A popular character is killed off or otherwise written out and replaced with a new character who fills their previous role. Regardless of what this new character is like, they're likely to end up with a Hatedomdirected at them, just because they're not the old favourite. If he'd been there from the start, maybe the fans could have loved this new character, or at least respected him. But no—he's a replacement. He's not even a Suspiciously Similar Substitute who at least shared some character traits with the other guy, he's a totally different guy, and so every flaw—every trait that makes him not like the character the fans want him to be—drives them crazy with longing and disgust, and all they can do is get angrier and angrier.note Or, even worse, he is a Suspiciously Similar Substitute, trying to ape everything that made the old guy popular, who the fans hate for being a "bad copy" of their favorite.
In short, They Changed It, Now It Sucks, but with a main character. If lucky, he may be Rescued from the Scrappy Heap. Happens to all Anti Hero Substitutes that aren't portrayed as a regular villain in hero's costume.
Compare with Counterpart Comparison.
(Of course, being a Replacement Scrappy does not preclude also being a regular Scrappy. It is entirely possible that the audience would have hated the character anyway.)
No one was happy when Free Credit Score hired a new band to replace the old one. NO ONE. Thankfully, the company realized this, and judging by this commercial, it looks like the old band is coming back.
Wendy, for whom the Wendy's fast food chain is named, is not nearly the advertiser her father Dave Thomas was.
Fanfiction
Thoroughly discussed in the Criminal Minds fanfiction Voices of the Forgotten, which, as the title suggests, about all the characters who've some or go unceremoniously over the years.
Elle: She at least thought that they would not like her replacement more than her because nobody every likes the replacement...
Jordan: even if they're temporary..
Ashley: or not technically a replacement at all.
Film
Star Wars: Attack of the Clones: Count Dooku is a very cool character in his own right, but at the time many fans dismissed him for not being DarthMaul.
Detective Clifton Sleigh (Ted Wass) in Curse of the Pink Panther. The plot sets him up as investigating Inspector Clouseau's disappearance, as established in the previous film, Trail of.... Sleigh is an New York City detective who is similarly incompetent, but eager-to-please rather than arrogant, and more aware of/confused by the chaos he's involved in than Clouseau ever was. Beyond having a different and ultimately blander character as the focus, the film itself comes off as lazy and cheap compared to its predecessors. Worse, not only was Peter Sellers' Clouseau beloved, but Trail of... used outtakes of Sellers — who had died two years prior — to create a Fake Shemp; essentially, writer-director-producer Blake Edwards was accused of grave robbing just to set up a Replacement Scrappy! Edwards tried again at this 10 years later with Son of the Pink Panther, via a Re Vision of the events of A Shot In the Dark to bring us Clouseau's illegitimate Italian son (Roberto Benigni), but it also bombed.
Apparently the backlash was so much that it was actually lampshaded in the fourth movie, specifically during shuttle ride through Spacedock, where Sulu claims that he's hoping the former Enterprise crew would received the Excelsior, to which Scotty scoffs at the idea and calls the ship a "bucket of bolts". Then the shuttle turns toward the Excelsior's direction (with the camera following throughout), making it seem like Sulu's wish was going to come true...only for the Enterprise-A to appear behind the Excelsior. You could almost hear the original theater audience's cheers at that point.
Ironically enough, the Excelsior would become one of the most popular starships in the ST fandom, both due to its unique design (at the time) and for being captained by Sulu (replacing the original captain Styles) in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. One supposes this was partly due to not becoming the Replacement Scrappy as everyone feared, instead establishing itself as its own "character" from the Enterprise.
Shemp replacing Curly after Curly suffered a stroke. Opinions on him vary, however, as the reasoning wasn't that he was a bad actor but rather that he was very different from Curly and the show dynamic changed because of it. Ironically, Curly was actually the replacement for Shemp, who was the third stooge during their Vaudeville days, before Curly even began acting.
On the other hand, Joe Besser is universally hated, largely due to the stipulation that Moe couldn't hit him; this was like a kiss of death for any shorts featuring him, since annoying characters are tolerable only so long as their annoyance is appropriately punished. Indeed, Joe Besser rather than Shemp personifies this more as Shemp tends to be more popular than not.
Curly Joe De Rita, for the most part, avoided this trope. He was brought in to play the third stooge during their comeback, and managed to be an effective stooge in his own right (and despite the name, he didn't act like Curly). It also helped that the guy he was replacing was the aforementioned (and widely hated) Besser.
Glen Robbins in City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold is a perfect example of this trope, having replaced the much-loved character Ed Furillo from the first movie.
Some feel this way towards the Spinosaurus for replacing the T.rex in Jurassic Park III.
Jack Wade from James Bond, Bond's new CIA contact, replacing Felix Leiter in the Brosnan films. While in all fairness Leiter had kinda lost his legs in Licence To Kill, the replacement of a fan-favorite character going as far back as the original novels with a muumuu-wearing, boorish American stereotype didn't go over well.
The short story Johnny Come Lately by Marc Singer tells the story from the Scrappy's point of view; based heavily on the Green Lantern furor outlined above, it tells the story of a young man picked at random as the replacement for a well-admired superhero after his death and the destruction of his entire league by the sentient hourglass that was his symbol, who finds his every effort, no matter how sincere, sneered at and put down by ingrates for no other reason than he's the new guy. Needless to say, the replacement isn't best pleased at his new lot in life.
The Star Wars Expanded Universe regularly has our characters (especially Luke) being written out temporarily. So Shadows of the Empire readers hate Dash Rendar for his similarity to Han Solo. (It takes place between Empire and Jedi.) And Fate of the Jedi readers hate Kenth Hamner for trying to replace Luke. Oddly, Ben isn't hated, despite often being considered an Expy of Anakin Solo. Parodied with Abeloth, who tries to impersonate Mara and Callista and gets the Replacement Scrappy treatment (and a few fatal lightsaber wounds) from Luke himself for her efforts.
In The Wheel of Time, following Moiraine's Heroic Sacrifice, Rand got a new bossy female mentor-type thing in Cadsuane. Unfortunately, while Moiraine was likeable and seemed to genuinely care about people, Cadsuane was a bossy, knowitall Mary Sue.
In fairness, this was likely mostly intentional, as the original was putting the Aes Sedai and co in danger of being sympathetic and the author needed to keep them firmly in antagonist territory for later plot development to work. If Rand thought they were probably inclined to be reasonable and negotiated the series probably would have come in at its original intended length instead of seven or eight times longer.
Wicked fans haven't taken much of an interest in Liir, who replaced Elphaba after she died. Being Elphaba's son doesn't stop him from being The Scrappy, maybe even it did worse for his reputation.
The Warrior Cats fanbase has had this reaction to a few characters.
In Forest of Secrets, the third book in the series, Graystripe's mate Silverstream dies. Ten books later in The Sight, Graystripe, who was captured by humans in Dawn, returns to the Clans with a new mate called Millie. Millie has received a ton of hate, and most of it is for either not being Silverstream, or (among fans who completely ignore the aesop about racism) for being a former kittypet.
Cinderheart, the reincarnation of the snarky medicine cat Cinderpelt, is hated for being more optimistic and playful than her jaded previous incarnation.
In Sunrise, it was revealed that Hollyleaf, who was thought to be the subject of a prophecy, actually had no connection to the prophecy at all. When The Fourth Apprentice rolled around, Dovewing, the true hero, started receiving bile due to how different she was from Hollyleaf.
Game Show
Wink Martindale left Tic-Tac-Dough in 1985 to host his own creation, Headline Chasers. Taking his place for the final season was PM Magazine's Jim Caldwell. While the show remained the same outside of a set change, Caldwell did not impress as host. His obsession about the "red box categories (we'll explain them when we get to them)" didn't help matters.
And on Jack Barry-Dan Enright Productions' other stalwart, The Joker's Wild, Barry's 1984 death led to Bill Cullen taking over as host. Although Cullen is often regarded as one of the best game show hosts, he was clearly past his prime on Joker, and was derided for hosting the game very slowly. (Jim Peck filled in when Cullen was unavailable, which once led to them having to stop tape and provide Peck with more question cards since the producers had become used to Cullen's slower style!)
On the other hand, the illness and later death of Allen Ludden prompted Password Plus to attain a new permanent host in Tom Kennedy, who kept the show going another 2 years. A subsequent revival, Super Password, had Bert Convy as the host; some fans consider him a replacement Scrappy due to his chatty nature and frequent bloopers, but Super lasted 5 years under his tenure.
Hollywood Squares went through this twice. First, when the show was merged with Match Game to form The Match Game Hollywood Squares Hour in 1983-84, the Squares portion was hosted not by original Squares host Peter Marshall (who helmed the show from 1966 to 1980), but rather to Jon Bauman, aka Bowser of Sha Na Na. Bauman was obviously inexperienced and stiff in the role, not to mention overshadowed by original Match Game host Gene Rayburn.
And it happened again with the 1986-88 revival, helmed by John Davidson. Many felt that the celebrity panel got too unruly, and that Davidson was unable to calm them down. Also, you'd think after being told thirty or forty times, he'd at least remember how to handle a "cat's game"…
Davidson struck again on The $100,000 Pyramid. When the show returned from a three-year hiatus in 1991, original host Dick Clark was busy with The Challengers, so Davidson took over. As on Squares, Davidson frequently tripped over the rules and rarely felt as if he were in control.
Giving the Family Feud hosting role to rather un-telegenic, gravelly-voiced Louie Anderson in 1999. After he left in 2002, a pattern began where each successive host was considered an improvement at first glance, but then the cracks began to show:
Richard Karn (2002-06) was initially liked for his enthusiasm, and given a pass due to his inexperience in the field. Although he did show a brief period of competence, he eventually moved into an extremely stiff, robotic manner of hosting which was highly dependent on him shouting Catch Phrases ("I'M DOUBLING THE POINTS!").
John O'Hurley (2006-10) was initially considered a step up given his experience hosting To Tell the Truth in 2000-2002. But some felt that he considered Feud beneath him, while others found him poor at reacting to off-the-wall answers.
Steve Harvey (2010-) instantly gained fans due to his hilarious reactions to stupid answers. However, the producers decided to try enforcing Harvey's Wild Takes as often as possible, leading to a more sophomoric level of question-writing that basically baited contestants into giving lurid answers.
Many long-time watchers of The Price Is Right were wondering "What were they thinking?" when the show decided to replace the retiring Bob Barker with Drew Carey as host. In Carey's defense, it would be hard for audiences to see anyone replacing Barker, since he had hosted the show for an amazing 35 years.
This can also apply to the announcer's booth. After Johnny Olson's 1985 death, Rod Roddy's 2003 death and Rich Fields' 2010 firing, the show tried out various guest announcers on-air before determining the successor. The substitutes are all victims of Replacement Scrappydom to some extent, but some of the more prominent ones include:
Rich Jeffries only did a couple weeks after Johnny's death. Many feel that his flat, nasal voice shouldn't have been behind the mic of any game show, much less a show such as Price which requires a lot on the announcer's part.
Rod's increasing illness in the late 90s-early 2000s led to many fill ins by former Arsenio Hall show announcer Burton Richardson, who also did the 1994 syndicated Re Tool of Price. Some fans consider Burton a solid announcer, while others think he sounds like an overblown parody of one.
Another fill-in during Rod's surgery was Paul Boland, who previously did the 1998 revival of Match Game. While he has his fans, some felt he was too enthusiastic. He ended up announcing only one week after refusing demands from Price staff to tone it down.
Among those who filled in after Rod's death, Daniel Rosen was universally hated by both the fandom and the staff for a complete lack of enthusiasm, not to mention Astro Turfing fan forum Golden-Road.net with about 50 sockpuppets praising his own performance.
Despite the many other fill-ins after Rod's death, most had at least some supporters. However, Don Bishop got some hatred from fans for outright refusing to go off-script, while Price staff nearly kicked Jim Thornton (see below) off after only one episode.
Rich himself started to become this over time, in part because he was picked over fan favorite Randy Westnote a genre veteran who had been a contestant on several shows before his announcing career, and is known for interacting well with the game show fan base as a whole; he was also close friends with Johnny Olson, and in part because many felt that Rich did not have a good voice — particularly in later years, when he became increasingly loud and grating. (Never mind Drew's short-lived decision to incorporate him into some downright humiliating "comedy" skits in the Showcases.)
After Rich was fired, the substitutes included Steve White and Brad Sherwood, both of whom were hated for their fake enthusiasm; former Shop 'Til You Drop host JD Roberto, who was considered So Okay, It's Average; and a rather close division among Jeff Davis, David H. Lawrence XVII, or George Gray, who ultimately became the replacement.
In the 1980s, the show's most famous host-hostess tandem (Pat Sajak and Vanna White) had their share of haters due to the former's purported blandness and the latter's purported lack of talent beyond looking pretty and turning letters. (MAD once joked that Sajak is the only man in show biz who gets upstaged by a woman who never speaks.) At the very least, they had a different style than the comparatively looser and imperfect Chuck Woolery and Susan Stafford, who hosted the show from its 1975 beginnings on NBC. (Chuck left in 1981 due to a salary dispute, and Susan a year later to pursue charity work.) To Pat and Vanna's credit, they've hosted the nighttime version consistently since it began in 1983, so they must be doing something right.
Sajak stepped down from the daytime version in January 1989 because he wanted to begin a talk show. Creator Merv Griffin replaced him with Rolf Bernischke, a former football player who had literally no TV experience and was visibly out of his element; among other things, he had to admit on-air that he didn't know how to break a tie when one happenednote to his credit, ties are extremely rare on Wheel, and once had a contestant correct him on one of the game's rules during a Teen Week. After only six months, the daytime version Channel Hopped to CBS and replaced Rolf with experienced host Bob Goen.
Announcer M.G. Kelly, who announced both versions of the show from September 1988 to February 1989 (between Jack Clark's death and the return of original daytime announcer Charlie O'Donnell). Kelly is generally hated by the fanbase for a supposed lack of enthusiasm. Pat also thought that M.G. was a nice guy, but felt that he was not suited for the job, as he often screwed up prize copy and had to do multiple re-takes.
A similar hatred came for those who filled in after Charlie's death in November 2010. Veteran announcers John Cramer, Joe Cipriano, and the aforementioned Rich Fields were generally hated for their own lack of enthusiasm, as was extremely obscure voiceover artist Lora Cain.note Johnny Gilbert of Jeopardy!, who had previously filled in for Jack in 1988 and Charlie in 1995, also did three weeks, but was obviously never considered for the job since he is in his 80s and Charlie died at 78. This put the fanbase almost unanimously in favor of Jim Thornton, who got the job in summer 2011.
When Let's Make a Deal was revived in 1990, original host/co-producer Monty Hall felt that he was too old to host anymore, so he chose Bob Hilton to host. Hilton, who was otherwise an announcer, was so poorly received by the fanbase that Hall actually guest-hosted the last few weeks to try and save a sinking ship. His original intent was merely to fill in until he could find a suitable host to carry Season 2, but the show got canceled instead.
Although she is not without her fans (not to mention her two Daytime Emmys for "Outstanding Game Show Host"), Meredith Vieira is sometimes seen as this on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in comparison to original host Regis Philbin. (The switch in hosts coincided with the show moving from ABC to syndication.) Detractors of Meredith find her style too low-key and nicey-nice, particularly in comparison to the often exuberant Regis.
A fair number of UK game show Hole In The Wall fans see Anton Du Beke as this after he replaced Dale Winton (of Supermarket Sweep fame) as presenter.
In music there's the fans reactions to the many incarnations of Queens of the Stone Age - "What happened to Nick Oliveri?", "Dave Grohl was a way better drummer than this guy", "Mark Lanegan should be the singer", "Josh should just reform Kyuss..."
Before the worldwide phenomenon that was Beatlemania, a fair number of their O.G. British fans resented the fact that Ringo Starr replaced Pete Best on drums. The exact reason for Best being fired varies depending on where you hear it from, being either because he didn't fit in with John, George, and Paul, he was too moody, or Brian Epstein not thinking he was a good enough drummer. At the time, Pete was the most popular member of the group in their home of Liverpool, and fans would carry signs saying, "Ringo Never, Pete Forever" at their concerts.
Many Metallica fans (including the other band members themselves) are guilty of heaping unnecessary scorn on Jason Newsted because he had the misfortune of replacing the late, lamented Cliff Burton on bass. Metallica themselves shared the sentiment, constantly treating Newsted like "the newbie" and burying his bass work in the mixes. Newsted eventually left the band over his poor treatment, and while his replacement, Robert Trujillo, gets some redirected scorn from fans, the band themselves absolutely love him, openly calling him "the man who saved Metallica."
Sammy Hagar. There's a reason people refuse to call the Hagar-era band Van Halen...
There's a fair bit of denial that Van Halen did a record with Gary Cherone.
Queen with Paul Rodgers. Nearly all fans refused to call the band "Queen".
The Finnish monster rock band Lordi has had this problem. To date, they've replaced the bassist three times (Magnum with G-Stealer, G-Stealer with Kalma, and Kalma with OX) and the pianist once (Enary with Awa.) While very few fans can deny that the quality of the music has never diminished after a switch, and has often improved, the new band member's costume can cause fits in the fandom (for example, Enary, the busty blonde valkyrie, being replaced with Awa, the grey corpse-like ghost/witch.)
William DuVall in Alice in Chains. He's not Layne Staley and most fans just can't accept that.
DuVall was probably the safest choice (short of not reuniting at all, naturally); he had been singing Layne's parts with Jerry Cantrell's solo band for some time and fans seemed to think he did a respectable job. It seemed like the issue was not DuVall as a vocalist, but as a replacement for Layne regardless of who.
A large portion of the Nightwish fandom will never forgive Annette Olzon for her inability to be like former lead vocalist Tarja Turunen.
Likewise, Tim 'Ripper' Owens was hated by many Judas Priest and Iced Earth fans for not being Rob Halford or Matt Barlow, even though he's a very talented vocalist in his own right.
However, being fired right around Christmas just to bring back Matt Barlow lead to a thankfully death-free version of Alas, Poor Scrappy. Which was kind of sad because many Iced Earth fans had just started to accept Ripper.
On the other hand, there have been relatively few complaints about Stu Block, who came in after Barlow left again, largely thanks to his ability to sound like a dead ringer for either Barlow or Ripper when he so chooses without compromising his own unique sound.
Accept lost a considerable amount of fans after replacing vocalist Udo Dirkschneider with David Reece and drastically changed their sound on their Eat The Heat album, after which they wisely took back Udo.
Notably averted, however, on their 2010 album Blood of the Nations, which features Mark Tornillo on vocals and has been widely praised by Accept fans, with many claiming it to be superior to the material produced during Udo's second stint with the band.
Also likewise, Mike DiMeo is hated by Masterplan fans for not being the almost identically styled Jorn Lande.
After Drowning Pool vocalist Dave Williams' sudden death, a lot of fans found it difficult to accept his replacement vocalist Jason Jones (which likely contributed to his departure from the band), and after Jones quit, his replacement vocalistSoil singer Ryan McCombs was slightly more accepted, though still considered inferior to Williams.
Even though it's been almost fifteen years, many fans of Helloweenstill do not accept their current vocalist Andi Deris. Bear in mind that Deris has been with the band longer than both Michael Kiske and Kai Hansen combined! Of course, it doesn't help that Kiske was the vocalist for Helloween's most successful albums, Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. 1 & Pt. 2.
An odd example happened early on with the new drummer brought in to back up They Might Be Giants on "John Henry". What was so odd? He replaced a drum machine. Some fans protested the move, although pretty much everyone has since gotten over it.
When Vince Neil left Mötley Crüe in the early '90s, they decided to replace him for their ironically self-titled album in 1994. They would retroactively blame its poor sales on "the new ingredient", as stated in Behind The Music.
Averted by the Thrash Metal band Municipal Waste. They got rid of their original drummer, so they decided to get Dave Witte from the legendary grindcore band Discordance Axis. No one even DARED to complain.
Although it sorta sucks if you were a fan of Burnt By The Sun because Witte joining the Waste was probably one of the reasons BBTS broke up.
Completely inverted by Kamelot as Mark Vanderbilt, the replaced vocalist, is now despised by the fandom, though considering his awful "singing" style and replacement by the classically trained opera styled Roy Khan previously of the Progressive Metal band Conception, you can't blame them.
Various people dislike Michael Tait taking over as lead singer for the Newsboys despite him being a decent singer, simply because he doesn't sound like previous lead Peter Furler.
Averted by Genesis, who decided to promote drummer Phil Collins to the vocals spot instead of bringing in a replacement for Peter Gabriel, who up until then had been the face of the band with his unique voice, fairy-tale-on-acid lyrics and theatrical stage act.
Phil Collins' voice sounded similar enough to Peter Gabriel's to work for a few albums, but after Collins' more poppy solo career was a success, the band went for a poppy sound themselves, which naturally led to a Broken Base.
Country music band Lonestar was heavily criticized during the period in which Cody Collins replaced longtime lead singer Richie McDonald (2007-2011). Many reviewers felt that the band just didn't sound the same. Richie finally re-joined in 2011.
Even over a decade later, there still are Angra fans embittered that Edu Falaschi replaced Andre Matos as lead singer (despite Matos' leaving being of his own will, and being from a more complicated matter than musical differences). One of their main complaints about Falaschi is that he couldn't even sing the band's signature song, "Carry On", without slipping out of tune.
On the note of Brazilian metal bands, this happened to Sepultura when Derrick Green replaced Max Cavalera. Curiously, Jean Dolabella didn't receive as much flak when he substituted Igor Cavalera on drums, both because the two albums he recorded (A-Lex and Kairos) were well received and because everyone (even in the band) was pretty much waiting for Igor to follow his bro.
Many fans of Exodus hate their latest vocalist Rob Dukes, partially because of his drastically different style of singing than Paul Baloff and Steve 'Zetro' Souza, their previous two singers, though they also have their own reasons. The fact that the band chose to re-record their landmark debut album with him didn't help at all. However, the band has only released 3 original albums with Dukes, so they still have time to warm up to him.
Faith No More both inverted and played this one straight. Inverted in that their singer on the first two albums, Chuck Mosely, was unceremoniously fired from the band and replaced by Mike Patton, and you can count the number of people who thought this was a bad thing on the fingers of one head. However, since Jim Martin departed in 1993 following the release of Angel Dust, a series of guitarists appeared and each one was given grief simply for not being Jim. Even when they reformed in 2009 with the same lineup they had since 1996, some people were upset because Jim wasn't involved.
Michael Cole seems to have somewhat avoided this as Ross has been moved to Smack Down rather than simply taken off TV. Mostly because he was already Scrappy to begin with.
And Mike Adamle got this for replacing Styles (who retired from play-by-play announcing out of the blue) on ECW. When he became Raw's General Manager (ironically, the previous GM William Regal returned from suspension on the same day), his replacement of Todd Grisham is probably seen as an improvement.
Joey Styles only got the job for two reasons: 1. WWE failed to snag UFC commentator Mike Goldberg, and 2. the general consensus was that Joey was the only possible choice that would not be seen as a Replacement Scrappy by the fanbase. And, while he still did get a bit of heat over it (Fan Dumb being what it is), most of the criticism of Joey actually came from the upper management, who hated his style from the very start and constantly exhorted him to call the matches more like Jim Ross used to (i.e. with less emphasis on play-by-play and more emphasis on "telling the story" of the match). It seems WWE will never be satisfied with any replacement until they can find somebody exactly like Jim Ross, but younger, less Southern, and more telegenic (in other words: Crockett Promotions-era Jim Ross), while the fans will not be satisfied until they can find somebody exactly like Jim Ross, but better able to call the moves. Either way, it shows why Jim Ross is generally thought to be irreplaceable.
God help us when he's gone then.
And thanks to Bell's Palsy, He's out for the foreseeable future. On the plus side Matt Striker has taken his place on Smack Down!, but His ECW replacement (Byron Saxton) isn't exactly a perfect substitute, though popular enough.
If you want more current events, the hatred (and the 'Cole Miners' fanbase) for Michael Cole (largely due to his ridiculous fanboying of The Miz) until the writers gave him legitimate Character Development and is becoming a damn near evil heel and even gave him a real feud (and WrestleMania 27 match) against Jerry Lawler. Also the Smackdown table is now also joined by Booker T.
It didn't help that Luger's "Narcissist" character was rather well-liked and was getting pretty over when it was just inexplicably dumped for the "Made in the USA" gimmick.
Another great example was the fake Diesel and fake Razor Ramon (Rick "Big Titan" Bogner, best known for his work in FMW), three months after Scott Hall and Kevin Nash left for WCW. These two were a deliberate invocation of the Replacement Scrappy trope, as they were introduced by a freshly Heel Turned Jim Ross specifically to embarrass Vince McMahon and the WWF.
There were legal issues involved as well. WWF was suing WCW at the time over Hall and Nash's appearance, claiming they were passing them off as Ramon and Diesel (the two were unnamed "invaders" at the time, and weren't named until their first PPV match, at WCW Bash at the Beach 96, where Hulk Hogan turned heel to launch the NWO). New characters with the same names (intentional Replacement Scrappy or not) was a clear sign that WWF intended to use and enforce the trademarked names.
When Jerry Lawler left the WWF in 2001, his replacement, Paul Heyman, got all kinds of crazed hatred from a fanbase demanding that Jerry be brought back. Heyman actually did a phenomenal job as commentator...which became all the more apparent when Jerry came back and proceeded to completely mail in his performance for the next decade.
And, of course, Heyman started gaining his fair share of fans over his months as an announcer, so when he was booted for the returning Lawler, Lawler got his share of this as well.
Radio
Directly addressed in Adventures in Odyssey. Over the course of two loosely-connected episodes, Whit turns out to have left for the Middle East off-camera while his friend Jack Allen is introduced. Jack winds up taking over as manager of Whit's End, as well as approximating Whit's original role to the point where Connie freaks out and accuses Jack of trying to "replace" him. She gets over it by the end of the episode, thanks in part to Jack himself acknowledging that neither he nor anyone else could ever replace Whit.
Narrowly averted on I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. When the much-beloved chairman Humphrey "Humph" Lyttleton died unexpectedly in 2008, the remainder of the series was cancelled, and the future of the series was in doubt. When the series was confirmed to be returning, rather than risk the inevitable disappointment of whoever replaced him, there's a rotating series of hosts — Stephen Fry, Jack Dee, and Rob Brydon, all fairly popular comics who had appeared on the show before.
Humph was 87 when he died. It says something that he lived to that age, and everyone was still shocked and felt he went far too soon.
The rotating hosts have since been abandoned, and Jack Dee is, as of 2012, the permanent replacement host. Most believe that he's doing well, although some simply find they can't listen to the programme anymore.
After longtime radio broadcaster Paul Harvey died in 2009, his two radio shows (Paul Harvey's News and Comment and The Rest of the Story) were replaced by shows hosted by Gil Gross and Doug Limerick. Gross's and Limerick's shows lasted three weeks before being canned for The Huckabee Report.
Terry Wogan made a truly heroic effort to prevent this when Chris Evans took over his morning slot on BBC Radio 2, aided and abetted by the fact that at least nobody was foolish enough to try to find a Suspiciously Similar Substitute for Wogan. Audience reactions were mixed, to say the least, and generally varied according to whether you could stand the drivetime show Evans had been hosting previously.
American Country Countdown, upon firing longtime host Bob Kingsley in 2005 and replacing him with Kix Brooks of Brooks & Dunn. Many longtime fans of the show dislike Kix Brooks for his high, whiny voice and "chummy" attitude towards artists, not to mention the corporate decision to cut the show from 40 to 30 because program directors were "uncomfortable" with the newness of the 31-40 songs. Meanwhile, many professional deejays hate Kix for quickly rising in the ranks of professional radio hosts despite a lack of experience.
Anytime a popular local radio host is replaced, said replacement is at risk of becoming this. But it's almost guaranteed if the local host is replaced by a nationally syndicated one.
Roleplay
In Dino Attack RPG, when his own primary character of Zenna ended up in a coma due to massive blood loss, Atton Rand decided to try Playing Against Type, going against his usual idealistic all around good-natured women in favor of a cold-blooded anti-hero, who would also follow as a Spiritual Successor to the very popular anti-hero Dust. Unfortunately the resulting character of Trigger acted like a Jerkass to his fellow cast members, which came as a unexpected shock to players who were familiar with the friendly Zenna, and unlike the more interesting and complex Dust, Trigger's motivations were far less complex and interesting, making him seem shallow in comparison; as a result, he became a Replacement Scrappy on two fronts. Reception started to warm up with a series of flashbacks detailing his rivalry with Amanda (and in the process introduced his partner Montoya, who was ironically had a significantly warmer reception) until he went and deserted the team, which again took chilled his reception. Eventually, the whole deal got so out of hand that Atton Rand eventually killed him off and humiliated him further with a humorous afterlife scene that also poked fun at an earlier Deus ex Machina... and even that was not as well-received as he'd hoped.
Stromling!Palmer was originally created to fill in the void left open by the Zachary's redemption and Ahua's sudden death. Unfortunately, the idea wasn't too well received by other players, and he was quickly humiliated by the Darkitect himself and subsequently beheaded by Trigger.
Sports
Whenever a prominent/legendary athlete retires or leaves his longtime team via a trade or free agency, his replacement at that position is almost certain to become this. We say "almost", because the replacement could become legendary in his own right (see Steve Young replacing Joe Montana, for instance).
After the Boston Red Sox suffered a major collapse in September 2011 that cost them a trip to the World Series, manager Terry Francona, who had led the Sox to two World Series wins, was fired, and replaced by Bobby Valentine, who has repeatedly come off as a disrespectful jerk, and has actually sent the Sox close to last place in the MLB.
Theme Parks
In general, whenever a theme park closes a ride for a new one, many fans of the old ride won't be too thrilled with the new ride.
Disneyland's most well-known example is Light Magic, a rather underwhelming replacement for the world famous Long Runner Main Street Electrical Parade. Being stripped of the Electrical Parade (which has not been performed in its place of origin since its original cancellation and is now at Walt Disney World) has haunted Disneyland fans for years.
Actually, this is basically true whenever a new Disneyland parade or show replaces an old one. See Parade of Dreams vs. Celebrate! A Street Party. This will usually wear off after a while if the show is any good, though. Subverted with Celebrate!'s replacement, Mickey's Soundsational Parade.
EPCOT's Imagination pavillion has Nigel Channing, who replaced Dreamfinder. Then again, that attraction is largely They Changed It, Now It Sucks anyway.
When The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland replaced their Mourning Bride character with the more modern Constance Hatchway, with updated effects and a more sinister personality, casual park visitors responded fairly well to her, but manydie hard Mansion fans did not react well to the new character.
In 2012, Six Flags Over Texas, the original Six Flags park, announced it would be shutting down the Flashback and Texas Chute Out rides. Given that the latter was one of the park's oldest rides and a staple of the park's skyline, it's very likely whatever replaces it can fall into this category.
Toys
Hero Factory is this for many BIONICLE fans, particularly those who were in it for the story rather than the toys.
Barbie was with Ken for forty-three years before Mattel decided to have them break up so she could date Blaine, an Australian surfer. Sales meant that their relationship was significantly shorter.
There's a fair amount of people who didn't take kindly to Hasbro's decision to redesign the Generation 3 line of My Little Pony toys. Originally looking like traditional ponies, the characters all got a Super-Deformed design that some felt was rife with the Uncanny Valley. The negative reaction to these Generation 3.5 ponies may well have reached Hasbro, as the toys ran for only around one and a half years before they released Generation 4, which have proportions much closer to those of the original toys.
A case of this happening in-series is in ReBoot when Enzo has to replace Bob as guardian. Despite being just as competent at saving the day, the people think of the most inane reasons to dislike him. Like being green instead of blue.
Also, in a bizarre case of meta-trope, certain Bootniks hated Matrix for "replacing" Enzo, despite him being the older version of Enzo. The abrupt transformation was just too much for some oldschoolers to parse.
Parodied in the second ReBoot movie where Bob is believed to be a copy when another Bob, who looks and sounds more like the original shows up. This is particularly highlighted in the opening scene which takes place in front of a live audience. The audience cheers when any other character enters, but when Bob arrives, all we hear are the crickets chirping.
Toonami gets hit hard with this, it probably would have been better if they kept more than the name TOM, or at least not change it from TOM3 to TOM4.
A bit more detail. The first 3 TOMs have had changes, but still kept the basic structure (a somewhat humanoid robot with a cool motorcycle helmetish head). More importantly, the TOM models have increased in awesome over the years. TOM4's head and torso looks like they were ripped off Thomas The Tank Engine, and his limbs looked like vacuum cleaner hoses. And they replaced SARA, his hot AI sidekick, with a couple of 'explorer robots'.
Bat-Mite: Batman's rich history allows him to be interpreted in a multitude of ways. To be sure, this is a lighter incarnation, but it's certainly no less valid and true to the character's roots than the tortured avenger crying out for mommy and daddy.
Parodied when Kenny died "permanently" (he came back after one season), the three remaining boys took a previously minor character, Butters, as his replacement. They then proceeded to manipulate and torture him, constantly comparing him to their sadly missed Kenny to try to force him to do things their way. After a few episodes they "fired" him for not being good enough, and replaced him with another minor character, Tweek. Interestingly, the boys warm up to him a lot quicker (aside from Cartman of course), even though he also vanished after a few episodes. Meanwhile Butters, despite being officially "demoted," actually wound up being a Subversion both in and out universe—-even after Kenny's resurrection he continues to be a major character on par with the others, as well as quite the Ensemble Dark Horse, his relationship with the other boys is also developed somewhat (only a season later it is made clear the others at least like him a lot more than Cartman).
Also parodied in much earlier in "Succubus" when Chef quits his job as the school chef and is replaced with a skinny white Cloudcuckoolander named Mr. Derp, who has No Fourth Wall and believes that the viewers will love him as much as Chef.
Within the fanbase, both Butters and Tweek had actually received backlash from fans that missed Kenny. When Butters had been replaced with Tweek (although it too wouldn't last long), his fans also cried foul and directed their anger at the other character. In the end after all was said and done, Butters' role continued to grow in the series while Tweek's appearances decreased, culminating in him vanishing from the classroom scenes in season 15.
Following the death of voice actressMary Kay Bergman in 1999, these accusations have been flung at her replacements. Mona Marshall is mostly tolerated as she doesn't voice as many roles for the fans to draw comparisons to, but Eliza Schneider and her own replacement April Stewart receive more criticism and backlash.
Detective Yates gets this treatment for replacing the much funnier Officer Barbrady.
Subverted in-show in The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy. In one episode, Mandy and Grim replace Billy with a new friend named Bobby. The two of them wind up thinking Bobby is better than Billy ever was, much to Billy's horror. Eventually though, Billy destroyed Bobby with Grim's sythe, and Mandy dosen't even care, showing that even liking someone better than Billy doesn't mean she likes them.
Many Super Mario Bros fans greatly dislike Oogtar the caveboy from the Super Mario World cartoon, who was essentially an obnoxious replacement for a major character from the games (Toad), despite the fact that Toad himself never appeared in the Super Mario World video game.
When The Fantastic Four 1978 was in development, a prior contract with Universal was already in place for a potential Human Torch movie, which kept him from being used. So they replaced him with HERBIE (above pic), Reed Richards' assistant robot. The irony here is that Johnny Storm was originally a replacement himself.
Oddly, fans didn't mind when HERBIE was added to the comics. Of course, the Torch wasn't kept out of those.
Dimmy from The Snorks was written out of the scripts after season two. At the same time Corky, Big Weed and Lil Seaweed were introduced.
During the ninth season of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, the Shredder and his crew were replaced by invading alien Lord Dregg, who took over as Big Bad during the show's last two seasons. While capably voiced by Tony Jay and arguably more menacing and effective than the Shredder, many fans found that he lacked the charm of his predecessors.
In The Critic webisodes, Jay Sherman's new make-up lady/girlfriend Jennifer is this, replacing his original make-up woman Doris and his actual girlfriend Alice Tompkins, both who are loved characters from the original TV series. In fact, she replaces almost the whole cast from the show.
Parodied in The Simpsons episode "Homer's Barbershop Quartet"; when Barney replaces Wiggum in the titular band, Wiggum spitefully organises a gang of fans to picket their next gig shouting "Wiggum forever! Barney never!" at the stage, while Wiggum watches with a smug smile on his face. Then Barney opens his mouth, reveals he can sing ten times better than Wiggum, and the chants immediately switch to "Barney forever! Wiggum never!" Wiggum ends up slinking out of the bar unnoticed. Like most of the episode, this parodies a similar situation The Beatles faced (specifically, when Ringo Starr replaced Pete Best).
Also parodied in the infamous episode "The Principal and the Pauper" where Principal Skinner is revealed to be an impostor named Armin Tamzarian who assumed Skinner's identity when the latter was assumed dead. The real Skinner takes Armin's place as principal while Armin leaves town. However, despite the real Skinner being a nice and reasonable fellow, the other Springfield citizens decide to kick him out of town (even his mother who preferred the doormat Armin to the independent Seymour) and get a judge to never speak of this again under penalty of torture because...they preferred the old Skinner.
Happened to Marge's current German voice actress Anke Engelke - She took over after Marge's original voice Elisabeth Volkmann had passed away in 2006. There is no telling, however, what kind of backlash a new voice actor for Homer Simpson would be facing in case Norbert Gastell (age 82), who is almost universally beloved by German Simpsons fans, left the show.
Within the Disney fandom, many fans of A Goofy Movie are not fond of Mona. Roxanne was his high-school sweetheart, the girl he strives to get the entire movie. Come the sequel, she's nowhere to be found though that's due to the fact Max goes to college. The last time she was seen was in an episode of House of Mouse. Come Mickey's Twice Upon A Christmas, he's exiting college and has a new girlfriend, Mona. Mona comes off as a Replacement Scrappy, though almost ten in-series years has passed since A Goofy Movie.
The Total Drama Island fandom is currently going through this phase with the announcement of the fourth season and the fact that there will be an entirely new cast replacing the old one, and needless to say, it's NOT going well for fans of the original cast.
Pick a generation of My Little Pony. Expect the main protagonists of future generations to be this to that gen. Noticeable examples tend to be Firefly vs Rainbow Dash and Surprise vs Pinkie, since the latter ponies are heavily based on those ponies.
In Ben 10 Ultimate Alien, Fasttrack seems to be somewhat disliked among the fanbase, due to his powers and coloration seeming very similar to that of fan-loved alien XLR8, with the only difference being his species. Word Of God's claims that he's faster and stronger have provoked a few favoritism accusations.
Before that, there was Rodimus Prime, formerly Hot Rod, who took over as leader after Optimus died in The Movie. Rodimus was not only not accepted because he wasn't Optimus, was partly responsible for the death of his predecessor and sometimes insecure over his leadership abilities, when he wasn't also being sharply sarcastic. However, Rodimus Prime also has a share of fans who like him better than Optimus, for the very same qualities he's hated for. To a lesser degree the rest of the 1986 Transformers cast brought in after the movie suffered from this, as many of the beloved older characters had been killed off to sell toys or just weren't shown anymore.
Rodimus did however, notably have a big Jerkass moment in one episode where unable to free an alien planet from the Decepticons, he instead choose to blow it up, and then commented Cybertron would be a better for "not being so perfect" after one of the other Autobots lamenting the fact they just depraved an entire alien species of their home.
Hell, Transformers in general suffers from this, as every new series, new character, new toy, and so on inevitably gets compared to GEEWUN. The Classics and Universe lines have taken it to whole new levels, with Astrotrain and Powerglide's color schemes receiving Replacement Scrappy status.
Though with the color schemes, it's a bit more justified: the Classics figures are of the G1 characters (the G1 Dreamwave Comics series was underway) with today's toy technology - in the 80s, "transformation" sometimes meant "stand it on its side," and a lot of characters didn't look like their toys, to the point where you simply can't have your favorite in toy form; just some thing that turns into a vehicle that's vaguely similar if you squint. The fandom then heard that all their favorites were getting more accurate and poseable and generally awesomer figures... and then they see that they've been given "improved" color schemes that brought them right back down to "I can't have Powerglide, just something that turns into a similar vehicle." See Twilight Sparkle above. However, almost all of those figures have since had show-accuracte repaints.
An old joke: How many Transformers fans does it take to change a lightbulb? Ten: One to change the bulb, and nine to complain about how much better the bulb was in the eighties.
Speaking of Beast Wars, Beast Machines developed Optimus Primal into some sort of religious leader, while Cheetor stepped up into his place as a Supporting Leader. The new writers introduced Nightscream to fill in Cheetor's old role as the kid. Unfortunately, Cheetor was designed to grow from a annoying and kinda dumb newbie to a capable fighter and leader, while Nightscream was just annoying and kinda dumb.
After more designs and characters had been revealed, many of them very Animated-like, fans have begun to see Prime as some kind of copycat, an inferior, pandering substitute at best. However after the show had actually started airing, many fans changed their mind about the ordeal, calling Prime the best thing ever, especially those that hated Animated to begin with. But never mind that, even some (former) Animated fans were declaring its cancellation a good riddance!
This is about par for the course with the Unpleasable Fanbase of Transformers. Every new series is the worst ever until you get used to it and see it for more than just the changes. That's when Hasbro, being Hasbro, pulls another reboot just as the series is spreading its wings (they prefer to overhaul the toyline every couple of years or so.) and the process repeats. And of course there are always those who consider it their religious duty to hate everything that isn't G1 just for not being G1.
Other
One of the reasons Heather Mills is so hated by Paul McCartney fans is that she and Paul got married very shortly after the death of Paul's long-time spouse, Linda Eastman.
Way back in the late 1960s, there were people who hated the Lovely Linda because she wasn't a classy Brit like Jane Asher, Paul's previous significant other. It took decades for fandom to learn her good points.
Ringo was a Replacement Scrappy himself in the old days. Check the entry under Music.
Tiberius was never really able to rise above Augustus' shadow. The public grew to hate him in large part for not being Augustus, which would be a tough act to follow for anyone. Later Roman Emperors got compared to Augustus, and later, Trajan, usually unfavorably.
Partially inverted in the case of the Nervan-Antonian dynasty, where several Emperors adopted their right-hands as sons and heirs based on their capacity to get the work well-done (yes, some of these emperors had no children, but still). Nerva and Trajan, Trajan and Hadrian, etc. Incidentally, the Nervan-Antonins were among the best Roman emperors ever (with the exception of Aurelius's son Commodus, but even hewasn't as horrendous as Gladiator says).
That was the main problem with the Roman Empire, namely that the first Roman Emperor never really put in a way for his successor to be named. It got really weird when the emperor's own Praetorian Guard strangled him at one point and sold his throne off to the highest bidder.
The American Presidency is an especially apt example of this (could be the Trope Namer for this and/or Suspiciously Similar Substitute). Many Presidents are judged less on their policies and more on comparisons to their predecessors. George W. Bush is seen by some as a Replacement Scrappy to his immediate predecessor, Bill Clinton. Barack Obama is considered a replacement scrappy to Bush by some, and his successor will no doubt be considered this, too. Every President is seen as a Replacement Scrappy by some. Every president is seen as TheScrappy by some.
A variant on this is that presidents are often accused by their detractors of choosing a particularly useless man to be their vice-president as "impeachment insurance" - the president being less likely to be impeached and removed from office if his designated successor is manifestly unfit for the job. (Of recent vice-presidents, Dan Quayle and Joe Biden are most likely to be described this way - both men made a series of gaffes that allowed their political opponents to lampoon them as mentally challenged.)
Not unusual. Whether inheriting a position, appointed or elected to it, heads of state and government are always compared to their predecessors. Typically unfavorably. Even from people not even living in the same state as the individuals compared. Both Aeschylus and Herodotus unfavorably compare Xerxes I to his father Darius I, for example. It helps that people tend to forget or
Herodotus was from Halicarnassus, which was part of the Persian Empire, though.
This happens a lot in families. After a death or divorce, a remarriage happens, and a family member ends up "replaced". No matter the strengths of the new person on his own merits, other family members often compare him/her to the "original", usually unfavorably. Can lead to family rifts going on for decades.
Also seen in beloved household pets - especially if the deceased/given up was a first pet or a pet from the person's childhood. "Gee Mom, Fluffy never peed on the carpet..."
This ended up launching the rise to prominence of one of baseball's more disliked broadcasters in Tim McCarver, who was added to ABC's coverage of the 1985 World Series at the last minute as a result of ABC Sports management becoming angered at main analyst Howard Cosell's controversial 1985 book, "I Never Played the Game". This would lead to his becoming a lead analyst not only on ABC, but later CBS and currently on FOX opposite fellow Hatedom recipient Joe Buck.
Buck received his Hatedom mainly for replacing Pat Summerall on the football side. John Madden's replacement, Troy Aikman, seems to have avoided it.
That, and the fact that many fans tended to be of the opinion that Joe rode the coat-tails of his father, legendary broadcaster Jack Buck.
Any person in theater that isn't the first role, or the most well known role, is likely to become this to people (for example, go see a production of A Streetcar Named Desire, pay attention to the actor playing Stanley, and see if you aren't considering him a lukewarm knockoff of Marlon Brando.)
Two words for you: New neighbors. They just happen to move in near you and for some reason they tend to be a lot more annoying than the family who used to live there and who you are used to. Especially if you are friends with the former neighbors before they moved away.
A joke among Oregonians is that the state's Welcome signs used to read "Welcome to Oregon - now go home!"
Anti-immigrant sentiment might be a most triumphant example of this trope directed towards entire ethnic groups.
Another potential most triumphant example: When Alice leaves political ofice and Bob replaces her, Alice's party will blame Bob for everything, even things that began when Alice was in power. No exceptions.
Oh, this happens in reverse, too. Incoming politicians will gladly pass the buck to their predecessors, even for the direct results of legislation they themselves passed.
Often times at certain jobs, if you come in on a project already in progress, you're already late and anything you touch is instantly your property, and hence, your fault.
New Coke.
In some European countries Coca Cola's Coke Zero replaced Coca Cola Light to the dismay of some coke drinkers.
Light did make a return though in most stores.
Those who love using Microsoft Sam, the text-to-speech generator, DESPISE Microsoft Anna, his replacement for Windows Vista and after.
Substitute teachers.
Even worse, replacement teachers, such as when your teacher quits, dies, gets pregnant etc in the middle of the year.
The newestNickelodeonlogo. One thing that was constant from 1984 to 2009 was the orange splat that could form into many different logos, that was still a point of interest, even after someone's favorite show ended or got cancelled. And then we went from this to this. The fact that this new logo was introduced with the beginning of Fanboy and Chum Chum has done little to appeal to veteran fans.
For many a Rail Enthusiast, diesels and buses are the Replacement Scrappies for the steam engine. Buses for closing many branch lines, and diesels for sending thousands of steam engines to the scrapyard. Part of it comes from a Nostalgia Filter for the Age of Steam, idealized as an age of heroism, innovation, and beauty. See Thomas the Tank Engine or read The Railway Series for an exploration of this attitude.
Most modern diesel locomotives can be seen as Replacement Scrappies to fans of older locomotive models. This is common among American railroad enthusiasts. Examples include the GE "GEVO" series of locomotives and the EMD SD 70 ACE for replacing earlier EMD locomotives like the SD 40.
This is fairly common in sports as well, from new players replacing fan favorites, new coaches replacing old ones, new stadiae replacing old ones, heck, even new uniforms sometimes get backlash because they break away from the tradition of the old one. But for this troper, possibly the biggest example has to be the case of the NFL replacement referees. Basically, they were a bunch of incompetent boobs from a medley of semi-pro, college, high school leagues. They were a little too flag-happy when it came to pass interference, and they blew two consecutive games in a row which turned the tide for the opposing team. Let's just say that fans are happy that the old referees are back, although they still will ridicule them for being blind.
Since the early '90s many famous and historic resorts in Las Vegas have been closed down and demolished and are usually replaced by bigger, fancier, and more modern resorts. Some of these new resorts are seen as Replacement Scrappies by fans of the resorts they replaced.
Pope Benedict XVI got hit with this hard following the death of the much-loved Pope John Paul II. It didn't help that he'd been in the Hitler Youth (mandatory in Germany at the time) or that his reign coincided with the revelation of widespread sexual abuse by priests.
