Dan Lamb (the original Don Lamb)
Frankly, I never liked Dan Lamb especially when he was introduced as Don Lamb’s brother in the movie. Like, we never heard about him at all during the series, and I got a feeling that Rob Thomas stole that idea of Don having a brother from many fanfictions including mine. But I can’t prove it, can I. But that’s the whole point of having a one-dimensional character like Dan, so we can hate the character without any doubt or any kind of redeemable aspect. Don might've been incompetent, but at least he was honest. Dan, however, is openly corrupt even in the books.
Don was supposed to be what Dan was when he was written; this asshole corrupt character who laughed at rape victims and covered up murders. But the writers (not Rob Thomas) and the actor himself gave more interesting twists for Don. The results were the character became fan favorites and more two-dimensional, especially the performance.
But that wasn’t the plan. Remember, Rob doesn’t like the idea when everything is not according to his plan. Especially, he doesn’t like the idea of fans and producers preferred something that he’s not planning. Logan and Don were characters he intended to be temporary, not permanent. For the first two seasons, his hands were tied. It wasn’t until season 3, he had a free range to do what he wanted especially after Joel Silver stopped hovering. Him killing Don Lamb was his first step to get rid both character and actor.
Joss Whedon threatened James Marsters when Spike turned out popular with the fans, and there was nothing he could do about it.
Rob felt the same thing, but the tug of war between him and Joel Silver especially regarding Logan prevented him to do anything about it.
How many fics written by fans regarding Don Lamb? A lot. How many fics written by fans regarding Dan Lamb? Almost NONE. And that’s why Rob wrote Dan. Because, let’s face it, he doesn’t want any fans to fix his character. The Lamb brothers are still polarizing ‘till this day. Some fans can’t stand them, which is fine. They are meant to be. Some fans are glad that they are gone. But when talking about polarizing, nothing beats Piz as a character.
Anyway, I digress.
When RT announced that Lamb was gonna be in the movie, everyone was confused, including Muhney. But he tweeted that he would not be in the movie, while RT was silent. Although he didn’t say why he got killed in the series, apparently, Rob told him that he made Muhney famous, and he could take it away as well. The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh.
Obviously, we heard rumors about the reason why they killed off Don Lamb in season three, even when they already made Michael Muhney a part of the main cast. It took him three seasons to become the main cast, and then they killed him like that. It was shocking, and many fans were confused about why he was killed and didn’t mention it again in the next episode. At. All.
According to behind-the-scenes gossip from LiveJournal, RT just disliked MM. When asked the reason why he killed off Don, he replied that it was all business.
Rumors were swirling that Rob Thomas had a beef with MM for making the character popular (he wasn't intended to be a popular character just like Logan wasn’t supposed to be popular) plus he asked for more money. Back in season 2, lots of guest stars were paid a lot while recurring cast didn’t. So, instead of paying him more, RT’d rather kill him off.
Don Lamb might not be likeable character, but he was pretty interesting. I still remember when they killed him off, everyone was angry but kinda like... understood. Yeah, he was sorta a villain. But he was on his way to be redeemed? RT has tendency to kill off a redeemed character or not giving a chance to those who wants out from the game.
Felix Toombs, for example - he wanted out from the PCHers, so he got killed.
Jerry Sacks wanted to come clean about the corruption in the Neptune PD. So he got killed.
Notice how much Rob sweeps those deaths under the rug? He doesn’t want to deal with dead characters. Cut off the arm, and move on to something else. Instead showing the process of dealing with the deaths, he prefers the audience/readers to leap frogged the whole thing. A concept that seems created by a fellow showrunner, Tim Kring.
Same thing with Don Lamb. According to many blogs on LiveJournal back then, MM was a bit an asshat towards Rob Thomas and Joel Silver, but NOT to the cast tho. He was very friendly with Jason Dohring, Francis Capra, Enrico Colantoni, Percy Daggs III, and even Kristen Bell. MM knew that his character was popular, so he demanded at least he was given the main credit and also more scenes instead of being the 6th on the call sheet.
Of course, Rob had all the power. So he fired MM.
But he still wanted a character played by a celebrity that the fans would like but not get rid of the essence of Lamb. He wanted Jerry O'Connell after he saw his performance in a B-Movie, Piranha 3D - an actor that was big enough of a name that the studio would love. He didn’t want the fans to like him; he wanted the fans to hate him and not write fics about him. He want to get rid of him if he didn’t need him anymore, not have fans clamoring and asking why.
Cut the arm, and move on. That is Rob’s motto. Characters are expendable, especially when it’s not about what he planned.
