Line #16 Main/SecondEpisodeSubstitute


1	The intersection of SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute and SecondEpisodeIntroduction. This trope is when a character featured in the pilot episode (and clearly meant to be a main player in the series) [[DroppedAfterThePilot is missing from the second episode]], replaced by a similar character for the rest of the series' run. Note that this is not a case of TheOtherDarrin occurring between the first and second episodes, the substitute is explicitly a different character.
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3	This often happens because pilots are produced well before the full series is picked up; episode two is prime time for characters to get dropped, recast, or replaced... sometimes even [[NonIndicativeFirstEpisode big chunks of the premise and/or tone]] don't make it to the regular series.
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5	Contrast DecoyProtagonist.
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7	!!Examples:
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10	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
11	* The two ''Manga/OnePiece'' pilots each had early prototypes of the character that would become Nami when the series got picked up. The first pilot had Silk, an orphan who tries to rally her village to defend themselves against the pirates pillaging the village. The second pilot had Ann, a girl who was trying to rescue her best friend, a bird, from pirates.
12	** In the second ''One Piece'' pilot, Luffy received his straw hat and dream of being a pirate from his grandfather. When the series got picked up, Luffy received both of these things from Shanks.
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15	[[folder:Live-Action Television]]
16	* The pilot of ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' has Jerry and George interact with Claire, the DeadpanSnarker waitress at Pete's Luncheonette, originally meant to be the female role of the series. In the second episode, "The Stake Out", Claire is gone, the diner is Monk's Cafe, and the female role is Jerry's ex-girlfriend, Elaine (though she appears at the end of "Male Unbonding", the second episode produced, to help Jerry come up with ideas to avoid a childhood friend). Creator/{{NBC}} felt the show was too "male-centric" and demanded that there be a female role ([[FridgeLogic although if Claire was meant to be the female role, one might wonder why she was dropped in the first place]]).
17	* The {{Pilot}} of ''Series/NewGirl'' had Coach as the third roommate to Nick and Schmidt. However his actor Damon Wayans Jr. was already committed to another TV show on a different network, ABC's ''Series/HappyEndings'', so the second episode of ''New Girl'' had him replaced with Winston. After Happy Endings was cancelled, Wayans returned to the show as Coach in Season 4...and promptly left again at the end of the season.
18	* ''Series/HogansHeroes'' featured a Russian POW named Vladmir in its pilot episode, though when the series was picked up, actor Leonid Kinsky refused to renew his contract, as he disliked [[ThoseWackyNazis how lightly the Nazis were portrayed]]; so saying, Larry Hovis as Carter was promoted to full-time regular, after initially appearing as a one-shot guest character in the pilot.
19	* In the pilot of ''Series/{{Eureka}}'', the head of Global Dynamics was a character named Warren King. He was replaced by Nathan Stark (offscreen) starting in the second episode.
20	* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' is a complicated case, as it had two pilot episodes ("The Cage" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before"), and though they both formed part of the series' first season, neither was the first episode aired.
21	** If "Where No Man Has Gone Before", the successful pilot, had aired as the first episode, the replacement of Dr. Mark Piper with the younger but otherwise very similar Dr. Leonard [=McCoy=] would be a straightforward example of this trope. (The wholesale replacement of the regular cast, except Spock, between the first, unsuccessful, pilot, and the second, successful, pilot is probably a different trope.)
22	** Dr. [=McCoy=] is an interesting example in that he is basically this trope in reverse: Gene Roddenberry always wanted Creator/DeForestKelley for the Doctor, all the way back to the first pilot, but was overruled by each pilot's director (Robert Butler favoured John Hoyt as Dr. Boyce, and James Goldstone preferred Paul Fix as Dr. Piper). Only when the show went to series could Roddenberry cast Kelley without interference.
23	** A straighter example of this trope is the Captain's Yeoman: Colt in "The Cage" (played by Laurel Goodwin) was replaced by Smith (played by Andrea Dromm) in "Where No Man Has Gone Before". Dromm declined to continue with the series to pursue a film career, and so was replaced by Grace Lee Whitney as Yeoman Rand for "The Corbomite Maneuver" (which also introduced Bones and Uhura).
24	** Communications Officer Alden in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" is replaced by Lieutenant Uhura in the series.
25	** Between first pilot "The Cage" and second pilot "Where No Man Has Gone Before", Captain Pike was replaced with Captain Kirk. The episode also introduces Scotty (who seems to replace the minor character Pittrodie) and Sulu (who, in terms of dynamic if not function aboard the ship, basically replaces Tyler).
26	* The pilot movie that launched ''Series/BabylonFive'' was aired separately months before the series itself began, which led to cast complications and several substitutions in the first regular episode:
27	** The First Officer, Laurel Takashima, was replaced by Susan Ivanova.
28	** The chief surgeon, Doctor Kyle, was replaced by Doctor Franklin (although technically that was a ''third'' episode substitute; neither of them appears in the episode after the pilot).
29	** The Resident Telepath, Lyta Alexander, was replaced by Talia Winters (who was later written out and replaced with [[TheBusCameBack Lyta Alexander]]).
30	** At least two of these replacements (possibly not Takashima) became plot points.
31	* In ''Series/Space1999'', black computer expert Ben Ouma is replaced by black computer expert David Kano after the first episode.
32	* In ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'' Kelsey, a female school chum character in the first episode is replaced by Clyde, a male school chum character in the second. It helps that both are Black, snarky, initially obnoxious and the SecretKeeper. The main difference between them is that Kelsey was [[TheScrappy incredibly unpopular]], while Clyde quickly became a [[EnsembleDarkhorse fan favorite]].
33	* In the original ''Series/{{CSI}}'' the AudienceSurrogate character Holly Gribbs was quickly replaced with the eerily similar Sara Sidle because she was generally hated by test audiences... the creators had anticipated as much. As a result, they decided for Holly to die (rather than recover) in the second episode.
34	* ''Series/NightCourt'' changed defense attorneys several times, but the first time was between the pilot and second episode where Gail Strickland as Sheila Garnder was replaced with Paula Kelly as Liz Williams.
35	* The ''Series/{{JAG}}'' PilotMovie had Caitlin Pike as Harm's partner on the USS Seahawk investigation. In the series proper she was replaced by Meg Austin.
36	* The two ''Series/{{JAG}}'' episodes that act as the pilot for ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' had a character named Vivian Blackadder on Gibbs' team. She was dropped for the series proper, so the first real episode introduced Caitlin Todd as a secret service agent who transferred to NCIS for episode 2.
37	* It happened again for ''Series/NCISLosAngeles'' - Special Agent Macey was introduced as the head of the LA branch in the two-parter pilot on ''Series/{{NCIS}}''. Come the series proper, Macey's been replaced by Hetty. In addition, they've moved to a new building.
38	* Juliet O'Hara was introduced in the second episode of ''Series/{{Psych}}'', replacing Lassiter's partner from the pilot after she was transferred due to a ban on inter-office affairs.
39	* In the pilot of ''Series/{{Elementary}}'' Captain Gregson has a Hispanic partner named Detective Javier Abreu who was skeptical of Holmes' deductive skills and questioned the necessity for his consultation. From the second episode on, Captain Gregson has an African American partner named Detective Marcus Bell who is skeptical of Holmes' deductive skills and questions the necessity for his consultation.
40	* ''Series/SirensUS'' Theresa's new partner in the pilot gets transferred pretty quickly and is replaced with Billy in episode two.
41	* ''Series/NewsRadio'' featured an oddball maintenance man character named Rick (played by Greg Lee, best known for ''Series/WhereInTheWorldIsCarmenSandiego'') who gets replaced in the second episode with the younger and hunkier Creator/JoeRogan.
42	* In the pilot for ''Series/TheWizard'', the caretaker is a woman named Darcy Stafford, played by Gates [=McFadden=]. Episode 2 explains that Darcy got transferred to a different assignment, and her caretaker job eventually goes to Tillie Russell, played by Fran Ryan.
43	* Liv Aberdine was written out after the pilot for ''Series/{{Constantine}}'' and replaced in the second episode by Zed Martin, who also has psychic abilities. She also has a cameo at the end of the reshoot pilot.
44	* The ''Series/LawAndOrder'' first-season episode "Everybody's Favorite Bagman" was filmed in 1988, two years before the series aired, and featured Roy Thinnes as District Attorney Alfred Wentworth. When the show finally got picked up, Thinnes wasn't available, so Steven Hill was cast as District Attorney Adam Schiff, and the Wentworth character appeared only in that single episode. What makes this case particularly striking is that for some reason, producers chose to air "Everybody's Favorite Bagman" in the ''middle'' of the season rather than as the pilot, so from the audience perspective, Wentworth randomly replaces Schiff as DA for a single episode and then is never seen again, with no explanation given at any point.
45	* The unaired 15-minute pilot to ''Series/TheMunsters'' had Herman married to a Morticia Addams lookalike named Phoebe, played by Creator/JoanMarshall. She was replaced by Creator/YvonneDeCarlo as Lily Munster going forward.
46	* Sam Casey's boss Driscoll was originally played by Creator/RichardDysart in the pilot episode short-lived TV show ''Series/GeminiMan'' before he was replaced by William Sylvester (of ''[[Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey 2001: A Space Odyssey]]'' fame) for the series proper. The TV movie ''Riding With Death'', which consisted of edited footage from various episodes of the show, featured both actors in the role.
47	* The first week of ''Series/TheGongShow'' was hosted by John Barbour, but creator Creator/ChuckBarris took over after that.
48	* The pilot to the 1990 revival of ''Series/ToTellTheTruth'' accidentally aired on the east coast, with Richard Kline hosting instead of Gordon Elliott.
49	* In the first season of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' there was set up for a psychic named Missouri Mosely to be the boys' information source about the supernatural, but Loretta Devine wanted to concentrate on her theatre career. Creator/JimBeaver was brought as junk dealer and hunter Bobby Singer. Beaver thought he'd only be around for one episode, but he became hugely popular with the fandom and appeared in the show for all fifteen seasons.
50	* {{Subverted\|Trope}} in ''Series/{{Community}}''. The pilot sets up Ian Duncan (played by Creator/JohnOliver) as the primary teacher only for Ben Chang to take that role, both because Chang taught the class the study group was taking together and because Oliver didn't want to leave ''Series/TheDailyShow'' to become a regular cast member, but Duncan ended up becoming a recurring character anyway.
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53	[[folder:Western Animation]]
54	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': A rare InUniverse example (of sorts) occurs on an episode ([[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E13HomerToTheMax "Homer to the Max"]]), where a ShowWithinAShow called "''Police Cops''" has a character called Homer Simpson, which gives Homer some fame within the town. The episode right after the pilot keeps the Homer character in name only, changing him from an apparent {{Expy}} of [[Series/MiamiVice "Sonny" Crockett]] into an utterly incompetent Creator/ChrisFarley-esque idiot. The ridicule of people afterwards is so bad that Homer decides to change his name to "[[AwesomeMcCoolname Max Power]]".
55	* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' has another InUniverse example: in the pilot of ''[[ShowWithinAShow Li'l Butler]],'' the family had a cat named Money, which was apparently replaced by a dog in the next episode.
56	* In the original pilot of ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'', the Belchers' oldest child was a son named Daniel who looked very similar to his substitute Tina, even down to having the same voice.
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Context Main / SecondEpisodeSubstitute