Original Watchers- how was it for you when Shannon left?

[louislemon]

I would love to know how it felt or what it was like for original watchers when Prue died and then Paige was introduced.

I was only very young during the original run and even now as an adult it still feels so strange that this happened and that there isn’t any real answers as to why Prue was killed off. ( and it must have been so difficult to find out information during the time)

I would just like to find out what it was like for you as it all unravelled. Did you fear that show would be cancelled? Were you relieved when it was picked up for season 4?

I would love to pick your brain about it.

Thanks!

[Esmeralda]

Oh, I'll NEVER forget my reaction to 'All Hell Breaks Loose' and 'Charmed Again'! I didn't have a computer yet nor did I read the Charmed Magazine, so I had absolutely no idea what was happening in the background, if anything - I still think the so-called feud between Shannen and Alyssa was just spin and more about male chauvinist pigs Brad Kern and Aaron Spelling didn't like a female likje Shannen wanting to change the story and make it darker (I'm glad she never got the chance...) Those two were professionals who had been acting since they were kids. Even if there were such problems, I'm sure they'd leave them off the set as soon as the director said "Action".

But after that last scene, my chin hit the floor and I sat there, staring at the screen, certain I had just seen the last episode of my then-favorite show. And as far as I'm concerned, it was, since I count S4-8 as the alternate-universe spin-off, one of my least-favorite shows.

Anyway, again, I never heard anything about what was going on so I was REALLY shocked when they first repeated AHBL and then aired both Sepisodes of 'Charmed Again'. I was SO upset when I found out that Prue was gone and then was REALLY angry when this new person was shoved in our faces and totally took over two episodes that should've been all about mourning Prue (and I was even more upset when I found out they couldn't see her ghost!). It wasn't until I got my computer that could go online and first discovered theweb.com and then, on their recommendation, thecharmedones.com and its message board, an ezBoard called "The Charmed Cafe" did I find out about how Kern fired Shannen over the phone, so Shannen decided not to have her image shown unless she was paid A LOT (I've never forgiven EITHER for that!) that I found out what had happened to kill my favorite show.

I was POSITIVE that that would be the very last season (and even more sure when 'Witch Way Now?' aired), but since watching Charmed was what I did, I kept watching it until the end but never really loved it as much as I loved the first three seasons. I still wish that when Shax said "The end", it was!

[forbuss]

I mostly remember being very confused. I was about 10 when Shannen left the show. I remember vaguely seeing some entertainment stations covering her leaving but I wasn't as "dialed in" to media at that age.

What made it worse is that the show went off the station I watched it on (in Canada) after season 3. So I literally thought the show was cancelled. It wasn't until years later that I discovered the show continued with Rose McGowan, who I knew from Scream and Jawbreaker.