Nothing But Love For Mandy? ---- Not!

Marilyn Moore, Thomas Gibson, Mandy Pantikin, & Shemar Moore at the MS Bike Race

There's been such a buzz about the return of Mandy Pantikin to tv as he will guest star on the new tv series "Three Rivers" portraying an organ donor.  Criminal Minds fans will never forget the turmoil that Mandy left two years ago with his sudden departure from the show with no warning to the cast or crew.  His departure sent the producers, Ed Bernero and others, into a frenzy searching for a suitable replacement for Mandy who was consider the "star" of the show.  They couldn't have made a better choice with Joe Mantegna, and IMO, the show is much better without Mandy, the dynamics have changed, and fans actually get to see the talents of the other actors, including our Shemar Moore.

So, it's interesting that in a recent interview with TV Guide Mandy had nothing but love for his former cast mates.  Unfortunately, the feeling isn't mutual and Ed Bernero was more than happy to relay those lingering feelings.  I really like Ed, because he tells it like it is.  Sometimes you don't have to be cordial, especially with someone as unprofessional as Mandy Pantikin.  It's a wonder that he can ever book another gig.  Read on:

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Although Three Rivers is on a ratings respirator, Patinkin says he's “quite certain this show will have a very long life. The business of these shows finding their audience initially is just business—that's all. The heart of this show is everything that I believe television has to offer at its finest.”


That's not how he felt about Minds, which replaced him with Joe Mantegna after he suddenly failed to materialize for the third-season premiere's table reading in 2007, citing “creative differences." Still, Patinkin has nothing but praise for his former colleagues.

Criminal Minds "A-Team" with Ed Benero

“They were some of the most beautiful, gifted actors I ever had the privilege to work with, and I miss them all very much,” he says. But a show about tracking serial killers “just wasn't the right fit at the time....The way I work, for better or worse, is to bring that material to life. My mind was immersed in Holocaust images 24/7. It isn't that I won't do pieces like that in the future, I'll just be cautious in terms of what I choose. I'll choose in a very Mandy-friendly fashion.”

The warm feelings aren't exactly mutual on the Minds set. “I can tell you that nobody misses him,” says executive producer Edward Allen Bernero, who says the last time he talked to Patinkin was just before the table read, when the star said, “I'll see you in an hour” and then didn't show. “We sent the police out,” says Bernero. “We thought he got in an accident on the freeway coming to work.”

“He really hurt a lot of people,” continues Bernero, who's currently working on Minds' 100th episode, slated for November. “We were going into our third season—it's one of the most important seasons—and nobody knew whether [his leaving] meant everybody lost their jobs. It was handled very poorly. I'm not hurt about it, although I won't ever work with him again. I'm just proud of this [Minds] family. Looking back on it it's like, wow, that really cemented us all.”

 http://www.tvguidemagazine.com/feature/exclusive-mandy-patinkin-speaks-2844.html