Prime Time Actor Switcheroos

[astorian]

How many prime time TV shows can you think of where an actor or actress was replaced, and we were supposed to pretend nothing had changed?

I can think of...

Dick York/Dick Sargent on "Bewitched"
Two different Marilyns on "The Munsters"
Two different drummers on "The Partridge Family"
Short, stacked, English Emma Samms replacing tall, skinny, American Pamela Sue Martin on "Dynasty."
Donna Reed replacing Barbara Bel Geddes on "Dallas."
Meg Foster/Sharon Gless on "Cagney & Lacey"

This is COMMON on daytime soaps, but what other rime time shows have kept a character while changing the actor?

[Little Nemo]

Two different actors played Lionel on the Jeffersons
Two different actresses played Becky on Roseanne.
I think Cagney (or was it Lacey?) was also played by Loretta Swit at some point.

[Gilligan]

Jump the Shark has a list of these.

[BobT]

This happens a lot and this list could go on and on. Think about the theater. It happens there on a regular basis. Actors have contract disputes, they get tired of a role, producers don't like the way the actor performs, etc.

[Wendell Wagner]

The absolute worst case of this was a very early TV show called _The Aldrich Family_. It ran from 1949 to 1953. At that point, since switching actors didn't seem to matter much in plays or on radio, TV producers thought they could get away with the same thing on TV. The lead character was played by five actors over those four years. Several other central characters had three actors playing them during the run of the series.

[Torgo]

On "Seinfeld" the original actors who portrayed Morty Seinfeld and Frank Costanza were replaced by Barney Martin and Jerry Stiller respectively. You can still see the "original" Morty in some of the earlier episodes in syndication but the ones with the original Frank were either dumped or they reshot the scenes with Stiller.

[Mercutio]

Let's not forget the two different pairs of Charlies Angels.

[Outrider]

I think Babylon 5 pulled this on at least one character.

It's actually one of the reasons why I stopped watching the show. I liked the first season, and then I tuned in for the second and was like: "Who are these people?"

[Little Nemo]

Torgo made a good point that minor characters are sometimes played by different actors in different episodes. In addition to the examples he gave, I believed Ross' first wife in Friends, Frank's wife on Wiseguys, and Ray's girlfriend in Stingray were all played by different actresses at different times.

Let's not forget the two different pairs of Charlies Angels.

The various Angels came in trios not pairs. The six from the original series were different characters in the show. The three from the recent movie were also different characters from the show. So technically no single character was ever played by two different actresses.

[Why A Duck]

Originally posted by Outrider
I think Babylon 5 pulled this on at least one character.

It's actually one of the reasons why I stopped watching the show. I liked the first season, and then I tuned in for the second and was like: "Who are these people?"

[dons geek hat]

AFAIK, the only character they really pulled this with was Na'Toth, G'Kar's aide. The actress wanted out and JMS needed the character to remain for plot purposes. Not that noticible under all that make-up.

Maybe you're referring to the cast overhaul between the pilot and the series. There was about a year (our time) lapse between the two (I think) and the characters weren't recast so much as transferred off the station and replaced with the others. Even then, Lyta Alexander from the pilot came back to the show after Talia went off to pose nude and become a detective with Sipowicz. There were other cast rotations that went on, but I don't believe they did other changes like in the OP.

[removes chapeau d'geek]

[mongrel_8]

This wasn't exactly the same characters but pretty darn close. On Dukes Of Hazzard, Bo and Luke were replaced with Vance and Coy one season. IIRC this was because John Schneider and Tom Wopat had arguments over merchandising. Vance and Coy were bad look alike to Bo and Luke, and they only lasted 6 monthes until Bo and Luke returned. Pretty stupid if you ask me.

[Crusoe]

Speaking of the two different actresses playing Becky in Roseanne, has anyone else seen the, um, "adult" photograph of the first actress?

[Sparteye]

In the very short run of Bette Midler's series this season, Bette, the actor initially cast to play her husband was replaced by Robert Hays.

And Little Nemo is right; Loretta Swit played Cagney in the movie pilot for the series Cagney & Lacey.

[furryman]

How about Doctor Who? I think their up to six or seven different actors, all who played the same part. I didn't realize that two different actresses had played Mrs. Kravitz on Bewitched until I was watching a show about it on E!.

[furryman]

Hey! I forgot about Dark Shadows! Three different actresses played Victoria Winters, and the actors who played Sherriff Patterson and Dr. Woodard were both replaced.

[rowrrbazzle]

Babylon 5 did re-cast other characters and re-use actors. Here are ones I can think of.

Re-uses

The actor who played Byron had a couple of lines as a Minbari in a previous episode.

Theodore Bikel played Ivanova's family rabbi, then in the later TV movie "In the Beginning" had a supporting role as a Minbari.

Ed Wasser played a minor technician in the pilot, then later played the major role of Morden.

Re-cast

The actor who played the Minbari who took over the Great Machine later showed up as (human) Brother Theo and another actor took over the Minbari role.

SPOILER SPACE
























Sheridan's sister Elizabeth gives him a copy of the last video message to her from his wife Anna before she disappeared and was presumed dead. Anna was played by Beth Toussaint in this message. In a later episode, Anna turns up alive, played by Melissa Gilbert (who is IRL the wife of Bruce Boxleitner who plays Sheridan).

[ZenBeam]

Adding to zgystardst's list, Wayne Alexander played Loren, then later played one of the Draak (sp?).

[Sparteye]

And speaking of Dark Shadows, it had lots of cast changes. John Karlen (and speaking of Cagney & Lacey...) played the Willy character for years, but was not the first actor to play the part. I forget the name of the original Willy. And since DS was made on a budget of $1.79 a day, they didn't reschedule or rewrite when a cast member got sick, so if, say, Nancy Barrett (the actress who played Caroline) was ill, for one or two days someone else played the part, and then Barrett would come back. This happened a lot in the first year or so of the series. OTOH, the series also had the same actors playing many parts...

[MrAtoz]

How about Dr. Who? I think their up to six or seven different actors, all who played the same part.

There have been seven Doctor Whos (or is it Doctors Who?). Eight if you count Paul McGann in the Fox TV movie. Nine if you count Peter Cushing in the two Dalek theatrical movies. Ten if you count Richard Hurndall, who replaced the late William Hartnell in "The Five Doctors."

Somebody was saying something about a geek hat?

Actually, Dr. Who is one of the few shows that can get away with this, precisely because it's science fiction. When a new Doctor comes along, the other characters don't just pretend that it's the same guy. Quite the contrary, the fact that the Doctor is able to change his physical appearance is a feature of the program.

There were two different voices for Betty Rubble, and at least two voices for Velma on Scooby Doo. But perhaps that's not quite the same thing.

[Aceospades]

what about the two different mothers in the fresh prince of belair

[rowrrbazzle]

Originally posted by ZenBeam
Adding to zgystardst's list, Wayne Alexander played Loren, then later played one of the Draak (sp?).

Forgot Wayne. Before he was re-used as Lorien, he played Sebastian, the Inquisitor in "Comes the Inquisitor". He also played a Drazi in the episode "Intersections in Real Time."

[Mersavets]

Possibly the most outrageous of all switches; Smithers from the Simpsons started as a black guy (first season) and finished as a white guy.

[Ethilrist]

They replaced Michael Landes with Justin Whalin as Jimmy Olsen in Lois and Clark.

There were several Lassies, as I recall.

[AWB]

Originally posted by Little Nemo
Torgo made a good point that minor characters are sometimes played by different actors in different episodes. In addition to the examples he gave, I believed Ross' first wife in Friends, Frank's wife on Wiseguys, and Ray's girlfriend in Stingray were all played by different actresses at different times.

Wow, I didn't realize that Ross' wife, Carol Willick, was played by anyone else than Jane Sibbitt. But Anita Barone was Carol in "The One with the Sonogram at the End". She also played Jeff Foxworthy's wife Karen for the first incarnation of his show, but was also replaced. She's a one-woman "First Wife's Club"!

Also: SCTV's Andrea Martin originated the role of Ishka, Quark and Rom's mother, on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine". But all other appearances of Ishka were played by Cecily Adams (Don Adams' daughter).

[Ceejaytee]

Originally posted by MrAtoz

There have been seven Doctor Whos (or is it Doctors Who?). Eight if you count Paul McGann in the Fox TV movie. Nine if you count Peter Cushing in the two Dalek theatrical movies. Ten if you count Richard Hurndall, who replaced the late William Hartnell in "The Five Doctors."

14, using your numbers; 13, using the Internet Movie Database, for "Dr. Who and the Curse of Fatal Death". Rowan Atkinson, Richard E. Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant, and Joanna Lumley all played the Doctor.

In "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air," Aunt Viv was played by Janet Hubert-Whitten and then by Daphne Maxwell Reid.

[Ethilrist]

Well, if we're talking movies, let's not forget James Bond, who has been played by Sean Connery, David Niven, Peter Sellers, Terence Cooper, Woody Allen, Roger Moore, George Lazenby, Timothy Dalton, and Pierce Brosnan. Plus, in Never say Never again, they replaced Q, M, and Moneypenny. Q and M may not count because the letter title seems to pass with the job, but I think they intended for the characters to be the same people, not just the same title.

[Balthisar]

Let's not forget that Xev changed to Zev in the transistion from "Tales from a Parallel Universe" to "Lexx: the Series."

[zev_steinhardt]

Originally posted by Balthisar
Let's not forget that Xev changed to Zev

... but I definitely looked better as Xev...

Zev Steinhardt

[Little Nemo]

Possibly the most outrageous of all switches; Smithers from the Simpsons started as a black guy (first season) and finished as a white guy.

Smithers was never intentionally black. However in one of his early appearances, there was a communications glitch between the American producers and the Korean animators which resulted in him being colored brown instead of yellow. Due to time and budget constraints, and the fact that Smithers was a minor character at the time, the episode was broadcast with the error.

On the other hand, Smithers was originally heterosexual. In another early appearance he had a line where he refered to his wife and kids. However the line was cut from the script, making it possible for later writers to develop his alternate lifestyle.

[furryman]

Originally posted by Ethilrist
Plus, in Never say Never again, they replaced Q, M, and Moneypenny. Q and M may not count because the letter title seems to pass with the job, but I think they intended for the characters to be the same people, not just the same title.

The same Q? I don't think so! Not unless he got a sex change!

[Arken]

Re: Speaking of geek hats

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by MrAtoz

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How about Dr. Who? I think their up to six or seven different actors, all who played the same part.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


There have been seven Doctor Whos (or is it Doctors Who?). Eight if you count Paul McGann in the Fox TV movie. Nine if you count Peter Cushing in the two Dalek theatrical movies. Ten if you count Richard Hurndall, who replaced the late William Hartnell in "The Five Doctors."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


14, using your numbers; 13, using the Internet Movie Database, for "Dr. Who and the Curse of Fatal Death". Rowan Atkinson, Richard E. Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant, and Joanna Lumley all played the Doctor.

In "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air," Aunt Viv was played by Janet Hubert-Whitten and then by Daphne Maxwell Reid.

Let's make it 15. As any WHOvian knows, there is also the guy who was The Valeyard. He's the Doctor sometime after his 12th regeneration who has become evil. Add whoever is going to be in the next Dr. Who movie if it ever gets made and we'll have 16.

Dr. Who also had four actors to play The Master if you count Eric Roberts in the Paul McGann TV movie and two actresses to play Romana.

[Wendell Wagner]

Ethilrist writes:

> Well, if we're talking movies, let's not forget James
> Bond, who has been played by Sean Connery, David Niven,
> Peter Sellers, Terence Cooper, Woody Allen, Roger Moore,
> George Lazenby, Timothy Dalton, and Pierce Brosnan.

There's also Barry Nelson, who played Bond in an American TV movie of _Casino Royale_ in 1954. There's Reg Gadney, who played James Bond in some short sequences in a TV documentary in 1989 called _Goldeneye: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming_. There's also seven other people listed in the IMDb as playing James Bond in a small role in other films. Apparently in each of those seven films it's supposed to be a joke that this person seen briefly in one scene is actually James Bond.

[Arken]

IIRC, in the feature film version of Casino Royale, the original James Bond, played by David Niven, orders everyone in MI6 to be reclassified as James Bond 007 including the women. So, from that point on in the film, absolutely every agent you see is James Bond. That includes the aforementioned Sellars, Allen, Cooper and Niven, but also includes Ursula Andress, Joanna Pettet, Daliah Lavi and Deborah Kerr. And, since Woody Allen was James Bond 007, Jimmy Bond AND Dr. Noah, we should include Valentine Dyall to that list too as he provided the OTHER voice for Dr. Noah.

What a confusing movie!

[Bricker]

On "Law and Order," S. Epatha Merkerson, who plays Lt. Van Buren, appeared as "Denise Winters" in an early episode. Jerry Orbach, who plays Det. Lenny Briscoe, appeared earlier as defense attorney Frank Lehrman.

On "L.A. Law," A Martinez played a convict facing a death sentence several years before he became a regular on the show as attorney Daniel Morales. Richard Masur played a con-man who is cross-examined into heart attack, and a few years later appeared as a sixties radical and fugitive from justice.

I realize these are the same actors playing different characters, rather than the other way around...

- Rick

[zev_steinhardt]

Originally posted by Bricker


I realize these are the same actors playing different characters, rather than the other way around...

- Rick [/b]

One of the most famous examples of this is when Harry Morgan played a general on M*A*S*H and then returned a few years later as Col. Potter.

Zev Steinhardt

[kunilou]

Does no one remember all the Bradley girls on Petticoat Junction?

Three Billie Jo's (4 if you count Sharon Tate in the pilot)
Two Bobbie Jo's.
Thank God Betty Jo was the producer's daughter.

Phyllis Coates gave way to Noel Neil on The Adventures of Superman.

On Happy Days, Chuck Cunningham only showed up in a handful of episodes and they had to use two different actors. Ditto with Donald Penobscott on M*A*S*H

Barney Miller's wife was played by Abby Dalton in the pilot before they switched to Barbara Barrie for the run of the show.

And how many different parents did Helen Hunt have on Mad About You, and Rob Petrie have on the Dick Van Dyke show?

For that matter, how many different Kenny's have been on South Park? I mean, he's replaced in EVERY episode!

[Markxxx]

What about "Grace Under Fire?" not only did they switch actors they aged the character about 5 years

Quentin was the character.

[Sparteye]

As to actors appearing in multiple roles on a show:

Paul Lynde first appeared on Bewitched as a driving instructor. They liked him so much, they brought him back as Uncle Arthur.

[AWB]

<a href="http://www.funtrivia.com/quizdetails.cfm?id=53033">Play Quiz: TV Characters Played by Two (or More) Actors now!</a>

[AWB]

(oops, forgot to translate from HTML.)

Play Quiz: TV Characters Played by Two (or More) Actors now!

[curly chick]

Originally posted by furryman
The same Q? I don't think so! Not unless he got a sex change!

M. You mean M.

Q is the Quartermaster who doles out the gizmos and gadgets. Most initially and most frequently played by Desmond Llewellyn and now played by John Cleese. There was one film where they were both in it and Cleese was Llewellyn's assistant, what was he called in that film?
And, I agree with Ethilrist in that the name of these characters is the title of the job, not the name of theperson who does the job.
Although, sticking with the Bond theme, didn't Donald Pleasance and Telly Savalas both play the same character, Blofeld, when he was actually seen on screen and another guy played him in the one Bond film where he was never seen?

[Rex Fenestrarum]

Plus, in Never say Never again, they replaced Q, M, and Moneypenny.

That's because NSNA was an "unauthorized" James Bond film. Ian Fleming licenced the JB character solely to MGM. NSNA was made by Sony, who claimed to have a license granted to them by one of Fleming's associates.

For more information about this copyright issue, consult your local library. Or just click here, I don't care.

[Cliffy]

Originally posted by Rex Fenestrarum
That's because NSNA was an "unauthorized" James Bond film. Ian Fleming licenced the JB character solely to MGM. NSNA was made by Sony, who claimed to have a license granted to them by one of Fleming's associates.

Unauthorized is too strong a term by far -- Sony did have a legal right to do a remake of Thunderball as part of a legal settlement.

Getting back to the OP, I enjoyed the way Roseanne handled the switch -- in the episode where Sarah Chalke repaced Lecy Goranson as Becky, one scene shows the family watching Betwitched and commenting on the Dick York/Sargent changeover. At one point the new Becky says something along the lines of "Did they think we wouldn't notice?"

As to shows reusing actors, Star Trek is the king of this particular practice. Off the top of my head I can think of at least three characters played by Majel Barrett, James Cromwell, Tim Russ, Mark Lenard, J.G. Hertzler, and Diana Muldar, and it looks like Jeffrey Coombs has played five, three of them recurring roles. Several other actors have shown up at least twice, such as Rene Auberjonois, Marc Alaimo, Brock Peters, Armin Shimmerman, Ethan Phillips, Robert Duncan MacNeil, and plenty of others. Just a few weeks ago on Enterprise the andorian second in command sounded an awful lot like Worf's old girlfriend.

--Cliffy

[godzillatemple]

"Law and Order" frequently recasts actors in one episode to play completely different characters in another episode. It's fun seeing an actor portraying a black man who's been passing as white one night, only to see him in another episode playing a New Jersey police detective...

Barry

[Earl Snake-Hips Tucker]

reusing actors, Star Trek is the king

Actually, I would put Jack Webb's Dragnet (1960s version) ahead of this. He had a pool of actors that he reused as different characters. That might also be true of the 1950s incarnation, but I have seen only a few of those.

[Finagle]

Another sort of geek checking in. In Red Dwarf, Lister's long lost love Kochanski is played by Chloe Annette starting, I think, in season 7. Looks and acts nothing like the actress who played Kochanski in various flashbacks and time travel episodes.

[TWDuke]

This may require a ruling from the judges, but a few different actresses have played Ginger Grant of Gilligan's Island. Tina Louise played her throughout the series, but didn't return for any of the later TV movies.

Also, if we're including guest stars, we can't forget Batman, most noticeably wildly dissimilar Julie Newmar and Eartha Kitt as Catwoman, but also Frank Gorshin and John Astin as Riddler.

[jacquilynne]

Law and Order fans refer to the recast actors as 'Repeat Offenders'. There's a fairly comprehensive list to be found here: Law and Order Repeat Offenders

[silverfish]

On the bond subject, I've found this website, which might be good for some of the recurring characters:

http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~pros...ond/recur.html

It confirms that, as curly chick says, Donald Pleasance and Telly Salavas did both play Blofeld, in 'You Only Live Twice' and 'On her majesty's secret service' respectively (according to www.imdb.com), as well as charles gray (Diamonds are forever), and the voice of Eric Pohlmann in 'From Russia with love'. Of those, I think we actually see Blofeld in all but 'From Russia with love', from my memory of seing the films, but I think we see blofeld from being a desk in that one.

I agree that Q and M are job titles. John Cleese played 'R' in 'the world is not enough', and presumedly R took over from Q, as it was indicated that R would be a replaced for Q.

Also, on red dwarf, as well as kochanski, Kryten was played by someone else when he appear in series 2 episode 1 (kryten). He was played by David Ross apparently:
http://www.reddwarf.co.uk/flibble/ross/ross.html#kryten
who apparently also played 'talkie toaster' in white whole.

Then there is the Holly's (red dwarf's computer) 'sex change', changing from Norman Lovett head to Hattie Hayridge. I think that is explained (in the opening credits of the series when the change happens, I think), and Hattie Hayridge had appeared previously as Hilly, a female version of Holly, when holly finds a way into a parallel universe. I think Norman does appear later on as holly, in series 7 or 8.

[Cervaise]

Originally posted by Cliffy
As to shows reusing actors, Star Trek is the king of this particular practice.

Well, sort of, depending on how you define the question. The ongoing Nero Wolfe series on A&E (with Timothy Hutton as Archie and Maury Chaykin as Nero) consciously decided to create an ensemble of supporting actors who would rotate repertory-style through various characters in succeeding episodes. It's occasionally distracting, but once you get used to it I think it's a neat touch. That's not exactly what "Trek" and the other examples mentioned are doing, though.