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Suspiciously Similar Substitute
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A character who joins the cast as a replacement for a character who has left the show due to real-life distractions (contract negotiations, death, etc.) despite being integral to the plot or concept of the series. Invariably, this character fills the Stock Character slot left vacant by the departed, whether that be comic relief, intellectual, or musclebound bruiser.
Often, the character has some twist or gimmick to make it seem as if the character is unique, and the writers aren't actually grasping at straws to salvage the year's worth of scripts already written.
Some shows will take risks in such replacements, making the replacements truly different characters, rather than a similar character with a twist. That is much harder on the writers, since they can't simply tweak the scripts they had already written for the old character. Usually when this happens it is very intentional on the part of the production.
The vast majority of these replacements still take up the role of the previous character, such as a missing member of the Five Man Band, but as to how much they resemble their predecessor is up for debate.
Justified in military and some business settings where there are specific roles.
See also: Substitute Teacher, The Other Darrin, The Nth Doctor, Put On A Bus, Dropped A Bridge On Him, Replacement Scrappy, Why Does Everyone Think I'm Deadpool, Replacement Love Interest, and Anti Hero Substitute (when the substitute is Darker And Edgier). Compare Discard And Draw, which does the same sort of thing with superpowers instead of characters.
Examples:
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Anime
- In Pokémon, the female soon-to-be-gym-leader Misty was replaced by the female coordinator character of May, although the latter was indeed a distinctly different character. She was then replaced by the female coordinator character of Dawn in a straighter use of this trope.
- Lest we forget Brock's one-season substitute with the artist Tracey. This one was supposedly due to the belief that Western audiences wouldn't accept a guy with Eyes Always Shut.
- In terms of actual Pokemon, Jessie and James (the original Team Rocket) end up releasing their Victreebel (a fly-trap Pokemon), Weezing and Arbok (a poison snake Pokemon). Later on, James acquires a Cacnea, which retains Victreebel's tendency to accidentally injure its owner, and Jessie gets a Seviper, which is... a poison snake Pokemon. Ash also gets a new bird type in every region which eventually is fully evolved (Pidgeot, Noctowl, Swellow and Staraptor, respectively).
- James also gains a Carnavine, who bites him on the head to show it's affection.
- The character Priss from Bubblegum Crisis was originally going to be killed off and replaced by Vision, who was suspiciously similar (brown hair, kind of feisty, was a singer) but ultimately fans liked the character too much so she wasn't killed off after all, thus avoiding the trope entirely.
- Vision's song, "Say Yes", features references to Priss's death, had she been killed off:
Like the wind, you disappeared
into the asphalt,
while being torn to pale ribbons.
Though I hold on to your voice
saying, that day,
"I won't be beaten,"
it's just the wind blowing.
- Tenchi Muyo is unique in that the third OVA did something of an alternate continuity substitution. Mihoshi's partner in the Galaxy Police had long been Kiyone Makibi in the Universe and Tokyo continuities, but supplemental materials Kiyone was the name of Tenchi's Mother (The first movie, based off the first TV series, named her Achika). OVA 3 introduces us to Noike, who happens to be Mihoshi's previously not known to exist GXP partner, while Tenchi's mother is finally officially named as Kiyone(and (re)introduced, in a way, by Tenchi's older sister who is strangely identical to her).
- Sai, from post-timeskip Naruto. Replacing Sasuke on the team and filling a similar role in character dynamics.
- Sai's inability to understand emotion also makes him the butt of a lot of jokes that would not work at all for Sasuke. This is more prevalent in the anime.
- Lilo And Stitch has its own anime in Japan. However, it's just Stitch! there, as Lilo has, for no discernible reason, been replaced with a girl named Yuna.
- Near from Death Note.
- Kaioh, the main antagonist of Fist Of The North Star 2, has many similar characteristics to Raoh, the antagonist from the original series, including the fact that they ride huge horses. This is justified by the revelation that Kaioh is actually Raoh and Toki's estranged elder brother: Kaioh is even a dead-ringer for Raoh, only with an x-shaped scar on his face.
- Shikabane Hime's Keisei dies, allowing Ouri to come closer to Makina and to also be brought into the story as a major player instead of a male damsel in distress and hapless bystander. About 2 episodes later Keisei's mentor is introduced. He has a very similar hairstyle and replaces the former as the even more perverted comic relief and Ouri's new mentor.
- Happens late in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. After the timeskip, Viral pulls a Heel Face Turn and becomes The Lancer to adult Simon, and both of them are instantly reborn as more awesome versions of Kamina.
- In Gundam 00 Neil Dilandy, killed late in the 1st series, is replaced by his twin brother Lyle Dilandy.
Comic Books
- X-Men's Jean Grey, during periods when she has been rendered temporarily dead or otherwise unusable, has been substituted numerous times, most notably by her Alterniverse daughter, Rachel.
- Emma Frost seems to be the latest, even though she was already an established character. The fact that's even in terms of relationships turns this into a Wall Banger.
- Madelyne Prior was originally meant to be a very straight example of this; she was supposed to look suspiciously like Jean, but have it be just a coincidence. Not exactly how it worked out, though.
- Parodied in The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier, where we're told the British Government, in assembling the 1950s League, tried to find substitutes of the entire 1890s League. It didn't work.
- W.E. John's Worrals for Mina; Hotspur's Wolf of Kabul for Alan; Peter Brady (TV's first Invisible Man) for Griffin; Professor Grey (from The Beano strip The Iron Fish) for Nemo; and a giant robot called the Iron Warrior (from Thrill Comics) for Hyde.
- The Pre-Crisis version of Jason Todd, who took over the role of Batman's sidekick Robin after Dick Grayson became Nightwing, was a carbon copy of Dick Grayson right down to having a similar origin story (his parents were acrobats murdered by Killer Croc). This was averted with the Post-Crisis version, which revised Jason's origin as a street hoodlum who was picked up by Batman. Oddly enough, Pre-Crisis Todd was a blond-haired boy who dyed his hair black, while Post-Crisis Todd was naturally black-haired.
- When Grant Morrison was writing JLA, he was unable to use Hawkman because the character's confusing continuity had become such a problem. Instead, he created the replacement character Zauriel.
- Cross between this and Psycho Rangers happens with Norman Osbourn's Avengers.
Film
- Endemic to the James Bond series.
- Similar thing happened in the The Godfather: Part II, where Frank Pentangeli was a replacement character for Peter Clemenza.
- What about The Godfather: Part III? Tom Hagen is written out (died in between sequels) and is replaced by the much less charismatic and interesting George Hamilton character, B.J. Harrison. This was done thanks to a paycheck dispute with Robert Duvall, forcing Francis Ford Copella to create this new replacement from scratch.
- When the Wachowski brothers wrote the second and third Matrix films, they originally intended to bring back the character of Tank from the first one. But after they had a falling-out with his actor, they created Link as a replacement.
- Roman in 2 Fast 2 Furious replaced Dominic from The Fast and the Furious.
- Beerfest plays this one for gags, when Landfill dies and the character is promptly replaced by his twin brother, portrayed by the same actor, who asks the rest of the characters to refer to him by his dead brother's name and never speak of the death again.
- The Bill Murray Bosley and the Bernie Mac Bosley in the two Charlies Angels movies.
- Keanu Reeves and Jason Patric's characters in Speed and its sequel.
- A rather bizarre set of examples occured within the Godzilla franchise regarding the monster Baragon. First, the film ''Destroy All Monsters'' was going to have Baragon be the monster seen destroying France. Unfortunately, the suit was too badly damaged and instead Gorosaurus was used (Ironically, the dub version still calls Gorosaurus "Baragon")...And Baragon himself was reduced to a mere 10 second cameo. Later, Baragon was going to appear in Godzilla VS Mechagodzilla but the suit was still too damaged to function and Anguirus was used instead. In both cases, Anguirus and Gorosaurus were given traits that were originally attributed to Baragon (IE: Jumping and burrowing).
- Los Superagentes: Nueva Generación. Unlike the recent sequels to Bañeros and Brigada Explosiva, the new characters were clearly meant to replace the originals, as per the original Tiburon and Delfín show up in insultingly short cameos as opposing to joining in the action. Worse, the original Mojarrita and Chief of Acuario don't even show up.
- Julio De Grazia (the original Mojarrita) died in 1989.
- Jason replacing his own mother as the slasher in the Friday the 13th sequels.
- Jamie Kennedy as the new Mask in Son of the Mask.
- Every Cenobite that follows Pinhead that is NOT Butterball, Chatterer or the Female Cenobite in the Hellraiser sequels.
- The Three Stooges - Shemp->Curly(film series begins)->Shemp->Joe->Curly Joe.
- Still, Curly > every other Stooge who wasn't Moe or Larry though
- The Marx Brothers - Allan Jones essentially takes over for Zeppo in A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races.
- "Nigel" appears to be a replacement composite character for Colin and Denis Creevy in the Harry Potter film adaptations.
- Fei Long was left out of the Street Fighter movie from the 90's (and was the only character other than Akuma to be excluded), although an original character called Captain Sawada filled his spot. In the more recent abomination, The Legend of Chun Li, C. Viper is replaced with a detective named Maya (which also happens to be Viper's name). In fact, you might say everyone in that movie is a substitute.
- The Phantom Menace had Captain Panaka, Queen Amidala's bodyguard. After a disagreement(most say for money), he was replaced with Gregar Typho. They're pretty much the same, except Typho has an eyepatch.
- And in a meta example, the handmaidens, two of whom were played by Keira Knightley and Sofia Coppola (yes, daughter of THAT Coppola) are doubles of the queen.
- The film Rock Star depicts such a replacement when the main character Chris, lead singer of a tribute band, is hired to replace his idol due to his intentionally similar appearance and slightly better vocals. The film culminates in Chris picking a fan out of the audience at a concert to replace himself.
- Although the film is based on actual events: Judas Priest replacing their original lead singer by picking the frontman of a Priest tribute band.
Literature
- The 1996 Star Wars spin-off, Shadows Of The Empire (novel, comic book, video game, and breakfast cereal), being set between the second and third movies, found a replacement character for Han Solo in the loveable scamp Dash Rendar. Dash not only sported Han's in-your-face attitude, he flew a nearly identical ship to the Millennium Falcon and had a wacky robot sidekick. Though hastily offed when he no-longer served a purpose, Dash apparently still exists in the hazier reaches of the "Expanded Universe."
- In A Series Of Unfortunate Events, three of the Baudelaire guardians (Charles, Jerome, and Hector) good-hearted and well-meaning men whose cowardice causes them to fail the Baudelaires.
- After Ned Stark's death at the end of A Game Of Thrones, Davos Seaworth was introduced as the stoic Only Sane Man character.
- In The Bible, God lets Satan kill Job's three daughters and seven sons to test his faith. Job not only gets health and wealth for passing the test- his family is replaced with a a new set of seven sons and three daughters. They aren't the same people, but they should be just as good, right?
- One interpretation of the children not being doubled is that the children weren't killed in the first place. Note that their deaths are only reported to Job; he doesn't see them die.
- Modern Biblical scholarship seems to indicate that the Book of Job was re-written repeatedly by different authors with different morals in mind, so it is somewhat unsurprising that the final product looks this schizophrenic.
Live Action TV
- Stargate SG-1. Jonas Quinn was sort of like Daniel Jackson... but from another planet! However, after Michael Shanks decided to return as a regular, Jonas Quinn was abruptly and permanently written out of the series at the beginning of the seventh season.
- In "200", an actor backs out from playing the lead in a movie based on a TV show based on the SG team's adventures. Lt. Col. Mitchell suggests they just replace the character with a new one... which is met by disdainful looks and head-shaking. (This episode was essentially an hour of Shout Out and Lampshade Hanging.) And at the end, we find out the "Colonel Danning" character from Wormhole X-Treme! was substituted. "Dr. Levant" is not indicated to have had a Suspiciously Similar Substitute, but much like the real Stargate SG-1, they may have resolved to never speak of it.
- Cam Mitchell, an Air Force colonel with a snarky sense of humor and a tendency to make pop culture references (like the actor Browder's character in Farscape) had of course replaced Anderson's character. This somewhat falls under the "military role" exception, but is more likely due to a desire to have a new leading man, particularly one with a built-in audience.
- David Spade's and James Garner's characters on Eight Simple Rules.
- Jon Lovitz' character on News Radio.
- Slightly averted in that, while filling the same role in the workplace, Lovitz isn't just playing a clone of Bill Mc Neal. Instead, he's playing...well, Jon Lovitz.
- Woody Boyd and Rebecca Howe on Cheers. Both were very different from their predecessors, but Rebecca soon changed from the vicious shark she was initially into a repeat of Diane.
- Phil Capra (for Joel Fleischman) on Northern Exposure.
- In season 3 of Lost, the Others' chief tough guy, Danny Pickett, was replaced by Ryan Pryce a few episodes after the former's death.
- Agents Doggett and Reyes on The X Files.
- M*A*S*H replaced half of its cast but also made sure they were different characters. B.J. Hunnicut was a family man while Trapper was a womanizer, Major Winchester was a snooty but highly competent Jerk With A Heart Of Gold to Major Burns' incompetent Jerkass, and Col. Potter was an old school war veteran and task master while Col. Blake was oblivious to almost everything.
- Radar wasn't given a replacement character but instead his duties were handed off to Klinger.
- Sgt. Luther Rizzo is arguably a substitute for Sgt. Zelmo Zale.
- Capt. Oliver Hudson on SeaQuest DSV.
- Ida Mae Brindle on Small Wonder.
- Jeffrey Sinclair and John Sheridan (both J.S.'s, like creator J Michael Straczynski), and, later, Susan Ivanova and Elizabeth Lochley, on Babylon 5. The difference between the two changes and their effect on the show is marked, as was general reaction.
- Ivanova was herself a Suspiciously Similar Substitute for Laurel Takashima from the Pilot Movie Babylon 5: The Gathering.
- That's how it ended up, but according to JMS that wasn't the original intention. The two characters were originally supposed to coexist until the end of the second season when Laurel would turn out to be The Mole and leave the show (written in because JMS knew Tamlyn Tomita wouldn't want to commit to five years) and Ivanova would become the executive officer... but then Tamlyn Tomita decided not to come back for the series at all.
- Likewise, Talia Winters replaced Lyta Alexander when the series began; in a recursive twist, though, when Andrea Thompson decided to leave the show, they brought back Lyta in a double-un-Suspiciously Similar Substitute maneuver.
- Stephen Franklin replaced Benjamin Kyle. Noticing a pattern yet? Hell, let's face it - if this wiki had been around ten years ago, the page you're reading would be called "John Sheridan."
- Straczynski has stated that every major character on the show had an "escape hatch" for each season, to allow the actor to be replaced if necessary without affecting the overall story arc.
- Flo, then Roz, on Night Court (Also on this show, Lana was replaced by Mac, and Liz was replaced by Billie, then Christine.)
- Cindy, then Terri, on Threes Company. Also, the Ropers were replaced by Mr. Furley.
- Beverly Ann on The Facts Of Life
- Oliver (for Jeff) on Coupling
- Captain Adam Fuller on 21 Jump Street
- Mike Nelson, replacing Joel Robinson on Mystery Science Theater 3000, as well as TV's Frank replacing Dr. Erhart, and of course Pearl Forrester replacing her son. The show also had its share of The Other Darrins and The Nth Doctors.
- Sikozu replacing Jool, who initially replaced Zhaan on Farscape.
- Noranti somehow replaces Zhaan, as "cleric/spiritual leader/healer" on the ship too.
- This was more of Zhaan being replaced by two characters: her science side by Jool and her spiritual side by Stark. Then Jool is replaced by Sikozu and Stark by Noranti.
- Crichton lampshades this series of changes by simply calling Sikozu "the new girl" in the Season 4 opener. By this time even he's nonplussed by the Combo Platter Powers of the various new additions.
- Sergeant Baker replaced Sergeant Kinchloe as 'radio operator who happens to be black' on Hogans Heroes in the final season. Unfortunately, unlike Kinchloe, Baker didn't have much characterization outside 'radio operator who happens to be black' and wasn't the most satifying of replacements.
- An interesting exception can be found on A Different World. Originally it was a star vehicle created for Lisa Bonet by Bill Cosby's production house, but after Bonet's 1988 pregnancy forced her from the program after the first season, no substitute for her was cast. Instead, it became an ensemble show, and eventually two minor characters — Dwayne Wayne and Whitley Gilbert — evolved into its real stars and carried the show for five more years.
- Step By Step replaced Cody (upon actor Sasha Mitchell's run-in with the law) with Bronson Pinchot's character, who, despite being French, was essentially the wacky roommate Cody was in every way.
- They also had the character of Flash, nicknamed because he was an adult with the hyperactivity of a 4 year old. Essentially another Cody given a justification.
- In Heroes Weston's relationship with Claire leaves him as little more than a straight version of Zach. The writers tried to cover this up by giving him the power of flight/levitation but his lines and role as a foil character made it obvious.
- For one season of Star Trek The Next Generation, Dr. Kate Pulaski (played by Diana Muldaur, who'd appeared twice as different characters in the Original Series) replaced Dr. Beverly Crusher as ship's doctor.
- Pulaski was an attempt to replicate some of TOS; she had a lot of Bones's mannerisms. Her dislike of the logical Data (half-assedly) mirrored Bones and Spock's interplay. She had a real problem with transporters too. And so on. Nobody was fooled, as she was as pleasant as a colonoscopy, with a personality as abrasive as sand paper. Despite the crew's assurance that she really was a caring woman. Fan response was... very negative, and Crusher returned the next season.
- In a case falling halfway between Suspiciously Similar Substitute and The Nth Doctor, Star Trek Deep Space Nine replaced Jadzia Dax with Ezri Dax in the final season: different hosts, same symbiote, and a Trill's personality is a blend of the host and symbiote.
- In the early production of Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Kira Nerys was actually a replacement character for Ro Laren, because the actress that played Ro in the Star Trek The Next Generation declined the offer to appear in Deep Space Nine
- The exact same thing happened in the early production of Star Trek Voyager: B'Elanna Torres was also a replacement character for Ro Laren, because Michelle Forbes again refused to commit to a seven-year show.
- Actually this trope has been in Star Trek from the start were Captain Pike is replaced after the Pilot with Captain Kirk. Both are square jawed, two fisted adventurers with a close friendship with the ship's physician and a mild romantic interest in a female yeoman.
- One of the world's few substitute anticipations happened in the kids' series Space Cases. With Jewel Staite having Flash Forward hanging in the balance, her character, Catalina, was given an "imaginary friend" named Suzee, who was really a person living in Another Dimension that Catalina could communicate with. When the other series required Ms. Staite's services, a little Applied Phlebotinum switched Suzee to the real world (as played by Rebecca Herbst) and Catalina to the "imaginary" world.
- Staite's Dr. Keller also replaced Dr. Beckett on Stargate Atlantis as the caring and sometimes out of his/her element doctor, despite having appeared on the series previously as a different character.
- Beakmans World substituted its lovely young female assistant not once, but twice. Both were a result of the show's fate: The first switch happened as the show moved to CBS from syndication, and the second happened after an Un-cancellation.
- Many older kids shows, like You Cant Do That On Television and Kids Incorporated, substituted the entire cast, and Kids Incorporated did so repeatedly. Their reasoning is likely similar to why the Vienna Boys' Choir and Menudo boot their kids out at 13.
- Similarly, the late 80s-early 90s incarnation of the Mickey Mouse Club turned over its cast a few times. Notables in the mix include Keri Russell (as part of the first rotation of new blood) and Britney Spears (as part of one of the last rotations).
- Before the series adopted its Japanese counterpart's format of each season essentially being a standalone show, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers did have some cast changes, always preserving the number of Token Minority characters. The second Pink Ranger, Katherine Hillard, is an especially egregious example, not being much like her predecessor before becoming a Ranger, but then rapidly becoming her clone. (Dark Action Girls take heed: Good Is Dumb.)
- They did manage a successful change in Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, where actress Valerie Vernon had to leave due to being diagnosed with leukemia. Originally they were going to take the previous pink ranger and bring her in as a replacement, but when that deal fell through, they took the previous season's reformed Big Bad, Karone, and made her the replacement. In this case, the character was vastly different because she had aspects of The Atoner.
- Another successful change was Adam Park, the second Black Ranger. While Zack was fun-loving and energetic, Adam was fairly quiet and thoughtful. Early on, this was pretty much all his character had to him, but an ad-lib in The Movie (his dejected "I'm a frog..." when finding out what his spirit animal is) gave him some Woobie points and being the second-longest serving ranger gave him fairly decent character development. He's one of the most popular characters in the series now and the only pre-Disney buyout ranger to appear in the 15th anniversary Reunion Show.
- Adam's popularity is mostly in hindsight due to Johnny Yong Bosch's recently gained extreme fanbase due to his anime roles. Adam was, while the show was first airing, rather unremarkable. Now however people watch the episodes a decade later and cheer for Johnny.
- The original Kamen Rider was forced to do this with Takeshi Hongo/Kamen Rider 1 after Hiroshi Fujioka broke his leg while attempting a stunt. Unlike many examples of this trope, however, the replacement character (Hayato Ichimonji/Kamen Rider 2) is remembered fondly by the fanbase and has become just as much a fixture of the franchise as his predecessor, and when the former returned to the show, the two are often paired under the nickname "Double Riders".
- Kamen Rider Decade has done this to most of the cast of the shows they visited, using the conceit of Alternate Universes. Sometimes these changes are justified ( for instance Kamen Rider Kuuga's actor considers the series an Old Shame). However, a good number of actors have returned to play their original characters as well, even if they're also AU incarnations.
- Metal Heroes Space Sheriff Gavan had his Bridge Bunny Mimi leave to see to her ill mother for the last 3rd or so of the series, and replaced with a character called Marin who was basically the exact same character minus the Love Interest part (since Mimi was only leaving for a short while so her and Gavan were still technically in a relationship) Unlike most examples though Marin was already an established character on the show as a Bridge Bunny to Gavan's Mission Control and was specifically called in to fill in for Mimi.
- Will Bailey on The West Wing appears to have begun as a Suspiciously Similar Substitute for Sam Seabourne (right down to several "passing the torch" incidents in which Sam encouraged Toby to accept Will's help with the State of the Union, Will was semi-formally inducted into Sam's old position, etc.), but the writing of the show shifted after Aaron Sorkin's departure, and within a year Will's character had shifted jobs into the Vice-President's office and was portrayed more as a cynical political operative than as an idealist.
- The TV show Maverick introduced a Suspiciously Similar Substitute before the star left, in the form of Bret Maverick's brother, Bart. This was principally done in order to accelerate the show's shooting schedule, since they could shoot a Bret episode and a Bart episode at the same time. Reportedly, the show's writers had no idea whether a given episode would be a Bret episode or a Bart episode when they wrote it.
- By the shows end there were two other Mavericks in rotation, one of them played by Roger Moore.
- After Terry, the only female agent on the NUMB3RS team left the show, her job was taken by Megan, who was, three seasons later, replaced by Nikki.
- To an extent, Hugh Laurie in the third and fourth series of Blackadder seems to have filled this role (aristocratic fop) in replacement of Tim McInnerny from the first two series, after McInnerny left because he didn't want to be typecast. When McInnerny rejoined the regular cast in the fourth series, his character resembled that played by Stephen Fry (brown-nosing rival) in the second series, with Fry in turn now playing a character more akin to that of BRIAN BLESSED and Miranda Richardson respectively (insane tyrant) in the first two series. This slightly convoluted game of "musical chairs" in regards to actors and characters appears however to have been of little detriment to the series.
- Nancy Oleson on Little House On The Prairie. This is lampshaded in the episode where the Olesons adopt her, as Harriet mentions how she looks "just like Nellie" while Nels later ruefully acknowledges that she acts just like Nellie, too.
- Nancy was Nellie on steroids; actually vicious enough to unthinkingly put people's lives in danger, much like their mother. When Nell returns for a visit, even she is struck by the resemblance—and put off as well, fearing her mother is making the same mistakes—which was an understatement.
- Robin Of Sherwood replaced Michael Praed's Robin of Locksley with Jason Connery's Robert of Huntingdon, tying two contradictory legends together by making Robin Hood a Legacy Character.
- The current BBC version of Robin Hood appears to be about to do this too. Season 3, episode 10 invented a backstory for Robin Hood and Guy of Gisbourne that created a mutual half-brother for the characters. Both Jonas Armstrong (Robin) and Richard Armitage (Guy) are expected to leave the show at the end of the third season, presumably to be replaced by their brother Archer. Watch this space.
- Actually, there's no need. The show's been cancelled.
- Law And Order has always had six main characters: two detectives, their chief, the DA, the executive assistant DA, and a regular assistant DA. Given that the series has been going for 19 seasons and counting as of 2008, all six roles have been substituted as actors move on, some of them several times over. It also helps that the show is heavily story-based, and not too dependant on characterizations.
- Law And Order: Special Victims Unit has seen this a few times; while actress Mariska Hargitay was away due to pregnancy, her character Olivia Benson was briefly replaced by arguable Canon Sue Dani Beck, who spoke fluent French, physically assaulted perps without consequence, was famous for her effectiveness in fighting crime, had a cool personal PDA/GPS system that she flashed around a few times, and had the romantic affair with Elliot that fans wanted him to have with Olivia. In general, the fandom doesn't miss her.
- Similarly, the ADA's in SVU get replaced. Most people didn't mind the Alex Cabot replacement by Casey Novak (they have very different personalities), but the ADA who has replaced Novak for Season 10 is a mediocre blend of both of them, with a dash of Informed Ability to boot. "They used to call me the Crusader."
- Coy and Vance replaced Bo and Luke Duke in The Dukes Of Hazzard. They were such substitutes, they even had the same hair color.
- Of course, the following season Bo and Luke were brought back, and Coy and Vance were never heard of again.
- Deputy Cletus Hogg, although his initial appearance on the show preceded Enos' departure for his own series.
- Roscoe was also replaced briefly by two different sheriffs - including The Other Darrin himself.
- In the Australian teen series Wicked Science, the girl in Toby's group, Dina, was replaced by Toby's cousin Sasha in Season 2.
- Mr. Harmon, Old Mr. Grace, and Mr. Spooner replacing Mr. Mash, Young Mr. Grace and Mr. Lucas on Are You Being Served?.
- Charlie Crawford replaced Mike Flaherty as the Deputy Mayor on Spin City.
- When Gomer Pyle left The Andy Griffith Show in 1964 for his own spin-off, Gomer Pyle USMC (of "'PYYYYLE!'...'Shazam!'" fame), he was replaced by equally hayseed cousin Goober Pyle.
- Up to that point, Goober was only referred to by Gomer as a running gag; his materializing as Gomer's replacement would be something like Seinfeld's Kramer being replaced by the infamous "Bob Sacamano." Weird.
- Well, technically, Goober did appear in one episode ("Fun Girls") prior to Gomer's departure from Mayberry.
- Warren Ferguson and (arguably) Howard Sprague, for Barney Fife.
- Andy's steady girlfriend in the first season was pharmacist Ellie Walker; after she was written out of the show (apparently due to lack of chemistry between Andy Griffith and Elinor Donahue), Andy was given a couple more temporary love interests before Helen Crump was finally introduced in season 3.
- When the show was retooled as Mayberry, R.F.D., Sam Jones and his son Mike essentially became the substitutes for Andy and Opie Taylor.
- In Only Fools And Horses, when the actor playing Granddad died he was almost immediately replaced by his prieviously mentioned brother Uncle Albert.
- The long-running Australian sitcom Hey Dad..! continued for a 13th and 14th season after the titular character left, with a family friend serving as an unofficial father figure. Over its long lifespan, the show had a nearly complete changeover of cast, with replacements alternating between thinly-disguised substitutes and unexplained Other Darrins.
- My Three Sons did this a lot. They replaced grandpa Bub with Uncle Charlie. Later the oldest son left so the dad adopted the youngest son's friend.
- Doctor Who did this recently, when Howard Attfield, who played Donna Noble's father in "The Runaway Bride", died during the filming of Series 4. They filled his role with Wilfred Mott (Bernard Cribbins), who had been created as a one-off guest character in "Voyage of the Damned" and was promptly retconned as her maternal grandfather.
- This is not the first time Cribbins has been a Doctor Who Suspiciously Similar Substitute; in the second of the 1960s non-canon movies, Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD, he plays Special Constable Tom Campbell, who replaces the character of Ian Chesterton who appeared in the corresponding episode from the TV show and who appeared in the earlier movie Dr. Who And The Daleks. A Joanie Quinn, Louise, also replaces Barbara.
- Come to think of it, the various replacement companions in the TV series could qualify. Most notable early on, with Vicki a clear Suspiciously Similar Substitute for Susan.
- That's true about Vicki but she's more the exception than the rule, at least from around the midpoint of the original series on. Leela is no-one's SSS nor is anyone hers, Turlough is utterly different from Adric, and so on.
- Torchwood did this in Children of Earth with Lois, who fills the role Martha was joining to play had Freema Aygeman been available.
- Subverted hard in the same miniseries when a character who seems like he's being built up to be a substitute for Owen suddenly shoots Jack in the back, and then gets shot himself. RTD says this was intentional, because he thinks it's a disservice to characters to outright replace them with a Suspiciously Similiar Substitute.
- Due South did this surprisingly well, mixing in a bit of Sister Becky. One character is sent away "under cover" while the main character is out of town. The replacement is introduced as someone pretending to be that character, in order to maintain his cover.
- Channel Four's Mockumentary series This is David Lander changed its title to This is David Harper when Stephen Fry was replaced by Tony Slattery.
- The fifth season of NCIS ends on a cliffhanger which implies that Tony, Ziva, and McGee will all be substituted, and, indeed, the sixth season premiere shows Gibbs leading a new team, with establishing shots helpfully indicating which of the previous characters' niches the new agents fit into. The trope is then fairly quickly subverted and by the end of the second episode of the season, the team is reunited and back in business.
- Subverted in the 7th season opener when the team interviews replacements for Ziva. Two don't live up to their hype, and one came in at the wrong time. Ziva returns at the end, at least physically.
- Are you really not going to mention the fact that Ziva herself is basically Kate turned Israeli assassin (at least in terms of her relationships with other characters)? Down to the bantering UST with Tony?
- Sliders was rife with substituting toward the end:
- Quinn got substituted when actor Jerry O'Connell left, by way of The Nth Doctor by being "fused" with 'Mallory' (his non-identical counterpart from a parallel universe), at the same time Colin was Put On A Bus.
- Maggie entered the team at the same time Arturo left.
- A certain segment of the fanbase believes that Arturo was substituted by his own alternate.
- To be fair the episode that this happens in allows for that interpretation as Arturo's duplicate tries to replace him so he can escape his own world and just before they slide they are having a classic "which is the real one?" battle and after the slide the Arturo left behind essentially says "My God what have they done?"
- Series creator Tracy Torme has tormented fans by saying that he knows which Arturo made the jump, but will never reveal it.
- Diana Davis essentially substitutes both Wade and Arturo, since Mallory couldn't fulfill that role anymore.
- Who knew that Rembrandt, the one who started off as a Dirty Coward, would survive until the end of the series?
- Done by necessity quite a lot on gentle old dears' British comedy Last of the Summer Wine, as elderly cast members die off with inconvenient regularity. (Currently only one member of the original central trio is still alive.)
- Done on Allo Allo when Monsieur Leclerc was replaced by his twin brother after the original actor died. Later, Mimi and Captain Bertorelli appeared as substitutes for Maria and the German Captain respectively.
- Also parodied in the series, when Rene's death was faked and he was forced to pose as his own Suspiciously Similar Substitute twin brother for the rest of the show.
- Rene: "I am also named Rene."
- The German police drama Siska did this when they replaced the eponymous lead character with his never-before-mentioned brother after he was killed off.
- ER 's Luka Kovacs is basically Doug Ross with a Slavic accent.
- Ross was a cavalier, immature, fun-loving, womanising action man. Kovacs was a brooding, world-weary, introvert, haunted by demons from the past. So yeah...
- Married With Children: Straitlaced banker Steve Rhoades (David Garrison) was Marcy's husband for four seasons, and then was replaced by pretty-boy Jefferson D'Arcy (Ted McGinley) when Garrison wanted to leave the show to avoid being typecast.
- Teachers initially both justified and averted it. It justified it because, in a school, teachers genuinely do come and go and get replaced, so it never seemed odd to have cast changes between series. They averted it by not replacing characters with direct clones, particularly after main character Simon left and the show became an ensemble piece. Unfortunately, after the third series, ensemble darkhorses Kurt and Brian left, along with Simon's arbitrary replacement Matt, to be replaced by Damien and Ben, substitutes for Kurt and Brian, and Ewan, a substitute for Simon. Cue Seasonal Rot and no fifth series.
- Dr. Peele of American Gothic was this, replacing Dr. Crower—only to then be sent veering off in a different direction by being paired up with the Femme Fatale, then relegated to backburner status for the rest of the series.
- Sandy Duncan's character on The Hogan Family, which was Valerie before Valerie Harper quit.
- Neil Morrissey as Tony Smart from series 2 of Men Behaving Badly, replacing Harry Enfield as Dermot Povey. Since this happened on ITV, and the show only became popular after the third series was taken up by The BBC, most viewers have only the vaguest idea there ever was a Dermot Povey. (In one Clip Show, a single scene from series 1 is shown, prompting Tony to ask "Who was that?")
- That 70s Show replaced Eric and Kelso with Randy, who had similar personality traits of both other characters.
- Yet instead of getting an empty-headed loser, which were the funniest parts about Eric and Kelso, we ended up with a smart pretty-boy, which is ultimately, a Gary Stu.
- In Blakes Seven, substitutes are always the same gender as the outgoing character, for no particular reason but to make up the numbers. Jenna is replaced by Dayna, Blake is replaced by Tarrant, and Cally is replaced by Soolin. Slightly subverted in the episode 'Rescue', though, where the tough guy and the female pilot are replaced by a male pilot and a tough chick, respectively.
- In Frontline, each season features a new Executive Producer, all of whom are equally amoral but manipulate people in slightly different ways.
- In Gilmore Girls, when Chad Michael Murray (Tristan Du Grey) left for Dawson's Creek. This left a void in the Rory/Dean/Other love/hate triangle. The void was soon filled by Jess Mariano (Milo Ventimiglia).
- Natalie in Monk replacing Sharona as Monk's assistant. The next few episodes were very obviously written for Sharona, with the only real difference in the characters being Natalie calling her boss "Mr. Monk" instead of "Adrian." This gets especially weird when she states that she's never seen Monk's feet like that's a big deal, despite having only taken the job in the previous episode. The point at which the writers ran out of their previous scripts and were able to start creating material specifically for Natalie (mostly involving her dead husband at first) is very, very clear.
- Due to the death of Stanley Kamel (Dr. Kroger), Héctor Elizondo has taken on the role of a new psychiatrist for Adrian Monk.
- Dads Army introduced Private Cheeseman as a substitute after the sudden death of James Beck, who played Walker. The character fast became a Scrappy and was written out after only one season.
- Although not as obvious as some other examples, the producers of Buffy wrestled with who they could get to replace Cordelia's snarky truth-telling character (who had left for Angel, where she'd undergo a whack of Character Development and change personalities anyway). At first, when getting wind of the popularity of Spike and deciding to keep him on, they'd thought to have him do it, but they later decided to use Anya, a previously one-episode appearance, to become a regular and take over Cordelia's role in the group.
- In Judging Amy, Dan Futterman played Vincent Gray, Amy's highly intelligent younger brother, in episodes 1 through 51, when he left the show. He was soon substituted by Kevin Rahm in the role of Kyle McCarty, Amy and Vincent's highly intelligent second cousin who had much of the same intelligence and mannerisms as Vincent. With Kyle's introduction, it was explained that Vincent and Kyle had been roommates and spent much of their younger years together. Vincent returned to the show in episode 100, and effectively reverse-substituted for Kyle who left the show in episode 118. Vincent remained for the rest of the show's run.
- Jeffrey Coho from Boston Legal is an interesting example, in that he was the substitute for a character who was still on the show. Over the first two seasons, the main character Alan Shore transformed from being a rather-slimy-lawyer-with-a-deeply-buried-heart-of-gold type to a civil rights crusader (Your Mileage May Vary if this was character development or Character Derailment). Jeffrey Coho was brought onto the show at the beginning of Season 3, and was pretty much identical in personality to Season 1 Alan, even down to his politics and his feuding with Brad Chase (except, mercifully, for the friendship with Denny Crane, which was only ever Alan's).
- Benson - Rene Auberjonois' Clayton Endicott III was pretty much a clone of his predecessor, Taylor (albeit with a more impressively pretentious name).
- Hill Street Blues - When Michael Conrad died after Season 3, his Sgt. Esterhaus was replaced with Robert Prosky's Sgt. Jablonski (who was even given a similar catchphrase to close out the briefing at the top of each episode).
- Alice - Jolene, for Flo.
- Jolene didn't actually replace Flo per se. When Polly Holiday left to star in the short-lived spinoff "Flo", she was replaced by Diane Ladd (who played Flo in the movie), although on the TV show, she played an original character named "Belle Dupree". Eventually Diane left, and SHE was replaced by Jolene.
- The Streets of San Francisco - Dan Robbins, for Steve Keller.
- Inverted, somewhat, on All In The Family: The character of George Jefferson was expressly written for Sherman Helmsley, who was unavailable at the time the show's early seasons were shot due to his appearance in a Broadway musical; the character of George's brother, Henry Jefferson, was devised as a placeholder until Helmsley became available in Season 4 (although George was "on" the show as an offscreen character in the earlier seasons).
- Phil in Corner Gas replacing Paul as the Cree with long hair and the four letter name that starts with P and ends with L who works as the head bartender. The only difference apart from name is that Phil looks older and has a deeper, less enthusiastic voice.
- When Mickey left Hustle after season 3, Billy was introduced as a Suspiciously Similar Substitute for Danny, with Danny taking up Mickey's role. In season 5, Mickey's back and the Danny/Billy role is taken by Sean, with his sister Emma as the new Stacie.
- Utterly averted in Kindred: The Embraced, a show loosely based on White Wolf's old Vampire: The Masquerade setting. The main character's actor died in an accident shortly after the first season, but, rather than writing in a new lead, the show was cancelled.
- Tiffani Thiessen's Valerie Malone on Beverly Hills 90210. Valerie was introduced after Shannen Doherty was fired from the show and was a brunette of similar temperament to Doherty's Brenda who lived in her room and slept with her ex-boyfriend. Her twist was that she was a pot-smoking 'naughty girl', as the characters in the show would constantly remind us.
- This happened with Doherty again on Charmed when she walked out after three seasons, resulting with Prue Halliwell being killed off and replaced by Paige played by Rose Mcgowan. This substitute wasn't too similar, though; Prue was the eldest sister, the dominant member of the trio, and the clear star of the show, while Paige was the inexperienced youngest (half-)sister in what became a more egalitarian ensemble vehicle.
- It also allowed Holly Marie Comb's character Piper to become the head of the family and in-universe "star" of the show by being treated as quite clearly the most powerful witch in existence and the most important of the sisters in terms of magical happenings and events of the show (even if Phoebe was pushed as the "star" of the show in real life, due mainly to Milano supposedly being hotter than Combs and with more name recognition.).
- After Howard Hesseman left Head Of The Class in 1990, Billy Connolly's character substituted him for the show's final season.
- Diffrent Strokes - After Edna Garrett's departure for her own spinoff (The Facts Of Life), she was replaced as the Drummonds' housekeeper with Adelaide Brubaker...who was substituted, in turn, by Pearl Gallagher.
- Mrs. Garrett was eventually substituted herself on The Facts Of Life by her sister, Beverly Ann Stickle.
- The Love Boat replaced Julie McCoy with her sister Judy as "Your Cruise Director", following actress Lauren Tewes' departure from the show due to cocaine addiction.
- Sophie's cousin Barney in the fifth series of Peep Show is a fairly obvious replacement for her brother Jamie from series four; they look similar, are both musicians, both obsessed with Jeremy, and Barney even hangs around with Sophie's father for no explained reason.
- Season three of MI High replaced Daisy, Blaine and their boss. A number of minor characters are also gone as well. In fact the only characters who have been carried over from the last season are Rose, The Grand Master and the school headmaster.
- Knight Rider replaced Wrench Wench Bonnie Barstow with April Curtis for the second season , then brought back Bonnie the next year.
- Happy Days, upon the leaving of Ron Howard, brought in a family friend named Roger who replaced the 'straight-man' tendencies of Richie.
- There have been seven Iron Chefs: Chen Kenichi (Chinese), Hiriyuki Sakai (French), Masaharu Morimoto (Japanese), and Masahiko Kobe (Italian) are the ones American viewers are most familiar with. The dubbed version tried to push the idea that Morimoto was the direct sucessor to Rokusaburo Michiba, the oringal IC Japanese. In truth, Morimoto was a substitute to a substitute: Michiba's replacement was Koumei Nakamura (Who can be spotted behind Chairman Kaga in the opening credits, where Kaga is standing behind the pile of strawberries). There's also the original IC French, Yutaka Ishinabe (Who's portrait can be spotted in the opening panorama).
- Season 7 of Twenty Four introduces Janis Gold, a frumpy bespectacled computer technician, who basically is the FBI's version of Chloe. They bring Chloe back for a few episodes, and they don't get along.
- Lucy replaced Kate in Not Going Out.
- Dr. Jesse Travis replaced Dr. Jack Stewart in season 3 of Diagnosis Murder although he was a very different character and it's generally regarded as a change for the better.
- When the actor who played him died, The 50's sitcom version of Dennis the Menace replaced George Wilson with a made up "brother" named John; there never was a John Wilson in the original comics.
- Dexter had James Doakes replaced after his death in Season 2 with another detective named Joseph Quinn in Season 3. Possibly Lampshaded if one considers [[Stargate SG-1 a former]] Trope Namer...
- CSI replaced two characters in the ninth season, with Ray Langston, and Riley Adams, though they seem to be the latter type, each having their own character traits.
- By comparison, CSI:NY replaced Aiden Burn with another occasionally-sarcastic female character, who is even suggested to be in a relationship with the same character. Her other traits were added to a previously-existing background character, who occasionally takes Don Flack's place.
- While the original ducklings still appear on House, their roles as, well, ducklings have been replaced. By Taub, Kutner and Thirteen, who are annoyingly similar to the original three characters (especially Thirteen, who is basically a significantly duller Cameron, but with a Poor Dead Mother instead of a Poor Dead Husband).
- She's bisexual. How is that duller?
- Have to say, they're superficially similar, rather than being similar in character. Taub is Foreman simply because he has a mild backbone, Kutner was a Butt Monkey like Chase, and Thirteen is just a girl.
- And now the replacements are gone and the originals are back in more or less their original positions.
- Kellie replacing Kate on The Drew Carey Show after Christa Miller left for a reccuring role on Scrubs.
- NYPD Blue is the master of this trope, having replaced Andy Sipowicz's partner three times. Jimmy Smits replaced David Caruso when the latter decided he was too big to do the show. Rick Schroeder replaced Smits. Mark-Paul Gosselaar replaced Schroeder.
- Battlestar Galactica replaced Billy Keikeya with Tory Foster. This is actually the only Battlestar example. Given the improvisational nature of the series' writing it's unclear if Billy would have followed a similar arc to Tory, had Paul Campbell remained on the show.
- In The George Lopez Show, Carmen is replaced with Angie's niece Veronica Palmero because of creative differences between Carmen's actress, Masiela Lusha, and George Lopez. Veronica is pretty much the same as Carmen, only more shallow and with a sadder story.
- In Scrubs, the character of Laverne was killed off, due to the writers being under the impression the 6th season would be the last. It wasn't. Cue Nurse Shirley, who is played by the same actress that played Laverne! This is lampshaded when JD nicknames her "Laverneagain".
- A paticularly annoying example because the two episode arc where Laverne died was genuinely emotional. The lampshading added nothing, merely drawing attention to the sheer stupidity of bringing her back. Certainly turned me off of season 7 and beyond.
- According to some, Kochanski was this for Rimmer on Red Dwarf. Others thought Kochanski replaced Kryten, while the latter became Rimmer's replacement.
- Also inverted - Rimmer is killed off in the first episode and replaced by a hologram, portrayed by the same actor. Hologram Rimmer was written out of the story in Series VII after Chris Barrie chose to leave the show. He returned in Series VIII to play the revived original Rimmer.
- After the death of Bea Benederet, the mother and hotel manager from Petticoat Junction, June Lockhart was cast as a new town doctor who took up residence in the hotel. Although she was clearly not the girls' mother, and the girls were all well into adulthood by that point, she carried on Benederet's function as motherly advisor, and the town's most sensible resident.
- After the first season of Mission Impossible, team leader Dan Briggs was replaced by Jim Phelps. After the third season, Rollin Hand was replaced by "The Great Paris". Replacements were pretty much seamless, since the characters were constantly playing roles within the show, and were purposely written to show a minimum of personality outside their jobs.
- Averted, kind of, in Bones. At the start of season 3 we were given recurring character Sweets, a young, clever psychologist. He became a regular with his name added to the opening credits at the end of the season when Zack, the young, clever anthropologist, left the show. Averted in that the characters don't have much more in common and that Sweets is very well-liked.
- Seen repeatedly in Gene Roddenberry's Earth Final Conflict, due to the show's unusually high cast turnover rate. In fact, the only character to last through all 5 seasons was series villain Agent Sandoval.
- Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda. The character of Tyr, a Nietzschean who could not be trusted was replaced by Rhade, a Nietzchean who could not be trusted. Tyr went on to become a complete wuss when the actor guest-starred in later episodes.
- The character of Doyle in the final season is also somewhat of a replacement for Lexa Doig's Andromeda when her role needed to be reduced due to the actress's pregnancy. Doyle provided a love target and protector for Harper, among other regular Rommie duties.
- Doig similarly played a replacement doctor in SG 1, though her character was less-developed than the one she replaced, Dr. Frasier, and the replacement was not immediate.
- Doig's husband is also Michael Shanks, whose Daniel was SG 1's original character substituted for with Jonas Quinn.
- The Tick suffered from a number of poor copies meant to be substitutes when Fox failed to get the rights for any characters besides The Tick and Arthur. But given that it was Fox, no one was really surprised as the show's days were numbered from day one.
- Arden replaced Chelsea as The Libby for seasons two and three of Naturally Sadie
- Ashley's ultimate demise in Sanctuary was particularly predictable because in the two episodes preceding it, they were already gearing up her replacement.
- In MI High, the third series replaced Lenny Bicknall with Frank London, both retired superspies posing as a high school caretaker.
- In The Thick Of It series three has a new Minister For Social Affairs - Nicola Murray replacing Hugh Abbot. Her only points of difference with her predecessor are that she's a woman, and that she's not best friends with her main ministerial advistor. This is entirely justified, as the premise of the show is that all politicians are the same.
- On Leverage, Gina Bellman's pregnancy required a hasty write-off of Sophie before she started showing. Her sudden, clumsy and heavy-handed midseason replacement with Jeri Ryan indicates that the scripts she'll be performing will be ones originally written for Sophie, though only time will tell.
- Sanctuary
 Starts off with Ashley, young monster-hunter. In the 1st season finale, she's captured and so they replace her with Kate Freelander, highest bidder monster-hunter
- As a bonus, both Ashley and Kate are Will's love interests with Clara tossed in between them.
Music
- Brian Johnson was brought into the band AC/DC after Bon Scott's death primarily because he had a voice very similar to Scott, making him a substitute of a sort. Notable for the fact that, unlike most established bands, their popularity increased with the singer change.
- When Vince Neil had a falling out with the rest of Mötley Crüe, John Corabi came in to replace him. He was picked largely because his voice had an extremely different tone to Vince's, and Nikki Sixx, the primary songwriter, wanted to try a different direction. The album they recorded together didn't sell very well, and Vince returned to the band not long afterwards. Nikki has stated that they briefly toyed with the idea of having two singers, as John became a close friend during recording.
- Van Halen did this numerous times. In 1985, David Lee Roth left the band (or was fired, depending on who is telling the story) and was replaced by Sammy Hagar. Hagar lasted until 1996, when he left the band (or was fired, depending on who is telling the story) and was replaced very briefly by Mitch Malloy (who left after the band appeared on the MTV Music Video Awards with Roth), who was replaced by former Extreme frontman Gary Cherone. Cherone parted amicably with the band in 1999. Van Halen reunited with Hagar from 2003-2005, and with Roth in 2006. Whew.
- Deep Purple's career is characterised by many line-up changes, but pretty much avoided any Suspiciously Similar Substitutions. Instead, they recruited new members with their own distinctive sound, resulting in significant changes in the style of the band's music from one line-up to the next.
- Judas Priest's Rob Halford left the band in 1992, and was replaced with Tim "Ripper" Owens in 1996, who had ironically sung in a Judas Priest tribute band, who sounded nearly identical to Halford in some songs. Owens parted amicably with the band, and Rob Halford re-joined them. This story was the inspiration behind the movie Rock Star
- Averted when American Idol contestant Chris Daughtry declined band Fuel's offer to replace their lead singer in favor of having his own band, Daughtry. Daughtry has recorded several huge hits since.
Radio
- Jack Allen from Adventures In Odyssey. After addressing the Replacement Scrappy issue head-on by openly admitting that he could never replace Whit... he pretty much replaced Whit. He was generally well-received, though, and after resolving some storylines that hinged on "Whit's" presence, he developed into his own character.
Videogames
- Tekken series: Roger Jnr replaces Roger. Hwoarang replaces Baek (who then returns). Jin Kazama replaces his father Kazuya (who then returns, Jin getting a different fighting style). Combot replacing Mokujin for Tekken 4. Devil Jin replacing Devil. Asuka replacing Jun Kazama. Christie replacing Eddie. Julia Chang replacing Michelle Chang. Forrest Law replacing his father Marshall Law (who then re-replaces his son in the next game). And, of course, each Jack-bot is the newest model.
- At the end of the GBA version of the first Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney, Phoenix's assistant Maya leaves to undergo spiritual medium training; she returns in the next game. When a DS remake of the first game was released, they added an extra case to it - but they couldn't bring Maya back, as one of the cases in the second game revolved around her reunion with Phoenix. So a new character, Ema Skye, became Phoenix's assistant for that one case. When the fourth game substituted the entire cast (including Phoenix) Ema replaced another character as the police detective that is routinely run into.
- Sonic Adventure introduced us to Gamma, a well-armed red and white humanoid "E-Series" Greek-letter-named robot created by Eggman, who over the course of the game decided to turn against Eggman. At the end of the game, Gamma died (exploded, actually). A few years later, Sonic Heroes brought back a whole bunch of characters, adding no new ones... except Omega, a well-armed red and white humanoid E-Series Greek-letter-named robot created by Eggman who had decided to turn against Eggman. Hmm...
- However, they partially avoided this trope by making him the exact opposite of Gamma. Gamma was a conflicted and ultimately tragic character, while Omega... is a borderline mechanical psychopath that wants to obliterate his former master (and everything he built) and then ultimately take over. And talks like a Dalek.
- Played more straight in Sonic Battle, with 'Chaos Gamma'- apparently another Gamma model but remaining loyal to Eggman as his Dragon
- The first print versions of Punch-Out!! for the NES starred Mike Tyson as its final opponent. Eventually Nintendo's license to use Tyson's likeness in a game expired, so the 1990 reissue substituted Tyson with the fictional Mr. Dream, a white boxer with similar stats.
- The Wii installment has a boxer named Disco Kid. This was originally supposed to be a character named Kid Quick from the first arcade game, but as the staff updated his design, he changed so radically that they decided it would be easier to make an entirely different character out of him. His files on the disc are still labeled "kid_quick".
- The series as a whole alternated between Cuban boxer Piston Hurricane (in the arcade and SNES versions) and his Japanese counterpart Piston Honda (in the NES and Wii versions). Neither of them have ever been featured in the same game together.
- In Tales Of Symphonia while Kratos and Zelos are nearly opposite in personality, combat wise they are almost exactly the same (Zelos lacks a single spell), and Zelos joins a short time after Kratos leaves. The two are only in the party same time for a single dungeon.
- When Pey'j gets in trouble in Beyond Good And Evil, his place in the party is taken by Double H, the soldier. Again, they have completely different characters, but effectively the same function, and only show up together for a brief time in the Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
- In the original Snatcher, the engineer Harry Benson dies. When it was reinvented as an RPG in SD Snatcher, Harry sells you weapons and bullets. To make sure the player could still buy weapons and bullets after Harry's death, a new character, Geoff, was added as Harry's apprentice. After Harry dies, Geoff takes over the weapons store.
- In Pikmin 2, when your main Sidekick Louie goes missing after you complete the game's main mission, he gets replaced with the President of the Hocotate Shipping Company until you defeat the Final Boss and recover him.
- No, you don't get him back after you rescue him from the boss. You have to use the fat boss guy for the rest of the game...
- Sakura Taisen 2 replaced Ayame Fujieda, the Sexy Mentor from the first game, with her younger sister Kaede (played by the same voice actress), since Ayame had Ascended To A Higher Plane Of Existence at the end of the first game.
- Elite Beat Agents, a remake of Osu!Tatakae!Ouendan! substituted the entire cast, replacing the cheer squads with a MIB organization. However, Tropes Are Not Bad, as some people might tell you that EBA is better than Ouendan.
- EBA is much more than a substitute. It's a completely different game that uses the same engine. There's a difference.
- The jump from Game Cube to Wii caused a few problems with the Naruto games, so some characters were left out of Clash of Ninja Revolution. Zabuza's replacement was the shark-swordsman Kisame Hoshigaki. This was probably for the better. In Japan, meanwhile, Sasuke was replaced by his brother Itachi.
- In the Soul Calibur games, Maxi replaces Li Long (from the prequel, Soul Edge) as the game's nunchaku user, after Li's defeat at the hands of Cervantes. Li has only returned once since then, as a bonus character in Soul Calibur III: Arcade Edition.
- Apparently in the Korean versions, Misturugi was replaced by Arthur, a Caucasian samurai with the same moveset. He was then available in Soul Calibur III as a bonus character.
- Olcadan in Soul Calibur III, as a replacement for Charade who was a replacement for another character.
- Final Fantasy V: At some point in the game Galuf will be replaced by this spunky granddaughter... who will inherit all is abilities.
- VICE: Project Doom on the NES. Your character's informant that they talk to at the end of each stage will leave partially through the game. A stand-in will fill in for her. You find out where your original informant went as the game progresses.
- Each major entry in the Ape Escape series replaces the previous Kid Hero with a new one. In Ape Escape 2, Spike gets replaced by his cousin Jimmy (though he can be unlocked as a secret character). Jimmy gets replaced by Kei and Yumi in Ape Escape 3. Meanwhile, their aunt Aki replaces both the professor and Natalie in their roles. Dr. Tomoki basically takes over Jake's role as Specter's dragon. However, all of them have distinct personalities.
- Due to him being an obvious ripoff of Tetsuo Shima from the Akira manga (or because SNK just don't plain like him), K9999 from The King of Fighters 2001 was kicked out in the updated rerelease of KOF 2002 (Unlimited Match) and replaced by "Nameless", whose fighting style is fundamentally identical to K9999's as well as his backstory, being cloned from Kyo and K?. While K9999 is a complete jerk, Nameless' story makes him rather sympathetic (thanks to his Morality Pet Isolde).
- In Street Fighter Alpha, Guile, the Air Force lieutenant searching for his missing friend, is replaced with Charlie, another member of the Air Force. Subverted in that the game is a prequel, Charlie's moves are similar to Guile's, already existed in the storyline, and chronologically came first. Also, the "missing friend" Guile was looking for was, you know, Charlie.
- In Marvel vs. Capcom, the developers couldn't use Iron Man due to licensing issues, even though he was previously featured in Marvel Super Heroes, so they simply recycled his sprite for War Machine. Eventually they brought back Iron Man in Marvel vs. Capcom 2, leading to Divergent Character Evolution for War Machine.
- Kyra from Phantasy Star IV could be viewed as an Alys replacement, with her boomerang and Foi spells.
- Those are the only two things they have in common. Kyra does learn the Foi family of spells, and she does use boomerangs, but they have none of the same skills, have very different personalities, and are visually total opposites. If anything, Kyra might be close to what Alys was like in her much younger years, but nothing about Kyra makes her a candidate for a Replacement Alys. (it also doesn't help that there are two major boss battles and several plot events between the last weapon meant for Alys and the first one meant for Kyra)
- Golden Axe III stars characters named Kain Grinder and Sarah Barn that look and fight similarly to Ax Battler and Tyris Flare, respectively (though the U.S. version still mistakenly refers to them as Ax and Tyris). Sarah even gets Tyris' repertoire of fire magic. Gilius Thunderhead is the only character from the originals to return in that game, though not as a playable character.
- The first two partners in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, Goombella and Koops, are similar at first to the first two in the original Paper Mario, Goombario and Kooper, having the same attacks and abilities- except upgraded. After that though, the partners are all new, although Admiral Bobbery has the same abilities as Bombette and Vivian's field ability is functionally identical to Bow's.
- Don't forget Princess Daisy in Super Mario Land.
- Peach herself was sort of of a substitute for Pauline, the damsel in Donkey Kong, except she's one of the few examples to overshadow her predecessor. When they brought back Pauline in the Game Boy version, they had to dye her hair color to brown to distinguish her.
- Pauline's recent revival in Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis could possibly count as a subversion of this trope, since she's ironically replaced Peach (replacing your replacement?) as Mario's main woman in the game (even despite having Mini-Peaches and not Mini-Paulines). Not to mention, probably very few younger gamers knew who Pauline was, meaning she was Peach's replacement... in their minds.
- If this troper recalls correctly, Pauline is described in the Minis instruction manual as Mario's niece.
- In The Last Remnant, after Emma's Heroic Sacrifice, her daughter Emmy immediately comes to replace her as one of the Four Generals of Athlum.
- In the remakes of Generation II Pokemon games, Gold and Silver, the original female playable character, (who, admittedly did not appear until Crystal,) Kris, has been replaced by another character, dubbed "Soul" by the fandom. Her appearance is relatively similar to Kris, (leading some to think she's just a redesigned version of her,) and seems to fit this trope so far.
- It's still unknown if Kotone is a redesigned Kris.
- While Final Fight 2, the straight-to-SNES sequel to Final Fight, kept Haggar from the original game, it also replaced Guy and Cody with Guy's sister-in-law Maki and South American swordsman Carlos respectively. While their techniques have many aesthetic differences from their predecessors (i.e: Carlos uses his sword for his special attack instead of a spinning jump kick), they're pretty much the same and they even have the same abilities (Maki can do a off-the-wall jump kick, while Carlos can stab enemies with a knife).
- Lampshaded in the intro of Megarace 2. Lance tells his assistant, "You're fired," then turns to the camera and says, "Just kidding, folks. You'll be seeing Charlene, or somebody surprisingly similar, throughout the show. Believe me, you won't tell the difference. I won't, and I should know."
- In Dead or Alive 2 series, Bayman from the original game was replaced by another character named Leon, who had the same moveset. When Bayman was brought back in later games, he and Leon were given different movesets.
- Contra: Hard Corps for the Sega Genesis substituted Bill and Lance, the traditional Contra heroes, with a new cast of heroes. One of the new characters is Ray Poward, a blond-haired commando much like Bill Rizer, who has the most conventional arsenal out of the four main characters. Ironically he was the only character from Hard Corps who was kept in Contra: Legacy of War, whereas everyone else was replaced.
- In Samurai Warriors, perky ninja girl Kunoichi got replaced by Nene, the wife of Hideyoshi Toyotomi. They meet up briefly in a gaiden battle in Warriors Orochi 2, and Kunoichi Hangs A Lampshade on said replacement: "Well, if it isn't my Spiritual Successor!" (And those are her exact words.)
- According to Word Of God, Roxas from Kingdom Hearts was made one of these on purpose in 358/2 days, due to worries that people might be uncomfortable playing through the whole game with a character who plays too differently from Sora. So his states, abilities and even magical capabilities were Sora-fied. This, however, is justified, since Roxas and Sora are essentially the same person anyway.
- Everytime Link get's an Exposition Fairy who actually is a fairy, she will be this to the original Exposition Fairy herself, Navi.
- Nu-13 was killed off at the end of BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger by falling into a dead time-stream. Trailers for BlazBlue: Continuum Shift revealed Lambda-11, who re-uses Nu's sprites and rebalanced versions of Nu's moves. Justified because both characters are mass-produced robot clones.
- In Project Justice, Large And In Charge school principal Raizo doesn't make a playable appearance, the storyline explanation being that he was hospitalized thanks to an assassination attempt on his life. When that asssassin (Kurow) becomes playable, his movelist is basically Raizo's own, with a few completely new moves thrown in to differentiate the two.
- Legend Of Dragoon replaces Lavitz with Albert after the former's death and also replaces Shana with Miranda later on. Functionally, they're almost identical.
Web Animation
Web Comics
Western Animation
- Capt. Murphy on Sealab 2021, replaced by Capt. Shanks after the death of Murphy's voice actor Harry Goz. Lampshade Hanging occurs when Shanks (who is actually voiced by Goz's son Michael) tells the crew (and, indirectly, the audience) that he's a replacement, and if they don't like it, they can "go watch 'annie-may'."
- The Futurama episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before", having united almost all the Star Trek original cast, gave us a Suspiciously Similar Substitute named "Welshy" who apparently replaced Doohan for a musical reunion in the 22nd century. This was almost certainly a pointed comment on Doohan's refusal to participate, since the late DeForrest Kelley was just The Voiceless. Welshy was also the Red Shirt, as he was quickly killed off.
- This substitute was lampshaded in the episode's working title - "We Got Everybody But Scotty".
- Darby replacing Christopher Robin in My Friends Tigger and Pooh.
- Lady Jaye and Scarlett are interchangable in G.I. Joe, despite being written as very different characters in the Marvel comic.
- The octopus replacing the crocodile in Return to Neverland.
- King Larry replacing King Louie in House Of Mouse.
- This was due to legal action when Gia Maione, the wife of original actor and now deceased entertainer Louis Prima, sued Disney for unauthorized use of her husband's persona because voice actor Jim Cummings' impression (as heard in Tale Spin) was too dead on. Part of the out of court settlement is that Disney could no longer use King Louie.
- If you ask this troper, that's a stupid reason to sue a company. By that logic, shouldn't Mary Kay Bergman's family sue Tara Strong just because she's Timmy Turner's voice now?
- Though the character existed before, Gil from The Simpsons took Lionel Hutz's job as the family's lawyer after Phil Hartman died.
- After Kenny died "for reals this time" in South Park, his spot as the fourth friend was filled by former minor character Butters. This is lampshaded as the other boys attempt to manipulate him by telling him that "Kenny would do" whatever crazy scheme they have in mind that week, going so far as to call him "Not-Kenny" when he resists. Butters is eventually "fired" as the fourth friend and the boys actually hold try-outs to fill the position. It is briefly filled by Tweek until Kenny eventually shows up (sans explanation) to reclaim his old spot.
- Indeed, he merely walks up to the boys from just off-screen, and announces that he was "hanging out". This despite the fact that in that episode, they've traveled to Canada.
- Unlike most other un-substituted SSS's, Butters also managed to maintain an increased presence on the show, becoming somewhat of an Mauve Shirt.
- When she was shoehorned into Pinky And The Brain, Elmyra Duff found a Replacement Love Interest in Rudy Mookich, a Nelson Muntz Expy who was just as much of an asshole as Montana Max, and Furrball and Byron were replaced by Mr. Pussy-Wussy and Mr. Shellbutt. Maybe that, along with the other conflicts in relation to Tiny Toon Adventures, was the real problem with Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain...
- In a lampshade similar to the Futurama one above, Family Guy's upcoming Poorly Disguised Pilot will be named "Jerome Is the New Black" as Black Best Friend Cleveland gets Put On A Bus to his own spinoff.
- Whizz The Robot became this in Noddy In Toyland, where he replaced Mr. Sparks the mechanic. He previously was not this in his introductory series Say It With Noddy.
- The Animated Adaptation of The Dukes Of Hazzard mirrored its non-animated counterpart in using Coy and Vance instead of Bo and Duke for one season only, though that season was its first.
- In the two-part, season 3 premiere of Ben 10 Alien Force, Chromastone was destroyed and has been replaced with Diamondhead. This could also count as Discard And Draw.
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