Mandy Patinkin Basically Ghosted Criminal Minds in the Worst Way Possible
Criminal Minds is one of the more successful police procedurals on TV, currently on it sixteenth season, after changing networks from CBS to Paramount+ and getting revived as Criminal Minds: Evolution.
Not only it is long-lasting, it also spawned two spin-off series over its lifetime. It is clear that Criminal Minds is here to stay.
But to get as war Criminal Minds had to overcome quite a bunch of troubles, including the incredibly unprofessional behavior of its then-lead, which threatened to sink the series between Seasons 2 and 3.
Mandy Patinkin played the initial star of the show, Jason Gideon, in Seasons 1 and 2. But after that he ditched the role in the worst way possible.
According to him, he strongly disagreed with the show's creative direction and felt that it was too violent.
Why he was surprised by a show about criminal profilers, of all people, the branch of law enforcement that specializes in violent criminals who leave no witnesses to their crimes, being full of rape and murder is anyone's guess.
But okay, he was in his right to disagree. Patinkin's method of expressing his disagreement, however, was completely unacceptable.
One day, he simply did not show up at a table read for Season 3 (table read is an important part of the production process, where the cast sits around the table and reads the script aloud, with other important members of the creative team, such as producers, writers, etc, attending, and it is usually the first time when people to be involved in production gather together), with no warning whatsoever.
Furthermore, there is a rumor that the cast and crew called him over and over but he wouldn't respond – he just ghosted everyone, and after that the rest of the cast refused to even talk with him.
Patinkin himself said that he left apologetic letters for his fellow cast members explaining his reasons.
But every piece of information about the accident agrees that his disappearance from the show was very abrupt, and caught its creator, Jeff Davis, by surprise.
There also was no proper send-off episode for Gideon, with an unaired episode from Season 2 used as the first episode of Season 3, and the character also basically ghosting everyone within the show.
One wonders how Patinkin's contract was written, if he managed to avoid a lawsuit after that.