Kevin James is finally speaking out about why his CBS sitcom “Kevin Can Wait” made the odd decision to kill off a main character after just one season.
In June, TV Line reported that Erinn Hayes — who played Donna Gable, the wife of James’ character — would not be back for Season 2 of the sitcom because the show was “heading in a new creative direction.” The news followed CBS’ announcement that Leah Remini, who starred opposite James in the long-running sitcom “King Of Queens,” had been added as a series regular.
Now James says, in an interview with the New York Daily News, that killing off Hayes’ character was necessary to keep the sitcom going.
“The plot of the show didn’t have enough drive,” James told the newspaper. “If we got through a second season, I wouldn’t see us getting through a third one. We were literally just running out of ideas.”
That’s a pretty stunning admission for James, one of the show’s co-creators. Traditional sitcoms have existed for years without major shake-ups to the central family. And the comedy’s handling of Donna’s death has been unconventional — when Season 2 premiered last month, “Kevin Can Wait” had jumped forward a year, with Kevin Gables making a blink-and-you-missed-it reference to how much he missed his wife. Four episodes in, we still don’t know how Donna died.
“Now, I have to deal with my daughter in a different way, and she’s gonna go to college, or one’s getting married, or the holidays,” James explained. “And it deals with things in a different, weightier way.”
Still, James told the Daily News that he’s not sure if the show will ever address Donna’s death directly. Recent episodes have revolved around Kevin’s friendship with his former partner Vanessa Cellucci (Remini), with whom he runs a private security firm.
