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The Pete Best

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"People get kicked out of bands. It happens. The Beatles nixed Pete Best because Ringo Starr was a superior drummer. Metallica got rid of Dave Mustaine because only two exceptionally low IQ rageaholic jackasses are allowed in a band and they already had James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich." caption: 

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

Named for Pete Best, the first drummer of The Beatles, who was replaced by Ringo Starr just before they hit it big, with Ringo having suddenly become available after leaving another band.

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

If the guy is in the band when they are famous, but all but forgotten, that person's Stuck in Their Shadow. If the guy never had a chance of becoming famous anyway, that's Breakup Breakout. If the band tries to avoid talking about the guy in the event he is brought up or tries to take down any uploaded footage of the period he was with them, he is an Old Shame. If their successor ends up more remembered, it is a case of More Popular Replacement.

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

Compare other tropes surrounding changes in performers and characters, such as The Other Marty, Dropped After the Pilot and Second Episode Introduction.

Contrast Lesser Star.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 
    Anime & Manga 
  • Eric Stuart, the longtime voice actor for James (and Brock) in the 4Kids dub of Pokémon: The Series, was actually the second voice actor for the character. Ted Lewis was James's voice actor for the first few episodes of the show's run. Lewis went on to voice Tracey and Giovanni, among many other minor characters, and notably returned to the role of Giovanni even after the mass voice actor replacement of 2006.
    • Another case of this happened with Meowth, who is best known as being voiced by the late Maddie Blaustein. However, for the first thirty or so episodes of the dub, his voice actor was Matthew Sussman (credited under the name "Nathan Price"), who retired the role afterward while continuing to provide additional voices for a couple more years.
  • Raoh was originally voiced by Norio Wakamoto when he appeared in Episode 32 of Hokuto no Ken before Kenji Utsumi took over the role. This was before Raoh's proper first appearance, before Raoh's design and backstory were finalized (before he even had a proper name even) since Raoh only shows up as a silhouette. Wakamoto would later appear as another character named Shuren.
  • Tristan Taylor from the 4Kids dub of Yu-Gi-Oh! was voiced by Sam Riegel for the first ten episodes until Greg Abbey took over. However, Riegel's goofier take is more well-known these days, especially to fans of Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series, simply because of how easy it is to make fun of.
  • In Slayers, Crispin Freeman is best known for being the voice of Zelgadis, however, Daniel Cronin had voiced the character for nine episodes before the character was Put on a Bus and recast with Crispin after he reappeared eight episodes later (apparently, the people working on the dub couldn't get back in contact with Cronin). Interestingly, this was a controversial recast in the day, as many fans were used to Daniel's voice, and had a hard time adjusting to Freeman; with how long Freeman has been in the role, however, nowadays people who haven't been watching since the beginning only see Cronin as Zelgadis' "old voice" when they watch the earlier episodes.
    • The same could be said for Joan Baker as Amelia. Most people associate Veronica Taylor as the character's voice actress, not knowing there was another actress who had briefly voiced the character for her first three episodes. In addition, Luci Christian also briefly voiced the character for Slayers Premium, but her performance is usually also sidelined by Taylor's.
  • Dragon Ball:
    • The entire Ocean voice cast for Dragon Ball Z. Once associated as the voices of the series, that honor now goes to FUNimation's voice cast, who has completely replaced the former (with actors like Sean Schemmel and Chris Sabat instead of Ian Corlett and Brian Drummond). While Ocean did do their own dub of the second half of the series for Europe and Canada in association with AB Groupe, this has also been displaced by Funimation's version, which is all that's on DVD in those (and all English-speaking) territories.
    • Within FUNimation's studios itself, their very first dub, Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle, had several regulars like Christopher Sabat as Yamcha, Laurie Steele as Young Krillin, and Mike McFarland as Master Roshi, but also had several actors who would soon be replaced with cast members fans are much more familiar with. Kid Goku was originally voiced by Ceyli Delgadillo before Stephanie Nadolny and later Colleen Clinkenbeard handled him for more recent stuff, Leslie Alexander voiced Bulma in the dub before being replaced by Tiffany Volmer and later Monica Rial, and Launch had two different voice actresses for her good and bad sides (Monika Antonelli, the original Puar and Chiaotzu, was the good side, and Christine Marten, who has no other credits, was the bad side) while Meredith McCoy would provide the voice of both her personalities for the rest of her appearances.
    • FUNimation also had a few cases of this in their first dubbed season of DBZ, which covered the "Ginyu" and "Freeza" arcs. Chris Cason (who also voices Shou in the franchise) was the original voice for both Tien Shinhan and Mr. Popo, but temporarily retired the following year, leaving the characters to be respectively recast with John Burgmeier and Christopher Sabat. While Cason returned to the role of Mr. Popo beginning in 2010 for Dragon Ball Z Kai, Burgmeier has continued to provide the voice for Tien. Dale Kelly was the original voice for Captain Ginyu in Funimation's dub, but 2 years later he was replaced with Brice Armstrong and after Armstrong's retirement R. Bruce Elliott. Lastly, Chris Sabat himself is the Pete Best for both Nappa and Raditz, providing their voices for a flashback in one episode, as well as providing the voice for the former in the original English dub of the Bardock TV special. In all future appearances in anime and video games, Phil Parsons has been Nappa, while Justin Cook (who is also the voice of Teen and Adult Dende as well as Super Buu) is Raditz.
    • FUNimation's original voices for the Pilaf Gang for their appearances in the third Dragon Ball film were completely different than the usual voices that have played them in all other appearances. Pilaf was voiced by Mike McFarland rather than Chuck Huber, Justin Cook voiced Shou instead of Chris Cason (an inversion of his status as Tien), and Cynthia Cranz originally voiced Mai, while Julie Franklin handled her for the dub of the TV series and Colleen Clinkenbeard has provided her voice for all future appearances.
    • For Dragon Ball Super most people attribute Matthew Mercer as the voice of Hit, but he was the second actor for the role. In his first English-speaking appearance in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, Aaron Roberts (who also voices Cae in the anime) provided Hit's voice, and Mercer took over for all subsequent appearances.
    • In the Japanese version, Naoko Watanabe is best known as the voice of Chi-Chi, but Mayumi Sho voiced her in the original Dragon Ball and the first two seasons and three movies of Dragon Ball Z, before taking a hiatus from seiyuu work to care for her family. She very briefly returned to voice Chi-Chi in the first Budokai game, but otherwise, the role has long been associated with Watanabe (who also voices Puar).
    • In the Latin American Spanish dub of DB, Jesús Barrero was the first voice actor of both Yamcha and Puar from their first appearance until episode 45, when he left and the roles were given to separate actors (Yamcha to Ricardo Mendoza, who continues on the role up to this day, and Puar to Cristina Camargo).
  • Battle of the Planets (the first English dub of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman) had entirely different actors for Tiny and Jason in the earliest-dubbed episode, "Attack of the Space Terrapin". Most fans associate Alan Dinehart and Ronnie Schell with the respective characters, however, Schell voiced Tiny in this first episode, while David Jolliffe voiced Jason. For some reason or another, Sandy Frank recast the parts after that, leaving Schell to take on the more prominent role of Jason (and voicing the character in a higher, somewhat raspier voice than Jolliffe's take), while Dinehart took over Tiny.
  • In Ranma ½, the girl-type Ranma is best known for being voiced by Venus Terzo in the English dub, but Brigitta Dau voiced her in the first 6 episodes of the TV series and first two OVA episodes, before moving away. Both Dau and Terzo sounded similar, and many viewers didn't even notice the change. In addition, Cologne's voice was Elan Ross-Gibson 99% of the time, but Kathleen Barr voiced her in her first couple of OVA appearances.
  • Saint Seiya:
    • Saori Kido's Latin Spanish voice was originally Cristina Camargo. After 26 episodes, the more remembered María Fernanda Morales took over.
    • For most of the franchise, Ricardo Mendoza voices Shiryu and Roberto Mendiola voices Ban, but in their first appearance in the second episode, it was the other way around.
    • The Brazilian original voiceover for Shiryu was Sérgio Rufino, who voiced the character in the 1994 broadcast, but was shortly replaced by Elcio Sodré after nine episodes, because Rufino was suffering from hoarseness at the time. In 2003, the series got a redub with most of the cast being the same, and Sodré was recast as Shiryu voicing him in the entire series. Later, all Saint Seiya productions featured Sodré as Shiryu.
  • In the English dub of Digimon Adventure, Jeff Nimoy is known as the voice of Tentomon, but he was actually the second actor to voice him. In the first few episodes, Joshua Seth, who voiced Tai, also voiced Tentomon, but the crew thought he had too many roles, so Nimoy took over as Tentomon for all future appearances, with the exception of some later episodes of Digimon Adventure 02, where he was Other Darrined. Seth did continue to voice Tentomon's lower form Motimon however.

    Comic Books 
  • The Hulk could be said to be the Pete Best of The Avengers — one of the five founding members, he left at the end of the second issue, never to rejoin the team. In issue #4 Captain America joined the Avengers and became one of those three members (along with founders Thor and Iron Man) of which you invariably can expect to see at least one on the active roster. The Avengers altered their charter to make Cap a founding member and remove the Hulk from it, despite it being the other way around. Averted in modern adaptations like The Avengers and The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, which keep Hulk on the team to have more Marvel A-list heroes that aren't wrapped up in licensing red tapes like Spider-Man or Wolverine.
  • At least the Hulk has become a major character on his own. Two founding members of the new X-Men fit this trope a lot better. Sunfire, who quit the team in the second issue, and Thunderbird, who died in the third issue. While their teammates Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Storm have become major characters, these two remain mostly footnotes in comic book history. Banshee, another founding member, is more of a downplayed example, as he stuck around long enough to be considered a "real" X-Men, but quit the team just before the comic's popularity skyrocketed.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog:
    • For the first few issues of Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), Michael Gallagher and David Manak were the main writer and artists respectively, giving a zany and cartoonish tone with No Fourth Wall and a Hurricane of Puns. Over time, they were phased out in favor of a larger number of rotating artists and writers who established a more serious tone.
    • Sonic the Comic:
      • Long-running artist Richard Elson doesn't join until the seventh issue, and while other artists would still contribute to the Sonic strip across its run, doesn't become the primary artist for the Sonic strip until around the twentieth.
      • Writer Nigel Kitching doesn't join the book until the fourth issue and doesn't begin establishing the consistent world of Sonic the Comic until the seventh, with the first year of the comic's run alternating between Kitching and one-shots by Mark Millar. The other well-known Sonic the Comic writer, Lew Stringer, doesn't join until around the mid-twenties' issues.
  • Barbara Gordon is the character that fans primarily associate as Batgirl thanks especially due to appearing in other media such as Batman: The Animated Series, but most are surprised to learn that she was actually the second heroine to use the identity: the original Batgirl is actually Betty Kane, who made a few appearances in the early 1960s before largely being dropped, only showing up sporadically since. Barbara's two successors in the comics, Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown, also overshadow Betty.
  • In May 1950, recently founded Brazilian publisher Primavera launched Raio Vermelho, an unsucessful republishing of Italian comics that only lasted three years. That magazine basically only exists as a footnote to what would happen in July, as the same company under the name Abrilnote  released Donald Duck, that lasted 68 years before the Disney Mouse and Duck Comics changed their publisher, a period in which Abril became a massive media conglomerate.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the first outing for the concept and paved the way for the TV adaptation. It was a moderately well-acclaimed horror/comedy movie but was so eclipsed by the TV show that nobody now remembers Kirsty Swanson as Buffy, without a big reminder there had been a Slayer prior to Sarah Michelle Gellar.
  • Star Wars:
  • Peter Burton, who played Major Boothroyd/Q in Dr. No, was unable to return for From Russia with Love and so was replaced by Desmond Llewelyn, who would become the iconic Q actor, appearing in seventeen James Bond movies in total.
    • Another one from James Bond. Before Sean Connery, there was an American actor, Barry Nelson, who played "Jimmy Bond" in an adaptation of Casino Royale for an anthology called Climax!, with the idea being for it to act also as a pilot for a possible TV Show based on James Bond. Nothing came out of it and eight years later came Dr. No and Barry Nelson (who was thirteen years older than Connery) wasn't even considered for the role. The movie pretty much made Sean Connery a star and relegated Barry Nelson's performance as Bond to total obscurity. The fact that the production was believed lost to time until a kinescope emerged in the 1980s didn't help much either.
  • Hannibal Lecter was first played by Brian Cox in Manhunter (as Dr. "Lecktor"), and later by Anthony Hopkins. Cox's substantial roles in Rushmore, Super Troopers, X2: X-Men United, Red (2010), and the Bourne films have since made him a recognized character actor, but as Manhunter is far less known the other films (especially since the novel Red Dragon it was based on was later adapted a second time) and Hopkins' portrayal became so iconic, Cox carried the 'first to play Lecter' footnote for much of his career. Many still wonder what he could've done with the role if he'd been cast in the later films.
  • Tom Clancy's character Jack Ryan was originated in film by Alec Baldwin in The Hunt for Red October. However the role is best remembered from the portrayal by Harrison Ford in the follow-up adaptations Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger.
  • Ted Healy was this to The Three Stooges and was the star of the act in vaudeville for long before his assistants were billed as the Stooges. Healy left the Stooges when they moved in 1934 to Columbia Pictures from MGM, for which they had done six shorts and various cameos. Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Shemp Howard also played minor supporting roles in Soup to Nuts, a 1930 Fox feature film starring Healy. Shemp was replaced by Curly in the early 1930s but returned in the mid-1940s after Curly had a stroke. Healy, meanwhile, had died in 1937.
    • During the Ted Healy years, the group had a fourth Stooge, Fred Sanborn. Sanborn left after Soup to Nuts to concentrate on his music and solo career but worked with Shemp on a few films in the 1940s until Shemp reunited with the Stooges in 1947.
  • The first movie about the amnesiac super-assassin, Jason Bourne, was a 3-hour epic film called The Bourne Identity that premiered on television in 1988 and starred Richard Chamberlain. However, when people mention Jason Bourne, the first person most people think of is Matt Damon and his role in the remake and sequels that came afterwards.
  • Like The O.C. example below, Shailene Woodley had it happen to her a second time when she was cut from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and the series was left behind with her role of Mary Jane Watson being recast in upcoming movies. However, the franchise ended up being cancelled in favor of the MCU Spider-Man movies, so she didn't really lose out on anything.
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Bill & Ted originated from an improv sketch called ''Bill, Ted and Bob". The guy who played Bob lost interest, causing Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson to go ahead and write the movie without the third member.
  • For the Mission: Impossible Film Series, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) has had three different dubbing voices in French — Patrick Poivey for the first film, Yvan Attal for the second, and Jean-Philippe Puymartin for the others since Mission: Impossible III. Puymartin remains by far the most well known of the bunch (Poivey was more famous for dubbing Bruce Willis).
  • Bob Monkhouse, William Hartnell, and Dora Bryan all had starring roles in the first Carry On film, (Carry On, Sergeant), but never appeared again in the series. Shirley Eaton, Terence Longdon, Bill Owen, Eric Barker, and Leslie Phillips also all had large roles in the earlier films before gradually disappearing from the series.

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

    Live-Action TV 
  • Brian Dunkleman was the co-host of American Idol in Season 1 and chose the wrong time to play hardball in contract negotiations, considering that the audience clearly preferred Ryan Seacrest. From that point, the show just kept getting bigger.
  • ESPN's Around The Horn was originally hosted by Max Kellerman, who left in early 2004 for a show on Fox Sports. ESPN tapped Tony Reali (then known as Stat Boy from Horn's sister show Pardon The Interruption) as a temporary fill-in until they could hire a permanent replacement. Nine years later, Reali's still hosting the show (with Kellerman coming full circle to host Sports Nation).
  • Sara Lance wound up becoming a Breakout Character on Arrow, playing a heavily recurring role starting in the second season, getting brought back from the dead after the unpopular decision was made to kill her off in the show's third season, and ultimately being promoted to the main cast member of the show's spinoff Legends of Tomorrow. Caity Lotz is immediately credited to the role, to the point where most people forget she was played by a completely different actress, Jacqueline MacInnes Wood, in Arrow's pilot episode.
  • The A-Team: In the feature-length pilot episode, Face was played by Tim Dunigan. The role was recast after the pilot and he was replaced by Dirk Benedict for the rest of the show's run.
  • Ian Hendry played Dr. David Keel, the lead of the first season of The Avengers (1960s), with Steed (Patrick Macnee) as the secondary lead. The show was a moderate success, but Hendry moved on, with Steed becoming the lead - joined by first Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman) and then Emma Peel (Diana Rigg). The show became a big hit when Blackman joined, then a full-blown craze when Rigg took over. No-one really remembers Hendry (not helped by only one of his episodes still existing).
  • Tamlyn Tomita as Lt. Cmdr. Laurel Takashima and Johnny Sekka as Dr. Benjamin Kyle in the Babylon 5 Pilot Movie — both of whom declined to return for the subsequent TV series. Neither ever appear again in person (although Dr. Kyle does get referred to several times throughout the series). Ultimately averted with Patricia Tallman (as Lyta Alexander), who also didn't return at first, but ended up rejoining the cast much later in the series when her replacement quit.
    • Tragic example: Michael O'Hare (Commander Sinclair) was found to be suffering from mental illness, and replaced with Bruce Boxleitner (Captain Sheridan, new look, same great taste) in time for Season Two, though he did make sporadic appearances in Season 3. He didn't stay long enough to make an impression on fans or his castmates, and never told anyone about his condition, leading to rumors of drug addiction. That said, the revelation of his condition in 2013 did spark a new wave of admiration and respect for him from longtime fans of the show, particularly with the hindsight of just how harrowing episodes like "And the Sky, Full of Stars"note  must have been for him to film.
  • The original pilot episode of The Big Bang Theory was quite different from the show that eventually aired. Leonard and Sheldon had an extroverted female co-worker and friend named Gilda, who was dropped and replaced by Raj and Howard. The main story revolved around the guys trying to help the cynical Hard-Drinking Party Girl Katie, played by Amanda Walsh. Test audiences famously hated Katie, who was retooled into the more warm and friendly Penny, played by Kaley Cuoco.
  • The mid-60's comedy Camp Runamuck! featured Leonard Stone as Doc in most of the episodes. In the pilot, however, Frank DeVol portrayed Doc, who the role was originally intended for and who left due to health problems.
  • Castle had a fourth precinct detective in the pilot who was dropped due to lacking good chemistry with the other characters. The trope (and the Trope Namer) are also referenced in the episode Swan Song when the rock musician murderer gets a Motive Rant about how the victim (his bandmate) was going to "Pete Best" him.
  • Originally, in the recurring role of black-sheep alcoholic older brother Gary Ewing, Dallas had cast David Ackroyd. When a spinoff, Knots Landing, was launched in the third season, Ted Shackelford got the part that would keep him working for the next 14 years.
  • The Daily Show started with Craig Kilborn for the first three years, but the show really became popular after Jon Stewart took over and retooled the direction and comedy style. The show's full title was eventually changed to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and remained so until Stewart's retirement in 2015.
  • Samantha Morrison played Emma Nelson as a baby on Degrassi Junior High and Ashlee Harris played toddler Emma Nelson on Degrassi High before Miriam McDonald played Emma Nelson on Degrassi: The Next Generation.
  • Doctor Who:
    • When the show was brought back in 2005, Christopher Eccleston was cast to play the Ninth Doctor. Eccleston left after only one series, and although it was well-received, Eccleston's Ninth Doctor isn't anywhere near as popular or well-known as his immediate successor David Tennant's Tenth.
    • Actress Beverley Cressman was the first to play Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, daughter of the beloved Brigadier, in non-canonical spinoff videos. When Kate made the jump to the series proper, however, Jemma Redgrave was cast, and good luck finding anyone who doesn't consider Redgrave the "real" Kate Stewart. (It helps that she tends to run away with every scene she is in.)
  • Before Mary Hart began her near 30-year run as co-anchor of Entertainment Tonight, the initial female anchors were Marjorie Wallace and subsequently, Dixie Whatley.
  • The first season of The Facts of Life had several characters who didn't make it past the first season (outside of occasional appearances), but special attention should be given to Miss Mahoney, a teacher who was dropped after the fourth episode.
  • Family Matters:
    • Judy Winslow was played by one Valerie Jones in the very first episode (she could also briefly be seen during the opening from behind for a bit longer) before Jaimee Foxworth took over the role. Who didn't really hit it big, either, but at least became famous for that?
    • Laura's original best friend, Penny Peyser (Ebonie Smith), disappeared after the first season, and Eddie's, Rodney Beckett (Randy Josselyn) didn't last much longer. Their successors, Maxine Johnson (Cherie Johnson) and Waldo Faldo (Shawn Harrison) are much more recognizable.
  • Firefly: In a possible reference to the Trope Namer, a flashback sequence in the episode "Out of Gas" establishes that Serenity's original mechanic was a man named Bester, who was quickly forgotten by the crew after he lost his job to Kaylee.
  • Friends: Carol is played by Anita Barone in her debut episode before Jane Sibbett takes over the role for the rest of the show.
  • George Carlin joked in his "sortabiography" that he replaced Ringo Starr on Shining Time Station becoming the reverse Pete Best.
  • Elizabeth Ward played Carol Seaver in the pilot for Growing Pains but was replaced by Tracey Gold when the series was picked up.
  • The "pilot" of Happy Days did air as an episode of Love, American Style. The pilot was initially rejected, only to have the network pick it up after Ron Howard starred in American Graffiti. Tom Bosley replaced Harold Gould as Howard Cunningham and Erin Moran replaced Susan Neher as Joanie.
  • Home Improvement originally had actress Francis Fisher playing Jill, but producers were uncertain about her take on the character (playing her a lot more exasperated over Tim's antics) and this led to her being replaced with Patricia Richardson for the series itself.
  • Pert Kelton was the original Alice Kramden when The Honeymooners was just a segment of Jackie Gleason's variety show. She was caught up in the Red Scare and was replaced by Audrey Meadows around the time for the show's "Classic 39".
  • When the syndicated newsmagazine Inside Edition premiered in January 1989, it was originally hosted by British journalist David Frost. After about three weeks into its first year, Frost was replaced by Bill O'Reilly, who would host the show for about the next six and a half years. After O'Reilly's departure came former Today anchor Deborah Norville. Norville began hosting Inside Edition in March 1995 and continued to host it a good 20 years later.
  • The Tenderloins, aka the stars of Impractical Jokers, actually started as a quintet of Sal Vulcano, James Murray, Joe Gatto, Gideon Horowitz, and Mike Boccio. By 2005, Horowitz had left the troupe, and the following year, Boccio followed suit and was replaced by Brian Quinn.
  • A number of Iron Chefs are "the Pete Best" because of how the English dub was handled: The first dubbed episodes were from the last two seasons, featuring the lineup of veteran Chinese chef Kenichi Chin (credited in the English dub of the show as Chen Kenichi, family name first even though the other chefs were credited Western-style with their given name first), French chef Hiroyuki Sakai, then-new Japanese-American fusion chef Masaharu Morimoto (the third Iron Chef Japanese), and Italian chef Masahiko Kobe (by far the youngest of the Iron Chefs, 26 at the time of his appointment, 28 in the earliest dubbed episodes at which time he had already been on the show for 2 years). Later, the decision was made to dub a new order of episodes starting with the second season, featuring the lineup of Sakai and Chin with Iron Chef Japanese I, Rokusaburo Michiba. Not shown in the English dub except for a single episode (in which he lost) was Iron Chef French I, Yutaka Ishinabe, who left the show after a single season because he disliked the artificial pacing of Reality Television, and not shown until very late in the show's run was Iron Chef Japanese II, Koumei Nakamura, appearing in seasons 4 and 5 after Michiba's departure from the series. Until late, most American viewers had little idea that Nakamura had been part of the show for two years, as Morimoto was depicted as being Michiba's direct successor.
  • In the JAG two-parter that provided the backdoor pilot for NCIS, Robyn Lively played the female field agent. By the time the actual series premiered, she was replaced by Sasha Alexander (notable in that she herself would be replaced by Cote de Pablo after the second season). And from the NCIS two-parter that provided the backdoor pilot for its spinoff, NCIS: Los Angeles, Louise Lombard played the character who would have been that show's team leader. When it began in Fall '09, she was replaced by Linda Hunt.
  • The Late Late Show: This happened to Kilborn a second time with his next show. He replaced Tom Snyder as the host of The Late Late Show and re-vamped it, giving it a new set and a more comedic style than Snyder's. Then he left the show...and in came Craig Ferguson, who became a darling in the late-night ranks, with his unconventional style of humor and freewheeling take on talk show conventions. After Ferguson stepped down, James Corden took over and gave the show a further makeover, prioritizing variety, equaling (and in some ways surpassing) Ferguson's success.
  • Law & Order: Casual fans of the series may not even remember that Mike Logan had two other partners (Max Greevey and Phil Ceretta) before being partnered with Lennie Briscoe. To a lesser degree, Ben Stone (Michael Moriarty), though memorable in his own right, is largely overshadowed by Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston).
  • Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Elliot Stabler's second child Kathleen was originally played by Holiday Segal before Alison Siko officially takes over the role starting Season 3. Since Kathleen had a much larger role in later seasons (oldest child Maureen featured most prominently in seasons 1-2), Siko became much more associated with the role.
  • The original (un-aired) pilot of NUMB3RS had Gabriel Macht as Don, Len Cariou as Alan, and Jennifer Bransford as Terry Lake. For the actual series pilot, those roles were played Rob Morrow, Judd Hirsch, and Sabrina Lloyd respectively. The un-aired pilot also featured Michael Rooker and Anna Deavere Smith in roles that were cut completely from the final script.
  • The talk show Live with Kelly and Ryan (hosted by Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest) was known for most of its life as Live with Regis and Kathie Lee, and hosted by Regis Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford. Gifford left in 2001 and was replaced with Kelly Ripa, Philbin left a decade later and was replaced by Michael Strahan, and Strahan was replaced by Seacrest in 2016. The show underwent various guest hosts prior to each successor, along with a name change after each new host was established (Live with Regis and Kelly, then Live with Kelly and Michael). However, despite all this, Gifford was not the original co-host; under its original name of The Morning Show, it was co-hosted by Philbin and Cyndy Garveynote  for its first season in 1983, followed by Ann Abernathy for another season before Gifford entered in 1985. The show began naming itself after its hosts in 1988. Thus, the show is a double example — those who remember it only for the Regis and Kelly era onward may not realize that Ripa replaced Gifford; and those who do remember Gifford may not realize that she herself was a replacement.
  • Penny Santon originally played Nurse Consuelo Lopez in the TV movie that started Marcus Welby, M.D. before recast by Elena Verdugo for the rest of the run.
  • The original pilot for Married... with Children was never aired. When the show went into production, they used new actors for Bud/Kelly.
  • Pretty much the entire cast of the series adaptation of M*A*S*H could be considered this when compared to the cast of the original movie; however, series-specific, Father Mulcahy was played by George Morgan in the pilot episode, before being replaced by William Christopher for the series proper - it's easy to forget Morgan as Mulcahy in the pilot, because Mulcahy never spoke in that episode. Ironically, Christopher had originally tested for the part, but instead of doing a table reading, ad-libbed much of his dialogue, which was unprofessional, and the part went to Morgan instead. Afterward, the producers decided Christopher's quirky personality was a better fit for Mulcahy, so they brought him back, on the condition that he would stick with the script.
  • Before Edward James Olmos joined Miami Vice as Detective Lieutenant Martin Castillo, the initial commander of the Organized Crime Bureau in the series was Lou Rodriguez. Actor Gregory Sierra however, asked to be written out of the series just four episodes in because he didn't like having to live in Miami.
  • Everybody knows that the IMF on Mission: Impossible was always led by Peter Graves' Jim Phelps. Mostly forgotten is Dan Briggs, played by Steven Hill in the first season. Hill left the show (and temporarily, acting) for reasons that were partly religious, and his character was subject to Chuck Cunningham Syndrome.
    • Ironically, Hill would become the "Ringo" figure when he assumed his most famous role, DA Adam Schiff on Law & Order. The DA in the original pilot was Alfred Wentworth, played by Roy Thinnes; however, the pilot was filmed two years before the show was finally picked up by NBC, and Thinnes chose not to return as a regular.
  • Another variant focused on original Monday Night Football play-by-play broadcaster Keith Jackson. Jackson was assigned to call play-by-play for MNF's first season in 1970 only to give way to Frank Gifford (who ABC Sports president Roone Arledge wanted from day one; eventually bringing Gifford in as soon as his contract with CBS expired). Became a Zig-Zagged Trope for Jackson, who later would become most famous as the voice of ABC's college football coverage.
  • For the first two-and-a-half seasons of Monk, the title character was assisted by Sharona Fleming, played by Bitty Schram. Midway through Season 3, Schram ended up quitting the show due to a rumored contract dispute, resulting in Sharona being replaced for the rest of the show's run by Natalie Teeger, played by Traylor Howard. Downplayed in that Schram is often the more well-remembered of the two among general audiences, albeit Howard is the one more associated with the show by its fans.
  • Tim Brooke-Taylor was an early member of what would eventually evolve into Monty Python, alongside Graham Chapman, John Cleese, and Michael Palin, and made appearances in At Last the 1948 Show and How to Irritate People. He left the group between the latter and the start of Monty Python's Flying Circus — by which time Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Terry Gilliam had arrived — though still went on to be a pretty successful actor in his own right.
  • On The Munsters, Marilyn was originally portrayed by Beverly Owen. She left the show after less than three months, however, and thereafter Pat Priest took over the role.
    • On the unaired 15-minute pilot episode, Eddie was played by Happy Derman and Lily was replaced by a character named Phoebe, who was portrayed by Joan Marshall. Butch Patrick replaced the former actor, while the latter was supplanted by the character Lily Munster, played by Yvonne DeCarlo.
  • The Muppets: When Jim Henson got started in puppetry, he worked with his friend Russell Wall. However, Wall only worked for a few months, long before The Muppets had become big. Henson's wife Jane did some of the early puppet work before becoming a mother, and Jerry Juhl did puppetry on some of Henson's material from The '60s but decided to turn his Muppet focus to writing.
  • Josh "J. Elvis" Weinstein was the original voice of Tom Servo on Mystery Science Theater 3000, and Dr. Forrester's original assistant (Dr. Erhardt). Weinstein left after only one season on Comedy Central and was replaced with Kevin Murphy and Frank Coniff respectively for Season 2, which was when the show starting to make it big and becoming really good.
  • MythBusters:
    • While she filled a different role in the show in its original format, folklorist Heather Joseph-Witham became the Pete Best of MythBusters, effectively replaced by the Build Team as the show's focus shifted from the myths themselves to MacGyvering and Stuff Blowing Up.
    • Scottie Chapman is another MythBusters example; she was originally the machinist of the Build Team, but left the show during Season 3, right around the time the Build Team's role on the show was expanded and they were added to the theme sequence and was replaced by Grant Imahara. While Scottie has made sporadic appearances since then (and the hosts/current producers have not been shy about showing flashbacks that prominently feature her), the regulars on the show have become far more famous.
  • My Wife and Kids: The original Claire, played by Jazz Raycole in the first season (only eleven episodes), is forgettable. The second Claire, played by Jennifer Freeman in seasons 2–5, is much more recognizable.
  • Believe it or not, Missy was not the original Alpha Bitch of Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide. The first season had a character named Bitsy, played by Spencer Locke, who filled a similar role.
  • This happened quite often on Night Court. It was not until Season 4 that the show's lineup stabilized.
    • Karen Austin and Paula Kelly were only present during the first season before leaving, and their characters (Lana Wagner and Liz Williams, respectively) were quickly forgotten about. Austin has stated that she was let go due to being diagnosed with Bell's Palsy, and producers thought this would be an issue for filming. It has never been disclosed why Kelly left the show.
    • In addition to the above two, there was Gail Strickland (who played the public defender in the pilot before being replaced by Kelly) and Ellen Foley (who was only in Season 2 because the producers were waiting for Markie Post to become available).
    • The first two actresses playing the female bailiff were far more memorable but also had short-lived tenures on the show. Selma Diamond portrayed Selma Hacker, who was replaced in Season 3 by Flo Kleiner played by Florence Halop. Both died of cancer during the show's run.
  • Ensemble topical comedy show Not the Nine O'Clock News ran for several series in the period 1978-83. Everyone will recall the lineup was Rowan Atkinson, Mel Smith, Pamela Stephenson, and Gryff Rhys-Jones. However, in the first series, Rhys-Jones was nowhere to be seen and the Pete Best of the group was Chris Langham, a comic actor and writer who performed creditably but left at the end of the series citing artistic differences. He was replaced by Rhys-Jones only at the start of the second series. The fact Langham has since been convicted of crimes to do with indecent photographs of children has made it easier for the BBC to airbrush his involvement out of the series' official history.
  • Shailene Woodley originally played the role of Kaitlin Cooper on The O.C. in the first season who was irrelevant. When the show decided to bring Kaitlin back for Season 3 with storylines based around her, she was played by Willa Holland, who was also more developed at the time.
  • Once Upon a Time: Tom Ellis guest-starred as Robin Hood in the character's debut episode, but Robin is best remembered as being portrayed by Sean Maguire.
  • One Tree Hill: Haley (Bethany Joy Lenz) was not in the original pilot. Instead, Lucas' best friend was a contrasting character named Reagan (more tomboyish than Haley) portrayed by Samantha Shelton. All of the key scenes featuring Shelton as Reagan in the pilot were re-shot with Bethany Joy Lenz taking her place, although you can still see "Reagan" in the background scenes where she has no lines.
  • Our Miss Brooks: Joe Forte played Mr. Conklin in the first few radio episodes of the series, before being replaced by the legendary Gale Gordon.
  • Parks and Recreation had its own "Pete Best" with Paul Schneider, who played Mark Brendanawicz in the first two seasons. The character was pretty widely disliked by the fans for coming off as bland compared to the other characters while critics noted Schneider never seemed to quite fit in with the rest of the ensemble cast, and his status as the odd man out only became more obvious when the show began finding more of its own distinct identity away from its parent series. Eventually, Schneider left the show at the end of Season 2 (with Mark being Put on a Bus and never coming back) and was replaced with Adam Scott and Rob Lowe as the characters of Ben Wyatt and Chris Traeger respectively, who were an instant hit with fans as well as a perfect fit for the show's newfound style, rapidly becoming More Popular Replacements.
  • The first season of Pee-wee's Playhouse had a number of human characters who only appeared that season, including Captain Carl (who had been around since the original stage show the show is based on), Ms. Steve, Dixie, and Tito, as well as a different actor playing The King of Cartoons. However, half of the original cast also makes up a portion of retroactive recognition - Captain Carl was played by Phil Hartman (who had also helped create Pee Wee Herman) and Dixie was played by Johann Carlo.
  • Power Rangers Wild Force: Jindrax was originally voiced by Richard Cansino in for four episodes. However, it was later felt that the serious voice provided didn't match Jindrax' appearance and Danny Wayne Stallcup (who was also Jindrax' suit actor) was given the role.
  • The pilot episode of Psych had a character named Lucinda Barry, who was Carlton Lassiter's partner. She was more lenient of Shawn Spencer's antics to contrast with her partner's straight-laced attitude. Episode 2 replaced her with Juliet O'Hara as Lassie's new partner for the rest of the series, eventually becoming Shawn's Love Interest. Justified in-universe, since it was explained that Lucinda was transferred to a different branch following the first episode's revelation that she and Lassie had been having an affair.
  • The first series of Robot Wars was hosted by Jeremy Clarkson, much better known nowadays for Top Gear (UK). He was replaced in Series 2 by Craig Charles (best known as Dave Lister on Red Dwarf) who was much better suited to both the material and the show format (Clarkson was known for being quite rude to the contestants and didn't really hold the show in high regard) and Robot Wars really took off after that. Charles would remain the host of UK Robot Wars up until it went off the air after Series 7 and fans were quite upset when other commitments prevented him from returning as the host of the 2016 reboot series (hosted by Irish comedian Dara O Briain).
  • Sal Barone played D.J. Conner in the pilot of Roseanne. Then the Writers' Strike happened, during which he grew half an inch and couldn't be perceived as a 7-year-old kid anymore. He was replaced with Michael Fishman, who, besides being a bit younger, looked decidedly more like Roseanne than Sal did. There are also stories that Sal did not have a good relationship with Sara Gilbert.
  • Saturday Night Live:
    • Billy Crystal was scheduled to be in one sketch in the first episode and would have been a featured player throughout that season. But it was cut, and he went home, crying all the way back because he thought he'd just blown the only break he was ever going to get. He stuck with his standup career and eventually did get to be a regular ten years later.
    • George Coe made a bunch of appearances in the first season as a utility player when they needed someone to play an older man, and was credited as a Not Ready For Prime Time Player on the first episode, though he was never really a full cast member.
    • Dick Ebersol co-created SNL with Lorne Michaels, but whereas Ebersol only ran the show for four years in the '80s, Michaels has run the show for all but five years of its existence(Jean Doumanian having run the show the only season neither of them did). Ebersol is probably best known for his work with NBC Sports.
  • Saved by the Bell (known as Good Morning, Miss Bliss at the time) had Mikey Gonzales and Nikki Coleman. After the first season, they were replaced by the much more recognizable A.C. Slater and Jessie Spano, respectively.
  • For its first three years, the PBS show Scientific American Frontiers was hosted by MIT professor Woodie Flowers. He was replaced by Alan Alda, who hosted for 12 years.
  • Canadian sketch comedy series SCTV originally had a seven-person cast that included Harold Ramis. Ramis only appeared in sketches for the first season and the first couple of episodes of season 2- after season 1, he chose to focus on writing before leaving the show entirely to help write Animal House. He did all right for himself, though.
  • In the Seinfeld pilot "The Seinfeld Chronicles", the lead female role was Claire, the waitress played by Lee Garlington. Various explanations have been given as to why Claire never appeared again, including NBC's executives not liking the character, and — according to Jason Alexander — series co-creator Larry David firing Garlington after she rewrote her lines without asking permission. Elaine was brought in for the first episode of the full series, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus didn't find out about the pilot episode until years later.
  • Sesame Street: Practically every American under the age of 40 will immediately say "hey, it's Gordon!" upon seeing the face of Roscoe Orman, but most don't know that he was actually the fourth Gordon. Garrett Saunders originated the role in the first test episode in 1969, which only aired on one station, but was replaced by Matt Robinson for the actual series. note  Robinson left after three seasons; he did all right for himself, later working for Bill Cosby, and you've probably heard of his daughter - Holly Robinson-Peete. Hal Miller took over from 1972-74.
  • Lauren Sanchez was the original host of So You Think You Can Dance but left after one season and was replaced by Cat Deeley, who is now the face of the show.
  • Only two characters from Stargate retained their original actors when the movie was adapted into Stargate SG-1. Who do people usually remember as Jack O'Neil(l)? Richard Dean Anderson, not Kurt Russell. Daniel Jackson? Michael Shanks, not James Spader.
  • Jeffrey Hunter played Christopher Pike in the original pilot for Star Trek. The reception was thin for that first pilot, but NBC, in an unprecedented move at the time, let Gene Roddenberry produce a second pilot, replacing Hunter (and Number One, played by Majel Barrett, who later played Nurse Christine Chapel in the series proper) with William Shatner as Captain Kirk, and folding much of the traits of the Number One character into Leonard Nimoy's Spock. The rest, as they say, is history.
    • Despite being asked to return, Hunter didn't want to, and he used a loophole in his contract to get out of his role in the series. He would've had to star in the show if it was picked up after the first pilot, but since a second pilot was commissioned instead of a full season order, he was free to walk away.note 
    • Shatner claims in his memoirs that Hunter was manipulated into leaving by his girlfriend at the time, who was always on set complaining about how dumb the show made him look. The producers didn't like that situation much either, or by some accounts, they were planning to recast Pike anyway.
    • The majority of the first pilot with Hunter was later incorporated in a two-part episode, "The Menagerie", in the show's first season, placing Pike firmly into the canon of the series. Pike would also be a major character in the series' motion picture reboot, played by Bruce Greenwood, and in Star Trek: Discovery, played by Anson Mount.
  • Denise Crosby left Star Trek: The Next Generation before the first season was up, a year before it became a merchandising giant. You might see her on a Trek celebrity cruise, but apart from that, she's a bit player in the DVDs and doesn't join the roundtable discussions about the show. However, her character was revived for three time-travel plots, including the series finale. Crosby also got to play her own daughter thanks to the Timey Wimey shenanigans.
    "For me, I was miserable. I couldn’t wait to get off that show. I was dying. This was not an overnight decision...I didn’t want to spend the next six years going 'Aye, aye, captain,' and standing there, in the same uniform, in the same position on the bridge. It simply scared the hell out of me that this was what I was going to be doing for the next X-amount of years."
  • In the original unaired pilot of Three's Company, Samantha, the character who would become Chrissy Snow, was portrayed by Susanne Zenor. Zenor was not picked for the second filming of the pilot, so actress Susan Lanier took over the role of Chrissy. Suzanne Somers won the permanent role in the third and final pilot.
  • 3-2-1 Contact was retooled and thus completely recast after just the first season.
  • Jason Dawe, who was a presenter on Top Gear for one season and then was replaced by James May.
    • And for US fans, The Black Stig (since BBC America hasn't gotten around to airing the earliest seasons of Top Gear (UK)).
  • Branford Marsalis was Jay Leno's original bandleader on The Tonight Show. Unfortunately, because of the legendary rapport Leno had with his replacement Kevin Eubanks (not as legendary as that between Johnny Carson and Doc Severinsen, or David Letterman and Paul Schaffer, but close), no one remembers that fact.
  • Katie Lee Joel (now Katie Lee) hosted the first season of Top Chef before being replaced by the more telegenic Padma Lakshmi.
  • Alex McLeod was the original host of Trading Spaces. Seasons 2 onward were hosted by Paige Davis.
  • In 1981, MTV hired five people as its original lineup of VJs: Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, J.J. Jackson, and Meg Griffin (no, not that one). Griffin was a radio vet (as were some of the others) but she had difficulty adjusting to an on-camera role during rehearsals and quit just two weeks before the August 1 launch date. She was hurriedly replaced by 22-year-old radio intern Martha Quinn, who went on to become the most famous VJ.

    Game Shows 
  • The original host of Beat the Geeks was J. Keith van Straaten. He was replaced after the first season by Blaine Capatch, apparently because the producers thought van Straaten was not geeky enough. For some reason, original Music Geek Andy Zax, aka the Walking Encyclopedia of Music, was this after being fired and replaced near the middle of the first season. After two different replacements (Michael Jolly and Michael Farmer) proved inadequate, Zax returned to his rightful place.
  • When Dealer's Choice debuted in January 1974, its host was Bob Hastings. He lasted only a few weeks before Jack Clark took over, mainly due to talking way too much for the editors' liking.
  • Fort Boyard:
    • Michel Scourneau played the Père Fouras for only one season, the first, in 1990. Yann Le Gac replaced him the following year, and he's been in almost every season since, shaping the character as we know him.
    • Delphine Wespiser as Blanche since 2013 (the character was played by two other performers since her creation in 2011). Being one of the most enduringly popular winners of Miss France (2012 for her) has something to do with it.
  • Remember Paul Lynde, that sassy gay guy who was the center square on The Hollywood Squares (minus a period from 1979-80)? Yes. Well, from 1966-68, there were various people in the center square, most notably (from the GSN reruns of the 1968 nighttime show) Buddy Hackett.
  • The UK classic The Golden Shot (1967-75) was a huge hit with host Bob Monkhouse. His introduction was the network's saving throw after the show bombed under original host Jackie Rae.
  • The Gong Show. Gary Owens hosted the unaired pilot, and John Barbour did five also-unaired episodes (GSN aired his first) before creator Chuck Barris took over.
  • The original host of Jeopardy! was not Alex Trebek but rather Art Fleming, who helmed the original 1964-74 version plus a brief revival in 1978. Trebek started hosting when the show was brought back in 1984, and continued until his death in 2020. This is somewhat justified in Fleming's case, as most of his run was erased.
    • A lot of people only know about Fleming because he's mentioned in (and appeared in the video for) "Weird Al" Yankovic's "I Lost on Jeopardy".
    • The Trebek version has its own version in the Clue Crew, a set of assistants who have regularly provided video-based clues since 2001. The longest-tenured are Jimmy McGuire and Sarah Whitcomb Foss. However, the original Clue Crew consisted of McGuire, Foss, Cheryl Farrell, and Sofia Lindskog. Lindskog left in 2004, with both Kelly Miyahara and Jon Cannon replacing her; Farrell left in 2008, Cannon in 2009, and Miyahara in 2019.
  • Jay Stewart is known for his long role as the announcer/sidekick on the original incarnation of Let's Make a Deal in The '60s and The '70s. However, Wendell Niles announced the first season of the original show's 1963-77 run instead.
  • While Lingo is most well-known by Americans for its 2002-07 run on GSN with iconic host Chuck Woolery (and the short-lived dirty-minded 2011 reboot hosted by Bill Engvall), it actually began as a Ralph Andrews production from 1987-88, hosted originally by Michael Reagan (Ronald Reagan's son) and later (the last five weeks) by Andrews himself.
    • The GSN version itself has an example. There was no hostess or announcer in the first season. Season 2 had Randy Thomas (best known as the voice of Hooked on Phonics commercials) as the announcer, but no hostess. In Season 3, Stacey Hayes joined as a hostess (with modeling assistance from Paula Cobb on the first two taped episodes) while also taking over as announcer, before Shandi Finessey took over the hostess/announcer role for the rest of the run.
  • Brett Somers and Charles Nelson Reilly didn't appear on Match Game until a few weeks into the run when they almost immediately became regular panelists. They stayed for the next nine years, except for a few weeks when Charles was busy with other projects and a few times when Brett was unavailable. This is a curious case, as they didn't Pete Best any individual people; they just became mostly-permanent panelists alongside Richard Dawson (who would later leave after he got the hosting gig on Family Feud).
  • The Newlywed Game's original announcer was Scott Beach, who was apparently fired for singing anti-war songs to the audience during commercial breaks. He was replaced by Johnny Jacobs, who held the role until his death in the early 80's, and racked up several more announcing gigs, primarily for Newlywed creator Chuck Barris and Jack Barry-Dan Enright productions.
  • The original version of The Price Is Right ran on NBC from 1956-63 and ABC from 1963-65, hosted by Bill Cullen. It isn't brought up too often nowadays.
    • When Mark Goodson wanted to revive Price in 1972, he had a clear set up in mind: weekly syndication, hosted by Dennis James and distributed by Viacom. Once CBS got wind of the revival, Bud Grant approached Goodson about doing a daytime show with Bob Barker as emcee. Barker wanted no part of it, not like those in charge of the revival, and begged Grant for another game show; Grant declined, which suggests that Barker's alleged backstage tyranny was payback for having the show forced on him.
    • As for James, he did nighttime Price until 1977, when his contract expired, and Barker took over until its end in 1980. His version, along with those of Tom Kennedy (1985-86) and Doug Davidson (1994-95), are ignored in every way.
  • For the first few years of the original What's My Line?, Hal "Dimples" Block was a regular panelist. As the show progressed it became increasingly dignified and refined, and Block's loutish persona soon became undesirable and his seat was permanently replaced by Bennett Cerf. To add insult to injury, most of Block's run is lost due to the films being destroyed for their silver content after the episodes ran once on live TV.
  • When it started on NBC's daytime lineup in 1975, Wheel of Fortune was hosted by Chuck Woolery and Susan Stafford. Chuck was replaced by Pat Sajak in December 1981, followed by the iconic hostess Vanna White taking Susan's place exactly a year later. Pat and Vanna successfully made the transition to nighttime syndication in 1983, and still hold those roles to this day, although Pat relinquished his daytime duties two years before that version ended in 1991. This also led to a reverse Pete Best situation with his daytime successors (Rolf Benirschke for a few months, then Bob Goen after a Channel Hop to CBS), as their runs on daytime are comparatively lesser-known.
    • Interestingly, Woolery zig-zags this trope, as he is well-known for hosting Scrabble, Love Connection, Greed, and the aforementioned Lingo, but his Wheel tenure is comparatively less known. It doesn't help that most of his run has been erased. He is also a further zig-zag, as he hosted the very first pilot in 1973 (under the Working Title Shopper's Bazaar), while Edd "Kookie" Byrnes hosted the second and third pilots.
    • Original announcer Charlie O'Donnell managed to Pete Best himself. He was the original announcer for the show from the second and third pilots until 1980 when he left due to the show getting a cancellation that was later overturned. He was replaced by Jack Clark, whose voice is the one that many think of when they think of early Wheel. Clark died in 1988 and was replaced by M. G. Kelly for just under a season before Charlie returned in 1989. (Charlie died in 2010, and Jim Thornton replaced him.)
  • Zig Zagged with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. Meredith Vieira hosted the show for 11 seasons in syndication, versus only 3 on ABC for original host Regis Philbin; however, the ABC version was explosively popular and spawned a legion of tropes that revived the then-flagging game show field, so Regis is still seen by many as the most iconic host of the show. (After Meredith left in 2013, she was replaced by Cedric the Entertainer, then Terry Crews, then Chris Harrison.) In addition, all four hosts are known in varying capacities for something other than Millioniare (Regis for the aforementioned Live!; Meredith for The View; Cedric for The Steve Harvey Show; Crews for Everybody Hates Chris, and Harrison as host of The Bachelor).
  • Pole Chudes, a Russian copycat of Wheel of sorts, has a downplayed case of this. The show is associated with Leonid Yakubovich, who hosts it since 1991. The position of the host was handed over to Yakubovich by Vlad Listyev, who started P Ch and hosted it for about a year. However, Listyev himself was one of the most influential figures on Russian television (if not the most), being the founding member of VID television company (famous for the 'Mask of Doom' logo) and the first CEO of the first Russian non-state-owned networks, all of which keeps him from being totally forgotten.

    Multiple Media 
  • This phenomenon can also happen when a movie is adapted for a television series; for instance, more people recognize Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy the Vampire Slayer than they do Kristy Swanson.
  • In Star Wars, Temuera Morrison is not the first actor to play Boba Fett (played by Jeremy Bulloch and voiced by Jason Wingreen in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi), but he's the one who played him when he got canonically fleshed out in live-action in the Disney+ series (The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett), and he also got to do ADR on the Original Trilogy before that (and voiced him in a few Star Wars Legends works as well). It also nicely/logically fits since Boba is a clone of Jango Fett from Attack of the Clones, who was also played by Morrison. And Bulloch's face was never seen anyway.
  • Alan Alda is more identified as Hawkeye Pierce than Donald Sutherland. This goes for most of the cast of M*A*S*H. This is helped by the fact that most of the TV cast of M*A*S*H faces a certain amount of I Am Not Spock while many of the actors from the film are famous in their own right.
  • Similar to the Buffy example above, how many people remember Kurt Russell as Jack O'Neil in Stargate as opposed to Richard Dean Anderson's Jack O'Neill in Stargate SG-1?
    • O'Neill himself does. When spelling his name in one episode he mentions that there's also a Jack O'Neil who is far grumpier. On the other hand, many people can go from James Spader in the movie to Michael Shanks at the beginning of the series and not notice the change in the actor.
  • Gummo Marx was a member of the Marx Brothers' vaudeville act, but he quit around World War I. Thus, he was never one of "The Four Marx Brothers," as they would be billed on Broadway and in Hollywood.

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

    Radio 
  • Our Miss Brooks: Joe Forte played Mr. Conklin in the first few radio episodes of the series, before being replaced by the legendary Gale Gordon.
  • American Country Countdown's most famous host Bob Kingsley, who helmed the show from 1978 to 2005, was not its original host. From 1973 to 1978, it was hosted by singer/comedian Don Bowman, whose run has been forgotten. Kingsley left at the end of 2005 when he was forced out in favor of Kix Brooks but seamlessly switched over to his own show, Bob Kingsley's Country Top 40.
  • When The Goon Show began in 1951 as Crazy People Michael Bentine starred alongside Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe. Bentine also appeared in the low-budget Goon Show spinoff movie Down Among the Z-Men but left the show soon after. According to one interview, Milligan fired him for suggesting the show would work better without Milligan, who created and mostly wrote it.
    • Because so few recordings of early series remain, most of the show's fans, who only discovered it later, will also be unfamiliar with Bentine's character Osric Pureheart, an inventor and adventurer, who was usually a very important character in the scripts of the first and second series.
    • The show's original announcer Andrew Timothy also left early in the show's run, claiming that the surreal humor was damaging his sanity.
  • The Burkiss Way's female cast member Denise Coffey left after one season, to be replaced by Jo Kendall from I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again. Coffey returned when the show was adapted for television as the short-lived End of Part One.
  • Country Gold, a classic Country Music radio show, is best known for its hosts Big John Howell (1999-2006) and Rowdy Yates (2006-present)note . What's lesser-known is that Country Gold was originally hosted by Mike Fitzgerald when it started in 1992.
  • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1978): The first episode of the original radio series was produced by Simon Brett, who left the BBC soon afterwards to work for London Weekend Television and has since become a rather successful author in his own right. He was replaced by Geoffrey Perkins, who would go on to be the BBC's Head of Comedy and may or may not have been the man who invented "Mornington Crescent".

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

    Theatre 
  • A common occurrence for many modern Broadway shows is for them to start Off-Broadway, then if they find success there, moving to Broadway, typically with most of the original cast and crew. The cast members who are replaced always become this, especially if theirs is the performance immortalized on the cast recording:
    • Brian d'Arcy James, who originated the role of Dan in Next to Normal Off-Broadway, was the only cast member to not move with the show to Broadway, being replaced by J. Robert Spencer, who promptly got a Tony nomination and a whole lot of notoriety.
      • Another Brian d'Arcy James example: few people seem to remember that he originated the role of King George III in Hamilton while it was off-Broadway. He was replaced by the much more celebrated Jonathan Groff when the show moved onto Broadway, though James would play King George later on in the Broadway run.
    • Contrary to widespread belief, Andrea McArdle was not the first to play Annie in the musical. She was the first Broadway Annie, and replaced Kristin Vigard, who played her in the Goodspeed Opera House previews before the show went to Broadway.
    • Dear Evan Hansen: The role of Alana was played by Alexis Molnar when the show premiered in Washington, DC. She was replaced by Kristolyn Lloyd when the show opened off-Broadway and subsequently moved to Broadway, and Kristolyn is the one featured in all the show's Broadway hype and publicity alongside the rest of the original cast.
  • Jules Bledsoe introduced "Ol' Man River" as Joe in the original Broadway production of Show Boat. Paul Robeson would play that part (which consists of little more than the famous song and its reprises) in the 1928 London production, the 1932 Broadway revival, and the 1936 film version (for which he got a Movie Bonus Song). Robeson was the most famous black dramatic actor of his day, and Bledsoe was not a good actor, so it's no wonder whose performance was regarded as definitive.
  • Steve Harley sang in the original single release for The Phantom of the Opera, but when the London production began was replaced by Michael Crawford after preparing for the role for several months.
  • Paul Hecht originated the role of John Dickinson in the musical 1776 - but it was Donald Madden, who took over the role on Broadway, who went on to star in the film version and create the definitive Dickinson. The same thing happened with John Cullum, the third Rutledge on Broadway, who played the role the longest and went on to recreate the role for the film.
  • An interesting example is the role of Sally in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. The original 1967 production didn't even feature the character, with Patty (not Peppermint Patty) instead. Patty eventually got Demoted to Extra in the Peanuts universe, and by the time of the 1999 Broadway production was forgotten. She was replaced with Sally, who was a good fit for Kristin Chenoweth, complete with an extremely catchy solo, and she won the Supporting Actress Tony. Meanwhile, Patty's been nearly forgotten.
  • The role of Bobby in Company was originally played by Dean Jones, but he had to step away not long after opening due to personal issues. Larry Kert stepped into the role, and was even made specially eligible for a Tony nomination even though he didn't create the role.
    • Thanks to the 2006 Broadway revival of Company, Raúl Esparza has well and truly eclipsed both Jones and Kert, despite being born in the same year the show debuted.
  • In the world of Cirque du Soleil, no one seems to remember that Cool Old Guy Brian Dewhurst (aka Brian Le Petit) was not the original performer of Mystère's principal clown act; he only joined the cast in 2000, and the show has been running since 1993. There were no less than three sets of performers handling clown duties before him: Wayne Hronek (who created the act and taught it to Dewhurst), Alex El Sobrino, and Alfredo et Adrenaline (a male-female duo who presented a completely different act in 1995-96). Mystere has never been filmed in its entirety, and its making-of documentary didn't come along until Dewhurst's tenure, so very little footage of Hronek's version of the act exists, and none at all of the other two.
  • Mischief Theatre initially started with Rob Falconer as "Trevor" in their wildly popular "...Goes Wrong" plays. However after Chris Lasek played the character during the BBC broadcast of Peter Pan Goes Wrong he has remained linked to the character ever since, and sometimes wrongly recognized as a founding member of the cast, obliviously omitting Falconer out of the equation.

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

    Video Games 
  • Atari was founded in the early 70s by Nolan Bushnell, Al Alcorn, and a third guy named Ted Dabney who dropped out. Guess which one is no longer remembered.
  • Canadian developer BioWare was originally founded by three people: Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, and Augustine Yip. After Yip left to continue his medical career during the development of the company's breakout game, Baldur's Gate, he was for the most part forgotten by all but the most dedicated of the developer's fans.
  • Rockstar North was founded by David Jones, Mike Dailly, Russell Kay, and Steve Hammond. It was initially called DMA Design and developed the original Grand Theft Auto, however, a year after the release, most of the employees and founders quit. Jones, who was the producer of the game, was the only founder remaining. Sam and Dan Houser, who founded Rockstar Games, actually started to work in the franchise with the first expansion, London 1969, but sometime after the release of Grand Theft Auto 2, Jones decided to leave and found Realtime Worlds, leaving the Houser brothers with DMA and developing Grand Theft Auto III, which would be a massive success and a game-changer in the market. Of the original founders, David Jones still has a bit of recognition for going on to create Crackdown, but the rest are largely forgotten.
  • Erin Fitzgerald wasn't the first English voice for Chie Satonaka of Persona 4 fame, but since she's been doing the voice longer and is more well-known than Tracey Rooney, people usually associate her with the role. The same can be said for Teddie - Dave Wittenberg isn't exactly an obscure voice actor, but more people have heard Sam Riegel.
  • The two main stars of Ratchet & Clank were David Kaye as Clank and Mikey Kelley as Ratchet. However, from the second game onwards, the latter was replaced with James Arnold Taylor, who's gone on to voice Ratchet in every subsequent game and is considered the definitive voice of the character.
  • The original Elite was developed by two people, Davidd Braben and Ian Bell. Braben took the Elite rights and made Frontier: Elite II, later founding Frontier Developments which, among others, made Frontier: First Encounters (the followup to Elite II), RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, and Elite Dangerous.
  • In Devil May Cry, Reuben Langdon is Dante's third voice actor after Drew Coombs (who voiced him in the first game and Viewtiful Joe) and Matthew Kaminsky (who voiced him in the second game and, by technicality of reusing grunts from that game, Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne) but because Langdon became a mainstay since the third game and also voiced Dante in the animated series and other cameos, he's a lot more iconic than his predecessors, to the point where him being given proper voice acting in SMTIII's HD remaster was recorded by Langdon.
  • Julian LeFay played an instrumental role as a game designer and programmer for Bethesda in the company's early days, playing a pivotal role in creating The Elder Scrolls series as the lead programmer for Arena, Daggerfall, and Battlespire. However, when it came time for development to begin on Morrowind, LeFay was not picked for the development team. Around the same time, he started having increasing concerns over Bethesda's changing corporate culture in the latter half of the 90's, so he eventually tendered his resignation from the company in 1998, citing Creative Differences, but still made some small contributions to Morrowind at the behest of his good friend and Bethesda founder Christopher Weaver. It would be LeFay's unfortunate luck that Morrowind would turn out to be the Breakthrough Hit for both the TES series and for Bethesda, leading to a massive Newbie Boom that propelled both into the mainstream gaming conciousness. LeFay would then be supplanted in eyes of fans who first experienced the series from Morrowind on by series' My Real Daddy, Michael Kirkbride.
  • Shantae was originally voiced by one Meagan Glaser in Shantae: Risky's Revenge. For Shantae and the Pirate's Curse (which coincided with a large Newbie Boom), she was succeeded by Cristina Valenzuela, who has been in the role ever since.
  • Starcraft I: Sarah Kerrigan was originally voiced by Glynnis Talken Campbell in the first game of 1998. She was later replaced by Tricia Helfer for the long awaited sequel in its trilogy of episodes in 2010, 2013 and 2016 - a role that earned Helfer the Spike Video Game Award for the best female performance plus other accolades and recognitions. Apparently, Blizzard has long since forgotten Campbell, who didn't quite like the exchange, stating that initially she had even recorded the whole first episode of the sequel (Wings of Liberty) before being replaced, and that "They never actually told me. I did record the whole game for Blizzard, but they called in a new VO director who brought in a name talent to replace me. She was younger and sexier, but I'm going to pretend that had nothing to do with it".

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

    Western Animation 
  • Lacey Chabert was the original voice for Meg on Family Guy for about the first dozen episodes before being replaced by Mila Kunis. Combined with a bit of Characterization Marches On, as Chabert's Meg was more of a softer voiced, younger sounding Daddy's Girl, while Kunis' slightly harsher voice was better suited to expressing Butt-Monkey-related frustration and anger.
    • This has been lampshaded a few times, for example, Peter threatening to replace Lois in "Business Guy", causing her to back down by simply mentioning Chabert's name, and the episode "Back to The Pilot" when Stewie and Brian travel back in time to the pilot episode and they comment that Meg sounds different.
      Stewie: She sounds like someone who's about to make a terrible career decision.
    • Chabert herself doesn't seem to mind as she later made a cameo in "Yug Ylimaf" as time reverse so much, Meg's voice reverts from Kunis back to Chabert.
      Stewie: (alarmed) Oh my God! We're getting closer to the beginning! You're Lacey Chabert!
  • The Simpsons - the voices of Moe Szyslak and Monty Burns were originated by Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer, right? Actually both characters were first voiced by Christopher Collins, aka Chris Latta, aka Cobra Commander and Starscream - but his part as Burns was only used in one episode ("Homer's Odyssey"), and none of his voice works as Moe was heard in any finished episode (he recorded all of Moe's lines in "Some Enchanted Evening", but Hank Azaria re-recorded the lines late in production, so Chris Latta is only heard as a TV presenter in that episode).
  • Karri Turner (of JAG fame) was originally intended to be the lead voice actress for South Park, but was let go in the time between the original pilot and the start of the series as it was felt that her voice wasn't distinct enough. Mary Kay Bergman went on to voice almost all of the major female characters until her suicide in 1999, while Turner showed up briefly in a guest spot in the first season (voicing Kathie Lee Gifford).
    • In the Latin Spanish dub, Kyle and Cartman were originally voiced by Vivian Ruiz for seasons 1 and 2. Ruiz quit the series after season 2 because Cartman's voice was exceedingly difficult on her. She was replaced by Patricia Azan in season 3 and beyond, as well as the redubs of seasons 1-2.
  • Recess: T.J. is very well-known as being voiced by Andy Lawrence... even though Ross Malinger played him for the first fifteen episodes until his voice broke.
  • The pilot episode of Inspector Gadget was the only time Mona Marshall voiced Penny; the role being taken over by Cree Summer for the rest of the first season and Holly Berger in the second season. Also in the first edition of the pilot, Gadget was voiced by the British actor Gary Owens, (not that Gary Owens), who was subsequently dubbed over by the more Don Adams-esque Jesse White, who himself was replaced with Don Adams himself for the rest of the show.
  • Scooby-Doo: Heather North is usually associated as being the classic, the original voice of Daphne Blake, with Mary Kay Bergman even mentioning it in an interview during her tenure in the role, but in reality, the role was originated by Indira Stefanianna Christopherson for the first 17 episodes (and majority) of the classic Where Are You?! series before the role was recast with North. Many viewers don't know they're hearing a whole other actress in the role of most of the classic episodes.
    • Also happened to Scrappy-Doo, where Don Messick is usually associated as his voice actor (doing double-duty with Scooby), but actually Lennie Weinrib had voiced the character for all 16 episodes of "The Scooby-Doo & Scrappy-Doo Show" before quitting the role over a pay dispute and other personal reasons. In addition, Daws Butler, Dick Beals, Frank Welker, Marilyn Schreffler, and others all voiced the character in unaired test versions of the pilot before producers settled on Weinrib.
    • Happens in universe when Scrappy-Doo became The Scrappy, replacing Scooby-Doo's other relative who only appeared in a few episodes: Scooby-Dum.
  • Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Walt Disney made a whole series of cartoons featuring him and wanted to continue them, but Universal owned the character and didn't let him have the rights. When Disney struck out on his own, he invented Oswald's Suspiciously Similar Substitute, Mickey Mouse. Eventually, Disney bought back Ozzy (in a deal that gave NBC Al Michaels and John Madden for Sunday Night Football) and gained some recognition by appearing in the video game Epic Mickey.
  • Who remembers Scrooge McDuck having the voice of Alan Young? (Many hands are raised.) Who knows that in his first appearance, 1967's Scrooge McDuck and Money, Bill Thompson provided Mr. McD's voice? (Most of the hands fall.) Or that in the 1986 special "Sport Goofy in Soccermania," Scrooge was voiced by Will Ryan? (Even more, hands go down.)
  • Danger Mouse is often remembered as either voiced by David Jason (for the original 1981 series) or Alexander Armstrong (for the 2015 reboot). However, his first voice artist, for the 1979 pilot "The Mystery of the Lost Chord", was William Franklyn.
  • The Powerpuff Girls
    • In the original shorts that aired as part of the What A Cartoon show, Bubbles was voiced by Kath Soucie rather than Tara Strong, who is much more commonly associated with the role. And prior to that, the show was merely a 1992 college project named "Whoopass Stew" with all the girls voiced by Jennifer Fried, and instead of the as-of-yet iconic Tom Kenny as the Narrator's voice, Craig McCracken himself provided the voice for his own production. In addition, Ernie Anderson was the narrator in the WAC shorts, but he had passed away by the time the TV series was greenlit, and Kenny was cast.
    • In his first appearance, Gangrene Gang memner Lil' Arturo was voiced by Carlos Alazraqui. Tom Kenny voices him in all subsequent episodes.
    • In a non-voice acting example, Townsville had a completely different mayor in the first WAC short. The character in that episode appeared to be modeled after Bill Clinton and was voiced by Jim Cummings. The classic Mayor (voiced by Tom Kenny) and Miss Bellum replaced him in the main TV show. This is also an example of Art Evolution as the earlier mayor had a more realistic look compared to the classic mayor, who's as stylized as the girls themselves.
  • The animated adaptations of Garfield have two examples:
    • Garfield's original voice was not Lorenzo Music. In the very first animation that aired on The Fantastic Funnies (1980), adapting five newspaper strips, Garfield was voiced by Scott Beach. Music became Garfield's voice in 1982 starting with Here Comes Garfield.
    • While Thom Huge did voice Jon Arbuckle in The Fantastic Funnies, the role was handed over to Sandy Kenyon for Here Comes Garfield, the first of the Garfield specials. Huge returned for the rest of the animated specials through Garfield Gets a Life in 1991, along with the entirety of Garfield and Friends (1988-1994).
  • Most people remember Jeremy Shada as the voice of Adventure Time's Finn even though he took over, ironically enough, just as his brother Zach was going through puberty years after he recorded for the Random! Cartoons version.
  • Batman: The Animated Series: Alfred was voiced by Clive Revill (who seems have a habit of being this) in the first three episodes "On Leather Wings", "Christmas With the Joker" and "Never Fear". Efrem Zimbalist Jr. took over for the rest of the series and its spinoffs.
  • Jack Mercer was not the original voice of Popeye. That honor goes to William Costello, who was the sailor man's voice actor for his first two years before Mercer took over afterward, supplying Popeye's voice for the majority of the remainder of his shorts and continuing to do so for all appearances afterward until his death in 1984.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants has several examples from its Latin American Spanish dub:
    • SpongeBob himself was voiced by Kaihiamal Martínez in the first season, after which he was one of several voice actors who were fired from the dubbing company, Etcetera Group, after a pay dispute. Because of this, Luis Carreño replaced him, and he continues to voice the role to this day (even after moving to Miami).
    • Óscar Zuloaga voiced Plankton until the Christmas special Cristmas Who?. From Welcome to the Chum Bucket to Squirrel Record, Luis Miguel Pérez would voice him and become associated with the role.
    • Karen was usually voiced by Melanie Henríquez until her retirement, and by Gabriela Belén since then, but her voice actress in the first season was actually Rocio Mallo, who had to quit the role after moving to Mexico (she has since moved back to Venezuela).
    • Sandy was originally voiced by Mercedes Prato but was fired for the same reasons as Martínez, leading her more famous successor Anabella Silva (as well as Yaraivi Alcedo, Lidia Abautt, and Lileana Chacón) to take over.
    • Most people remember Juan Guzmán as the French Narrator, as well as the voice reading the signs in Spanish, but he actually replaced Orlando Noguera in both after he moved to Mexico (Noguera would later move again to Miami, where he continues to do voiceover work).
  • Clifford the Big Red Dog was not originally voiced by John Ritter. In a series of direct-to-video specials from the late '80s, Brent Titcomb provided his voice.
  • Looney Tunes:
    • Porky Pig was originally voiced by Joe Dougherty, with Porky's stutter being shared by Dougherty in real-life. Unfortunately, Dougherty's stutter was actually a little too pronounced, resulting in recording sessions taking three or four times longer than normal for a cartoon, and Friz Freleng eventually being forced to replace him with Mel Blanc in order to avoid being fired for running up excessive tape and studio costs.
    • Elmer Fudd — or his prototype, Egghead — was originally voiced by Danny Webb, and later recast with Arthur Q. Bryan around the same time the character evolved to his definitive version.

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

Fictional examples

    Anime 
  • In-Universe in 20th Century Boys, Friend refers to himself as Major Michael Collins, after the third member of the Apollo 11 space mission where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first and second men on the moon; the idea, of course, being that the last two are more famous than Collins is.

    Comic Books 
  • Thunderbird was one of the "Second Genesis" X-Men, and the first main to die (If you don't count Professor X's fakeout death, that is). That's pretty much all he's known for now. The fact that his powers were largely the same as the Beast probably didn't help his case. Although Sunfire fits the trope even better, since he voluntarily left the team in the issue immediately following the first adventure.
  • Back when X-Statix was still called X-Force, they had an entirely different lineup. Of that lineup, only U-Go Girl and Anarchist survived the first issue. And they weren't even the original lineup! The average X-Forcer had a very short life expectancy. It didn't help that their crazy, amoral sponsor Spike Freeman preferred that the team have a high turnover rate
  • The first issue of The Order (2007) features Henry Hellrung and Pepper Potts having to fire four of the Order's initial lineup after they decide to get drunk after their first mission.
  • During the Runaways' first year, they recruited a boy named Topher to their ranks. He turned out to be a vampire, and was killed off after trying to feed on Karolina.
  • Early in their history, the Great Lakes Avengers had a guy named Leather Boy on their roster. He misread the personal ad that Mr. Immortal had put out and quit after realizing that they weren't a fetish community. He later returned, seeking revenge on the team after finding out that they were looking to expand their membership and hadn't even thought to call him.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • In Zoolander, main villain Mugatu was originally in Frankie Goes to Hollywood but was booted out shortly before they got big. He used their song "Relax" as his keyword to activate his brainwash programming.
  • That Thing You Do! has the original drummer for The Wonders (then The One-ders) break his arm before a talent competition. The band asks Guy to fill in for him. This talent show led the The Wonders towards the path to recognition. The former drummer, Chad, ends up taking Guy's old job at his father's appliance shop.
  • The Rocker The whole plot revolves around this trope. Rainn Wilson plays Robert "Fish" Fishman, the drummer in an 80's glammetal band called Vesuvius. When his band gets signed, Fish gets dropped in favor of their producer's nephew. Despite his swearing to become even bigger than they do, he fails, until more than 20 years later when his nephew asks him to fill in for the drummer for his band, and they manage to hit it big, thanks largely to YouTube and a series of videos entitled The Naked Drummer. Pete Best even makes a cameo as himself.
  • The Social Network uses this as a major plot point: in its interpretation of Facebook's founding, Eduardo Saverin, who has been part of the company since the start, becomes aware of his business partner's attempts to minimize his contributions and force him out of the company. Lawsuits ensue. In real life Saverin has been candid that he didn't care so much about being on the Facebook "inside" as maintaining his deserved financial stake.
  • In Dreamgirls, Effie is ousted from the Dreams due to her being difficult to work with (though viewers sympathetic to Effie feel she had every reason to act out), and is replaced with Michelle. The second act opens with Deena watching a documentary about the Dreams that cuts out Effie entirely and claims Michelle was with the group from the start.

    Literature 
  • Daisy Jones & The Six: The original rhythm guitarist for The Dunne Brothers (later renamed The Six) was Chuck Williams. Before the band could record anything, Williams' draft number was called for The Vietnam War and he was killed in action after a few months. Bass player Pete Loving's brother Eddie was brought in to replace him and remained part of the band until their eventual breakup.
  • Discworld:
    • Parodied in the novel Thief of Time, where Ronnie Soak left The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse before they got famous — he was "Kaos", the Fifth Horseman. He still manages to get a He's Back! moment near the end when he rejoins the Horsemen for the big battle against the Auditors.
    • Also used in Soul Music, where the Librarian briefly joined (and then quit) the Band With Rocks In before they went on tour and made it really big.
  • The Ink Black Heart: In-Universe and lampshaded. Anomie, an anonymous Internet troll and fan of cartoon The Ink Black Heart, called Seb Montgomery, an artist who helped with animating the first couple episodes of the cartoon, "the Pete Best of The Ink Black Heart." This is actually plot relevant, as Anomie's habit of making arcane Beatles references helps the protagonists, private detectives Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott, figure out his identity.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Breaking Bad: One of the reasons that the protagonist Walter White decides to enter the meth business is to create a successful enterprise of his own, after having missed out on a chance to be a part of the multi-billion company Gray Matter, which he had founded along with two of his college friends. Though he was one of the primary forces behind the creation of Gray Matter, no one at the company is willing to acknowledge it in public, especially once Walt is publically exposed as a drug lord near the end of the series, and his role in starting the company has long since been forgotten.
  • Ed: A band sued their founder, lead singer, and songwriter, on the grounds that she plagiarized her lyrics. It was all a pretense because the record label didn't like her. They had already scouted a potential replacement, but the trial took so long, the replacement joined another band. They tried to take back their leader, in vain. The episode ended with the band performing in front of a not so impressed talent scout.
  • In Full House, Jesse has been the lead singer for a band named "the Rippers" for much of the series' run but gets fired when the members believe his other responsibilities (raising a family, running a local club, and being a co-host in a radio talk station) make him not as driven for performing in a band as the rest of them are. In a subsequent episode, the Rippers' members get a different guy as their lead singer and the band quickly becomes much more popular than the group ever was under Jesse's leadership, much to Jesse's immense exasperation for much of said episode.
  • In a series of flashbacks on Firefly, we see Malcolm slowly assembling the crew, including his mechanic... Bester. Bester, we discover, was quickly replaced by their current mechanic, Kaylee.
  • Saturday Night Live:
    • The show parodies Pete Best's story with Eddie Murphy as Clarence Walker, the saxophonist who's still bitter about being kicked out of the band.
    • In the second episode of the 14th season, with Matthew Broderick as a guest, they make a parody of Albert Goldman, author of a controversial biography of John Lennon, which made this character (played by Phil Hartman) claim that he had been part of The Beatles and played trombone in the band before they reached the stardom, but was expelled by everyone present (both John, Paul, George, Ringo ... and Elvis) on considerations about his lack of talent and large build. In the end, Mr. Goldman threatened to take revenge eventually for that affront (it should be noted that this author wrote a polemic biography of Elvis, too).

    Webcomics 
  • Kairi in Ansem Retort, namely, the Show Within a Show Ansem Retort. She was killed off in the first season and replaced by Aerith, who more people associate with the show nowadays, especially since her wedding was broadcast on it.

    Western Animation 
  • In the season three premiere of Metalocalypse, there's a flashback of Dethklok signing its first contract. The rhythm guitarist there is not the current rhythm guitarist, Toki Wartooth, but a man named Magnus Hammersmith. Hammersmith, we later learn, was kicked out of the band and replaced because he was a violent abusive asshole (which given what the rest of Dethklok is like means he must have been really bad). Predictably enough, he worms his way into a friendship with Toki, then literally stabs him in the back during the Revengencer attack. When Dethklok awakens the power of the Doomstar while rescuing Toki, Magnus realizes he was the villain the whole time and stabs himself.
  • The Simpsons:
    • Otto in "A Streetcar Named Marge", where director Llewellyn Sinclair took him out of the cast of "Oh! Streetcar!" just before the opening performance, replacing him in the part of Pablo with himself.
    • The episode "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" is a deliberate spoof on the Beatles' career, with Chief Wiggum playing the role of Pete Best and Barney Gumble (who turns out to have a breathtaking singing voice) as Ringo Starr. Wiggum takes it poorly, repeatedly trying to either get back into the group or screwing them over (like trying to arrest them).
    • In "Team Homer", Homer forms a bowling team with Moe, Apu, and Otto, with Homer getting the sponsorship money out of Mr. Burns while he's high on ether. When Mr. Burns finds out, he wants to join the team, so in order to appease him (and maintain their funding) Otto has to go. However, he still helps them win indirectly when he accidentally knocks over the bowling alley's prize-grabber machine, which causes a big enough impact that it knocks over Burns' pins and wins them the tournament.
  • In Meet the Raisins, a mock-biopic about the California Raisins, the Raisins are revealed to have had a Pete Best of their own - Zoot the grapefruit. He was replaced by Stretch, who ironically started out as the only raisin in a grapefruit band.
  • The Legend of Korra: Initially, the Fire Ferrets consists of Mako, Bolin, and Hasook. After Hasook's performance causes conflicts in the team, Hasook leaves in a fit. To avoid disqualification, Korra enters the team as a last minute replacement. She then proceeds to take the team all the way to the championship, but they lose due to the opponents cheating.

Alternative Title(s): Left Before They Got Famous, Replaced And Forgotten

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