Left because The writers found out that there were no coloured/black surgeons in the Korean war, so they got rid of his character after only the 5th episode.
I can’t believe there were ZERO black surgeons in the Korean War, but I’ve been wrong before. Wasn’t Richard Hooker a Korean War Vet? Why would he write something so implausable?(sp?)
IIRC, James Garner played two different characters in one of his series. The original character wasn’t working out so they KILLED HIM OFF. He then came back as a completely new character – the lead in the series, no less. I think it was a relative of the original character. This may have been a revamped version of “Maverick”.
Harry Morgan had a one epsisode role in MASH as a lunatic, power-mad colonel, or possibly general, named Steele, that tries to have Hawkeye courtmartialed. Years later he became a regular as Sherman Potter.
In the movies, Joe Don Baker was the villian to Timothy Dalton’s Bond in The Living Daylights, but for the past two installments he’s been Pierce Brosnin’s CIA friend.
Continuing the “Same character, different actor” theme, how could we forget Darren Stephens on “Bewitched”?
Dick York and Dick Sargent.
**Since we’re on the subject, I should mention the Jump the Shark website, which examines the exact point at which various good TV shows started to go downhill (the website’s name comes the episode which marked the beginning of the end for Happy Days, wherein Fonzie jumped the shark on his bike). There are several categories of TV death-moves laid out at this site, including same character/different actors, puberty, singing, making a movie, and (my favorite) associating the show in any way with Ted McGinley (Jefferson D’Arcy on Married… with Children.
Great site for this topic–very funny.
ben901
This is quite a long thread, but most of the more popular same character/different actor instances were mentioned on page 1 or 2 (i.e., * Bewitched, Roseanne, The Jeffersons, The Partridge Family, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, My Three Sons, Seinfeld and Hogan’s Heroes.*
ben901
**Ooooops… sorry for screwing up the link. Try this:
ben901
hm… if we take non regulars who had significant roles, Dennis Frantz played a dirty cop who got killed before coming back as Buntz in Hill Street Blues.
William Campbell was Trelane on Squire of Gothos and Koloth in The Trouble with Tribbles (Star Trek)
Mark Lenard was the Romulan commander in Balance of Terror before he played Spock’s father in Journey to Babel (Star Trek).
Laura Palmer on Twin Peaks was never played by anyone other than Sheryl Lee. The person who posted that might have reversed the idea of same actor/different character, since Lee also played Laura’s cousin Maddy, who looked exactly like her, except with black hair instead of blonde.
Also, the Fonz jumped the shark on waterskis. He jumped a row of something (buses?) on his bike, but that was earlier.
Rilchiam beat me to pointing this out.
Donna Hayward was played by a different actress in the Twin Peaks: Fire, Walk With Me movie than in the series.
QUOTE:On the Simpsons, Selma gave her name as Selma
Bouvier McClure Hutz Terwilliger. The marriage
to Lionel Hutz was never shown or explained.
Since Phil Hartman, who voiced the character,
was killed, it never will be.
UNQUOTE
there was an episode where they got married
they broke up because Selma’s sister was so depressed that Selma went back to live with her.
…or something
No that was when she was dating Principal Skinner, and they never got married, he just proposed.
wait a minute,
I remember Skinner now that you bring it up,but what about
McClure?
Didn’t she get it on with him, too?
oh yeah and let us not forget Sideshow Bob…who almost blew her up.
I need to recant my original post on this subject,
I had confused Hutz with McClure.
my humble apologies.
carry on…
Does dissapearing/morphing species count? I recall one episode of one of the later Star Trek series where the main characters travelled back on time to the “Trouble With Tribbles” incident. One of the travellers mentions the different appearance of the Klingons to Worf, who replies with something like “We don’t like to talk about that.”
I’m really taxing the synapses here, but I thought the actor who played the original Mr. Wilson (George) died, and the second Mr. Wilson (John) was supposed to be his brother.
The guy who plays Lenny Briscoe in Law and Order played a defense attorney in some episodes early on.
The wonderful character actress Doris Packer played the rich, snooty mother of Milton Armitage in the first season of Dobie Gillis.
Milton disappeared, to be replaced by Chatsworth Osborne in later seasons, and Packer was back as his mother.
So there you have a disappearing character and a re-appearing actor.
By the way, Warren Beatty never mentions that he played Milton Armitage.