From time to time a supporting character will leave a long-running show, and the producers decide to bring in a new character who is, for all intents and purposes, the same as the old character. (A la Bewitched sometimes it actually IS the same character.)
Inevitably, comparisons are drawn. So the question is, what replacements have been significantly worse than the original actor.
I’m not talking about B.J./Potter/Winchester from MAS*H, who were distinctly different from their predecessors, but more like the second Gladys Kravitz on Bewitched or second Mr. Wilson on Dennis the Menace.
My classic example is Dorothy Loudon, a talented singer and comedienne, who had the misfortune to replace Carol Burnett on the old Gary Moore Show. Loudon was pretty good, but Burnette was one in a million.
I’m not the OP, but I’d argue yes. None of the replacements for either were as good as the originals. Especially Priscilla Barnes…that woman couldn’t do funny to save her life.
TV Tropes calls this the Jonas Quinn, named for the character, played by Corin Nemic, who replaced Daniel Jackson after Michael Shanks left the series (temporarily, as it turned out). Although Jonas was actually a fairly good replacement, so he doesn’t fit in the thread, there’s several characters listed in the examples that do. (When they’re playing the same character, that’s The Other Darrin - proving it can be done with the leads, not only the supporting characters.)
Why single out Curly Joe? I thought Joe de Rita did a helluva job as a Curly replacement. He looked like him, which is more than Shemp or Joe Besser did. He wasn’t as much into the physical comedy, but look at how old he was at the time!
The guy people SHOULD complain about is Joe Besser – he didn’t look right. To me, he didn’t FEEL right. And he wouldn’t take a pie in the face.
I will argue that Mission: Impossible wasn’t quite as good when they replaced Stephen Hill with Peter Graves. You went from a mastermind type to a relatively typical action hero.
Replacing Martin Landau with Leonard Nimoy also didn’t help.
I agree, Curly Joe was a good replacement. I was alive, though only a kid when he was together with Moe and Larry. But why complain about Shemp? He was a natural replacement for Curly. And at the time, he was only expected to be a temporary replacement, as people had hoped Curly would recover from his stroke and be able to come back to work. He was a Stooge before Curly Howard and was Curly and Moe’s brother. Moe even threatened to break up the Stooges if Columbia wouldn’t allow him to bring Shemp back into the act, even though the studio’s objection was that Moe and Shemp looked too much alike. And Shemp was a trouper. He did do the physical comedy with the other guys.
I’m not complaining about Shemp – just pointing out that he didn’t at al resemble Curly.
And when people complain about replacing Curly, NOBODY complains about Shemp.
As Moe Howard pointed out in his autobiography, Joe de Rita was their choice to replace Shemp, but he wasn’t available at the time, because he was under contract, which is how they ended up with Joe Besser.
Yes, but Shemp wasn’t part of the Stooges when they began appearing in films as just the Three Stooges (without Healy). Shemp had already gone on to a solo movie career before that, and only rejoined Moe and Larry after Curly had his stroke.
This is interesting. I only knew a little bit about the Stooges history, but used to watch them all of the time. I have a few of their shorts on DVD. I don’t know why but my favorites were always the one with King Rootin’ Tootin’ and the other with the haunted suit of armor with Lady Godiva.
Way off the topic now, I suppose, but you should see the short “Hold That Lion.” It starred Moe, Larry, and Shemp, with a cameo from Curly. Thus, it is the only Stooges short in which all three performing Howard brothers appeared.