I mean, his real name is Tony, so why did they make him Jack?

Jack tested better with focus groups.

Really? I don't know. Maybe Anthony Bourdain just didn't want his real name used because it's only "based on" his life. There are probably parallels to this choice.

In the future, every male tv character will be named Jack. We're halfway there already.

In the future, every male tv character will be named Jack.

What, no Logans?

And a sprinkling of Dannys.

For variety.

ETA:

Because after about Season Five on [Buffy], or the end of Season Four, I was that guy. [Buffy creator] Joss [Whedon] actually said Xander was done--that there was no more. I was just kind of relegated to the background. It was one of those things that, where I was at in my life, the money was more important than my pride or taking care of myself.

This seems a little odd to me, because Xander had quite a lot to do in Season 6 and almost all the main characters were dropped in Season 7 in favor of those stupid potentials and Andrew.

But, they used his real last name, which is much more unique.

Wait. Maybe Travel Channel owns the copyright to the name "Anthony Bourdain."

Tony was too "ethnic." Yo, Angela!

I thought that Brendon's alcoholism limited the ways he could be used?

[yes i kan spel]

That's what I thought.

When he said he took time off to 'take care of some stuff', I thought, "hmmm."

Good on him for doing it though.

I thought that Brendon's alcoholism limited the ways he could be used?

That's been implied, but I understand why he wouldn't spell it out in an interview for a new product. There's just nothing for him to gain by bringing it up; "the character's story was done" can be read here as equivalent to "creative differences." And also, as we weren't on the set, we can't know -- it might well have been a spiral where Joss put Xander in the background, so Nick got frustrated and drank more, so even less was written for Xander, ad infinitum.

In any case, I wish him the best.