I was just wondering if ...

Question: I was just wondering if Leslie Hope or Julie Ann Emery will be back on Commander in Chief and what the reasoning behind their departures was. I think both of these actresses are underrated, and I know series creator Rod Lurie was a fan of theirs. Now I fear that Steven Bochco has already influenced the show in a negative light by casting off talented actors like Hope and Emery and bringing in actors like Mark-Paul Gosselaar.
Answer: Nothing wrong with our NYPD Blue pal Gosselaar, but the show is going through a fascinating (and unprecedented for a brand-new hit) transformation right now. From a purely story point of view, Hope's and Emery's departure made sense. Hope's character defied the president and was sacked, and Emery's agent made a mistake in handling the president's daughter and was reassigned. If Rod Lurie were still running the show, there's no reason to think he wouldn't have found a way to bring them back in a different capacity. He's famously loyal to actors. (Consider Kristen Shaw, who plays Norah, from the First Gentleman's wing, on Commander. She played David Paymer's wife on Lurie's Line of Fire and has appeared in all of Lurie's projects since his first short film.) With Bochco now running the show, it's unclear who among the recurring characters from Lurie's initial conception will stay in place. It's so weird at this early point of a hit show's life to be discussing fixes for what is far from broken.