Recast An Old Sitcom (Any Character) With A 'Modern' Actor - Reuse of Character or Actor Allowed

This particular category is going like gangbusters over in the Thread Game room, so I’m starting it over here for your casting couch ideas. So far we have the following:

Hugh Jackman as Colonel Hogan; Hogan’s Heroes
Ben Stiller as Wilbur Post; Mister Ed
Amy Adams as Samantha Stevens; Bewitched
Drew Barrymore as Ann Marie; That Girl
Johnny Galecki as Frank Burns, MAS*H
Jim Parsons as Barney Fife, The Andy Griffith Show
Marty Feldman as Barney Fife; The Andy Griffith Show
Simon Helberg as Larry Dallas, Three’s Company
Lewis Black as Alan Brady, The Dick Van Dyke Show
Kristen Bell as Samantha (and Sarina); Bewitched

Expanding on Kristin Bell as Samantha,

Jimmy Fallon as Darren Stevens
John Larroquette as Larry Tate
Amy Poehler as Gladys Kravits
Debra Messing as Endora

Gilligan’s Island

Gilligan: Jay Baruchel
Skipper: Kevin James
Professor: Scott Patterson
Ginger: Megan Fox
Mary Ann: Jewel Staite
Thurston Howell III: Sam Anderson
Mrs. Lovey Howell: Christine Baranski

Not sure if Marty Feldman can be considered a modern actor. He has been dead for over 30 yrs.

Simon Helberg as Uncle Arthur or Ed Norton
Jane Lynch as Endora or Alice Kramdon
Lea Michelle as Anne Marie
Kaley Cuoco as Jeannie

For Bewitched, I’d use
John Slattery - Larry Tate
Alison Janney - Endora
Jon Hamm - Darrin #1
Emma Stone - Samantha
Melissa McCarthy - Gladys Kravitz

How about Get Smart?
John Krasinski - Maxwell Smart
Jennifer Garner - Agent 99
Mitch Peleggi - The Chief
John Barrowman - Hymie

Building on Kaley Cuoco as Jeannie

Paul Rudd as Tony Nelson
Steve Carrell as Roger Healey
Will Farrell as Dr. Bellows
Amy Poehler as Amanda Bellows
Dennis Farina as Gen. Peterson
Jane Curtin as Mrs Peterson

Quentin Tarintino as Darren Stevens in Bewitched.

Happy Belated Birthday, QT!

I only get one character out of each show before I grind to a halt…

All in the Family
John Goodman as Archie

The Bob Newhart Show
Clark Gregg as Bob

The Honeymooners
Patton Oswalt as Ralph Kramden

James Earl Jones as George Jefferson and Morgan Freeman as Cliff Huxtable.

R Lee Ermey as Sergeant Vince Carter.

I would like to see Billy Bob Thornton in the role of Bad Andy Griffith.

I saw a dream sequence on King of Queens with Kevin James playing Ralph Kramden. I thought for a minute it was a real clip with Jackie Gleason. In fact the whole sequence with Leah Remini and Victor Williams (Deacon) as Norton was pretty darned good… There should be an updated Honeymooners show!

10-15 years ago, Debra Messing would have been a PERFECT Lucy Ricardo. She’s matured now, just enough, to no longer be a contender

I betcha Jennifer Lawrence could manage it.

How about some potential actors/actresses for the Beverly Hillbillies?

I think Rondi Reed (Mike’s Mother from Mike and Molly) or Holland Taylor would make a good Granny.

Kate Micucci (Lucy from Big Bang Theory) as Miss Jane.

Heather Morris (Brittany from Glee) as Elly Mae.

Angus Jones (Jake from Two and half Men) as Jethro

Conchata Ferrell as Mrs Drysdale

ooooh! Holland Taylor as Endora! Perfect

And Melanie Lynksy (Rose) as Stalker Mrs Kratvitz

If you haven’t already, you must see Daddy and Them (2001)

Netflix has it available for streaming.

I have seen that. Pretty good.

I’m going to suggest Paget Brewster for Endora. She’s really young-looking for hear age, but she’s a very surprising 47, and so she’s not too young for the part, and she’s very, very funny. People who have seen her only on Criminal Minds should look up The Trouble with Normal or Andy Richter Controls the Universe on Youtube, and see how funny she is. Also, Endora is all about the make-up and costumes. Agnes Moorehead played a lot of very dowdy characters, from the farm woman on the Twilight Zone episode, to matrons of women’s prisons who were all tweed and gloves, and had demonstrated range, but had never done a part remotely like Endora, and yet she knocked it out of the park.

Of course, if we were talking 20 years ago, Brewster could do Samantha. She can’t be just a pretty blonde-- she has to carry the show.

I’m really not sure who I’d suggest for Samantha now.

Jim Parsons for Darren. Did anyone else see the small part he played at the end of Judging Amy? he was great in that, and it was an un-Sheldon-like part. He wore suits, and looks really natural in them-- he can definitely pull off the 9-5er look.

That almost makes me want to suggest William Shatner for Larry Tate, but that’d be too distracting.

Would it be too far out to suggest making the Larry Tate character a woman? How about S. Epatha Merkerson? We know she can play an authority figure, and I’ve seen her be funny in other contexts.

I’d like to see Ellen DeGeneres as Gladys Kravitz, but that’s probably too much of a step down for her. If she’d do it, though, then maybe as an in-joke, Arye Gross could play Abner Kravitz.

Thomas Lennon for Dr. Bombay.

The only problem is, I’m not so sure how topical a revival of Bewitched would be. People want their magical shows a little darker now, and you can hardly make the show without references to their sex life. What’s it like for Darren to be incredibly sexually potent as soon as he gets home from work? Not to mention, there wasn’t just a movie out called Bell, Book and Candle to inspire it.

Skipper: Nathan Fillion
Gilligan: Adam Baldwin
Ginger: Morena Baccarin
Mary Ann: Jewel Staite
Thurston Howell III: Alan Tudyk
Mrs. Howell: Gina Torres
Professor: Ron Glass

Update the concept by making it set in space and throw in a couple more passengers like Sean Maher and Summer Glau.