Egos should stay out of the workplace! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most scandalous feuds that much, if not most, of a TV show's cast had with one troublesome member.
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00:00 "You're only doing this to me because I'm the lead of Funny Girl and you're just the lowly understudy.
00:04 You want to make me feel bad because I'm better than you."
00:07 Welcome to WatchMojo.
00:09 For this list, we're counting down our picks for the most scandalous feuds that much,
00:14 if not most, of a TV show's cast had with one troublesome member.
00:19 "Spock's simply trying to-"
00:20 "I know what he's trying to do and I don't like it. It's his job!"
00:22 Number 10. Andy Kaufman - Taxi
00:27 For five seasons, audiences fell in love with Andy Kaufman as oddball immigrant Latka Gravis.
00:34 For the Taxi cast, though, it was a difficult five seasons.
00:39 "Lesson 12. Thank you, chambermaid, for your excellent service."
00:46 Kaufman was infamous for his obnoxious pranks and method acting.
00:51 An on-set incident with his troublemaking alter ego, Tony Clifton, is the stuff of legend.
00:57 But Kaufman had also negotiated a contract that allowed him to come to the set
01:02 only two days a week. This was a massive hurdle in rehearsals.
01:07 "They teach me new words and lots of songs and we all have a good time."
01:12 The frustration was mutual, as Kaufman always resented relinquishing the rights
01:17 to his foreign man stock character.
01:20 Taxi alumni are happy to praise Kaufman's one-of-a-kind comedic talents.
01:24 His professionalism, on the other hand, wasn't much to be thankful for.
01:29 "Do you have the correct time? My watch stopped."
01:32 "The correct time is you're eight minutes late."
01:34 Number 9. Janet Hubert - The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
01:38 The Banks family always came together after all their hilarious conflicts.
01:43 Unfortunately, the Fresh Prince family couldn't totally survive the notorious
01:48 conflict between Breakout stars Will Smith and Janet Hubert.
01:53 "SURPRISE!"
01:59 Smith's accusations that his more experienced co-star had become jealous and domineering
02:04 technically resulted in her dismissal after season 3. But on occasion, Alfonso Ribeiro revealed that
02:11 Hubert created a hostile work environment for everyone on the set. He enjoyed a more
02:17 civil working relationship with Daphne Maxwell-Reed as his TV mom for the remaining three seasons.
02:23 "You know, Ms. Banks, since you had that baby, there's something different about you."
02:28 Smith and Hubert eventually made amends on camera for HBO Max's Fresh Prince reunion special.
02:41 "I just stopped talking to everybody because I didn't know who to trust,
02:43 because I had been banished. And they said it was you who banished me."
02:50 The fact remains that Hubert's career never fully recovered from both quiet
02:54 and formal complaints about her behavior.
02:57 "They said, 'You've got two months and two weeks of work, and you cannot work anywhere else.'
03:02 So that meant my salary was cut."
03:06 Number 8. Balthazar Getty - Brothers and Sisters
03:10 Domestic issues can be a strain on friends and family, including TV friends and family.
03:16 During the height of his popularity as the star of the family drama Brothers and Sisters,
03:22 Balthazar Getty made gossip headlines for an extramarital affair.
03:26 "We all have issues. For instance, I have a hard time accepting how handsome I am."
03:31 His wife, Rosetta Millington, had grown close with his castmates. It was thus speculated that
03:37 the pressure this scandal brought to the show led to Getty being demoted to guest appearances.
03:42 The truth is that this was a long time coming.
03:45 "You're the only one with the authority to fix this. You have to own that."
03:50 Getty had become hostile and difficult, partly because of substance use. He has since gotten
03:56 clean and reconciled with Millington. As for his brothers and sisters' family,
04:01 they didn't have the chance to get over the scandal.
04:04 "We used to be something. And I don't know what's happened."
04:12 Number 7. Heidi Swedberg - Seinfeld
04:16 George Costanza spent Seinfeld's seventh season trying to get out of his engagement to Susan Ross.
04:23 This was actually art imitating life.
04:26 "If you don't want to marry me, George, just say so. Just say so."
04:31 "No, no, no, still married, still married."
04:33 Susan's actress, Heidi Swedberg, failed to develop chemistry with the cast.
04:38 Her style just didn't click with the other actors. Showrunner Larry David ultimately
04:43 solved George and the cast's problem by having Susan lick too many wedding invitation envelopes.
04:49 A sitcom killing someone off with poison obviously sparked controversy,
04:53 even if it was truer to this particular sitcom's humor than Swedberg.
04:58 "So, she's dead."
05:01 "Yes."
05:05 "Huh."
05:08 David and company have since expressed remorse for such a mean-spirited vendetta.
05:12 They assert that Swedberg was a great person to get along with, just not to perform with.
05:18 "Whatever I was trying to get going in a scene, I always felt like I was
05:24 punching into jello. I couldn't get the right responses back."
05:28 6. Patrick Dempsey - Grey's Anatomy
05:32 The set of Grey's Anatomy has seen as much drama as the show's hospital setting.
05:36 "I can feel a pulse in your wrist. Know what that means?"
05:39 "What?"
05:40 "It means your heart's still beating."
05:41 Reports of tension seemed to decline after Derek Shepherd's shocking death in the season 11 finale.
05:48 Actor Patrick Dempsey claimed that his exit was a civil decision between himself and showrunner
05:54 Shonda Rhimes, but later reports revealed that Dempsey terrorized his colleagues,
05:59 taking advantage of his star power on the show.
06:02 "Just leave me alone."
06:03 "I just wanna make sure you're all right."
06:04 "No, I'm not all right, okay? Are you satisfied?"
06:08 Isaiah Washington even alleges that his part in the 2006 fight that got him fired
06:13 was exaggerated to protect Dempsey. Despite Dempsey denying claims of impropriety,
06:19 Dr. Shepherd's death nearly a decade later may have suggested that enough was enough.
06:24 Even then, McDreamy did return for some dream sequences in season 17.
06:29 "Meredith!"
06:30 "Derek!"
06:30 5. Lea Michele - Glee
06:37 The musical dramedy Glee always tried to make everyone feel included,
06:42 but by many accounts, star Lea Michele didn't live up to that principle.
06:46 "I cannot believe you did this. We sat down, we made rules."
06:51 The public only got a hint of this in 2014,
06:54 when her feud with Naya Rivera led to the latter being written out of the show.
06:58 "Rachel Berry is the most horrible human being on the planet."
07:03 "What?"
07:03 "Can it, troll?"
07:04 "Santana."
07:05 But after Michele voiced support for Black Lives Matter in 2020,
07:09 other cast members revealed that things went much deeper.
07:13 Samantha Ware accused Michele of opportunism and a history of sometimes racial hostility.
07:19 Other former colleagues affirmed these claims.
07:22 "We might be mortal show choir enemies, but I'm a woman before all of that,
07:26 and I figure you're fighting this fight for all of us girls."
07:28 Michele says that she has tried to turn herself around and make amends.
07:32 Whether that's truly coming from the soul,
07:35 Michele clearly didn't harmonize with everyone on Glee.
07:39 Number 4. William Shatner - Star Trek The Original Series
07:44 The charismatic Captain Kirk is recognized as one of the great leaders on the frontier of television.
07:49 Fans are reluctant to admit that William Shatner's own personality
07:53 didn't command nearly as much respect.
07:55 "There'll be no discussion of this with the crew. Thank you."
08:00 His petty narcissism made him such a challenge on the show,
08:03 that Martin Luther King Jr. had to convince Nichelle Nichols to not quit.
08:08 "Lieutenant Uhura?"
08:09 "Healing frequency still open sir, I get my message."
08:12 Yes, even Kirk and Spock's iconic friendship is darkened by Shatner's
08:16 aggressive jealousy toward Leonard Nimoy.
08:19 "Aren't you getting a little outlaw Mr. Spock? My personal business."
08:22 "It's my personal business when it might interfere with the smooth operation of this ship."
08:25 "You think that happened?"
08:26 Despite multiple attempts and public appearances, the actors never completely reconciled.
08:32 To this day, George Takei openly challenges his co-star's signature ego.
08:37 "Try to cross brains with Spock, they cut you to pieces every time."
08:41 It may have won Shatner fans for generations to come,
08:46 but it didn't win any on the set of the original Star Trek.
08:49 "It's been my experience that the prejudices people feel about each other
08:52 disappear when they get to know each other."
08:55 "It's not in my experience."
08:57 Number 3. Terry Hatcher - Desperate Housewives
09:02 With all of the cutthroat drama on Wisteria Lane,
09:05 Susan Mayer was considered the heart of Desperate Housewives.
09:09 That, ironically, wasn't the case with Terry Hatcher on the production,
09:12 who was considered a true diva.
09:15 "And when she comes back here, I'm gonna shove this picture in her perky little mug."
09:18 Nicolette Sheridan reportedly preferred to call her, quote, "the meanest woman in the world."
09:25 Keep in mind that Sheridan herself was written off the show over her own feud with creator Mark Cherry.
09:31 The highly paid Hatcher was known to be dominating with cast and crew,
09:35 and closed herself off from her workmates.
09:38 "Yeah, sometimes people pretend to be one way on the outside
09:41 when they're totally different on the inside."
09:43 Where most of the Desperate Housewives ensemble became closer friends than the
09:47 spicy soap opera would suggest, Hatcher's career-damaging reputation is said to be even spicier.
09:53 "Say you're sorry."
09:54 "Let me go!"
09:55 Number 2. Chevy Chase - Community
09:59 Chevy Chase was known by audiences as one of the most popular comedians of his time,
10:04 and within Hollywood as one of the most difficult.
10:07 "And I want to look him straight in the eye,
10:09 and I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no good, rotten-"
10:12 His character of the rude and crude Pierce Hawthorne on the sitcom Community
10:17 was considered too perfectly cast.
10:19 Chase harassed everyone, exploded into tantrums,
10:23 and even walked off the set over creative disagreements.
10:26 "No, he's just acting out. I've seen this behavior before... in cats. My- my cats."
10:33 This culminated in Hawthorne being written off after Chase casually utilized racial slurs.
10:39 His defense that Richard Pryor once gave him permission doesn't wash.
10:44 "Can you believe that?"
10:45 "I can't, but you can, so that's fine."
10:47 With his career once again strained by a bad reputation,
10:51 Chase recognizes that he's hurt people. He just doesn't care.
10:54 "I'm who I am, and I like who I am. I don't care."
10:59 There may be something endearing about that, but not if you're not working with the man.
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11:18 1. Shannon Doherty - Beverly Hills 90210
11:24 Once an icon of teen TV, Shannon Doherty is now known for embodying the term "difficult to work
11:30 with." "Nobody knows me here. I could be anybody."
11:34 She thrilled audiences as shy new girl Brenda on Beverly Hills 90210,
11:39 but in reality, Doherty wasn't shy about butting heads with cast and crew.
11:44 She also had a tendency to be tardy.
11:46 "Brenda, don't take that tone with us."
11:47 "Right now I will take any tone I damn well please."
11:50 "Brenda?"
11:51 It was ultimately Tori Spelling, one of Doherty's few friends on set,
11:55 who pulled strings to have Brenda leave California in season four.
12:00 Meanwhile, Doherty fell into old habits when she moved to the fantasy drama 'Charmed.'
12:05 "Excuse me, Phoebe, but I'm not exactly in a homeopathic mood right now."
12:09 Despite the show's massive success, the lead actress's behavior supposedly got her fired
12:15 after three seasons. A more mature Doherty has since been welcomed back to 90210.
12:20 Sadly, she may never live down her troubling 20s.
12:24 "I care about you."
12:25 "I am so sick and tired of everybody telling me how to live my life.
12:28 It's my life, Dylan. I will live it how I want to."
12:31 Do you want to know more about actors souring their work environment?
12:35 Join the ensemble in the comments.
12:37 "I'm done with you guys. I like the school, but I'm done with whatever you call this."
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