Prue Halliwell
Prudence Halliwell is a fictional character from the American television series Charmed, played by Shannen Doherty from October 7, 1998, until May 17, 2001. She is the eldest daughter of Patty Halliwell and Victor Bennett. The character was created by Constance M. Burge, who based Prue on her older sister. Prue is introduced into the series as the eldest sister to Piper Halliwell and Phoebe Halliwell. She is one of the first original featured leads and more specifically, a Charmed Oneone of the most powerful witches of all time. Prue initially possesses the power to move objects with her mind by channeling telekinesis through her eyes. As the series progresses, she learns how to channel her telekinesis through her hands and gains the power of astral projection, the ability to be in two places at once. Prue also develops martial arts skills and becomes an effective hand-to-hand fighter like Phoebe.
Prue is portrayed as the oldest, responsible, strong, "kick-ass sister" and "leader of the group." During her three seasons on Charmed, she is regarded as the strongest and most powerful witch of the Halliwell sisters in seasons 1-3*. Prue's storylines have mostly revolved around her protecting innocents and defeating the forces of evil in San Francisco with her sisters, as well as leading a normal life as an appraiser for an auction house and later as a professional photographer for a magazine company. She also has romantic relationships with her old high school flame Inspector Andy Trudeau in season one, and fellow auction house employee Jack Sheridan in season two. In the third season, Prue is forced to marry the warlock Zile in a dark marriage ceremony, but their marriage soon ends after he is vanquished. In the season three finale "All Hell Breaks Loose", Prue is attacked by Shax, a powerful demonic assassin sent by The Source of All Evil, ending the season on a cliffhanger. After Doherty departed the series, this attack was revealed to be fatal. She was replaced in season four by Rose McGowan, who played the long-lost younger half-sister Paige Matthews.
The character received a positive reception from television critics, who praised her strong persona and Doherty's performance. Doherty received two Saturn Award nominations in 1999 and 2000, for Best Actress on Television for her portrayal of Prue. In 2007, AOL TV ranked Prue at number nine on their list of the Top TV Witches. In addition to the television series, the character has also appeared in numerous expanded universe material, such as the Charmed novels and its comic book adaptation.
Casting and development
In 1998, The WB began searching for a drama series, and looked to Spelling Television, which had produced the network's most successful series 7th Heaven, to create it. Expanding on the popularity of supernatural-themed dramas, the production company explored forms of mythology to find mythological characters they could focus on with contemporary storytelling. In order to create the series, Constance M. Burge was hired as the creator as she was under contract with 20th Century Fox and Spelling Television after conceiving the drama Savannah.The character of Prue Halliwell was conceived by Burge, who wrote the pilot script for Charmed. The pilot script was based around three mismatched sisters who are initially based on Burge and her two older sisters, Laura and Edie Burge. Prue is based on Burge's older sister Laura. On creating Prue, Burge stated "my older sister, Laura, is very strong, very driven and so I attributed the characteristics that my sister Laura has to the character Prue." Executive producer Brad Kern claimed Prue was written into the series as "the older sister, the kick-ass sister. She was the tough one. She was probably the most skeptical about the magic up top, but ultimately became the most powerful of ." Doherty stated that the character "had a sense of responsibility that she felt towards her family and she was very nurturing and maternal and giving".
When the series was in its first development stages, executive producer Aaron Spelling had always known who he wanted for the role of Prue: Shannen Doherty, an actress from a previous Spelling Television series, Beverly Hills, 90210. Doherty, already devoted to the project, pitched the idea to her best friend, former Picket Fences actress Holly Marie Combs, whom she and Spelling wanted for the role of Piper Halliwell. Doherty played the role of Prue in a 28-minute test pilot alongside Combs and actress Lori Rom, who played the youngest sister Phoebe Halliwell. Rom quit the series and a new pilot was filmed with former Who's the Boss? actress Alyssa Milano, who took over the role of Phoebe.
Departure
In May 2001, it was officially announced that Doherty would be departing Charmed. Following the announcement, rumors circulated that the reason behind Doherty's departure was because of a feud with Milano. Doherty told Entertainment Tonight that "there was too much drama on the set and not enough passion for the work", and that there were never any problems between her and Combs. During an interview on Watch What Happens Live in 2013, Milano spoke about the rumored feud between her and Doherty, after a caller asked for the truth behind Doherty's departure. Milano said, "I don't know if she got fired, we never really found out what happened. I can tell you that we were on the air with her for three years and there were definitely some rough days. Holly and Shannen were best friends for like 10 years before the show started so it was very much sort of like high school. I would hope that in our thirties it wouldn't feel like that anymore."The producers originally considered recasting the role of Prue with a different actress. Actresses Soleil Moon Frye, Irene Molloy and Denise Richards were rumored to be possible replacements. Spelling even approached Tiffani Thiessen, who replaced Doherty on Beverly Hills, 90210, and Jennifer Love Hewitt. However, both Thiessen and Hewitt declined the role. Producers then decided to kill off Prue and replace her with a long-lost younger half-sister named Paige Matthews, in favor of having "a fresh face" join the series. The producers had to re-cut the season three cliffhanger to explain Prue's sudden disappearance. Following Doherty's departure from the series, all photographs of Prue in the Halliwell sisters' home were never seen again and she never appeared in any flashback scenes. In an interview with TVLine marking the ten year anniversary of the series finale, executive producer Brad Kern said that he "tried like crazy to get her in flashbacks and to have photographs of her on the walls," but they could not afford to pay Doherty per-episode fee to use her image. Kern said that he regrets not being able to include a photo of Prue in the series finale's final montage, but added it would have been "impossible to accomplish" because "it was going to cost us a lot of money." Doherty revealed that she was asked to return for the series finale, but she declined the offer as she did not like the way the producers wanted to bring Prue back, stating it was "just not authentic", "nothing interesting or good", not "true to the character", and that "it didn't feel right." On such a return of hers, she stated that "the idea was floated by her". However, Kern commented that "there was no talk about bringing back physically" because they did not believe she would ever return or that the network would want her to. Kern felt that Doherty would not have returned because "there were a lot of internal issues that led up to her leaving...on a lot of different people's sides."
Appearances
Television
Prue is depicted as the eldest Halliwell sister on Charmed, portrayed by Shannen Doherty in the first 66 episodes of the series as well as the unaired pilot. At the start of season one, six months have passed since the death of her grandmother, Penny Halliwell. After ending her engagement to Roger, Prue moves back into her family's Victorian Manor with her middle sister Piper, and they are later joined by their youngest sister Phoebe. On the night of Phoebe's return, she finds a book called the Book of Shadows within the Manor's attic. After Phoebe unknowingly recites aloud what turns out to be an incantation from the book, the three sisters each receive a magical power and discover their destiny as The Charmed Ones – the most powerful good witches the world has ever known. Gaining the power to "move things with her mind", Prue battles with maintaining control of her newfound powers and keeping her identity as a witch secret.Due to the magical interferences in both her work and personal life, Prue finds it difficult to rekindle a relationship with her old high school flame Inspector Andy Trudeau and stay on top of her new job as an appraiser for Buckland's Auction House. Throughout the first season, Prue and her sisters face off against various warlocks and demons who aim to steal their powers or harm innocents. In the first-season finale, Andy is killed trying protect her from a demonic foe.
The show's second season opens with Prue's continual struggle to deal with Andy's death. Prue feels responsible, and contemplates giving up on witchcraft entirely, but eventually decides to continue her destiny as a witch and protector of the innocent with help from her sisters. Prue later experiences growth in her magical abilities when she develops the power to "be in two places at once" via Astral Projection, and learns to open herself up to the potential of love again through a courtship with fellow Buckland's employee Jack Sheridan and a romantic fling with ex-con Bane Jessup. She eventually quits her job at Buckland's to pursue her lifelong dream of being a professional photographer. Prue subsequently gets a job as a photographer for 415 Magazine. In the season two finale, Prue and her sisters discover that the many attacks on their lives by evil beings have been orchestrated by a demonic force known as The Council.
By season three, learning of the new evil The Triad, Prue becomes determined to prepare herself for any further attacks of evil on herself, her sisters and any future innocents in which to protect. Throughout the season Prue displays martial arts skills, strengthening her powers and researching, finding and destroying demons. Her fight and devotion as a Charmed One and fulfilling their destiny results in her becoming what has been coined as a "SuperWitch". Prue and her sisters eventually learn that the demon Belthazor and The Triad work for an even greater evil, The Source of All Evil, the leader of the demonic realm known as The Underworld. After Prue and Piper later discover that Cole Turner, who is actually Belthazor, faked his death with Phoebe's help, the revelation causes a rift in their sisterly relationship. Later, after being forced to marry the warlock, Zile in a dark marriage ceremony, Prue comes to understand Phoebe's draw to Cole's darker half. While the two sisters mend their relationship, Prue distrusts Cole for some time. Midway through season three, Prue also makes amends with her estranged father, Victor Bennett who left the family shortly after their mother's death.
During the season three finale, Prue and Piper unwittingly expose themselves as witches to the world after being caught on camera by a local news crew fighting with The Source's personal assassin Shax. In the aftermath of the exposure, Piper is shot by a crazed Wiccan fanatic who wanted to join the sisters' coven. Prue frantically tries to get Piper to a hospital, but is thwarted by the crowd of media in her way. Prue disregards the laws of magic and uses her powers against everyone in her way to save her sister's life. Prue gets Piper to a hospital bed where Piper tells her she's "so cold", and dies in Prue's arms. Prue, overcome with grief and rage, uses her powers and fighting skills to hold off a S.W.A.T. team attempting to take her down. Cradling her sister's body, she promises to "fix" her death.
In order to save her sister's life, Prue orders Piper's husband Leo Wyatt to find Phoebe and pass on a deal to The Source to turn back time. This would reset the exposure of magic and undo Piper's death. The Source agrees, knowing that he plans to double cross her in the end as Phoebe will be immune to the time reset while in The Underworld. In the end, Phoebe will not be able to warn her sisters' of the assassin's attack and he will kill her himself. Time is reversed to the sisters' first encounter with Shax. However, Phoebe no longer answers when Prue calls for help, as she was never sent back in time. The season ends on a cliffhanger with Piper and Prue left for dead after losing in the fight against Shax. Meanwhile, Phoebe remains trapped in The Underworld.
In the premiere of season four "Charmed Again ", it is revealed that Prue could not be saved in time from the fatal wounds she suffered at Shax's hands in the season three finale. Although the character is never shown again, Piper attempts numerous spells to resurrect Prue to no avail, and when she comes into contact with their grandmother, it is revealed that Prue is still struggling to adjust to being in the afterlife and that she is being helped to process her death by both Penny and the girls' mother Patty Halliwell. Penny also reveals to Piper that Prue cannot be summoned back to Earth because seeing Prue would not allow the sisters to grieve and finally move on. After going through phases of anger, denial, and depression, Piper accepts that Prue is really gone, and attends her funeral. This results in Phoebe having a premonition to save a young girl at the funeral and later discovering her identity as their younger half-sister Paige Matthews, a love child between their mother and her whitelighter, who was kept secret because of her whitelighter heritage. With the addition of Paige, Piper and Phoebe are able to reconstitute the Power of Three and avenge Prue's death in vanquishing Shax.
Also this season, the new Power of Three call on Prue's spirit to twice vanquish The Source – both in his original incarnation and that of his next incarnation, Cole. In the fifth season, Prue is briefly seen when Phoebe and Paige visit the past memory of Piper's wedding. However, Prue's face is never shown and only her back is seen due to copyright laws regarding Doherty's image. During the seventh season finale, it is revealed that after being asked for help from her sisters, Prue had taught Leo how to use astral projection despite being "really protective of it". Piper, Phoebe and Paige later utilize the power of astral projection to defeat the threat of the demon Zankou. This is indicated by Piper stating "Thank you Prue," once Piper, Phoebe and Paige reflect on the successful attack. The season then ends with Manor door being shut by a telekinetic force, implying Prue closed it from the afterlife.