friends with benefits nbcNormally I’d say, consider the source – but when the source is an actor, it’s hard to not believe that he’s telling the truth about being dropped from a show. As a fan of Dollhouse (even when I wasn’t – it was a complicated love affair) I was so psyched to see Fran Kranz as one of the core five members of the new NBC series Friends with Benefits.

While Kranz is featured in both publicity images released thus far, and in the trailer, he has gone to Twitter to say:

“nbc picked up friends with benefits but not me. i was fired. too big. i kept saying i was huge but people told me it was great. guess not”

“it sucks. i’m sorry guys. i’ve been getting a ton of congrats but it’s not for me. i’m sorry.”

So, NBC – explain yourself! Are they really recasting the part of Aaron when Fran Kranz was probably my favorite part of the entire trailer?!? By Kranz’s tweets I am unsure if he was fired, or if he decided to leave. What does his “it’s not for me” line mean? If he saw enough of the show to sign on and then decide it wasn’t good, this does not bode well for the show at all. Because we all know he’s a gifted actor and he’s hilarious. And if a smart, funny actor wants to get out of a show being billed as a comedy on NBC…that points to the idea that it’s not so funny. And if they fired Kranz, are they idiots?

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The show seemed to have Aaron pegged as the Ross Gellar to the Rachel Green (Jessica Lucas). Kranz was perfect in what I saw.

While the NBC twitter page for FWB is following Danneel Harris, Jessica Lucas and Ian Reed Kessler (all of the main actors with Twitter accounts) it is not following Fran Kranz. Twitter might be a better gauge to tell us what’s going on than the rest of the NBC site. One drawback to technology – you post things, get people excited, and then when you change things – people are not used to that. We never got to be so involved in the TV process before. Re-casting parts is common. But if this one is true, it’s really a bummer.

>>>Previously: Defending DOLLHOUSE Based only on Two Episodes | Why Joss Whedon is our Racehorse Pick

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