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

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.[citation needed] Beverly Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation (who was missing in season 2) is an example.

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.

Sitcoms

Change to main character

  • 227
  • 8 Simple Rules
    • John Ritter died, so his character died (off screen) as well.[citation needed]
  • 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.[citation needed]
  • 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"[citation needed]
  • 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.[citation needed]
  • 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.[citation needed]
  • Saved By The Bell
    • When the show (originally called Good Morning, Miss Bliss) was canceled by Disney Channel and picked up by NBC, it was retooled and renamed Saved By The Bell, resulting in the departure of every character except Zack Morris, Screech Powers, Lisa Turtle, and Mr. Belding. All of the Good Morning, Miss Bliss episodes were later repackaged as Saved By The Bell episodes in which Zack appears at the beginning, and explains to the audience that the episode "takes place back in junior high".
    • Tiffani-Amber Thiessen and Elizabeth Berkley both left the show midway through the 1992-1993 season to pursue other career options after NBC doubled the order for new episodes. Berkley and Thiessen simply refused to sign the new contract for the extra episodes, but not before filming the series finale, featuring the class' graduation. To compensate for the loss of two major characters, the show introduced an altogether new character, Tori (Leanna Creel), with no mention of the whereabouts of Kelly (Thiessen) and Jessie (Berkley). The finale aired in May 1993 following the new episodes, with no mention of Tori or the extended absence of Kelly and Jessie.
    • Max (Ed Alonzo), owner of local hangout The Max, stopped appearing following the show's second season without explanation.
  • 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.[citation needed]

Children being replaced

For one reason or another, children are often replaced by another child at some point in the early seasons.

  • 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
    • 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.
  • The Partridge Family
    • Jeremy Gelbwaks played Chris in the first season and was replaced by Brian Forster during the second season.

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.

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 due to a contract dispute. Her character, Prue, was killed off and replaced with Paige (Rose McGowan), a mysterious half-sister the other girls knew nothing of.
  • 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).
    • When Sonny Shroyer's character, Enos Strate, was given his own spin-off, Enos. Enos was replaced with deputy Cletus Hogg (Rick Hurst). After the spin-off failed, Shroyer returned to Dukes as Enos, at which point Hurst was released and Cletus disappeared.
  • The Secret World of Alex Mack, when Meredith Bishop left during the final season to attend college. Her character, Annie Mack, was given the same reason for leaving. Bishop would return for the final climactic episodes, missing only nine in all.
  • 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.
  • Twelve O'Clock High, in the first episode of 2nd season, Brigadier General Frank Savage (Robert Lansing) is killed in action (although Lansing is not seen on screen in that episode) and is replaced for the remainder of the series by Colonel Joe Gallagher (Paul Burke) who had been a recurring character up to that point.

Disappearing characters

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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" or being "Brother Chucked", after Richie's older brother on Happy Days, who goes out to play basketball in an early episode and is never seen or mentioned again.[3]

Examples

  • Eugene Barkley on The Big Valley.
  • Karin Argoud and Eric Brown (Sonja and Buzz) in Mama's Family.
  • Samantha Molly on Life With Bonnie.
  • Sara Spooner and Richie Iannucci on King of Queens.
  • Warren Ferguson on The Andy Griffith Show.
  • Yeoman Janice Rand on Star Trek: The Original Series.
  • Lana Shields and Cindy Snow on Three's Company.
  • Cletus Hogg on The Dukes of Hazzard.
  • Ari Gold's Other Daughter on Entourage. (He originally had 2 daughters and 1 son, but now he only has 1 son and daughter)[citation needed]
  • Cody & Brendan Lambert on Step by Step.
  • Kim McFarlane, Dan Ferreira and Sasha Perkins in EastEnders.
  • Tina Pinciotti on That '70s Show is revealed to be Donna Pinciotti's younger sister, after Fez hits on her she is never seen again.
  • On the Mathnet segments of Square One TV, the character Kate Monday disappeared after the third season and was replaced with Pat Tuesday.
  • In The West Wing, the character Mandy did not return after the end of season one, even though the first two episodes of season 2 included flashbacks to the campaign she also worked on. The term Mandyville was coined for her character.
  • In The Doris Day Show, Day's character had originally been depicted as a widowed mother of two small children working as a secretary at a publishing firm. At the beginning of the show's fourth season the character abruptly became a "swinging single" journalist and all the supporting characters disappeared. The departures included her coworker, played by Rose Marie, her boss, played by McLean Stevenson, and her two small children. No effort was made to explain this change.
  • On Barney Miller, the original concept of the series was to show the title character's home life as well as his job as a police captain. The "home" portion of the series was quickly dropped however; Barney's children weren't seen after the first episode, and his wife Liz appeared less and less frequently, finally becoming an offscreen character from Season 3 onward. In the police station, meanwhile, the character of Detective Sgt. Chano Amenguale vanished without a trace after the first season.
  • Benny Hawkins, the slow-witted repairman on Crossroads, was last seen in 1987 climbing up a ladder to change a light bulb.
  • Because of the nature of the show, 24 does this often. The characters Adam Kaufman and Tom Baker both disappeared after the third season. Several characters such as Lynne Kresge, Evelyn Martin, and President John Keeler, were last seen in serious condition but their fate has never been revealed. Milo Pressman appeared in the first season but was dropped partway through. He returned in season 6, 105 episodes later.
  • The first season of M*A*S*H had several characters that were carried over from the novel and film of the same name, but subsequently dropped, including Spearchucker Jones, Ugly John, Lieutenant Dish, and General Hammond.
  • Miles Goodman on Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.
  • Claire Simms of Boston Legal. Also Sara Holt and Garrett Wells disappeared during the second season with no explanation.
  • Wendy Goldman on ER vanished without explanation after the third season.
  • After the first season of Gerry Anderson's British science fiction TV series UFO, Alec Freeman, Gay Ellis and Peter Carlin disappear. Their absence is never explained.
  • Similarly, Victor Bergman, Paul Morrow and David Kano vanish after the first season on Anderson's subsequent series Space: 1999.
  • Kevin Swanson and Cleveland Jr. from Family Guy have both vanished after the third season for unexplained reasons, both have had quick cameos in The Perfect Castaway and haven't appeared since.
  • Judy Winslow in Family Matters
  • The character of Boxey in the Battlestar Galactica TV series.
  • Sean Hunter's sister Stacy, who was only spoken on a phone in an early Boy Meets World episode.
  • Topanga Laurence has an older sister who Eric flirted with in an earlier season of Boy Meets World. Much later, when Cory tries to reunite Topanga's parents, they mention that they had one child together.
  • Boy Meets World parodied Chuck Cunningham Syndrome in an episode about the main characters' high school graduation. The episode features an appearance by Stuart Minkus, a character who disappeared several seasons previous. Minkus relates a story about another hallway where the main characters never go, and at the end of the scene walks toward the mysterious hallway calling "Hey, Mr. Turner!" (referencing another long- since disappeared character).
  • Holly Ellenbogen (Lucy Punch) on The Class.
  • Grace Santiago (Valerie Cruz), who served as a consulting psychiatrist for McNamara/Troy, disappeared without any explanation after the first season of Nip/Tuck.
  • Pip on South Park.
  • Papi on The L Word.
  • Agent Nathan Brubaker on Profiler.
  • Luke Ventura on Married...With Children.
  • A flamboyant housekeeper named Coco (played by Charles Levin) disappeared without explanation after the first episode of The Golden Girls.
  • Sylvia Horne (played by Jan D'Arcy), wife of Benjamin Horne and mother of Audrey Horne was in two early episodes before disappearing without explanation on Twin Peaks.
  • Tommy Gavin's brother Timmo, on the FX series Rescue Me never appears again after being asked for help during the first season.
  • Budd Bronski on Wings.
  • Henry Czerny left The Tudors after the first season because he thought his character, the Duke of Norfolk, was underdeveloped. He was led to believe the script would be revised to emphasize his role, but that did not happen.[4] The show does not address why he vanished, despite his actually being one of the more central characters.
  • On Jesse, Jesse's father and two brothers disappeared from the show in the second season without explanation. In a second-season episode involving a flashback, they are said to be on a "fishing trip," but otherwise there is never further mention of them.
  • Several workers at Dunder Mifflin Paper are seen in the first season of the american version of "The Office" but are later never seen again. Many gatherings later of "everyone in the office" have only established characters, none of these extras.
  • On Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Sabrina's best friend, Jenny Kelley, (Michelle Beaudoin) appeared in season one only and then disappeared without explanation. Also, Sabrina's biology teacher, Mr. Pool (Paul Feig) disappeared after season two.

In-show references to actor changes

  • Bette
    • When Kevin Dunn was replaced by Robert Hays as Roy, at the beginning of the episode, Bette and Oscar are discussing the replacement of an actor in a soap that they are watching. When Bette asks Roy his opinion, Roy is fully seen and revealed to have had an actor change.
  • Blake's 7
    • When Brian Croucher replaced Stephen Grief as Space Commander Travis, Travis in his first episode played by Croucher, makes an offhand comment concerning his confusion following his recent rehabilitation. However, the change in appearance is never actually referenced but often assumed by viewers to be part of the "rehabilitation".[citation needed]
  • Doctor Who
    • It is well known that when The Doctor is near death he can regenerate into a new form to save his life (see The Tenth Planet & The Power of the Daleks for the first instance), but that he is only able to do this twelve time before he dies (revealed in The Deadly Assassin), but a more contraversial change was the portrayal of Romana. Throughout the 16th Season of Doctor Who, Mary Tamm played the role of The Doctor's fellow Gallifreyan Romana, but after being impressed with Lalla Ward's performance of Princess Astra in Season 16's final story, she was asked to come back to play the role of Romana in Season 17. A scene was then written-in to the beginning of Season 17's opening story, Destiny of the Daleks, showing Romana "trying on" new bodies before settling on the likeness of Princess Astra. In effect, she regenerated multiple times on a whim because she couldn't decide which body she wanted, thereby reducing her life expectancy by 1/13th for each change!
  • My Wife and Kids
    • In the second season opener, Michael Kyle mentions that his eldest daughter Claire looks like a totally new person.
  • Mystery Science Theater 3000
    • A running gag throughout Bill Corbett's first episode as the voice of Crow was Mike repeatedly musing that Crow seemed different somehow. In a later episode, Werewolf, after Mike turns into a "were-Crow", Crow informs him that one part of being a were-Crow is that "your voice will change inexplicably every 500 years or so".
  • Reba
    • Early in the final season, Van walks into the kitchen to see Kira (the actress had been off of the show for the entire previous year due to a medical issue), and asked where she had been for so long.
  • Roseanne
    • When Lecy Goranson (the original Becky) returned to the show, Darlene remarks, "Where the hell have you been?" in reference to the casting change. Becky responds with "Why does everyone keep asking me that?"
    • Also, on the show's opening credits during its final season, still photos of each character in past seasons are shown transitioning into current photographs. One of the photos used for Goranson is actually Sarah Chalke (the replacement Becky), an intended joke the producers made blatantly obvious.
  • Boy Meets World
    • In the 3rd Season, Lindsay Ridgeway replaced Lily Nicksay as Morgan Matthews. The Morgan character had been absent for most 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.

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.

External links

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.
  4. ^ http://tudorswiki.sho.com/page/Henry+Czerny?t=anon






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