History SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute / LiveActionTV

** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E3TheInvasion The Invasion]]" is virtually a direct sequel to "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E5TheWebOfFear The Web of Fear]]", but has sewer-dwelling Cybermen invading London substituting for Underground-dwelling Yeti invading London, and replaces Professor Travers and Miss Travers with a similar MadScientist and [[MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter Beautiful Daughter]] pair. This was because the producer fell out with the creator of the Yeti and the Traverses and wanted to pay them as little as possible. The one returning character created by them is Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart because Douglas Camfield wanted Creator/NicholasCourtney back and having a Suspiciously Similar Substitute played by the ''same actor'' would just be begging for a lawsuit, and even he gets a promotion to [[TheBrigadier Brigadier]] and is mostly referred to by that rank from that point onward — not just in the serial, but the show as a whole, even in the few allusions to him in the Revival Series.

* ''Series/SWAT2017'': Zoe replaces Chris, who like her is a [[TwoferTokenMinority woman of color]], with a similar appearance (black hair, olive skin), and slim athletic build. They differ more in personality though, as Zoe is a CowboyCop whereas Chris stuck with protocol.

** One case was forced: "Travelers" and "Agua Mala" featured Arthur Dales, the first FBI agent to deal with X-Files. Dales' actor Darren [=McGavin=] suffered a stroke filming "The Unnatural", leading him to be replaced with M. Emmet Walsh playing [[NamesTheSame his brother Arthur Dales]], a former police officer (who lampshades his parents didn't have much creativity with names). To make it worse, both Dales were played in flashbacks by the same actor.

** The original plans for Season 7 had Zoe as the Third Doctor's companion; soon the producer decided she should be written out as part of the show's heavy {{Retool}} and so they created Liz, a similar HotScientist, to replace her.

* ''Series/{{Sliders}}'' was rife with substituting toward the end, though most weren't very similar to those they replaced. However, Quinn got substituted when actor Creator/JerryOConnell left, by way of TheNthDoctor by being "fused" with 'Mallory' (his non-identical counterpart from a parallel universe), at the same time Colin was PutOnABus. But with a different personality and face, Quinn Mallory's substitute ''isn't'' the other Quinn Mallory. HotScientist Diana Davis takes his role as the scientific brains on the team. A certain segment of the fanbase believes that [[EpilepticTrees Arturo was substituted by]] ''his own alternate''. The episode that this happens in allows for that interpretation as [[TheProfessor Arturo's]] villainous duplicate tries to replace him so he can escape his own world and just before they slide they are having a classic "which is the real one?" battle, and after the slide, the [[TheProfessor Arturo]] who was left behind gives a quiet, "Oh, my God." Worse yet, Series creator TracyTorme has tormented fans by saying that he knows which Arturo made the jump, but will never reveal it.

* ''Series/{{Sliders}}'' was rife with substituting toward the end, though most weren't very similar to those they replaced. However, Quinn got substituted when actor Creator/JerryOConnell left, by way of TheNthDoctor by being "fused" with 'Mallory' (his non-identical counterpart from a parallel universe), at the same time [[McLeaned Colin was]] PutOnABus. But with a different personality and face, Quinn Mallory's substitute ''isn't'' the other Quinn Mallory. HotScientist Diana Davis takes his role as the scientific brains on the team. A certain segment of the fanbase believes that [[EpilepticTrees Arturo was substituted by]] ''his own alternate''. The episode that this happens in allows for that interpretation as [[TheProfessor Arturo's]] villainous duplicate tries to replace him so he can escape his own world and just before they slide they are having a classic "which is the real one?" battle, and after the slide, the [[TheProfessor Arturo]] who was left behind gives a quiet, "Oh, my God." Worse yet, Series creator TracyTorme has tormented fans by saying that he knows which Arturo made the jump, but will never reveal it.

* ''Series/TheOrville'': Talla, who replaces Alara, is very similar to her. Not only are they both the same species and gender, but their personalities aren't that different either. So far the only significant difference is that Talla is taller, older and lacks the family prejudice against the military. After just 2 episodes the new character is best friends with the rest of the crew and is sharing relationship advice with them, just like the old one.

* Inverted on ''Series/AllInTheFamily'': The character of George Jefferson was expressly written for Creator/ShermanHemsley, who [[AbsenteeActor was unavailable]] at the time the show's early seasons were shot due to his appearance in a Broadway musical; the character of George's brother, Henry Jefferson, was devised as a placeholder until Helmsley became available in Season 4 (although George was "on" the show as an [[HeWhoMustNotBeSeen offscreen character]] in the earlier seasons).

* ''Series/TheBrittasEmpire'': After Laura, who was the [[OnlySaneMan only sane woman]] of the staff, was PutOnABus, she was replaced by Penny, who fulfiled the same role but was much less liked in-universe.

* On Fox's ''Series/NewGirl,'' the character of "Coach" (Damon Wayans, Jr.) appears only in the pilot. By the time the second episode rolls around, we instead have "Winston," (Lamorne Morris) another young, handsome, goateed, athletic African-American roommate. The switch is given something of a HandWave, with the explanation that Winston is the "real" roommate, and that Coach was just subletting while Winston was off playing pro basketball in a Latvian league. The actual reason for the switch is that Wayans shot the pilot while his ABC show ''Happy Endings'' was on the cancellation bubble, and between the pilot being shot and the show being picked up as a full series, ABC decided to renew ''Happy Endings''...Which did the same for Wayans' contract. (However, after ''Happy Endings'' ended for real, Coach returned and both characters lived in the loft.)

* ''Series/TheBrittasEmpire'': After Laura, who was the [OnlySaneMan only sane woman] of the staff, was PutOnABus, she was replaced by Penny, who fulfiled the same role but was much less liked in-universe.

* Forms a major plot point in ''Series/{{Millennium}}'', "Dead Letters". Frank Black liaised with Jim Horn, a potential Millennium agent. He was almost a near-duplicate of Frank's character type, except he was a bit too much of a CowboyCop for the Group's liking. Needless to say, he didn't make the cut.

* ''Series/ICarly2021'': Creator/JennetteMcCurdy refused to reprise her role as Sam Puckett from the original ''Series/{{iCarly}}'', so the character was written out of the show. Two new characters were introduced to fill the void left by Sam as well as Gibby (Creator/NoahMunck also didn't return). One was Carly's new best friend Harper Bettencourt, who has little in common with Sam. The other is Freddie's stepdaughter Millicent Mitchell, who is every bit as sarcastic and manipulative as Sam was, including her hot and cold relationship with Freddie. The biggest differences between Sam and Millicent is that Millicent is younger, lacks Sam's propensity towards violence and arguably has more redeeming qualities.

** Averted with Sarge. While he looks identical to Coulson ([[spoiler: who was killed off at the end of Season 5]]) and is even played by [[Creator/ClarkGregg the same actor]], the two characters are nothing alike.

** Ivanova was a Suspiciously Similar Substitute for Laurel Takashima from the PilotMovie ''Babylon 5: The Gathering''. According to JMS, that wasn't the original intention. The two characters were originally supposed to coexist until the end of the second season when Laurel would turn out to be TheMole and leave the show (written in because JMS knew Tamlyn Tomita wouldn't want to commit to five years) and Ivanova would become the executive officer... but then Tamlyn Tomita decided not to come back for the series at all.

** Ivanova was herself a Suspiciously Similar Substitute for Laurel Takashima from the PilotMovie ''Babylon 5: The Gathering''. According to JMS, that wasn't the original intention. The two characters were originally supposed to coexist until the end of the second season when Laurel would turn out to be TheMole and leave the show (written in because JMS knew Tamlyn Tomita wouldn't want to commit to five years) and Ivanova would become the executive officer... but then Tamlyn Tomita decided not to come back for the series at all.

** Marcus the unlucky in love long-haired pompous English-sounding character who quoted Shakespeare replaced in Season 5 by Byron the unlucky in love long-haired pompous English-sounding character who quoted Shakespeare.

** Jefferson "Jax" Jackson was created to replace Ronnie Raymond as Comicbook/{{Firestorm}} after contractual issues made it impossible for Creator/RobbieAmell to reprise his role from ''Series/{{The Flash|2014}}''.

** Since the [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse MCU]] [[ExiledFromContinuity couldn't use]] any ''[[Film/XMenFilmSeries X-Men]]'' characters or the term "{{mutant|s}}" at the time the show was airing, the writers used the generic term "Gifted" to describe people with superhuman abilities. This became significantly more pronounced when Comicbook/TheInhumans were introduced in the second season, with many viewers and critics noticing that their storylines seemed suspiciously similar to stuff from the X-Men mythos. These included plots about increasing public fear and paranoia regarding the Inhumans, Inhumans being forced to register with the government, and even some of the heroes becoming divided over a controversial "cure" for Inhuman powers, all of which had been done before in various X-Men media. Hive was even given a new backstory and set of motivations that made him very similar to Comicbook/{{Apocalypse}}, one of the X-Men's recurring {{Big Bad}}s.

-->'''Spike''': Okay, I think I know what to do. I'm gonna find this girl Faith...and tell her exactly where to find each and every one of you. (Cue shocked expressions from Xander and Giles. Spike sighs.) Will at least one of you bloody Scoobies try to remember that I ''hate'' you all! Just because I can't do the damage myself doesn't stop me from pointing a few loose cannons your way."

** One episode even featured a group of suspiciously similar substitutes. Escaped prisoners from Peacekeeper custody on a Leviathan transport pod, a Scarran strong guy (reflecting D'Argo's [[ProudWarriorRace proud warrior race guy]]), a Nebari androgyn (hermaphrodite, mirroring Chiana's nonconformist), a [[DistaffCounterpart female]] Hynerian, and a captured Peacekeeper tech (reflecting Aeryn's initial unwilling accompaniment of Moya's crew, as well as looking similar to Crichton and being in a similarly mistrusted position.)

** Marley Rose is just like the original Rachel Berry; Heterosexual, caucasian, skinny, pale brunette with a wailing Broadway voice is made the captain and lead singer of the ''New Directions''. She also has a crush on a member of the football team who seems to be completely out of her league and is dating a nasty blonde cheerleader who hates her, which causes ominous {{wangst}}. And despite her being unpopular the football player has a strange affinity for her, and Rachel is the main protagonist season 1-3 whilst Marley is the main protagonist in season 4.

* ''Series/JessicaJones2015'' was unable to use ComicBook/CarolDanvers, Jessica's best friend from the comics, because the character was tied up in ''Film/{{Captain Marvel|2019}}''. To replace her, the writers brought in [[Comicbook/PatsyWalker Trish Walker]] to serve as Jessica's best friend. Additionally, instead of being a redhead, Trish now has long blond hair as Carol did in the comics.

** The series consciously gave [[ComicBook/GreenArrow Oliver Queen]] many of [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Bruce Wayne]]'s traits because they didn't have the television rights to ''Batman'' characters (making the ''Smallville'' universe's Queen both a CompositeCharacter and a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute). He shares his birthplace, M.O., and basic background with the Green Arrow's comic book incarnation, but he's also the primary founder of the ComicBook/JusticeLeague, the world's most well-known [[BadassNormal non-powered superhero]], and Clark Kent's closest ally in the superhero community.

** After [[spoiler:Comicbook/JimmyOlsen]] dies, we discover that he has a little brother who [[OneSteveLimit even goes by the same nickname]]. Admittedly, the kid doesn't take his dead brother's role in the show, but the DistantFinale confirms that he will play that part in the ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' mythos eventually.

*** The character Tom Paris from ''Voyager'' was originally slated to be Nicolas Locarno (a single-episode character from TNG) but the producers did not want to get into a situation where they could have been forced to pay royalties to the original writer of the TNG episode, so they changed the name of the character. They then turned this trope UpToEleven as both characters were played by the same actor, and they have a nearly identical backstory. Some producers have mentioned that they also believed that Nicolas Locarno was irredeemable. They wanted a character that was a little rough around the edges, but ultimately redeemable. However, this may just be an official reason given to the press to cover the fact that they didn't want to pay royalties.

** Fans have pointed out that whenever Sam or Dean get separated from each-otherfor a length of time, either brother tends to latch onto substitutes with a similarity to the other. For Dean it's been Cass, a siren and most prominently Benny; for Sam it's been Ruby and other female partners with a vague resemblance to Dean.

** Jack Kline is ultimately very similar to [[AntiAntichrist Jesse]], a single-episode character in Season 5 who has proven to be an EnsembleDarkhorse among the fandom but hasn't gotten a reappearance since. Both Jack and Jesse are [[HalfHumanHyvrid Half-Human Hybrids]] who are extremely powerful, both are thought to be evil by nature, both are ultimately an AntiAntichrist, and both hold a significant connection to Lucifer (Jesse is a half-demon who was prophesized to become the biblical Antichrist, whereas Jack is Lucifer's biological half-archangel son).

** Much like Charlie, Alice in "[[Recap/SupernaturalS13E08TheScorpionAndTheFrog TheScorpion and the Frog]]" is a quirky girl of slim build with a specialize skills who helps the boys pull a caper.

** Taken UpToEleven in Season 4, which saw the addition of Mason, a gay male high school freshman who's a POC, star athlete on the lacrosse team, best friends with blond jock Liam, and isn't aware of the supernatural events going on around him. Sounds great until you realize that that almost ''word for word'' describes Danny Mahealani, who was mysteriously cut from Season 4, has had minimal CharacterDevelopment since Jackson's departure two seasons ago and was an EnsembleDarkhorse amongst the fandom and casual viewers.

* Played with on ''Film/{{Tremors}}: The Series'' when Michael Gross was unavailable for shooting. The female scientist who appeared in the episode was given a personality Suspiciously Similar to Gross's Burt Gummer, a similarity which was Lampshaded by the other characters, although she didn't perform his usual in-universe functions of shooting or blowing up monsters.

* ''Series/ICarly2021'': CreatorJennetteMcCurdy refused to reprise her role as Sam Puckett from the original ''Series/{{iCarly}}'', so the character was written out of the show. Two new characters were introduced to fill the void left by Sam as well as Gibby (Creator/NoahMunck also didn't return). One was Carly's new best friend Harper Bettencourt, who has little in common with Sam. The other is Freddie's stepdaughter Millicent Mitchell, who is every bit as sarcastic and manipulative as Sam was, including her hot and cold relationship with Freddie. The biggest differences between Sam and Millicent is that Millicent is younger, lacks Sam's propensity towards violence and arguably has more redeeming qualities.

* The UK kids' show ''Series/WhyDontYou'' is another example, but it had one notable exception in its later years: Ben, the Welsh MadScientist, was evidently considered un-substitutable, so he continued past the typical age, eventually playing a [[Series/RedDwarf Holly]]-style computer program based on the original Ben so that the disparity between his age and the rest of the cast wasn't an issue.

* Leonard Rossiter's final role on UK television was as a supermarket manager in the dreadful sitcom ''Tripper's Day''. After his death, he was replaced by Creator/BruceForsyth and the show was renamed ''Slinger's Day''. This was even worse than the original but was somehow renewed for a second (six-episode) season and crossed the Atlantic to become ''Check It Out''.

*** The character Tom Paris from ''Voyager'' was originally slated to be Nicolas Locarno (a single-episode character from TNG) but the producers did not want to get into a situation where they may be forced to pay royalties to the original writer of the TNG episode, so they changed the name of the character. Then turned this trope UpToEleven as both characters were played by the same actor, and they have a nearly identical backstory. Some producers have mentioned that they also believed that Nicolas Locarno was irredeemable. They wanted a character that was a little rough around the edges, but ultimately redeemable. However, this may just be an official reason given to the press to cover the fact that they didn't want to pay royalties.

** In principle, the leader (Briggs or Phelps) chose the team members for each mission from a large dossier of agents. In practice, especially in the early day, it was mostly the same team.

* ''Series/HillStreetBlues'' -- When Michael Conrad died after Season 3, his Sgt. Esterhaus was replaced with Robert Prosky's Sgt. Jablonski (who was even given a similar {{catchphrase}} to close out the briefing at the top of each episode). However, where Esterhaus had been warm and fatherly, Jablonski was much harder-edged. Even their catch-phrases showed this; compare Esterhaus's caring "Let's be careful out there" to Jablonski's caustic "Let's do it to them before they do it to us."

** The series did this in its final season with Pete (Jake Lacy) and Clark (Clark Duke) being immediately {{lampshade|Hanging}}d as the "new Jim and Dwight", due to their resemblance to younger versions of both characters. They did this despite both Jim ''and'' Dwight still being around.

** Prop example — the Fourth Doctor started using a "secondary console room" at one point, designed to fit the [[GothicHorrorTropes gothic motif]] he was [[CharacterizationMarchesOn swiftly developing]], which had a chapel-like appearance complete with stained-glass windows and gorgeous real wood paneling on everything. However, the BBC stored the set poorly and the wood warped and cracked, forcing the Doctor to revert to the previous console room set, with a HandWave about him redecorating the secondary console room to look like his previous one. This also serendipitously coincided with the Doctor's characterisation going in a LighterAndSofter direction, the result of [[MoralGuardians Mary Whitehouse]] raising enough of a fuss about the show's increasingly DarkerAndEdgier direction that producer Philip Hinchcliffe got fired in favour of Graham Williams, whose work on the show was under constant orders to keep it kiddie.