediate urine tests from her at their discretion. One day, while shooting the ninth season of the series in 1983, Phillips was approached by co-producer Patricia Fass Palmer as the actor was recovering from recent use with an on-set nap. Palmer asked for a test — when Phillips refused, after first asking to wait a day for the test (hoping the drugs would be out of her system by then), she was fired on the spot. She continued to act fairly consistently afterward while attempting to treat her addiction disorder.
In 2008, she was arrested on possession charges and subsequently completed a court-ordered drug deferment program. Phillips wrote in her 2009 memoir “High on Arrival” that she had been using drugs since she was 11 years old. She was cast in Netflix’s “One Day at a Time” reboot in 2017.
If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
