Making Creator Headlines · Page 4
Cruz Leaves Chicago Fire, Having Waited for the Milestone Cake
· New York time
Joe Miñoso’s Firefighter Josef “Joe” Cruz exits NBC’s “Chicago Fire” in its 300th episode, Season 15’s “Three Hundred.” Miñoso has played Cruz since the first season, making the installment both a round-number celebration and a farewell to a familiar member of the ensemble. A long-running drama has to balance the comfort of recurring characters with the reality that cast members eventually leave. A milestone episode offers a convenient stage for that work: the show can acknowledge its own history while moving a character out of it. In this case, the anniversary and the departure arrive in the same package, saving the publicity department from ordering two cakes. The event also gives longtime viewers a reason to think about how much of a series can accumulate around one role. Cruz has been part of the show since its beginning, so his exit changes the makeup of a workplace that audiences have visited for years. The episode is not just another emergency on the schedule; it marks a change in the team. Network television loves a number big enough to print on a banner. It loves a familiar face even more. At episode 300, “Chicago Fire” gets to celebrate both, just as one of them heads for the door.
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