In the world of television there is the rare situation where an actor leaves, or gets fired, from a show for a certain reason and instead of simply writing the character off they end up finding a another actor/actress to play that character. Most of the time the change become a bad idea and very rare is it ever a good change.

Because when the actor is change, then usually the character changes too.

Examples....

Some people may not know this, but in the pilots for Roseanne and Family Matters there were two different people playing D.J. and Judy Winslow, and after that episode they brought in the two people we're familiar with now.

Then of course there's Laurie Foreman, Eric's mainpulative and slutty sister. When they brought in another actress to play her, she wasn't as slutty or manipulative as the character was before.

But I think everyone gets the point. What are some other situations were this has been bad, or good, for certain shows.

Two words: Darrin Stevens

Bewitched should've packed it in when Dick York became to ill to work. Liz Montogmery just didn't have the chemistry with Dick Sergant that she had with York. Besides, Sergant played Darrin as too much of a baffoon.

Come to think of it, Bewitched tended to change actors alot. There were three Gladys Kravitzes and at least two Louise Tates.

Gaby vs. NuGaby on Ghostwriter. First was an annoying, but still sort of cute little sister. The second became a somewhat more stereotypical Latina girl. Hispanic accent, big ass hoop earrings, etc.

Are there any times when a second actor was better than the first? All I can think of was Sarah Michelle Gellar vs. Kristy Swanson (tv Buffy vs. movie Buffy). Character death aside, SMH had more acting chops and an excellent comedic timing. Since KS was on the big screen, though, I don't know if it counts.

I noticed in the Potluck forum that this thread had 1 reply (before me), but the page views was at 0. Odd.

Well, if we're talking about changes made after the Pilot, then, yeah, I'd say there are some examples of "good changes". Otherwise I can't think of many.

Early on in Seinfeld they replaced George's parents with actors who proved (IMO) better in their parts. Ditto with Jerry's dad. But, those were after only one or two appearances from the previous actors.

I'm not an avid soap watcher, but I remember a funny moment from my Mom's soap (One Life to Live) Blair had been played by an Asian actress, they replaced her with a blond haired white woman. When they had a big Wedding all of the grooms ex-wives had flashbacks to their relationships with the guy. "White-Blair" has a flashback to when she was "Asian-Blair" when the flashback is finished "White-Blair" looks confused and then checks herself in a mirror to see what she looks like.

ER did this a few times.
Mark Greene's daughter Rachel was recast when she came back in Season 8.
Benton's brother in law was originally played by Ving Rhames, but was recast in Season 7 or 8.

The husband of the mother of Benton's child, originally had only a few small scenes in S6 & 7 but when they wanted to do a big plot with him in S8 they recast him with Vondie Curtis Hall. And they even went back and reshot a scene from S7 with him for use in the 'Previously on ER' segements.

On The Partridge Family, Jeremy Gelbwaks played the nine year old drummer Chris on the first season. However, Jeremy's father got transferred from California to the East Coast, and he went with his family...never to be seen again.

Brian Forster played Chris for the remainder of the series. And after the show ran his course, he was never seen again also.

There were the two Becky's on Roseanne, Lecy Goranson and Sarah Chalke. Boy they switched those two up so many time, you never knew which one was going to be playing Becky from week to week!

Those ER changes never really bugged me so much, because the characters weren't so important, and they only replaced the actors a few seasons later. I couldn't remember who they had been before. That says something about the memorability of ER episodes, tho.

As for Seinfeld, I think it was only George's father who was replaced, and the first dad only appeared in one episode. I like Jerry Stiller a lot better. The DVD has both versions of "The Handicap Spot", with Jerry Stiller and that other guy. You can really see how they do the scenes differently: for example, when given the award for helping ppl in wheelchairs, the first dad is visibly pleased and smiling; Jerry Stiller, on the other hand, is all humble and even looks a bit annoyed with the attention. It was quite interesting to see that.

Newman was also meant to be a one-episode character, so he wasn't cast originally. Larry David did the voice of Newman in the "I'm on the roof!" scene. Later on, Wayne Knight was cast in the part and he read that line, so they added it in syndication to get the voice right. I like their attention to detail, in some shows they just couldn't care less.

Passions has to have had at least three different actresses playing the role of Kay, the conniving cousin of Charity, one of the resident witches. I haven't watched since the first or second season, but it struck me as rather funny that they had so many replacements so early in the series.

There's Marta on Arrested Development, admittedly a secondary character but a pivotal one for a few episodes. We never got a full explanation of the replacement (just the usual euphemisms), and both actresses were fine. Marta 1 had a special movie-star loveliness, but I doubt there would be any complaints about Marta 2 if we'd never seen the first one.

Passions had two different Gwens. Marcia Brady(I don't remember her real name), played Gwen's mother, then she got replaced. Two different actresses played Whitney's sister Simone.

Soaps are notorious for doing this. It's very rare that you get the same actor to play the character during the character's entire stay on the show.

One recast that I absolutely despised with a white hot passion was the recast of Dennis Parlato as Roger Thorpe on Guiding Light. WTF? Michael Zaslow, who created the character and played him for the better part of 30 years, was and is irreplacable. Even while he was sick, he still did a better job of playing Roger than Parlato did. There was an entire controversy surrounding the recast because Zaslow had been abruptly fired when he started getting sick (he was later diagnosed with ALS). Rather than write in Zaslow's illness, as he had requested, they fired him and hired a decent (as opposed to amazingly talented, incomparable, genius, etc.) actor to replace him. Furthermore, since the new guy was only decent and not one-of-daytime's-most-legendary-actors-of-all-time, the character was mangled and emasculated. Roger Thorpe was a powerful, diabolical, sexy, dastardly villian/anti-hero, but the new guy erased pretty much all of Roger's qualities and turned him into a concerned father (which Zaslow's Roger actually was, but there was so much more to him than his children). As for Roger's romantic relationships, all of the chemistry of the Roger and Holly relationship (which is widely regarded as one of the most complex, most enduring, and most gripping daytime couple of all-time) was sucked out because Parlato and Maureen Garrett had no spark. In the end, the audiences hated the recast and the character was written off the show, thereby disrupting the entire town dynamic and making way for clones, princesses, time travel, psychics and history-revising murder mysteries.

But to end on a positive note, some recasts that worked were both Wendy Moniz and Gina Tognoni as Dinah (the original was Paige Turco), Rob Bogue as Mallet, Rick Hearst as Alan-Michael, Maureen Garrett as Holly (in fact, no one even remembers the original anymore because Holly is so completely MG), Ron Raines as Alan, Marj Dusay as Alex, Joie Lenz as Michelle, Liz Keifer as Blake, Leonard Stabb as Hart, and Daniel Cosgrove as Bill.

Ana Isabel,

Kilamanjaro-sized word. TPTB at GL should be ashamed of their treatment of Michael Zaslow. The man was undeniably charismatic and no one, NO ONE should have ever attempted to replace him. And the eventual "resolution" they just recently tried to pass off (Sebastian and that whole crap storyline) reeked.

Sisters. The actress who played Charlie was changed from a redhead and slightly older looking woman (whose name I forget) to Charlotte from SATC. They meet in a sauna, and someone goes, "Oh, I almost didn't recognize you." Another sister says, "We've all changed." Well, you didn't all change hair color, body type and voice tho. That was disturbing.

The Bold and the Beautiful changed Thornes quite a few times. It was odd, because Clayton Norcross, the first actor who played him, looked nothing like Jeff Trachta, who came after him. (I can't believe I still remember those names.) And since Jeff could sing, they had Thorne and Macy do a world tour and be world famous singers - but when the new Thorne, whose name I have forgotten, came along, the singing was dropped completely.

Days of our lives:

Two Bos

Two Roman Brady's

Three Jack Deveroux's

Two Jennifer's

Two carri's Brady's

Two Austin Reed's

Two Billy Reed's

Two Will's

Two Abby's

Two Mickey Horton's

I seem to remember a funny scene when they changed moms on Fresh Prince.

Sorry to be nitpicky, but Charlie #2 was played by Sheila Kelley, not Kristin Davis.

I know Judy Winslow was replaced (before she became a vanishing character), but Candice Cameron did play D.J. in the pilot episode of Full House, at least the one that aired. There was an alternate pilot without Bob Saget as Danny Tanner though.

Speaking of Family Matters, it was also one of the most grating examples of this when it replaced Harriett Winslow in the final season. What the hell? Family Matters started off as a spin-off to Perfect Strangers, where Harriett Winslow was a minor character. So basically, this whole show and universe rested on her, and then they replaced her. They couldn't even bother to give a contrived "Urkel built a body-changing invention" explanation.

DJ from Roseanne, not DJ from Full House. I almost made the same misktake.



ITA. By that last season, it had been moved to CBS, and i bearely say those episodes til syndication, but i didnt like the replacement at all. Jo-Marie Payton (or Anne-Marie, can't recall) was an awesome Harriet, she WAS Harriet. The second chic, played the character too different and cartoonish for me, where as Harriet was always "real". I'm glad Payton is working on the Proud Family now, she makes that show awesome.

trice77>> Really? Then that must have been the same woman who was on LA Law. Yes, that's right. They do look slightly similar (tho IMO Kristin Davis both looks and acts better); but it was so long ago that I somehow misplaced her.

I also thought the original actress to play Charlie was Annie Potts, but I recently caught one of those eps and she looked nothing like Annie Potts at all. I dunno why I've replaced these ppl with more recent actresses.

My mom is addicted to Days Of Our Lives, and I don't watch it much, but in the course of only a few months, I think I saw 3 different actresses playing Belle.

The actress playing Colleen on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman was changed from a blue-eyed (IIRC) blond-haired girl (Erika Flores) to a brown-eyed auburn-haired girl (Jessica Bowman). They looked *nothing* alike, they should have just written Colleen out of the show or something.

Actually, it's been three actresses to play Simone. The first one was last seen as the only black girl in Jeepers Creepers 2. The second one was a pouty bitch who blamed everything on Whitney. The third one is the one who's there now. She looks like the second one, she just has a lighter skin color.

Days has had some AWESOME recast moments. There was Charity Rahmer, who was fired after her first day on the job. There was replacement Jennifer Stephanie Cameron, who was hired when Melissa Brennan quite suddenly, who had no acting experience, and who got the job because she was dating a producer. But my personal favorite was when they recast Jan - in the middle of the episode. I happened to be watching that day and literally couldn't wrap my head around it.

Another GL recast - I hated when they fired Rachel Miner as Michelle in order to age her into a teenager. Nothing against Rebecca Budig (I actually liker on AMC), but she never worked for me as Michelle and they never gave her a real personality beyond perky girl next door, and Rachel Miner had played Michelle for years. And then when they recast the part again they chose Joie Lenz, who is actually younger than Rachel is anyway!

Days of our Lives... I think there's been five actors playing Jack, but the third (and current, Matthew Ashford) is the only Jack for me.

Charity Rahmer, I think she played Belle for two weeks, basically got hired, and as soon as her first episode aired, she was canned.

Kirsten Storms (or is that Kristen), who played Belle before C.R. and left for the very short-lived CBS drama, Clubhouse, is currently stinking up the screen on (TF)GH ([i]General Hospital[i] for those who don't watch soaps, aka All Sonny's Children) was brought in as Maxie, so Robyn Richards, who grew up onscreen as Maxie for ten or so years, was fired so the show can have Maxiebelle. The last time Robyn was let go, it was also a real disaster.

OLTL'S Kevin Buchanan has had so many actors playing him (and not even accounting for aging the character from child to adult) that the role is considered one of the most jinxed on daytime.

The only saving grace about that? Jo Marie Payton QUIT the show when they moved to CBS because TPTB were turning it into the Urkel show and felt that the series was being driven in a direction she wanted no part of. Rock on, "Sugar Mama"!

Seriously though, all I can think about now is Dynasty and the two Fallons (Pamela Sue Martin and Emma Samms), the two Amandas (Catherine Oxenberg and Karen Cellini) and don't even get me started on the two different Stevens (Al Corley and Jack Coleman)... hmmm, let's disfigure him in an oil rig explosion that requires extensive facial surgery - and the explosion just knocked the gay right out of him!

Donna Reed taking over for Barbara Bel Geddes on Dallas was for me the big shark jump moment, though Bobby in the shower certainly didn't help. I loved when they pretty much admitted they screwed up and got Bel Geddes back; you don't see networks making that kind of confession often.

I thought they had to replace Barbara Bel Geddes because the actress got sick (heart trouble, I think). Anyone know for sure?

Speaking of Sisters, the character of Reed started out as a redheaded girl, turned into Ashley Judd and then changed again.

That's the only one I can think of off the top of my head.

I remember that, they'd always bring the fact that there was another actress playing Vivian, but the first woman was better.

The original Vivian didn't take any crap from anyone. Whenever Philip said something she didn't like she'd usually tell him off.

But with the new Viv, she wasn't the same way. Whenever Philip said something wrong this time, all she'd do is run up the stairs.

I think I caught the Ashley Judd episodes of Sisters. It would make sense that Reed has red hair, since Alex does; on the other hand, Ashley Judd was pretty good in the role IMO,although it was a fairly dumb character.

Bold & The Beautiful: I thought of another one: Bridget. She was changed from a blonde girl to a redhead teenager and I guess changed actresses again later on.

why do they keep changing the haircolor? Is it so hard to find another blonde/redhead actress in LA? I should think not.

Yes, Barbara Bel Geddes had to leave Dallas in order to have heart surgery. She returned when her health permitted (whereupon Donna Reed sued the producers for fulfillment of her contract, and got a settlement).

I have a question for regular daytime-soap watchers: how common is it for a recasting of a role to be audibly announced during a show? I was never a regular frequenter of those shows, but there was a year when I occasionally caught Santa Barbara, and twice I recall an actress entering, and a discreet announcer's voice murmuring "The role of Someingenue is now being played by Suzie Newstar." Is that how it's always done?

They do it a lot. I remember on Days, they've done it to announce replacements. I'm pretty sure I've seen it on General Hospital also.

Dark Shadows changed a lot of actors, though usually they seemed to make an effort to find people who looked similar to the previous one.

The various Trudys on Monk are becoming a pretty big problem. How are we supposed to feel his pain at the loss of his wife when she looks different every time we see her?

My understanding is that the whole "switching Vivian" thing on Fresh Prince didn't go down so well. I heard Will Smith in a later interview saying that the actress who played RealVivian was acting like it was her show, so they fired her. I heard a report that she had a few choice words about Will.

I think the "switching Harriet" thing on Family Matters was due to similar issues - Jo Marie didn't like the fact that her spin-off had become The Urkel Show. Since Jaleel White (Urkel) has got quite the ego and the execs probably viewed him as the show's draw, the canned her. As pompous as I think Will is, I can kind of see his situation better than Jaleel White. At least Will was the star of his show. But Urkel?

Rinaldo>> I think they announce it when they're recasting to fill the role temporarily. Like, "Due to Actress X's maternity leave, the role of X will today be played by Acrtress Y." However, they never seem to do it when they recast someone permanently. Then we're just supposed to swallow it like nothing ever happened. At least this is the way I've seen it done. I only know of the older-seasons B&B though, so I may be wrong.

Make It So>> Sounds believable to me. Doesn't Will Smith have quite an ego? I dunno how "Vivian" could see it as her show though. It's called the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, not the Fresh Vivian. She wasn't even one of the main characters IMO; I always thought it was Will and his cousins in the centre of the show, and Ma and Pa were kind of supporting cast members. Maybe she thought WILL had too much of an ego. It's so weird to watch an ego-battle of the stars from the outside; you never really know what's going on and why.

They do on my soaps. I still vividly remember the day when Dennis Parlato walked into the Spaulding library on Toby Poser's arm and the announcer said "The role of Roger Thorpe will now be played by Dennis Parlato." I remember going "WTF?" and being totally confused. That confusion lasted for an entire year until Parlato finally left the show. Then anger set in, but that's a different story.

My mother and I are convinced that Erika Flores was fired because she hit puberty, started to fill out, and looked waaaaay better than Jane Seymour. So they switched her out for a bad, skinny actress that couldn't uptstage Jane with her mere existance.

Topic? The Lionel switch on the Jeffersons. The original was adorable, with his big afro. The second was okay, but then the original came back.

Thank you so much for reminding me about that. I thought OriginalRecipeLionel was much more cool and real than ExtraCrispyLionel. I couldn't stand the second one - he looked and behaved absolutely nothing liked the first, and was way too over-acting and annoying. He tried too hard and talked to loud. Don't yell, ECLionel. We can hear you.

(Sidebar: Whatever happened to that annoying Jenny?)

I don't think I can recall a single switched character incident where I liked the second more than the first.

Actually, there's been three Billie Reeds. Lisa Rinna (the original), Krista Allen, and the current one, Julie Pinson. Kirsta Allen was by far the worst one of the three. She just couldn't shake her soft core porn training. Every single scene (regardless of whom she was talking to) consisted of her talking in that lame, breathy, sex-kitten, "I'm trying to seduce you" voice.

Rebecca/Becky on The Golden Girls was played by two different actresses: the heavy one, and the thinner curly haired one. The character of Kirsten was played by two different actresses as well. The first one was blond and average height, and the second one was a tall red-head.

The character of Carly on General Hospital was the awesomest of the awesome and was originally played by an awesome Sarah Brown. I was heartbroken when she left and it took about five years but her replacement, Tamara Braun, was just starting to grow on me and then she gets replaced with some chick who sucks so bad I can't even watch the show anymore.

There were two different Marilyns on the Munsters . Beverly Owen was the first. She left the show to get married and Pat Priest took over the role.

I just heard she got released from her contract. I'm too lazy to find the actual source. But I do remember that when Tamara Braun first started it took a long time before people warmed up to. I'm not that familiar with GH, but from what I gather, Carly is a very hard character to play.

In the '60s, Joan Crawford's daughter Christina had a role on a soap (Secret Storm? Search for Tomorrow? I'm too lazy to go dig out my copy of the book Mommie Dearest for confirmation). She fell ill and Joan herself took over the role for a time. Which was hella weird considering Christina's character was a young mom and Joanie Dearest was far from young by then. But it drew a ton of publicity because Joan was a movie icon.

The strangest actor switch in a soap opera that I remember was on All My Children in 1990. Michael E. Knight was well into his first decade of playing the role of Tad Martin when he was replaced for two or three months by a big bag of sand named Terrell Anthony. I seem to remember that Knight had hurt his leg and they decided that he could not play the role with a limp or a cast or whatever and temporarily recast the role. Does anyone know if I am remembering this incident accurately?

Edited for just a little tidying. No substantial changes.

Here's another honorable mention....Claire Kyle of My Wife and Kids.

When the show first started, she was a younger dark skinned little girl, but then as the show went on she suddenly became an older light skinned teenage girl.

What the fuck? That doesn't make even a little bit of sense.
Did the character suddenly age? Was there a horrible accident? Did the other characters acknowledge? I mean, that's not something you just let ride and hope noone will notice.

Regarding the whole Christina/Joan Crawford debate, I'm not sure how 100 percent accurate the movie Mommie Dearest is but they definite touch on it there (and I don't know why the movie would've embelished since there has to be footage of the scenes somewhere).

Anyway, it's pretty embarassing. Joan played the exact same character and actually had to interact with a much younger male actor who was the "boyfriend" or whatever. Christina was cringing, horrified, in bed watching it. And the whole time Joan was so loaded that she kept fucking up her lines and then blamed the people behind the cameras because they were keeping the queue cards "...too goddamn low..."

Of course they did the obligatory soap announcement, "Today the role of ____________ is being played by Joan Crawford." Like that's supposed to make us forget that today's actress is 30 fucking years older than the original!


ETA: In the movie the "set" was the kitchen from Happy Days.

Other than it being his collarbone that was broken, not his leg -- yes!
IIRC, he injured it playing on the AMC softball team.

Big bag of sand is a very accurate description of the unfortunate Mr. Anthony. This was during the affair w/ Brooke where Jamie was conceived, too, I think (couldn't have Tad messing around with his shoulder immobilized, after all!)

Hey.....*slaps forehead*.....mabe THAT explains what's wrong with Lamie......the real Tad is NOT his father!