Anyone who watched The Class tonight may have noticed something: Lucy Punch, who played snooty reporter Holly Ellenbogen, was missing from the opening credits. Her bio has disappeared from the show's page on CBS's web site; she's even disappeared from the site's cast photo (right).This isn't unexpected, since the producers said that a) they were going to concentrate on the romantic storylines on the show and b) it was obvious to everyone that her storyline, which included her gay-but-not-gay husband, wasn't working. She was being shown on the program less and less, usually reporting something that set up some plotline in an episode. But to unceremoniously dump her like that, wiping her off the screen like she was never there, seems pretty cold to me.
Is there going to be any acknowledgment that Holly is gone? If the show ever makes syndication (unlikely), will she be stricken from the reruns, much like Carla Gugino was from the reruns of the first half-season of Spin City? It's always odd when cast members just disappear like that. Even Chuck Cunningham got a full season... didn't he?















Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
1-22-2007 @ 11:22PM
MissPinkKate said...
On Family Members, they cut a member of a familiy out of the show! A little girl!
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1-22-2007 @ 11:53PM
Grant Watson said...
OMG they sent her to Mandyville!!
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1-22-2007 @ 11:54PM
Phish said...
this entire show should be wiped out without a trace / explanation, i doubt ANYONE would give a sh*t.
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1-23-2007 @ 1:21AM
Miko said...
I love this show.. I was just recording it cause it came on after How I met you mother..but after I got caught up with most of my other shows we started watching this...
It started slow but with not much else on the tivo and most shows on 2 month break it got better by 3rd show..and now me and my wife love it.
On the Holly charater...they should have had something happen to her with Richie's wife. I also miss Yonk.
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1-23-2007 @ 2:28AM
TVSeriesFinale.com said...
It was reported back on 1/12 that she was dropped because of the "creative changes" (after episode 12). The producers said "Due to creative changes, Lucy Punch is no longer a cast member. She is a superb actress and did a fabulous job. We hope to work with her again in the near future."
I suspect they will deal with Holly leaving the show as I've heard they still intend to use her husband Perry (Sam Harris).
The show has taken some heat for not being very ethnically diverse (the little white daughter named Oprah was a sclose as they've gotten) so you may see some characters of different ethnicites popping up.
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1-23-2007 @ 3:10AM
Chris said...
I read somewhere that she left the show when she was told her involvement was going to be reduced. As far as I can tell she wasn't fired, she quit.
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1-23-2007 @ 6:25AM
Scott Call said...
The thing to keep in mind with missing from the credits/etc is that due to contracts and or union rules if you're in the credits, you get paid something (maybe not full episode rate) even if you're not in it.
That said I hope they give her character an exit of some kind (goes into seclusion when she catches her husband with another (wo?)man?)
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1-23-2007 @ 6:29AM
Adam said...
I absolutely love this show. So much so that when I finish watching it on TiVo, I don't delete it and then watch it again once or twice before the next episode comes out.
I must be in the even smaller minority of those who liked Holly. I thought she was hilarious, especially when working with Kyle and his partner that she couldn't understand. The Thanksgiving episode? C'mon, that was funny!
Speaking of minorities, the producers last show - FRIENDS - also took some heat for rarely having minorities. Didn't seem to hurt it.
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1-23-2007 @ 7:55AM
Adam said...
By the way, while I appreciate that CBS is showing full episodes of the show on their site, who made the call to put them in Real Player? Seriously? Real Player? Who still uses that crap?
Sorry, guys. Big fan. Not big enough to install Real Player on my computer.
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1-23-2007 @ 8:06AM
Jane said...
I like this show and I was really shocked when they've just thrown her away. It was quite cruel.
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1-23-2007 @ 8:55AM
justelise said...
I'm glad they finally got rid of the dead weight. Thanks to Friends the American public is not able to follow a half-hour comedy with more than 6 main characters. For this show (which is a gem) to have a fighting chance, they had to slim down the cast. When this kind of situation presents itself, it's usually easiest to get rid of the least favorite character or the character with the least growth potential. Of course either way in this situation it would've been Holly. I do hope that they give her character some closure, like sending her off to report on something somewhere far away.
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1-23-2007 @ 8:55AM
Tracy said...
So Joel, does this mean you are watching the class again?
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1-23-2007 @ 9:37AM
Hilary said...
I heard somewhere that they are cancelling the show, and it is to be replaced with the new show Rules of Engagement. Can anyone comfirm that?
I Love the show and don't want to see it leave!!
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1-23-2007 @ 10:03AM
Porchland said...
On No. 13: According to thefutoncritic.com, "The Class" season finale is March 5, with "Old Christine" sliding into that time slot the following week. The "Class" order was just a few short of a full season.
I'm really disappointed to see Lucy Punch get dropped. Instead of dumping her, I wish the show would use her like Janice from "Friends" or Newman from "Seinfeld" -- occasional appearances for comic relief.
I thought her Holly Ellenbogen character actually worked and was one of the reasons I stuck it out this season.
I wonder about the chances of a renewal: CBS won't need much help next season, and they're not scared to ax a show that's doing good but not great. (See "Joan of Arcadia.")
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1-23-2007 @ 11:32AM
Nathan said...
I like the show. It is rather funny. As for her being axed. I didn't really see her as being part of the show anyway.
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1-23-2007 @ 2:04PM
TomB said...
I actually enjoyed the character. I loved the scenes when they showed Kyle and his partner watching her on tivo and replaying her getting hit by a stop sign over and over.
I think it was kind of cruel of the producers to just wipe her out of existence like that. I feel bad for the actress.
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1-23-2007 @ 2:45PM
Joel Keller said...
Tracy, I never stopped watching the show. I just got sick of reviewing it, especially saying the same thing every week.
I'll admit the show's gotten better, but it might be too late to save it. It goes off the air on March 5, when its season finale airs, and I'm wondering if its going to come back at all.
Oh, and riffing off the disconnect by JJ, here's another question: when did Kat acquire that British boyfriend of hers? I'm wondering if there's a missing episode in there that CBS decided to either not run or run later in some re-packaged form.
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1-23-2007 @ 3:23PM
Dave said...
Kat got the new boyfriend in the previous episode; it was a major plot point ("Why doesn't he call?")
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1-23-2007 @ 4:00PM
Jennifer said...
I actually like Holly in small doses. Some of the funniest moments came from her - the stop sign slamming into her (and Kyles reaction to it) was one of the biggest laughs and who can forget the poor bunny rabbit who suffered from her Jimmy Choo's.
My question is where is Kyles partner been? He has been MIA.
I really hope this show is renewed, I truly enjoy it ever week and actually look forward to it. Think about this, Seinfeld had poor ratings its first year too, but NBC stuck with it and well we all know what happened.
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1-23-2007 @ 6:12PM
SenorWeird said...
I just finish telling someone about the show and it's overweight 8 character cast. I watch yesterdays and I'm like "oh, I was wrong....it's seven? No. That's not right. Where's the reporter?"
Considering I've only seen three episodes (hated it at first, but the last two, it suddenly clicked), that is telling that even I caught it.
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