Fans were stunned when Mom star Anna Faris, who'd been with the series for its entire seven season run, announced that she'd be leaving prior to Season 8 going into production. The move also, reportedly, shocked everyone who works on Mom, and now remaining lead Allison Janney has opened up about what it's been like to film the hit sitcom without Faris.
While everyone at Mom was said to have been thrown into a bit of a tizzy when Anna Faris chose to leave so that she could pursue other projects, they did decide that the show must go on, and have been diligently working on Season 8 without her Christy around. But, that doesn't mean that it's been completely easy, and when asked recently by Ellen DeGeneres on her daytime show what it's been like filming without her former partner in addiction recovery antics, Allison Janney said:
It was very odd. She's very missed. Anna is missed, and her character on the show is missed. We're just happy that she's doing what she wants to do now.
I'm sure it's nice for fans to hear that Allison Janney, and the rest of the cast and crew at Mom, are happy that Anna Faris is happy, and that Janney is able to express that while also admitting how "very odd" it's been to do the show without her. Faris' Christy and Janney's Bonnie went through a lot during those seven seasons, and working as the often dysfunctional mother / daughter duo probably helped the actresses form their own kind of bond. So, it would be a bit of a shock to the system for Janney to now be faced with working without the woman who had been her frequent scene partner in crime.
Of course, the writers had to suddenly figure out how best to remove Anna Faris' Christy from the show. While characters have been killed off on Mom before, they, thankfully, thought better when it came to doing that with Christy. The Season 8 premiere revealed that she had won a full scholarship to Georgetown Law School in Washington, D.C, and had finally moved on so that she could fulfill one of the dreams viewers had watched her pursue for many years.
Luckilly, this means that fans can get updates on what's going on in the character's life from time to time, along with watching how Bonnie deals with her daughter being on the opposite coast from her and not being immediately available for emotional support / shenanigans.
We can continue to see how Mom Season 8 plays out as the show airs every Thursday on CBS, at 9 p.m. EST. But, for more on what you can watch on the small screen right now, be sure to check out our guide to winter / spring 2021 TV!
