List of television show casting changes

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Casting changes occur on many television shows; either a character is replaced by another actor with a new character, or a new actor takes over an existing role when the original actor is dropped (sometimes in movies). Some cast changes have been significant enough to cause the show to "jump the shark" by detrimentally affecting the quality of the show.

Contents

[edit] Named forms of casting change

Some of the examples below have given rise to slang phrases, used to jokingly describe similar changes in other shows. These include:

  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome, when a character disappears without any further mention.[1]
  • Darrin Syndrome, when the actor playing a main character is replaced without comment, as with Darrin Stevens in Bewitched. [2]
  • Character Bounce, when a character leaves (or disappears) only to return later. Beverly Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation (who was missing in season 2) is an example.

[edit] Examples of shows which had significant casting changes

Show casting changes listed here must have a discontinuation of the same character after the actor has left. In fictional shows, the script typically allows others characters to be aware of the absence of the character—usually as a death, which has led to the phrase "killing off a character". This sometimes also occurs when a character leaves the show (and usually the city) to appear in their own spin-off.

[edit] Sitcoms

Change to main character

  • 227
  • 8 Simple Rules
    • John Ritter died, so his character died (off screen) as well.
  • Bette
  • Chico and the Man
    • In 1977, Freddie Prinze committed suicide and was replaced by child actor Gabriel Melgar as a different character nicknamed Chico.
  • Hermanos de Leche
    • A Spanish 1994 sitcom starring José Coronado and Juan Echanove, who play brothers. Echanove decided to leave the series after the first season, to pursue film projects. His character, also named Juan and nicknamed "Gordi" ("Fatty"), had an accident and underwent important reconstructive surgery. During the second season, Juan was played by El Gran Wyoming (who is not similar to Echanove, though Wyoming jokingly has explained in interviews that he was selected because of his supposed resemblance to Echanove). Although Echanove was clearly overweight and Wyoming wasn't, the character kept his nickname "Gordi"
  • Mystery Science Theater 3000
    • Joel Hodgson was replaced by Michael J. Nelson as the host. Several other changes were made to the cast (in fact, at the end of the series, every single character had either been replaced with a new character or performed by more than one person), but this was the most noteworthy change in the series.
  • Northern Exposure
    • Rob Morrow's Dr. Joel Fleischmann left the series. His role as the visiting doctor in the community of Cicely, Alaska (the setting of the series) was taken over by Paul Provenza as Dr. Phillip Capra. Capra and his wife Michelle, played by Teri Polo, arguably combined to take over Fleischmann's role as the outsider and lead character . . . to the extent that the ensemble show had a lead character by that point.
  • Spin City
  • That 70's Show
  • Valerie
    • Valerie Harper left the show over a contract dispute after the first season. Her character, Valerie Hogan, died in a car crash. Sandy Duncan was then cast as Valerie's sister-in-law. The show was also retitled Valerie's Family, later becoming The Hogan Family.

Other significant changes

[edit] Children Being Replaced

For one reason or another, children are often replace by another child at some point in the early seasons. No known reasons have been surfaced.

  • Family Matters
    • Joeseph & Julius Wright played the roles of Richie Crawford until Bryton McClure in later seasons.
  • The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
    • George Weeler played Nicky in season 4 then Ross Bagley for the rest of the series.
  • Full House
    • Michelle Tanner would always be switched by Mary-Kate or Ashley Olsen, except for 3 episodes where they both appear, but one of them is played by someone else.
    • Nicky & Alex were played by Daniel & Kevin Rentera for Season 5 and Blake & Dylan Tuomy-Wilhoit played them for the rest of the series.
  • Roseanne
    • Sal Barone played DJ in the pilot episode and was ultimately replaced by Michael Fishman for the series.

[edit] Soap operas

Main article: List of soap opera recasts

On daytime soap operas, cast departures and recasts are extremely frequent, and examples are far too numerous to cite individual examples here. On primetime soaps, however, cast changes are less frequent.

  • Beverly Hills 90210, when Shannen Doherty, playing Brenda Walsh, was fired from the cast because of her unprofessional behavior on the set and because of the bad publicity that her drug addiction and her public scandals brought to the show. Jason Priestley later departed in the series' ninth season, though he continued to executive produce. Luke Perry also notably left the series in its sixth season to try to build a film career, but he returned permanently in its ninth season. Gabrielle Carteris (Andrea Zuckerman) was another original cast member who left the show, as did Carol Potter and James Eckhouse, who played Mr. and Mrs. Walsh.
  • The O.C., when Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton) was killed in an auto accident at the end of the third season. It was alleged that Barton was fired for bad behavior though both the producers and Barton maintain her character had gone as far as she could go.
  • thirtysomething, when Gary (Peter Horton) died.

[edit] Unclassified

Main character changes

  • The Avengers, main character, David Keel (Ian Hendry) left at the end of season one, leaving Steed (Patrick MacNee) as the main character.
  • Babylon 5 between Season 1 and 2, Commander Sinclair is replaced by Captain Sheridan, significantly changing the ending of the series. Sinclair does appear in a few later episodes.
  • Blues Clues, when Donovan Patton replaced Steve Burns as Blue's owner.
  • Charmed, when Shannon Doherty left. Her character was killed off and was replaced by Rose McGowan, as a mysterious sister the other girls knew nothing about.
  • Charlie's Angels, when Farrah Fawcett and Kate Jackson left.
  • CHiPs, after filming the fifth season, Larry Wilcox fell out with producers, feeling that co-star Erik Estrada was getting preferential treatment over him, and left to be replaced in the final season by Tom Reilly who was in turn replaced in later episodes by Bruce Penhall (probationary officer Bruce Nelson).
  • Doctor Who, in which the series' writers invented a process called "regeneration" to allow different actors to play the alien character of the Doctor.
  • The Dukes of Hazzard, when contractual and royalty disputes led to John Schneider and Tom Wopat (Bo and Luke Duke) leaving the series for the 1981-82 season. As Bo & Luke were cousins, they were replaced by Coy & Vance (Byron Cherry and Christopher Mayer), fellow (and previously unmentioned) cousins of the Duke clan, whom many viewers saw as poor clones of Bo & Luke, and ratings fell as a result. Bo & Luke were explained to be racing on the NASCAR circuit, but the dispute settled a few months later, and the pair returned at the tail-end of the season for the rest of the show's run (with Coy & Vance written out in the original duo's returning episode, never to be mentioned again).
  • Sliders when Jerry O'Connell left at the end of the 4th season (who was replaced by Robert Floyd).
  • Spooks in its third season when all the original main cast members besides Peter Firth were killed off, or written out in some way, and then replaced by new characters.
  • The X-Files, Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) was abducted at the end of the 7th season, and is included only a few times in the 8th and 9th season. Agents John Doggett (Robert Patrick) and Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish) were added to the cast. Duchovny returned for the series finale.

Other character changes

[edit] Disappearing characters

 This section may fail to make a clear distinction between fact and fiction.
Please edit this article, according to the fiction guidelines, to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.

Sometimes a character simply disappears and is never mentioned again. It can be a major cast change, as a major actor/actress leaves the show, and is not referred to again. Most often, it occurs when a minor character is no longer deemed necessary to the television show's plot,[3] and the actor/actress playing the character is sacked. It is commonly referred to as "Chuck Cunningham Syndrome", after Richie's older brother on Happy Days, who goes out to play basketball in an early episode and is never seen again.[3]

[edit] Examples

[edit] In-show references to actor changes

  • Roseanne
    • In the show Roseanne, when the original Becky comes back in an episode of Roseanne, Darlene remarks. "Where have you been for so long?" in reference to her absence earlier in the season. The joke has occurred several times on the show.
  • Boy Meets World
    • In the 4th Season, Lindsay Ridgeway replaced Lily Nicksay as Morgan Matthews. The Morgan character had been absent for all of season 3, so when the new Morgan enters the kitchen and is asked, "Where have you been?" she says, "I've been in my room for a long time." Also, Topanga and Shawn both have sisters in Season 1, but they are never seen or mentioned again.

[edit] Parodies

  • When Nick at Nite was promoting The Brady Bunch being added to the timeslot in the late 90's, commercials claimed that there was a lost Brady named Phoebe and was edited out of the show due to bad behavior.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Courier News Online - TOTALLY TV BLOG: 'The Chuck Cunningham Syndrome'
  2. ^ Pearson, Mike (November 11), Pearson: Is the world ready for James Blond?, <http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/spotlight_columnists/article/0,2777,DRMN_23962_5134558,00.html>. Retrieved on 6 September 2007 
  3. ^ a b Waldlow, Brad (November 7, 2007). TOTALLY TV BLOG: 'The Chuck Cunningham Syndrome'. Courier News. Retrieved on 2007-11-07.