Shonda, unfortunately, has lost touch with any reality outside of "Shondaland". This is the only explanation for her behavior in this situation, in burning down the show, and with her absolute disconnect with fans on the top rated show. I fear she will not even notice as her show dies a slow death in the coming season because she lost the vision that created the witty, smart, funny drama.

I know there's a flaw in your logic ointment somewhere - i'm just not sure what it is.

Replacing Isaiah with *anyone* else would have been stupid. They did it back in the day of Bewitched and they do it on soaps - they can't do it here. And we are talking about, specifically, replacing the actor: recasting the *role.* Not dropping Burke, who was integral to the storylines, and adding a new character.

Merrin - I didn't like her either. She was flat and boring and she was in the *pilot.* Often characters from pilots are recast (pilots often don't make air before this happens, I grant you, but still). The character of Willow from the Buffy pilot was recast. Oddly enough, she was recast with an actress of the same race.

As for the Eriq LaSalle rumor - *I'd* heard it, before Shonda shot it down as silly. I wonder if the random people who came up with this baloney also thought of Denzel Washington. I don't think either of them is available. And of course, they were chosen because in the past they'd played Doctors on TV. Sometimes even Surgeons. Hey, how about Donald Faison? He's playing a black, attending, surgeon! Can't you just see him as Burke?

I know Shonda goes over the edge sometimes, but Eriq LaSalle? This wasn't one of those times.

Why don't we just replace the lead actor on CSI or something, with another actor, of the same race, and say it's the same character you've known all these years? That's just as silly as Shonda suggested.

Sorry if I sound clueless but just why does a departing performer need to be replaced by the same ethnic group. Does white have to be replaced with white? Red-headed Irish with the same? Olive skinned Italian with the same, etc?

The flow in the logic, the thing that's confusing Barry B, so, is this:

Pierce continually uses the term "recast" in this piece. It's a strawman: of *course* if you *recast* a role played by a black actor, you'd need to use another black actor to do it.

They'd have to be the same sex, too.

Recasting, however, wasn't an issue *I* ever saw mentioned in the press coverage of this issue.

And because all the rest of the people weren't discussing recasting Burke, of *course* their comments look weird when viewed through that lens.

Sorry; sloppy reportage.