The Other Darrin / Live-Action TV

Trope Namer

• On Bewitched, the Trope Codifier and the Trope Namer:
  • Darrin, obviously. Dick York had to be replaced after five seasons because of a past disabling back injury that had torn the muscles on the right side of his back, and developing a strong addiction to pain killers. During his final season on Bewitched, entire episodes had him sitting on a couch or lying in bed. Things were already tensing up as he struggled to remember his lines and show up for work, and execs wanted him fired almost from the beginning, but the final blow was a seizure he had on set that caused him to fall off a platform and bite a hole into his tongue, and it was mutually agreed upon that it was time to go. York would go on to spend years bed-ridden and fighting to overcome both his injury and his painkiller addiction (which he did). The change to Dick Sargent (who ironically was originally offered the part in the beginning, but was unavailable at the time) was very quiet, but audiences were quick to notice "something different" about Darrin. To this day, it is extremely unusual for an actor playing a main character in a television series to be abruptly replaced like this. This example might even be the reason why.
    • History repeated itself 15 years later when the actor who played the father on another supernatural sitcom, the 1980s obscurity Down to Earth, was replaced. The replacement: Dick Sargent! In this case, Sargent actually outlasted the original actor (in Bewitched, Sargent played Darrin for three years, while York played him for five).
    • Sargent also branched out into Suspiciously Similar Substitute territory when he played a replacement sheriff briefly on The Dukes of Hazzard during a season 2 contract dispute with James Best, the actor who played Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane.
  • Gladys Kravitz was originally played by Alice Pearce. When she died of ovarian cancer in the middle of the second season, Sandra Gould replaced her in Season 3 (For the end of Season 2, Abner's sister, Harriet Kravitz, played by Mary Grace Canfield, "filled in" for Gladys).
  • Louise Tate (Larry's wife) was first played by Irene Vernon, later by Kasey Rogers. This was allegedly due to politics, as Vernon was good friends with writer Danny Arnold, who got into a spat with execs, causing them to fire him. Those execs also made sure Vernon was gone as well. It was possibly mutual though as Vernon's husband was ill at the time, and she wanted to spend more time taking care of him. Vernon never acted in film or television again.
  • Frank Stephens, Darrin's father; first played by Robert F. Simon, later by Roy Roberts (with an occasional reprise by Simon). In fact, the changes to Gladys Kravitz, Louise Tate and Frank Stephens, as well as Erin Murphy assuming the role of Tabitha, all occurred between the second and third seasons, when the show switched from black-and-white to color, only compounding the show's different look and feel.

Children's

• Barney & Friends:
  • Bob West, the familiar original voice of Barney the Dinosaur, retired from the role in 2000, then Duncan Brannan and Tim Dever shared vocal duties for the purple dinosaur (Duncan was the singing voice; Tim was the speaking voice) before they were replaced by Dean Wendt.
  • The German dub switched dubbing locations from Munich to Berlin sometime after HiT Entertainment bought the franchise, and as a result the entire cast was replaced.
• Bob Bell, Chicago's Bozo the Clown, retired after more than 20 years of playing the character. After a national talent search Joey D'Auria took over the role. This was covered extensively in local news outlets but on the show itself there was no indication that it was any but the same Bozo (albeit with very different voice and mannerisms).
• The Fresh Beat Band: In the first two seasons, Marina was originally played by Shayna Rose, but in season 3, she was replaced by Tara Perry after the former left to get married and pursue other opportunities.
• Strangest example ever: the two Gabys from Ghostwriter. Gaby started out as Alex's pesky little sister, until the actress hit her growth spurt and was as tall as Alex. So later scripts changed Gaby's personality to reflect this. Then the actress was replaced by a new, shorter one – and Gaby reverted to her old personality.
• King Koopa's Kool Kartoons was a local show that aired on KTTV channel 11 in Los Angeles, California (which at that time was also airing The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!). In this show, "King Koopa" (a costume worn by a live actor) was originally voiced by Christopher Collins (AKA: Chris Latta), but was later replaced by Pat Pinney^note Whom some viewers may know as the voice of the Mighty Mouse in "The New Adventures" series from 1987..
• Halfway through Filmation's Shazam! (1974), Jackson Bostwick as Captain Marvel was fired and replaced with John Davey.
• The BBC's 1997 adaptation of The Phoenix And The Carpet is probably meant to be in continuity with the 1991 adaptation of Five Children and It (the Psammead is the same puppet, operated and voiced by the same puppeteer). However, all the returning human characters are recast, which was fairly inevitable for the leads, who would have grown too much for the roles.
• Every main character of Round the Twist was recast at least once. To prevent the kid characters from getting too old, all of them were recast for the second series (made after a two-year gap) and recast again for the third series (made after an eight-year gap). The adult characters were each replaced at different times as well: Mr Gribble and Matron Gribble were recast for series 2; Tony, Nell, Fay and Matron Gribble were all recast for series 3; Fay and Mr Snapper (the last holdout of the original cast) were recast for series 4.

Comedies

• The Swedish remake of Steptoe and Son, Albert och Herbert, was a major success after the first season, so a second season was soon planned – only for it to be found out that Lennart Lundh, the actor for Herbert, had quit acting to become an antiquarian in Paris. Fortunately, a young actor named Tomas von Brömssen was found as a replacement.
• The television adaptation of The Aldrich Family, which ran from 1949 to 1953, had so many cast changes that each season featured an almost entirely new central cast. In all, fourteen different actors and actresses were rotated in and out of four of the five major roles:
  • Protagonist Henry Aldrich was played by Robert Casey, Richard Tyler, Henry Girard, Kenneth Nelson, and finally Bobby Ellis.
  • Henry's sister Mary was played by Charita Bauer, Mary Malone, and June Dayton.
  • Henry's mother Alice was played by Lois Wilson, Nancy Carroll, and Barbara Robbins.
  • Henry's best friend, Homer Brown, was played by Jackie Kelk, Robert Barry, and Jackie Grimes.
  • The lone aversion was Henry's father Sam, who was played throughout the series by House Jameson (who also played the role on radio).
• The UK sitcom All About Me replaced its star Meera Syal with Nina Wadia after one series, as Syal became more famous and moved on to bigger and better things.
• 'Allo 'Allo! did this a lot:
  • Capitan Bertorelli's actor Gavin Richards was replaced by Roger Kitter, with no explanation.
  • Ernest LeClerc's actor, Derek Royle, died and was replaced by Robin Parkinson. This after the original LeClerc, Roger LeClerc (played by Jack Haig), had been replaced by his twin brother for the same reason.
  • Herr Flick, originally played by Richard Gibson, was played by David Janson in the last season. His different appearance was explained by plastic surgery to avoid capture by the allies.
• Are You Being Served?:
  • Mrs. Peacock, who makes appearances in a few episodes, was played by two actresses: Diana King in her first two appearances, and Diana Lambert in a third.
  • The one-off 2016 Revival featured the original characters played by a brand-new cast of actors, as all the originals had sadly died. These replacements are:
    • Jason Watkins playing Mr. Humphries instead of John Inman (died 2007).
    • Sherrie Hewson playing Mrs. Slocombe instead of Mollie Sugden (died 2009).
    • John Challis playing Captain Peacock instead of Frank Thornton (died 2013).
    • Niky Wardley playing Miss Brahms instead of Wendy Richard (died 2009).
    • Roy Barraclough playing Mr. Grainger instead of Arthur Brough (died 1978).
    • Justin Edwards playing Mr. Rumbold instead of Nicholas Smith (died 2015).
    • Arthur Smith playing Mr. Harman instead of Arthur English (died 1995).
• Another Period: Lauren Ash was the initial actor but left due to Superstore being picked up. As a result, the part was replaced with Lauren Flans.
• The Army Game:
  • Partway through Series 1, Private "Professor" Hatchet (played by Charles Hawtrey) disappeared. When he returned a few episodes later, he was now played by Kieth Smith.
  • "Peanuts" Perry was played by Michael Balfour in "The Convict's Return" and Bernard Cribbins in "Don't Send My Boy to Prison".
• Arrested Development:
  • GOB's girlfriend Marta was played by three different actresses during the series' run. This is pointed out in the DVD commentaries.
  • George Michael's girlfriend Ann was played by a different actress in her first appearance. Word of God is that they planned to cast a new actress for Ann Veal for each appearance; this was abandoned but the "Her?" Running Gag remained.
  • In flashbacks, Lucille and George Sr. were initially played by Jessica Walter and Jeffrey Tambor in makeup. Season 4 instead uses Time Shifted Actors in form of Kristen Wiig and Seth Rogen for the parts. Season 5 seemingly replaced the two with Cobie Smulders and Taran Killam, but it turns out to be a subversion as the "flashbacks" are actually from a Show Within a Show based on the Bluth family's lives. All the child actors portraying the Bluth children in these flashbacks are also obviously replaced, as they would visibly age between seasons (some of which were released years apart.)
• As Time Goes By had two examples: Daisy was played by a different actress after she was reinstated as Lionel's secretary, and Harry was played by a different actor for the reunion special.
• On Back To You, Lily Jackson replaced Laura Marano as Gracie a little over halfway through the season.
• In Barbara's Pilot, Jean and Martin are played by Shirley Anne Field and Glen Davies. The two were replaced by Sherrie Hewson and Mark Benton in the series proper.
• Bette:
  • In a take similar to Roseanne, the characters in Bette Midler's sitcom were discussing this trope around the breakfast table. In episode 13, Bette says something like "Don't you hate that, Roy?" Roy looks up from behind the fridge door, and we see that he's now played by Robert Hays instead of Kevin Dunn.
  • Lindsay Lohan played Rose in the pilot, with Marina Malota in the rest of the series. The pilot was taped in New York, but when production moved to Los Angeles for the main series, Lohan wasn't willing to commute or relocate, and her role was recast. However, producers opted not to reshoot the pilot (in part due to Lohan's newfound star power at the time), leading to this trope.
• Birds of a Feather:
  • Garth was played by two different actors in The BBC series (Simon Nash in Series 1 and Matthew Savage from Series 2-9) and was played by two different actors in the ITV series (Matt Willis in Series 10 and Samuel James in Series 11 and 12).
  • Marcus (when he wasn't The Ghost) was played by Nickolas Grace most of the time except Series 2, when he was played by Stephen Greif.
  • Darryl was played by Alun Lewis up until Series 7 where he was recast to Douglas Mc Ferran after Lewis had prior commitments on Emmerdale.
• In the pilot for Blossom the title character's dad is played by Richard Masur, who doesn't look much like Ted Wass (who played the dad in the series).
• Boy/Girl Meets World:
  • Boy Meets World combined Chuck Cunningham Syndrome with Suspiciously Similar Substitute; Cory's younger sister Morgan was played by two child actresses, in non-consecutive seasons. When the new Morgan appeared, she said she had been sent to her room, and was only now coming back down. Lampshaded when she mentioned in a dazed tone that she had been up there "a long time." Further lampshaded when both actresses appeared in the role in Girl Meets World.
  • Happens to Topanga's parents, where they are almost completely different characters whenever they appear. Topanga's father is played by Peter Tork of The Monkees during the second/third season guest appearances, by Michael McKean in Season 6 and then by dark-haired Mark Harelik in the last season. While Peter Tork accentuated the character's hippie tendencies, the replacement actors made him more "normal". Her mother also changes actresses despite only appearing towards the end of the show, played by Annette O'Toole in the Season 6 finale and by Marcia Cross in the Season 7 appearances.
  • Many people forget that Danny McNulty as Harley Keiner was briefly replaced by Kenny Johnston for "Wrong Side of the Tracks" before being written out until Harely returned with McNulty reprising his role for one episode. McNulty also is reprising the role on Girl Meets World.
  • Joshua "Josh" Matthews, who was played by a non-actor in Daniel Jacobs (creator Michael Jacobs' real life son) in the Boy Meets World finale, is portrayed by Uriah Shelton in Girl Meets World.
• The Brady Bunch: Several instances:
  • The most famous instance concerns Jan in The Brady Bunch Hour. When Eve Plumb was unavailable for the variety series that aired in 1977, actress Geri Reischl stepped into the role. Parodied in The Simpsons Season 8 episode "The Simpsons' Spin-Off Showcase", said segment being titled The Smile-Time Variety Hour (one of three fictional pilots seen in the episode). A blond-haired teenaged girl named "Lisa" replaces the real Lisa, with the explanation that she refused to participate, "But thanks to some creative casting, you won't even notice!"
  • The other two Brady girls, Cindy and Marcia, have had Other Darrins. In A Very Brady Christmas, Cindy was played by Jennifer Runyon (Susan Olsen had just gotten married in the summer of 1988, when the movie was being filmed, and thus unavailable); in 1990's The Bradys, Leah Ayres took over the role of Marcia (Maureen McCormick declined to reprise her role).
• Bread (1986) replaced actors for three of its major characters. Julie (Billy's girlfriend) was played by Caroline Milmoe for the first two seasons and Hilary Crowson from season 3 to 5. Joey was played by Peter Howitt from season 1 to 5 and Graham Bickley thereafter. Aveline was played by Gilly Corman from season 1 to 4 and Melanie Hill thereafter.
• The Burns and Allen Show: Apparently the earliest example of this trope. Four actors had played Harry Morton by the end of the first episode of the fourth season. When Fred Clark, the third Harry Morton, decided to leave the show, George Burns replaced him in the middle of the first episode of the fourth season. In a scene where Blanche Morton was ready to hit her husband in the head with a telephone directory as soon as he came in, George entered, yelled "Stop!" and everyone froze, with the phone book uplifted. George then brought out the new actor, Larry Keating. There was some chitchat, with Clark and Keating saying how much they'd admired each other's work. When George called for the scene to resume, Keating entered and promptly got smacked on the head with the phone book.
• El Chavo del ocho: Chavo's Love Interest Paty was played by two actresses; Rosita Bouchot (in two episodes) and Ana Lilian de la Macorra for the rest of the show (nearly 25 episodes because she was a very recurring character), no one seems to notice the change in look and attire.
• Gary, owner of the rival bar on Cheers, was replaced by a different actor for his second appearance. The interesting twist is that for the rest of the series they kept switching the actors (Joel Polis and Robert Desiderio) back and forth. Since Gary was usually only in one episode a season and the 2 actors looked alike, it's doubtful many people noticed.
• While many members of the cast of Clueless appeared on the series either in their film roles (Elisa Donovan, Stacey Dash, Wallace Shawn) or guesting as other characters (Paul Rudd, Breckin Meyer, Brittany Murphy), for the ABC episodes Dan Hedaya (Cher's father) was replaced by Michael Lerner; when the series moved to UPN he in turn was replaced by the more handsome and much slimmer Doug Sheehan (his character was said to have gone through detox!). Alicia Silverstone, on the other hand, was replaced with Rachel Blanchard from the word go.
• Community:
  • Pedro Pascal replaces Walton Goggins as Mr. Stone in the 2020 table read for "Cooperative Polygraphy" during the mini-reunion for a benefit for the COVID-19 pandemic frontliners. Jim Rash also replaces Lesley Tsina as Mara (the lie detector lady) there, though it's not quite Acting for Two as Dean Pelton doesn't appear in the episode.
  • Because of the passing of Chris Latta and the retirement of Arthur Burghardt, the episode "G.I. Jeff" sees the respective roles of Cobra Commander and Destro voiced by director Rob Schrab and Isaac C. Singleton Jr..
• Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Skyler Astin replaced Santino Fantanna.
• In Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David makes a Seinfeld reunion. When Jason Alexander quits, Larry suggests that he will play George instead, and brings up the other Darrin as an example. The meta-humor here is that "George" was originally created a stand-in for Larry David's personality; David did not feel confident acting in a sitcom.
• For the TV series of Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Evan Richards (as Max) and Mike the Dog were the only ones to repeat their roles from the movie.
• Drake & Josh: Helen Dubois is usually played by Yvette Nicole Brown, but once was played by Frances Callier in the episode "Little Diva", from the second season.
• Amusingly lampshaded in Dream On. The second season starts with Eddie's face wrapped up in gauze in a hospital room. When the gauze is taken off, he appears to have had some Magic Plastic Surgery. However, everybody says that he doesn't look any different. Martin quips "A little younger maybe."
• On the Emmy-winning public access sitcom Elvis And Slick Monty, the actor for Elvis changed after the pilot, then again after the first season concluded. This was lampshaded when the second season opened with the characters watching the 10th season premiere of Family Matters. Slick explained the reason for the new Harriet, but Elvis would have none of it.
• On Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Greg is played by Santino Fontana for the first two seasons, leaves, and when he reappears in Season 4, is played by Skylar Astin. Lampshaded in that when Greg is re-introduced, Rebecca doesn't even recognize him, while everyone else acts like nothing has changed. Everyone agrees that he's changed as a person in his time away, but only Rebecca notices that he has a different face too.
  Rebecca: Wait, where is Greg? I don't see him.
  Heather: What? He's right there. [pointing]
  Rebecca: That's not Greg. That's a completely different person. [Beat] Right? Right? [...] Guys, that's not Greg.
  Heather: ...except for the part where it's Greg.
  Rebecca: He doesn't seem totally different to you guys?
  Valencia: No, but he's your ex-boyfriend. You haven't seen him in a long time. Of course he seems different to you.
• Dad's Army:
  • Several small recurring characters were recast throughout the series:
    • Both of Godfrey's sisters - Dolly was played by Amy Dalby in Series 2's "The Battle of Godfrey's Cottage" but she died shortly after the episode aired, so Dolly became The Ghost until "Is There Honey Still for Tea?" in Series 8, when Joan Cooper (Arthur Lowe's wife) took over for the rest of the series, while Cissy was played by Nan Braunton in Series 2 and 3, and in "Is There Honey Still for Tea?", Kathleen Saintsbury took over.
  • Jones' assistant in the butcher shop, Raymond, was played by Dick Haydon in Series 3's "The Armoured Might of Lance Corporal Jones", and John Ash took over the following series in "The Two and a Half Feathers".
  • Pike's quiet girlfriend, Ivy Samways, was played by Rosemary Faith in the Series 4 episode, "Mum's Army", and Suzanne Kerchiss (Ian Lavender's then-wife) two series later in "My British Buddy".
  • In the live stage show:
    • Hamish Roughead played Frazer as John Laurie wasn't willing to participate.
    • Walker was played by John Bardon as James Beck died two years prior.
    • Jones was originally played by Clive Dunn just as he was in the series, but halfway through Jack Haig (the original choice for Jones) took over.
  • Several parts were recast for Radio due to availability and money factors, most notably Graham Stark and Larry Martyn taking over as Walker after James Beck's death, Pearl Hackney playing Mrs. Pike instead of Janet Davies, and Mollie Sugden playing Mrs. Fox instead of Pamela Cundell.
• On Everybody Loves Raymond, in the season 4 episode "Hackidu", Amy's brother Russel owned a comic store and was played by Paul Reubens. In the Season 7 episode "Just a Formality", we meet Amy's brother again; not only is he now played by Chris Elliott, but his name has been changed to Peter. However, he still remembers Raymond coming to his comic store. He becomes a recurring character for the rest of the series.
• In a first-season episode of The Facts of Life, Blair's mother, Monica Warner, was played by a voluptuous early-30s blonde actress (Pam Huntington) in what was apparently a one-shot appearance. However, several seasons later, Blair's mother became a Recurring Character, and she was played by svelte 40-something brunette Marj Dusay.
• The actress playing Harriet was changed on the very last minute for Family Matters' final season. The original actor felt that the show was suffering Seasonal Rot and wanted no more part of it. This wasn't surprising, considering that the show was supposed to be a spin-off of her character from Perfect Strangers and she was supposed to be the star. Then the intended one-use character Steve Urkel was introduced and Urkelmania took off, causing the show to shift its focus to become all about him and the frustrations he caused the rest of the family. It's a wonder she stuck around as long as she did under those conditions.
• Frasier:
  • Frasier Crane's first wife, Nanette (aka children's entertainer Nanny G) appeared in one episode of Cheers and two episodes of Frasier, and was played by a different actress each time.
  • The dog Eddie was originally played by Moose; over the course of the later seasons, Moose was replaced by his son Enzo.
• In The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Aunt Vivian's actress – Janet Hubert-Whitten – was replaced after the third season, due to an inability to come to a contract agreement and ongoing tension between her and Will Smith. She was replaced with Daphne Maxwell Reid, who remained for the rest of the series. This was lampshaded at the beginning of the fifth season, when Jazz asked Will Smith who they got to replace Vivian this time and a Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome-addled Nicky Banks answered "It's the same mom!" In fact, it was lampshaded quite openly numerous times throughout the show. Will Smith often mugged for the camera after making these comments, which were generally ad-libbed.
• In the second episode of Friends, Ross's ex-wife Carol was played by Anita Barone, whose look and acting style were nothing like those of Jane Sibbett, who replaced her for the rest of the series.
  • A year later, Barone played a major role on The Jeff Foxworthy Show for an entire season, then Ann Cusack replaced her.
  • Rachel's friend Mindy, who eventually married her ex-fiancé, was originally played by Jennifer Grey.
  • Happens to Ben and Emma, but it's less noticeable since they were both babies when this happened.
• Game On replaced the actor playing Matt, Ben Chaplin, with Neil Stuke, and concluded Stuke's first episode with the characters watching Roseanne commenting how much they hated it when a show switched actors. (Almost certainly a Shout-Out to Roseanne doing a Shout-Out in The Other Becky's first episode, with Bewitched.)
• For the three Gilligan's Island telefilms, the entire TV series cast returned to reprise their roles... except for Tina Louise as Ginger Grant, since she blamed the role on destroying her acting career. In the first two telefilms, Judith Baldwin took over the role, while in the third, Constance Forslund played the character. Also, in the original test pilot, Kit Smythe was the original choice for Ginger before Louise was cast.
• The Green Green Grass: Marlene's mother Dora was originally played by Joan Geary in Only Fools and Horses. Here, she's played by June Whitfield.
• The Ur-Example is The Goldbergs (not to be confused with the unrelated ongoing series of the same name). The television version ran on CBS Television from 1949 to 1951 and co-starred Philip Loeb as Jake Goldberg.^note He also played Jake during the radio predecessor from 1928-1947. In 1950, Philip Loeb was blacklisted and accused of being a Communist, and pressure was placed on Gertude Berg (who both starred in and owned the television version as she had the radio original) to fire him. When she refused, General Foods cancelled their sponsorship, and CBS dropped it from their schedule by June 1951. Eight months later, however NBC – the show's original broadcasting home – picked up the series for the 1952-53 season, but informed Gertrude Berg that if she persisted in allowing Philip Loeb to remain with the series, it would never be seen on television again. She finally gave in, and the series reappeared in a twice-weekly, early-evening 15 minute format (with another change in title, to Molly, in due course), with Harold Stone and then Robert H. Harris replacing Loeb as Jake, though Berg quietly continued to pay a salary to Loeb. Another example was Tom Taylor replacing Larry Robinson as Molly's son, Sammy.
• On The Golden Girls, different actresses played visiting children quite a lot. Rose's daughter Kirsten was first played by Christina Belford in her initial appearance, then later played by Lee Garlington. Dorothy's daughter Kate was first played by Lisa Jane Persky, then by Deena Freeman. Dorothy's sister Gloria was first played by Doris Belack, then by Dena Dietrich. The most drastic difference was Blanche's daughter, who was played by a heavy actress in her first appearance, then by a much slimmer, more attractive actress in her second appearance.
• Goodnight Sweetheart is a British sitcom about a man who practices bigamy by time-travelling back to the 1940s and marrying another woman there. Both wives' actresses were changed at the start of the fourth season.
• On Grace Under Fire, the title character's son Quentin was played by three different actors – Noah Segan in the pilot, then Jon Paul Steuer, and Sam Horrigan in the final two seasons. The second switch is notable for also being a case of Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome, as Quentin went from a pre-teen to a fifteen year old.
• Happy Days:
  • The original 1972 pilot (aired as an episode of Love, American Style) featured Harold Gould as Howard Cunningham and Susan Neher as Joanie. When time came to film the series proper, Gould was initially set to reprise the role of Howard, but had to back out due to other commitments and was replaced by Tom Bosley. Also, the original version of the series' first episode, "All the Way", featured an unnamed actress replacing Neher as Joanie; said actress was replaced by Erin Moran afterwards.
  • Chuck Cunningham was played by Ric Carrott in the original pilot, Gavan O'Herlihy in Season 1, and then Randolph Roberts in Season 2. After Roberts quit, this lead to the producers to just drop the Chuck character altogether, never giving an explanation for his disappearance.
  • In their first appearance in season one, Ralph Malph's parents were named Harry and Hazel Malph and were played by Mike Monahan and Gracia Lee, respectively. From their second appearance onward, they were renamed Mickey and Minnie Malph, with Mickey now played by Jack Dodson and Minnie never being shown on-camera again. Further, Alan Oppenheimer replaced Dodson in one appearance, while Dodson returned in all appearances afterward.
• Krista Errickson replaced Donna Wilkes as Diane Alder after the first season of Hello Larry.
• Iconic Australian Sitcom Hey Dad..! did it with not one, but two characters. Simon Kelly was played by Paul Smith in 1987, then by Christopher Mayer from 1988-91. Simon's little sister Jenny was played by Sarah Monahan from 1987-93 and by Angela Keep from 1993-94. Jenny's change was lampshaded with a line like "You've really changed at that boarding school", but Simon's change was completely unacknowledged.
• Gary from Hi-de-Hi! was played by Terence Creasy in Series 1, and by Chris Andrews in all series afterwards. In the early days, Gary was nothing more than a Living Prop so it's doubtful that many viewers would've noticed the change for such an incredibly minor character.
• On Home Improvement, Jill's sister Robin appeared in two episodes and was played by a different actress each time.
• The vast majority of the main characters in Home Movie: The Princess Bride are portrayed by multiple actors, changing actors at least after each scene (and sometimes within scenes). Buttercup has the most at seventeen actors — not counting Robin Wright in footage from the original — three of whom are men.
• On The Honeymooners, both Alice and Trixie were played by three actresses:
  • Alice:
    • When Gleason was on the DuMont network's Cavalcade of Stars, Pert Kelton played Alice. Kelton's husband had been blacklisted when Gleason moved to CBS, and her career suffered due to guilt by association.
    • Audrey Meadows, who is most identified with the role, took over when the show debuted on CBS.
    • Sheila MacRae assumed the role in a couple of TV specials between 1966 and 1973.
  • Trixie:
    • Elaine Stritch played the role in the first outing on the DuMont show.
    • Stritch was replaced by Joyce Randolph, who is most identified with the role.
    • In the 1966-73 specials, Jane Kean assumed the role.
• Happened on Hope & Faith when Nicole Paggi was replaced with Megan Fox as the teenage daughter Sydney after the first season. The show is credited as a big stepping stone in Megan Fox's career, but she looked nothing like Nicole (who was a blonde. Megan was a brunette), and even though she was technically 9 years younger, she looked much older, old enough to be her aunt Faith (played by Kelly Ripa)'s sister. Jansen Panettiere, meanwhile, was replaced with Paulie Litt as son Justin after the pilot.
• How I Met Your Mother:
  • Robin's father was portrayed by Eric Braeden in season 4, but was later played by Ray Wise.
  • Tom, Barney's brother-in-law, was played by an unnamed actor for a picture◊ and can also be seen to be Caucasian in the later wedding scene (although only the top of his head can be glimpsed). Later on season 7, he was portrayed by Jai Rodriguez, creating a weird ethnicity◊ switch.
  • In her first appearance, Barney's mother was voiced by Megan Mullaly. When she appeared onscreen she was played by Frances Conroy.
• I Dream of Jeannie:
  • In the first Reunion Show Major Nelson is played by Wayne Rogers (Trapper John from M*A*S*H) instead of Larry Hagman.
  • In the first season of the original series, Jeannie's mother was played by, in "My Hero", Florence Sundstrom; in "What House Across the Street?", Lurene Tuttle. In the fourth season, expanding on the trope of Barbara Eden herself playing Jeannie's sister, she twice played her mother.
• The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret : Doug Whitney was played by Spike Jonze in the first two seasons and Jack McBrayer in the third. Lampshaded with a "you look different" moment.
• Virginia was played by Anna Palk in It's Awfully Bad for Your Eyes, Darling...'s Pilot and Jennifer Croxton in the series proper.
• Two of Jeeves and Wooster's characters are played by three different actors each (Madeline Bassett and Constable Oates) and Aunt Dahlia is played by a different actress every series. The total number of characters (some fairly major) who change actors at some point runs into double figures. This can result in a fair amount of confusion and arguments when watching the entire run, as the show makes no real effort to ease the transitions for the viewer. Even worse is when an actor who played one character re-appears as a different character later in the series – for example, one actress who started out as Madeline Bassett plays Florence Craye in later episodes.
• On Keeping Up Appearances, Rose was played first by Shirley Stelfox and then Mary Millar.
• The King of Queens:
  • Deacon and Kelly's sons were played by several different actors over the course of the series. Then again, they were extremely young, so most casual viewers probably didn't notice.
  • Happens to Spence's mom Veronica. In her first appearance, she's played by actress Grace Zabriskie, but in all her subsequent appearances she's played by Anne Meara. (This is meant to be an in-joke, since Meara is Jerry Stiller's Real Life wife, and Veronica is depicted as being in love with Stiller's character Arthur.) What makes it really Hilarious in Hindsight is that in that first episode where Zabriskie had played Veronica, Meara had appeared as a completely different character who also harbored a crush on Arthur!
• Season 2 of Last Man Standing saw some of this. The most notable example is the oldest daughter Kristin, whose actress changed from Alexandra Krosney to Amanda Fuller for "creative reasons." Her high school boyfriend (later husband) Ryan was played by Nick Jonas as a guest star in Season 1, but has since been played by Jordan Masterson after the character became a regular. In addition, their son Boyd was originally played by the twins Evan and Luke Kruntchev for his Season 1 appearances, and by Flynn Morrison after the character was slightly aged up in Season 2. When the show was Un-Canceled by FOX for the seventh season, middle daughter Mandy was recast from Molly Ephraim to Molly McCook, and the character demoted to recurring status; this is lampshaded in one episode by having Kyle, Mandy's husband, try to figure out what's different about his wife. Boyd was also recast yet again, this time to Jet Jurgensmeyer.
• Gwendolyn Watts played Joan Booth in Love Thy Neighbour's Pilot but was replaced by Kate Williams for the series proper.
• Mad About You:
  • Subverted in the form of Paul and Jamie's neighbors Maggie and Hal Conway. Paxton Whitehead originated the role of husband Hal Conway and played it for a few episodes. When he wasn't available for an episode, actor Jim Piddock took over the role, implicitly playing the same Hal. Much later, Whitehead was available again. Upon his return in the first episode, Maggie says, "I divorced my second Hal, and remarried the first one."
  • The trope was played completely straight with Jamie's parents, who are played by three sets of actors, culminating in the Stunt Casting of Carol Burnett and Carroll O'Connor.
• When the character of Trapper John McIntyre (played in the movie by Elliott Gould) left M*A*S*H, he reappeared in the stateside medical drama Trapper John, M.D.. Wayne Rogers played him on M*A*S*H, Pernell Roberts on Trapper John. (This one is justified in that the latter series takes place some 25 years after the former, and thus involved a much older character.)
  • Father Mulcahy was played by George Morgan in the show's pilot before William Christopher took the role. (The character's first name was also changed from John to Francis.)
  • Only Radar and a few minor characters are played by the same actor in both the film and the TV series. Every other major character is an example of the trope. Rene Auberjonois was offered the chance to reprise the role of Father Mulcahy but turned it down.
  • Margaret Houlihan's fiancé and later husband, Lt. Donald Penobscot, was played by a different actor in each of his two appearances on the show. Ditto visiting nurse Meg Craddy.
  • Three different actresses played Rosie (of Rosie's Bar) during the show's run.
  • There were lots of different actresses who played "Nurse Able" or "Nurse Baker" in various episodes. Part of this may be that "Able" and "Baker" were the phonetic alphabet for "A" and "B", and so they were never meant to be much more for placeholder names for when the writers had no choice but address an extra nurse by name (note that the nurse played by Kellye Nakahara, in later episodes canonized as "Lt. Kealani Kellye", got refered to early on as either Able or Baker, before being assigned a number of other names ["Nurse Yamato" and "Nurse Nakahara" among them]).
  • Mildred Potter (Colonel Potter's wife) appeared in M*A*S*H only as a photograph (of Harry Morgan's real-life wife Eileen Detchon); but in the unsuccessful spinoff AfterMASH, she was played by Barbara Townsend in the first season and Anne Pitoniak in the second (the OTHER Other Darrin?).
• Somewhat lampshaded in Meet The Browns when Logan Browning replaced Brianne Gould as the character Brianna for the second season. Upon first seeing her, Brown asks, "Who are you?" Brianna replies, "I'm Brianna." To which Brown says, "You a lie!" He seemed to be the only one to realize that the actress for the character had been switched.
• On The Millers, Eve Moon was replaced by Lulu Wilson as Mikayla halfway through the first season. Aside from the obvious physical differences, Lulu is more expressive and plays the character a bit goofier than Eve.
• When Modern Family's Cam and Mitchell first adopted their daughter Lily, twins Ella and Jaden Hiller played her on-screen. After two seasons, Aubrey Anderson-Emmons took over and has played her ever since.
• The 1960s sitcom The Mothers In Law replaced without comment one of the principal actors, rotund, mustachioed Roger C. Carmel (Harry Mudd on Star Trek) with bald, bespectacled Richard Deacon (Mel Cooley on The Dick Van Dyke Show).
• In The Munsters, Marilyn Munster was played by two different actresses: Beverley Owen (in the first 13 episodes) and Pat Priest (in the rest of the series). Marilyn was recast yet again for the follow-up theatrical film, Munsters Go Home with Debbie Watson. Nobody seemed to notice or care. Owen only worked on the series at all because of a contract obligation and quit at the first opportunity. Priest however, was greatly upset at being replaced for the film, especially since Watson was only cast because Universal was trying to push her as the next big teen idol.
  • In the 1981 telefilm, both Eddie and Marilyn were replaced (with K.C. Martel and Jo McDonnell respectively) because their original actors were too old.
  • Beginning with the 1988 reboot/sequel, all incarnations of the series have had different actors for all characters.
  • Nate "Happy" Derman played Eddie in the original pilot instead of Butch Patrick (though this incarnation of the character acted more like a pet than a child), and the mother of the family was "Phoebe" played by Joan Marshall (basically a Morticia Addams knockoff) instead of Yvonne DeCarlo as Lily.
• My Big Fat Greek Life, the TV sequel to the film My Big Fat Greek Wedding, managed to snare every major actor from the film except for John Corbett, who had played the groom in said wedding. The series begins with his wife's mother telling him "You look different", then quickly commenting that her daughter does too.
• Tania Thomas was played by three different actresses over the course of My Parents Are Aliens.
• When Mystery Science Theater 3000 moved from local Minneapolis station KTMA to Comedy Central (then-called The Comedy Channel), Jim Mallon took over from Josh Weinstein as the voice of Gypsy. It's possible that most people never noticed since, at the time, Gypsy had very few lines, and was close to being The Unintelligible when she did speak. Years later, when Mallon stopped appearing regularly in front of the camera, Patrick Brantseg stepped in as Gypsy, with few differences in voice.
  • Later, when Weinstein left the show after the first season, Kevin Murphy stepped in for Weinstein as the voice of Tom Servo; but the difference was explained in-series as Joel tinkering around with things.
  • The departure of Trace Beaulieu, who played Crow T. Robot, when the series moved from Comedy Central to the Sci-Fi Channel resulted in a change to Crow's voice when Bill Corbett took over the role. Crow's voice change was referenced in the Sci-Fi opening credits, during which Crow proclaims, "I'm different!"
    • In a later episode, Crow is telling Mike (who's turning into a Were-Crow) what to expect from his transformation, and mentions that "Your voice is gonna change inexplicably every seven years or so."
    • In season premiere of season ten, Joel takes notice of Crow's different voice and says that Crow "changed his beak" (admitting that it was in fact a bowling pin).
    • Then in Season 11, when the show was revived after an eighteen-year hiatus, an all-new cast took over, resulting in new voices for Tom, Crow, and Gypsy. Gypsy's was explained by the new host tinkering with her voice box, the other two were left unexplained. (Though there's a chance they're not even the same Tom, Crow, and Gypsy, which may or may not be explained in Season 12)
• In My Wife and Kids Claire was played by Jazz Raycole in the first season. Jennifer Freeman (who looks nothing like Jazz Raycole) plays her in the second onward, when Freeman debuted as Claire her father Michael (Damon Wayans) even commented saying "I don't know what it is, but you look like a whole new person!". The reason was because Raycole's mother objected to the then upcoming "Claire's friend is pregnant" plot and pulled her daughter out of the show. Junior's girlfriend Vanessa was also played by two actresses (Meagan Good then Brooklyn Sudano).
• The actor playing the electrician in the pilot for NewsRadio was replaced in the second episode with Joe Rogan, who made the character his own and made him an Ascended Extra.
• On The Odd Couple Felix's daughter Edna was played in different seasons by Pamelyn Ferdin and Doney Oatman, who, other than both being blonde, looked very different from each other.
• The Office (US)
  • The actress who played Pam's mom was re-cast
  • Andy's parents in the Season 5 finale were different than Andy's parents in Season 8. In season 5, his parents were perfectly pleasant. In season 8, the change in casting was for the purpose of bringing in more experienced actors to explain his backstory more as a stunted manchild who was emotionally abused.
• Oh, Doctor Beeching!: May Skinner was played by Sherrie Hewson in the unbroadcast Pilot, and by Julia Deakin in the series.
• On the Buses:
  • Cicely Courtneidge played Mum in Series 1. Doris Hare took over the part from Series 2 onwards.
  • Reg Varney was unavailable for a 1972 Christmas Night with the Stars sketch, so Larry Martyn (who would later play Fred in two Series 7 episodes) filled in for him.
• Outsourced replaced Sarayu Rao with Noureen DeWulf as Rajeev's fiancee Vimi after two appearances.
• The Partridge Family:
  • The first Chris, Jeremy Gelbwaks, was fired at the end of the first season (reportedly for starting fights with other cast members) and replaced by Brian Forster, who looked absolutely nothing like him.
  • Ray Bolger played Grandpa Fred for 2 episodes, and by the time of Bolger's third appearance, he was renamed Grandpa Walter. A year later, Jackie Coogan was brought in as Grandpa Walter.
• Seven different actresses were cast in the roles of Kate's three daughters on Petticoat Junction, with the first cast change happening even before the series started filming (an early example of Sharon Tate's amazing bad luck).
• Phyllis (one of three spinoffs of The Mary Tyler Moore Show) had one of the most tragic examples of this trope: Barbara Colby (who played Phyllis Lindstrom's boss) was replaced by Liz Torres when Colby was killed in a drive-by shooting after four episodes had been produced.
• Please Sir!: When the original 5C pupils returned in the Series 4 episode "Old Fennians Day", Penny Spencer and Malcolm Mc Fee didn't return, so Sharon and Craven were now played by Carol Hawkins (who had taken over the role in the film) and Leon Vitali (who had taken over the role in Series 1 of The Fenn Street Gang).
• Red Dwarf:
  • Chloë Annett replaced Clare Grogan as Kochanski when she became a main character. Might be justified by her being from a parallel universe, but Lister reacts as if she's just like "his" Kochanski.
  • After a single episode as Kryten in series II, David Ross was replaced by Robert Llewellyn when Kryten permanently joined the crew in series III. This was explained as Kryten having to be rebuilt after an accident.
  • Talkie Toaster was voiced by John Lenahan for two episodes in series I, but was replaced by the aforementioned David Ross for series IV's "White Hole" and series XII's "Mechocracy".
  • Holly was played by Norman Lovett in the first two Series, Hattie Hayridge from series III-V, and once more by Lovett from the character's return in series VII and onwards. These changes were explained by the fact that Holly's face is just a simulation that can be changed easily and he'd already given himself a completely new one as a joke in series II's "Queeg".
• Roseanne had lots of fun with this trope when Sarah Chalke replaced Lecy Goranson as the Conners' eldest daughter Becky for three seasons. She originally took over for Season 6 when Lecy Goranson chose to focus on school, however Goranson returned for Season 8 when her schedule worked out (with Chalke still filling in three episodes when Goranson was unavailable), but Chalke once again took over full-time for Season 9 after Goranson quit for good. The scriptwriters brazenly point it out at several points.
  • When the new Becky angers Roseanne in one episode, Roseanne quips, "I can have you replaced, you know."
  • The very first time the original Becky appears onscreen upon returning this conversation ensues between her and Roseanne.
    Becky: (carrying paint rags) Here, Dad, this is all I could find.
    Roseanne: Where in the hell have you been?
    Becky: Don't yell at me, Mother, I was getting this.
    Roseanne: Well, it took you long enough — seems you've been gone for three years.
  • Darlene's first words to the character are "Where the hell have you been?" and Becky replies by asking "why does everyone keep saying that to me?" during which the actress is barely holding back laughter.
  • In one episode, both actresses appeared, recreating the opening sequence from The Patty Duke Show (although some thought it was the Marx Brothers' famous "mirror gag"). The second Becky appears at the Conners' doorstep with a pair of trick or treaters and cheerful attitude; Mark (the character's husband) remarks "this is like déjà vu all over again" and Roseanne later comments, "Gee, I wish we had a daughter that sweet."
  • Chalke was introduced by the cast specifically referencing this trope – in The Tag of her first episode, the family is watching Bewitched and the topic of how an actor change should be presented to the viewing audience is brought up, right before the camera focuses on the new Becky for the first time. She then smilingly comments that she prefers the second Darrin.
  • In the Disney vacation episode, the Becky actresses changed AGAIN for that one episode (along with two other season 8 episodes), and when the actress first entered the episode it paused, a voiceover explained the full history of the two actresses switching, and later Roseanne comments, "Aren't you happy you're here this week?"
  • A Clip Show with a framing sequence set in the future featured John Goodman as an adult DJ, almost catatonic following some mysterious trauma in his childhood. He just kept repeating "They say she's the same, but she isn't the same."
  • Becky wasn't even the only Conner child to be replaced. Sal Barone, who played DJ only in the pilot, was replaced for the series by Michael Fishman because he had grown too much during the writer's strike.
  • For the Roseanne revived tenth season in 2018, Lecy Goranson once again returned as Becky, but Sarah Chalke returned as a new character, Andrea, who considers hiring Becky to act as a surrogate for her baby.
• Sabrina the Teenage Witch:
  • Sabrina's father is played by Robbie Benson in the first season. He does not appear again until Season 4, where he's now played by Doug Sheehan.
  • Pamela Blair played Sabrina's mother Diana in Season 2. For her Season 6 and 7 appearances, she's played by Alley Mills.
  • Cousin Marigold was played by Robin Ricker in Season 1 and Hallie Todd in Season 3.
• Seinfeld handled this interestingly. The first time George's father appeared, he was played by John Randolph, who was replaced by Jerry Stiller for all later appearances. The scenes with John Randolph were actually re-shot with Jerry Stiller playing the part, and the re-shot scenes were what was shown in reruns.
  • The character of Newman made his debut with a voice-only appearance (played by creator Larry David) in Season 2's "The Revenge". After Wayne Knight assumed the role on-screen, Newman's lines in "The Revenge" were rerecorded with Knight's voice.
  • Jerry's father was played by Phil Bruns in his first appearance and Barney Martin subsequently; the producers had wanted to reshoot with Barney Martin too, but found that the other actors had aged too much since the first season for the replacement to be convincing.
  • The character of Lloyd Braun was played by Peter Keleghan in his first appearance and Matt McCoy in subsequent appearances. The two actors look nothing alike.
• That '70s Show:
  • Laurie was played by Lisa Robin Kelly in Seasons 1-5 and replaced by Christina Moore (who was one of many short-lived MADtv cast members in the same vein as Simon Helberg and Taran Killam) in the 6th season.
  • Jackie Burkhart's mother Pam was originally portrayed by Eve Plumb but when she returned from an extended vacation Brooke Shields had replaced her.
• Played straight and lampshaded with Allison Stark in 'Til Death, even going as far as (sort-of) namedropping the trope and occasions on other shows where this has happened. Allison's boyfriend has a minor case of Medium Awareness and is therefore the only character on the show to notice the change.
• Till Death Us Do Part: Bert was played by Bill Maynard in his first two appearances and Alfie Bass in his further twelve.
• On Titus, Titus's violent, manic-depressive schizophrenic mother Juanita was played by three different actresses. In season one's "Mom's Not Nuts," Juanita was played by Christine Estebrook. In season two's "Locking Up Mom," "The Reconciliation," and "The Wedding," Juanita was played by Frances Fisher. In season three's "The Trial" and "The Visit," Juanita was played by Connie Stevens ^note It should be noted that Christine Estebrook had Juanita as a brunette, while Fisher and Stevens had Juanita as a redhead. Whether this reflected Juanita's mental illness or was merely an oversight in casting is not known.
• The Trouble With You Lilian: Madge was played by Beryl Reid in the radio series and by Dandy Nichols in the TV series.
• Twitch City recast the role of Rex Reilly between Seasons 1 and 2, lampshading it when talk show host Rex mentions his "on-air cranium transplant." However, this explanation is undone by the season premiere, for which a flashback to Nathan's appearance on the talk show was reshot with the new Rex.
• Clare Buckfield replaced Georgina Cates as Jenny after the first series of 2point4 Children.
• In season one of the sitcom Will & Grace, Will's estranged brother Sam made an appearance, played by future Mad Men John Slattery. In season 8, Sam Truman makes an appearance again, this time played by Steven Weber.
• In the pilot for WKRP in Cincinnati, the mother of the station manager was played by Sylvia Sidney. She wasn't available for the series because of other acting commitments, so she was replaced by Carol Bruce, who was about a decade younger and much taller than Sidney. A subsequent Clip Show then had the scene from the original pilot re-shot with Bruce.
• In the 1987 ITV adaptation of The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole, most of the cast of 1985's Secret Diary reprised their roles, except that Adrian's mother was played by Lulu rather than Julie Walters. This led to one sketch show running a parody in which Adrian became increasingly convinced that his mother was Lulu, who had replaced his real mother for reasons unknown.
• You Me Her: Kevin O'Grady plays Gabe, Jack's brother, in Season 1, with Dave Collette taking up the role for the rest of the series. It's especially jarring as the actors playing them don't remotely look like each other, so at first the viewer might be baffled as to who he is after Season 2.
• The first two episodes of Coppers End filmed had a completely different cast — Joan Sims played Sergeant Pringle, Trevor Peacock played Sam Short, John Carlin played Eddie, Will Leighton played Chipper, and Barry Lineham played Ripper. After Sims left the series due to an illness, the two episodes filmed (as well as the next three planned) were scrapped. The series would then be recast with Josephine Tewson, Bill Owen, Richard Wattis, George Moon, and Kevin Brennan in the aforementioned roles. Only Royce Mills was in both casts, playing Dinkie.
• Room at the Bottom (1967): Happy is played by Richard Pearson in the 1966 Pilot and by Gordon Rollings in the series proper.

Dramas

• The Adventures of Robin Hood had two different actresses play the role of Maid Marian: Bernadette O'Farrell in series 1-2, and Patricia Driscoll in series 3-4.
• The Adventures of Superboy: Superboy actor John Haymes Newton supposedly demanded a higher salary and/or was convicted of a DUI after the first season of the show, so he was replaced with Gerard Christopher for Season 2. The same thing happened with the role of Lex Luthor, which passed from Season 1's Scott Wells to Sherman Howard for the remainder of the show (credited in this case to Magic Plastic Surgery).
• Lynda Bellingham taking over from Carol Drinkwater in the role of Helen in All Creatures Great and Small (1978).
• All Rise saw Todd Williams replaced by Christian Keyes as Lola’s husband, FBI agent Robin Taylor, when the show was Un-Cancelled.
• The Amazing Spider-Man (1978) had two characters who were played by two different actors.
  • Aunt May is portrayed by Jeff Donnell in the Pilot Movie, with Irene Tedrow portraying her in the episode "Night of the Clones".
  • J. Jonah Jameson was originally portrayed in the pilot by David White. The remainder of the series instead had the character played by Robert F. Simon.
• In the Arrowverse:
  • In the first season of Arrow, Sarah Lance is played by Jacqueline MacInnes Wood, where she dies in a flashback in the pilot. Starting in season 2, she's played by Caity Lotz. Gets into a bit of a Continuity Snarl, since there are some plot points in season 1 based on her appearance. Wood was a tall brunette, while Lotz is blonde and about average height. They even retconned her name — once Lotz came on, her name was spelled Sara, without an "h".
  • Linda Park made a brief appearance in one episode, portrayed by Olivia Cheng. When the character became an Ascended Extra in the Spinoff, The Flash, she was recast with Malese Jow taking the role. Also, in his first appearance in season 5, August Heart was played by the First Nations actor Kindall Charters, while his Godspeed persona was voiced by BD Wong. When he returned in season 7, he was now played by the Indian actor Karan Oberoi, who even says a few lines in Hindi.
  • Kara of Supergirl had both of her parents Darrin'ed over the course of the series. Her mother, Alura, was played by Laura Benanti in the first two seasons, but Benanti was unable to reprise her role in Season 3 because of her Broadway career, resulting in Erica Durance being brought in to replace her. Her father, Zor-El, was played by Robert Gant when he was just a backstory character, but after he became important, he was recast with Jason Behr.
  • Superman & Lois recast two recurring characters from Supergirl. Sam Lane and Morgan Edge, formerly played by Glenn Morshower and Adrian Pasdar, are now played by Dylan Walsh and Adam Rayner. It's really notable with Edge because Rayner is over ten years younger than Pasdar (also British rather than American). Justified due to the Crisis changing reality, as well as the fact that he's actually a Kryptonian.
• The TV series Assignment: Vienna had its entire regular cast made up of Other Darrins – the pilot film, Assignment: Munich (even the location was a case of The Other Darrin) starred Roy Scheider, Richard Basehart and Werner Klemperer, but Scheider elected not to do the series because he thought films were his future (SeaQuest DSV notwithstanding, he was right); hence all three leads were replaced by Robert Conrad, Charles Cioffi and Anton Diffring respectively, with filming changed to Vienna so the 1972 Olympics wouldn't disrupt production.
• Network executives didn't like the idea of Dirk Benedict playing Faceman in The A-Team, which is why Tim Dunigan plays him in the pilot.
• Auf Wiedersehen, Pet: Two of the kids from Series 2 were recast for the Revival:
  • Neville's daughter Debbie was played by Kevin Whately's actual daughter Catherine, before being recast with Danielle Davison.
  • Oz's son Rodney was played by Barry Hollinshead in his one appearance in "Majorie Doesn't Live Here Anymore", before being recast with Mark Stobbart.
• Babylon 5:
  • Actress Caitlin Brown played the Narn attache Na'Toth in the first season. Brown then quit due to trouble with her prosthetic makeup and also in order to expand her film career – she was replaced by Mary Kay Adams. In one episode of the final season, Na'Toth reappeared alive after being presumed dead, in a Centauri prison cell – Caitlin Brown came back for this final appearance of the character.
  • The first actor to play the recurring role of Draal was unavailable after one episode, so a younger actor was selected with a Lampshade Hanging that the machine he was plugged into in his last appearance not only extended his life but restored his youth. Later the second actor left for Broadway, and the character was dropped entirely as everyone agreed it would be too much to expect audiences to accept a third actor. To further complicate matters, the original actor later returned portraying a different recurring character, Brother Theo.
  • Sheridan's wife Anna was originally portrayed in photos, video clips and flashbacks by Beth Toussaint, who looked nothing like Melissa Gilbert, brought in when Anna became a "live" on-screen character after her "resurrection". At the time of her casting, producer J. Michael Straczynski considered re-editing earlier episodes to replace the original actress with Melissa Gilbert but decided against it.
• Barbary Coast: Cash Conover was played by Dennis Cole in the pilot move, and by Doug McClure in the series.
• On the old Batman:
  • The role of Catwoman went from Julie Newmar to Lee Meriwether for Batman: The Movie, and then in the final season it went to Eartha Kitt.
  • In his three appearances, Mr. Freeze was played by George Sanders, Otto Preminger, and Eli Wallach.
  • John Astin replaced Frank Gorshin as The Riddler in one story.
• Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome: The Cylon-War era Bill Adama is portrayed by Luke Pasqualino instead of Nico Cortez, who appeared as him in flashback scenes in the Razor special.
• Baywatch:
  • Neely Capshaw of was played by three actresses: Heather Campbell as a guest character, Gena Lee Nolin as a regular character, and finally by Jennifer Campbell for a few episodes in the ninth season.
  • Matt's dad was played by Dirk Benedict of The A-Team and Battlestar Galactica (1978) fame in Season 3, but Benedict was replaced by Jim McMullan in Season 4.
  • Hobie was played by Brandon Call in Season 1, and by Jeremy Jackson in all subsequent seasons.
  • Mitch's brother Jim was played by Tim Thomerson in Season 2 and by John Beck in Season 4. When his Season 4 debut had to flash back to his first appearance, Beck actually refilmed a scene that originally had Thomerson in it.
• Being Human has "The Other Darrins". Two of the main trio and one other important character were replaced between the pilot and the series. Aidan Turner replaced Guy Flanagan as Mitchell, Lenora Crichlow replaced Andrea Riseborough as Annie and Jason Watkins replaced Adrian Lester as Herrick. These last two are especially noticeable because Lenora has tan skin and dark hair, while Andrea is pale and blond, and Lester is black while Watkins is white. The curious thing is that the pilot is still part of the plot, but once the series proper started they didn't re-shoot the episode so much as make new scenes with the new characters to bridge the gap.
• Better Call Saul:
  • Kaylee Ehrmantraut and her mother were recast from Breaking Bad, Kaylee out of necessity due to being in her single digit years, and Stacey due to the need for a more prominent actress to fill the larger role she has in the story.
  • Jeff is recast with Don Harvey playing the role in Seasons 4 and 5, and Pat Healy taking over in Season 6.
• The youngest daughter of Bill and Barb Henrickson in Big Love suddenly grew up and changed appearance in the fourth season; Jolean Wejbe was replaced by Bella Thorne. No one mentioned anything.
• The Blacklist: Supporting character Dominic Wilkinson was portrayed by Brian Dennehy for the third through seventh season. However, by the seventh season's finale, Dennehy died from his failing health, and the character is now portrayed by actor Ron Raines from the eighth season onward.
• Black Sails: During the break between the first and second seasons Jannes Eiselen, who played Dufresne, was diagnosed with brain cancer. Recovery from surgery meant he was unable to return, so Roland Reed took over for the second season and remained in the role until the character was killed off.
• Blake's 7 did this with two major characters and one minor one.
  • Travis, The Dragon, is played by Stephen Greif in Season 1 and Brian Croucher in Season 2.
  • The very minor Federation bureaucrat Ven Glynd has two appearances in different seasons and is played by a different actor each time.
  • The voice of Orac was provided by Peter Tuddenham, who also voiced the Liberator computer Zen and later the Scorpio computer Slave, for his regular-cast appearances in Seasons Two to Four, after Derek Farr, who voiced Orac in his introduction in the Season One finale, was unwilling to sign up as a regular cast member.
• In the 2010s BBC adaptation of P.G. Wodehouse's Blandings, Beach the butler was recast from Mark Williams in series 1 to Tim Vine in series 2.
• The TV adaptation of Blue Thunder only saw one human character carry over. Capt. Braddock was played by Warren Oates in the theatrical film, and Sandy McPeak in the TV series. This was a necessity, as Oates had died a year before the film even hit theaters.
• Bones:
  • Benito Martinez (Capt. Aceveda of The Shield) played a one-off chacter Vega, an author whose fame came from following, and making famous, a serial killer "The Gravedigger". This killer was never caught, and abandoned for a few seasons. Suddenly "The Gravedigger's" back, and all suspects are rounded up again. Included is Vega, now played by Marco Sanchez. He's there mainly to be killed off halfway through, but they hardly looked alike beyond being tall and Latino.
  • Michelle, Cam's adopted daughter, is portrayed by Dana Davis, who got a starring role on another show for the next season and was replaced with Tiffany Hines.
• The 1970s BBC drama series The Brothers replaced its male lead character Edward Hammond after the first series. Welsh Glyn Owen was replaced by Irish Patrick O'Connell, who has a completely different appearance and portrayed the character quite differently. Amazingly, the show survived this recasting and continued for six more series.
• Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: Mel Blanc was replaced by Chris Lorch for Twiki's voice for the first part of the second season.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • None of the characters that carried over from the movie— Buffy, her mother, her father, or her first watcher, Merrick (seen only in flashbacks on the series)— were played by the same actors. It is debatable whether this qualifies for the trope, since Joss Whedon has explicitly stated that the series is not a follow-up to the film, but rather the original script for that movie, which Whedon felt was ruined by Executive Meddling.
  • Actress/stuntwoman April Weeden-Washington, who played Nikki Wood in season 5's "Fool for Love", was replaced by K.D. Aubert in season 7.
  • There's also the unaired pilot used to pitch the show where Willow was played by Riff Regan. Alyson Hannigan took over in the main series.
  • Xander's father appears in two episodes, "Restless" and "Hell's Bells", played by a different actor each time. Can be justified in that his appearance in "Restless" was in a dream sequence, and thus may not be a completely factual representation, but rather one of how Xander views him.
  • In the non-flashback footage of "When She Was Bad", the person under all that makeup playing The Master is David Boreanaz instead of Mark Metcalf. Furthermore, in the first Buffy game for Xbox, he's voiced by D.C. Douglas.
• Peter Birch replaced Tim Berierly as Lord Edward Ferrar in the second series of By The Sword Divided.
• Cadfael had three different actors play Hugh Beringar across its run: Sean Pertwee (1994), Eoin McCarthy (1995-1997), and Anthony Green (1998). Derek Jacobi says he naturally has a favorite of the three but won't say who.
• Christine Cagney was first played by Loretta Swit in the Cagney & Lacey Pilot Movie, then by Meg Foster for six episodes before Executive Meddling ousted Foster and replaced her with Sharon Gless.
• In the French Police Procedural Caïn, Julien Baumgartner replaced Bruno Debrandt (who felt he had enough of the show) as Caïn for the final episode of Season 7 and the entirety of Season 8.
• In Carrusel, when Fermin's first actor (Augusto Benedico) was no longer available, he was replaced by Armando Calvo – who was and looked 10 years younger than the first actor. Also, the actress who played Maria Joaquina's mother Clara was replaced.
• Capadocia: Andrea Marín is played by Dolores Paradis in the first season and by Paulina Gaitán subsequently.
• Charmed:
  • The sisters' father appears for one episode in the first season, played by Tony Denison. In all subsequent appearances of the character, he was played by James Read, who looks nothing like the original actor. The change was never noted by the characters or explained. Word of God is that Tony Denison looked far too young, and the network said he came across more as a slightly older love interest rather than a father.
  • Piper's friends Becca and Wendy appear in a Season 4 episode and then later show up in a Season 5 episode played by two different actresses.
  • A justified example with whenever a child version of Piper is used. She's first played by Megan Corletto in Season 1's "That 70s Episode". When we get another look at Piper's childhood in "Forever Charmed", which is in Season 8, and the character is still meant to be quite young, she's now played by Alexis Raich.
• The Chosen:
  • Big James has had three different actors: Shayan Sobhian for the first four episodes of Season 1, Kian Kavousi for the remaining episodes of season 1, and Abe Martell who took over the role from Season 2 onward.
  • Yoshi Barrigas was Philip in Seasons 2 & 3, but for Season 4 the role was given to Reza Diaco after Yoshi quit for personal and professional reasons.
• Brass's daughter Ellie in CSI was played by two very different-looking actresses – Nicki Aycox in her first appearance, Teal Redmann◊ in her subsequent ones. The fact that there was a multi-season gap between her appearances took the edge off of this somewhat. The same thing happened to Catherine's daughter, Lindsey. Madison McReynolds was replaced by Kay Panabaker, who was later replaced by Katie Stevens in the Grand Finale.
• CSI: NY:
  • A variation. The woman whose photo was used as that of Claire, shown to Reed by Mac in season 4, is not the actress who played Claire in the season 8 eps 'Indelible' with its flashbacks and 'Near Death' with Mac's Near-Death Experience encounter with her.
  • Lucy Messer borderlines; the need for a different actress as she grew older was natural, but even when there was only 6 months skip between s8 and s9, a new actress was still used.
• The character Gary Ewing first appeared on a two-part episode of Dallas played by David Ackroyd, who was replaced by the completely different looking Ted Shackelford when the character spun off to Knots Landing the following year. His wife Val, who had appeared in a few more episodes and was therefore more recognizable, was not replaced.
  • Dallas also set up one of these for Pam Ewing, as after Victoria Principal left the show the character supposedly died in a car crash, but later appeared with her head covered in bandages after extensive reconstructive surgery. However, she never did appear again.
  • There's also Donna Reed taking over the role of Ellie for a year after Barbara Bel Geddes' heart attack. Bel Geddes returned in the next season.
  • Jenna Wade was played by three different actresses; Morgan Fairchild for her first appearance in a 1978 episode, Francine Tacker for two episodes in 1980 and finally Priscilla Presley from 1983 onwards a series regular.
• Dante's Cove: Occurred with Adam (Jon Fleming, replacing Stephen Amell) and Michelle (Jill Bennett, replacing Erin Cummings). In both cases the recasting extended to having the new actors re-film key scenes from the previous season for use in the show's opening recap.
• When Dear White People was adapted as a TV show for Netflix, most of the original cast (including Tessa Thompson and Tyler James Williams, who were busy with Thor: Ragnarok and Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, respectively) had to be replaced. However, Brandon P. Bell, Ashley Blaine Featherson and Marque Richardson do reprise their roles from the movie.
• Degrassi Junior High:
  • The series quietly got rid of a wheelchair bound actress and replaced her with another girl in a wheelchair, most likely when the producers decided to actually make her into a significant character. The Agony Booth recap of a first season episode acknowledges this, along with the trope namer, referring to the first actress as "the Dick York of Wheelchair Girls."
  • In the same series, Shane McKay (Bill Parrott), the teen dad of Emma Nelson, takes acid and jumps off a bridge, leaving him mentally disabled. When this is revisited in The Next Generation, Shane is now played by Jonathan Torrens of Trailer Park Boys fame and the guy that staged a reunion of the original Degrassi cast that served as the impetus for rebooting the franchise in the first place.
• In the first episode of Die Kuhflüsterin, Thommy Mommsen is played by Tom Gramenz, rather than by Patrick Mölleken as in every other episode. This is especially noticeable because they don't even have the same hair color. Thommy doesn't appear in the opening credits until episode 2 despite a prominent role in the first episode, so this was presumably intended as just a temporary measure.
• So far no-one has reprised a role in two of Sky's Discworld miniseries, which means they've Other Darrined Death (Ian Richardson in Hogfather, Christopher Lee in The Colour of Magic); Archchancellor Ridcully (Joss Ackland in Hogfather, Timothy West in Going Postal) and Lord Vetinari (Jeremy Irons in The Colour of Magic, Charles Dance in Going Postal).
• Though Doctor Who is famous for its use of The Nth Doctor and tends to provide an in-story reason for the changed actors, there were a few characters that had Other Darrins:
  • For "The Five Doctors", which featured the first five Doctors (albeit the Fourth Doctor only in unused archive footage), William Hartnell, the actor who originally played the First Doctor, had passed away, so Richard Hurndall stepped into the part.
  • In "The Day of the Doctor", the First Doctor appears courtesy of archive footage with a new voice clip provided by impressionist John Guilor.
  • In "The Doctor Falls" and "Twice Upon a Time", the First Doctor is portrayed by David Bradley, who portrayed Hartnell in An Adventure in Space and Time. The Twelfth Doctor lampshades this, saying his younger self's "face is all over the place" mid-regeneration.
  • Colin Baker, the Sixth Doctor, was notable for having been fired from the job. Since Baker wasn't willing to return only for a regeneration scene, the next season began with Sylvester McCoy laying down on the ground, in Sixth Doctor costume and a wig, until the regeneration into the Seventh incarnation moments after the beginning of the episode. (Given the circumstances, this would count as a Bridge Drop, too.)
  • Davros, creator of the Daleks, was played by Michael Wisher in "Genesis of the Daleks" (1975), then in his next appearance in "Destiny of the Daleks" (1979) by David Gooderson, then throughout the 80s and later in the Big Finish Doctor Who and I, Davros audios by Terry Molloy. In the 21st-century revived series, he is played by Julian Bleach. While the heavy mask prosthetics makes it hard to tell (aside from the mask made for Wisher fitting horribly on Gooderson), their voices do all differ from each other, despite Sarah Jane recognising the voice of Bleach's Davros on a radio message after only meeting Wisher's.
  • Peter Pratt and Geoffrey Beevers played the same incarnation of the Master in different stories. As with Davros, the prosthetic mask and heavy makeup, respectively, may have made it hard to tell. According to the Doctor Who Expanded Universe, this is supposed to be a heavily decayed version of (sans heavy makeup) Roger Delgado's incarnation, who was a semi-regular from 1971-73. There is also another incarnation of the Master shown during his execution at the beginning of the TV Movie – it's kept purposefully ambiguous, but the assumption is that it's the Anthony Ainley incarnation of the Master, played briefly by Gordon Tipple.
  • In the Second Doctor story "The Macra Terror", Chicki was played by different actresses in Part 1 and Part 4, the only known case where an actor playing a character changed mid-story without an in-universe explanation.
  • K9, normally voiced by John Leeson, was voiced by David Brierly for Season 17 because Leeson quit. Fortunately he came back for Season 18 and all of K9's subsequent return bus trips.
  • The Doctor Who Expanded Universe saw the introduction of Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, the Brigadier's daughter, in the independently produced mid-1990s spin-off film Downtime, played by Beverley Cressman, who also played her in a sequel production, Dæmos Rising. In 2012, the character graduated to the main TV series beginning in the episode "The Power of Three", but now played by Jemma Redgrave.
• Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman had an incident midway through the show's run where Erika Flores, who played Colleen, was abruptly fired and replaced by Jessica Bowman. Needless to say, the fandom was furious.
• Due South:
  • Played with when Callum Keith Rennie was brought on to replace David Marciano, the original Ray Vecchio: Rennie appeared in the switchover episode as "Vecchio", who turns out in fact to be an entirely new character, Ray Kowalski, imported by the FBI to impersonate Vecchio while he went undercover with the Mob despite looking nothing like Vecchio. Benton Fraser, the main character, spends most of the episode being the Only Sane Man, who alone appears to have noticed the change as the supporting cast all insist that this is indeed Vecchio, before finally getting round to putting him in the picture. (Both Rays put in an appearance in the series finale.)
  • Played straight with Fraser's deaf half-wolf Diefenbaker: played in the Pilot Movie by Newman, the first & second seasons by Lincoln, and Draco in the third.
• In ER, Dr. Greene's daughter Rachel was played by Yvonne Zima for the first six seasons, then by Hallee Hirsh for all the character's appearances until the show ended. Similarly, Roger, the husband of Dr. Benton's baby mama Carla was played by Victor Williams in a few episodes, before being replaced by Vondie-Curtis Hall. Both were lampshaded somewhat by the fact that recaps of scenes from past episodes were shown, but with any shots of the old actors replaced with the new ones.
• In The Expanse, Chrisjen Avasarala's husband, Arjun, is played by Brian George for the character's appearances in the first 2 seasons. Due to scheduling issues (arising from the show being cancelled by SYFY and then subsequently saved by Amazon), from season 4 he's played by Michael Benyaer.
• The Exorcist: Neither Ellen Burstyn nor Linda Blair returned for the series, so Chris and Regan were played by Sharon Gless and Geena Davis respectively. Robert Emmet Lunney also takes over as Pazuzu.
• Invoked on The Famous Jett Jackson when Executive Meddling wants to bring more gun-based violence to the Show Within a Show "Silverstone", which the actor playing the villain of the specific episode debuting the gunplay disagrees with the change. He is obviously fired and a new actor is brought in, the new actor's debut scene includes Jett's character Silverstone commenting on the villain's plastic surgery. Of course, the episode has An Aesop of "guns are bad" (Jett's father, a sheriff, had to shoot a criminal on duty and is traumatized by the event), so in the end Jett and the entire remainder of the crew threaten to quit, so the producer has no choice but to scrap the episode and ditch the guns idea. The original actor returns to film the original script of the episode, thanking Jett for his support.
• Farscape:
  • The series spoofs this in "John Quixote" by having an overweight male actor playing the role of Zhaan (as a piece of misdirection for the original actress appearing later in the episode).
  • The Peacekeeper Wars miniseries introduces a different actor to play Jothee, who had last appeared two seasons previously. Slightly lampshaded by John Crichton remarking how much Jothee had grown.
• In Feel Good, the actress for George's friend Binky (Ophelia Lovibond) is replaced by Stephanie Leonidas.
• In the Disney series Flash Forward (1996), Becca's sister Ellen was played by Rachel Blanchard for the first four episodes and Robin Brule for the rest of the series. It should be noted, however, that the amount of real-world time between episodes four and five allowed Jewel Staite to film the entire first season of Space Cases.
• In FlashForward (2009), the actor playing Dylan Simcoe was recast in the middle of filming the pilot. So some scenes feature the first and some the other, and the credits credit "Dylan #1" and "Dylan #2". The second one has been consistent ever since.
• The Fosters put the character of Jésus, played by Jake T. Austin, on a bus at the end of Season 2, then brought him back midway through Season 3 played by Noah Centineo.
• Game of Thrones:
  • The enormous brute Gregor Clegane is played in the first season by 7' tall Conan Stevens, but he left the show to be in The Hobbit. In his place, the showrunners tapped Ian Whyte, who already had experience on the show as a White Walker. While one inch taller than Stevens, Whyte was very gaunt and skinny, and did not suit the character well. Possibly for this reason, the part was recast again, this time with Iceland's Strongest Man Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson (6'9" for those keeping score at home).
  • In season four, Michiel Huisman took over the role of Daario Naharis from Ed Skrein, who left to star in The Transporter Refueled.
  • Dean-Charles Chapman takes over the role of Tommen Baratheon from Callum Wharry, making for a rare case of an actor being both The Other Darrin and You Look Familiar (as Chapman previously portrayed Martyn Lannister, a character with a comparatively small part).
  • Rorge, Biter, Beric Dondarrion and Selyse Baratheon appear briefly as extras long before their characters are fully integrated to the series's cast. In both cases, their actors were re-cast. Also, Steve Blount portrayed a one-line-wonder character who was never addressed on screen but credited by HBO as "Rickard Karstark". John Stahl, who looks nothing like Blount and was given different make-up, took over the character in the second season.
  • In what has to be the strangest case of this ever on the show, for the first two seasons a "featured extra" with long white hair and a grey beard named Dennis McKeever portrayed the First Builder of the Night's Watch, Othell Yarwick. His character is featured in scenes with an unnamed Night's Watch senior officer portrayed by Brian Fortune. Fortune's character, who has darker hair and no beard, is the one to take newly-minted Stewards Jon Snow and Samwell Tarly to a Weirwood tree to speak their vows, which would seem to make him First Steward Bowen Marsh (who did so in the novel). McKeever is seen in a few scenes during the second and third seasons, but Fortune doesn't appear again until Season Four, whereupon his character is addressed as "First Builder Yarwick"!
• Ned Banks on Ghost Whisperer. Introduced in Season 2 with actor Tyler Patrick Jones in the role, who was replaced by Cristoph Sanders in Season 3. Noteworthy because Sanders looks nothing like Jones, being taller, blond (Jones has dark hair), and noticeably older.
• Gilmore Girls was pretty good about keeping actors that played recurring characters (and even recycled actors when the character would leave the show) except in two cases, one notable and one you could be forgiven for not noticing.
  • Mia, an important background character, who was the owner of the Independence Inn and a surrogate mother for Lorelai and Rory appeared in Season 2 for a single episode by Elizabeth Franz. When Mia appeared in the final season, she was suddenly played by Kathy Baker with no explanation.
  • Cesar, one of the servers at Luke's Diner, would occasionally appear in the background for the first two seasons played by a tall, thin actor, but had no scenes or lines. In the later seasons, he was played by Aris Alvarado, who was chubby and looked nothing like the first actor.
• Glee's Season 3 launch released a slew of fandom-bending changes, none explained with so much as a hand wave, and the more jarring of which was Rachel Berry's dads – featured in a series of photobooth pictures in the series pilot – would be played mid-season by Jeff Goldblum (whose pilot doppelganger was bald) and Brian Stokes Mitchell (whose pilot doppelganger was of a significantly darker complexion).
• In Gotham, Jonathan Crane is played in Season 1 by Charlie Tahan, written out after two episodes by being catatonic from fear gas. Tahan returns as the character early in Season 4, now officially the Scarecrow. Later in the season David W. Thompson takes over the role. Unlike Poison Ivy, no on-screen explanation is given. Presumably due to the lack of resemblance between him and Tahan, Thompson never appears without the Scarecrow mask, although of the two he much more resembles the comics' vision of Jonathan Crane.
• Hannah Montana recast the annoying neighbor with the actor's identical twin brother. Most would only know if they checked the credits.
• Hawaii Five-O:
  • The governor of Hawaii in the pilot for the original series was played by Lew Ayres; for the series he turned into Richard Denning – but oddly enough, Lew Ayres later appeared on the series in another role!
  • Staying with Five-O, Tim O'Kelly played Danny Williams in the pilot but was replaced with James MacArthur for the series; and the recurring character of State Department official Jonathan Kaye was played by six different actors (including the very-dissimilar types of James Gregory and Tim O'Connor).
• Ben, the older of the two Hartman brothers on Hearts Afire, was recast in the show's third season. He changed from a stocky blonde to a skinny brunette and didn't bear any resemblance whatsoever to his previous actor or his character's brother.
• A weird in-universe example in The Heart, She Holler; each season takes place in an alternate universe, where the most prevalent difference is that one character looks entirely different. In season 2, Hurshe Heartshe looks like Amy Sedaris instead of Kristen Schaal, and in season 3, the sheriff looks like Scott Adsit instead of Joseph Sikora.
• Several instances in Heroes:
  • Before actor Zachary Quinto was cast as Sylar, the role was being played by various stunt doubles (usually noticeably older than Quinto) being shot from behind, half-obscured, and with a baseball hat. A voice message left by Sylar before Quinto was cast was recorded by voice actor Maurice LaMarche.
  • Actor Erick Avari had not been cast as Chandra Suresh when the first few episodes were filmed. Whenever Chandra appears in photographs (with Mohinder or on the back cover of his book "Activating Evolution"), different actors are used; one bearded, one in a turban. Some of these were later replaced by photos of Erick Avari for the DVD releases, but some were missed.
• The Inspector Lynley Mysteries had Lesley Vickerage as Helen, up until she separated from Tommy. Then in the last season she comes back – played by Catherine Russell. This wouldn't be so bad if the two actresses looked anything like each other – one notable difference is that Lesley's hair is short and black while Catherine's is long and brown – and if they hadn't called attention to Helen's appearance in an episode. When you make Havers get haircut to look like Helen as a cover, and you make a big deal about how they look the same from behind, chances are fans will notice. Better yet, Vickerage was actually the second actress to play Helen – the character also appeared in the first story ever shot, the pilot episode "A Great Deliverance", played by Emma Fielding!
• Inspector Rex: Due to the long time of the series, Rex was portrayed by at least five dogs. The most obviously different one is Aki, who has a blacker face.
• Kamen Rider: As a major Long Runner, Riders whose actors are unable to return for whatever reason will often be given the Fake Shemp treatment by having them stay in costume the whole time with a voice actor dubbing over them. Most commonly, anime VA Tetsu Inada has been cast as Kamen Rider #1/Takeshi Hongo on the occasions when Hiroshi Fujioka couldn't reprise the role.
  • Kamen Rider Den-O:
    • Partway through the series, Hana's actress Yuriko Shiratori left the show for reasons that remain unclear^note The two most popular rumors claim that she was fired for being difficult to work with, or that the stress of being on the show and maintaining her modeling career at the same time was too much; she was replaced by a much younger actress, Tamaki Matsumoto. Since the series is all about Time Travel, the sudden age regression was Hand Waved as the result of changes to the timeline.
    • After the series ended, star Takeru Satoh saw his career take off, meaning he wasn't able to reprise his role as Ryotaro Nogami anymore^note At least until 2018, where Satoh put in a surprise cameo in Kamen Rider Heisei Generations FOREVER. Conveniently enough, the first movie had the cast run into a 10-year-old Ryotaro, played by Takuya Mizoguchi; when Toei decided they wanted to do more with Den-O, Mizoguchi was cast in the role on a more permanent basis and it was written off as a side-effect of time travel.
  • Kamen Rider Decade:
    • The Movie had Japanese singer GACKT play the role of Joji Yuki (Riderman), taking over for the late Akira Yamaguchi. However, because the staff didn't have the time to make a new costume for him, Gackt only shows untransformed in a single scene, while Riderman appears in the final battle played by an unidentified stuntman wearing the original 1973 costume.
    • Decade had the plot conceit of the main characters traveling through Alternate Universes and meeting alternate versions of past Kamen Rider characters, even when the character has the exact same name and backstory (see: Amazon, Tackle in the second movie). It is in fact very unusual for a Decade "Alternate Rider World" character to have the same actor as the original. Exceptions include most the Den-O cast, the original Kiva, the original Blade, and Black/RX.
• In the original Knight Rider, Peter Cullen first voiced KARR. That was before he was busy being Optimus Prime. When KARR returned he was unavailable due to being Optimus Prime (and some other cartoon voices), so he was replaced by Paul Frees.
• When Lace became a smash-hit miniseries, Lace 2 beckoned, but Bess Armstrong wanted more money to come back than Lorimar were willing to pay. Hence Phoebe Cates went from having Miss Armstrong as a mother to having Deborah Raffin.
• In the gay vampire series The Lair the actor for the character Jonathan changed between Season 1 and Season 2 and the actors looked so unlike (they had the same hair colour) that it was impossible to tell they were even the same person until the second was called Jonathan. The second actor was only used for one episode due to the character being written out.
• The Timmy era of Lassie started with Cloris Leachman (of The Mary Tyler Moore Show fame) and John Shepodd as Timmy's parents and later replaced them with the more familiar June Lockhart and Hugh Reilly about a season in.
• In one episode of Law & Order, ADA Claire Kincaid was portrayed by Jacqueline Hennessy, the identical twin of Jill Hennessy, who usually played the character. Somewhat unusual for this trope in that it's not noticeable unless one is actively looking for it.
• The Australian fake lifestyle show Life Support used this a lot.
  • Penne was played by Abbie Cornish during season one, but replaced by Alison Barnes for the second and third seasons. This was heavily lampshaded when Todd suspected that "something was wrong" with Penne, but Sigourney reassured him by showing flashbacks from the first season.
  • Between Season 2 and Season 3, Todd was recast as well.
  • Subverted when Dr Rudi was recast in the third season. The show used plastic surgery as an excuse to explain the difference, but when he was about to marry Sigourney in the season finale, the real Dr Rudi revealed that the Dr Rudi she was about to marry was a fake.
• Leverage showed Jimmy Ford (although not his face) in a flashback, where he was voiced by Jonathan Frakes (the show's director, in an uncredited role). Later, the character appears in two episodes played by Tom Skerritt.
• On Lois & Clark, the character of Jimmy Olsen was played by Michael Landes in Season 1, but was then replaced by Justin Whalin in Season 2. The showrunners were worried that Landes looked too much like Dean Cain and played Jimmy as too "slick" rather than the slightly geeky character they wanted.
  • Lois and Clark also had the distinction of recasting Lois' entire immediate family. Lois's father was initially played by Denis Arndt, providing a bland Sam Lane in the character's Season 1 introduction, and Harve Presnell as a more caustic version in a string of appearances starting in Season 3. Her sister, Lucy, was initially portrayed by Elizabeth Barondess in the show's first three episodes before disappearing; when she returned, she was played by Roxana Zal. Lois's mother was played by Phyllis Coates during the first season finale, and in subsequent appearances by Beverly Garland. Coates' appearance on Lois & Clark also qualified as Stunt Casting, as she played Lois Lane in the feature film "Superman and the Mole Men" and later in the classic The Adventures of Superman TV show (where, ironically, she was replaced after one season by Noel Neill, who had previously played Lois in Superman's first live-action screen appearances, the 1948 and 1950 serials starring Kirk Alyn – making Neill her own Other Darrin's Other Darrin).
  • Clark's biological father, Jor-El, was played by three different actors: David Warner in season 1's "Foundling", an unknown in season 3's "Never on Sunday" and François Giroday in the season 3 finale "Big Girls Don't Cry". All portrayals were flashbacks or recordings from when Clark was a baby on Krypton, so the three actors were portraying the same character within a relatively short timeframe.
  • Lois and Clark featured several appearances by a time-traveling H.G. Wells (an idea that probably deserves its own trope page), but due to actor availability issues, his appearances alternated between an older Wells played by Hamilton Camp and a younger one played by Terry Kiser.
• During a dispute with the producers, Clayton Moore was replaced with John Hart as The Lone Ranger for one year. Moore eventually returned to star for the rest of the series' run.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: During Season 1, the character of Adar was played by Joseph Mawle, but is recasted as Sam Hazeldine for Season 2.
• Lost may or may not have invoked this trope. When Ben and Locke visit Jacob's cabin in Season 3, Jacob, in his split-second appearance, is "played" by the show's prop master Rob Kyker, who has long hair, a beard, and appears to be in his 40s or 50s. He looks absolutely nothing like Mark Pellegrino, the actor who plays Jacob in his many appearances in the Season 5 finale. However, there is evidence to suggest the man in the cabin was not Jacob. Additionally, Titus Welliver, who plays Jacob's unnamed nemesis, does bear a resemblance to Kyker, and is possibly the individual who impersonated Jacob in the cabin. If that is true, this would still be a case of The Other Darrin.
  • Done with Charlie's dad: made acceptable because you don't see his face the first episode.
  • Same case with Claire's mother: she has no lines in her first appearance and is only visible under bandages.
• The L Word: Mark Berry replaced Mark Gibson in portraying Marcus Allenwood, Angelica's biological father via sperm donation, for Generation Q.
• Don Draper's son Bobby on Mad Men. As of the 5th season, the new actor will be the Other Other Other Darrin.
• The One, the Big Bad in the second season of Martial Law, was initially never seen and only heard speaking with the voice of Tim Curry. When he eventually showed up to take care of business personally not only did he look like fellow British actor Christopher Neame (because a climactic fight between Sammo Law and Tim Curry would have been too ridiculous for words, thanks to Curry not exactly being the physical type), but the "Previously on Martial Law" bits featuring Curry's voice were redubbed by Neame (and it's very noticeable).
• Mohawk Girls: Leon was played by a different actor beginning in Season 4.
• Somewhat odd example in Monk: Dale "the Whale" is played by three different actors in his three appearances: Adam Arkin in "Mr. Monk Meets Dale the Whale," Tim Curry in "Mr. Monk Goes to Jail," and Ray Porter in "Mr. Monk Is On The Run, Part 2". All three did the role in fatsuits and, under their makeup and prosthetic fat, looked quite similar and could have probably been passed off without many people noticing – except that the second actor was Tim Curry, who made no attempt to disguise his trademark accent.
  • Porter seems to have done away with the accent.
  • Four different actresses played Trudy Monk. Stella Rusich played Trudy in seasons 1 and 2, Melora Hardin then played Trudy in any appearances from season 3 onward, Rose Abdoo was Trudy for one episode between Hardin's fourth and fifth appearances ("Mr. Monk and Little Monk"), and Lindy Newton played college-age Trudy for a flashback in "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion".
  • Benjy, Sharona's son, was played by Kane Ritchotte in the pilot, season 2 and the first half of season 3, and by Max Morrow in season 1 (except for the pilot). This was because the pilot was produced in Vancouver, on the West Coast (where Ritchote lived), and the regular season 1 episodes were filmed in Toronto, Ontario (where Morrow lived).
• Mystery Road: Madeleine Madden replaced Tricia Whitton as Crystal Swan, who played her in the original movie this was spun off from.
• The pilot episode of A Nero Wolfe Mystery, "The Golden Spiders", has Saul Rubinek playing Wolfe's freelance associate Saul Panzer, and Gerry Quigley playing the reporter Lon Cohen. The first episode after it becomes a series, "The Doorbell Rang", has Rubinek playing Cohen, and Conrad Dunn plays Saul Panzer. This casting remains consistent for the rest of the series.
• In similar fashion, the TV series spinoff of the The Net starred Brooke Langton as Angela Bennett, replacing Sandra Bullock from the film.
• In Not Going Out, Kate becomes Lucy. Suddenly and abruptly, Megan Dodds (American) is replaced by Sally Bretton.(Very British).
• On The New Adventures of Robin Hood, Barbara Griffin replaced Anna Galvin as Marion in Season 2, and then John Bradley replaced Matthew Poretta as Robin in Season 3.
• Nip/Tuck had Teddy Rowe played by Katee Sackhoff, then Rose McGowan.
• On The O.C., Ryan's brother Trey switched actors from the second season onward, with no fanfare.
  • Marissa's sister Kaitlin is played by two different actresses, with the switch coming after the character returns from boarding school. A few characters remark on how much she's changed. (Seth: "Mini-Coop ... not so mini.")
  • Interestingly the first actress was not forgotten. While Kaitlin is primarily associated with Willa Holland, the original actress Shailene Woodley went to star in The Secret Life of the American Teenager and was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role in The Descendants.
• In the Australian serial drama Ocean Girl the mother of two of the central characters is recast after Season 2 to be played by a different actress in Seasons 3-4 without explanation.
• Once Upon a Time:
  • Robin Hood was played by Tom Ellis in his first episode, which was in Season 2, and by Sean Maguire when the character became a series regular in Season 3. A backstory episode in Season 4 showed Robin acquiring a pendant that could disguise oneself and telling Marian he would use it next time he met Rumplestiltskin so that he wouldn't be recognized, explaining why Robin looked different in his first appearance.
  • Possibly subverted with Ursula the sea witch. In her first appearance, she was voiced by Yvette Nicole Brown. Ursula physically appeared the next season played by Merrin Dungey. But a few episodes later it's stated that Dungey's Ursula is actually named after the ancient sea goddess Ursula. It's never clarified if Brown's Ursula was actually the goddess, who explicitly hadn't been seen in ages, or just the sea witch being ticked off that Regina used her name.
  • In the spin-off Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, the character of Jafar debuted, played by Naveen Andrews. When Jafar made it onto the main show a few years later, Naveen Andrews was too busy to reprise his role, and Oded Fehr was cast in the part instead.
  • The Caterpillar of Wonderland was voiced by Roger Daltrey on Once Upon a Time. In the spin-off, he's voiced by Iggy Pop.
  • Dorothy Gale was portrayed by Matreya Scarrwener in Season 3 and Teri Reeves in Season 5, with the Hand Wave that she had just grown up since returning to Kansas (as the flashback to Zelena's past in the former is left vague as to how long ago it was).
  • Gaston is played by Sage Brocklebank in his brief appearance in Season 1. When he reappears in a larger role for an episode in Season 5, he's now played by Wes Brown, and flashbacks have him inserted into previous clips.
• The Outpost: Season One had Naya played by Medalion Rahimi. From Season Two on, she was replaced with Amita Suman.
• Pandora: In the Season 1 finale, Jax's mother Eve was played by Charisma Carpenter. For Season 2 she's played by Roxanne Mckee.
• On Peter Gunn, Hope Emerson played Mother during the show's first season. When she died after the end of the season, Minerva Urecal took over the role for the rest of the series.
• In Season 4 of the Singaporean television series Point of Entry, Jack Yang replaced Carl Ng as Glenn Chua.
• In Poirot, the mysterious Countess Rossakoff was played by Kika Markham in the adaptation of "The Double Clue", but by Orla Brady in The Labours of Hercules, twenty years later. (She's Adapted Out of The Big Four.)
• Various times in Power Rangers:
  • In Season 2 of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, Ami Kawai (Scorpina) was replaced by Sabrina Lu. Also, when Austin St. John, Walter Jones and Thuy Trang were fired partway through Season 2, a lot of the lines for Red Ranger Jason were done by a decisively different actor mimicking his deep voice during Ranger fights.
  • In Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, Divatox was played by Hilary Shepard Turner, who was replaced by Carol Hoyt in Power Rangers Turbo, though Shepard did take over for the second half of Turbo and for Power Rangers in Space.
  • The Power Rangers in Space crossover with Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation had different actors play the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles because of Power Rangers in Space being an American show and The Next Mutation being produced in Canada. Instead of Michael Dobson, Jason Gray-Sanford, Matt Hill, Kirby Morrow, and Lalainia Lindbjerg, the crossover had Tony Oliver voice Leonardo and four unknown actors voice Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Venus de Milo.
  • Amy Miller, who played Trakeena in Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, did not return for the team-up in Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue, where Trakeena was played by Jennifer Burns. Reportedly, Miller did show up for the episode, but walked off the set when she found out the Lost Galaxy cast would essentially be playing second fiddle to a child actor. Danny Slavin (who played Leo, the Red Galaxy Ranger) separately walked off in a pay dispute before ADR could be done, so morphed scenes and some other parts of the episode feature the voice actor Christopher Glenn doing his best Leo impression. He later buried the hatchet and appeared in Forever Red in 2002 and traveled to New Zealand in 2013 for a cameo in Power Rangers Super Megaforce.
  • In Power Rangers Operation Overdrive, Wendee Lee was replaced by Campbell Cooley as the voice of Alpha 6. Lee herself replaced Catherine Battistone between Turbo and In Space.
  • In Power Rangers Mystic Force, Barbara Goodson was replaced as the longtime voice of Rita Repulsa by Susan Brady, a New Zealand voice actress. This was Rita's second actress swap, as Carla Perez (who was Rita's body in American footage from season 2 of MMPR to PRIS) took over from Japanese actress Machiko Soga (season 1 of MMPR, via footage from the Japanese series Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger and some original footage later shot for MMPR). Soga played Rita again in Mystic Force, though, again via Japanese footage.
  • Over in Super Sentai land, Toei apparently tries not to Other Darrin them unless really needed. A good showing of this would be the Gokaiger Goseiger Super Sentai 199 Hero Great Battle, due to the fact that they were employing nearly 200 stunt actors for the Great Legend War scene, they had the Gokaiger and Goseiger actors cover the non-guest starring Sentai heroes.
• Pretty Little Liars has done this quite a few times, though most of the recasts happen if the character only appeared once. Some of the characters who change actors include Toby Cavanaugh who is played by a different actor in the pilot than in the rest of the series, Kate Randall was recast for season 2 after her only appearance in season 1, Mrs. DiLaurentis is recast in season 2 and played by a pretty different woman in the pilot, and Jason DiLaurentis changes actors in season 2 after having appeared several times in season 1 by not only a very different looking actor but he also seemed to get a personality change after a discovery about the character in late season 1. He is discovered to have used pot much to the surprise of the liars in season 1, but by season 2 the flashbacks make it appear that everyone knew he was a pothead and the real surprise was that he drank. He also becomes a pariah amongst his family by season 2 when in season 1 he seemed a lot more similar in personality to his half-sister Spencer Hastings (ie. he was mature enough to handle organizing her memorial service and was pressuring the police for answers).
• Vice-president's brother and living supposed murder victim Terence Steadman from Prison Break was first played by John Billingsley, and then Jeff Perry, due to Billingsley becoming a regular on another show. Ironically, he's kidnapped by the main characters who argue over whether he'll be seen as just a imposter.
• On Profiler, Sam Waters' daughter, Chloe, played for two seasons by the prepubescent Caitlin Wachs, suddenly turned into the obviously adolescent Evan Rachel Wood in Season 3. Thus, a character who – within the show's time frame – was sleeping with stuffed animals and being read bedtime stories a week ago became concerned with boys and make-up almost literally overnight. Kids grow up so fast, don't they?
• The child swap on Psych; Josh Hayden, the child actor playing Young Shawn, appeared only in the pilot. In other appearances, the part is played by Liam James and Skyler Gisondo.
  • The changeover from James to Gisondo is lampshaded when a character remarks that Young Shawn Version 2 doesn't look anything like Adult Shawn. Shawn replies, "We changed. Sometimes from week to week."
  • They did it with Young Gus, too. Carlos McCullers II replaced Isaah Brown after 5 episodes.
  • And Gus' father, who has been played by Ernie Hudson and Keith David.
• In the second episode of Quantum Leap, it shows Sam's father as a separate actor. In a later episode when Sam leaps into a younger version of himself, his father is also played by Scott Bakula, just in make up to look older.
• Quantum Leap (2022): In episode of the original Quantum Leap featured a character named Herbert "Magic" Williams as one of the many people Sam Beckett leaped into to Set Right What Once Went Wrong and is now director of the revived Project Quantum Leap. In the original series he was played by Christopher Kirby. In the reboot, however, he is played by Ernie Hudson of Ghostbusters fame.
• In what might be the all-time record for this, Professor Bernard Quatermass has been played by seven different actors in four TV serials, a radio serial, three films, and a Made-for-TV Movie. Some of those were The Remake, though.
• Alice Braga was never recast in Queen of the South, yet her Brazilian compatriots watching it dubbed would notice that between the first seasons she went from sounding like herself (as Alice did the Portuguese dub) to sounding like professional dubber Cássia Bisceglia.
• In the first season of Riverdale, Reggie Mantle was played by Ross Butler. However when season 2 was set to begin production, Butler had to drop out after joining the cast of 13 Reasons Why, so Charles Melton replaced him from said season onwards.
• In the Robin of Sherwood episode "The Enchantment", Baron de Belleme's two girlfriends were played by different actresses, probably because they had to do some plot-relevant acting instead of just sitting around and looking sexy.
• The actors for every character in Australian TV show Round the Twist was replaced at least once, for the most part because of Real Life Writes the Plot: there was a gap of three years between series 1 and 2 and seven years between series 2 and 3, so all the kid characters were recast due to the actors growing too old; also, the original actors for Tony Twist (Richard Moir) and for Nell (Bunney Brooke) weren't rehired for series 3 because of illness (Richard Moir's Parkinson's Disease and Bunney Brooke's terminal cancer).
• In the TV series of The Saint, the only character from the Leslie Charteris works other than Simon Templar to appear on anything like a regular basis was Chief Inspector Teal – in his first appearance ("The Man Who Was Lucky") he was played by Campbell Singer, then he turned into Wensley Pithey in "Starring The Saint," then Norman Pitt took the role in "The Elusive Ellshaw" before Ivor Dean (who'd previously appeared on the series in "Starring The Saint") was cast in "Iris" and played the inspector for the rest of the run. But when Return of the Saint came along, Roger Moore was unavailable (which was due to his commitment to the James Bond film franchise), so Ian Ogilvy took over the role, despite that the series was originally conceived as Son of the Saint, with Ogilvy's character identified as the offspring of Simon Templar. As production neared, it was decided to drop the relative angle and make the series about the original character, albeit updated to the late 1970s.
• In Polish long-running series Samo Życie main character, Agnieszka Dunin, was played by Magdalena Kumorek during the first two years. In 2004 she was replaced by Aneta Todorczuk. Change was adressed in series itself: episode 337 containted special pre-credits sequence with „old” Agnieszka introducing „new” Agnieszka to the other characters. Excerpts from it were used also as promotional spots. Funnily enough, Kumorek and Todorczuk knew each other from the drama school.
• Seacht:
  • Brian was replaced with a completely different-looking actor between the first and second series. His personality also changed.
  • For one Season 1 episode, Lestat – the Pomeranian dog who portrayed Claire's dog Mr. Muggles – was unavailable, so his brother Beowulf filled in. The two dogs look noticeably different so the new dog was put in a jacket to hide this.
• Capheus from Sense8 was recast between the first and second season, going from Aml Ameen to Toby Onwumere. Onwumere's first scene is a conversation between Capheus and his best friend about how people's faces can change but they're still the same person.
  Jela: Speaking of faces I must say, you're looking a little different these days.
  Capheus: (running his hand over his head) New barbershop.
• On Shameless, Mandy was played by Jane Levy in Season 1, and Emma Greenwell beginning in Season 2. Levy had apparently left the show to star in Suburgatory.
• In Sharknado Aubrey Peeples played Claudia; as she was tied up with Nashville come Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!, Claudia was played by Ryan Newman (who's younger than Peeples).
• Granada produced two seasons of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes with David Burke in the role of Dr. Watson. "The Final Problem" was his last episode, as he wanted to tone down his acting career and spend more time with his family. Edward Hardwicke picked up the role almost seamlessly in the next series, The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
• Sharpe: The Duke of Wellington was played by David Troughton for the first two instalments: Sharpe's Rifles and Sharpe's Eagle. Troughton then left for health reasons, and the role was recast to Hugh Fraser thereafter, starting with Sharpe's Company.
• William deVry played Malone in the pilot of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, with David Orth assuming the role in the series.
• The Six Million Dollar Man:
  • The series featured no less than three actors as Dr. Rudy Wells. This led to several scenarios of Flashback with the Other Darrin.
  • André the Giant played the first Sasquatch. Beginning with "The Return of Bigfoot" and thereafter, Ted Cassidy replaced him.
• Sliders:
  • The roles of Quinn's parents changed hands almost every season.
  • Brain-tissue-harvesting Evil Brit Col. Rickman was played by Roger Daltrey in his first appearance. Perhaps realising it might have been wiser to cast an actual actor, Neil Dickson replaced Daltrey as Rickman in all his subsequent episodes.
• The actress for Anthony's sister Barb in The Sopranos is replaced half-way through the series.
• The Spanish Prisoner: The entire cast of the show was changed more than once prior to its release.
• Spartacus: Blood and Sand:
  • A strange example regarding the main lead, in that the changeover was publicly announced by the actor and the showrunner well in advance of the new actor's appearance: Liam McIntyre replaced Andy Whitfield in the titular role of Spartacus for Season 2 after the latter was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (which proved to be fatal in September 2011), and therefore couldn't return for the production of the show's second season. It's worth noting that when Whitfield was first diagnosed, they created a prequel series while he underwent treatment. When it became apparent he wouldn't recover, they recast the role.
  • Lesley-Ann Brandt, who played Naevia in Blood and Sand and Gods of the Arena, was replaced by Cynthia Addai-Robinson for Vengeance. According to the actress, she had originally been contracted as a local hire on the first season (intended only for seven episodes) before being given an expanded role. As she was in Los Angeles to by the time Vengeance was being made, she attempted to negotiate for a SAG contract (since Naevia was now a regular) but the manager she hired botched the deal and schedule conflicts meant a recasting.
• Spy (2011) features Phillip Quill, Judith's boyfriend, being played by Mark Heap in season two instead of season one's Tom Goodman-Hill. This is, hilariously lampshaded in Heap's first episode as Philip:
  Philip: I know, I look different, don't I? It's the hair...
• The character of Elizabeth Weir was introduced in the two-part seventh season finale of Stargate SG-1, played by Jessica Steen. When she reappeared in the first two episodes of Season 8, and then as the lead in the spin-off Stargate Atlantis, she was played by Torri Higginson. Steen was reportedly rather disappointed that she wasn't even asked to reprise the role. This was a rather jarring replacement, as Steen (at the time) was blonde, and Higginson is a rather dark brunette.
  • For the character's final, send-off episode, Weir was played by yet another actress, Michelle Morgan (with a fourth actress portraying her in flashbacks!), although the switch was justified in-plot by stating that Weir had downloaded her consciousness into a series of android bodies after her original body was destroyed by the Replicators.
  • On SG-1, only Skaara and his father reprised their role from the film Stargate. Later on a comment is made by Richard Dean Anderson's "O'Neill" that its spelled with "Two 'L's, not one. That guy has no sense of humor." This is a direct reference to the depressed and suicidal version of the character in the movie played by Kurt Russell.
  • The character of Cassandra was originally played by Katie Stuart in "Singularity" but was later played by Colleen Rennison in "Rite of Passage"... because Katie Stuart was busy being the Other Kitty Pryde in X2: X-Men United.
  • The humanesque wraith Michael was played by Connor Trinneer in all but one appearance, where he was played by Brent Stait. Connor did, however, still provide the character's voice.
  • The first time we meet Teal'c's wife, Drey'auc, she is played by Salli Richardson. Subsequent appearances would be by Brook Parker.
• Star Trek:
  • "The Cage", the original pilot episode for Star Trek: The Original Series, starred Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Pike. This footage was later re-used as flashback scenes in the two-parter "The Menagerie", which retconned Pike to be Kirk's predecessor; the episodes also featured Pike in the present day, now paralyzed and facially disfigured, played by Sean Kenney. More than fifty years later, Anson Mount took over the role of Pike in Star Trek: Discovery and went on to star in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
  • Dr. Zefram Cochrane, inventor of warp drive, was played by Glenn Corbett in the original series episode "Metamorphosis". In Star Trek: First Contact – made after Corbett passed away – Cochrane is played by James Cromwell. Cromwell would later reprise the role in the premiere episode of Star Trek: Enterprise, where Cochrane appears in a video recording, as well as cameos in Lower Decks.
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
    • Tora Ziyal was portrayed by three different actresses as the show went on: Cyia Batten in her first two appearances, Tracy Middendorf for one episode, and Melanie Smith for the rest of the series. The character was 19 years old when first introduced, but the producers decided to age up the actress (despite the original actress already being older than her character) to emphasise the character's maturity in preparation for developing a relationship plotline with an older male character to avoid any perception of cradle-robbing occurring (by the time the relationship was established, Ziyal was at least 21 years old and being played by a 34-year old actress).
    • Quark's mother was played by two different actresses (SCTV's Andrea Martin in her first appearance, and Cecily Adams, daughter of Don Adams, in all subsequent appearances), due to the original actress not being able to bear the prosthetics, but due to the heavy makeup and low frequency of her appearances, it's less noticeable.
    • Neral, the Romulan leader, was played by Norman Large in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, then by the noticeably older and thinner Hal Landon Jr. in an episode of Deep Space Nine. Lampshaded somewhat by the official card game, where Neral's card states he "has not aged well under the burden of leadership."
    • Averted with the character of Serena. Because her part was so minor in the episode Statistical Probabilities and she played a mute person, they decided to reaudition her for her second appearance in which her character gained the ability to speak and was the main guest star of the episode.
  • Star Trek: Voyager:
    • Naomi Wildman was first played by Brooke Stephens in season 4's "Mortal Coil" and then by Scarlett Pomers starting in season 5's "Infinite Regress" and continuing for the rest of the series.
    • The Borg Queen was played by Alice Krige in Star Trek: First Contact. The Queen then appeared in three episodes of Voyager played by Susanna Thompson. (Justified by the fact that Wetware Body is in effect when it comes to the Borg.) In the final episode of Voyager, Krige returned to play the Queen again.
    • In a Season 2 episode "Persistence Of Vision", Tom Paris, under the influence of a telepathic alien, has a vision of his father, Admiral Owen Paris, played by Warren Munson, who reprised the role for a Voice-Only Cameo during a dream sequence in season 5's "Thirty Days". When we meet the elder Paris in Season 6's "Pathfinder" (on Earth, working on a way to bring the titular ship home), he is played by Richard Herd, who continues to portray the character through the series finale.
  • Star Trek: Discovery:
    • Sarek was originally played by Mark Lenard in Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation, as well as several of the films. Due to Lenard's death, James Frain takes over as Sarek here.
    • Harry Mudd was originally played Roger C. Carmel in Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Animated Series. Due to Carmel's death, Rainn Wilson plays Mudd in the new series.
    • Lieutenant Commander Airiam (the ship's spore drive ops officer) was played by Sara Mitch in Season 1, then in Season 2 by Hannah Cheesman while Mitch was recast as Lt. Nilsson. However, the change is hard to notice because of all the makeup and prosethetics to make Airiam a Cyborg. This becomes a Development Gag when Airiam is killed after being taken over by a rogue AI and Nilsson takes her place as the spore drive officer.
    • Sarek, Spock, and Christopher Pike all appeared in the twenty-first century Star Trek films (these movies took place in an alternate timeline, but that wouldn't affect the characters' appearances), they all appear on Discovery played by different actors.
  • Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: The series takes place about a decade before TOS, but the same characters are played by an all new cast due to many of the original actors no longer being around or too old. Besides the already-mentioned Pike and Spock, there's Number One (originally played by Majel Barrett in the unaired pilot "Cage", now played by Rebecca Romijn), Nyota Uhura (Nichelle Nichols in TOS, Celia Rose Gooding in SNW), Christine Chapel (again, Majel Barrett in TOS, Jess Bush in SNW), M'Benga (Booker Bradshaw in "Cage", Babs Olusanmokun in SNW), transporter chief Kyle (John Winston in TOS, André Dae Kim in SNW), Sam Kirk (William Shatner with a mustache in TOS, Dan Jeannotte in SNW), and James T. Kirk (William Shatner in TOS, Paul Wesley in SNW).
• Supernatural:
  • Bobby's dead wife's original actress from the third season episode "Dream A Little Dream of Me" was pregnant at the time of her reappearance in Season 5. The producers seemed uncomfortable with the idea of a pregnant zombie wife.
  • Jimmy Novak's wife and daughter are played by different actresses in Season 10 than in Season 4. Although the latter can be explained by her character originating as a preteen and growing up.
• The original version of Survivors had at least three characters replaced; two of the switches (Ruth and Lizzie) happened between seasons, while Vic had to be replaced when his first actor had a nervous breakdown.
• Disney's The Swamp Fox series replaced the actress who played Marion's fiance, Mary Videaux, after two episodes. The first was a light blonde, and the second had auburn hair.
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which continued on from the first two Terminator films in its own continuity, recast every character from the films who appeared on the show. Lena Headey replaced Linda Hamilton as the title character and Thomas Dekker took over the role of John Connor; among the guest characters, Jonathan Jackson replaced Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese,^note who appears in flashbacks and as a blood-loss-induced hallucination Bruce Davison replaced Earl Boen^note who had retired from acting as Dr. Silberman, Tony Amendola replaced Castulo Guerra as Enrique Salceda, and a photo of Miles Dyson showed actor Phil Morris rather than Joe Morton. Also, in the pilot episode, Sarah has a nightmare involving a Terminator played by Aaron James Cash; although it's not made explicit, given what Sarah is likely to have nightmares about it's possible this is meant to be the same Terminator model played in the films by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
• Bonnie Dennison took over the role of Emily Yokas for Third Watch's fourth season, as the character became more involved in the storylines. This caused many characters to question when Emily "became so grown up".
• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy:
  • Alec Guinness played George Smiley in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People. He was asked to play the role a third time in A Murder of Quality, but declined, so the role was recast with Denholm Elliott.
  • Michael Jayston was unable to reprise his role as Peter Guillam for Smiley's People, so the part was recast with Michael Byrne.
• Midway through Tinsel Season 2, Uzo Egereonu left the show and Funmi Holder took over the role of Amaka Okoh.
  • Funlola Aofiyebi-Raimi replaced Juliet Asante as Brenda Mensah.
  • In Season 5, Leonora Okine replaced Mathilda Obaseki in Season 5 as Angela. Also an example of Replacement Scrappy.
• Trinity in Trailer Park Boys is played by Jeanna Harrison, except for the first movie, in which she's played by Lydia Lawson-Baird.
• Anita Briem played Jane Seymour during the second season of The Tudors. In Season 3, Jane Seymour is played by Annabelle Wallis.
• In the Twin Peaks prequel/concluding movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, most original cast members were either brought back for at least a few scenes, or had their characters simply alluded to rather than present on screen. However, Donna Hayward – who, as Laura's best friend, was too important to the plot to simply write around – was re-cast with Moira Kelly, since Lara Flynn Boyle declined to return (reportedly due to her unpopularity with the fandom after she was blamed for a particularly disliked piece of Executive Meddling towards the end of the show's run).
• The Ultra Series has seen quite a bit of this when it comes to the voice actors for the title heroes.
  • A rule of thumb is that typically, the Ultra's first voice actor will be replaced in all reappearances by other voice actors before finally settling on the actor who played the Ultra's human alter ego. In the case of the original Ultraman, he was originally voiced by Hisashi Kondo^note Though Koji Ishizaka did his voice for episode 15 with Masao Nakasone providing his "SCHUWATCH!" (and the Kiai of almost all other Ultra heroes). Then in the 70s and 80s, other voice actors filled in for his various cameos, but since 2006, Ultraman has been voiced by Susumu Kurobe, who played human host Shin Hayata.
  • The more recently-introduced Ultraman Cosmos is another excellent example. Although voiced by Yuki Sato in his own series, as well as the prequel movie, he was replaced with Tetsu Inada in the two sequel movies, and as off 2013, has been voiced Taiyo Sugiura, the actor who played Musashi Haruno.
  • The opposite has occurred though. Ultraman Taro was voiced by his human host actor Saburo Shinoda in his debut series, but in all Ultra Series media since 2006, Hiroya Ishimaru has voiced Taro, which is rather odd as Taro's original voice actor is still around and could easily be called again in if desired. On the other hand, Ultraman Mebius was voiced by human form actor Shunji Igarashi in his own series, but has been voiced by Jun Fukuyama since 2013 due to Igarashi having left the entertainment industry to pursue other careers.
  • Ultras without a human identity tend to change voice actors between series more frequently. Ultraman King, for example, was voiced by Motomu Kiyokawa in his debut in Ultraman Leo, with a Role Reprise in Ultraman Mebius. But in Ultraman Geed, he was replaced by Nobuyuki Hiyama, although former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi guest voiced him in Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legends. Similarly, Ultraman Belial was voiced by Hiroyuki Miyasako in the Ultraman Zero films and specials (including his debut in Ultra Galaxy Legends), but in Geed, is voiced by Yuki Ono.
  • Zoffy is probably the biggest example in the franchise. His debut in the original Ultraman had him voiced by Hikaru Urano. When reintroduced in Ultraman Ace, he was voiced by Osamu Saka in episodes 5 and 35, Osamu Ichikawa in episode 13, and Keisuke Yamashita in episode 23. Then in Ultraman Taro, Saburo Shinoda provided his voice in episode 18, while Shinya Kashima voiced him in episode 33 and 34. However, since Ultraman Mebius, his voice actor has stuck for good this time, with Hideyuki Tanaka.
  • Averted by several Ultras, notably Ultraseven, who been voiced by Kohji Moritsugu since his debut in 1967 (appropriately, he's also the actor for Seven's human form Dan Moroboshi); as well as Ultraman Leo, whose voice actor Ryu Manatsu also plays his human form Gen Ootori.
• Veronica Mars originally aired with Backup, the title character's dog, being portrayed as a bulldog (by a dog called Gordo). Subsequently it was a pit bull (played by a dog called 'Lefty') – not only a different colouring entirely (changing from brown spots on white to tan all over) but a breed change. This was because, despite having one and a half months to prepare, the trainer had failed to teach the original dog-actor the required stunt and so the dog had to be replaced. However, no hint was given in the show that anything was amiss, despite the replacement dog also being much larger than the original.
• Walker, Texas Ranger:
  • The pilot episode cast Gailard Sartain as C.D. Parker. In episode 4, Noble Willingham replaces him and continues the role until he would pursue politics, leading to the Put on a Bus / Bus Crash of his character.
  • Another character in the series was Pastor Roscoe Jones. In "Sons of Thunder", he was played by John Amos, then one season later in "The Soul of Winter" by Paul Winfield.
• The Walking Dead: As of the sixth season, Judith has been played by seven sets of twins. She also seems to be stuck in some kind of age time warp where she's perpetually six months old...for four years.
• In The Waltons, Robert Wightman took over for Richard Thomas as John-Boy in the last two seasons of the show. Thomas eventually returned for a series of early '90s reunion movies, however.
• Invoked and Played for Drama in WandaVision. In episode 5, a tense argument between Wanda and the Vision is interrupted by a knock on the door and when Wanda opens it, she's shocked to see her brother Pietro, but instead of Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who played him in previous Marvel Cinematic Universe films, it's Evan Peters, who played the character in the X-Men Film Series. Even Darcy Lewis is shocked, yelping out "She recast Pietro?!"
• The Wheel of Time: In Season 1, Mat is played by Barney Harris, who left the show after the first six episodes were filmed. For Season 2, Dónal Finn will be taking over the role.
• The Witcher: Henry Cavill (Geralt of Rivia) left the show after the third season. Liam Hemsworth took over the role of Geralt starting with the fourth season.
• Wonderfalls does this with Eric's wife Heidi. In Eric's honeymoon flashbacks she's played by Corry Carpf. Later, when the character actually appears in the series, she's played by Jewel Staite.
• The Worst Witch featured two such changes. Fenella Feverfew was played by Julia Malewski for the first season and Emily Stride for the third. The character of Miss Hardbroom was also played by two different actresses: Kate Duchene in the first three seasons, and Caroline O'Neill in The New Worst Witch. In fact, only Georgina Sherrington (Mildred) has appeared in all three incarnations of the show. On the other hand, Ethel was given The Nth Doctor treatment (explained as a "witch-over" that she gave herself).
• The second season of The X-Files introduced the character of X, Mulder's second informant following Deep Throat. X was originally intended to be a woman and the role was given to Natalija Nogulich, but the writers felt she didn't have the right chemistry with David Duchovny and soon replaced her with a male actor, Steven Williams.
• Yellowjackets:
  • Akilah was played by Keeyah King during season 1. Nia Sondaya was cast to play her afterwards.
  • Jack DePew plays Jeff Sadecki as a teen in season 1. In season 2, for some reason Owen Gates plays him as a teen, but Jack DePew dubs the voice.

Game Shows

• In the 1992 season of American Gladiators, Natalie Lennox replaced Marisa Pare as Lace.
• Break the Bank (1976): Tom Kennedy hosted the 1976 ABC daytime edition while Jack Barry helmed the 1976 syndicated nighttime show.
• Break the Bank (1985) (an unrelated format to the above , despite the identical title): Gene Rayburn was replaced partway through with Joe Farago.
• Card Sharks:
  • The 1986 Card Sharks reboot saw Bob Eubanks hosting the CBS daytime show and Bill Rafferty on the syndicated nighttime show. Rafferty would also become the host of the Blockbusters revival on NBC, taking over for Bill Cullen (host of the 1980-82 edition).
  • Card Sharks had Jim Perry hosting the original, Pat Bullard on the 2001 reboot, and Joel McHale on the current ABC prime time show.
• On Concentration, Hugh Downs turned the reins of hosting over to long time announcer Bob Clayton at the start of 1969, but NBC wanted to go with McMahon. When ratings started to tumble, NBC switched to Clayton.
• Family Feud has had a total of six hosts since it premiered in 1976 (eight including Ricki Lake^note who hosted an edition of the game as part of Game$how Marathon in 2006 and Al Roker^note who hosted the Spin-Off Celebrity Family Feud on NBC in 2008), with four of those host changes occurring on the current version alone: Louie Anderson (1999-2002), Richard Karn (2002-2006), John O'Hurley (2006-2010), and Steve Harvey (2010-present).
  • Ray Combs replaced Richard Dawson as host when the show Channel Hopped to CBS in 1988; when Combs was fired from the syndicated version six years later, Dawson was brought back to replace him for one season, effectively Darrining the Darrin.
  • The Spin-Off Celebrity Family Feud was hosted by Al Roker for its unspectacular summer 2008 showing on NBC. When the show returned in summer 2015, this time on ABC, current Feud host Steve Harvey served as emcee instead.
• Garry Moore pulled this twice. In 1966, he left I've Got a Secret and turned the moderator seat over to Steve Allen. In 1977, he retired from TV and after hosting the syndicated To Tell the Truth since 1969 was replaced with Joe Garagiola.
• Bill Cullen took over as host of The Joker's Wild in 1984 after original host and creator Jack Barry died of a heart attack.
• Match Game:
  • Gene Rayburn was the longest tenured host of Match Game (1962-69, 1973-82 and 1983's Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour). Since then, Ross Shafer, Michael Burger and Alec Baldwin have filled the spot. Charlene Tilton hosted a pilot for the 1998 show while Andrew Daly hosted an unsold pilot in 2008 for TBS.
  • For a brief week in 1975, Bern Bennett filled in for Johnny Olson as announcer.
• Ed McMahon was the original host of NBC's Missing Links in 1963. He was replaced by Dick Clark when the show moved to ABC six months later due to his commitments with NBC.
• The Name's The Same (ABC, 1951-55) went through Robert Q. Lewis, Clifton Fadiman, Dennis James and radio comedians Bob Elliot and Ray Goulding as moderators.
• Tom Kennedy filled in for Allen Ludden on Password Plus in 1981 after Ludden fell ill. He died soon after and Kennedy became the show's permanent host.
• Think of Press Your Luck and you think of Peter Tomarken, the original host. Elizabeth Banks not only hosts the current ABC prime time series but also serves as executive producer.
• From, strangely enough, The Price Is Right. For the first three seasons, there were two models; Janice Pennington (a blonde) and Anitra Ford (a brunette). Around late July 1975, Anitra took a leave of absence and another model filled in: specifically, a blonde named Dian Parkinson, who had previously filled in for Anitra in mid-April (and hence, a natural choice). Not-so-naturally, beginning on August 19 she started to wear a dark wig and be addressed as "Anitra". Even with a wig there wasn't really much resemblance, so why Price felt they needed to do this is a mystery. When Anitra came back between early September and late October, Dian became the show's third model and was allowed to be herself again.
  • And also, Drew Carey taking over from Bob Barker as host in 2007. There was also Dennis James and Doug Davidson, both of whom hosted syndicated nighttime editions, and all four could be Other Darrins to original host Bill Cullen.
  • On announcers, Don Pardo was the original then was replaced by Johnny Gilbert when Price did a Channel Hop to ABC in 1963. Johnny Olson announced the 1972 reboot with Rod Roddy taking over after Olson's death in 1985. After Roddy passed away, Rich Fields took over followed by current announcer George Gray. Burton Richardson was the announcer on the very short-lived 1994 syndicated edition.
• In 1971, Jack Kelly stepped down as host of Sale of the Century (original version) and turned the bargains over to Joe Garagiola.
• The talent show Spanish Archer, broadcast on the very cheap UK cable network Live TV, played this for laughs. The host character "El Bow" changed actor part-way through the run – from a man to a woman.
• The NBC 1990 reboot of To Tell the Truth saw the host chair filled thrice, first with Gordon Elliot, then Lynn Swann, then for the balance of the show with Alex Trebek. On top of that, the pilot (hosted by Richard Kline) accidentally aired on the East Coast, and Mark Goodson had to fill in for Trebek on two episodes because Trebek's wife had gone into labor.
• Wally Bruner left as host of What's My Line? in 1972 and was replaced with Larry Blyden for the show's final three seasons. Speaking of Blyden, he was to host ABC's Showoffs that summer of 1975 but was killed in an auto accident. The clips used in ABC's promos for the show had Blyden hosting but was he was never shown in those clips. The host job went to Bobby Van.
• Original Wheel of Fortune host Chuck Woolery left in 1981 after his request for a raise was turned down. Pat Sajak, then meteorologist for Nashville's NBC affiliate WSMV, has been the host of the nighttime show since. He hosted the daytime show up until 1989 when he departed for his ill-fated CBS late night show. San Diego Charger placekicker Rolf Benirschke filled the host spot until July 1989 when the show switched to CBS and Bob Goen took over. Goen remained with the daytime show through its return to NBC and its course run to September 1991. On the same show, original hostess Susan Stafford quit in 1982, and Vanna White (who still holds the role to this day) took over.
• Win, Lose or Draw saw Vicki Lawrence hosting the NBC daytime show and Bert Convy on the syndicated nighttime series. During the third season of the syndicated show, Robb Weller replaced Convy.

Sketch Comedy

• Halfway through the four-season run of America's Funniest People, co-host Arleen Sorkin was replaced by Tawny Kitaen.
• Lampshaded in The Fast Show's Live Episode a recurring character was played some another actor and aged to 18 (presumably so they didn't have to deal with children in a live performance), and is greeted with "18, eh? You look so different, I hardly recognize you. Almost like a different actor!"
• In Harry Hill's TV Burp, Wagbo is mentioned to suddenly look a bit different, because the actor that usually plays him is on holiday. A couple of episodes later, both Wagbos show up to terrorise Harry at the same time, and the original Wagbo has an obvious sunburn on his face.
• The long-running Canadian sketch comedy series Royal Canadian Air Farce originally featured founding cast member Don Ferguson as then-Canadian Alliance Party leader Stephen Harper in the early 2000s. Not long after, then-new cast member Craig Lauzon took over the role, possibly to allow Harper to appear in political sketches where Ferguson was playing Liberal leader and then-Prime Minister Paul Martin. Lauzon's take on Stephen Harper became one of his most familiar on the program, especially after Harper defeated Martin in the 2006 federal election.
• Saturday Night Live:
  • The sketch The Whipmaster (on the season 18 episode hosted by Bill Murray), while not a real example as there was only one Whipmaster sketch, is about how this trope can go horribly, horribly awry when you replace the original actor (who was experienced with working a whip) with one that isn't.
  • On the actual show, the fact that the show has been on for a long time and has amassed a lot of cast members (both long-running and short-lived) has led to a lot of celebrity impressions being done by different cast members. Notable examples include:
    • Bill Clinton (played by Dana Carvey,^note as the young, draft-dodging, pot-smoking hippie Clinton Phil Hartman, Michael McKean [during the show's much-loathed 20th season], Darrell Hammond, and Beck Bennett)
    • Barack Obama (played by Fred Armisen^note to the outrage of some who think Armisen was not the right race to play him and the fact that Lorne Michaels turned down Donald Glover and Jordan Peele, who are black, skinny men who have good to passable Obama impressions until 2012, when Jay Pharoah took over)
    • Because the show took awhile to find a permanent black female cast member, there was no one to play Michelle Obama...unless you counted the cameo appearances by Maya Rudolph and that one time Kerry Washington hosted SNL and SNL made fun of itself for using a black female host to play multiple roles to cover up the fact that they didn't hire a black comedienne in the early half of season 39. When SNL finally buckled down and hired a black female cast member, they chose Sasheer Zamata as Michelle (with writer/cast member Leslie Jones, as her She-Hulk-esque persona).
    • George W. Bush was first played by Will Ferrell. When he left in 2002, Chris Parnell (who was just rehired after being fired for budget cuts) played him, followed by Darrell Hammond. In the middle of the 2003-2004 season, Will Forte played George W. Bush and from 2006 to the end of Bush, Jr.'s administration, Jason Sudeikis played George W. Bush (though whenever Will Ferrell comes back to host or cameo, he reprises his role).
    • Donald Trump has been played by Phil Hartman, Darrell Hammond, Jason Sudeikis (in a one-off sketch), Taran Killam and Alec Baldwin. Most of the current political sketches in the 2015-2016 season have ping-ponged between having Taran Killam as Donald Trump and having Darrell Hammond (who is back on the show as the new announcer following Don Pardo's death) as Trump, with Hammond looking and sounding the most like him. From 2016 onward, Emmy winner Alec Baldwin has been portraying Trump.
    • Hillary Clinton is currently played by Kate McKinnon, though when Amy Poehler came back to host a season 41 Christmas episode, Poehler was cast as her (in fairness, it was because the McKinnon Hillary Clinton was being visited from her past self). By the time McKinnon took over the role Hillary had also been played by Jan Hooks, Janeane Garofalo, Ana Gasteyer, Rachel Dratch (as a clone of Poehler), Drew Barrymore (young Hillary Rodham), Vanessa Bayer, and even Miley Cyrus.
    • Joe Biden was first played as a Senator by Kevin Nealon. When he reemerged as Obama's Vice President Jason Sudeikis took on the role. For the 2020 election he was played by a succession of guest stars: Woody Harrelson, Sudeikis again, John Mulaney, and Jim Carrey. For the actual Biden Presidency Alex Moffat stepped into the role, until he was replaced by new cast member James Austin Johnson.
    • The announcer of "What Up Wit' Dat?" (the overly-long musical talk show recurring sketch with Kenan Thompson as DeAndre Cole) was originally played by Will Forte. When Will Forte left in 2010, Taran Killam replaced him. The backup dancers also changed; in season 35, they were played by Nasim Pedrad and Jenny Slate. When Jenny Slate was fired after season 35, she was replaced with Abby Elliott.
• All That lampshaded this, with Lil JJ taking over the role of Cupid in the "2 Gether 4 Ever" sketch from Shane Lyons. "I don't like it, and I didn't like it two years ago when I was a tall, white guy!"

Soaps

• In general, this trope is so common in daytime soaps that a voiceover announcer saying "the role of [X] is now being played by [Y]" at the start of an episode is one of the cliches of the genre.
• All My Children, like all daytime soaps, has recast characters countless times. However, in 2007 they decided to have fun with it by transitioning actresses playing Babe in mid-hug with her mother Krystal. Alexa Havins went in for the hug and Amanda Baker pulled back from it. See it here.
• In the soap Another World, the role of Rachel Davis Matthews Cory was originally played from 1967 to 1972 by Robin Strasser (who later played Dorian Cramer Lord on One Lifeto Live). Victoria Wyndham took over the role in 1972, and she became the best-known Rachel Cory.
• Happens constantly on the soap As the World Turns.
• Long running (more than 4000 20-minute episodes so far!) Hungarian soap Barátok közt (Amongst Friends) has pulled it off three times, mostly combined with a short bus trip. All of them were female characters, first a rape victim visited her relatives in the countryside to forget and another actress came back. Huge lampshade was also hung as a character noticed that she became more feminine. Second, a girl who survived the car crash in which her boyfriend died went crazy, so she took a trip to her relatives in Ireland. The third character wasn't put on the bus, since she was quite new in the show, and the new actress looked similar to the old one. This is also a case of Real Life Writes the Plot, since all of the replaced actresses were in their graduation year.
• Coronation Street:
  • Deirdre Barlow's daughter Tracy was portrayed by child actresses Christabel Finch and Holly Chamarette before switching to Dawn Acton from her late teens onwards. All three portrayed the character in a broadly consistent way as moody, insecure and eventually evolving into something of a Goth. From 2002, she was played by Kate Ford. Funnily enough Tracy's own daughter Amy underwent this, being at first played by Amber Chadwick for four years – and then recast with Elle Mulvaney. Two other actresses had played her when she was just a baby.
  • Tracy's stepsiblings Peter and Susan Barlow (originally played by actual twin babies) have been repeatedly Other Darrined since they were sent to live with their late mother's parents at the age of six in 1971. At one point, the original actress (apart from the baby) to play Susan returned to the role, at another, Peter was played by the real life son of Ken Barlow's actor, who has since taken the role of another of Ken's sons.
  • Nick Tilsley was played by Warren Jackson for fifteen years and then went to live in Canada. When he returned a year later, he was played by Adam Rickitt. Years later he moved to Nottingham and was played by Ben Price when he returned again.
  • Liam and Michelle's mother Helen was first played by Sorcha Cusack. After Liam's death, she visited again now played by Dearbhla Molloy.
  • In her first two appearances in 1974, Blanche was played by Patricia Cutts. After Cutts' suicide, Maggie Jones took over her role and would continue playing her until her death in 2009.
  • The two "Dry Runs" had some different cast members, including Larry Dann and Bryan Hulme playing Dennis Tanner, and Doris Hare playing Minnie Caldwell.
• Days of Our Lives:
  • The series did an unusual take on this. Philip Kiriakis was played by Jay Kenneth Johnson until 2003 when he was replaced by Kyle Brandt in the usual manner. In 2006, Phillip had been injured in the military and had to receive facial surgery that made him look like a different person and was then played by... Jay Kenneth Johnson.
  • The character of Mike Horton is perhaps the ultimate example. He has been recast 13 times!
• Dynasty (1981):
  • All four of Blake's children switch actors.
  • Originally, Steven's transition from Al Corley to Jack Coleman was attributed to Magic Plastic Surgery. In the Reunion Show, Corley reprised the role without explanation.
• The 2017 reboot of Dynasty features one as well. When Nathalie Kelley (Cristal Flores) departed from the show after season 1, the showrunners decided to kill her off, then bring in a Suspiciously Similar Substitute named Cristal Jennings, played by Ana Brenda Contreras. However, Contreras departed after season 2. Realizing that they couldn't exactly do the same trick twice, they replaced her with Daniella Alonso for the rest of the series. There was no explanation why her appearance suddenly changed.
• In EastEnders, Michelle Fowler returned at Christmas 2016 after ten years in the USA, now played by blonde actress Jenna Russell rather than brunette actress Susan Tully, who has retired from acting and showed no interest in returning anyway.
• The British soap Emmerdale has replaced many actors, usually the children. However, Robert Sugden (then played by Karl Davies) was absent from the show between 2005 and 2014 (save for an appearance in 2009). When he returned to the village as a major character in '14, he was played by Ryan Hawley. The replacement of Davies with Hawley also marked a definite shift in Robert's storylines, as the bad boy villain Davies played was the center of a Redemption Quest when he fell in love with Aaron Dingle, placing him at the center of one of the most popular couples and providing him with much more heroic storylines.
• The popular Australian soap Home and Away:
  • The character of Pippa was originally played by curly-haired blonde Vanessa Downing. She was replaced by Debra Lawrence – an actress with straight, brown hair.
  • The character of Ailsa Stewart was played by Judy Nunn. When Nunn fell ill, the producers temporarily cast well-known theatre performer Nancye Hayes. This was addressed by a caption on the screen at the start of the episodes that Hayes appeared in.
• This trope is so rare in Latin American television, it was somewhat of a minor scandal when the Mexican Soap Opera Nada Personal changed the actress of the main heroine, from Ana Colchero to Christianne Gout, with only a small explanation at the beginning of a chapter that bordered on a Lampshade Hanging.
• The Australian soap opera Neighbours:
  • In May 2010, Erin Mullally replaced James Sorensen as Declan Napier.
  • In 2008, the actress playing Libby Kennedy (Kym Valentine) contracted severe pneumonia and was replaced for four weeks by Michala Banas, with no explanation given to the audience.
  • For people who grew up watching Neighbours, the relationship between Scott and Charlene and the real-life romance between their actors, Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue, was the main event of the late eighties ... but Jason Donovan wasn't the original Scott. That was Darius Perkins.
  • Todd Macdonald replacing Scott Major as Darren Stark.
  • Lucy Robinson has been played by three actresses: Kylie Flinker, Sasha Close and the longest, and most recent, Melissa Bell who returned to the role in 2013 after a number of years absent.
• One Life to Live:
  • Happened with the voice over included when the original Todd Manning was replaced by another actor.
  • The trope was turned on its head when James De Paiva, the original Max Holden, was replaced by Nicholas Walker. The show explained that he looked different because of an accident which had required plastic surgery to replace Max's face. But then De Paiva came back to the show, and there was no explanation as to why he looked like his old self.
• Passions parodied the use of voice-over to announce a casting change when Mark Cameron Wystrach took over the role of Fox Crane in February 2006. The voice-over played out, and Tabitha, who was in the scene looked for the source of the voice-over, before it scolded her to open the door and meet the new Fox.
• In The Restless Years, another Aussie soap, one character was seen in a hairdresser's, commenting "I hope my hair turns out ok". She then whipped the towel off to show that she'd changed from brunette to blonde – and changed actresses at the same time.
• Possibly the strangest example of all time: Christina Crawford, appearing in The Secret Storm from 1968-1969, got an ovarian tumour. While she was off the show, they got a stand-in: Joan Crawford—her adoptive mother, and more than thirty years older than her. This was memorably depicted in the film adaptation of Christina's memoir Mommie Dearest.
• 1990's soap Sunset Beach has a bunch of these. One of the main characters got switched twice.
• The Young and the Restless:
  • Just start going through there and look for repeats. You can find at least four different people credited for Victoria Newman across different years, and various doubles for almost every character.
  • YATR is not unique in this respect. Since American daytime soap operas have a tendency to feature the same characters for decades, it's not uncommon for roles to be recast on a temporary or permanent basis when an actor decides to go on to do something else, but the writers have more stories to tell using the character.
• General Hospital:
  • Besides numerous cases of playing this straight, the series has had oddities like the original Carly (Sarah Brown) returning as a different character alongside Carly #4 (Laura Wright), and a couple of cases of a character created for a Celebrity Star returning full-time under a different performer (Helena Cassadine, originally played by Elizabeth Taylor, but resurrected by Constance Towers, who played her for over two decades; Franco Baldwin, originally James Franco, later replaced by Roger Howarth).
  • A truly strange Role-Ending Misdemeanor situation instigated some craziness in 2023. Molly Lansing-Davis had been born on screen in 2005 and was played by infant and toddler actors, but she came down with Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome in 2009, and 10-year-old Haley Pullos took on the role, which she kept playing as the character aged into adolescence and young adulthood. Then in the May of 2023, it was announced that Pullos had been in a serious car accident, and a fill-in actress, Holiday Mia Kriegel, was introduced to play the part while Pullos was out (as it happened, Molly was in the middle of a major storyline where she found out she was infertile and decided to have a child with a surrogate mother). Then it was revealed that there had been open containers of alcohol and cannabis edibles found in Pullos' car after the crash, and she got charged with felony DUI. The show has remained tight-lipped on whether Pullos will ever return, but in the meantime, Kriegel's tenure stretched into July, before she was suddenly replaced by Brooke Anne Smith. This was a very controversial recasting among the show's fandom, since Smith was obviously much older than Molly is supposed to be (Smith was 39, while Molly's canonical age is 25), and didn't really look much like Pullos or even Kriegel, who both have black hair while Smith has light brown hair.^note A weird sidelight in all this was the introduction of a new Recurring Character around the same time named Betty Rutherford, a shady woman posing as a nanny. Her portrayer, Ella Lentini, looked quite a bit like Pullos, and fans openly wondered why she hadn't been the one recast as Molly. Then after two more months, Molly got yet another surprise recast with Kristen Vaganos, who was much closer in age and looks to Pullos. That's four different actresses playing the character over four months! This led to jokes that 2023 would be remembered as "The Year of Four Mollys".

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