15 Actors Who Hated Their Own TV Shows

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Securing a recurring role on a TV series can be a dream come true for a lot of actors. So often, the Hollywood life consists of going from one audition to the next, taking time out of your day when you could make money elsewhere, hoping that something will stick. Even if you land a commercial gig, the job may only last for a few days or maybe a week until you have to get back at it again. But a TV role offers security and the knowledge your face will really get out there and make it easier landing jobs in the future.

Of course, sometimes the dream of being a TV fixture turns into a nightmare. Whether it’s being uncomfortable with a show’s material or not getting along with co-workers, these actors ended up hating their most popular shows. All of these shows may have legions of fans, but a key cast member isn’t among them. Here are 15 stars who absolutely despised their own TV shows.

It’s the stuff of television legends that Chevy Chase and creator Dan Harmon didn’t get along on the set of “Community.” Chase has been notoriously difficult to work with throughout his career, and that carried over into the NBC sitcom. He was eventually fired from the series, with his character, Pierce Hawthorne, getting killed off. That was probably fine with Chase, who hasn’t had particularly nice things to say about his time on the sitcom.

During an appearance on “WTF with Marc Maron,” Chase stated, “I honestly felt the show wasn’t funny enough for me, ultimately. I felt a little bit constrained. Everybody had their bits, and I thought they were all good, but it just wasn’t hard-hitting enough for me.” A “Community” movie has been in the works for a while now, but with Pierce dead and Chase not being a fan of the show, it’s likely the study group will forever be down a Hawthorne.

Being a child star isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, as Angus T. Jones can attest with his departure from Hollywood. Jones was best known for playing Jake Harper on “Two and a Half Men,” the son of Alan (Jon Cryer). He became a regular fixture on CBS evenings, but Jones was only about 10 years old when the show first aired. As he got older and began embracing the Christian faith, he soon started hating the show that made him famous.

“Two and a Half Men” frequently featured somewhat raunchy humor (or as raunchy as you can get on CBS in the 2000s). Jones appeared in a video for the Forerunner Christian Church where he pleaded, “If you watch ‘Two and a Half Men,’ please stop watching ‘Two and a Half Men.'” He called it “filth” but would eventually walk back his statements a bit, not wanting to offend anyone who worked hard on making the show. Jones left the show in season 10 and made a quick cameo in the series finale.

What was in the water on the “Two and a Half Men” set? Charlie Sheen, who played Jake’s uncle Charlie on the series, also had some choice words for the show while he was still on it. Due in part to drug use, Sheen lashed out at the show and series creator Chuck Lorre in public. Such erratic behavior led to Sheen getting fired from “Two and a Half Men” and his character getting unceremoniously killed off. 

A few years later, the series finale aired, and Charlie’s somehow killed once more, this time with a piano falling on a stand-in for the character. This appeared to reignite the feud, as TMZ caught up with Sheen, who had the following message to Lorre: “To go that low, that immature and that completely unevolved and that stupid… in my face, really? You must feel safe, motherf***er! You must feel safe where you live, damn!” With that kind of statement, it makes sense Sheen’s big return to TV was in a show called “Anger Management.” 

Katherine Heigl also might not have fully hated all of her time on “Grey’s Anatomy,” but it didn’t look that way after she refused to submit herself for potential nominations at the 2008 Emmys. During a 2016 interview with Howard Stern (via Us Magazine), Heigl explained, “I didn’t feel good about my performance and there was a part of me that thought, because I had won the year before, that I needed juicy, dramatic, emotional material.”

Such comments likely didn’t sit well with the show’s writers as well as creator Shonda Rimes. In the book “How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey’s Anatomy,” Heigl reflected on how being so open with her displeasure at the material should’ve been kept private: “I could have more gracefully said that without going into a private work matter. It was between me and the writers. I ambushed them and it wasn’t very nice or fair.” Heigl appears open to the possibility of returning to “Grey’s Anatomy,” even if it’s only as a cameo, but more than likely, that ship has sailed. 

“Hannah Montana” made Miley Cyrus a household, and it brought her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, back into relevance following his hit song, “Achy Breaky Heart.” The pair played a daughter-father duo on the Disney Channel series, which one might assume would bring them closer together. However, the opposite appears to have occurred. 

The two have had their ups and downs over the years at points being estranged while seeming friendlier on other occasions. As of 2025, the duo seem on okay terms, with Miley Cyrus admitting that even parents should be allowed to make mistakes. As for any pitfalls between them, Billy Ray Cyrus blames the show, at least in part. He told GQ, “It destroyed my family. I’ll tell you right now — the damn show destroyed my family.” He went on to state how he wished the show never happened in the first place so that his family could just be normal people without the expectations of fame. 

“Lost” catapulted Evangeline Lilly into fame playing Kate Austen, but filming the twisty series wasn’t all fun for the actor. On an episode of “The Lost Boys” podcast, Lilly explained that while the show was a dream initially, she soon grew tired of it. “As the show went on, I felt like [Kate] became more and more predictable and obnoxious,” she asserted. “I felt like my character went from being autonomous — really having her own story and her own journey and her own agendas — to chasing to men around the island.”

Perhaps it’s no surprise that the actor has flirted with the idea of quitting acting on multiple occasions post-“Lost.” Lilly was on the verge of quitting the entertainment industry until “Real Steel” came along. And despite appearing in “The Hobbit” and “Ant-Man” franchises, she announced in 2024 she was taking an indefinite hiatus from acting to focus more on humanitarian efforts. Maybe she’ll come back one day, but the part better be good. 

The following slide includes a reference to sexual assault.

Crime procedurals are all the rage, with “Criminal Minds” going steady for decades at this point. Even though it ended its tenure on CBS in 2020, it was revived under the moniker of “Criminal Minds: Evolution” on Paramount+. But this kind of show wasn’t up Mandy Patinkin’s alley, who played Jason Gideon for the first couple of seasons, departing the show after starring in the first two episodes of season 3. 

Later, Patinkin said that “Criminal Minds” was the “biggest public mistake I ever made.” And it had to do with the dark subject matter: “I never thought they were going to kill and rape all these women every night, every day, week after week, year after year. It was very destructive to my soul and my personality. After that, I didn’t think I would get to work in television again.” Of course, Patinkin continued getting TV work, including a prominent role in the hit series “Homeland.”

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN’s National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

“Gossip Girl” brought fame to many members of its young cast, including Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, and Penn Badgley, but Badgley struggled during his time on the teen drama. The actor has spoken in the past about his struggles with body dysmorphia. Acting in general can exacerbate those issues, but he found issues with “Gossip Girl,” in particular, because of the overall superficiality with that show.

That’s not to say he fully hated his time on the series. It opened a lot of doors for him, but he found himself tired of playing Dan Humphrey as the series approached the end of its six-season run. He told Vanity Fair, “I didn’t want to be in television. I was biding time a lot with Dan — I was not invested. And I’m not saying it’s a good thing! I’m saying it’s just what it was.” Badgley wouldn’t be away from television for long, as he’d land the part of Joe Goldberg on “You.” But that character was yet another struggle for him, as he’s been incredibly outspoken about being disgusted by the character’s sociopathic nature. 

It wasn’t easy being a young starlet in the 2000s, and Mischa Barton, who skyrocketed to fame playing Marissa Cooper on “The O.C.,” can certainly attest to that. Barton eventually left “The O.C.” partly due to the treatment she received from people on set but also due to her struggles with sudden fame. 

In 2023, she looked back at that part of her career with The Times: “I don’t think I was fully prepared for that level of fame because it has never been something that I have sought out. I really would much rather be anonymous.” The show itself had a grueling schedule, sometimes forcing her to work for 18 hours a day. After having enough, she actually asked for Marissa to be killed off, which is precisely what happened in the season 3 finale. The show didn’t recover from her exit, and it was cancelled after season 4. 

“The Brady Bunch” may have presented an idyllic American family, but Robert Reed, who played patriarch Mike Brady, couldn’t stand much of the show. For starters, Reed had to hide the fact he was gay, and reportedly, he was uncomfortable with some of the more romantic scenes with Florence Henderson, who played his character’s wife. 

On top of that, Reed was a classically-trained Shakespearean actor who often found issue with the silly nature of the scripts. According to one anecdote, Reed refused to say how the house smelled of strawberries because he researched and found that baked strawberries didn’t emit a smell. He also didn’t like a storyline where a hair tonic causes Greg’s (Barry Williams) hair to turn orange because tonic wouldn’t do that. He would reprise the character in TV movies like “A Very Brady Christmas,” but these stories do paint a picture of someone who thought the sitcom was beneath him.

With the popularity of “Camp Rock” in the late 2000s, the Jonas Brothers blew up in a big way. It only makes sense that Disney Channel would capitalize on their newfound success by giving the brotherly rock band their own TV series in 2009, titled simply “Jonas.” The series lasted for two seasons, and while it seems harmless enough, a blip on the radar for the rising bang, the brothers felt like it was a bad move to make in hindsight.

The band’s documentary, “Chasing Happiness” (via Teen Vogue), sees them discuss the short-lived show, with Nick Jonas saying it was their biggest regret: “We shouldn’t have done that. It really stunted our growth, you know? I feel like it was just a bad move.” Joe Jonas was in the same camp in believing the show wasn’t good and hurt the band’s reputation in the public’s eye. 

Plenty of actors would be ecstatic to have the stability a recurring role on a television series brings. Not Pernell Roberts, though. He came from a theater background and was a classically trained actor, so the gun-slinging western series, “Bonanza,” was a step down for him, at least in his mind. The series ran for 14 seasons, but he was only there for six of them. The real reason Roberts left “Bonanza” was because he felt he outgrew it: “Playing the same character week after week no longer was a challenge to me.”

From that alone, it may not sound like he outright hated “Bonanza,” but more information would come to light, like how he battled with producers about the lack of diversity within the cast and crew. He even went so far as to call the series “junk TV” (via The New York Times). His disdain with his time on “Bonanza” even extended to the channel it aired on — NBC — which he claimed was guilty of “perpetuating banality and contributing to the dehumanization of the industry.” Roberts mostly did theater work in the immediate aftermath of getting off “Bonanza” while still getting one-off roles on various TV shows. His next recurring gig wouldn’t be until “Trapper John, M.D.” starting in 1979. 

Much like Pernell Roberts before him, Johnny Depp felt that “21 Jump Street,” the TV series about cops infiltrating high schools to bust drug deals, was beneath him. Of course, this was a gradual realization, as interviews suggest he didn’t mind the show for the first couple of seasons. However, he soon began breaking into films like “Edward Scissorhands,” and at that point, it sounds like he wanted out. 

In 1990, toward the end of his “21 Jump Street” tenure, Depp spoke with The Los Angeles Times, calling the show “borderline fascist.” He expanded upon that idea years later for Playboy where he called out the hypocritical nature of the series: “The people running that show, the very highest of the higher-ups, were getting high. They were getting loaded. And then to say, ‘Now kiddies, don’t do this’ was horses***.” Maybe that’s why one of Depp’s stipulations for coming back for the “21 Jump Street” movie was for his character to get killed off just so he could finally put Tom Hanson Jr. to rest for good.

Jennette McCurdy’s memoir, “I’m Glad My Mom Died,” is a heart-wrenching portrayal of child stardom, and the performer doesn’t hold back on how much she feels taken advantage of by her time on “iCarly” and “Sam & Cat.” For the former, the actor chronicles how she was made to feel uncomfortable on numerous occasions, like being photographed wearing a bikini.

She only grew more disillusioned when her “iCarly” character received a spinoff, “Sam & Cat,” that shared billing with Ariana Grande’s character from “Victorious.” McCurdy has elaborated on scenarios where Grande was allowed to go off and perform concerts while she had to stay behind and film. She was expected to turn down film roles while on “iCarly” and resented the fact Grande could go out and expand her career more. These types of stories likely explain why McCurdy has left acting behind; however, she’s coming back to the entertainment world in a big way. Her memoir is getting adapted into an Apple TV+ series starring Jennifer Aniston with McCurdy onboard as showrunner and executive producer. 

Before Shailene Woodley was on the big screen in projects like “Divergent” and “The Fault in Our Stars,” she had a breakout lead role in “The Secret Life of the American Teenager.” She played Amy, a 15-year-old girl who gets pregnant in high school and has to deal with all of the judgments and expectations of being a teen mother. Woodley signed a six-year contract for the part, and as the show progressed, she found the characterizations of teen moms to become increasingly problematic. 

In a 2020 interview with Bustle, Woodley explained that she didn’t like how the series emphasized abstinence above all else, even going so far as having characters shame others who engaged in sexual intercourse. “There were belief systems that were pushed that were different than my own,” she explained. “Yet legally I was stuck there. To this day it’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.” Despite the issues, being on the show only made Woodley more adamant and confident in her own attitudes and beliefs toward sex.