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->''"People get kicked out of bands. It happens. Music/TheBeatles nixed Pete Best because Music/RingoStarr was a superior drummer. Music/{{Metallica}} got rid of Dave Mustaine because only two exceptionally low IQ rageaholic jackasses are allowed in a band and they already had James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich."'' [[labelnote:caption:]] Actually, Lars counts as two. [[/labelnote]]
-->-- '''''Website/{{Cracked}}''''', [[https://www.cracked.com/blog/5-absurd-reasons-musicians-have-been-fired-from-famous-bands "5 Absurd Reasons Musicians Have Been Fired from Famous Bands"]]

Who?

A subtrope of SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute and/or TheOtherDarrin, wherein one actor is in a role or position, then is dropped (or leaves voluntarily) for another actor who is the one everyone remembers after the work/group becomes famous.

[[TropeNamers Named]] for Pete Best, the first drummer of Music/TheBeatles, who was replaced by Music/RingoStarr ''just'' before they hit it big, with Ringo having suddenly become available after leaving another band.

Less likely in the film industry (since you can only get one actor to play a role, any replacement will have to reshoot the scenes and become TheOtherMarty), more likely in theater, television, and music.

If the guy is in the band when they are famous, but all but forgotten, that person's StuckInTheirShadow. If the guy never had a chance of becoming famous anyway, that's BreakupBreakout. If the band tries to avoid talking about the guy in the event he is brought up or tries to take down any uploaded footage of the period he was with them, he is an OldShame. If their successor ends up more remembered, it is a case of MorePopularReplacement.

As a final thought, notice that in RealLife this trope is quite common since music groups or any team whose future success is not clear normally go through a series of line-up changes. NOTE: Please add only sentient beings to the Real Life folder.

Compare other tropes surrounding changes in performers and characters, such as TheOtherMarty, DroppedAfterThePilot and SecondEpisodeIntroduction.

%%NOTE: The Real Life folder has been pruned of everything that isn't a sentient being, per this Ask The Tropers thread. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/query.php?parent_id=97791&type=att

Contrast LesserStar.

----
!!Examples:

[[index]]
* ThePeteBest/{{Music}}
[[/index]]

[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* Creator/EricStuart, the longtime voice actor for James (and Brock) in the 4Kids dub of ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'', was actually the ''second'' voice actor for the character. Creator/TedLewis was James's voice actor for the first few episodes of the show's run. Lewis went on to voice Tracey and [[BigBad Giovanni]], among many other minor characters, and notably returned to the role of Giovanni even after [[TheOtherDarrin the mass voice actor replacement of 2006]].
** Another case of this happened with Meowth, who is best known as being voiced by the late Creator/MaddieBlaustein. However, for the first thirty or so episodes of the dub, his voice actor was Matthew Sussman (credited under the name "Nathan Price"), who retired the role afterward while continuing to provide additional voices for a couple more years.
* Raoh was originally voiced by Creator/NorioWakamoto when he appeared in Episode 32 of ''[[Anime/FistOfTheNorthStar Hokuto no Ken]]'' before Creator/KenjiUtsumi took over the role. This was before Raoh's proper first appearance, before Raoh's design and backstory were finalized (before he even had a proper name even) since Raoh only shows up as a [[SinisterSilhouettes silhouette]]. Wakamoto would later appear as another character named Shuren.
* Tristan Taylor from the 4Kids dub of ''Anime/YuGiOh'' was voiced by Creator/SamRiegel for the first ten episodes until Greg Abbey took over. However, Riegel's goofier take is more well-known these days, especially to fans of ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'', simply because of how easy it is to make fun of.
* In ''Literature/{{Slayers}}'', Creator/CrispinFreeman is best known for being the voice of Zelgadis, however, Daniel Cronin had voiced the character for nine episodes before the character was PutOnABus and recast with Crispin after he reappeared eight episodes later (apparently, the people working on the dub couldn't get back in contact with Cronin). Interestingly, this was a controversial recast in the day, as many fans were used to Daniel's voice, and had a hard time adjusting to Freeman; with how long Freeman has been in the role, however, nowadays people who haven't been watching since the beginning only see Cronin as Zelgadis' "old voice" when they watch the earlier episodes.
** The same could be said for Joan Baker as Amelia. Most people associate Creator/VeronicaTaylor as the character's voice actress, not knowing there was another actress who had briefly voiced the character for her first three episodes. In addition, Creator/LuciChristian also briefly voiced the character for ''Slayers Premium'', but her performance is usually also sidelined by Taylor's.
* ''Franchise/DragonBall'':
** The entire Ocean voice cast for ''Anime/DragonBallZ''. Once associated as the voices of the series, that honor now goes to Creator/{{FUNimation}}'s voice cast, who has completely replaced the former (with actors like Creator/SeanSchemmel and Chris Sabat instead of Ian Corlett and Brian Drummond). While Ocean did do their own dub of the second half of the series for Europe and Canada in association with AB Groupe, this has also been displaced by Funimation's version, which is all that's on DVD in those (and all English-speaking) territories.
** Within [=FUNimation=]'s studios itself, their very first dub, ''[[Anime/DragonBallSleepingPrincessInDevilsCastle Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle]]'', had several regulars like Creator/ChristopherSabat as Yamcha, Laurie Steele as Young Krillin, and Mike [=McFarland=] as Master Roshi, but also had several actors who would soon be replaced with cast members fans are much more familiar with. Kid Goku was originally voiced by Ceyli Delgadillo before Stephanie Nadolny and later Creator/ColleenClinkenbeard handled him for more recent stuff, Leslie Alexander voiced Bulma in the dub before being replaced by Tiffany Volmer and later Creator/MonicaRial, and Launch had two different voice actresses for her good and bad sides (Monika Antonelli, the original Puar and Chiaotzu, was the good side, and Christine Marten, who has no other credits, was the bad side) while Meredith [=McCoy=] would provide the voice of both her personalities for the rest of her appearances.
** [=FUNimation=] also had a few cases of this in their first dubbed season of ''DBZ'', which covered the "Ginyu" and "Freeza" arcs. Chris Cason (who also voices Shou in the franchise) was the original voice for both Tien Shinhan and Mr. Popo, but temporarily retired the following year, leaving the characters to be respectively recast with Creator/JohnBurgmeier and Creator/ChristopherSabat. While Cason [[TheOriginalDarrin returned to the role]] of Mr. Popo beginning in 2010 for ''Anime/DragonBallZKai'', Burgmeier has continued to provide the voice for Tien. Dale Kelly was the original voice for Captain Ginyu in Funimation's dub, but 2 years later he was replaced with Brice Armstrong and after Armstrong's retirement Creator/RBruceElliott. Lastly, Chris Sabat himself is the Pete Best for both Nappa and Raditz, providing their voices for a flashback in one episode, as well as providing the voice for the former in the original English dub of the Bardock TV special. In all future appearances in anime and video games, Phil Parsons has been Nappa, while Creator/JustinCook (who is also the voice of Teen and Adult Dende as well as Super Buu) is Raditz.
** [=FUNimation=]'s original voices for the Pilaf Gang for their appearances in the [[Anime/DragonBallMysticalAdventure third Dragon Ball film]] were completely different than the usual voices that have played them in all other appearances. Pilaf was voiced by Creator/MikeMcFarland rather than Creator/ChuckHuber, Creator/JustinCook voiced Shou instead of Chris Cason (an inversion of his status as Tien), and Creator/CynthiaCranz originally voiced Mai, while Julie Franklin handled her for the dub of the TV series and Creator/ColleenClinkenbeard has provided her voice for all future appearances.
** For ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' most people attribute Creator/MatthewMercer as the voice of Hit, but he was the second actor for the role. [[MarthDebutedInSmashBros In his first English-speaking appearance]] in ''VideoGame/DragonBallXenoverse2'', Aaron Roberts (who also voices Cae in the anime) provided Hit's voice, and Mercer took over for all subsequent appearances.
** In the Japanese version, Creator/NaokoWatanabe is best known as the voice of Chi-Chi, but Creator/MayumiSho voiced her in the original ''Manga/DragonBall'' and the first two seasons and three movies of ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', before taking a hiatus from seiyuu work to care for her family. She very briefly returned to voice Chi-Chi in the first ''Budokai'' game, but otherwise, the role has long been associated with Watanabe (who also voices Puar).
** In the Latin American Spanish dub of ''DB'', Creator/JesusBarrero was the first voice actor of both Yamcha and Puar from their first appearance until episode 45, when he left and the roles were given to separate actors (Yamcha to Creator/RicardoMendoza, who continues on the role up to this day, and Puar to Cristina Camargo).
* ''Anime/BattleOfThePlanets'' (the first English dub of ''Anime/ScienceNinjaTeamGatchaman'') had entirely different actors for Tiny and Jason in the earliest-dubbed episode, "Attack of the Space Terrapin". Most fans associate Alan Dinehart and Ronnie Schell with the respective characters, however, Schell voiced ''Tiny'' in this first episode, while David Jolliffe voiced Jason. For some reason or another, Sandy Frank recast the parts after that, leaving Schell to take on the more prominent role of Jason (and voicing the character in a higher, somewhat raspier voice than Jolliffe's take), while Dinehart took over Tiny.
* In ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'', the girl-type Ranma is best known for being voiced by Creator/VenusTerzo in the English dub, but Brigitta Dau voiced her in the first 6 episodes of the TV series and first two OVA episodes, before moving away. Both Dau and Terzo sounded similar, and many viewers didn't even notice the change. In addition, Cologne's voice was Elan Ross-Gibson 99% of the time, but Creator/KathleenBarr voiced her in her first couple of OVA appearances.
* ''Anime/SaintSeiya'':
** Saori Kido's Latin Spanish voice was originally Cristina Camargo. After 26 episodes, the more remembered Creator/MariaFernandaMorales took over.
** For most of the franchise, Ricardo Mendoza voices Shiryu and Roberto Mendiola voices Ban, but in their first appearance in the second episode, it was the other way around.
** The Brazilian original voiceover for Shiryu was Sérgio Rufino, who voiced the character in the 1994 broadcast, but was shortly replaced by Elcio Sodré after nine episodes, because Rufino was suffering from hoarseness at the time. In 2003, the series got a redub with most of the cast being the same, and Sodré was recast as Shiryu voicing him in the entire series. Later, all ''Saint Seiya'' productions featured Sodré as Shiryu.
* In the English dub of ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'', Jeff Nimoy is known as the voice of Tentomon, but he was actually the second actor to voice him. In the first few episodes, Joshua Seth, who voiced Tai, also voiced Tentomon, but the crew thought he had too many roles, so Nimoy took over as Tentomon for all future appearances, with the exception of some later episodes of ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'', where he was [[TheOtherDarrin Other Darrined.]] Seth did continue to voice Tentomon's lower form Motimon however.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk The Hulk]] could be said to be the Pete Best of ComicBook/TheAvengers -- one of the five founding members, he left at the end of the second issue, never to rejoin the team. In issue #4 Captain America joined the Avengers and became one of those three members (along with founders Thor and Iron Man) of which you invariably can expect to see at least one on the active roster. The Avengers altered their charter to make Cap a founding member and remove the Hulk from it, despite it being the other way around. Averted in modern adaptations like ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'', which keep Hulk on the team to have more Marvel A-list heroes that aren't wrapped up in licensing red tapes like Spider-Man or Wolverine.
* At least the Hulk has become a major character on his own. Two founding members of the new ComicBook/XMen fit this trope a lot better. Sunfire, who quit the team in the second issue, and Thunderbird, who died in the third issue. While their teammates Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Storm have become major characters, these two remain mostly footnotes in comic book history. Banshee, another founding member, is more of a [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] example, as he stuck around long enough to be considered a "real" X-Men, but quit the team just before the comic's popularity skyrocketed.
* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'':
** For the first few issues of ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'', Michael Gallagher and David Manak were the main writer and artists respectively, giving a zany and cartoonish tone with NoFourthWall and a HurricaneOfPuns. Over time, they were phased out in favor of a larger number of rotating artists and writers who established a more serious tone.
** ''ComicBook/SonicTheComic'':
*** Long-running artist Richard Elson doesn't join until the seventh issue, and while other artists would still contribute to the ''Sonic'' strip across its run, doesn't become the primary artist for the Sonic strip until around the twentieth.
*** Writer Nigel Kitching doesn't join the book until the fourth issue and doesn't begin establishing the consistent world of ''Sonic the Comic'' until the seventh, with the first year of the comic's run alternating between Kitching and one-shots by Mark Millar. The other well-known Sonic the Comic writer, Lew Stringer, doesn't join until around the mid-twenties' issues.
* Barbara Gordon is the character that fans primarily associate as ''ComicBook/{{Batgirl}}'' thanks especially due to appearing in other media such as ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', but most are surprised to learn that she was actually the ''second'' heroine to use the identity: the original Batgirl is actually Betty Kane, who made a few appearances in the early 1960s before largely being dropped, only showing up sporadically since. Barbara's two successors in the comics, [[ComicBook/Batgirl2000 Cassandra Cain]] and [[ComicBook/Batgirl2009 Stephanie Brown]], also overshadow Betty.
* In May 1950, recently founded Brazilian publisher Primavera launched ''Raio Vermelho'', an unsucessful republishing of Italian comics that only lasted three years. That magazine basically only exists as a footnote to what would happen in July, as the same company under the name [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editora_Abril Abril]][[note]]which just like the previous name was "Spring" in Portuguese, means "April", the first full month of said season in the Northern hemisphere[[/note]] released ''Westernanimation/DonaldDuck'', that lasted ''68 years'' before the ComicBook/DisneyMouseAndDuckComics changed their publisher, a period in which Abril became a massive media conglomerate.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' was the first outing for the concept and paved the way for the TV adaptation. It was a moderately well-acclaimed horror/comedy movie but was so eclipsed by the TV show that nobody now remembers Kirsty Swanson as Buffy, without a big reminder there had been a Slayer prior to Creator/SarahMichelleGellar.
* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** In the Death Star briefing scene in the original ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars]]'', EnsembleDarkHorse (or is he an AscendedExtra?) Colin Higgins plays Wedge Antilles. In the rest of the movie -- and in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' and ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' -- he's played by Denis Lawson (who also dubbed Higgins' lines in his one scene).
** In the original version of ''The Empire Strikes Back'', Emperor Palpatine's face was provided by veteran actress Marjorie Eaton (with chimpanzee eyes digitally superimposed over her own) and voiced by Clive Revill. Creator/IanMcDiarmid played the character in ''Return of the Jedi'' and the prequels, and when ''Empire'' was re-released to [=DVD=] in 2004, Palpatine's scenes were re-shot with [=McDiarmid=] in the role.
** Adrian Dunbar played Bail Organa in a bit part in ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', but his scene was cut and the character renamed Bail Antilles, paving the way for Creator/JimmySmits to play Organa starting in ''Film/AttackOfTheClones''.
** For the French dub, Creator/FrancoisChaumette voiced Darth Vader in 1977 in ''Film/ANewHope'' (he didn't sound like Creator/JamesEarlJones). He was replaced with the more memorable Creator/GeorgesAminel as of ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack''. Aminel's voice sounded closer to Jones, and he would voice Vader again for ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' and ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith''.
* Peter Burton, who played Major Boothroyd/Q in ''Film/DrNo'', was unable to return for ''Film/FromRussiaWithLove'' and so was replaced by Creator/DesmondLlewelyn, who would become the iconic Q actor, appearing in seventeen ''Film/JamesBond'' movies in total.
** Another one from ''Film/JamesBond''. Before Creator/SeanConnery, there was an American actor, Barry Nelson, who played "Jimmy Bond" in an adaptation of ''Literature/CasinoRoyale'' for an anthology called ''Climax!'', with the idea being for it to act also as a pilot for a possible TV Show based on James Bond. Nothing came out of it and eight years later came ''Film/DrNo'' and Barry Nelson (who was thirteen years older than Connery) wasn't even considered for the role. [[StarMakingRole The movie pretty much made Sean Connery a star]] and relegated Barry Nelson's performance as Bond to total obscurity. The fact that the production was believed lost to time until a kinescope emerged in the 1980s didn't help much either.
* [[Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs Hannibal Lecter]] was first played by Creator/BrianCox in ''Film/{{Manhunter}}'' (as Dr. "Lecktor"), and later by Creator/AnthonyHopkins. Cox's substantial roles in ''Film/{{Rushmore}}, ''Film/X2XMenUnited'', and the ''[[Film/TheBourneSeries Bourne]]'' films have since made him a recognized character actor, but as ''Manhunter'' is far less known the other films (especially since the novel ''Literature/RedDragon'' it was based on was later adapted a second time) and Hopkins' portrayal became so iconic, Cox carried the 'first to play Lecter' footnote for much of his career. Many still wonder what he could've done with the role if he'd been cast in the later films.
* Creator/TomClancy's character Jack Ryan was originated in film by Creator/AlecBaldwin in ''Film/TheHuntForRedOctober''. However the role is best remembered from the portrayal by Creator/HarrisonFord in the follow-up adaptations ''Film/PatriotGames'' and ''Film/ClearAndPresentDanger''.
* Ted Healy was this to Film/TheThreeStooges and was the star of the act in vaudeville for long before his assistants were billed as the Stooges. Healy left the Stooges when they moved in 1934 to Creator/ColumbiaPictures from Creator/{{MGM}}, for which they had done six shorts and various cameos. Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Shemp Howard also played minor supporting roles in ''Soup to Nuts'', a 1930 Fox feature film starring Healy. Shemp was replaced by Curly in the early 1930s but returned in the mid-1940s after Curly had a stroke. Healy, meanwhile, had died in 1937.
** During the Ted Healy years, the group had a ''fourth'' Stooge, Fred Sanborn. Sanborn left after ''Soup to Nuts'' to concentrate on his music and solo career but worked with Shemp on a few films in the [=1940s=] until Shemp reunited with the Stooges in 1947.
* The first movie about the amnesiac super-assassin, Jason Bourne, was a 3-hour epic film called ''The Bourne Identity'' that premiered on television in 1988 and starred Richard Chamberlain. However, when people mention Jason Bourne, the first person most people think of is Creator/MattDamon and his role in the remake and sequels that came afterwards.
* Like ''Series/TheOC'' example below, Creator/ShaileneWoodley had it happen to her a second time when she was cut from ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan2'' and the series was [[AbortedArc left behind]] with her role of ComicBook/MaryJaneWatson being recast in upcoming movies. However, the franchise ended up being cancelled in favor of the MCU Spider-Man movies, so she didn't really lose out on anything.
* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse:
** It has had not one, but two actors portray Bruce Banner, [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk everyone's favorite jolly green giant rageaholic]]. But Creator/EdwardNorton, who originated the role for the franchise, is not the actor everyone associates with the role; that would be Creator/MarkRuffalo, who took over the role for ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' and has played the character in every appearance since.
** [[ComicBook/WarMachine James "Rhodey" Rhodes]] was played by Creator/TerrenceHoward in ''Film/IronMan1'', but by the time Rhodey finally got to put on his War Machine armor in ''Film/IronMan2'', Howard had been replaced by Creator/DonCheadle, who went on to play the role in every subsequent MCU appearance. This makes the scene in the first film where Terrence Howard's Rhodey says "Next time, baby" while looking enviously at the Mk. II armor he takes in the second film HilariousInHindsight.
* ''Franchise/BillAndTed'' originated from an improv sketch called ''Bill, Ted and Bob". The guy who played Bob lost interest, causing Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson to go ahead and write the movie without the third member.
* For the ''Film/MissionImpossibleFilmSeries'', Ethan Hunt (Creator/TomCruise) has had three different dubbing voices in French -- Creator/PatrickPoivey for the [[Film/MissionImpossible1996 first film]], Yvan Attal for the [[Film/MissionImpossibleII second]], and Creator/JeanPhilippePuymartin for the others since ''Film/MissionImpossibleIII''. Puymartin remains by far the most well known of the bunch (Poivey was more famous for dubbing Creator/BruceWillis).
* Creator/BobMonkhouse, Creator/WilliamHartnell, and Creator/DoraBryan all had starring roles in the first ''Film/CarryOn'' film, (''Film/CarryOnSergeant''), but never appeared again in the series. Creator/ShirleyEaton, Creator/TerenceLongdon, Creator/BillOwen, Creator/EricBarker, and Creator/LesliePhillips also all had large roles in the earlier films before gradually disappearing from the series.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Max Frei of ''Literature/LabyrinthsOfEcho'' fame is none other than [[MoustacheDePlume Svetlana Martynchik]], but it didn't start this way. Igor Styopin originally co-wrote Frei's early works. After Martynchik was revealed as the woman behind Max Frei in 2001, she continued writing under that name alone.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* Creator/BrianDunkleman was the co-host of ''Series/AmericanIdol'' in Season 1 and chose the wrong time to play hardball in contract negotiations, considering that the audience clearly preferred Ryan Seacrest. From that point, the show just kept getting bigger.
* ESPN's ''Series/AroundTheHorn'' was originally hosted by Max Kellerman, who left in early 2004 for a show on Fox Sports. ESPN tapped Tony Reali (then known as Stat Boy from ''Horn'''s sister show ''Series/PardonTheInterruption'') as a temporary fill-in until they could hire a permanent replacement. Nine years later, Reali's still hosting the show (with Kellerman coming full circle to host ''Series/SportsNation'').
* Sara Lance wound up becoming a BreakoutCharacter on ''Series/{{Arrow}}'', playing a heavily recurring role starting in the second season, [[spoiler: getting brought back from the dead after the unpopular decision was made to kill her off in the show's third season]], and ultimately being promoted to the main cast member of the show's spinoff ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow''. Creator/CaityLotz is immediately credited to the role, to the point where most people forget she was played by a completely different actress, Jacqueline [=MacInnes=] Wood, in ''Arrow's'' pilot episode.
* ''Series/TheATeam'': In the feature-length pilot episode, Face was played by Tim Dunigan. The role was recast after the pilot and he was replaced by Creator/DirkBenedict for the rest of the show's run.
* Creator/IanHendry played Dr. David Keel, the lead of the first season of ''Series/TheAvengers1960s'', with Steed (Creator/PatrickMacnee) as the secondary lead. The show was a moderate success, but Hendry moved on, with Steed becoming the lead - joined by first Cathy Gale (Creator/HonorBlackman) and then Emma Peel (Creator/DianaRigg). The show became a big hit when Blackman joined, then a full-blown craze when Rigg took over. No-one really remembers Hendry (not helped by only one of his episodes still existing).
* Creator/TamlynTomita as Lt. Cmdr. Laurel Takashima and Creator/JohnnySekka as Dr. Benjamin Kyle in the ''Series/BabylonFive'' PilotMovie -- both of whom declined to return for the subsequent TV series. Neither ever appear again in person (although Dr. Kyle does get referred to several times throughout the series). Ultimately averted with Patricia Tallman (as Lyta Alexander), who also didn't return at first, but ended up rejoining the cast much later in the series when her replacement quit.
** Tragic example: Creator/MichaelOHare (Commander Sinclair) was found to be suffering from mental illness, and replaced with Creator/BruceBoxleitner (Captain Sheridan, new look, same great taste) in time for Season Two, though he did make sporadic appearances in Season 3. He didn't stay long enough to make an impression on fans or his castmates, and never told anyone about his condition, leading to rumors of drug addiction. That said, the revelation of his condition in 2013 did spark a new wave of admiration and respect for him from longtime fans of the show, particularly with the hindsight of just how harrowing episodes like "And the Sky, Full of Stars"[[note]]which deals with his character being deliberately tortured with mind games[[/note]] must have been for him to film.
* The original pilot episode of ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' was quite different from the show that eventually aired. Leonard and Sheldon had an extroverted female co-worker and friend named Gilda, who was dropped and replaced by Raj and Howard. The main story revolved around the guys trying to help the cynical HardDrinkingPartyGirl Katie, played by Amanda Walsh. Test audiences famously hated Katie, who was retooled into the more warm and friendly Penny, played by Creator/KaleyCuoco.
* The mid-60's comedy ''Camp Runamuck!'' featured Leonard Stone as Doc in most of the episodes. In the pilot, however, Frank [=DeVol=] portrayed Doc, who the role was originally intended for and who left due to health problems.
* ''Series/{{Castle|2009}}'' had a fourth precinct detective in the pilot who was dropped due to lacking good chemistry with the other characters. The trope (and the TropeNamer) are also referenced in the episode ''Swan Song'' when the rock musician murderer gets a MotiveRant about how the victim (his bandmate) was going to "Pete Best" him.
* Originally, in the recurring role of black-sheep alcoholic older brother Gary Ewing, ''Series/{{Dallas}}'' had cast David Ackroyd. When a spinoff, ''Series/KnotsLanding'', was launched in the third season, Ted Shackelford got the part that would keep him working for the next 14 years.
* ''Series/TheDailyShow'' started with Craig Kilborn for the first three years, but the show really became popular after Jon Stewart took over and retooled the direction and comedy style. The show's full title was eventually changed to ''Series/TheDailyShowWithJonStewart'' and remained so until Stewart's retirement in 2015.
* Samantha Morrison played Emma Nelson as a baby on ''Series/DegrassiJuniorHigh'' and Ashlee Harris played toddler Emma Nelson on ''Series/DegrassiHigh'' before Miriam [=McDonald=] played Emma Nelson on ''Series/DegrassiTheNextGeneration''.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** When the show was brought back in 2005, Creator/ChristopherEccleston was cast to play the Ninth Doctor. Eccleston left after only one series, and although it was well-received, Eccleston's Ninth Doctor isn't anywhere near as popular or well-known as his immediate successor Creator/DavidTennant's Tenth.
** Actress Beverley Cressman was the first to play Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, daughter of the beloved Brigadier, in non-canonical spinoff videos. When Kate made the jump to the series proper, however, Creator/JemmaRedgrave was cast, and good luck finding ''anyone'' who doesn't consider Redgrave the "real" Kate Stewart. (It helps that she tends to [[EnsembleDarkhorse run away]] with every scene she is in.)
* Before Mary Hart began her near 30-year run as co-anchor of ''Series/EntertainmentTonight'', the initial female anchors were Marjorie Wallace and subsequently, Dixie Whatley.
* The first season of ''Series/TheFactsOfLife'' had several characters who didn't make it past the first season (outside of occasional appearances), but special attention should be given to Miss Mahoney, a teacher who was dropped after the fourth episode.
* ''Series/FamilyMatters'':
** Judy Winslow was played by one Creator/ValerieJones in the very first episode (she could also briefly be seen during the opening from behind for a bit longer) before Jaimee Foxworth took over the role. Who didn't really hit it big, either, but at least became famous for ''that''?
** Laura's original best friend, Penny Peyser (Ebonie Smith), disappeared after the first season, and Eddie's, Rodney Beckett (Randy Josselyn) didn't last much longer. Their successors, Maxine Johnson (Creator/CherieJohnson) and Waldo Faldo (Shawn Harrison) are much more recognizable.
* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': In a possible [[ShoutOut reference]] to the TropeNamer, a flashback sequence in the episode [[OriginsEpisode "Out of Gas"]] establishes that ''Serenity'''s original mechanic was a man named Bester, who was quickly forgotten by the crew after he lost his job to Kaylee.
* ''Series/{{Friends}}'': Carol is played by Creator/AnitaBarone in her debut episode before Creator/JaneSibbett takes over the role for the rest of the show.
* Creator/GeorgeCarlin joked in his "sortabiography" that he replaced Ringo Starr on ''Series/ShiningTimeStation'' becoming the [[InvertedTrope reverse Pete Best]].
* Elizabeth Ward played Carol Seaver in the pilot for ''Series/GrowingPains'' but was replaced by Creator/TraceyGold when the series was picked up.
* The "pilot" of ''Series/HappyDays'' did air as an [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0637037/ episode]] of ''Series/LoveAmericanStyle''. The pilot was initially rejected, only to have the network pick it up after Creator/RonHoward starred in ''Film/AmericanGraffiti''. [[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0098014/?ref_=tt_cl_t3 Tom Bosley]] replaced [[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0332390/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t9 Harold Gould]] as Howard Cunningham and [[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0602844/?ref_=tt_cl_t4 Erin Moran]] replaced [[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0624557/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t19 Susan Neher]] as Joanie.
* ''Series/HomeImprovement'' originally had actress Francis Fisher playing Jill, but producers were uncertain about her take on the character (playing her a lot more exasperated over Tim's antics) and this led to her being replaced with Patricia Richardson for the series itself.
* Pert Kelton was the original Alice Kramden when ''Series/TheHoneymooners'' was just a segment of Jackie Gleason's variety show. She was caught up in the Red Scare and was replaced by Audrey Meadows around the time for the show's "Classic 39".
* When the syndicated newsmagazine ''Series/InsideEdition'' premiered in January 1989, it was originally hosted by British journalist Creator/DavidFrost. After about three weeks into its first year, Frost was replaced by Creator/BillOReilly, who would host the show for about the next six and a half years. After [=O'Reilly=]'s departure came former ''Series/{{Today}}'' anchor Creator/DeborahNorville. Norville began hosting ''Inside Edition'' in March 1995 and continued to host it a good 20 years later.
* The Tenderloins, aka the stars of ''Series/ImpracticalJokers'', actually started as a quintet of Sal Vulcano, James Murray, Joe Gatto, Gideon Horowitz, and Mike Boccio. By 2005, Horowitz had left the troupe, and the following year, Boccio followed suit and was replaced by Brian Quinn.
* A number of ''Series/IronChef''s are "the Pete Best" because of how the English dub was handled: The first dubbed episodes were from the ''last'' two seasons, featuring the lineup of veteran Chinese chef Kenichi Chin (credited in the English dub of the show as Chen Kenichi, family name first even though the other chefs were credited Western-style with their given name first), French chef Hiroyuki Sakai, then-new Japanese-American fusion chef Masaharu Morimoto (the ''third'' Iron Chef Japanese), and Italian chef Masahiko Kobe (by far the youngest of the Iron Chefs, 26 at the time of his appointment, 28 in the earliest dubbed episodes at which time he had already been on the show for 2 years). Later, the decision was made to dub a new order of episodes starting with the ''second'' season, featuring the lineup of Sakai and Chin with Iron Chef Japanese I, Rokusaburo Michiba. Not shown in the English dub except for a single episode (in which he ''lost'') was Iron Chef French I, Yutaka Ishinabe, who left the show after a single season because he disliked the artificial pacing of RealityTelevision, and not shown until very late in the show's run was Iron Chef Japanese II, Koumei Nakamura, appearing in seasons 4 and 5 after Michiba's departure from the series. Until late, most American viewers had little idea that Nakamura had been part of the show for two years, as Morimoto was depicted as being Michiba's direct successor.
* In the ''Series/{{JAG}}'' two-parter that provided the [[PoorlyDisguisedPilot backdoor pilot]] for ''Series/{{NCIS}}'', Creator/RobynLively played the female field agent. By the time the actual series premiered, she was replaced by Creator/SashaAlexander (notable in that she herself would be replaced by Creator/CoteDePablo after the second season). And from the ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' two-parter that provided the backdoor pilot for ''its'' spinoff, ''Series/NCISLosAngeles'', Creator/LouiseLombard played the character who would have been that show's team leader. When it began in Fall '09, she was replaced by Creator/LindaHunt.
* ''Series/TheLateLateShow'': This happened to Kilborn a ''second time'' with his next show. He replaced Tom Snyder as the host of ''Series/TheLateLateShow'' and re-vamped it, giving it a new set and a more comedic style than Snyder's. Then he left the show...and in came Craig Ferguson, who became a darling in the late-night ranks, with his unconventional style of humor and freewheeling take on talk show conventions. After Ferguson stepped down, James Corden took over and gave the show a further makeover, prioritizing variety, equaling (and in some ways surpassing) Ferguson's success.
* ''Series/LawAndOrder'': Casual fans of the series may not even remember that Mike Logan had two other partners ([[Creator/GeorgeDzundza Max Greevey]] and [[Creator/PaulSorvino Phil Ceretta]]) before being partnered with Lennie Briscoe. To a lesser degree, Ben Stone (Creator/MichaelMoriarty), though memorable in his own right, is largely overshadowed by Jack [=McCoy=] (Creator/SamWaterston).
* ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'': Elliot Stabler's second child Kathleen was originally played by Holiday Segal before Alison Siko officially takes over the role starting Season 3. Since Kathleen had a much larger role in later seasons (oldest child Maureen featured most prominently in seasons 1-2), Siko became much more associated with the role.
* The original (un-aired) pilot of ''Series/{{NUMB3RS}}'' had Creator/GabrielMacht as Don, Creator/LenCariou as Alan, and Creator/JenniferBransford as Terry Lake. For the actual series pilot, those roles were played Creator/RobMorrow, Creator/JuddHirsch, and Creator/SabrinaLloyd respectively. The un-aired pilot also featured Creator/MichaelRooker and Creator/AnnaDeavereSmith in roles that were cut completely from the final script.
* The talk show ''Live with Kelly and Ryan'' (hosted by Creator/KellyRipa and Creator/RyanSeacrest) was known for most of its life as ''Live with Regis and Kathie Lee'', and hosted by Creator/RegisPhilbin and Kathie Lee Gifford. Gifford left in 2001 and was replaced with Kelly Ripa, Philbin left a decade later and was replaced by Michael Strahan, and Strahan was replaced by Seacrest in 2016. The show underwent various {{guest host}}s prior to each successor, along with a name change after each new host was established (''Live with Regis and Kelly'', then ''Live with Kelly and Michael''). However, despite all this, Gifford was ''not'' the original co-host; under its original name of ''The Morning Show'', it was co-hosted by Philbin and Cyndy Garvey[[note]]then wife of [[UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueBaseball Los Angeles Dodgers]] star Steve Garvey[[/note]] for its first season in 1983, followed by Ann Abernathy for another season before Gifford entered in 1985. The show began naming itself after its hosts in 1988. Thus, the show is a double example — those who remember it only for the ''Regis and Kelly'' era onward may not realize that Ripa replaced Gifford; and those who ''do'' remember Gifford may not realize that she herself was a replacement.
* Penny Santon originally played Nurse Consuelo Lopez in the TV movie that started ''Series/MarcusWelbyMD'' before recast by Elena Verdugo for the rest of the run.
* The original pilot for ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'' was never aired. When the show went into production, they used new actors for Bud/Kelly.
* Pretty much the entire cast of the [[Series/{{MASH}} series adaptation of]] ''Series/{{MASH}}'' could be considered this when compared to the cast of [[Film/{{MASH}} the original movie]]; however, series-specific, Father Mulcahy was played by George Morgan in the pilot episode, before being replaced by William Christopher for the series proper - it's easy to forget Morgan as Mulcahy in the pilot, because Mulcahy never spoke in that episode. Ironically, Christopher had originally tested for the part, but instead of doing a table reading, ad-libbed much of his dialogue, which was unprofessional, and the part went to Morgan instead. Afterward, the producers decided Christopher's quirky personality was a better fit for Mulcahy, so they brought him back, on the condition that he would stick with the script.
* Before Creator/EdwardJamesOlmos joined ''Series/MiamiVice'' as Detective Lieutenant Martin Castillo, the initial commander of the Organized Crime Bureau in the series was Lou Rodriguez. Actor Gregory Sierra however, asked to be written out of the series just four episodes in because he didn't like having to live in UsefulNotes/{{Miami}}.
* Everybody knows that the IMF on ''Series/MissionImpossible'' was always led by Creator/PeterGraves' Jim Phelps. Mostly forgotten is Dan Briggs, played by Steven Hill in the first season. Hill left the show (and temporarily, acting) for reasons that were partly religious, and his character was subject to ChuckCunninghamSyndrome.
** Ironically, Hill would become the "Ringo" figure when he assumed his most famous role, DA Adam Schiff on ''Series/LawAndOrder''. The DA in the original pilot was Alfred Wentworth, played by Creator/RoyThinnes; however, the pilot was filmed two years before the show was finally picked up by NBC, and Thinnes chose not to return as a regular.
* Another variant focused on original ''Monday Night Football'' play-by-play broadcaster Keith Jackson. Jackson was assigned to call play-by-play for MNF's first season in 1970 only to give way to Frank Gifford (who ABC Sports president Roone Arledge wanted from day one; eventually bringing Gifford in as soon as his contract with Creator/{{CBS}} expired). Became a ZigZaggedTrope for Jackson, who later would become most famous as the voice of Creator/{{ABC}}'s [[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball college football]] coverage.
* For the first two-and-a-half seasons of ''Series/{{Monk}}'', the title character was assisted by Sharona Fleming, played by Bitty Schram. Midway through Season 3, Schram ended up quitting the show due to a rumored contract dispute, resulting in Sharona being replaced for the rest of the show's run by Natalie Teeger, played by Creator/TraylorHoward. Downplayed in that Schram is often the more well-remembered of the two among general audiences, albeit Howard is the one more associated with the show by its fans.
* Tim Brooke-Taylor was an early member of what would eventually evolve into Creator/MontyPython, alongside Graham Chapman, John Cleese, and Michael Palin, and made appearances in ''Series/AtLastThe1948Show'' and ''Film/HowToIrritatePeople''. He left the group between the latter and the start of ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' -- by which time Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Terry Gilliam had arrived -- though still went on to be a pretty successful actor in his own right.
* On ''Series/TheMunsters'', Marilyn was originally portrayed by Beverly Owen. She left the show after less than three months, however, and thereafter Pat Priest took over the role.
** On the unaired 15-minute pilot episode, Eddie was played by Creator/HappyDerman and Lily was replaced by a character named Phoebe, who was portrayed by Creator/JoanMarshall. Creator/ButchPatrick replaced the former actor, while the latter was supplanted by the character Lily Munster, played by [[Creator/YvonneDeCarlo Yvonne DeCarlo]].
* ''Franchise/TheMuppets'': When Jim Henson got started in puppetry, he worked with his friend Russell Wall. However, Wall only worked for a few months, long before Franchise/TheMuppets had become big. Henson's wife Jane did some of the early puppet work before becoming a mother, and Jerry Juhl did puppetry on some of Henson's material from TheSixties but decided to turn his Muppet focus to writing.
* Josh "J. Elvis" Weinstein was the original voice of Tom Servo on ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'', and Dr. Forrester's original assistant (Dr. Erhardt). Weinstein left after only one season on Creator/ComedyCentral and was replaced with Kevin Murphy and Frank Coniff respectively for Season 2, which was when the show starting to make it big and [[GrowingTheBeard becoming really good]].
* ''Series/MythBusters'':
** While she filled a different role in the show in its original format, folklorist Heather Joseph-Witham became the Pete Best of ''Series/MythBusters'', effectively replaced by the Build Team as the show's focus shifted from the myths themselves to MacGyvering and StuffBlowingUp.
** Scottie Chapman is another ''[=MythBusters=]'' example; she was originally the machinist of the Build Team, but left the show during Season 3, right around the time the Build Team's role on the show was expanded and they were added to the theme sequence and was replaced by Grant Imahara. While Scottie has made sporadic appearances since then (and the hosts/current producers have not been shy about showing flashbacks that prominently feature her), the regulars on the show have become far more famous.
* ''Series/MyWifeAndKids'': The original Claire, played by Jazz Raycole in the first season (only eleven episodes), is forgettable. The second Claire, played by Jennifer Freeman in seasons 2–5, is much more recognizable.
* Believe it or not, Missy was not the original AlphaBitch of ''Series/NedsDeclassifiedSchoolSurvivalGuide''. The first season had a character named Bitsy, played by Spencer Locke, who filled a similar role.
* This happened quite often on ''Series/NightCourt''. It was not until Season 4 that the show's lineup stabilized.
** Karen Austin and Paula Kelly were only present during the first season before leaving, and their characters (Lana Wagner and Liz Williams, respectively) were quickly forgotten about. Austin has stated that she was let go due to being diagnosed with Bell's Palsy, and producers thought this would be an issue for filming. It has never been disclosed why Kelly left the show.
** In addition to the above two, there was Gail Strickland (who played the public defender in the pilot before being replaced by Kelly) and Ellen Foley (who was only in Season 2 because the producers were waiting for Creator/MarkiePost to become available).
** The first two actresses playing the female bailiff were far more memorable but also had short-lived tenures on the show. Creator/SelmaDiamond portrayed Selma Hacker, who was replaced in Season 3 by Flo Kleiner played by Creator/FlorenceHalop. Both died of cancer during the show's run.
* Ensemble topical comedy show ''Series/NotTheNineOClockNews'' ran for several series in the period 1978-83. Everyone will recall the lineup was Creator/RowanAtkinson, Creator/MelSmith, Pamela Stephenson, and Gryff Rhys-Jones. However, in the first series, Rhys-Jones was nowhere to be seen and the Pete Best of the group was Chris Langham, a comic actor and writer who performed creditably but left at the end of the series citing artistic differences. He was replaced by Rhys-Jones only at the start of the second series. The fact Langham has since been convicted of crimes to do with indecent photographs of children has made it easier for the BBC to [[UnPerson airbrush his involvement out]] of the series' official history.
* Creator/ShaileneWoodley originally played the role of Kaitlin Cooper on ''Series/TheOC'' in the first season who was irrelevant. When the show decided to bring Kaitlin back for Season 3 with storylines based around her, she was played by Creator/WillaHolland, who was also more developed at the time.
* ''Series/OnceUponATime'': Creator/TomEllis guest-starred as Robin Hood in the character's debut episode, but Robin is best remembered as being portrayed by Creator/SeanMaguire.
* ''Series/OneTreeHill'': Haley (Creator/BethanyJoyLenz) was not in the original pilot. Instead, Lucas' best friend was a contrasting character named Reagan (more tomboyish than Haley) portrayed by Samantha Shelton. All of the key scenes featuring Shelton as Reagan in the pilot were re-shot with Bethany Joy Lenz taking her place, although you can still see "Reagan" in the background scenes where she has no lines.
* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': Joe Forte played Mr. Conklin in the first few radio episodes of the series, before being replaced by the legendary Gale Gordon.
* ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'' had its own "Pete Best" with Creator/PaulSchneider, who played Mark Brendanawicz in the first two seasons. The character was [[TheScrappy pretty widely disliked by the fans]] for coming off as [[TheGenericGuy bland]] compared to the other characters while critics noted Schneider never seemed to quite fit in with the rest of the ensemble cast, and his status as the odd man out only became more obvious when the show began [[GrowingTheBeard finding more of its own distinct identity]] away from its [[Series/TheOfficeUS parent series]]. Eventually, Schneider left the show at the end of Season 2 (with Mark being PutOnABus and [[LongBusTrip never coming back]]) and was replaced with Creator/AdamScott and Creator/RobLowe as the characters of Ben Wyatt and Chris Traeger respectively, who were [[BreakoutCharacter an instant hit with fans]] as well as a perfect fit for the show's newfound style, rapidly becoming {{More Popular Replacement}}s.
* The first season of ''Series/PeeWeesPlayhouse'' had a number of human characters who only appeared that season, including Captain Carl (who had been around since the original stage show the show is based on), Ms. Steve, Dixie, and Tito, as well as a different actor playing The King of Cartoons. However, half of the original cast also makes up a portion of retroactive recognition - Captain Carl was played by Creator/PhilHartman (who had also helped create Pee Wee Herman) and Dixie was played by Johann Carlo.
* ''Series/PowerRangersWildForce'': [[MonsterClown Jindrax]] was originally voiced by Richard Cansino in for four episodes. However, it was later felt that the [[VocalDissonance serious voice provided didn't match Jindrax' appearance]] and Danny Wayne Stallcup (who was also Jindrax' suit actor) was given the role.
* The pilot episode of ''{{Series/Psych}}'' had a character named Lucinda Barry, who was Carlton Lassiter's partner. She was more lenient of Shawn Spencer's antics to contrast with her partner's straight-laced attitude. Episode 2 replaced her with Juliet O'Hara as Lassie's new partner for the rest of the series, eventually becoming Shawn's LoveInterest. Justified in-universe, since it was explained that Lucinda was transferred to a different branch following the first episode's revelation that she and Lassie had been having an affair.
* The first series of ''Series/RobotWars'' was hosted by Jeremy Clarkson, much better known nowadays for ''Series/TopGearUK.'' He was replaced in Series 2 by Creator/CraigCharles (best known as Dave Lister on ''Series/RedDwarf'') who was much better suited to both the material and the show format (Clarkson was known for being quite rude to the contestants and didn't really hold the show in high regard) and ''Robot Wars'' [[GrowingTheBeard really took off after that.]] Charles would remain the host of UK ''Robot Wars'' up until it went off the air after Series 7 and fans were quite upset when other commitments prevented him from returning as the host of the 2016 reboot series (hosted by Irish comedian Dara O Briain).
* Sal Barone played D.J. Conner in the pilot of ''Series/{{Roseanne}}''. Then the [[UsefulNotes/TVStrikes Writers' Strike]] happened, during which he grew half an inch and couldn't be perceived as a 7-year-old kid anymore. He was replaced with Creator/MichaelFishman, who, besides being a bit younger, looked decidedly more like Roseanne than Sal did. There are also stories that Sal did not have a good relationship with Creator/SaraGilbert.
* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'':
** Creator/BillyCrystal was scheduled to be in one sketch in the first episode and would have been a featured player throughout that season. But it was cut, and he went home, crying all the way back because he thought he'd just blown the only break he was ever going to get. He stuck with his standup career and eventually did get to be a regular ten years later.
** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Coe George Coe]] made a bunch of appearances in the first season as a utility player when they needed someone to play an older man, and was credited as a Not Ready For Prime Time Player on the first episode, though he was never really a full cast member.
** Dick Ebersol co-created SNL with Creator/LorneMichaels, but whereas Ebersol only ran the show for four years in the '80s, Michaels has run the show for all but five years of its existence(Jean Doumanian having run the show the only season neither of them did). Ebersol is probably best known for his work with NBC Sports.
* ''Series/SavedByTheBell'' (known as ''Good Morning, Miss Bliss'' at the time) had Mikey Gonzales and Nikki Coleman. After the first season, they were replaced by the much more recognizable A.C. Slater and Jessie Spano, respectively.
* For its first three years, the Creator/{{PBS}} show ''Scientific American Frontiers'' was hosted by MIT professor Woodie Flowers. He was replaced by Creator/AlanAlda, who hosted for 12 years.
* Canadian sketch comedy series ''Series/{{SCTV}}'' originally had a seven-person cast that included Creator/HaroldRamis. Ramis only appeared in sketches for the first season and the first couple of episodes of season 2- after season 1, he chose to focus on writing before leaving the show entirely to help write ''Film/AnimalHouse''. [[Film/{{Caddyshack}} He did]] [[Film/{{Ghostbusters 1984}} all right for himself]], [[Film/GroundhogDay though]].
* In the ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' pilot "The Seinfeld Chronicles", the lead female role was Claire, the waitress played by Lee Garlington. Various explanations have been given as to why Claire never appeared again, including NBC's executives not liking the character, and -- according to Creator/JasonAlexander -- series co-creator Creator/LarryDavid firing Garlington after she rewrote her lines without asking permission. Elaine was brought in for the first episode of the full series, and Creator/JuliaLouisDreyfus didn't find out about the pilot episode until years later.
* ''Series/SesameStreet'': Practically every American under the age of 40 will immediately say "hey, it's Gordon!" upon seeing the face of Roscoe Orman, but most don't know that he was actually the ''fourth'' Gordon. Garrett Saunders originated the role in the first test episode in 1969, which only aired on one station, but was replaced by Matt Robinson for the actual series. [[note]]Saunders wasn't credited and his identity was lost for several ''decades'' until Sesame Workshop launched a website asking for help identifying him.[[/note]] Robinson left after three seasons; he did all right for himself, later working for Creator/BillCosby, and you've probably heard of his daughter - Holly Robinson-Peete. Hal Miller took over from 1972-74.
** In season three (1971-72), a bunch of new human characters was added. Luis is the only one ''still'' on the show. Maria continued to appear until season 45 (when Creator/SoniaManzano retired), David was on for more than a decade (before his actor Creator/NorthernCalloway ran into [[RealLifeWritesThePlot personal and health problems, then died]]). But Rafael (Luis' assistant at the Fix-It Shop), Molly (the mail carrier), and Tom (Mr. Hooper's assistant) all lasted just one season. But there's plenty of RetroactiveRecognition for them: Rafael was played by Creator/RaulJulia, Molly by Creator/CharlotteRae from ''Series/TheFactsOfLife'', and Tom by Creator/LarryBlock, a character actor who's been in a million things since then.
* Lauren Sanchez was the original host of ''Series/SoYouThinkYouCanDance'' but left after one season and was replaced by Cat Deeley, who is now the face of the show.
* Only two characters from ''Film/{{Stargate}}'' retained their original actors[[labelnote:*]]specifically, Skaara and Kasuf, played by Alexis Cruz and Erick Avari[[/labelnote]] when the movie was adapted into ''Series/StargateSG1''. Who do people usually remember as [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Jack O'Neil(l)]]? Richard Dean Anderson, not Creator/KurtRussell. Daniel Jackson? Michael Shanks, not James Spader.
** Most people associate Creator/TorriHigginson with Dr. Elizabeth Weir since she played the role in ''Series/StargateAtlantis''. However, in the character's first appearance on SG-1, Creator/JessicaSteen played her.
* Creator/JeffreyHunter played Christopher Pike in the original pilot for ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}''. The reception was thin for that first pilot, but NBC, in an unprecedented move at the time, let Creator/GeneRoddenberry produce a second pilot, replacing Hunter (and NumberOne, played by Creator/MajelBarrett, who later played Nurse Christine Chapel in the series proper) with Creator/WilliamShatner as Captain Kirk, and folding much of the traits of the NumberOne character into Leonard Nimoy's Spock. The rest, as they say, is history.
** Despite being asked to return, Hunter didn't want to, and he used a loophole in his contract to get out of his role in the series. He would've had to star in the show if it was picked up after the first pilot, but since a second pilot was commissioned instead of a full season order, he was free to walk away.[[note]]Ironically, since he died not much long afterward, the show probably did better without him.[[/note]]
** Shatner claims in his memoirs that Hunter was manipulated into leaving by his girlfriend at the time, who was always on set complaining about how dumb the show made him look. The producers didn't like that situation much either, or by some accounts, they were planning to recast Pike anyway.
** The majority of the first pilot with Hunter was later incorporated in a two-part episode, "The Menagerie", in the show's first season, placing Pike firmly into the canon of the series. Pike would also be a major character in the series' motion picture reboot, played by Creator/BruceGreenwood, and in ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'', played by Anson Mount.
* Denise Crosby left ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' before the first season was up, a year before it became a merchandising giant. You might see her on a ''Trek'' celebrity cruise, but apart from that, she's a bit player in the [=DVDs=] and doesn't join the roundtable discussions about the show. However, her character was revived for three time-travel plots, including [[BackForTheFinale the series finale]]. Crosby also got to play her own daughter thanks to the [[TimeyWimeyBall Timey Wimey]] shenanigans.
-->"For me, I was miserable. I couldn’t wait to get off that show. I was dying. This was not an overnight decision...I didn’t want to spend the next six years going '[[TheGenericGuy Aye, aye, captain]],' and standing there, in the same uniform, in the same position on the bridge. It simply scared the hell out of me that this was what I was going to be doing for the next X-amount of years."
* In the original unaired pilot of ''Series/ThreesCompany'', Samantha, the character who would become Chrissy Snow, was portrayed by Susanne Zenor. Zenor was not picked for the second filming of the pilot, so actress Susan Lanier took over the role of Chrissy. Suzanne Somers won the permanent role in the third and final pilot.
* ''Series/ThreeTwoOneContact'' was {{retool}}ed and thus completely recast after just the first season.
* Jason Dawe, who was a presenter on ''Series/{{Top Gear|UK}}'' for one season and then was replaced by James May.
** And for US fans, The Black Stig (since BBC America hasn't gotten around to airing the earliest seasons of ''Series/TopGearUK'').
* Branford Marsalis was Creator/JayLeno's original bandleader on ''Series/TheTonightShow''. Unfortunately, because of the legendary rapport Leno had with his replacement Kevin Eubanks (not as legendary as that between Johnny Carson and Doc Severinsen, or David Letterman and Paul Schaffer, but close), no one remembers that fact.
* Katie Lee Joel (now Katie Lee) hosted the first season of ''Series/TopChef'' before being replaced by the more telegenic Padma Lakshmi.
* Alex [=McLeod=] was the original host of ''Series/TradingSpaces''. Seasons 2 onward were hosted by Paige Davis.
* New Hampshire political powerbroker Jeff Kane has a brief appearance in the third season finale of ''Series/{{Veep}}'' played by an uncredited actor. It's not until Jeff returns as a regular guest character in the fifth season, now played by Creator/PeterMacNicol, that he becomes the LaughablyEvil character most viewers remember.
* In 1981, Creator/{{MTV}} hired five people as its original lineup of [=VJs=]: Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, J.J. Jackson, and Meg Griffin (no, not [[WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy that one]]). Griffin was a radio vet (as were some of the others) but she had difficulty adjusting to an on-camera role during rehearsals and quit just two weeks before the August 1 launch date. She was hurriedly replaced by 22-year-old radio intern Martha Quinn, who went on to become the most famous VJ.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Game Shows]]
* The original host of ''Series/BeatTheGeeks'' was J. Keith van Straaten. He was replaced after the first season by Blaine Capatch, apparently because the producers thought van Straaten was not geeky enough. For some reason, original Music Geek Andy Zax, aka the Walking Encyclopedia of Music, was this after being fired and replaced near the middle of the first season. After two different replacements (Michael Jolly and Michael Farmer) proved inadequate, Zax returned to his rightful place.
* When ''Dealer's Choice'' debuted in January 1974, its host was Bob Hastings. He lasted only a few weeks before Jack Clark took over, mainly due to talking '''way''' too much for the editors' liking.
* ''Series/FortBoyard'':
** Michel Scourneau played the Père Fouras for only one season, the first, in 1990. Yann Le Gac replaced him the following year, and he's been in almost every season since, shaping the character as we know him.
** Delphine Wespiser as Blanche since 2013 (the character was played by two other performers since her creation in 2011). Being one of the most enduringly popular winners of [[BeautyContest Miss France]] (2012 for her) has something to do with it.
* Remember Creator/PaulLynde, that sassy gay guy who was the center square on ''Series/TheHollywoodSquares'' (minus a period from 1979-80)? Yes. Well, from 1966-68, there were various people in the center square, most notably (from the Creator/{{GSN}} reruns of the 1968 nighttime show) Buddy Hackett.
* The UK classic ''Series/TheGoldenShot'' (1967-75) was a huge hit with host Bob Monkhouse. His introduction was the [[AuthorsSavingThrow network's saving throw]] after the show '''bombed''' under original host Jackie Rae.
* ''Series/TheGongShow''. Gary Owens hosted the unaired pilot, and John Barbour did five also-unaired episodes (Creator/{{GSN}} aired his first) before creator Creator/ChuckBarris took over.
* The original host of ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' was not Creator/AlexTrebek but rather Art Fleming, who helmed the original 1964-74 version plus a brief revival in 1978. Trebek started hosting when the show was brought back in 1984, and continued until his death in 2020. This is somewhat justified in Fleming's case, [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes as most of his run was erased]].
** A lot of people [[ParodyDisplacement only know about Fleming]] because he's mentioned in (and appeared in the video for) Music/WeirdAlYankovic's "I Lost on Jeopardy".
** The Trebek version has its own version in the Clue Crew, a set of assistants who have regularly provided video-based clues since 2001. The longest-tenured are Jimmy [=McGuire=] and Sarah Whitcomb Foss. However, the original Clue Crew consisted of [=McGuire=], Foss, Cheryl Farrell, and Sofia Lindskog. Lindskog left in 2004, with both Kelly Miyahara and Jon Cannon replacing her; Farrell left in 2008, Cannon in 2009, and Miyahara in 2019.
* Jay Stewart is known for his long role as the announcer/sidekick on the original incarnation of ''Series/LetsMakeADeal'' in TheSixties and TheSeventies. However, Wendell Niles announced the first season of the original show's 1963-77 run instead.
* While ''Series/{{Lingo}}'' is most well-known by Americans for its 2002-07 run on Creator/{{GSN}} with iconic host Chuck Woolery (and the short-lived dirty-minded 2011 reboot hosted by Creator/BillEngvall), it actually began as a Ralph Andrews production from 1987-88, hosted originally by Michael Reagan (UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan's son) and later (the last five weeks) by Andrews himself.
** The GSN version itself has an example. There was no hostess or announcer in the first season. Season 2 had Randy Thomas (best known as the voice of Hooked on Phonics commercials) as the announcer, but no hostess. In Season 3, Stacey Hayes joined as a hostess (with modeling assistance from Paula Cobb on the first two taped episodes) while also taking over as announcer, before Shandi Finessey took over the hostess/announcer role for the rest of the run.
* Brett Somers and Charles Nelson Reilly didn't appear on ''Series/MatchGame'' until a few weeks into the run when they almost immediately became regular panelists. They stayed for the next nine years, except for a few weeks when Charles was busy with other projects and a few times when Brett was unavailable. This is a curious case, as they didn't Pete Best any individual people; they just became mostly-permanent panelists alongside Richard Dawson (who would later leave after he got the hosting gig on ''Series/FamilyFeud'').
* ''Series/TheNewlywedGame'''s original announcer was Scott Beach, who was apparently fired for singing anti-war songs to the audience during commercial breaks. He was replaced by Johnny Jacobs, who held the role until his death in the early 80's, and racked up several more announcing gigs, primarily for ''Newlywed'' creator Creator/ChuckBarris and Creator/JackBarry-Dan Enright productions.
* The original version of ''Series/ThePriceIsRight'' ran on Creator/{{NBC}} from 1956-63 and Creator/{{ABC}} from 1963-65, hosted by Creator/BillCullen. It isn't brought up too often nowadays.
** When Creator/MarkGoodson wanted to revive ''Price'' in 1972, he had a clear set up in mind: weekly syndication, hosted by Dennis James and distributed by Viacom. Once Creator/{{CBS}} got wind of the revival, Bud Grant approached Goodson about doing a daytime show with Bob Barker as emcee. Barker wanted no part of it, not like those in charge of the revival, and begged Grant for another game show; Grant declined, which suggests that Barker's alleged backstage tyranny was payback for having the show forced on him.
** As for James, he did nighttime ''Price'' until 1977, when his contract expired, and Barker took over until its end in 1980. His version, along with those of Tom Kennedy (1985-86) and Doug Davidson (1994-95), are ignored in every way.
* For the first few years of the original ''Series/WhatsMyLine'', Hal "Dimples" Block was a regular panelist. As the show progressed it became increasingly dignified and refined, and Block's loutish persona soon became undesirable and his seat was permanently replaced by Bennett Cerf. To add insult to injury, most of Block's run is lost due to the films being destroyed for their silver content after the episodes ran once on live TV.
* When it started on Creator/{{NBC}}'s daytime lineup in 1975, ''Series/WheelOfFortune'' was hosted by Chuck Woolery and Susan Stafford. Chuck was replaced by Pat Sajak in December 1981, followed by the iconic hostess Vanna White taking Susan's place exactly a year later. Pat and Vanna successfully made the transition to nighttime syndication in 1983, and still hold those roles to this day, although Pat relinquished his daytime duties two years before that version ended in 1991. This also led to a reverse Pete Best situation with his daytime successors ([[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague Rolf Benirschke]] for a few months, then Bob Goen after a ChannelHop to CBS), as their runs on daytime are comparatively lesser-known.
** Interestingly, Woolery zig-zags this trope, as he is well-known for hosting ''Series/{{Scrabble}}'', ''Series/LoveConnection'', ''Series/{{Greed}}'', and the aforementioned ''Lingo'', but his ''Wheel'' tenure is comparatively less known. It doesn't help that most of his run has been [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes erased]]. He is also a further zig-zag, as he hosted the very first {{pilot}} in 1973 (under the WorkingTitle ''Shopper's Bazaar''), while Edd "Kookie" Byrnes hosted the second and third pilots.
** Original announcer Charlie O'Donnell managed to Pete Best ''himself''. He was the original announcer for the show from the second and third pilots until 1980 when he left due to the show getting a cancellation that was later overturned. He was replaced by Jack Clark, whose voice is the one that many think of when they think of early ''Wheel''. Clark died in 1988 and was replaced by M. G. Kelly for just under a season before Charlie returned in 1989. (Charlie died in 2010, and Jim Thornton replaced him.)
* {{Zig Zagged|Trope}} with ''Series/WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire''. Meredith Vieira hosted the show for 11 seasons in syndication, versus only 3 on Creator/{{ABC}} for original host Regis Philbin; however, the ABC version was explosively popular and [[WhoWantsToBeWhoWantsToBeAMillionaire spawned a legion of tropes that revived the then-flagging game show field]], so Regis is still seen by many as the most iconic host of the show. (After Meredith left in 2013, she was replaced by Cedric the Entertainer, then Terry Crews, then Chris Harrison.) In addition, all four hosts are known in varying capacities for something other than ''Millioniare'' (Regis for the aforementioned ''Live!''; Meredith for ''Series/TheView''; Cedric for ''Series/TheSteveHarveyShow''; Crews for ''Series/EverybodyHatesChris'', and Harrison as host of ''Series/TheBachelor'').
* ''Pole Chudes'', a Russian copycat of ''Wheel'' of sorts, has a downplayed case of this. The show is associated with Leonid Yakubovich, who hosts it since 1991. The position of the host was handed over to Yakubovich by Vlad Listyev, who started ''PCh'' and hosted it for about a year. However, Listyev himself was one of the most influential figures on Russian television (if not the most), being the founding member of VID television company (famous for the [[VanityPlate 'Mask of Doom' logo]]) and the first CEO of the first Russian non-state-owned networks, all of which keeps him from being totally forgotten.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Multiple Media]]
* This phenomenon can also happen when a movie is adapted for a television series; for instance, more people recognize Creator/SarahMichelleGellar as Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer than they do Creator/KristySwanson.
* In ''Franchise/StarWars'', Creator/TemueraMorrison is not the first actor to play Boba Fett (played by Jeremy Bulloch and voiced by Jason Wingreen in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' and ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''), but he's the one who played him when he got canonically fleshed out in live-action in the Creator/DisneyPlus series (''Series/TheMandalorian'' and ''Series/TheBookOfBobaFett''), and he also got to do ADR on the Original Trilogy before that (and voiced him in a few ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' works as well). It also nicely/logically fits since Boba is a clone of Jango Fett from ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'', who was also played by Morrison. And Bulloch's face was never seen anyway.
* Creator/AlanAlda is more identified as Hawkeye Pierce than Donald Sutherland. This goes for most of the cast of ''Series/{{Mash}}''. This is helped by the fact that most of the TV cast of ''M*A*S*H'' faces a certain amount of IAmNotSpock while many of the actors from the [[Film/{{Mash}} film]] are famous in their own right.
* Similar to the ''Buffy'' example above, how many people remember Creator/KurtRussell as Jack O'Neil in ''Film/{{Stargate}}'' as opposed to Creator/RichardDeanAnderson's Jack O'Neil'''l''' in ''Series/StargateSG1''?
** O'Neill himself does. When spelling his name in one episode he mentions that there's also a Jack O'Neil who is far grumpier. On the other hand, many people can go from James Spader in the movie to Michael Shanks at the beginning of the series and not notice the change in the actor.
* Gummo Marx was a member of the Creator/MarxBrothers' vaudeville act, but he quit around UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Thus, he was never one of "The Four Marx Brothers," as they would be billed on Broadway and in Hollywood.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* Legendary Wrestling/{{WWE}} tag-team Wrestling/{{Demolition}} is best known as Bill "Ax" Eadie and [[Wrestling/BarryDarsow Barry "Smash" Darsow]] — but Darsow was not the original Smash. No, in their first couple of matches, Smash was Randy Culley, better known as [[Wrestling/TheMoondogs Moondog Rex]]. Culley was replaced in the team because too many fans recognized him from his former role and chanted "Moondog" for him. His distinctive mustache didn't help matters (and really made the Demolition facepaint look silly on him). It should be noted that the gimmick was Culley's idea in the first place, so he got kicked out of his own creation only to see it reach stardom.
* The promos for NXT season 3 advertised Wrestling/VickieGuerrero mentoring a 6-foot-9 beast known as Aloisa (indie wrestler Isis the Amazon). However, WWE officials discovered Aloisa had erotic photos online and removed her from the competition to replace her with the unknown Wrestling/{{Kaitlyn}}. Of course, Kaitlyn ended up winning the season.
* The infamous Wrestling/MickieJames[=/=]Wrestling/TrishStratus StalkerWithACrush storyline was written by Mickie herself but it was written with Wrestling/{{Lita}} in mind, Lita having acted as Mickie's mentor down in OVW. However, when Mickie was called up Lita was out with an ACL injury and the angle was rewritten for Trish Stratus instead. It is now considered one of the best feuds in diva history. Of course, [[RealLifeWritesThePlot Lita was also forced to turn heel]] because of the unfortunate "Wrestling/{{Edge|Wrestler}} incident," so the angle wouldn't have worked anyway.
* Two examples pertaining to Wrestling/TheWyattFamily.
** Eli Cottonwood, [[Wrestling/BrayWyatt Bray Wyatt's]] first lackey/convert, who was only around for a few shows in FCW. Cottonwood was almost like a prototype of Wrestling/LukeHarper, right down to wearing jeans and a wifebeater and having long dark brown hair and a matching beard.He was much cleaner-cut than Harper, though. (Then again, Bray himself didn't have nearly as much facial hair in his early days, either.)
** Audrey Marie and Garrett Dylan were in the background of the first WWE Wyatt Family promo before their live debut, but were both released and didn't join the Family.
* Norvell Austin, and to a lesser extent Randy Rose, of Wrestling/TheMidnightExpress. The Midnight Express was originally formed in a promotion called Southeastern Championship Wrestling as a three-man team consisting of Austin, Rose, and Dennis Condrey. The original team split in '83, and Dennis took the gimmick with him to Mid South Wrestling where he met up with Bobby Eaton and Wrestling/JimCornette. Condrey was in turn replaced a couple of years later by Stan Lane, and it's debated among fans to this day whether the [=Condrey/Eaton=] or [=Eaton/Lane=] version of the team was better. Rose eventually rejoined Condrey and they feuded with Eaton and Lane over who was the "real" Midnight Express, but Rose gets little recognition compared to Condrey Lane and Eaton, and Austin is a footnote.
* Wrestling/ClaudioCastagnoli, aka Cesaro, aka Antonio Cesaro, has been the Breakout of multiple teams.
** He originally debuted as part of a team called Swiss Money Holding and was by far the most successful of the Swiss Money Holding trio. Ares is still working on the US indies but isn't getting much attention. Marc Roudin stayed in Switzerland and people who missed his appearance on a Wrestling/{{CHIKARA}} show don't even know Swiss Money Holding was a trio...what's that? It was once a quartet? Yep, early on when the stable was still based in German Stampede Wrestling, they had a fourth member named Don Heavy.
** He has also outperformed his partner in the Kings of Wrestling, Wrestling/ChrisHero aka Kassius Ohno, as Ohno has yet to make it out of WWE's developmental system.
** In WWE, he became the breakout of The Real Americans. Technically Wrestling/JackSwagger had been more successful than Cesaro has as of 2018 before the team ever formed, but Swagger eventually slid down the card and was released, while Cesaro went on to form successful teams with Wrestling/TysonKidd and Wrestling/{{Sheamus}}.[[note]]Castagnoli has since been released and is now in Wrestling/{{AEW}}, in a stable with Wrestling/JonMoxley and Wrestling/BryanDanielson.[[/note]]
* When vignettes for the Mean Street Posse - a group of rich youths who'd been friends with Wrestling/{{Shane McMahon}} while growing up in Connecticuit - began airing, four members were introduced: Rodney, Pete Gas, Willie Green and Billy P. The foursome debuted by attacking X-Pac in a parking lot, drove away in a red sports car, and Willie Green and Billy P. were [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome never heard from again]] while Rodney and Pete Gas (later joined by Joey Abs) would hang around WWE for a couple years, albeit as comedy jobbers.
* Wrestling/MercedesMartinez was part of RETRIBUTION during their early appearances when they were a group of MalevolentMaskedMen and their identities were unknown and also was with them when they had their first promo as official RAW Superstars. However, she disappeared after that, replaced by Wrestling/MustafaAli as the group's leader and pretty much no one even remembers she was a member. [[note]] Her character name was apparently going to be RETALIATION.[[/note]]
* When Diamond Mine first appeared in NXT, it consisted of leader Wrestling/RoderickStrong, Tyler Rust, Hachiman, and manager Malcolm Bivens. Rust & Hachiman were soon dropped, and the group added Ivy Nile & the Creed Brothers, who went on to pretty much solidify the group to the audience.
* Wrestling/TheElite had Wrestling/MartyScurll, who was a member of the faction before AEW but didn't sign with the other members in January 2019, as his ROH contract wasn't up yet, and when it was up, ROH gave him a huge raise and a major position in creative to hold on to one of the few stars they had left. In 2020, allegations of sexual impropriety (and the already reeling ROH being devastated by the COVID pandemic) ended that deal, assuring that he's more than likely to continue fading into obscurity.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Radio]]
* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': Joe Forte played Mr. Conklin in the first few radio episodes of the series, before being replaced by the legendary Gale Gordon.
* ''Radio/AmericanCountryCountdown'''s most famous host Bob Kingsley, who helmed the show from 1978 to 2005, was not its original host. From 1973 to 1978, it was hosted by singer/comedian Don Bowman, whose run has been forgotten. Kingsley left at the end of 2005 when he was forced out in favor of [[Music/BrooksAndDunn Kix Brooks]] but seamlessly switched over to his own show, ''Radio/BobKingsleysCountryTop40''.
* When ''Radio/TheGoonShow'' began in 1951 as ''Crazy People'' Creator/MichaelBentine starred alongside Creator/PeterSellers, Creator/SpikeMilligan and Creator/HarrySecombe. Bentine also appeared in the low-budget ''Goon Show'' spinoff movie ''Down Among the Z-Men'' but left the show soon after. According to one interview, Milligan fired him for suggesting the show would work better without Milligan, who created and mostly wrote it.
** Because so few recordings of early series remain, most of the show's fans, who only discovered it later, will also be unfamiliar with Bentine's character Osric Pureheart, an inventor and adventurer, who was usually a very important character in the scripts of the first and second series.
** The show's original announcer Andrew Timothy also left early in the show's run, claiming that the surreal humor was damaging his sanity.
* ''Radio/TheBurkissWay'''s female cast member Denise Coffey left after one season, to be replaced by Jo Kendall from ''Radio/ImSorryIllReadThatAgain''. Coffey returned when the show was [[SoundToScreenAdaptation adapted for television]] as the short-lived ''End of Part One''.
* ''Country Gold'', a classic CountryMusic radio show, is best known for its hosts Big John Howell (1999-2006) and Rowdy Yates (2006-present)[[note]]Yates was replaced by Music/{{Alabama}} lead singer Randy Owen in 2012 due to a syndicate merger, but quickly moved to a new show also called ''The Original Country Gold'' which is identical in format to the old one. The Owen-hosted show struggled to find affiliates and replaced him with Canadian country singer Terri Clark in 2016[[/note]]. What's lesser-known is that ''Country Gold'' was originally hosted by Mike Fitzgerald when it started in 1992.
* ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1978'': The first episode of the original radio series was produced by Simon Brett, who left the BBC soon afterwards to work for London Weekend Television and has since become a rather successful author in his own right. He was replaced by Geoffrey Perkins, who would go on to be the BBC's Head of Comedy and may or may not have been the man who invented [[Radio/ImSorryIHaventAClue "Mornington Crescent"]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Sports]]
* The four major North American pro sports leagues all had numerous franchises in their early years that went defunct. The Akron Pros, Canton Bulldogs, Cleveland Bulldogs, Frankford Yellow Jackets, Providence Steam Roller (all NFL), Baltimore Bullets (NBA)[[note]]not to be confused with the Baltimore Bullets team that's now known as the Washington Wizards[[/note]] and Montreal Maroons (NHL) all had the distinction of winning league championships before going under.
* The Ottawa Senators are a subversion. The original Senators teams won 11 Stanley Cups in the early 1900s, their last one coming in 1927, before, like the Maroons, going bankrupt and folding amid the Great Depression one year ''after'' moving to St. Louis. Therefore, the Senators would've been a straight example until 1992, when a new Ottawa team, also called the Senators, started playing, making the original teams somewhat notable again (in fact, the current Senators team even has Stanley Cup banners for the original Senators championships hanging from the rafters). Technically speaking, the Sens do play the trope straight, since they were considered a brand-new team when they arrived in 1992 and not an official continuation of the old team.
* In the NHL there were many teams that qualify for this trope. Aside from the famed "Original Six" (only two of which were actually members of the league in its first season in 1917), the early NHL had many notable teams such as the aforementioned Senators (who spent their last season as the St. Louis Eagles before folding), the Montreal Wanderers (who didn't finish the first season when their arena burned down; the Maroons were founded a few years later, intended as a replacement for the Wanderers) the Quebec Bulldogs, the Hamilton Tigers, the Pittsburgh Pirates (who became the Philadelphia Quakers for their last season before folding), and the New York (later Brooklyn) Americans (the last of the non-Original Six teams to leave the league). When the Original Six finally decided to allow new teams into the NHL (after some pressure during TV negotiations) St. Louis, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh were among the first to join the league with new franchises, but none of them are continuations of the old teams. Quebec City got the Quebec Nordiques in the World Hockey Association, which became one of the 4 [=WHA=] teams to join the NHL in 1979, but that franchise moved to become the Colorado Avalanche in 1995. Hamilton is the last remaining early NHL city to have never not hosted NHL hockey since. The two cities are sometimes considered as expansion/relocation destinations, as it sits right between Toronto and Buffalo (which are only 90 miles away from each other) a team in Hamilton is pretty unlikely (the owners of both the Maple Leafs and the Sabres have said they would block any attempt to put a team there), and Quebec City has twice been passed over for an expansion team (in favor of Las Vegas and Seattle) thanks to its tiny media market and the weak Canadian dollar.
* In American intercollegiate sports, most of the [[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootballConferences "Power Five" conferences]] (the top 5 leagues who have automatic bids in the top tier of football bowl games) trace their roots to the late 19th/early 20th centuries, when college sports conferences were still loose affiliations of regional schools. When college sports started becoming SeriousBusiness, some schools elected to de-emphasize their athletics programs and dropped out of what would eventually become the Power Five leagues. Some are now members of the NCAA's lower profile divisions, others are in "Group of Five" Division I leagues. The most famous example is The University of Chicago leaving the Big Ten in 1946. Tulane and The University of The South (aka Sewanee) were founding members of the Southeastern Conference. Idaho and Montana were in what eventually evolved into the Pac-12. And the two forerunners of the current Big 12 (The Big 8 and Southwest Conferences) once counted Drake, Grinnell, Southwestern University, Washington University of St. Louis, and the since-closed Phillips University as members.
* On 2 June 1925, New York Yankees first baseman Wally Pipp was benched for a game against the Washington Senators that came after a five-game losing streak.[[note]] A popular urban legend is that Pipp was suffering from a migraine at the time.[[/note]] The guy who takes over for him? None other than Lou Gehrig.
* This has happened to several UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague quarterbacks. To note some of the more prominent examples (in chronological order):
** Quarterback Craig Morton had the unfortunate situation of being the Pete Best to ''two'' superstar quarterbacks. He brought the Dallas Cowboys to Super Bowl V, where they lost to the Baltimore Colts. After that, he was gradually replaced by backup quarterback Roger Staubach and finally moved on to other teams. Morton eventually managed to revive his career with the Denver Broncos, leading them to Super Bowl XII, where they lost to...the Dallas Cowboys, led by Staubach. He eventually retired from football with the Broncos, just in time to be replaced by a young rookie named John Elway...
** In Week 3 of the 1992 season, when then Packers-star Don Majkowski was injured, he was subsequently replaced by a little known former 2nd round pick from a small Mississippi college...who would then go on to start over 300 straight games, set most NFL passing career passing records, and enter the Hall of Fame on his first ballot. That quarterback's name? ''Brett Favre''.
** In 1999, the St. Louis Rams acquired Trent Green from the Washington Redskins and slated him as their starter. However, Green went down with a knee injury before the season even started. His backup - a former Arena League quarterback with eleven career NFL pass attempts - took over for Green. Kurt Warner would wind up leading "The Greatest Show on Turf" to a Super Bowl title that season and would have a brief but stellar career, including another Super Bowl appearance and two league MVP awards, that landed him in the Hall of Fame. Green would be shipped the Kansas City Chiefs where his career would rebound a bit, but never to level of Warner's.
** After starting as a backup QB for the Green Bay Packers in 1999, Aaron Brooks was traded to the New Orleans Saints the year after, where he helped lead the Saints to a division title and their franchise's first win in the postseason (against the defending Super Bowl champion St. Louis Rams, no less). But after the 2005 season, where they finished 3-13 due to Hurricane Katrina devastating New Orleans and the Superdome in particular, forcing the Saints into being a permanent road team, the Saints let him go and they signed Drew Brees as a free agent, who would lead the Saints to their first NFC Championship appearance in 2006, and in 2009, to their first Super Bowl win against the highly-favored Indianapolis Colts. Brooks would finish out his NFL career as a QB for the Oakland Raiders.
** Then, a few years later in 2001, Patriots star Drew Bledsoe (who'd just signed a ''massive'' contract) was injured after taking a brutal hit which caused internal bleeding in a game against the division rival NY Jets. They then turned to this untested [[ItWillNeverCatchOn sixth-round pick]] named Creator/TomBrady...
*** This actually happened to poor Bledsoe, who was a great QB in his own right, ''twice'', as he was benched midway through what ended up being his final season in the league for a 2nd-year ''undrafted free agent'' by the name of Tony Romo - while a less dramatic example than Brady, this occurred in 2006 and, after a nearly decade-long period of post-Troy Aikman[[note]]a Hall of Fame QB who led the Cowboys to three Super Bowl wins in the 90s[[/note]] QB woes, Romo would go on to be the Cowboys' starting QB for almost a decade and set most of their franchise career passing records. Ironically, Romo himself would end up on the other side of this a decade later, when he went down with an injury in a 2016 game and was replaced by Dak Prescott.
** The same example happened with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Tommy Maddox, who started thirty-one of the team's thirty-two games in 2002 and 2003, got injured and the rookie Ben Roethlisberger took over. The result? An one-loss season in 2004, losing only to Tom Brady, and two Super Bowl wins in the 2005 and 2008 seasons. Unfortunately for Maddox, unlike some of the other quarterbacks on this list who would at least move on to start for other teams, Maddox would never again land a starting job in the NFL.
** Alex Smith was a Pro Bowl quarterback who helped bring a struggling Kansas City Chiefs team back to relevance, but like Drew Bledsoe before him, his career has been almost entirely overshadowed by the sensation of Patrick Mahomes. This was actually the second time this had happened to Smith, as he previously lost his starting job with the 49ers to Colin Kaepernick. Smith did cement his own legacy separate from this trope with his third and final team, Washington...but that legacy is almost entirely centered around his incredible return following a [[GameBreakingInjury horrific leg injury]] (Smith narrowly avoided losing his leg altogether) rather than for his actual accomplishments on the field.
*** Smith was on the other side of this in his college career at Utah. He entered the 2003 season as the second-string QB, but when starter Brett Elliott suffered a season ending injury early in the year, Smith took over in phenomenal fashion, going 21-1 as a starter and guiding the Utes to the Fiesta Bowl in 2004, where they became the first "BCS buster" team. Elliott ended up transferring to Linfield College in Oregon, where he won the NCAA Division III championship and the Gagliardi Trophy (the D-III equivalent of the Heisman) in 2005, but his only NFL experience was a brief practice squad stint with the San Diego Chargers, spending the rest of his pro career bouncing around the UsefulNotes/CanadianFootballLeague, NFL Europe and Arena Football, before becoming a college assistant coach.
** Perhaps no NFL quarterback has been the victim of this more than one Tyrod Taylor. While Taylor will always hold a special place in the hearts of Buffalo Bills fans for his role in helping them break their playoff drought in 2017, the team nonetheless decided to move on from him in the subsequent offseason, drafting Josh Allen in the 2018 draft while trading Taylor to the Cleveland Browns. Taylor was named the Browns' Week 1 starter, but only started three games before being injured and replaced by rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield, who dazzled in the opportunity and thereby won the permanent starting job over Taylor. This would turn out to be the start of a pattern for Taylor, who would experience a near-identical scenario (initially win the starting job, get injured early in the season, rookie earns the starting job in his absence) twice in the next three years, being displaced by Justin Herbert with the L.A. Chargers in 2020 (in a horrific situation that involved him getting his ''lung punctured'' due to the incompetence of the team's medical staff) and by Davis Mills with the Houston Texans in 2021. In 2022, Taylor signed as a backup for the New York Giants.
* In a more general sense, any non-superstar player who held a certain starting position before being replaced (due to injury, retirement, or just poor play) with a superstar. Bonus points if the replaced player was clearly ''good'', or even a star in his/her own right. This obviously does not apply if the player was able to make enough of a name for themselves to be remembered even after being replaced.
** One prominent example of this is Sterling Sharpe, who began his career with the Green Bay Packers in the Majkowski era, but was also one of Green Bay's top receivers for Favre's first three seasons, so much so that when he was knocked out of the 1995 season by what turned out to be a CareerEndingInjury, some fans questioned whether Green Bay could succeed without him. To fill the hole, the Packers bumped up one of their secondary recievers to Sharpe's position: [[https://apnews.com/article/6f767ad8ece39060dfa215614499ade9 Robert Brooks]]. Today, Brooks' name is inextricably linked to Favre's (as are those of other, later-arriving star recievers like Antonio Freeman and Donald Driver), while Sharpe is primarily associated in most people's minds with Majkowski, and therefore with an era where his team was less successful (and/or remembered as "Shannon Sharpe's brother").
* People often argue that Tony Dungy was this for the 2002-03 Tampa Bay Buccaneers team that won Super Bowl XXXVII - coached by Jon Gruden. Dungy had been there several years and assembled most of the talent on that team before playoff frustration and disagreements with management over his coaching philosophy cost him his job. Dungy landed on his feet, though - that same offseason, he took a job with the Indianapolis Colts, who had a then 26-year-old Creator/PeytonManning at quarterback. The Colts would go on to a sustained run of success under Dungy, and a Super Bowl XLI championship.
* Isiah Thomas, well-known as the star of the Detroit Pistons during the "Bad Boys" era of the late 1980s-early 1990s (and before that known as the star of Indiana's 1981 NCAA champions), is more well-known now for being snubbed by the Dream Team before the 1992 Summer Olympics, possibly due to his rivalry with UsefulNotes/MichaelJordan.
* Manchester United's first pinnacle of success was winning the European title in 1968. But the retirement of legendary manager Sir Matt Busby was followed by the catastrophe of relegation from the topflight a mere five years later. United was not fated to win the English league title for another twenty-three years. It is often forgotten - especially after Sir Alex Ferguson's stellar period as manager - that a lot of the work that needed to be done to make United credible contenders again was achieved during those 23 years by managers like Tommy Docherty and Ron Atkinson, who in their own right would have been acclaimed as great managers had they not been eclipsed by Ferguson's stellar achievement. Alex Ferguson inherited a club in great health with a roster of impressive young players, testament to Atkinson.
* One main reason why the Golden State Warriors have been very successful nowadays (especially when compared to past Warriors teams) is the coaching genius of UsefulNotes/SteveKerr, particularly his offensive system based on unselfish passing, three-point shooting, and the pick-and-roll. A huge part of success, though, can be credited to the previous coach Mark Jackson, who improved the Dubs' defense (which was their [[GlassCannon greatest weakness]] back when they were [[ButtMonkey the NBA's laughingstock]]).
** In the same vein, a lot of people credit the Warriors' success to the three-point shooting of "Splash Brothers" UsefulNotes/StephenCurry and Klay Thompson, the gritty versatility of Draymond Green, and (later) the sheer talent of new addition Kevin Durant. However, the first star of the Dubs' successful era (and the precedent of the big names mentioned above) was David Lee, who was the Warriors' best player back when Curry was [[GlassCannon injury-prone]], Thompson was considered a relative disappointment for a Lottery Pick, Green was either a reserve (or, pre-2012, playing at Michigan State), and Durant was still part of the OKC Thunder. In true Pete Best fashion, Lee's status as the Dubs' star ended with his injury in 2014, which catapulted Draymond Green to the starting lineup and turned the Dubs into the NBA's most feared team (alongside the [[ImprobableAimingSkills lights-out shooting of Curry and Thompson]]).
* Younger fans might not be aware that Creator/{{ESPN}} aired most of the first round [[UsefulNotes/{{Basketball}} NCAA Tournament]] games until 1991, when Creator/{{CBS}} snagged the rights for the entire tournament. ESPN's coverage was a significant factor in popularizing the tournament and ESPN itself.
* UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts: Plenty of MMA fighters had their best years before the boom of Mixed Martial Arts.:
** Some early pioneers, such as Wrestling/DanSevern and Wrestling/KenShamrock, left the sport for ProfessionalWrestling to make money, only to return later when MMA paychecks improved.
** Marco Ruas. He was one of the very first true mixed martial artists, Ruas started with Muay Thai but soon expanded his training [[UsefulNotes/CatchWrestling Luta Livre submission grappling]] and became equally skilled in both, he had his first Vale Tudo bout in 1984 where he had a draw with UsefulNotes/BrazilianJiuJitsu representative Fernando Pinduka. Even before the first UFC event, he already publicy defended cross-training in many martial arts to be a truly complete fighter, and was billed representing "Vale Tudo", just as modern MMA fighters are announced as "a mixed martial artist". His legendary UFC 7 performance saw him doing some excellent grappling against Larry Cureton, submitting him with a heel hook, and some master-class strking when he won the finals against giant Paul Varelans by stomping his feet every time he was clinched against the cage, and brutally and systemically kicking his leg multiple times for thirteen minutes until Varelans was unable to walk and dropped into the ground; both tactics became mainstreams decades after. Why he isn't more well-remembered? Well, in his first UFC appearence he was already 34, the period most fighters are already past their prime he started his fighting career, and he also was based mostly in Brazil, which difficulted communications, transport and exposure. One of his best students was UFC heavyweight contender Pedro Rizzo which in turn trained featherweight legend José Aldo, both which are known for their brutal leg kicks, all Ruas' legacy.
** Igor Vovchanchyn is ThePeteBest to fighters like Fedor Emelianenko and Mirko Cro Cop. He was the first kickboxer to have sustained success against grappling artists in the mid-nineties, was universally feared as a striker in the late nineties and got a scary number of victories over established names. However, because his success happened in the "Dark Ages" of MMA, only hardcore fans remember him.
** Jose "Pele" Landi-Jons is a fighter active from the mid-nineties to the present day, skilled in UsefulNotes/MuayThai. His body shape and style are both almost identical to that of legendary former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, and in fact, he trained Silva at one point and had a real-life enmity with him. Almost no one knows who "Pele" is (not the least because his name makes him ThePeteBest in another way), while Silva has had much more success and is regarded as one of the pound-for-pound best fighters in the world.
** Creator/BasRutten dominated the Pancrase organization, won the UFC heavyweight championship, and retired before MMA ever went mainstream. However, he's made quite a name for himself for his commentating and commentary, as well as his infamous [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8mBe0_Ha78 self-defense tapes]].
** Wallid Ismail was an early UsefulNotes/BrazilianJiuJitsu sensation, winning championships and becoming one of the first "professional" BJJ competitors[[note]]In his famous fight against Royce, he was wearing a [[https://www.bjjee.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/wallid-royce.gif Gi full of sponsored patches]]. He was one of the first to get sponsor money by winning tournaments.[[/note]] In 1992, he dueled and won Ralph Gracie (which was trained specifically to defeat him and end his streak) in the ''Mundial'' and in 1993 he defeated Renzo Gracie, he then challenged Royce Gracie for a fight, which he accepted in 1998 under "special conditions" (no time limit or point system, only winning by submission), he would then win by choking Royce out with a "Relógio" (or Clock Choke). For that, he became known as the "Gracie Hunter" years before Wrestling/KazushiSakuraba. He also became a figure on the early Vale Tudo scene, competing in IVC (International Vale Tudo Championship), UFC, and PRIDE. Even appearing at Wrestling/AntonioInoki's UFO, Bom-Ba-Ye, and even doing cameos at NJPW, and founded Jungle Fight, Brazil, and South America's largest MMA promotion. All of this happened before MMA went mainstream.
** Jens Pulver started fighting in 1999, was the UFC's first-ever lightweight championship, and, for eight years, was the only person who ever defeated BJ Penn at lightweight. However, when UFC really hit the mainstream Pulver's suspect chin and defensive grappling were used against him multiple times, culminating in a two-year, six-fight losing streak. Unfortunately, most modern fans only remember the tail end of his career, which has consisted of him getting punched out or submitted.
** Before Wrestling/KazushiSakuraba made a name by hunting down BJJ fighters with his shoot wrestling abilities, fellow shooter Rumina Sato had already achieved that feat in at least two occasions, submitting Ricardo Botelho and John Lewis. However, Sato's lack of exposure (occasioned by his refusal to fight outside of Shooto until he gained a title) made him almost unknown to western audiences.
* Peyton Manning may not have become the star that he is today if the quarterback in front of him, Todd Helton hadn't gone down with an injury. Fortunately, Helton managed to have an excellent baseball career, so it turned out to be a win-win.
* Bob Hill coached the NBA's San Antonio Spurs for the entire 1994-95 and 1995-96 seasons, their two winningest seasons in their history thus far. After the Spurs lost 15 of their first 18 games in the 1996-97 season, Hill was fired by Spurs general manager Gregg Popovich, who then made himself head coach despite having no NBA head coaching experience. Popovich has coached every Spurs game ever since, is the winningest coach in NBA history, and has led the Spurs to five NBA titles.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* A common occurrence for many modern Broadway shows is for them to start Off-Broadway, then if they find success there, moving to Broadway, typically with most of the original cast and crew. The cast members who are replaced always become this, especially if theirs is the performance immortalized on the cast recording:
** Brian d'Arcy James, who originated the role of Dan in ''Theatre/NextToNormal'' Off-Broadway, was the only cast member to not move with the show to Broadway, being replaced by J. Robert Spencer, who promptly got a Tony nomination and a whole lot of notoriety.
*** Another Brian d'Arcy James example: few people seem to remember that he originated the role of King George III in ''Theatre/{{Hamilton}}'' while it was off-Broadway. He was replaced by the much more celebrated Jonathan Groff when the show moved onto Broadway, though James would play King George later on in the Broadway run.
** Contrary to widespread belief, Andrea [=McArdle=] was ''not'' the first to play ''Theatre/{{Annie}}'' in the musical. She ''was'' the first Broadway Annie, and replaced Kristin Vigard, who played her in the Goodspeed Opera House previews before the show went to Broadway.
** ''Theatre/DearEvanHansen'': The role of Alana was played by Alexis Molnar when the show premiered in Washington, DC. She was replaced by Kristolyn Lloyd when the show opened off-Broadway and subsequently moved to Broadway, and Kristolyn is the one featured in all the show's Broadway hype and publicity alongside the rest of the original cast.
* Jules Bledsoe introduced "Ol' Man River" as Joe in the original Broadway production of ''Theatre/ShowBoat''. Paul Robeson would play that part (which consists of little more than the famous song and its reprises) in the 1928 London production, the 1932 Broadway revival, and the 1936 film version (for which he got a MovieBonusSong). Robeson was the most famous black dramatic actor of his day, and Bledsoe was not a good actor, so it's no wonder whose performance was regarded as definitive.
* Steve Harley sang in the original single release for ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'', but when the London production began was replaced by Creator/MichaelCrawford after preparing for the role for several months.
* Paul Hecht originated the role of John Dickinson in the musical ''Theatre/SeventeenSeventySix'' - but it was Donald Madden, who took over the role on Broadway, who went on to star in the film version and create the definitive Dickinson. The same thing happened with John Cullum, the third Rutledge on Broadway, who played the role the longest and went on to recreate the role for the film.
* An interesting example is the role of Sally in ''You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown''. The original 1967 production didn't even feature the character, with Patty (not Peppermint Patty) instead. Patty eventually got DemotedToExtra in the ''Peanuts'' universe, and by the time of the 1999 Broadway production was forgotten. She was replaced with Sally, who was a good fit for Kristin Chenoweth, complete with an extremely catchy solo, and she won the Supporting Actress Tony. Meanwhile, Patty's been nearly forgotten.
* The role of Bobby in ''[[Theatre/CompanySondheim Company]]'' was originally played by Creator/DeanJones, but he had to step away not long after opening due to personal issues. Larry Kert stepped into the role, and was even made specially eligible for a Tony nomination even though he didn't create the role.
** Thanks to the 2006 Broadway revival of ''Company'', Raúl Esparza has well and truly eclipsed both Jones and Kert, despite being ''born'' in the same year the show debuted.
* In the world of Creator/CirqueDuSoleil, no one seems to remember that CoolOldGuy Brian Dewhurst (aka Brian Le Petit) was not the original performer of ''Theatre/{{Mystere}}'''s principal clown act; he only joined the cast in 2000, and the show has been running since 1993. There were no less than ''three'' sets of performers handling clown duties before him: Wayne Hronek (who created the act and taught it to Dewhurst), Alex El Sobrino, and Alfredo et Adrenaline (a male-female duo who presented a completely different act in 1995-96). ''Mystere'' has never been filmed in its entirety, and its making-of documentary didn't come along until Dewhurst's tenure, so very little footage of Hronek's version of the act exists, and none at all of the other two.
* ''Creator/MischiefTheatre'' initially started with Rob Falconer as "Trevor" in their wildly popular "...Goes Wrong" plays. However after Chris Lasek played the character during the [=BBC=] broadcast of ''Theatre/PeterPanGoesWrong'' he has remained linked to the character ever since, and sometimes wrongly recognized as a founding member of the cast, obliviously omitting Falconer out of the equation.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* Creator/GamesWorkshop is well known to have been founded by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson who also created the Literature/FightingFantasy license plus Ian Livingstone also founded Eidos. What's less known is the 3rd founder, John Peake who was the trio's manufacturing guy. In fact, when the three were brainstorming company names, Games Workshop partially came about because the flat they shared had been partially converted into a carpentry workshop by John. Unfortunately John Peake was happiest building backgammon and chessboard for the company and had no interest in rpgs. So when GW moved extensively into an rpg focus, John quit and this was still a few years before GW exploded in popularity with Warhammer and White Dwarf.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Creator/{{Atari}} was founded in the early 70s by Nolan Bushnell, Al Alcorn, and a third guy named Ted Dabney who dropped out. Guess which one is no longer remembered.
* Canadian developer Creator/BioWare was originally founded by three people: Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, and Augustine Yip. After Yip left to continue his medical career during the development of the company's breakout game, ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'', he was for the most part forgotten by all but the most dedicated of the developer's fans.
* Rockstar North was founded by David Jones, Mike Dailly, Russell Kay, and Steve Hammond. It was initially called DMA Design and developed the original ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'', however, a year after the release, most of the employees and founders quit. Jones, who was the producer of the game, was the only founder remaining. Sam and Dan Houser, who founded Rockstar Games, actually started to work in the franchise with the first expansion, ''London 1969'', but sometime after the release of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto2'', Jones decided to leave and found Realtime Worlds, leaving the Houser brothers with DMA and developing ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'', which would be a massive success and a game-changer in the market. Of the original founders, David Jones still has a bit of recognition for going on to create ''VideoGame/{{Crackdown}}'', but the rest are largely forgotten.
* Creator/ErinFitzgerald wasn't the first English voice for Chie Satonaka of ''VideoGame/Persona4'' fame, but since she's been doing the voice longer and is more well-known than Tracey Rooney, people usually associate her with the role. The same can be said for Teddie - Creator/DaveWittenberg isn't exactly an obscure voice actor, but more people have heard Creator/SamRiegel.
* The two main stars of ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClank'' were Creator/DavidKaye as Clank and Mikey Kelley as Ratchet. However, from the second game onwards, the latter was replaced with Creator/JamesArnoldTaylor, who's gone on to voice Ratchet in every subsequent game and is considered the definitive voice of the character.
* The original ''VideoGame/{{Elite}}'' was developed by two people, Davidd Braben and Ian Bell. Braben took the ''Elite'' rights and made ''Frontier: Elite II'', later founding Creator/FrontierDevelopments which, among others, made ''Frontier: First Encounters'' (the followup to ''Elite II''), ''VideoGame/RollerCoasterTycoon 3'', and ''VideoGame/EliteDangerous''.
* In ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'', Creator/ReubenLangdon is Dante's third voice actor after Drew Coombs (who voiced him in [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry1 the first game]] and ''VideoGame/ViewtifulJoe'') and Matthew Kaminsky (who voiced him in [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry2 the second game]] and, by technicality of reusing grunts from that game, ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne'') but because Langdon became a mainstay since the third game and also voiced Dante in [[Anime/DevilMayCryTheAnimatedSeries the animated series]] and [[VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3 other cameos]], he's a lot more iconic than his predecessors, to the point where him being given proper voice acting in ''SMTIII''[='=]s HD remaster was recorded by Langdon.
* Creator/JulianLeFay played an instrumental role as a game designer and programmer for Creator/{{Bethesda}} in the company's early days, playing a pivotal role in creating ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series as the lead programmer for ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsArena Arena]]'', ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/AnElderScrollsLegendBattlespire Battlespire]]''. However, when it came time for development to begin on ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'', [=LeFay=] was not picked for the development team. Around the same time, he started having increasing concerns over Bethesda's changing corporate culture in the latter half of the 90's, so he eventually tendered his resignation from the company in 1998, citing CreativeDifferences, but still made some small contributions to ''Morrowind'' at the behest of his good friend and Bethesda founder Christopher Weaver. It would be [=LeFay=]'s unfortunate luck that ''Morrowind'' would turn out to be the BreakthroughHit for both the ''TES'' series and for Bethesda, leading to a massive NewbieBoom that propelled both into the mainstream gaming conciousness. [=LeFay=] would then be supplanted in eyes of fans who first experienced the series from ''Morrowind'' on by series' MyRealDaddy, Creator/MichaelKirkbride.
* VideoGame/{{Shantae}} was originally voiced by one Meagan Glaser in ''VideoGame/ShantaeRiskysRevenge''. For ''VideoGame/ShantaeAndThePiratesCurse'' (which coincided with a large NewbieBoom), she was succeeded by Creator/CristinaValenzuela, who has been in the role ever since.
* ''VideoGame/StarcraftI'': Sarah Kerrigan was originally voiced by Glynnis Talken Campbell in the first game of 1998. She was later replaced by Tricia Helfer for the long awaited sequel in its trilogy of episodes in 2010, 2013 and 2016 - a role that earned Helfer the Spike Video Game Award for the best female performance plus other accolades and recognitions. Apparently, Blizzard has long since forgotten Campbell, who didn't quite like the exchange, stating that initially she had even recorded the whole first episode of the sequel (''Wings of Liberty'') [[TheOtherMarty before being replaced]], and that [[https://starcraft.fandom.com/wiki/User_blog:Hawki/Interview_with_Glynnis_Campbell "They never actually told me. I did record the whole game for Blizzard, but they called in a new VO director who brought in a name talent to replace me. She was younger and sexier, but I'm going to pretend that had nothing to do with it"]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* WebVideo/RhettAndLink had a childhood friend named Ben Greenwood with whom they hung out with as often as they did with each other. Unfortunately Ben passed away of testicular cancer in 2009, two years before Rhett & Link's internet careers really took off. He is mentioned when Rhett & Link renew their promise they made when they were teens, Rhett saying that Ben absolutely would have been with them.
* LetsPlay/HatFilms was initially made of four people: Ross Hornby, Chris Trott, Nathan Asheman, and Ben Adams. Both Asheman and Adams eventually left the group (although Adams is almost never mentioned and left first) at some point, to later be replaced by Alex Smith. New fans as a rule tend not to remember either Asheman or Adams so well.
* [[WebVideo/JonTron Jon Jafari]] left ''WebVideo/GameGrumps'' eleven months into the series. Jon still has enough memorable moments to be as associated with the series as his replacement [[Music/NinjaSexParty Danny]] currently is.
* Early episodes of ''WebVideo/OSWReview'' occasionally featured a fourth person named Neo who joined the three others (Jay, OOC, and V1) or replaced V1 or OOC altogether. He disappeared after five episodes (with V1's hard-drive) and was replaced with the traditional three man lineup, and the official explanation is that he simply stopped showing up to recordings.
* The original hosts of ''WebVideo/MidnightScreenings'' were Creator/BradJones (aka WebVideo/TheCinemaSnob), Brian Lewis, Brian Irving, Dave Gobble, Sarah Gobble (formerly Sarah Lewis), Jerrid Foiles, Jillian Zurawski, and Jake Norvell. The last two have quickly been forgotten, as Jones and Zurawski divorced early in the show's run (her role was briefly taken over by Jones' next girlfriend Violet Rinorea, and then by his second wife, Laura Luke Jones), and both Jerrid and Jake quit due to disputes with Jones. Subverted in the case of Foiles, who was the first to leave the show but would [[TheBusCameBack come back]] much later after he and Jones reconciled.
* Creator/TeamFourStar originally consisted of [=KaiserNeko=], Lanipator, [=Takahata101=], and [=Vegeta3986=]. After Season 1 of ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'' concluded, [=Vegeta3986=] would leave the team to move to Japan to become an English teacher. Raditz's role would go back to Lanipator and his other voice roles would be recast. [=KaiserNeko=] would voice Oolong, [[WebAnimation/WeeklyTubeShow Remix]] would voice Kami, and Faulerro would voice Yamcha.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Creator/LaceyChabert was the original voice for Meg on ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' for about the first dozen episodes before being replaced by Creator/MilaKunis. Combined with a bit of CharacterizationMarchesOn, as Chabert's Meg was more of a softer voiced, younger sounding DaddysGirl, while Kunis' slightly harsher voice was better suited to expressing ButtMonkey-related frustration and anger.
** This has been {{lampshade|Hanging}}d a few times, for example, Peter threatening to replace Lois in "Business Guy", causing her to back down by simply mentioning Chabert's name, and the episode "Back to The Pilot" when Stewie and Brian travel back in time to the pilot episode and they comment that Meg sounds different.
--->'''Stewie:''' She sounds like someone who's about to make a terrible career decision.
** Chabert herself doesn't seem to mind as she later made a cameo in "Yug Ylimaf" as time reverse so much, Meg's voice reverts from Kunis back to Chabert.
--->'''Stewie''': ''(alarmed)'' Oh my God! We're getting closer to the beginning! You're Lacey Chabert!
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' - the voices of Moe Szyslak and Monty Burns were originated by Creator/HankAzaria and Creator/HarryShearer, right? Actually both characters were first voiced by Christopher Collins, aka Chris Latta, aka [[WesternAnimation/GIJoe Cobra Commander]] and [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers Star]][[TheStarscream scream]] - but his part as Burns was only used in one episode ("Homer's Odyssey"), and none of his voice works as Moe was heard in any finished episode (he recorded all of Moe's lines in "Some Enchanted Evening", but Hank Azaria re-recorded the lines late in production, so Chris Latta is only heard as a TV presenter in that episode).
* Karri Turner (of JAG fame) was originally intended to be the lead voice actress for ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', but was let go in the time between the original pilot and the start of the series as it was felt that her voice wasn't distinct enough. Mary Kay Bergman went on to voice almost all of the major female characters until her suicide in 1999, while Turner showed up briefly in a guest spot in the first season (voicing Kathie Lee Gifford).
** In the Latin Spanish dub, Kyle and Cartman were originally voiced by Vivian Ruiz for seasons 1 and 2. Ruiz quit the series after season 2 because Cartman's voice was exceedingly difficult on her. She was replaced by Patricia Azan in season 3 and beyond, as well as the redubs of seasons 1-2.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'': T.J. is very well-known as being voiced by Andy Lawrence... even though Ross Malinger played him for the first fifteen episodes until his voice broke.
* The pilot episode of ''WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget'' was the only time Creator/MonaMarshall voiced Penny; the role being taken over by Creator/CreeSummer for the rest of the first season and Holly Berger in the second season. Also in the first edition of the pilot, Gadget was voiced by the [[FakeNationality British]] actor Gary Owens, (not ''that'' Creator/GaryOwens), who was subsequently dubbed over by the more Don Adams-esque Jesse White, who himself was replaced with Don Adams himself for the rest of the show.
* Franchise/ScoobyDoo: Heather North is usually associated as being the classic, the original voice of Daphne Blake, with Creator/MaryKayBergman even mentioning it in an interview during her tenure in the role, but in reality, the role was originated by Indira Stefanianna Christopherson for the first 17 episodes (and majority) of the classic ''[[WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooWhereAreYou Where Are You?!]]'' series before the role was recast with North. Many viewers don't know they're hearing a whole other actress in the role of most of the classic episodes.
** Also happened to Scrappy-Doo, where Creator/DonMessick is usually associated as his voice actor (doing double-duty with Scooby), but actually Lennie Weinrib had voiced the character for all 16 episodes of "The Scooby-Doo & Scrappy-Doo Show" before quitting the role over a pay dispute and other personal reasons. In addition, Creator/DawsButler, Dick Beals, Creator/FrankWelker, Marilyn Schreffler, and others all voiced the character in unaired test versions of the pilot before producers settled on Weinrib.
** Happens in universe when Scrappy-Doo became TheScrappy, replacing Scooby-Doo's other relative who only appeared in a few episodes: Scooby-Dum.
* WesternAnimation/OswaldTheLuckyRabbit. Creator/WaltDisney made a whole series of cartoons featuring him and wanted to continue them, but Universal owned the character and didn't let him have the rights. When Disney struck out on his own, he invented Oswald's SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute, WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse. Eventually, Disney bought back Ozzy (in a deal that gave NBC Al Michaels and John Madden for Sunday Night Football) and gained some recognition by appearing in the video game ''VideoGame/EpicMickey''.
* Who remembers [[WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987 Scrooge McDuck]] having the voice of Creator/AlanYoung? (Many hands are raised.) Who knows that in his first appearance, 1967's ''Scrooge [=McDuck=] and Money'', Bill Thompson provided Mr. [=McD=]'s voice? (Most of the hands fall.) Or that in the 1986 special "Sport Goofy in Soccermania," Scrooge was voiced by Will Ryan? (Even more, hands go down.)
* [[WesternAnimation/DangerMouse Danger Mouse]] is often remembered as either voiced by Creator/DavidJason (for the original 1981 series) or Alexander Armstrong (for the 2015 reboot). However, his first voice artist, for the 1979 pilot "The Mystery of the Lost Chord", was William Franklyn.
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls''
** In the original shorts that aired as part of the WesternAnimation/WhatACartoon show, Bubbles was voiced by Creator/KathSoucie rather than Creator/TaraStrong, who is much more commonly associated with the role. And prior to that, the show was merely a 1992 college project named "[[DarkerAndEdgier Whoopass]] [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness Stew]]" with all the girls voiced by Jennifer Fried, and instead of the as-of-yet iconic Creator/TomKenny as the [[LemonyNarrator Narrator]]'s voice, Creator/CraigMcCracken himself provided the voice for his own production. In addition, Creator/ErnieAnderson was the narrator in the WAC shorts, but he had passed away by the time the TV series was greenlit, and Kenny was cast.
** In his first appearance, Gangrene Gang memner Lil' Arturo was voiced by Carlos Alazraqui. Tom Kenny voices him in all subsequent episodes.
** In a non-voice acting example, Townsville had a completely different mayor in the first WAC short. The character in that episode appeared to be modeled after UsefulNotes/BillClinton and was voiced by [[Creator/JimCummings1952 Jim Cummings]]. The classic Mayor (voiced by Tom Kenny) and Miss Bellum replaced him in the main TV show. This is also an example of ArtEvolution as the earlier mayor had a more realistic look compared to the classic mayor, who's as stylized as the girls themselves.
* The animated adaptations of ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' have two examples:
** Garfield's original voice was not Creator/LorenzoMusic. In the very first animation that aired on ''The Fantastic Funnies'' (1980), adapting five newspaper strips, Garfield was voiced by Scott Beach. Music became Garfield's voice in 1982 starting with ''WesternAnimation/HereComesGarfield''.
** While Thom Huge ''did'' voice Jon Arbuckle in ''The Fantastic Funnies'', the role was handed over to Sandy Kenyon for ''Here Comes Garfield'', the first of the Garfield specials. Huge returned for the rest of the animated specials through ''Garfield Gets a Life'' in 1991, along with the entirety of ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'' (1988-1994).
* Most people remember Jeremy Shada as the voice of ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'''s Finn even though he took over, [[CharacterAgedWithTheActor ironically enough]], just as his brother Zach was going through puberty years after he recorded for the ''Random! Cartoons'' version.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': Alfred was voiced by Clive Revill (who seems have a habit of being this) in the first three episodes "On Leather Wings", "Christmas With the Joker" and "Never Fear". Creator/EfremZimbalistJr took over for the rest of the series and its spinoffs.
* Jack Mercer was not the original voice of ''WesternAnimation/{{Popeye}}''. That honor goes to William Costello, who was the sailor man's voice actor for his first two years before Mercer took over afterward, supplying Popeye's voice for the majority of the remainder of his shorts and continuing to do so for all appearances afterward until his death in 1984.
* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' has several examples from its Latin American Spanish dub:
** [=SpongeBob=] himself was voiced by Creator/KaihiamalMartinez in the first season, after which he was one of several voice actors who were fired from the dubbing company, Creator/EtceteraGroup, after a pay dispute. Because of this, Creator/LuisCarreno replaced him, and he continues to voice the role to this day (even after moving to Miami).
** Óscar Zuloaga voiced Plankton until the Christmas special ''Cristmas Who?''. From ''Welcome to the Chum Bucket'' to ''Squirrel Record'', Creator/LuisMiguelPerez would voice him and become associated with the role.
** Karen was usually voiced by Melanie Henríquez until her retirement, and by Gabriela Belén since then, but her voice actress in the first season was actually Rocio Mallo, who had to quit the role after moving to Mexico (she has since moved back to Venezuela).
** Sandy was originally voiced by Mercedes Prato but was fired for the same reasons as Martínez, leading her more famous successor Anabella Silva (as well as Yaraivi Alcedo, Lidia Abautt, and Lileana Chacón) to take over.
** Most people remember Juan Guzmán as the French Narrator, as well as the voice reading the signs in Spanish, but he actually replaced Orlando Noguera in both after he moved to Mexico (Noguera would later move again to Miami, where he continues to do voiceover work).
* WesternAnimation/CliffordTheBigRedDog was not originally voiced by Creator/JohnRitter. In a series of direct-to-video specials from the late '80s, Brent Titcomb provided his voice.
* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'':
** WesternAnimation/PorkyPig was originally voiced by Joe Dougherty, with Porky's stutter being shared by Dougherty in real-life. Unfortunately, Dougherty's stutter was actually a little ''too'' pronounced, resulting in recording sessions taking three or four times longer than normal for a cartoon, and Creator/FrizFreleng eventually being forced to replace him with Creator/MelBlanc in order to avoid being fired for running up excessive tape and studio costs.
** Elmer Fudd -- or his prototype, Egghead -- was originally voiced by Danny Webb, and later recast with Arthur Q. Bryan around the same time the character evolved to his definitive version.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Ron Wayne co-founded Apple with Creator/SteveJobs and Steve Wozniak. His 10% ownership in the company would be worth over $220 billion today... if he hadn't sold his shares back to the Steves 12 days into the partnership for $800.
* Joe Green decided not to take up his roommate Mark Zuckerberg's offer to help him with his website called Website/{{Facebook}}.
* The supermarket chain Waitrose was started by three men -- Waite, Rose, and Taylor. Taylor left after a couple of years, and the business was renamed after the remaining two.
* Sears, ''Roebuck'' & Co. Roebuck's name isn't even on the sign anymore. Historically, [[http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/2840.html he had to retire earlier than expected due to ill health.]] Though, in Roebuck's favor, "Roebuck & Co." is now a Sears clothing brand and one of the store's more popular products.
* Dow Jones & Company was founded by Charles Dow, Edward Jones... and Charles Bergstresser. What makes this example particularly unfair is that he was the chief financier for the new company and he came up with the name ''"[[UsefulNotes/AmericanNewspapers The Wall Street Journal]]"''. However, it was his decision to become a silent partner, so his name never appeared on the company's name. Still, it's subverted since his influence is still expressed by the publication (such as during its [[https://news.lafayette.edu/2014/07/11/wall-street-journal-discusses-co-founder-charles-bergstresser-class-of-1881/ 125th anniversary]]).
* MGM Studios was created by merging three earlier production companies: Metro, Goldwyn, and (L. B.) Mayer. The Goldwyn company in turn had gotten its name from its two founders, Samuel Goldfish and Edgar Selwyn. By the time the company merged into MGM, Sam Goldfish had long since parted ways with Selwyn to set up as an independent producer ... after changing his own name to Goldwyn.
[[/folder]]
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!![[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Fictional examples ]]


[[folder:Anime]]
* InUniverse in ''Manga/TwentiethCenturyBoys'', Friend refers to himself as Major Michael Collins, after the third member of the Apollo 11 space mission where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first and second men on the moon; the idea, of course, being that the last two are more famous than Collins is.
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[[folder:Comic Books]]
* Thunderbird was one of the "Second Genesis" ComicBook/XMen, and the first main to die (If you don't count Professor X's fakeout death, that is). That's pretty much all he's known for now. The fact that his powers were largely the same as the Beast probably didn't help his case. Although Sunfire fits the trope even better, since he voluntarily left the team in the issue immediately following the first adventure.
* Back when ComicBook/XStatix was still called ComicBook/XForce, they had an entirely different lineup. Of that lineup, only U-Go Girl and Anarchist survived the first issue. And they weren't even the original lineup! The average X-Forcer had a very short life expectancy. It didn't help that their crazy, amoral sponsor Spike Freeman preferred that the team have a high turnover rate
* The first issue of ''ComicBook/TheOrder2007'' features Henry Hellrung and Pepper Potts having to fire four of the Order's initial lineup after they decide to get drunk after their first mission.
* During the ComicBook/{{Runaways}}' first year, they recruited a boy named Topher to their ranks. He turned out to be a vampire, and was killed off after trying to feed on Karolina.
* Early in their history, the ''ComicBook/GreatLakesAvengers'' had a guy named Leather Boy on their roster. He misread the personal ad that Mr. Immortal had put out and quit after realizing that they weren't a fetish community. He later returned, seeking revenge on the team after finding out that they were looking to expand their membership and hadn't even thought to call him.
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[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* In ''Film/{{Zoolander}}'', main villain Mugatu was originally in Music/FrankieGoesToHollywood but was booted out shortly before they got big. He used their song "Relax" as his keyword to activate his brainwash programming.
* ''Film/ThatThingYouDo'' has the original drummer for [[FakeBand The Wonders]] (then The One-ders) break his arm before a talent competition. The band asks [[TheHero Guy]] to fill in for him. This talent show led the The Wonders towards the path to recognition. The former drummer, Chad, ends up taking Guy's old job at his father's appliance shop.
* ''Film/TheRocker'' The whole plot revolves around this trope. Rainn Wilson plays Robert "Fish" Fishman, the drummer in an 80's glammetal band called Vesuvius. When his band gets signed, Fish gets dropped in favor of their producer's nephew. Despite his swearing to become even bigger than they do, he fails, until more than 20 years later when his nephew asks him to fill in for the drummer for his band, and they manage to hit it big, thanks largely to Website/YouTube and a series of videos entitled ''[[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity The Naked Drummer]]''. Pete Best even makes a cameo as himself.
* ''Film/TheSocialNetwork'' uses this as a major plot point: in its interpretation of Facebook's founding, Eduardo Saverin, who has been part of the company since the start, becomes aware of his business partner's attempts to minimize his contributions and force him out of the company. Lawsuits ensue. In real life Saverin has been candid that he didn't care so much about being on the Facebook "inside" as maintaining his deserved financial stake.
* In ''Film/{{Dreamgirls}}'', Effie is ousted from the Dreams due to her being difficult to work with (though viewers sympathetic to Effie feel she had every reason to act out), and is replaced with Michelle. The second act opens with Deena watching a documentary about the Dreams that cuts out Effie entirely and claims Michelle was with the group from the start.
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[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/DaisyJonesAndTheSix'': The original rhythm guitarist for The Dunne Brothers (later renamed The Six) was Chuck Williams. Before the band could record anything, Williams' draft number was called for UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar and he was killed in action after a few months. Bass player Pete Loving's brother Eddie was brought in to replace him and remained part of the band until their eventual breakup.
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
** Parodied in the novel ''Literature/ThiefOfTime'', where Ronnie Soak left [[spoiler:The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse before they got famous -- he was "Kaos", the Fifth Horseman. He still manages to get a HesBack moment near the end when he rejoins the Horsemen for the big battle against the Auditors.]]
** Also used in ''Literature/SoulMusic'', where the Librarian briefly joined (and then quit) the Band With Rocks In before they went on tour and made it really big.
* ''Literature/TheInkBlackHeart'': InUniverse and lampshaded. Anomie, an anonymous Internet troll and fan of cartoon ''The Ink Black Heart'', called Seb Montgomery, an artist who helped with animating the first couple episodes of the cartoon, "the Pete Best of ''The Ink Black Heart''." This is actually plot relevant, as Anomie's habit of making arcane Beatles references helps the protagonists, private detectives Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott, figure out his identity.
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[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/BreakingBad'': One of the reasons that [[VillainProtagonist the protagonist Walter White]] decides to enter the meth business is to create a successful enterprise of his own, after having missed out on a chance to be a part of the multi-billion company Gray Matter, which he had founded along with two of his college friends. Though he was one of the primary forces behind the creation of Gray Matter, no one at the company is willing to acknowledge it in public, [[spoiler: especially once Walt is publically exposed as a drug lord near the end of the series]], and his role in starting the company has long since been forgotten.
* ''Series/{{Ed}}'': A band sued their founder, lead singer, and songwriter, on the grounds that she plagiarized her lyrics. It was all a pretense because the record label didn't like her. They had already scouted a potential replacement, but the trial took so long, the replacement joined another band. They tried to take back their leader, in vain. The episode ended with the band performing in front of a not so impressed talent scout.
* In ''Series/FullHouse'', Jesse has been the lead singer for a band named "the Rippers" for much of the series' run but gets fired when the members believe his other responsibilities (raising a family, running a [[LocalHangout local club]], and being a co-host in a radio talk station) make him not as driven for performing in a band as the rest of them are. In a subsequent episode, the Rippers' members get a different guy as their lead singer and the band quickly becomes much more popular than the group ever was under Jesse's leadership, much to Jesse's immense exasperation for much of said episode.
* In a series of flashbacks on ''Series/{{Firefly}}'', we see Malcolm slowly assembling the crew, including his mechanic... Bester. Bester, we discover, was quickly replaced by their current mechanic, Kaylee.
* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'':
** The show parodies Pete Best's story with Creator/EddieMurphy as Clarence Walker, the saxophonist who's still bitter about being kicked out of the band.
** In the second episode of the 14th season, with Creator/MatthewBroderick as a guest, they make a parody of Albert Goldman, author of a controversial biography of John Lennon, which made this character (played by Creator/PhilHartman) claim that he had been part of The Beatles and played trombone in the band before they reached the stardom, but was expelled by everyone present (both John, Paul, George, Ringo ... and Elvis) on considerations about his lack of talent and large build. In the end, Mr. Goldman threatened to take revenge eventually for that affront (it should be noted that this author wrote a polemic biography of Elvis, too).
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[[folder:Webcomics]]
* Kairi in ''Webcomic/AnsemRetort'', namely, the ShowWithinAShow Ansem Retort. She was killed off in the first season and replaced by Aerith, who more people associate with the show nowadays, especially since her wedding was broadcast on it.
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[[folder:Western Animation]]
* In the season three premiere of ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}'', there's a flashback of Dethklok signing its first contract. The rhythm guitarist there is ''not'' the current rhythm guitarist, Toki Wartooth, but a man named Magnus Hammersmith. Hammersmith, we later learn, was kicked out of the band and replaced because he was a violent abusive asshole (which given what [[DysfunctionJunction the rest of Dethklok is like]] means he must have been ''really'' bad). Predictably enough, he worms his way into a friendship with Toki, then literally stabs him in the back during the Revengencer attack. [[spoiler: When Dethklok awakens the power of the Doomstar while rescuing Toki, Magnus realizes he was the villain the whole time and stabs himself.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** Otto in "A Streetcar Named Marge", where director Llewellyn Sinclair took him out of the cast of "Oh! Streetcar!" just before the opening performance, replacing him in the part of Pablo with himself.
** The episode "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" is a deliberate spoof on the Beatles' career, with Chief Wiggum playing the role of Pete Best and Barney Gumble (who turns out to have a [[BeautifulSingingVoice breathtaking singing voice]]) as Ringo Starr. Wiggum takes it poorly, repeatedly trying to either get back into the group or screwing them over (like trying to arrest them).
** In "Team Homer", Homer forms a bowling team with Moe, Apu, and Otto, with Homer getting the sponsorship money out of Mr. Burns while he's high on ether. When Mr. Burns finds out, he wants to join the team, so in order to appease him (and maintain their funding) Otto has to go. However, he still helps them win indirectly when he accidentally knocks over the bowling alley's prize-grabber machine, which causes a big enough impact that it knocks over Burns' pins and wins them the tournament.
* In ''Meet the Raisins'', a mock-biopic about the WesternAnimation/CaliforniaRaisins, the Raisins are revealed to have had a Pete Best of their own - Zoot the grapefruit. He was replaced by Stretch, who ironically started out as the only raisin in a grapefruit band.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'': Initially, the Fire Ferrets consists of Mako, Bolin, and Hasook. After Hasook's performance causes conflicts in the team, Hasook leaves in a fit. To avoid disqualification, Korra enters the team as a last minute replacement. She then proceeds to take the team all the way to the championship, but they lose due to the opponents cheating.
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