Steve was a better contrast or foil. No shade on Ted McGinley though, I'm glad he finally got a series that survived.
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Shows That Had Major Cast Changes And Didn't Miss A Beat
- Thread starter DrForester
- Start date
Does The Crown count?
House was fine after replacing Cameron and Chase
Stargate SG-1 had a lot of cast changes that mostly worked. As did Atlantis
Earth: Final Conflict replaced the main character. It's hard to say that the quality didn't decline, since it was never amazing but I liked the replacement. For the final season they basically replaced the final cast and was unwatchable though
Law and Order or any long running show of course
at any rate, the best cast change was adding danny devito to Always Sunny
House was fine after replacing Cameron and Chase
Stargate SG-1 had a lot of cast changes that mostly worked. As did Atlantis
Earth: Final Conflict replaced the main character. It's hard to say that the quality didn't decline, since it was never amazing but I liked the replacement. For the final season they basically replaced the final cast and was unwatchable though
Law and Order or any long running show of course
at any rate, the best cast change was adding danny devito to Always Sunny
Both 90210 and Charmed with Shannon Doherty.
I mentioned Tori from Saved by the Bell in the other thread as a bad rework, but the rework from Good Morning Miss Bliss to Saved by the Bell changed the show entirely (from a Hayley Mills centric show to a student-centric show) and it's the one best remembered.
And I thought the Hogan Family with Sandy Duncan was perfectly fine after Valerie Harper left/was fired.
I mentioned Tori from Saved by the Bell in the other thread as a bad rework, but the rework from Good Morning Miss Bliss to Saved by the Bell changed the show entirely (from a Hayley Mills centric show to a student-centric show) and it's the one best remembered.
And I thought the Hogan Family with Sandy Duncan was perfectly fine after Valerie Harper left/was fired.
Not really a show cast change, but the role of Donna in Twin Peaks was recast for the film. Honestly can't say it was a bad change either.
I wish I could agree, but that's more down to the show writer/runner than the character.
I wish I could agree, but that's more down to the show writer/runner than the character.
Rome wasn't any worse for the recast of Octavian, replacing Max Pirkis with Simon Woods. In fact, his depiction of Octavian was superior.
24 swapped it's cast several times a season, and largely was fine, until Season 5 when they killed too many characters and didn't have anyone left for Season 6. I didn't see the reboot but I imagine it didn't do great swapping out Kiefer Sutherland either.
Eh, disagree a bit on Misfits. Apart from Rudy, the later cast members were just kinda...meh. Then it went a bit off the deep end in the last season.
He got picked up for another show and since TV is always on shakey ground from cancellations, I guess he just followed his heart. Winston absolutely rocked as a repacement, so good call on this choice. I thought it was really sweet they let Coach back on when his show didn't work out some years later, and the chemistry/dynamic between them never changed, heck it made the show just a little sweeter since its main cast was all friendly to one another.
Great choice mopinks!
I mean, season 1's of most shows are generally a bit slow and awkward, but yeah, I'd agree and definitely argue IASIP needed Devito. It's certainly great when they had a nice excuse to dabble in more illicit affairs because Frank is this random crazy wealthy businessman who (almost by default) dabbles in all sorta of dubious shenanigans. ... But I really often wonder what the show would have been like without him.
Anyways, DeVito is totally accurate.
My pick is easy:
This nobody from Parks and Rec. Good ol Mark Brandana-quits.
He was a handsome(ish) straight man who could apparently pick up girls, flirted with Leslie awkwardly, dated Ann and even she gets bored of him which leads him quitting his job and leaving the show.
Blah. Having little sway on the story, playing a straight-guy in a comedy with the already better straight-girl Ann --- so they were a couple without any real quirks or big defining personalities/arcs. He was like The Office's Jim Halpert but 50x less staying power and way less fun. He leaves and gives plans to a new park to Leslie --- which is immediately forgotten and he is never heard from again. ...And no one cared, and his short 2-ish season stint is still mocked for being pretty pointless. :/
Despite Mark being a bag of suck. The show THEN added two characters on the same episode he leaves; and Ben and Chris immediately over-filled the small vacant hole left by Mark's departure. A health nut and a nerd bets out Mark's..... overwhelming amount of meh. Look at this gif!
I brought up Tasha Yar in the other thread, but she works here. I feel bad, there should have been something more for her, but this show was already full of amusing and diverse personalities.... she (and let's lump the season 2 doctor in as well) is just sorta hard to remember.
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Haha I wrote that just to see how many people would call me out, I'm surprised it took this long.
Chyah, right, as if we wouldn't notice!
Wait a second.
Dick Sargent.
Dick York.
Sergeant York.
Whoa, that's weird.
I always liked Jefferson more than Steve, but that may also have been a result of the writing being better
He was definitely the straight player the show needed, but they wrote Jefferson enough to be a straight player but also join in the show's hijinx when needed.
arguments can be made for whether on not Kes was a major character, but Seven of Nine was much more interesting and Jeri Ryan became one of the best Trek TV actors imo
Neelix was also 10x less annoying after Kes left, too. i know he got less focus as the show went on, but the constant jealousy/paranoia about Kes was cringey as hell
Neelix was also 10x less annoying after Kes left, too. i know he got less focus as the show went on, but the constant jealousy/paranoia about Kes was cringey as hell
The season of House where he narrowed down a new team from like a 100 people throughout the whole season. Probably the last good/great season of the show though.
I always missed Yar and wished she could have been there longer to see how her acting and personality would flesh out. I'm also a fan of the dark horse of Dr Pulaski if only because Gates McFadden couldn't act her way out of a paper bag (at the time?) and she grew more as a character, particularly surrounding her attitude towards Data.I brought up Tasha Yar in the other thread, but she works here. I feel bad, there should have been something more for her, but this show was already full of amusing and diverse personalities.... she (and let's lump the season 2 doctor in as well) is just sorta hard to remember.
Double entry: Voyager
Lost Kes, who I liked (but again, Lien couldn't really act) but gained Seven who was divisive among some fans and critics, but overall added a lot to the show.
Power Rangers was able to keep going strong in the early seasons despite switching up the cast (and yes, I know some of this was for unsavory reasons).
Not sure if this counts, but Brandanowitz from Parks and Rec was one of the main characters and just was written out. Show went on just fine without him and I actually forgot he was gone.
Don't know if this show is good but we got a potential thread winner.Death In Paradise has done very well, with only Elizabeth Bourgine and Don Warrington still around from the first series, neither of whom were completely central to the core cases (Camille Bordey was the mother of one of the officers, and ran the bar they frequented; later she became mayor. Selwyn Patterson was the police commissioner and therefore acted as both a mild antogonist and an ally - true to the law, but also aware of the political implications of the main detectives' investigations.
All four roles in the main police station have been replaced over time, with four different leads detectives over ten series. It's got very *good* at doing so, as well, having the confidence to manage to replace the lead character *mid-season* in one season without - to my recollection - much advance warning that it was going to do so!
I'm really shocked about Babylon 5. There were so many setups in season 1 that paid off later on that this looked totally planned.
Yeah. I have to give credit to Mighty Morphin Power Rangers season 2 here, because they managed to make a storyline to write out half the cast without those actors being available. Sure, as an adult you can realize how awkward it was that all of a sudden half the team were only being shown from behind when not morphed, and that their voices sounded off, and conveniently the team would split up so that the half whose actors were still around would be doing things, while these three new teenagers who wear the same colors as the other rangers keep getting involved in the plot...
But managing to do almost 10 episodes without half the actors since they went on strike and then got fired, and through those episodes set up the new replacement Rangers so that the change seemed organic was decently done.
Still horrible that they got fired for trying to go on strike for decent wages and less awful work hours though.
Likewise, the cast of Power Rangers Turbo discovering they were getting fired by seeing the audition notice for their replacements.
JMS was really good at taking what he had planned for season 1, and totally throwing out the original plans and making something that was honestly much better.
I do sincerely lament that contract disputes meant that Claudia Christian didn't return for season 5 though. It would have gone a long way towards making the first half of season 5 much easier to watch. As it stands a lot of people give up on season 5 and don't watch the last half which was in my honest opinion as solid as season 3 and 4.
I think it was that nobody expected Happy Endings to get renewed and so the cast went out and shot pilots. Good thing it did though, since Happy Endings ended up being one of the best network comedies of recent memory.
It took them a bit to figure out Winston and give him substantial storylines, and that annoyed me, but he always was a delight even if all he has to do was be weird in a scene.
Due South had a huge drop in quality with the replacement RayThe fantastic show Due South and their change of Ray from season 2 to 3.
And the bolded had it's best run of episodes because of it. Sucks about the drama of it though.
It *wasn't*, though. Regeneration was an idea created specifically *to* give a story reason to William Hartnell suddenly being Patrick Troughton.
MASH and The Crown are the best answers.
To be honest I hated they had to recast Octavian at the time (the recast was to make him older for season 2). So I guess I preferred Max.
Rome wasn't any worse for the recast of Octavian, replacing Max Pirkis with Simon Woods. In fact, his depiction of Octavian was superior.
To be honest I hated they had to recast Octavian at the time (the recast was to make him older for season 2). So I guess I preferred Max.
True but I'd argue that has changed and the point of the show now is cast 'regeneration' every so often. We 'know' the cast and main actor won't be the same 3 years from now.
Law and Order the thread
Every cop pairing is incredible for the first like what 10-12 years?
Every prosecution pairing works.
Granted it had some nice longevity from Hill, Waterston, Orbach, Noth, in there too but lots of revolving pieces.
Arguably the goat group
Hill
Waterston/Hennessey
Orbach/Noth
Was season 4
We had 2 cop partners, 1 ADA and 1 Executive ADA change before that.
Every cop pairing is incredible for the first like what 10-12 years?
Every prosecution pairing works.
Granted it had some nice longevity from Hill, Waterston, Orbach, Noth, in there too but lots of revolving pieces.
Arguably the goat group
Hill
Waterston/Hennessey
Orbach/Noth
Was season 4
We had 2 cop partners, 1 ADA and 1 Executive ADA change before that.
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as the anti-thesis to the other thread, yeah, this is my pick. buzz was a pretty good addition for the one season he's in as well. i never really "missed" pierce much.
The fantastic show Due South and their change of Ray from season 2 to 3.
Especially because Callum Keith Rennie is a goat unsung actor
His original sorta-secret 10 year plan was a little *too* ambitious, ha.
He also planned backdoors for all the characters if they had to leave. He talks later about having trouble having too Sinclair having too much planned for him too, and the story working better with 2 characters, with the pieces split up a bit more between them.
I always find it amazing the show survived given swapping out the lead character, given everything else it had going against it.
MST3K is the perfect example. Law and Order OG is the next best.
They work despite cast changes because they have perfect formulas (MST3K = make humor out of bad movies, L&O = 50% cop show, 50% lawyer show).
They are also my two favorite TV shows of all time...so it makes sense.
They work despite cast changes because they have perfect formulas (MST3K = make humor out of bad movies, L&O = 50% cop show, 50% lawyer show).
They are also my two favorite TV shows of all time...so it makes sense.
The lead change for Spartacus was handled about as well as it possibly could have been, in my opinion. Doing the gods in the arena prequel series to give production more time to ramp up for season 2 with Liam McIntyre turned out to be a great decision. We all loved the portrayal of the original actor in season 1 but I think they made the best of it and still produced a great show.
Cheers was still entertaining but became worse when Diane left. I don't even know what Rebecca was by the end.
The first half of rebecca's first season is particularly dire.
Dynasty (CW version) changed the Crystal character from season 1 to 2 (a new character with the same name after the previous one died) and then again from season 2 to 3 (a recast of the 2nd Crystal). The 1->2 change was awfully handled, but the 2->3 was a slight improvement.
Andrea Thompson wanting to leave the show as well. It meant dropping some plot points from the first 2 seasons, but I think it worked out better overall.
Claudia was the only departure that damaged the series IMO.
Yes, the ensemble was almost uniformly good. The main anchors were Waterston, Orbach, and Merkerson.
Orbach leaving (and his subsequent passing) was a big blow, but I still felt the show was entertaining (though the budget cuts in later seasons really started to chip away at too much).
I think it helped that Andy supported being recast, he was involved as the decision was taken while he suddenly had to go in for a second round of treatment. They had already made Gods of the Arena to cover his first bout and he knew what was coming.
The disappointment is that they are starting season 4 without recasting Crystal. It would have been an amazing running joke.
(That show has been riddled with 'cast drama' though, with also having to recast Alexis and losing Steven. At least we still have Fallon and Sammy, the MVPs)
Bruce Boxleitner was the perfect pickup to replace Michael O'Hare, considering his nerd popularity (being "the guy from Tron") and his availability and low price (being "the guy from Scarecrow and Mrs. King"), and his acting talent and charisma and ability to carry an entire TV show.
The drama behind the camera seems more interesting than the show itself, lol.
This may be controversial but I think Community pulled it off pretty well. Especially with the final season, where the two newcomers are just fantastic.
It's hard due to the poor quality of season four to really judge it. Losing Donald is hard but late season 5 versus early season 5 isn't super different to me quality-wise.
It's hard due to the poor quality of season four to really judge it. Losing Donald is hard but late season 5 versus early season 5 isn't super different to me quality-wise.
Married with Children was great with Steve but it was EPIC with Jefferson.