Yahoo News 7 beloved TV characters who should never have come back
Sometimes not even death can stop characters coming back to TV shows – and that's not always a good thing.
For every successful return of a fan favourite, there's at least one comeback that leaves viewers underwhelmed, confused or even a bit angry. Here are seven times when TV bosses should have left written-out characters well alone.
1. Rose Tyler – Doctor Who
'Doomsday', the final episode of 2006's second series, provided one of the most emotional Doctor Who moments ever when the Doctor said goodbye to Rose via hologram, after she was left stranded in a parallel universe, unable to return to Earth.
Well… until a couple of years later, anyway, when Rose made her comeback in series four. Her return was certainly a surprise, so we've got nothing against how they did it, but the real frustration is that it robs her original exit of its emotion, and nothing in her comeback lived up to her departure.
2. Glenn – The Walking Dead
The Walking Dead tried to trick us all into believing that it had killed off Glenn in season six episode 'Thank You', committing to the 'death' so much that Steven Yeun's name was dropped from the show's opening credits for the first time since the pilot. Surprise surprise, though, Glenn wasn't dead – and had crawled to safety underneath a dumpster.
However, Glenn WAS killed off a year later at the hands of Negan, via Lucille, like he was in the comics, so it was a pointless fake-out. It would have been altogether more shocking (and effective) had Scott Gimple actually killed off Glenn in 'Thank You' as it'd have been a death no one saw coming.
3. Buffy – Buffy the Vampire Slayer
OK, so if we didn't have season six of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, we wouldn't have gems like 'Once More, With Feeling', but season five's 'The Gift' had such a perfect ending that you do wish Joss Whedon had called it a day.
Buffy's sacrifice made complete sense and delivered a fitting and emotional climax to the show, only for her to be resurrected shortly into season six. It certainly was a darker time for the show, with Buffy almost being raped by Spike and Willow becoming Dark Willow after Tara was killed. Even Sarah Michelle Gellar isn't a fan.
"I've always said that season 6 was not my favourite," she reflected. "I felt it betrayed who she was."
4. Mulder and Scully – The X-Files
After nine seasons and two movies, it looked like The X-Files was over for good in 2008 and it seemed like the right time to go out. However, eight years later, Mulder and Scully were back for a limited tenth season that didn't exactly justify its existence.
It even got to the point that star David Duchovny had to promise fans that season 11 was "significantly better" after admitting that they "might not have done our best work" on season 10.
Now with Gillian Anderson leaving after the current season, the show's future is up in the air once more, leaving us all to wonder what exactly was the point of it all.
5. Tony Almeida – 24
Seemingly killed off in 24's fifth season, Jack Bauer's close ally Tony Almeida returned in the seventh season and appeared to have become a terrorist in the meantime. However, he was actually working undercover with Chloe and Bill Buchanan. But wait! He was only doing it to avenge his own (pregnant) wife's murder! So that's alright then.
Sure, the triple cross took us by surprise (poor FBI nice guy Larry), but it was an underwhelming return for a fan favourite that never seemed to justify itself. His appearance in the short-lived 24: Legacy wasn't great either, but at least he was a kind-of good guy again.
6. Everyone – Scrubs
We're not entirely sure why Zach Braff, John C McGinley and co decided to return for Scrubs season nine after the utterly perfect 'My Finale'. That ended with a return for pretty much every character, and JD imagining what his future would be like. It was emotional, funny and a fitting send-off that needed no follow-up.
Except we ended up getting one with the sort-of sequel/spin-off ninth season that focused on med-school students, none of whom we actually cared about anywhere near as much as we did JD, Turk and Elliot.
In fact, it's so dodgy that it's best to just forget it exists, so we're sorry for making you remember it.
7. Granville – Open All Hours
OK, so it looks like it's getting a fifth series, but Still Open All Hours is still garbage.
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