History ReplacementScrappy / LiveActionTV

* In ''Series/RedDwarf'' Season III, Creator/NormanLovett was replaced by Hattie Hayridge as Holly. The in-show explanation was that Holly got a face-sex change. The new Holly was never as funny or pleasant to watch as the old Holly, and the show began to feature Holly less and less.

* In ''Series/RedDwarf'' Season III, Norman Lovett was replaced by Hattie Hayridge as Holly. The in-show explanation was that Holly got a face-sex change. The new Holly was never as funny or pleasant to watch as the old Holly, and the show began to feature Holly less and less.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' had Dr. Beverly Crusher's one-season replacement Dr. Kate Pulaski. A lot of it has to do with the shady circumstances surrounding the brief departure of Creator/GatesMcFadden, and there's never been a clear reason for why she left and whether it was due to conflict with the producers or not. There was also pushback from the fact that she played a much bigger role in her season than Crusher ever did. The third reason was that she was given an abrasive, intolerant, {{Fantastic Racis|m}}t personality in an attempt to make her an {{Expy}} of [=McCoy=]. Fans didn't bite.

*** A couple of regenerations have had a certain ArmedWithCanon pre-emptive guilt-tripping going on, with the previous Doctor outright disowning their replacement, or regenerating in circumstances ugly enough to start the new Doctor off on a sour note. In the Classic series, the Second Doctor's [[BigNO attitude]] towards regeneration and [[FutureMeScaresMe dislike of his successor]] can sour initial opinions of the Third Doctor; and in the Third Doctor's second-to-last serial, he mocks Sarah Jane when he thinks she's died by saying "it's almost like you'll prefer me dead". The most damaging occurrence of this was the Tennant/Smith transition — Ten's last words ("I don't want to go") and his claims that regenerating is dying and a new man walks away made lots of fans feel Eleven had killed and taken over the beloved Ten.

** Captain Jellicoe replaced Picard in a double episode as Picard was on a secret mission. Jellicoe is a gigantic base breaking character, as his authoritarian leadership style (including reliving Commander Riker of duty) put many viewers off, despite the justification that he was taking command of the flagship during a crisis that might have escalated into a full scale war.

* Randy from ''Series/That70sShow'' was supposed to be a replacement for Eric - he even dated his longtime girlfriend, Donna, after they broke up inexplicably and offscreen. Practically every fan hated him. The writers finally caught on to this; he barely appears in the finale. Even worse, they started trying to make him a replacement Kelso as well as a replacement Eric, despite the fact that the two characters were vastly different. This resulted in Randy being a dumb {{nerd}}, a socially awkward [[TheCasanova player]], and an unfunny [[ClassClown clown]].

** Her insistence on getting paid is only fair. The rest of the team made countless millions in their first job, she obviously didn't as she wasn't around. It is somewhat hypocritical for the main team to criticize her on that issue.

** Plenty of people have commented on the disappointment and sense of loss felt around a regeneration from one Doctor to another; even though it's basically the same character, the changing actors makes it easy to feel that "your" Doctor is gone and has been replaced by some interloper instead. Fortunately for the show, for the most part each Doctor has managed to put their own stamp on the show and maintain the fans of the previous Doctor (or at least pick up some new ones). Creator/TomBaker, Creator/PeterDavison and Creator/MattSmith in particular all suffered from powerful groups in fandom that hated them for not being Creator/JonPertwee, Creator/TomBaker and Creator/DavidTennant respectively. There are letters pages in newspapers from the 1960s in which members of the public express outrage at Creator/PatrickTroughton for taking over as the Doctor from the beloved Creator/WilliamHartnell, ruining the show forever; the public outcry over Hartnell's leaving got so extreme that Creator/MichaelCraze and Creator/AnnekeWills (who played the First/Second Doctor's companions Ben and Polly), as a PracticalJoke, came to work wearing printed t-shirts that read "BRING BACK BILL HARTNELL." Apparently, Patrick Troughton didn't see the funny side and was just hurt by it, making Anneke feel awful.

* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': Gene Talbot replaced Phillip Boynton as Connies' LoveInterest in the last season of the television series. Mr. Boynton ended up returning by the end of the season, and [[spoiler: marries Connie in TheMovie GrandFinale]].

* Series/{{Arrowverse}}
** ''Series/{{Arrow}}''
*** Laurel Lance. Her younger sister Sara was popular in the role of The Canary for having a complex story and being true to the spirit of ComicBook/BlackCanary. When she is [[spoiler: killed early in Season 3]], Laurel took over the role in Sara’s honor. The change didn’t go over well at first because Laurel was a BaseBreakingCharacter at best to TheScrappy at worst in the previous two seasons for her poor characterization and her lack of fight experience didn’t help. However, Laurel’s character vastly improved since she became Black Canary. Becoming much warmer and showing more determination in the role. Fans began to warm up to Laurel in the role and found her growth in Season 3 to be a major bright spot in an otherwise mediocre season. So much so that come Season 4 which saw Laurel [[spoiler: killed by Damien Darhk]], the fans were completely outrage and took their rage to the internet on a near unseen level. The fans went from hating Laurel to begging her to return from the dead. In a funny sense, Laurel becoming a ReplacementScrappy actually helped her get RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap.

*** Tina Boland/Dinah Drake ''immediately'' became this after going against fan opinion [[spoiler: and ditching four iterations of the Black Canary, as well as ignoring the possibility of Laurel's actual Earth-2 Doppelganger, Black Siren being reformed into such, therefore giving Creator/KateCassidy the shaft once again]]. Tina has been seen as an inferior Black Canary in comparison to Laurel and Sara. It doesn't help that all the CharacterShilling she's received in her first two episodes alone could rival [[CreatorsPet Felicity's]]. Also not helping her case are: a.) [[ComicBook/{{Ragman}} Rory Regan]], the only popular of the above mentioned Season 5 recruits, getting the shaft once Tina is introduced, and b.) There's already an established Dinah Drake introduced since then first season (played by Creator/AlexKingston), meaning that this "Dinah" serves as an inferior replacement for not one, not two, but ''[[UpToEleven four characters]]''.

*** ComicBook/EobardThawne, also known as the Reverse Flash, was considered a very compelling villain due to his affinity for long-term strategy, ability to defeat TheHero multiple times over, and having enough room in his character for AlternativeCharacterInterpretation. He falls victim to a RetGone at the end of Season One, however, and is replaced as the BigBad by [[ComicBook/HunterZolomon Zoom]]. Zoom received a fraction of the praise Thawne got, in part due to his mimicking Thawne's plan of posing as a mentor to the Flash and killing his family members, though eventually he got VindicatedByHistory and is now considered the best villain to appear on the show after Thawne (with their collective seasons being considered the golden age of the show in general). The ''following'' speedster BigBad, Savitar, ended up being considered this for both of them, and his season is generally considered to be when the SeasonalRot began to settle in for real.

*** [[ComicBook/ElongatedMan Ralph Dibny]] to ComicBook/WallyWest. Wally's fans say that the Ralph's slot could have been occupied by Wally, who could have had the CharacterDevelopment an usage he needed. Ralph is put as a temporary lead hero while [[spoiler:Barry is imprisoned]], despite being inexperienced. However after his initial polarizing role in season 4, he was quickly RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap during Season 5, after an entire season's worth of CharacterDevelopment paid off, having him mature into a noble and valiant Superhero, and TakingALevelInBadass, as well as his skills as a PI being much more displayed, and has become one of the more beloved characters of the ''Arrowverse''.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'''s Elizabeth Lochley was doomed to be disliked, as she was the replacement for the widely beloved Susan Ivanova. Combined with her [[AmicablyDivorced short-lived past marriage to Sheridan]] being seen as an implausible piece of melodrama that had never been so much as hinted at before, and the fact that Season 5 is considered the show's weakest, she couldn't really avoid it. It didn't help that Ivanova had been expected to continue on to season 5 so Lochley was going through storylines that had almost certainly been written for Ivanova. She became much more interesting in the spin-off Series/{{Crusade}} where no other main characters were carried over from Babylon 5 and she had a chance to become her own character rather than a {{suspiciously similar substitute}}.

* ''Franchise/{{Buffyverse}}''
** ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''.

** ''Series/{{Angel}}''

* When a bitter Creator/KateJackson left after the third season of the popular female detectives show ''Series/CharliesAngels'', the producers scrambled for a replacement for everybody's favorite "Smart Angel." Enter Shelley Hack, who for many ''Angels'' viewers practically defines the trope in every sense of the word. Hack portrayed the glamorous Tiffany Welles, a cop from Boston who spoke Latin, and was always fashionable. Unfortunately, Hack wasn't given much to do during her tenure on the fourth season, simply because the writers could not seem to come up with anything for her to do, and as such, she was scarcely seen doing anything of note during the season. Because of this, Kris Munroe was given the brunt of most of the storylines, with the occasional Kelly Garrett story thrown in, particularly in the season finale. Viewership sank as a result, and Hack was widely blamed for the ratings drop, even though she herself had nothing to do with it, it was in actuality the writers whom were to blame. Hack was immediately fired from the show, and the character of Tiffany Welles [[PutOnABus was sent back to Boston]]. Hack's replacement for the fifth and final season was Creator/TanyaRoberts as street smart model Julie Rogers. Though Roberts was received well by critics, she wasn't enough to save the show from cancellation.

* ''Series/{{CSI}}:'' When Grissom was replaced by Langston.
** Many people believe that Langston was a replacement for Grissom, since Langston showed up right after Grissom left. However, while Catherine moved up to fill Grissom's spot in the unit's hierarchy, and Langston was starting at the bottom, he was still heavily promoted as the new "face" of the show and was assigned responsibilities more befitting a shift administrator like Grissom despite being a rookie. It probably didn't help that a lot of people watched the show and thought "Why is Morpheus on CSI?"

* Arthur Petrelli from ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' has a rather nasty backstory behind him. Originally a PosthumousCharacter, he was very suddenly brought in during Volume Three, revealed to have by far the most [[GameBreaker broken power]] in the series yet and personal designs on world domination. Further, the very first episodes introducing him were explicitly devoted to his killing off basically every non-Sylar villain the series had cultivated up to that point. Maury Parkman, the "Nightmare Man" sold in Season 2 as being [[SortingAlgorithmOfEvil worse than Sylar]], met his end by Arthur, as did the immensely popular Adam Monroe, widely regarded as ''the'' ManipulativeBastard to beat. The thing was, though, Maury and Adam were products of Season 2, which was plagued by a writer's strike. While the writers were on strike, replacements were brought in who built up Maury and Adam. The original writers, upon returning, immediately set out to dismantle the work of their replacements, who they [[http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=19125 had a major grudge with]]. Thus, Arthur Petrelli was retooled as a Voldemort-esque GreaterScopeVillain. This didn't quite work the way the Volume 3 writers planned, due to Arthur being a [[InvincibleVillain Boring Invincible Villain]].

** Then the show took this UpToEleven in Seasons 7 and 8 by getting Replacement Scrappies for the first Replacement Scrappies. The addition of Masters, Adams, and Park solidified the show's SeasonalRot, and the network decided that the eighth season would be the last.

* ''Franchise/LawAndOrder''
** ''Series/LawAndOrder''

* A series of Replacement Scrappies, most notably Lee Meriwether as Tracy, filled in on ''Series/MissionImpossible'' after Barbara Bain left. Lesley Warren eventually got the role of Dana for the fifth season, and was treated as a Replacement Scrappy by some. Others found her replacement, Lynda Day George, to be more Scrappy-ish.

* Max Louis in season 5 of ''Series/NewsRadio''. After Creator/PhilHartman's untimely death, Jon Lovitz joined the show to replace his departed friend for what turned out to be, not coincidently, the show's final season.

* ''Series/{{Profiler}}'': Exit Ally Walker, Enter Jamie Luner.
** Averted with Captain Becker. Even though many fans were sad when [[spoiler: Steven Hart]] died, Becker quickly became a popular character in the fandom.

** The season six cast. The first episode's ColdOpen had the new castmembers introduce themselves to the audience by comparing themselves to previous castmembers. Gail Matthius described herself as a cross betweeen Creator/GildaRadner and Creator/JaneCurtin, Creator/CharlesRocket described himself as a cross between Creator/ChevyChase and Creator/BillMurray, and Creator/GilbertGottfried described himself as a cross between Creator/JohnBelushi and "and that guy from last year who did Creator/RodSerling, and no one can remember his name" (Creator/HarryShearer). This did nothing to endear them to the audience and by the end of the season, everyone was given the boot except Creator/JoePiscopo and Creator/EddieMurphy.

* Tori from ''Series/SavedByTheBell''. Due to a network order, the fourth season suddenly had more episodes produced. Actresses Creator/ElizabethBerkley and Creator/TiffaniThiessen opted to move on, meaning Tori had to be created to fill their roles. As such she's a mix of the StrawFeminist Jessie and GirlNextDoor Kelly and got CharacterShilling with all the others saying how great she was. Her episodes create a weird PlotHole fans call 'The Tori Paradox' - as the finale had already been filmed, you get a weird situation where Jessie and Kelly inexplicably vanish, Tori arrives at the school and becomes Zack's LoveInterest, and then just in time for graduation, Tori vanishes never to be mentioned again and Jessie and Kelly return and it's as if they never left.

* In ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', Tess Mercer isn't that bad, but it is hard to be favoured over ComicBook/LexLuthor. She's generally considered to be RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap once the show quit making her Lex's SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute and gave her her own [[BrokenAce very]] [[StepfordSnarker complex]] characterization. Ironically, two and a half years after her introduction the show revealed just how much of Lex's replacement she actually was, as the entire time she was [[spoiler: Lex's paternal half-sister, making her the show's ''actual replacement Luthor'' even if no one ([[LongLostRelative including her]]) knew it at the time]].

* ''Franchise/{{Stargate|Verse}}''

** ''Series/StargateAtlantis''

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' had Ezri Dax, replacing Jadzia Dax. While the Dax symbiont was still technically there, the Ezri character was a clearly different woman from Jadzia, and many fans preferred Jadzia. One of the main reasons for this was because Jadzia was an ActionGirl, TheSmartGirl, and a fun-loving and confident woman. Ezri, on the other hand, was an insecure girl who couldn't fight and wasn't a trained scientist or engineer, leaving it a head scratcher for why Starfleet had assigned her to Deep Space Nine in the first place.

** It was {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in-show; upon her first appearance, most of the characters in-show treated her as the Scrappy, including Worf, [[spoiler:Jadzia's husband.]]

* After Chrissy Snow left ''Series/ThreesCompany'', she was replaced by her cousin, Cindy. Cindy was not particularly well-liked by fans as she was nearly a carbon copy of her cousin -- a sweet, naive, DumbBlonde -- but who just wasn't as likeable or endearing. She ''was'' given one distictive character trait ... extreme clumisness. It was meant to be funny and lead to slapstick situations, but it didn't click: with world-class physical comedian John Ritter already in the cast, a second "clumsy" roommate (who wasn't anywhere ''near'' as good at it as Ritter) didn't lead to the intended guffaws. Cindy never really gelled as part of the cast, and departed as a roommate after half a season. She was replaced with Terri, who was still a knockout blonde like the first two -- but who was also actually smart, savvy and a bit of a DeadpanSnarker, subverting the DumbBlonde trope the series had previously worked with. Terri was a ''much'' better recieved character, and the series lasted another three seasons with her.

*** Vicki, SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute for Susan (so much so that Sydney Newman had even wanted Creator/MaureenOBrien to cut her hair and dye it black to look likeCreator/CaroleAnnFord), is generally seen as an improvement on Susan due to the writers having a [[DependingOnTheWriter more consistent]] idea of what they [[NightmareFetishist wanted to do]] [[PluckyGirl with her]], Creator/WilliamHartnell's obvious fondness for the actress, and the fact that making her a ''friend'' of the Doctor rather than a ''relative'' goes a long way towards making the same basic character archetype work.

*** Vicki, SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute for Susan (so much so that Sydney Newman had even wanted Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho090YearOfThePig to cut her hair and dye it black to look like Carol Ann Ford), is generally seen as an improvement on Susan due to the writers having a [[DependingOnTheWriter more consistent]] idea of what they [[NightmareFetishist wanted to do]] [[PluckyGirl with her]], William Hartnell's obvious fondness for the actress, and the fact that making her a ''friend'' of the Doctor rather than a ''relative'' goes a long way towards making the same basic character archetype work.

* Happened in the fourth season of ''Series/{{Glee}}'' with "New" New Directions. After half of the original kids graduated at the end of Season 3, five new students were introduced. However, none of them caught on with viewers as much as the originals, mostly because they filled the same roles as the kids who left: [[TheIngenue Marley]] was literally declared "The New Rachel", [[LovableRogue Jake]] was Puck's younger brother, [[DoggedNiceGuy Ryder]] was Finn in all but name, [[AlphaBitch Kitty]] idolized Quinn, and [[UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}} Unique]] even described herself as the lovechild of [[CampGay Kurt]] and [[SassyBlackWoman Mercedes]] (it didn't help that the new kids even looked like the ones they were copying). Some argue that due to ''Glee'' having LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters by this point, the new kids never had a chance to shine. Others were simply more interested in the grads who moved to New York City. Eventually the show dropped the Lima-based characters altogether to move the story to New York full time.

*** Subverted by Laurel Lance. Her younger sister Sara was popular in the role of The Canary for having a complex story and being true to the spirit of ComicBook/BlackCanary. When she is [[spoiler: killed early in Season 3]], Laurel took over the role in Sara’s honor. The change didn’t go over well at first because Laurel was a BaseBreakingCharacter at best to TheScrappy at worst in the previous two seasons for her poor characterization and her lack of fight experience didn’t help. However, Laurel’s character vastly improved since she became Black Canary. Becoming much warmer and showing more determination in the role. Fans began to warm up to Laurel in the role and found her growth in Season 3 to be a major bright spot in an otherwise mediocre season. So much so that come Season 4 which saw Laurel [[spoiler: killed by Damien Darhk]], the fans were completely outrage and took their rage to the internet on a near unseen level. The fans went from hating Laurel to begging her to return from the dead. In a funny sense, Laurel becoming a ReplacementScrappy actually helped her get RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap.

* When a bitter Creator/KateJackson left after the third season of the popular female detectives show ''Series/CharliesAngels'', the producers scrambled for a replacement for everybody's favorite "Smart Angel." Enter Shelley Hack, who for many ''Angels'' viewers practically defines the trope in every sense of the word. Hack portrayed the glamorous Tiffany Welles, a cop from Boston who spoke Latin, and was always fashionable. Unfortunately, Hack wasn't given much to do during her tenure on the fourth season, simply because the writers could not seem to come up with anything for her to do, and as such, she was scarcely seen doing anything of note during the season. Because of this, Kris Munroe was given the brunt of most of the storylines, with the occasional Kelly Garrettstory thrown in, particularly in the season finale. Viewership sank as a result, and Hack was widely blamed for the ratings drop, even though she herself had nothing to do with it, it was in actuality the writers whom were to blame. Hack was immediately fired from the show, and the character of Tiffany Welles [[PutOnABus was sent back to Boston]]. Hack's replacement for the fifth and final season was Creator/TanyaRoberts as street smart model Julie Rogers. Though Roberts was received well by critics, she wasn't enough to save the show from cancellation.

* Although she's not really TheScrappy, some ''WebVideo/{{lonelygirl15}}'' fans have complained that Emma "replaced [[spoiler:Bree]]."

* At about the same time Creator/AnthonyHead as King Uther left ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}'', Nathaniel Parker was introduced as Arthur's uncle Agravaine (there was only a three episode overlap between the two characters). Though different in many ways, he was essentially a male family member who provided guidance and advice to Arthur (albeit [[TreacherousAdvisor treacherous advice]]). For a number of reasons, he didn't go down well with fans, one of them certainly because he was unfavourably compared to Uther, having not nearly as much development or complexity as his predecessor.

* Invoked on ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'': while Dennis left the Gang to go to North Dakota in the Season 12 finale, was replaced in the following season's premiere with Cindy, an out-of-place character played by [[Creator/MindyKaling a famous actress]]...only to have Dennis return halfway through the episode and escort her out, [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome and she was never seen again]]. Though in a way played straight as people who got the joke didn't like her.

* Invoked on ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'': while Dennis left the Gang to go to North Dakota in the Season 12 finale, was replaced in the following season's premiere with Cindy, an out-of-place character played by [[Creator/MindyKaling a famous actress]]...only to have Dennis return halfway through the episode. Though in a way played straight as people who got the joke didn't like her.

* Invoked on ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'': while Dennis left the Gang to go to North Dakota in the Season 12 finale, was replaced in the following season's premiere with Cindy, an out-of-place character played by [[Creator?mindyKaling a famous actress]]...only to have Dennis return halfway through the episode. Though in a way played straight as people who got the joke didn't like her.

* ''Series/TheBrittasEmpire'''' had the departing Laura replaced with Penny for Series 6. Penny is despised by fans for replacing Laura, who was one of the show's most well-rounded and popular characters. The fact that she was far bitchier and incredibly stuck-up didn't help her popularity either. The writers likely caught on to this, as she vanished from the series [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome without explanation]] in Series 7.

** It also didn't help that Chris Evan's first act on the show was to make a joke about Clarkson's sacking, which many fans were still bitter over and to many also came across as Chris trying to show his superiority over Clarkson.

** Believe it or not, Creator/BillMurray was considered a PoorMansSubstitute for Creator/ChevyChase when he joined in the second season, to the point where he received hate mail.

* Ben Mankiewicz has managed to be the replacement scrappy on no less than three different projects: replacing Creator/RogerEbert and Richard Roeper on ''At The Movies'', subbing for Cenk on ''Radio/TheYoungTurks'' and taking over afternoon introductions for Robert Osborne (while Osborne still does evenings) on Creator/TurnerClassicMovies. The general opinion of all three happens to be that he's not as good as the originals.

*** [[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime "Twice Upon a Time"]], the GrandFinale to the Capaldi era, similarly works overtime to ease the transition from him to Creator/JodieWhittaker, the first canonical female Doctor. Misogynistic complaints about her casting are mocked via the ''First'' Doctor, who is presented as a StrawMisogynist (a downplayed {{Flanderization}} of his original portrayal in TheSixties that also pokes fun at actual ValuesDissonance regarding women's roles in the franchise then) whom the Twelfth is embarrassed by, all of which is PlayedForLaughs. Moreover, while both Doctors are extremely reluctant to regenerate, each ultimately decides to FaceDeathWithDignity for a greater good. Twelve's FinalSpeech is directed to Thirteen, telling her what she must do to "get it right" and be the Doctor, and ends with a deliberate counterpoint to Ten's final words: "Doctor, I let you go." Unfortunately, this did not stop social media misogynists from continuing to abuse her vitriolically throughout the season and screaming the show ended in 2017, as if the Doctor merely becoming a woman ended the show.

* When a bitter Kate Jackson left after the third season of the popular female detectives show ''Series/CharliesAngels'', the producers scrambled for a replacement for everybody's favorite "Smart Angel." Enter Shelley Hack, who for many ''Angels'' viewers practically defines the trope in every sense of the word. Hack portrayed the glamorous Tiffany Welles, a cop from Boston who spoke Latin, and was always fashionable. Unfortunately, Hack wasn't given much to do during her tenure on the fourth season, simply because the writers could not seem to come up with anything for her to do, and as such, she was scarcely seen doing anything of note during the season. Because of this, Cheryl Ladd's character Kris Munroe was given the brunt of most of the storylines, with the occasional Kelly Garrett (Jaclyn Smith) story thrown in, particularly in the season finale. Viewership sank as a result, and Hack was widely blamed for the ratings drop, even though she herself had nothing to do with it, it was in actuality the writers whom were to blame. Hack was immediately fired from the show, and the character of Tiffany Welles [[PutOnABus was sent back to Boston]]. Hack's replacement for the fifth and final season was Creator/TanyaRoberts as street smart model Julie Rodgers. Though Roberts was received well by critics, she wasn't enough to save the show from cancellation.

* Subverted on ''Series/DrQuinnMedicineWoman'', when Sully's friend Daniel came to town to help search for the missing Sully. Originally, the plan was for Sully to be KilledOffForReal (his portrayer, Joe Lando, wanted to leave the series to take on new projects and spend more time with his family) and Daniel to be Mike's new love interest. Distraught fans flooded producers with a "Save Our Sully" campaign and the decision was amended--although Daniel still became the show's new male protagonist, Sully was kept alive (but with reduced screen time to accomodate Joe Lando's wishes), thus mostly avoiding any vitriol.