One of my favourite personalities on TV in the last 5 years has to be Mandy Patinkin. Of course I first got a liking for his character Rube from Dead Like Me. I didn’t really get a chance to watch him on Criminal Minds, but I did catch the finale which tied up a LONG running storyline.

Then as everyone was starting to gear up for the next season, Mandy just doesn’t show up to work. Thats it. Done. No excuses, no reasons. Nothing.

NYTimes says:

A week later the cast and crew of the show still had not heard anything from Mr. Patinkin, Mr. Bernero said.

“This is kind of unprecedented,” Mr. Bernero said in an interview. “He just quit and never talked to anyone again. It’s like the story about the father who goes out for a carton of milk and then just never comes home.”

This seems like an odd move for anyone, but this is not unprecidented. Mandy took a walk off the set of Chicago Hope in 95, never to return.

It sounds to me that if they are willing to let him go out of his contract for no reason, and not fighting him on it, then I would guess that the show’s producers will not miss him.

However, Patinkin has agreed to film one episode that will explain his departure as far as show canon goes, but the following was said about that too: “It’ll be a difficult day for everyone here,” Mr. Bernero said. “Frankly, I don’t know why we’d think he’d show up for that day.”

Perhaps this will lead to Rube returning for the Dead Like Me TV movie that he is suspiciously left out of.

This post was Authored by Rodney Brazeau, Copy Editor