Why Bitty Schram’s Sharona Fleming Left Monk In Season 3

Every fictional detective written in the last 100 years has a little bit of Sherlock Holmes in them. But procedural dramedy series “Monk” is patterned very explicitly after “Sherlock Holmes,” down to its ensemble cast. The lynchpin of that cast is Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub, who once auditioned for the just-as-neurotic George Costanza on “Seinfeld”), a San Francisco detective with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and extreme germaphobia.

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Though Monk shares Holmes’ power of observation, it’s not a perfect comparison. Monk has a tragic backstory (the death of his wife, Trudy, the one mystery he’s never solved) that Holmes didn’t. Similarly, Holmes is arrogant while Monk is awkward. And whereas Holmes only has Dr. John Watson by his side, Monk had two different sidekicks.

In the first two-and-a-half seasons, Monk’s personal assistant/nurse/Watson is Sharona Fleming (Bitty Schram), a no-BS Jersey gal. Then, after “Monk” season 3, episode 9, “Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine,” Sharona abruptly departs, moving back to New Jersey and remarrying her ex-husband. In the following episode, “Mr. Monk and the Red Herring,” Monk meets single mother Natalie Teeger (Traylor Howard) while investigating a break-in at her home. They hit it off and he hires her as his assistant, a role she stays in until the series’ ending.

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Natalie fit into the show well, so the change was smooth and didn’t drag down the quality of the later seasons. But if you think it sounds inorganic, you’d be right. Sharona didn’t leave because that’s what “Monk” needed, she left because of a pay dispute between Schram and the show.

Back in 2004, USA Network (where “Monk” aired) said through a spokesperson that Schram/Sharona leaving “Monk” was a creative decision. As its statement put it:

“‘Monk’ has decided to go in a different creative direction with some of its characters. Bitty will not continue with the cast and we thank her for her notable contributions and wish her the very best.”

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Schram’s management firm, Untitled Entertainment, said it was an amicable split. But these boilerplate statements were the spin they read as. Halfway through season 3, actor contract renegotiations for “Monk” were underway. (One season 3 episode, “Mr. Monk and the Game Show,” only features Monk himself, apparently because Shalhoub was the only main cast member contracted at that point.)

A contract dispute was at the center of Sharona’s departure. Reportedly, Schram wanted a raise to stay on the show. She had gotten a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a TV Comedy or Musical that year, so she likely and (understandably) felt she had a good bargaining position — people liked what she was doing, and “Monk” was a better series for her presence.

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The raise didn’t happen. It’s not completely clear if USA let Schram go or if she chose to leave because she wouldn’t re-sign for less than she thought she was worth. But regardless, Sharona was gone, whereas her fellow main cast members Ted Levine (as Captain Leland Stottlemeyer) and Jason Gray-Stanford (Lt. Randy Disher) got their contracts extended.

After its 13-episode first season, “Monk” maintained a regular release schedule for most of its original run. Each season was 16 episodes long and would begin airing at the start of summer. The show would then go on break at the end of summer, around the season’s eighth or ninth episode, and then resume the following January with the remainder of the season. “Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine” was the last episode before the season 3 hiatus, giving the impression Sharona had departed in the interim. She didn’t even get a dedicated goodbye episode… at least, not right away.

Bitty Schram did return to “Monk” as a guest star in 2009 during season 8, appearing in an episode titled — what else — “Mr. Monk and Sharona.” The premise is that Sharona’s uncle has died. So, while she’s visiting San Francisco to put his affairs in order, she also checks in on Adrian. Naturally, there’s also a murder that needs to be investigated, which Sharona does so alongside Monk and Natalie.

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The whole crux of the episode is about the differences between Sharona and Natalie and how they handle Monk. Natalie didn’t quite have Sharona’s hard-edge; she’s unfailingly polite, less inclined to put her foot down, and used soft encouragement to get Monk out of his comfort zone.

Schram and Shalhoub spoke to MovieWeb for the episode’s release. Both actors described making it as feeling like picking right back up where they’d left off.

“It was honestly like I never left,” Schram said. “Bitty and I both looked at each other while we were doing the first scene, which is the scene — the first day was the scene where she returns. And we just looked at each other and laughed because it just felt like no time at all had passed,” added Shalhoub.

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The episode itself leans into the feeling of no time having passed; Sharona walks into Monk’s apartment casually and hands him a wipe as if she is still his assistant. Then, Natalie walks in and sees Monk and Sharona acting like the old days. Monk’s relationships with both Sharona and Natalie are not romantic at all, but the whole scene is meant to resemble someone walking in on your partner and their ex. (“This isn’t what it looks like!” Monk reassures Natalie.)

Schram deserved to keep her job, but Traylor Howard/Natalie was far from a drag on “Monk” either. This conundrum can make you feel as indecisive as Monk himself — though “Mr. Monk and Sharona” proved that Sharona and Natalie could co-exist as characters. Neither Schram nor Howard have had the most prolific acting careers since “Monk” ended, but the show itself will ensure they’re remembered.